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Seasonal Sims
Meet the Midwinters

Let me introduce you to Jonah and Simone Midwinter who are going to be with us for part of this review.

This young couple are going to help show us what is new, be examples as to how things have changed and also allow us to share in their experiences as they set up in their new home in Riverblossom Hills.

We join them in the Create-A-Sim suite.

Hair for all Seasons

This is a feature that is new to Seasons and I am very impressed with it. You are now no longer restricted to one choice of hair for all of the different clothing modes that are available. Several of my sims in the past wear hats and it is inevitable at times that those hats come off, such as in their PJs or tracksuits. Ideally, you do not want your sim to be wearing their favourite propellor hat when in their best tuxedo. Until now, we have had no say about what their hair looks like when the hat comes off. Now we have that say.

Yes, you can choose to have keep with how things were before and have the same hairstyle for all outfit types but if the option is there, it may as well be used. For example, Simone wears a hat when she is in her Outerwear, has her hair down with her Everyday clothes but has it tied up when she is in her tracksuit.

As well as the new choices of what hair the sims can use with what outfits, there are some new hairstyles as well. There are three new basic hairstyles for the women and one new hairstyle for the men. Personally, I think these have been on hold since before "Pets" as they appear to be the same hairstyles that the moustachiod guy and the girl in the red sweater have. Nevertheless, on top of this, for both male and female are quite a range of "beanies" and earmuffs.

Although I would have liked to have seen more new basic hairstyles, I am not complaining too much as I am very impressed with the new options of different hair for different types of outfit.

It's cold outside!

If you have been reading the text as well as just clicking on the thumbnails to look at the bigger pictures, you will have noticed in the last section that I mentioned the word Outerwear. Your sims now have a different clothing type. The purpose for outerwear is to make sure that your sims do not freeze to death. The women have more choices than the men - 23 choices against 12 - which is not to be unexpected. Yes, it can happen although the best I have got so far is getting some of my sims to go a little bit blue.

Above, we see Simone in a fawn-coloured sweater and slacks with a pink, fleece-trimmed anorak. On our left, we see Jonah in a sweater and scarf, sporting a horned helmet from the original game as his preferred choice of headgear for his outerwear. There are a lot of existing items of headgear from the original game and various previous expansions that I see as being very suitable as headgear for winter weather.

In the clothing catalogues, all items of Outerwear are available as Everyday clothes but there does not seem to be any way of making some of the Everyday items into Outerwear. A little utility to allow some recategorising of existing clothes to Outwear would be appreciated although as outwear comes as complete outfits and not in top and bottom, some items I would have liked to see reclassified would not be possible. For those who have the OFB expansion pack, you may agree that the flying jackets would be ideally suited as outerwear.

Apart from the adult outerwear that you have seen, the other age ranges also get their own outerwear options. However, apart from outerwear, it seems that the only other new clothing items that have been included are a few summery dresses for your female sims. We'll look at them when the weather gets better, though.

Summarising Seasonal Sims

Although I would have liked to see more basic hairstyles, I am really impressed with the new options available allowing you to choose how your sims' hair looks with all outfits. Apart from no ability yet to classify other clothes as outerwear, I am pleased with the choices available for outerwear.

In the third part of this review, we will be finding the Midwinters a home in the Hills and seeing how they set about settling in their new home and enduring their first few seasons.

Dag dag!

Written at 05:27 on Monday 5 March 2007 by Andy.

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