The Sims 2 Christmas Review
Christmas is coming and the accountants are getting fat.
Version tested: PC
It's a joy of living. If you wait long enough, the world will prove any of your arguments for you.
I've a knee-jerk distaste for the argument that says the Sims add-on packs are just the milking of a cash cow or a rip-off of the devoted fanbase. Because they're not. They add new gameplay elements - and when it's the only game in an entire genre, that's absolutely required. Imagine there was only one decent first-person shooter in existence. God knows we'd crave whatever add-on packs its publishers could produce. So just dismissing Sims add-ons because they're not to your taste... well, it's just wrong.
The joy of the Sims 2 Christmas Party pack is that it illustrates perfectly why even the others, even the worst of them, aren't simple rips-offs by showing exactly what a Sims 2 rip-off looks like.
Its good points are simple. It only costs ten pounds. For that, you get forty season-themed decorations (including some for Easter and Halloween) to spruce up your little computer people's homes, and other seasonal bits and pieces. There's certainly nothing which actually counts as a gameplay element here. You can easily work out a holiday-styled mini-game, where in a hectic 24-hour period a player has to try and keep everyone's spirits high and satisfy their Christmas wishes and so on. None of that is here. The piles of Christmas presents you can put down aren't for opening, but just for mute staring at. I ended up getting a little sad having Mortimer Goth stare longingly at presents whose contents would never be identified.

Cat. Rhymes with hat. Also, splat.
And that's it.
With it being one of the most successful games of all time, with an enormous fan community of busy modders, I figured a quick nose around would result in something equivalent that the fans have made which you - the online reader - could download, burn on a disk and give as a personalised (and cheaper) gift to your chums. And save the ten quid for give to Tiny Tim or similar.
Except, as even a cursory glance at Google, I could do better than that. If you fancy the beautiful Christmas garlands or a customisable snowman or a Christmas tree... well, why not just head over to the Sims 2 site and download them. They've been up there for a year, after all.
No, I'm not joking. Go see.

I don't know about you, but I feel really magical now.
So, a proportion of the "40 new items" are available for free a couple of clicks away to you. In fact, glancing at them, the majority of the best items are available already. Once you remove the enormous inflatable cat with the turn-on-offable eyes from the package, you're not left with much. Can't find the mechanical mini-snowman who plays a pop remix of Jingle Bells when you turn him on, so that's at least one interesting thing for your crisp tenner.
What was a fairly obvious cash-in's true colours are revealed: as a genuinely impressive cash-in which I can't recommend to anyone. Perhaps the most depressing thing is that the free objects were original bonuses for fans in an online give-away. Clearly, such seasonal altruism was noticed by someone who couldn't bear to live without turning the expenditure of creating them into a nice black figure in some grand corporate tallybook.
But, yeah, it's only ten pounds. And if you can't think of a better use for it than this, send the beautiful note to me, care of Eurogamer, as God knows I can.
1 / 10
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Comments (36) Latest comment 6 years ago
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/fetches popcorn
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Surely that's the same thing?
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KG
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There's not a speck of doubt in my heart that the publishers are milking the game for what it's worth.
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KG
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KG
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While this Chrismas "add-on" can be called a rip-off for a normal gamer (if there is such creature), at least some hard core Sims2 addicts are not complaining.
My fiancé for example just had to buy it even though she spends her freetime browsing the official and unofficial on-line object collections and forums, and is well aware that some of the items on this pack are already available as downloads. But these downloads do not come in such a fancy package that looks good alongside the other Sims2 packages (and mouse pads, and keychains, and...
For those unfamiliar/uncomfortable with downloadable content, or a Sims-junkie like my loved one, I'd still rate it 7/10. The price is could be lower, though.
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KG
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"Righto, got Perfect Dark here for review on the 360, the gorgeous looking NFS:MW on PC, but ummm Keiron, can you do us a review of this Sims 2 addon?"
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See, give this a 4-6 and I will happily just ignore it as I do with all other Sims expansions. But by giving it a 1 you challenge me. I will now probably will buy this, as I just have to know if it really is that bad. So thanks
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This will sell loads, mostly because most Sims 2 fans can't operate Google and go look for the stuff themselves.
Bad EA, Dirty EA, in your BED!
Peej
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Yes, but like Kieron pointed out, the other two have been well worth the money. They're not just object packs, they bring something new to the original game. The University expansion in particular, opens up a whole new age group, extending your Sim's life by a significant proportion.
What is it with this snobbery about the Sims anyway? I've never understood it.
Clearly this one's a load of bollocks, mind.
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*Decides to utilise the "duck and cover" method due to the high likelyhood of universe imploding*
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heh heh, a nice clean 1.
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That said, this does look rather shit.
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