We now attack the biggest part of this test: the gameplay. How will you play with the seasons once in game? How it will impact your sims? What are the new careers? The new skills? Here is a first overview of these new features.
The calendar
Your agenda is now at the heart of the game. Accessible next to the telephone icon, it lets you consult the schedule for the next 4 weeks. On this calendar, you can see, day by day, whether you're working or not, when the next public holidays are, the various parties and events you can organize, and what the weather will be like in the days ahead.
Here are the default holidays:
- The festival of love (spring)
- Harvest festival (autumn)
- Father Winter (winter)
- New Year's Eve (winter)
During our game, an extra holiday appeared in the summer, a kind of sale day where the whole Buy Mode catalog was at -50%. We'll see if this kind of event comes back randomly, but it's very interesting anyway.
You can create your own holidays for more or less varied reasons and with somewhat random customs such as congratulating each other or undressing...
List of traditions
- Malicious actions
- Adore an object
- Go to the holiday ceremony
- Going on a date
- Light a kinara
- Lighting a menorah
- Scary atmosphere
- Arts and music
- Polar bear swimming
- Barbecue
- Drinks
- Egg hunt
- Fighting
- Kitchen
- Trick or treat!
- Aquatic Entertainment
- Countdown to midnight
- Decorate
- Festive lighting
- Sports television programs
- Remove your clothes
- Holiday spirit
- Party mood
- Being romantic
- Exercise
- Stating your grievances
- Making a fire
- Fireworks display
- Holiday Gnomes
- Big meal
- Gratitude
- Invite Sims
- Gardening
- Games
- Fasting
- Flower rabbit
- Put on disguises
- Cleaning
- Giving gifts
- Giving flowers
- Opening gifts
- Make resolutions
- Take a vacation or Travel
- Father Winter
- Telling stories
- Watch a romantic program
- Remembering the dead
New game options
Before we start to discover the impact of seasons on your game, let's start by setting them up. In the game options window, you have a new tab that lets you choose the length of the seasons (7/14/28 days), the intensity of the possible precipitation (rain and storm / rain only / no precipitation) and the same for snow (snow and storm / snow only / no snow).
Once everything is ready you can start a game. Before entering the world, the game will ask you the first time with which season you want to start via this screen:
The weather
For our first game, since there are no new towns in this add-on, we went to discover Windenburg, the peaceful little town that arrived with the Living Together add-on. There are several ways to find out the current weather and forecast: look out your window, watch the forecast on TV, open the calendar or hover over the little icons that appear around the time.
Each type of weather will have an impact on the Sims. Thunderstorms will make them uncomfortable, blizzards will keep your sims from moving forward by freezing them in place, and rain will make your characters stay indoors.
Gardening Career
Several new features have been added to the gardening hobby with update 1.44, and we'll be coming back to these in greater detail over the coming days. A small addition, however: to make your task easier while keeping you refreshed, the extension brings automatic sprinklers! Very useful for hydrating your plants effortlessly.
Other new features include a new career which, like those added by Vie Citadine, can be carried out both at home and at work, with regular missions to complete at home in order to progress.
A new complementary skill also appears: floral arrangements which, as its name more or less indicates, allows you to create your own bouquets via the creation table.
Beekeeping
As you have seen in the trailer and in the various game screenshots, you can have your own hives in this expansion. Using them is quite simple as you just have to wait for the honey to produce. If you don't have much patience, you can go tickle the bees but remember to put on your suit before you go to avoid any stings...
Outdoor activities
Whatever the season, the developers have thought of keeping you busy! During the warm weather, you can enjoy a dip in the kiddie pool or have a water bomb fight with your friends. In the spring, there's nothing better than a little swing to cool off. In winter, the ice rink is a safe choice. Speaking of the rink, you can change the lights and effects (confetti, snow, stars, etc...) that will animate your exploits.
And the rest
A famous Sims 2 invention, the time machine is back! You can set the weather and temperature as you like. It can be bought directly in the purchase mode, but as in the past, you need to be in a good enough mood to avoid the risk of electrocution.
