Sunday 25 November 2001

Pic of the day: One of the new features in Sims Hot Date is "Check out butt"? OK, no, that's one of the features that are still missing. Even though my reliable source on dating insanity tells me that this is a rather prominent feature in real life, over in the country of origin. Actually Chaos-san is admiring the finer quality of Butterfly-girl's pinball techniques. (Follow his line of sight if you doubt me...)

Hot Date, Day 3

OK, I don't really know if it deserves 3 days of review, but there is just some bits to mop up, which will interest Sims owners who have not yet decided to "upgrade" with the expansion pack. I expect to return to other topics soon.

***

By now, Sim fans probably know most of the Sim language by heart. They will be deligthed to learn that the Sim vocabulary has been expanded, my best guess is that it's doubled. You can generally hear which of the phrases are new even if you don't remember the old, because the new ones are pronounced with more energy, sounds slightly louder and more abrupt. They sound, frankly, like a different dialect, and it sounds a bit strange when they are mixed. I guess I'll get used to it.

Another nice change is that when the sims speak at the table, they now clearly and demonstratively turn to each other as they speak. I had one of my sims sit at the study table at the other side of the room, and he turned very realistically almost half around much of the time to take part of the conversation. In fact, they seem more alert at the table than some real people ...

As can be expected, the Hug and Kiss options have been expanded to whole categories. There are now several platonic kisses, and also some more than friendly hugs. Under Hug is also a great new feature, "leap into arms". Only to be used with good friends, obviously, it is really entertaining. (And the only case I have found in which a Sim actually says "Wheeeee!") There seems however to still be no way to carry people around for any length of time, neither in arms nor on shoulders. But this isn't really a very common form of transportation anyway, at least outside Hollywood.

***

Thanks to the townies, it is now possible to have a neighborhood of 1 person. Not that I generally recommend this, but I just drive home the point that you no longer depend on your neighbors to avoid sinking into loneliness, depression and an early death.

I still hope that a future expansion pack (why not call it "Nerd Neighborhood"?) will allow social points from computers (albeit at a slower rate than face to face). Mobile phones with SMS would also be appreciated. Will Wright may not have noticed, but the world is changing. Someone invite him over here to Scandinavia to take a sneak peak at the future. Oh, and working from home should be more likely to involve computers than garden gnomes.

Back to Hot Date. An intriguing feature is that when you go to town, you are likely to find your neighbors there too. And it is not uncommon to see them going out for dinner with one of the townies or even one of the other neighbors, though I have not seen any kissing or such. What I have seen, however, is that after taking Chaos to town a few times, I returned to Super and found that she had made several acquaintances among the townies. Evidently the social interactions they engage in when they are non-player characters, follow them home. Since most of these interactions are positive, taking one Sim downtown will help the whole neighborhood expand their friend base! (But of course, unless you at least greet them when you see them, their rating with you will sink.)

The townies are added to your phone book automatically (no need to ask for their digits). It is substantially easier to just call them up as friends than to get them to follow you home from town. I suspect that the concept of inviting home is rather emotionally loaded where this game is made. This is such a shame, for the term "hot date" is evidently to be taken literally. The sims sweat like horses down there, and after a short time they really need a bath. Which they cannot take there. Ack. Realism strikes again.

***

There is more, but I suppose I shall have to once again take up my Sims fan site and illustrate by example. If I find the time ... in between two games, and daily life (such as it is), and my real-life best friend finally having got her e-mail working ... Life is good, but it sure flies fast.