Green Fingers (and toes)

We have become accustomed to being introduced to new occult characters with the EP's, and Seasons is no different, although the latest introduction is far less scary than werewolves, vampires and zombies. This time around, say hello to....
the Plant People!

The over-use of pesticides while gardening can have a side effect which will result in your Sims being more than just green fingered! Plant People are unlike other occult characters in that they can actually pass this deficiency down to their offspring, as you can see in the screen on the left.

I didn't have time to find any vicious streaks in these Sims, they looked quite harmless from what I saw of them.

I mentioned earlier that the new 'hood, Riverblossom Hills, introduced us to the Greenman Family. Unlike other EP's, this new hood comes with playable occult characters (Plant People) right out of the box.

Plant People can be cured of this disorder by buying a potion from the ever reliable Nomadic Matchmaker if you have Nightlife, or from the Gardening Club.

In this picture you can see a potential victim being over enthusiastic with the pesticide!

Bobble Hats and Booties

In Seasons it can often get cold outside. A new Temperature Bar on the control puck indicates the temperature of each Sim. If they get too cold they can actually freeze, going stiff and dropping to the ground in a rigid state. If this happens you can direct another Sim to thaw them out using a hairdryer, but if the victim is the only Sim on a lot, a neighbour will most likely try and revive them (it's what neighbors are for, right?).

To avoid this though, Sims should wrap up warm before going out in the cold, so Seasons brings us a whole new clothing group!

In this screen you will see a Sim in 'Create A Family' being togged up in Outerwear. This allows you to choose seasonal outfits including Winter coats, gloves, ear muffs, raincoats, and Summer dresses.

Another great addition though, is that because you select a specific hair for going outdoors (it might be a hat), 'Create A Family' has been updated to allow you to select a unique hair style for each clothing type, so your swimwear could include a wet cap, your formal wear a more elegant style and so on!

New armoires are included with Seasons but the best is this Hat & Coat Stand. Sims can autonomously change into and out of outerwear when they go in and out of the house, but placing one of these allow for quick manual changes.

You will also see here, the inside of the new Country style range of doors and windows to match the Country Kitchen and Bathroom.

Outdoor Activities

Being outdoors is what this pack is geared up to, so fun and games are a must! Playful Sims can take part in such activities and ice skating, roller skating, snowball fights, playing catch, chasing fireflies, jumping in leaf piles, Marco Polo and more.

Some of the animations for these games are both hilarious and impressive. Sims will actually hide behind trees and other objects to protect themselves in snowball fights!

Building snowmen is another past time, with the frozen dudes hanging around well into Spring and Summer, although they will melt too, reducing the environment score.

Although I didn't find it for this preview there is a Wishing Well that Sims can interact with. Who knows what will come of that?

Mixed Pack Magic

We already know that owning Pets won't make it rain cats & dogs, but there are some other crossovers with the pets EP. Dogs will eat snow and cats will bat at butterflies and fireflies. Cats will also take a chance with a fish if left on the ground having been caught by a Sim!

If you own Open for Business, you could make an income from selling harvested goods and fish. Learning the art of planting and harvesting at the right times will increase the value of vegetables and could be a real earner for industrious families that want to live, work and play at home!

No pictures I'm afraid, our test machines didn't have any other EP's installed on them :-(

Other stuff you didn't know, but should!

I had fun building this pool area using some of the cool new themed items. Have a look and appreciate the effort while I think of some things :-)

Other stuff that doesn't fall under the above categories then:

You already know about freezing, but Sims can also suffer sunburn and sneezing fits.

Pool walls can be changed now, and there is a selection of pool edging floors that look good as surrounds too.

Oh, and here's a useless, but fun snippet of information for you. Tim LeTourneau (famously mentioned in many Expansion Packs before, and Senior Producer on some of them) was missed out from the credits of the Pets EP. Bless him!

(Although he didn't do much from what I can gather.. he was too busy working on *** **** *** (a not so Top Secret project)). But in another twist (which may be his compensation for what I got the impression was the "Hunter blunder"), the Simlish term that you will hear for the water game Marco Polo is "Timla Turno". Nice :-)

Wrap it up!

Girl, you'll catch your death. Put some clothes on!

Once we had played the game we had a sit down chat to give feedback to the developers so that we could offer some input before Seasons is finished, just in case any of our comments were actually valid!

My personal take on Seasons was that it added some interesting twists to what I first though could end up feeling a bit of a chore (gardening). But given that motive decay is reduced and that there are great rewards to be had for the whole family by spending time in the great outdoors, it made gameplay fun!

I also found that the nature of the pack leant itself to the older Simmies more than any other too. The Country style of build materials, Country kitchen and bathroom objects, as well as the Gardening Club and harvesting activities made me feel that we had something here that the old Sims might feel at home with (that was the Sims, not the players).

There is no doubt that I have not included all of the great new addition that Seasons brings to our game, so expect to have more to find when you play for yourself next year. I do hope that I have helped you to understand what Seasons brings to The Sims 2, and to help make an informed decision as to whether or not to buy it.

That's it. I'm done! Another 4,300 words of attempted wisdom. I hope it was worth reading.

You can see many more TSR Exclusive Screens by following the link below.

My thanks to the team at EA for the opportunity and information, and to my Sims Community colleagues who attended, making the day informative and enjoyable once again.

/Steve