simulation

First, I think my rating is more like 3.5 stars, not 4. But figured to round up anyway.

I loved the Sims original game, loved the At Large expansion pack and was thrilled when I first heard about Hot Date. But after purchasing and playing with it for several weeks, I'm starting to have my doubts with this particular expansion pack. Obviously the best part is for the Sims to go Downtown. That is pretty much tbe bang-of-the-buck for this game and yes, brings a whole new level of play into the Sims.

The benefits of Downtown:

1.) You can create your own shopping boutique, ice cream/pizza/fun parlor, restaurant, park, dance or disco, that type of thing. If you love building things and putting together the furniture, painting the walls, etc. like me, you'll be VERY happy with this and can build all day if you'd like.

2.) The downtown already created by Aspyr is pretty nice, they are very thorough and detailed down to the public restroom so there's a lot to see, do and socialize among other Sims. It's visually appealing.

3.) Freely interacting with so many other Sim-citizens, and a number of them aren't even in your neighborhood (so spare you the time to manually invite them to a party at your home). Which is great if you need to gain friends to advance your career.

4.) You have new furniture (eg: love hot tub), building options and characters to choose from with the addition of Hot Date. You also have more commands between Sims now because the goal is to find a potential mate (new kissing, cuddling, fighting, conversation options).

BUT... here I think are the drawbacks from the game.

1.) I have a G4 with lots of RAM so it's pretty good in loading programs. However, Sims Hot Date stalls and chugs like crazy when you are going downtown, especially if you have a lot of Sims. It's very distracting and prevents you from really having a good time playing or having that "Sims experience."

2.) You cannot build anything else other than dating-intended businesses or places for your Sims. Maybe this is a lame statement from me since the point of the game IS to find romance and land a mate, but the quest of dating gets boring rather quickly... (like you can only buy lingerie, teddy bears or flowers...ugh) There is a number of objects you can't put in your downtown business for some reason as well.

3.) Your Sims become a LOT more testy and harder to "match up" after installing Hot Date. This is no joke. It's like 2 or 3 times harder to have the Sims love each other, even more for them to marry. Pretty discouraging if that's what this pack is supposed to be about.

4.) Your Sims can't, repeat CAN'T stay overnight in downtown. No hotels are available. So yes, they will eventually get burned out, lose energy/comfort points. And I notice even if you have a couple of Sims go together to Downtown, you can only control one of them when you get there. (unless I'm an isolated case?)

Anyway, hope that this review was honest enough for you. I still enjoy it for the additions it brings in the buildings and furniture, but otherwise I think it may be better to get the other expansion packs instead (Livin' Large or Unleashed). And either way, make sure you have tons of memory.

This game is wonderful. It's horrible that they come out with the game for Mac so late, but I've played it on a PC and I loved it! Your Sims can go downtown, buy things, have a couple of drinks at the bar, and be back home (in a flashy yellow taxi cab) in time for dinner. You also get more neighborhoods, more awesome objects, and great new people. I rate this game 5 stars and would recommend this to any Sims lovers. I can't wait until Vacation comes to the Mac!!!

Parents beware! This seems like another fairly harmless Sims game, but your child may be entering an area where you don't want them to go. I was horrified to discover my neighbor's child playing this game with my daughter, making two females fall in love and go to bed. They actually play in bed. She was able to take a naked "picture" of two Sims in bed without the blur. This game is totally inappropriate, even if my children were 18. I thought this game was harmless, but I was wrong. Beware! We have deleted this game from our computer.