Seasons debuted Friday for all of you, but because of the game changers plan I received my copy Thursday.  Loaded that baby up as I couldn’t wait to see the new pack. Now I know, you would have liked to have seen the previews of the pack early, but I honestly could not take myself away from the game long enough to write this up. There is so much to do in game with this new pack. So what I am going to do is walk you through my game.

 Let me introduce you to my Sim. Her name is Catherine. She has a small dog named Noodle she adores.

 Last I saw Catherine she was debating what to do with her life. Her Mother left her plenty of motherloads in the will, so she had time to think on a career. Exploring her new seasonal world was going to be a snap. She thought….

 The start up screen lets you choose what season to start with and popped up when I opened the game:

Catherine decided spring because she just wasn’t sure about the winter thing. She hates being cold you know.

This screen only comes up when you start the game for the first time with Seasons installed.

In the gameplay options you can choose the length of the seasons. There is a brand new seasons option. You can also, to some extent, choose the severity of the weather

 Then you can go to the game play options and set the days for your season. She chose 7 days for now so she could see just how long she could survive a winter.

Now that she chose the days it was time to get ready for the seasonal weather. Stopping by the wardrobe she chose her clothing according to what she would need. What’s that? She noticed 2 new categories in clothing. Hot and cold. Needless to say she rummaged those to find stylish yet practical clothing for the new seasons.

Peering out of the corner of her eye she spotted  A GNOME outfit? After she stopped laughing she picked one up for neighbor Bob, who undoubtedly is going to want that bad boy for himself.

She made her way home to find a calendar in her possessions and thought it must have been a freebie from the clothing people.

Upon closer inspection she found she could actually make holidays, with days off work, PAID! Now even though she received the motherloads from her mothers will, she decided she had better find a job if she wanted a butler. And so she did after which she fixed the calendar for the holidays she wanted.

Catherine noticed that the calendar had MANY holidays to choose from. Holidays for every walk of life. With things to do and achieve to make the holiday special. All holidays are interchangeable with customizable icons. So if you don’t want any holiday you can delete them (even the default ones) and add your own. You name your holidays yourself at the top.

Catherine also noticed that you could add events to the calendar. Want to celebrate a birthday? Have a BBQ?  You can now do that with the calendar.

So now finally job in hand, butler on the way, holidays set she continues her life.

 Having a small garden in her yard she notices that the plants are now seasonal. Plants for the summer, fall winter and spring are now defined.  Thank goodness the butler takes care of that, what with working and taking care of noodle,  who has time? Catherine takes time to silently thank her mother for the motherloads she was left in the will.

 But wait…..what is THAT in her garden? A scarecrow? Has to be from her neighbor Bob as a thank you for the gnome gift. She thinks she may just go have a look because this scarecrow is very interesting. “I can talk to it?!?” she muses. What fun! Although she finds out if she talks too much it kind of takes over the garden. Better be careful here.

As the days of spring press on She is busy with work when a little waif of a boy waves at her from the bus carrying the orphanage on a field trip. Something about the boy tugged at her heart. “What am I thinking? My life is set!”. But she just couldn’t stop thinking about the boy so she called up and adopted Kolten. She wasn’t sure what the heck she was getting in to, but hey, what’s a holiday without a kid to share it with? Who was going to give her presents? Yes this may just work out fine.

Spring also brought a holiday that involved Gnomes. Catherine KNEW that gnome costume for Bob would come in handy! As the holiday approached the calendar gives a reminder that there is a pending holiday the next day. A button will let you go straight to build mode for holiday decorations that fit the days defined events.

 Catherine woke to find the holiday in full swing but WHAT? Gnomes are all over the yard and house! What do we do with this? She carefully approaches the gnomes to see what is going on. Seems they expect gifts and singing.

 Waking up Kolten she goes out to the garden and together they sing the best they can to the gnomes. They are still there. Maybe they want a gift. She gives a gift to one of the gnomes who then disappears. And leaves behind a packet of seeds? But wait! These aren’t just any seeds these are SEASONAL seeds! These will come in handy! So Catherine opens the packets to her inventory stash. After giving gifts to all the gnomes she had loads of seeds for the garden. Good thing because seems Kolten is very interested in Gardening.

 Walking through the house she finds that the gnomes are still there! They just moved. So it’s gift giving to gnomes and singing for the day. OK then.

Sprinklers are a new thing and they work. Kids enjoy splashing in the sprinklers during the warm days. Adults can do most things kids do when it comes to the seasonal things.

As spring turns in to summer we see Kolten age to teen. All Catherine sees is a new hand for the garden. YAY! We planted a lot.

 We all know that April Showers bring May flowers and boy did it rain. Left mud puddles everywhere. You slip in mud puddles (I lol’d at that) and have mud fights. The game seems darker but that's due to cloud cover.

 Coming into summer the days get quite hot. But thanks to a new thermostat (Found under activities) we can set the temperature inside to warmer or colder depending on the weather. Be careful as turning the thermostat can cost you simoleans on the bills.

 Now we all know that Sims kids are expected to go to school no matter what time of year. Catherine thought, “No not MY kid” and opened her handy dandy calendar and set summer as holidays all across. Which also meant no work, getting paid….having summer fun.

Catherine set about doing some flower arranging in her new handy dandy flower arranging table. Ah the smells of summer. Flowers and cuttings.

Kolten decides summer is for gardening and bee keeping so, along with his soon to be girlfriend Kaitlen, gardening and bee keeping for the summer it will be.

Kolten bonding with the bees....ready...ready....

Except bonding with the bees wasn’t working out too well. But hey, he gave it a try.  

Summer flies by, as it always does and we find ourselves on the edge of fall.

Tomorrow we’ll cover fall and winter. Also all the holidays I set and what activities you can do when participating in the holidays. With that, in case you haven’t already bought the EP (which is well worth it imo), I'll leave you with the new items from the pack.

comfort

Surfaces

Plumbing

Activities

New Seasonal Kiosks

Plants

Wall

New Mirror

Curtains

Misc

Clutter. The umbrellas double as an activity. Have your sim grab one for the rain.

Rugs

Holidays

New Kids Activity Table

Lights