"Ready to paint the Downtown red?"

With the outstanding success of The Sims and The Sims: Livin' Large and House Party, Maxis put out yet another expansion for its best selling simulation game. The Sims: Hot Date works as an add-on to the original Sims computer game. This expansion introduces a new level of interaction between sims, as well as a new location in which to do it.

Hot Date enables sims to visit the brand new Downtown. This area is home to a number of shops, restaurants, and bars where your sims can get better acquainted and meet new friends. A bunch of new NPCs have been incorporated into the game specifically for the purpose of populating the Downtown area. The Townies will appear in this area and take part in all of the activities available there.

After installation, when you visit the neighborhood screen for the first time, the game will take a few moments to prepare the Downtown area. There will be a box informing you that the new Townies are attempting to get familiar with their surroundings. I recommend that you take the time at this point to cycle through each of your neighborhoods, so that you don't need to waste time later when you want to play a neighborhood other than the first.

The game's basic mechanics are pretty much the same as the original. One major difference is in the Relationship tab which shows everyone a sim has ever interacted with. Until Hot Date, there was always only one meter showing the progress of their relationship. But with the installation of this expansion, the one meter becomes two. The top one works very much like the relationship meter in the original. It deals with day-to-day interactions and decreases by three points every day. The bottom meter shows a more long-term progress. As a result in increases and decreases much more slowly.

Additionally, interests have been added into each sims personality to give them more depth. In the Interests tab, there are several pages of things that sims may be interested in. The more light blue bars next to the topic means the more interested they are in it. Sims who have more interests in common have more to talk about and may get along better. Interests can be altered by buying magazines Downtown and reading up on the different topics.

The creation of an Inventory tab allows more options for social interaction. In this tab, you are shown all the objects that your sim is currently holding. Objects can be added into here by buying small gifts Downtown. And most of them can be gotten rid of by clicking on another sim and selecting Give…>(name of gift). Other things, like magazines, are automatically placed on a surface when your sim gets home.

New social interactions are what this expansion pack is all about. The Talk command has been expanded to include talking about interests or asking how someone is feeling or what they are into. There are a variety of different ways to hug and kiss. Of course the more intimate the hug or kiss is, the closer the relationship must be in order for there to be a positive result.

When you are ready to take your sim to the new area of town, there are two ways that you can get there. The first and easier way is to simply click on a telephone and select Go Downtown from the Pie Menu. The other way is to invite one of your sims' romantic interests over to the house. At this point your sim has the option to Ask…Go Downtown. If you select this, the other sim will agree and the asking sim will go to a phone and call a cab.

A typical activity to do on a date is to go out to Dinner. Your sim can go to any restaurant of his or her choice and request a table for two. The host or hostess will then guide you to where you will be dining. There are three options for meals, each more expensive than the last. While you wait for the food, the two sims will continue to talk the entire time. If they are at a table and are across from each other, the two sims have the option to play footsies. And if they are at a booth, they can slide over and cuddle until the dinner is served. To add to the atmosphere there is, at times a man with a violin who will come and play for you if you give him a 20 Simoleon tip. And if there is a piano in the restaurant there will be a sim playing it at no cost to you.

If your date is going well and your sim is feeling generous, head on over to the florist. Here, you can choose between an assortment of flowers to buy for your sweetie. If flowers aren't really your sims' favorite thing in the world, there are other gifts available Downtown. The large cylindrical display is home to Teddy Bears and a popular video game called The Sims. Candy is also a great gift for anyone. If there is a clothing store where you are, you are encouraged to pick up a few things over there. You have the option to buy clothes for your sim or your date. Choices range from new formal wear to new swimsuits. And as mentioned earlier, Downtown is where you can purchase magazines to change interests. They're priced anywhere from three to seven Simoleons.

Taking into account every expansion pack that has been released for the sims, I would consider this to be the start of the truly great additions to the game. Prior to Hot Date, the expansion packs weren't exactly revolutionary. But Hot Date opens the door for all the future areas that take you outside of the house. For this reason and all others previously discussed, for fans of the series, owning Hot Date is crucial.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/02/07