life

Finally an expansion pack that is worthy of The Sims (the greatest game of all time). Vacation brings life back into The Sims in a huge way!!! I couldn't even estimate the amount of hours that my girlfriend and I have spent playing The Sims over the past couple of years. I have to admit that I was somewhat disappointed in Hot Date simply because I think that I was expecting more than it actually delivered. Vacation, however brings all of the expansions together and makes the game more fun than ever before!!! I absolutely love taking the family "out of town" for the weekend. The new objects also make for incredible building opportunities or simple add-ons.
Obviously I am a fan of The Sims and do have all of the expansions for the game. The special thing about Vacation is that it opens up such a wide variety of activities for your sims. I personally like the snowboarding and snowball fights, where my girlfriend can go metal detecting for days (in Sims time). The cloning options are also practically endless for all of the people who like to create their own objects. All in all I think that Vacation is the best expansion since Livin' Large. Of all of the pros to this particular expansion, I have personally found only one con, and that is the load time. I have noticed that since I installed Vacation, my game loads considerably slower than it had before. For this reason alone, I gave the game four satrs instead of five. I highly recommend this expansion to anyone who likes The Sims.

I have to admit, I've always been a fan of The Sims games. I have all the expansion packs to date. A couple weeks ago I got the Vacation and I give it 3-4 stars.

Pros:
Vacations are a nice change of pace from the daily grind, and there are a lot of new objects for both vacation and the household. There are humorous and entertaining new interactions with vacation items and people. While on vacation, kids can get rowdy and start smashing sandcastles, kicking people, etc. Adults can "play" in the tent. You can find an array of strange and valuable goods with the metal detector and at the fishing pier.

Cons:
~I am rarely able to take my families on vacation because they are so *expensive*, but if you are not opposed to using cheat codes to get you money (a la rosebud), then budgeting is the last thing on your mind.
~Your sims get bored very quickly of group activities such as volleyball, throwing waterballoons or snowballs.
~The vacation mascots (the shark, archer, and yeti) were cute for a while but they get really annoying after you've seen them too much.
~The one thing that has always been apparent to me is the lack of a Goal in the sims. I am aware that people can set their own goals in this game (ex: getting job promotions, getting married, etc.) But, I think that perhaps in future versions or expansion packs of The Sims, if there was a set Goal and perhaps even levels of some sort...it would be the way to make an awesome game into an extraordinary one.

If you like The Sims game, the Vacation Expansion will make it better. If you never liked it in the first place, this expansion pack isn't going to help you. Happy Gaming.

i love going on vacations, and it really helps when trying to make friends. if you bring a friend, they're stuck with you until you decided to go back home. also, you can sleep and junk without them going away, although i still have yet to figure out how to get the friend to go to bed, so it may not be possible. when they fall over, leave them and cut the trip shorter...