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New Renderings & Brought Forward
Wrapping It Up

In this final part of the review, we look at the miscellaneous items that have been added or even brought forward from previous expansions. We look at the bugs and glitches, then give our conclusions as to whether this expansion is a "must have" or not.

Deja Vu

There have been three items in FreeTime that have made their welcome appearance to TS2.

It is strangely good to see the Genie again and a refreshing feeling to know that sometimes his spells work. With a passing nod to the genie from TS1, who had some resemblance to the genie from "Aladdin", this genie has had a bit of a makeover as it's a whole new world (yes, that was intended), I am impressed with the quality of work. I am yet to find occupied beds erupt in flames because he got something wrong. Unlike the cringeworthy series of the same name, I am glad to have a genie in the house ... for now anyway.

Although the little child's version hasn't appeared, which I am not going to lose sleep over, the Trainset is now part of this expansion. A basic train layout looks somewhat dull - a bit like a basic neighborhood in TS2 without any decoration - but your sims can customise it, adding water, a mountain, trees, signs and a town, many of those to different degrees. More than one sim can join in at a time so this becomes a group activity. Even when things are added, they can be removed later. This means no trainset has to look exactly the same. You don't need me to tell you which hobby skill is increased by tinkering around with the trainset The old trainset came from the original version of TS1 and I believe this has been incredibly well implemented into TS2. Almost a "sims within the sims" from the level of detail that is incorporated into it.

The Basketball hoop was also part of the original game and I was wondering if we'd ever see it. As well as shooting hoops on your own, you can sim can play with someone for social benefits. There is even a layout for you to make your own proper basketball court. It also increases body skill and hobby interest in Sports.

I'd still like to see the Moose head make an appearance. in TS1, its horns reflected the average mood of the people on the lot. It may not have appeared yet, but I live in hope ... as I also live in hope for Ctrl+S being a hotkey for saving the game or a means to center on visiting sims who might have got lost somewhere.

Brought Forward

There are a quite a lot of features from previous expansion packs that have been brought forward. I am now viewing this is quite a common practice to forward to best of one expansion to successive ones.

  • University contributes lifetime wants, influence, vanity table functionality and zombies have been brought forward.
  • Nightlife provides attraction and chemistry, turn ons and offs, the portachug potion, the inventory panel, cars and driveways, accompanied by the pleasure aspiration and the gypsy.
  • Open For Business has forwarded lockable doors and the changing lot name button, which I use quite a lot
  • Pets sends forward the flatten lot and sledgehammer tools, rotating floor tiles, enhanced and revamped collections, invite household interface, inventory hotkey and the game tip encyclopedia.
  • Seasons provides the hair enhancements, the "Give Gift" social, new pool shapes and leftover food. I can't live without that last one.
  • Bon Voyage contributes the jewellery rack, the walking to lot transition (although something I have installed is preventing me from doing this) and the ability to get married on community lots.

    For those of who have those EPs, we might feel ripped off. For those who haven't, now you know where they came from and I recommend you read the reviews of those previous EPs to find whether there is more in there that is worth your buying copies.

  • Written at 03:03 on Monday 10 March 2008 by Andy.

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