Most of us won't see the expansion for another couple days - some of us already have it. Share your first impressions of the expansion here - what have you discovered, what do you like, what do you dislike?

No one's posted in here yet?
Well, I played Seasons for about a half hour, so there is a lot to play around with that I have yet to experience. I loaded the new neighborhood, and after touring around the interesting bios of each house, i decided to check out the create a sim.
Good news: The maxis outfits are nice, and the outerwear, though not entirely plentiful ( I think there were 14 for men, which is all i checked) looked pretty good. You can also change the hairstyles depending on what they're wearing. So you could have messy hair every time your sim puts pajamas on, but I think this was integrated for the use of changing a Sim's hairstyle(to a hat or earmuffs, or both) when they put on their outerwear, which they do automatically when they leave the house and it's cold, so i don't think freezing them is all that easy, unless you cheat.
Bad news: non-outerwear outfits total, i think, 4. And they're all the same outfit, just variations of it. A sweater, pants, and a scarf. I don't remember there being ANY different shirts or ANY different pants.
Along with the caps and earmuffs we get one hairstyle, which i like the look of but, where are the rest?
Aside from that there is nothing else new, which was a let down.
Again, this is for the male and teen male sections. The amount of clothes or hair in the female section might be different, but I doubt it.
Gameplay:
I spent less time doing this, because it's late. But...
Good news: I like the little temperature/thermometer beside the Sim's head on the toolbar. I didn't know what it was at first but I figured it out. I used move objects and put a sim out in the snow, and got him to do a snow angel. His temperature finally fell, and he began rubbing his hands together and "Brr!"ing. Walking him around in the snow didn't seem to bother him much. There seem to be a lot of new items, which is pleasant. New objects, floors, walls. I noticed a spice rack, and a new computer desk setup that looked really good.
It's cool when you hover over a fruit bearing tree and a little box pops up telling you its status. (dormant, in the winter.)
I'll need to experiance the turn of each season to get the full effect, but the bad news is that although i didn't play long, I didn't feel as though I was playing anything different. There was snow there, sort of melting even though I set the seasons to go from winter to winter to spring to fall, but things were just too... the same. It didn't give me the thrill I've been building up. But nor did I give it much a chance, yet.
So, anyone else want to say what they think?


EDIT - I love this EP now!!

I haven't actual played yet - I mostly explored all the objects/wallpapers/floors/etc that were new...

So far - there are three new adult-YA-Elder female hairs (not including the snow-beanie hat things), and one new adult male hair. No new hairstyles for toddlers or children (unless you count the snow-beanie hats as new hairs).

Toddlers have - three new outfits (I think) and three thick outerwear outfits for winter. Female child have three-four new dresses, three raincoats (in outerwear) and three new sweater/pants/scarf outfits, and three thick outerwear outfits. Male Child have the same sweater/pant/scarf outfits, two raincoats in outerwear and the same thick coats in outwear. Teens have sweaters and scarves again, and thick jackets for outerwear.

Objects include several new lights (2 wall light, four side lights, one outdoor light, one other light, and one hanging light), new decorations (in paintings and scupltures), one new mirror, two counters, four tables, two end tables, two desks, one sink, toilet and shower, four new rugs, four beds, one stove, two applicances, one grill, five new dresses, one toybox and several new chairs...

Lots of new wallpaper and some floors, three new trees (found under the gardening tool, under plants) Lemon tree, orange tree and apple, three new fences, one new gate, one new chimeny, and three different size sprinklers for gardens...

That's all I can remember for now...

There is apparently a "Garden Club" you can join if you own a garden. Members get special discount on seeds and what not. To join the "Garden Club" you call them by phone, I think, and show off your garden if it's big enough. The nicer and cleaner the garden looks, the more points you receive, etc, etc...

A child out in the cold too long will be taken away by the social worker (I got a warning about the kids being too cold and that if I don't warm them up soon, I'll be paid a visit from the social worker - so keep those kids warm if you don't want them taken away! d: )

*goes off to play now*

Well, I played all the seasons yesterday, and looked at most everything.

You get a warning about the social worker when your kid gets cold, but you just give them some hot chocolate, and let them warm their little bums by the fire (cause that's the bit they all warm).

I used a money cheat (so that I could see the fullness of the seasons with plenty of money) and planted a nice big garden - pond (so I could see the fish) greenhouse and dirt (which I hadn't fertilised) - and some flowers and bushes. Not particularly well laid out, but okay. Oh, and a pool - cause you can recolour the walls and floor, so I wanted to see that.

I invited the garden club over for an inspection (before it all decayed) and they commented on the biggest tree (name escapes me) and the Japanese maple, the scarecrow - all of which they liked, and commented that I should fertilise the soil. Long story short, I was accepted.

Discount so far - fertiliser goes from $10 a bag to $7. Seeds are similar.

Fishing is fun - but sims won't opt out of it - make sure that you cancel it before they die of malnutrition. You can cook fish dishes by clicking on the fridge, stove or bbq, and you can juice the fish and boots that you catch.

It will hail, and snow and rain. You need roofs on your house though. My simmies were asleep, and it rained on them and woke them up lol. Don't ignore the warnings.

There are 4 new collections - the sims 2 bonus set with the Numenor race car set, country kitchen, country bedroom (or some similar name) and tiki lounge set.

Curved walls for pools - placed kinda like a floortile and has to link to existing pool. Slides can only be placed on straight edge.

About 4 new styles of normal clothes, and hair for each gender, and the new outerwear. They automatically change when the leave the house, so you have to actively work to freeze them.

Every Maxis item (I don't have any cc in there) loses it's leaves and goes bare in winter, and everything gets snow on it. The penguin comes when there is a major snowfall - he pees on the floor too, and you can only pet or shoo him.

Sims now get hot in the hottub, hot when they exercise, and try to warm themselves with showers.

Weather machine is 9,000 aspiration points, so you can get it within maximum 10 sim days. When not in gold aspiration, it will hail meteorites down on you, but you can set it to snow, rain, hail or clear skies, or choose your season.

One thing I liked - knowledge sims now have a desire for babies - or at least one of mine has, which is a first for me (only one baby, not like a family sim). They also desire to be struck by lightning in spring (which will lower your environment score outside - all those puddles).

I don't know if this is new, or if I just noticed, but you can take a pic and change to day or night in neighbourhood view now. There are a couple of new neighbourhood items - can't for the life of me remember what they are, but I don't know them well, and could have missed them first time round.

I gotta say there is so far nothing that I don't like - it is the best yet. Possibly where people could find annoyance is the amount of time it takes to tend the active plants, such as fruit trees, and seed plants. That takes quite a bit of time, but I had the stay at home parent do it. But you can choose which seasons you have in the neighbourhood screen (little button in the corner like the downtown ones, but a seasons icon). Riverblossom hills is set to winter - winter - spring - summer when you start to play, and the plants only need maintenance in spring, summer and fall - with harvests etc. in winter they are dormant (which gives you plenty of time to make snowmen, kick them over, chase the penguin, make snowangels.

I love it - but I have been waiting for seasons in the sims for a long time.

Haven't played it much yet, but sofar i like it.

I did adjust the game settings as the game reverted to everything on medium. I adjusted them to high again.

Play so far through fall and winter - and I have say, the lag in winter wasn't as bad as I thought it would be for my computer - and I was even playing a large, two story house (the largerest lot I always play is 2x2, and I usual only work with one story).

And just a note - I found a loop hole in the "Snow-covers-custom-items" bit... snow will not fall on custom-made trees XD Nor do they lose their leaves in the fall *shrug* Then again, I suppose that was to be expected... haven't tried leftovers in custom frigdes yet...

lookie the pix

Omg, dead people! lol!
So,they turn blue with custom skins huh? cool!

yup they sure do ... but custom trees flash blue when snowing or raining

They crashed some of my houses too. I had to get rid of those houses and the trees.

Oh! This is great. I was wondering about those custom skins. I actually asked that question in a thread that was deleted, and lamented never finding out the answer. *waxes dramatically* Anyway, that's really good news for the skins. Now I have to recall if I have any custom trees on my lots.

So angel_f, when you said it crashed some of your houses, do you mean that the custom trees on the lot caused the houses to crash because of seasons? Or something else?

I had two lots with Custom trees. They were flashing blue in the neighbourhood view. So i loaded the houses to get rid of the trees. But then the game crashed with the "this application has crashed" error. Tried to package them and remove the trees that way, but that crashed the game too. The main problem now is, i have no idea which tree crashed the lots...

calalily, I have had some Knowledge sims have the want for a baby before. I think it depends on personality since most of my Knowledge sims don't roll that want...nice and playful ones seem to, but that could just be my experience. Though if Seasons makes more of them roll that want, I won't complain since Knowledge is what I play the most and I like babies too. :D

Dream

I haven't played alot yet (only two days in spring) and it was nice, though I think EA forgot to say that this game isn't good for heartpatients I almost got a heartattack when I heard the thunder.

I have a picture too, it's no big deal tho, but I thought it looked quite funny.

Glad to hear i wasn't the only one :D

i like seasons. i think it nearly lived up to expectations and it is certainly better than pets was when i first got that.
i think seasons is more realistic than the other games, using the different hairstyles for an example. the sims seem to have more of an unique character too, i really like it and cant tear myself away from it!

I still haven't heard the thunder yet I got hail though, which was fun :D
So far, this is my favourite EP, and I havn't come across any bugs yet

I also got snow in spring, and I thought it was weird but it would make sense if I just had winter, which I didn't.

And the weather chanel sucks. The nanny came and turned the TV on and then she left. Every 30 minutes (simminutes), the guy said something else.

'It's nice and there might be some light snow.'
'It's going to be cold and there will be heavy snow'
'It might get chilly but it'll stay dry.'

(sorry for the poor translations)

I was able to play it for a little while last nite before heading to bed.

Overall, I was impressed.

I enjoy alot of the new objects and things for my sims to do. Thundur did scare the heck out of me when I first heard it (go go me having the sound up!).

I'm looking forward to playing it today and in the next couple of days to really test everything out.

Is it all costum outdoor plants that crashes the game or just the trees? *on my way ingame to delete them now*

I played for like 5 minutes, but I thought it was funny and cute how when I checked the weather forcast, it said there was a chance of heavy snow. Too bad it was summertime! I wonder if they're poking fun at how weathermen are wrong a lot of the times.

Can someone tell me a little about the new neighbourhood? How many families does it have, what are they, and so on.. You know Thanks a lot!

Boots are drinkable?! And they can drink fish also?

*edit*
Oh, I have a question: Does it snow in desert neighborhoods?

You can set which seasons each neighbourhood gets. So if you decide Strangetown is going to have Winter as on of its seasons, then it will snow.

You know, I'm actually slightly glad that I'll have to wait a bit longer for my parents to send the game to me. I'll have time to finish that 2500 word essay before Monday without worrying about getting addicted to Seasons and zoning out when I should be working.

According to the Prima Guide, there are temperature ranges in which it will snow even in the EARLY springtime. Unfortunately, I'm at work, otherwise I'd try to find the info for you.