The Sims: Vacation

The Good
STORY: Well your family can now take a break at going to partys or downtown and go to a vacation island.

MENU LAYOUT Well there's no menu in the sims - you get the same screen as before - but with added buttons for the Vacation Island

GRAPHICS The same as before - while a whole new lot of animations have been added and all - the objects still have the same style that the other games did. There are some new clothes and all as well as new furniture, walls and windows.

SOUND Some new voices have been added - adding some vairity to The Sim gibberish - as well as the sounds for the new arcade games - though the Sim gibberish Jamacian song is really annoying.

GAMEPLAY To get there is much like downtown - you call and off you go. One interesting thing is that your sims remain on Vacation unless they leave. There are three different themes Snow, Wood, and Beach. Each has their own different look and feel as well as their own bizarre mascot that prances around generally acting the fool. This is geared towards the kiddie Sims - so that means they have more of a greater role to play than before - and this ranges from building/stomping sand castles to harassing strangers and getting told off. There are also arcade games that your sims can play - rewarding them with prize tickets - these tickets can be cashed in for prizes - like a large stuffed Guinea Pig. These then can be displayed on souviner shelfs at home. Finally you can make motels/hotels. Your sims can stay the night in either a room or a tent. There's probally a few more things that I have not found out yet - but new objects inculde water slides and halfpipes.

The Bad
Again this expansion pack works best when it has the other 4 installed before it - if you install this with just the Sims - you are very limited to furnishings and so on. Also it does not add much to the gameplay - while the whole vacation conscept works well - it's all just too limited and after you've seen the new features - what's left to but collect souviniers.

The Bottom Line
Get this - it is worthwhile - especially if you are new to The Sims and have brought all of the expansion packs one after the other. It adds some great new stuff to the game and really gives it life. And the Whack a Will arcade game is a winner.

The Good
I liked the variety of vacation lots-some are basic, some are fully featured - eg. the alpine snow resort. The variety of lots is interesting - you can build snowmen on any of the snow lots, sandcastles on beach lots. It was easy for me to send my Sims on a vacation - all I needed to was cixk on a phone and selected 'call cab'-'go on vacaton'- cost my Sims about 500 simeoleans (that's the currency used in The Sims).

Graphics performance was good-even though my computer used on-motherboard graphics. It's challenging to keep Sims kids - if they are tease/slap/insult some others Sims - I did this many times - and your Sims get finned by the lot's 'vacation director'.

The Bad
Not much-I didn't like the variety of activites available - there should a way to ski on the snow lots.

The Bottom Line
It's a very interesting expansion pack for The Sims users - with its mix of fun things for your Sims to do - you'll probably find it's highly enjoyable - even more so when used with any of the Sims expansion packs.