115 Riverbend Road is an empty property in Riverblossom Hills and for the default family starting figure of §20,000, it allows §6,500 for your sims to decorate to their own taste. The icon next to the house name shows what season it is on that lot. Currently, it is Winter. There is a small icon next to every house indicating what season it currently is on that plot. By default, it is Season 1, which varies depending upon how you have set up the seasons for your neighborhoods.

Depending upon how long you play different families, It can be every season of the year in different parts of in your neighborhood. Also, the season of the year on a community lot is the same as the one on the lot from where the visiting family or sim is from. For example, if Simone or Jonah wished to visit a community lot, it would be winter. However, for another family whose house is in the Spring, it would be Springtime on that community lot if they chose to visit.

There are some subtle changes to the interface once you are playing on the lot. Firstly, there is a scale that shows what season it is (1) and indicates how many days there are left in that season. Secondly, there is a temperature gauge (2) next to the picture of your active sim. If it is green, it means your sim is alright. If it goes blue, it means your sim is getting quite cold and if it goes red, it means your sim is getting too hot. Remedial measures may be necessary if things get too bad.

In my opinion, every home should have a pond. No matter where you live, if that pond is big enough and deep enough, it will become populated with a wide range of fish and old boots. When I first tried it, I found that although I could interact with it, I could not go fishing in it. I did find out that this was due to having the InSIMenator installed. As there isn't yet a Seasons-version of it, I removed it from my downloads. I was then able to send my sims fishing.

It will be no surprise to find out that every sim has their fishing rod and bait on them at all times, even if they are wandering around in their swimsuits or even nothing at all. This rod is all that you need and the choices of bait vary depending upon your skill level.

In order to grow vegetables and ground-based fruits, you need to look in the Garden Centre, which can be found in the landscaping submenu in Build Mode. Growable areas of land cost §10/square and can be dragged out in the same way as you lay a swimming pool or foundations. The first thing to do is to fertilise the land. This costs §10/square for fertiliser although compost is free. Most garbage now can be put in a compost processor instead of being "recycled". You do not have to prepare the land. You can go ahead and plant your seeds immediately. Unskilled gardeners can only grow tomatoes and these cost §8/square to plant. While the plants are growing, they may need to be tended to, watered and perhaps sprayed with insecticide. The better the quality of the plant when the vegetables can be harvested, the better the quality of the produce both for consumption or selling.

To grow fruit from trees, you need a fruit tree, which is quite an obvious answer and these sell for §1,200. During winter months, these trees are dormant and do not require any attention. During the other months before harvesting, they may need trimming and spraying for bugs. Again, the better the quality of the tree at harvesting time, the better the quality of the produce.

In the Garden Centre section, as well as trees and plots of land, there are a lot of other items available. There is a range of sprinklers, a compost processor, a ladybird house and everything you need to build a greenhouse. I will be looking more at these later.

Every new sim starts off unskilled in gardening and fishing. It is only through experience that they can become skilled gardeners. With each skill level, they acquire skill badges, which are not dissimilar to the badges from the Open For Business EP. Also, these come in time. For fishing sims, these allow them to use different types of bait. For gardening sims, these allow them to plant different types of produce and allow other interactions with their plants. Again, more on these later.

With every newspaper, there is now a weather forecast. It may be accurate or it may not be. Also, the forecast could be giving out cryptic messages. Also, there is a weather channel on the TV. If left on too long, the weatherman can go off subject and tell you more about himself, which in some respects is quite creepy. A classic example of this is found on the left.

It can snow in spring, it can rain in winter. Not everything is as simple as it may seem. I will be looking in more detail at the weather when I go through each season in turn later in this review.

In the same way that the gypsy used to turn up at every new home in Nightlife, a representative of the Gardening Club turns up at every new home in Seasons. Becoming a member is not easy. From what I have ascertained, a successful garden needs to be of a certain size (as yet uncertain of how big) and have plenty of decorative trees, shrubs and flowerbeds to meet with their approval.

It is not easy to become a member, but it is not impossible. Jonah and Simone failed their first application but there is nothing stopping them in trying again at a later date. Ethan from Simpleton Magnus, however, was successful. Membership of the gardening club allows you to buy fertiliser and seeds at a cheaper rate than for non-members. You can buy potions from representatives of the Gardening Club for curing plantsimism whether successful or not, although "Nightlife Gypsy" also has supplies of the same potion.

There are six new careers, which we will be looking at in detail in a later section.

Education is one of them, which appears to follow the same job titles that came with the same career in TS1:Unleashed although with the addition of chance cards, a working week and a somewhat inflated pay packet.

Thanks to Jonah and Simone, we have got an insight into how the game play is different. In the next part of our review, we look in detail at Winter and the ups and downs of temperature and snow.