The Four Seasons

Sims 2 Seasons will be localized to work in your region of the world. This article won't be, so let's start by pointing out that America's "Fall" is Europe's "Autumn". I'm willing to accommodate our majority audience here and will refer to the Season between Summer and Winter as Fall, but we all know what it means :-)

Each neighborhood in your game can have its own climate which you can customize using the Season Chooser shown here, based on the 4 seasons of a year. This would allow you to make a region that is in a permanent Winter, always Summer or a combination similar to a California climate of Summer, Summer, Fall, Spring.

With Seasons comes a recognisable Calendar, displayed at the top right of the game control puck. In the example on the right you can see that we are just moving through Fall.

This is a weird climate, as we will soon be in Summer, then Winter, then Spring. This is actually as it was configured in my game, if you check out the earlier image of the Season Chooser. Whoops!

The calendar will progress at the rate of 6 Sims days per Season and rotates continuously, unless nature is thrown into disarray by the interference of a Sim using the Weathernaught 57X!

Spring

Spring in the game has an increased hue of color, new growth on trees and shrubs and cloudy skies, with the occasional rain shower.

During Spring, romance blossoms, and your Sims will find it easier to build up their love with other Sims during this phase. If you plan to have lots of romance in the air of your 'hood, a permanent Spring climate would be perfect!

Rainfall in Spring can result in some pretty horrendous thunder storms, but will always create puddles on the ground, which Sims love to jump around and play in. The storms have a darker side though, with trees being struck by lightning, bursting into flames and lighting up the night sky. Sims aren't immune to the odd lightning bolt either!

Summer

Summer looks most like the game we know today with vibrant colors and clear skies.

The Summer phase allows Sims to strengthen their friendships much easier. This is also the time to make the most of the new pool and garden/yard features like the slide, new BBQ and the poolside furniture.

Butterflies and Fireflies buzz around the Lot and all is well in the world :-)

Fall/Autumn

Fall sees the game in a new light, quite literally, as the game hues turn to a reddish brown, the skies grow cloudy and the leaves change and fall from the trees.

During Fall, the game is tweaked to allow you to build on your careers quicker and easier with Skills and Skill Badges being earned at an accelerated rate.

Leaves will fall from the trees which will need to be raked up. This produces piles of leaves that can either be played in (Sims toss the leaves in the air), burned, disposed of or composted for later use by gardeners.

Winter

Winter sees the biggest change from the game we know today. Skies are dark and cloudy, trees are bare and snow falls, and before you know it, everything is white over!

Wintertime is the best phase to strengthen family ties as the game provides a greater boost in this season.

This is also the best season to appreciate the "new visual experience" I mentioned earlier. Take a look at the pool slide picture here, and compare it to the same scene from the Summer picture above. See how not only the items on your own lot are absorbed in the winter snow, but the surrounding 'hood and its building are also affected. You can only just see in the picture, but steam rises up from the heated pool. Wintertime in SimCity is gorgeous!

Snow falls lightly most of the time, but heavy snow can also appear, burying everything and drifting into corners, as shown in this next picture taken at the front door.

See how the covered deck area was less affected? Neat!

Incidentally, when you mouse over the snow it clears below your pointer to allow you to see things dropped on the ground, like newspapers, bills, puppies, kittens and bodies.

And how about this realistic, added bonus for the kids? On days that snowfall is heavy, a "Snow Day" is declared across the City, so kids get to stay at home and go outside to make the most of the weather and the fun to be had in it. How cute!

Raining Cats & Dogs!

Nothing in The Sims remains realistic for long (why would we want it to?) and the weather is no different! Welcome to the new Aspiration Reward Object.. the Weathernaught 57X!

This bundle of mechanical fun allows Sims to attempt to try and change not just the weather, but the current Season! It's a wacky, umbrella spinning, nose making whirly-gig of a thing that can easily backfire on Sims causing some pretty disturbing effects. Hail stones and meteors can rain down on the Lot causing untold damage and heartbreak if things don't go to plan.

Actually, in the pre-alpha version that we played, other than the animations, the object didn't actually work at all, much to the disgust of the developers. Keep going at it guys :-)

I have to say though, it's a shame that having the Pets EP installed doesn't actually make is possible to rain Cats & Dogs! Sure, the devs can moan about resources this and code that, but they missed a trick there in my opinion ;-)