The Sims 2: Seasons

The Sims 2: Seasons is the fifth expansion pack in The Sims 2 series of games. It was developed by Maxis, released on March 1, 2007 in North America, and was followed by the European release on March 2, 2007. Aspyr released a Mac OS X port of the game in June of 2007. The included neighborhood, Riverblossom Hills, has new lots, Sims and storyline.

The seasons
The Sims 2 Seasons expansion pack introduces two new game play concepts to The Sims 2 series: weather and seasons. Each season lasts for approximately five Sim days and players have the option to alter their order of progression. Sims are able to build snowmen in Winter, rake fallen leaves in Autumn, jump in puddles during Spring and occasionally experience heatstroke in Summer. Besides being a solely visual, interactive addition, each season enhances Sim's attributes in certain ways: summer improves their ability to build and attain relationships among friends, Autumn quickens their skill building and job promotion, winter helps to tighten family bonds through a variety of activities (having a snowball fight, for example) and spring augments romantic relationships.

Weather and temperature
There is weather within each season, including rain, hail, lightning storms, and snow. Although weather was originally planned for release in the original Sims 2 base game, a 3D rendering error prevented this from being possible: rain would fall into enclosed housing areas, and other graphical rendering problems would occur. Weather may also adversely affect Sims. For example, heat in summer may cause a Sim to experience heatstroke or (if Sims 2 Bon Voyage is also installed) receive a sunburn. Sims who are outside during the winter may feel cold, though they can be warmed in various ways. A Sim can freeze if they spend too much time outside in bad weather. Sims can die due to heatstroke and they can also freeze to death. Other Sims have the option of a "thaw" interaction, provided their relationship is high enough. Children who are allowed to get too cold or too hot do not die, but are instead taken away by social services. Rarely, Sims who go outside during a rainstorm can be struck by lightning, but this more commonly happens to trees or other objects.

Plant Sims
Plant Sims are the new creatures that come with The Sims 2: Seasons. Plant Sims have green skin with vine-like tattoos, special leaf or flower made hair and yellow eyes. In order to become a Plant Sim, a Sim must spray their orchard trees or plants in excess. The Plant Sim condition can be "cured" if a Sim buys the Plantophic-C from the Garden Club or the Gypsy, a NPC available in The Sims 2: Nightlife expansion pack.

Plant Sims only age within three life stages: Toddler, Adult and Elder; thus, they lack the Baby, Child, and Teen stages, nor Young Adult. Besides aging differences, they have three needs: Sunlight (satisfied by going outside or using a sun lamp), Water (satisfied by taking showers or baths, being outside in rain, or by swimming) and Love (equivalent to the Social need). Plant Sims also gain a prank interaction, the ability to spawn offspring and release spores of happiness, which boost nearby Sims' needs. Spawned offspring have a gold gardening badge and the same skills and personality as their parent.

Objects and updates
As with the other The Sims 2 expansion packs, there are additional items, including a pool slide, skating rink, greenhouse, wishing well, and new country themed furniture sets. A new weather changing machine is available as an Aspiration reward, and misuse can cause Rain of Fire. A pool's corners can be rounded, instead of having a square shape, and the pool has reflections and can be customized (pool floors and walls can be changed). Also, a completely new feature is the ability to set hairstyles for different occasions. For example, players can choose for their Sim a certain hairstyle for everyday, another one for formal etc. Sims have new "outerwear", chosen in Create a Sim or bought at a clothing store, for winter.

Music
This expansion pack contains New Age and Jambands genres. The New Age radio station uses all the original songs from The Sims original Build Mode. Simlish versions of songs from popular artists are also contained in the expansion:
 * "Smile" - Lily Allen
 * "Mr. High And Mighty" - Government Mule
 * "Blue Jeans Pizza" - Moe
 * "Zoom" - Tata Young
 * "N" - The Breadbox Band
 * "The Next One" - The Chris McCarty Band
 * "Close Your Eyes" - The String Cheese Incident
 * "When It All Falls Apart" - The Veronicas

Inclusion of real songs by popular artists dates back to The Sims 2: University; they have also been present in the Open For Business and Pets expansion packs.

Included existing features
Features from the existing expansion packs such as the influence system (available in University), turn ons/turn offs (available from Nightlife upwards), lifetime wants (available from University upwards), pranks (available in University), fury (available in Nightlife), Mrs. Crumplebottom (also available in Nightlife) and talent badges (available from Open For Business) are available. Although the talent badges included in Open For Business are not available in the Seasons expansion pack, players can use them if both Open For Business and Seasons are installed.