"I’m Hot Tonight!"

Does everybody know what time it is? Time to cash in on the overwhelming popularity of The Sims once again! Oh yeah, EA knows how to milk it! All sarcasm aside, Hot Date is the third expansion to be released for Maxis's newest hit, but this one has a commendable distinction from its forebears; it's actually worth buying.

Like its predecessors, Hot Date introduces a slew of new items and options for home decoration. However, there is much more to this expansion than that. In fact, this is the first expansion that really expands on the base game (an expansion that expands? Hot damn!). The new content, while not staggering, breathes just enough life into the game that those who have been playing for several months might just find a reason to delve back in.

The biggest addition of Hot Date is the new downtown area. The neighborhood of the Sims has been expanded beyond the confines of their little gated community and they can now venture out into the city beyond their doorstep. This new area wouldn't amount to much if it wasn't tied to the other big addition; dating.

When your Sim meets another, you have the option of inviting him or her to go downtown (sounds sort of dirty, doesn't it?). If they accept, your Sim will call a taxi and they will be transported to a venue of your choosing. Downtown isn't just a single place – there are numerous lots that allow a couple to do things like dine out or sit by a pond and get to know each other. Most people will choose the dining option, and it works different than a meal a Sim would prepare at home. Your Sims order from a menu, and depending on their choice, the meal may have extra courses. After they've ordered, they get to sit and talk while they wait for their food. Of course, more courses gives more time to talk and greater boosts to their relationship scores.

This time away from home allows the two Sims to create a new relationship or reinvigorate a dying love life. Any way you cut it, the mechanic makes it much easier to keep relationship scores high. That's not to mention it makes wooing another Sim into marriage much easier.

There are a few nuances to dating though. For starters you only get to control the Sim who asked the other person on the date, even if they both belong to the same family. This doesn't create many problems, and it makes the whole thing feel like an actual date (but without the nervous conversation or awkward silences). It's also worth noting that the game automatically saves when you leave the house, so time remains stopped while you are gone. This means you won't miss work while you're off playing Casanova. However, motives will decay normally while a Sim is downtown.

Hot Date implements plenty of other changes, but most of them are not as noticeable. There is a new relationship bar that determines how two Sims feel about each other over the long term – basically monitoring the trend of a relationship. The old relationship bar is now a daily relationship bar, and decays much faster than the long-term bar.

An even more subtle change is the addition of interests. There are now numerous interest categories, and after a Sim is created they are assigned random interests. This comes into play when making friends, as a Sim is more likely to bring up their own interests in conversation. If the other Sim is also interested in the topic, they'll talk about it much longer than they would with a Sim who had no interest in the subject – this of course means Sims with the same interests become friends much quicker. Like in real life, Sims with opposite interests have a hard time becoming friends and may never come to like each other. While this is a cool idea, it can be frustrating if you come across a Sim you just can't get to like you or if your created love interest ends up being totally incompatible. Then again, that's life – and the Sims is a life simulator.

The most appreciable change is the new interaction options. Most social interactions have been greatly expanded to provide degrees of difference based on what kind of message you want to send to another Sim. For instance, in previous versions, if you wanted to talk, hug or kiss a Sim you just pressed the button and they did it. Now you get the option to specify how that option will be done. Choose the talk option and you can decide if your Sim will talk about their interests or gossip about others. Choose kiss and you can decide if your Sim will give a light peck on the cheek, a passionate kiss, or the “fiery” option, which has your Sim grab the other, bend them over and practically maul them on the spot. Each option has a relationship score increase appropriate to the intensity of the action.

Unfortunately, there are still problems from the original Sims lingering around. Those nagging issues that have remained through each expansion have still not been ironed out for some reason. The brain dead pathfinding abilities of your Sims have yet to be fixed, and Sims still randomly stop and forget all the queued orders they have been given. Seeing that this is the third expansion, it's just ridiculous that we still have to deal with these problems.

THE VERDICT
With its expanded social interactions, interests, downtown area and the ability to go on dates, Hot Date is the best expansion for the Sims thus far. While the changes and additions aren't radical, they do make wooing potential love interests easier. If you like the Sims, you'll want Hot Date.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 07/19/10

Game Release: The Sims: Hot Date (US, 11/12/01)