Review of The Sims 3 Seasons Expansion Pack

When EA games announced that they were going to create their Seasons expansion pack for Sims 3, we were very excited. We really enjoy playing The Sims, from the very first one, and enjoyed Seasons in Sims 2. The new expansion pack includes all four seasons, of course, but it also includes other features that Sims 2 Seasons did not have, like a festival for each season.

The Sims 3 Seasons Expansion Pack requires the regular The Sims 3 game, and works with any other expansion pack you have installed. It adds a whole new level of game play as you can your existing towns and buildings in different seasons, with rain, snow, hail and sun on them. I'm not sure what this has to do with seasons, but this expansion pack also comes with aliens.

According to the announcement, there are festivals that go along with all of the seasons, and umbrellas. Here is the preview trailer we watched while we were waiting.

The release date was November 13, and it could only be ordered from the Origin website. We pre-ordered our pack as soon as we heard the announcement. If you pre-order you get an ice lounge as a bonus. The ice lounge doesn't look all that exciting in the preview, but we will see when we get it. They usually also include other bonuses in the packages you buy at a retail store, so the content varies depending on where you get it. Since we ordered from Origin, we received an email that gave us some Halloween costumes to download. They include a shark costume for adults and kids and cute bee costumes for kids.

Three months after we put in our order, we received a very special announcement in the mail. Our order has been shipped. At first, we thought we were going to get our copy early. Unfortunately, it was sent on a Friday, and on Monday, the post office is probably closed for Veterans Day, so we realized that we would likely get our order exactly on the release date Waiting for the package once we knew it was on the way was much harder than waiting three months. We finally got it Wednesday afternoon, one day after the release date.

We ripped open the package right away, installed it and started playing it. Here are our findings.

It takes seven days to move from season to season, but you can change it under the options menu. The seasons change slowly like they do in real life. There is hail, rain, snow and fog. So when it starts to rain, first there is a little sprinkle, and then it rains harder and harder until there is a downpour. You can check the weather report in the newspaper to see how your week will be.

The effects are incredible. The wind blows and storm clouds appear in the sky. You can hear the thunder and rain as it hits the roof and the ground. The water drips off the roof, makes ripples, and puddles. There may be a flaw though, because at certain angles it looks like it is raining in the house. We later find out that it snows in the house too and covers the floor in a white carpet.

There are more ways that your characters to die in Seasons expansion pack. Now, they can die of electrocution, choke on hot dogs during the pie eating contest, and freeze to death.

Slow dancing has been brought back to The Sims with this expansion pack.

During the festivals, participating in the events will get your characters tickets, which they can use to purchase prizes. Since my Sims tend to be poor, it was good to know that you don't have to be rich to enjoy the festivals. The only purchase is food.

The game starts in the summer unless you change it. It looks very much like the base game. Summer has rain, and umbrellas. The summer festival includes a photo booth, face painting, tanning station, roller skating rink, soccer field, and a hotdog eating contest. It's so cute, since the tan may not work out as you expected. Your characters can go swimming and get sunburned. They can eat hot dogs, chili cheese fries, hamburgers, ice cream, and snow cones and a lot more. Your vegans Sims can even eat tofu dogs! They can set off fireworks and have water balloon fights. They can play horseshoes. The interactions are great. When they skate, they stumble and fall, and can skate holding hands. It is even environmentally friendly as there are recycle bins at the fair.

The Sims get leisure days in the summer and get off from work.

In the fall, the leaves change color on the trees. The squirrels scamper across the lawn to gather nuts to prepare for the winter. When the leaves fall, your characters can rake and play with the leaves. They can carve pumpkins and wear Halloween costumes to go trick or treating. We got a special code to download additional Halloween costumes as our bonus for purchasing early. They can go to the fall festival and take part in the pie eating contest. They can go to the haunted house or bob for apples. In the walk through video, the young boy runs away from the haunted house because he is scared and vomits.

In the winter, there is snow and ice, of course. Your characters have new coats and boots to keep warm. If they don't wear them, they might freeze to death. In the walk through preview, a Sims character is able to thaw out a cold Sims with a hair dryer. Your Sims can go snowboarding or ice skating, build an igloo or a snowman, and have snowfall fights. You can swim in the sea but you may get really cold. Your Sims kids even get to take the day off from school because of snow!

They can decorate for the holidays and have a gift exchange and kiss under the mistletoe.

In the spring, Butterflies fly around the town and the trees flower. There are hotdog stands and kissing booths, pie eating contests and easter egg hunts. There is lightning, thunder, rain and hail. When it rains, you can pull out your umbrella, and can get electrocuted. There is a spring dance.

There aren't a lot of new outfits in this expansion pack, although there are a few extra for the kids. There are two new hairstyles, but there are new hats, boots, sleepwear, and outerwear. There are two new traits for your Sims, Loves the Cold and Loves the Heat. They can stay out longer in the temperature they love without getting affected by sunburn or frostbite.

Besides the seasons, The Sims 3 Expansion Pack introduces aliens and spaceships. Just like Sims 2, they use the telescope to be abducted and get impregnated.

There is also a new Blueprint Mode that will make building houses much easier. Your inner architect will enjoy building new houses and remodeling existing houses to your specifications.

Your Sims can now find someone to date online.

The seasons work in all of the worlds in the other expansions pack. If you also have The Sims 3 Supernatural Expansion Pack, the seasons pack will give you the Weather Stone which gives your supernatural Sims all new superpowers. We don't have Supernatural, so we did not get to try that out.

If you have The Sims 3 Pets, you will see deer, rodents and other animals around the fair and town.

Rain and Snow Inside

So far, we've found two bugs with the program, and they are both humorous. One is that the weather happens inside as well as outside. It does rain in the house, but when it snows, the carpet turns white.

Babies Galore!

The second one might be about the limit to the number of people in the household. My daughter had a pregnant couple. The husband went to work as a firefighter when the wife went into labor. She had child after child after child. Usually in the game, the most children you can have at one time are triplets. But she continued to have more. In fact, she had so many children that my daughter shut off the program. When she reentered the household, the children were still there. The mother was frozen, unable to do anything. Poor woman, after that many babies, you would be exhausted too.

My daughter was unable to click on the father, because his info was too far up on the page to reach. There is (was?) a limit of eight characters in a household, so there is no scroll to get past eight. She wound up having to neglect the babies so they would all be taken away. The exhausted mother had to be evicted, leaving the poor firefighter alone, with a lot of babies in his acquaintances list. There were so many, we just stopped counting at eight. Don't worry about him, he was flirting with and married an alien. Unfortunately, the alien turned into an elder right after he married her, so he evicted her too!

Starvation / Choking

Other users have reported that when a Sim dies during a hotdog or pie eating contest, their meter actually looks like they are starving. It is not clear whether there is a bug, since eating food during a contest wouldn't cause anyone to starve, or whether they didn't notice the signs of choking.

We really enjoyed playing Seasons on the Sims 2, as did so many other people. It was their best expansion pack. The Seasons on Sims 3 is so much better with awesome graphics, wonderful costumes, and great new interactions. It is great to be able to have our Sims mirror our real lives and get to enjoy the seasons just as we do.

We are really happy we got the expansion pack. We love the fact that we get aliens and weather in one expansion pack. While we don't like shelling out so much money on each new expansion pack, this one really has enhanced the game playing experience. It is the best one on Seasons 3. We're giving it 5 stars, and have left the rating box and comments open, so readers can also share their votes and opinions.