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Better Living Through TechWhen there's a game like "The Sims" -- top-selling PC game of 2000 and 2001 -- it's inevitable that an expansion pack will soon follow. In this week's episode of "Extended Play" we review the latest expansion pack for "The Sims." If you include the recent release of "The Sims: Vacation," "The Sims" has had four expansion packs: "Living Large," "House Party," and "Hot Date." "Living Large" gave fans of "The Sims" more objects to play with, "House Party" made the interactions among Sims more complex, and "Hot Date" finally got them out of the house, giving them a downtown area to go to. "The Sims: Vacation" injects the game with a well-needed dose of fun.

The Sims: Vacation (PC) - story 1 In "Vacation," 500 simoleans buys your Sim families (kids in tow) a roundtrip ticket to Vacation Island -- a virtual paradise bordered by a wind-swept winter wonderland on one side, a tropical beach on the other, and a campground laden with lush evergreens between them. Once you're there it costs 40 simoleans a night per family member to stay in a hotel room. This can add up after a while; a two-week stay for a four-person family costs over 2,000 simoleans. You can also pony up 65 simoleans for a rather unpleasant tent or igloo for the trip. All you need to do is make a phone call and an SUV will come to the door to pick you and your family up. Unfortunately, you have to take your entire family if you want to go on vacation. You don't have the option of leaving the kids with a baby sitter.

Each of the areas evokes its own blend of wonderment and humor, and fans of the game will enjoy exploring them. A man in a hammerhead shark costume walks around trying to frighten guests in the tropical beach area (he'll even take a dip in the pool). You and your kids can roll together snowmen in the winter area. And if they're not careful, your Sims can come down with a wicked virus that will leave them throwing up.

"Vacation" is fun because it literally makes the game more relaxed. While Sims are on Vacation, their comfort and energy loss are slowed down and if your Sims are in a good mood, their fun rating will decay more slowly as well. This means you can spend more time watching their animation and exploring their interactions and less time worrying about accommodating their slightest whims.

More interactive objects

The Sims: Vacation (PC) - story 2And vacationing on Vacation Island is only half the fun -- you also get to build your own resorts. Just like laying out your own downtown area in Hot Date, you're given an unlimited budget when building your vacation paradise. You still have to adhere to a number of common-sense design principles, like making walkways big enough to accommodate large groups of people and installing enough tables in the dining halls.

How fun would a new world for the Sims be if there weren't new objects to interact with? Not much. Most of the fun in the Sims comes from discovering the many objects that have been created for your Sims to interact with. The "Sims Vacation" has 77 new objects. There's an igloo, reclining lawn furniture, a tree-trunk coffee table, and a bear-skin rug that gives Sims the same actions as the picnic blanket (cuddling, making out). And if you lay the rug in front of a fireplace, you also get the option of sharing a sparkling cider toast. There's also a new hot tub, a waterslide, a postcard sale rack, a fishing pier that the Sims can cast lines off of, and a volleyball net where they can play a game of volleyball to help out their fun meter.

Every new object included in the expansion pack has its own set of interactions attached, but "Vacation" also includes three new objects with special skill systems that determine how different Sims use them. Your Sims' body and logic scores determine their accuracy on the new archery range, while the complexity and range of tricks possible on the new snowboarding half-pipe are determined by their playful score. There's also a number of midway games and stand-up arcade machines for your Sims to play. (Games include "Sim Mars" and "Whack-a-Will," named after the game's creator, Will Wright.) Your Sims' body and energy scores determine the success on one of the games, the Strength-o-Meter.

The Sims: Vacation (PC) - stroy3Another noteworthy addition to "The Sims: Vacation" are souvenirs. What would a vacation be without a tacky tchotchke sitting perched majestically in a display cabinet to remember it by? These can be anything from a pirate chest you can hook on your fishing pole to a shiny quartz crystal. Souvenirs can be acquired a number of different ways. You can buy them from the gift shop, win them by cashing in midway tokens, and even rent a metal detector and discover them buried in shallow soil. When your Sims return from their vacation, the first thing they'll do is look for a cabinet to put their souvenirs in. Doing so has a number of consequences. First, the value of the nearby household items goes up. Second, they'll work like a magnet, drawing guests. If enough guests gather, your Sims will share their memories of the trip with them. You can also sell souvenirs to help recoup the cost of the vacation.

Deeper developments

The measure of a good expansion pack isn't how many objects or areas it adds. These days, many games like "The Sims" have built-in mechanisms for adding new characters or levels. Good expansion packs change fundamental aspects of the game's programming.

Players are going to love the slew of new interpersonal interactions available to their Sims as much as they love the new objects. "Hot Date" let people do new things, such as kiss each other to different degrees of passion. In "Vacation" there's not only different degrees of kissing, but you can specify where you want to kiss the person, whether it be on the hand, cheek, or lips.

But kids, not adults, are the focus of "Vacation." Hot date took Sims out of their homes and into a downtown playground. The only problem was, this playground was for adults. Sure, there was love to be had, but the kids had to stay at home. "Vacation" makes the level of interaction among young Sims as complex as that of adult Sims after installing the "Hot Date" expansion pack. And the actions surrounding the kids are funny, injecting a well-needed shot of humor into "The Sims." Their interactions are based on three categories: child to child, adult to child, and child to adult. You'll see kids in "Vacation" play rock-paper-scissors, tease each other, and brag about their exploits. Parents can scold kids or try to amuse them by doing handstands or playing rock-paper-scissors. And when kids get angry, they'll walk around kicking people in the shins.

The number used to quantify Sims' interpersonal relationships, the relationship score, has been split into two different numbers, a daily score and a lifetime score. Each interaction has an effect on the daily score, which in turn slowly modifies the lifetime score. The lifetime score shows how well your Sims feel about another Sim over an extended period of time. The daily score shows how they feel about each other at that specific moment. This change opens the door for more realistic relationships between Sims. Before, two Sims couldn't get into an argument without their relationship score dropping dramatically. Now, when two Sims are angry at each other, their daily relationship score drops quite a bit but their lifetime relationship score remains largely unchanged. In other words, although they're fighting, deep down they can still be friends.

"The Sims: Vacation" makes the Sims fun again. However, even with the new interactions, the improvements made to the kids' artificial intelligence (AI), the cool animations, and everything else the expansion pack gives, it's still "The Sims," and it still plays like "The Sims." If you didn't like the original game, "Vacation" isn't going to convert you. But if you're a fan, or even if you just have a passing admiration of the game, you'll find the additions significant and fun to explore. After playing on Vacation Island for a while, you're still going to want more objects to decorate your homes, more layers of complexity woven into the AI, and more areas to explore. The cool thing is, as long as "The Sims" is a popular game (and it just gets better and better), they'll keep making it deeper, more interesting, and more fun.