Hot Date was received 86% and an 85% averages from aggregate sites GameRankings and Metacritic respectively. Overall, the game was judged to be the most substantial of The Sims expansion packs at its point of release, and critics praised the new downtown area. This feature would be carried forward in later expansion packs for The Sims and The Sims 2.
The relationship bar with acquaintances the Sims know, now includes a daily bar at the top showing short-term trends with decay quickly and a long term bar showing long-term trends. This makes having both a relationship and a job (which still typically takes about six hours out of a Sim's day) not only possible, but a lot easier than before. Downtown features many brand-new, downtown-only items, like food vendors, clothing stores, picnic areas, and duck ponds that Sim couples can use to keep themselves busy, and a few new items, like the restaurant booth seat, that will let them get to know each other better.Īll the time spent in Downtown takes place independent of time at home in other words, Sims will get hungry, tired, and bored as usual during the time they spend downtown, but once they get home, the clock will actually reset to the time when they left. While a Sim is on a date, the Sim can be controlled, but not actually give orders to their date. Sims can now use their telephones to call a taxi that takes them to downtown SimCity, which is composed of lots such as shopping centers, recreation areas, restaurants, or nightclubs. In addition to many new items for households, the new downtown area is Hot Date 's most significant new addition to The Sims. Several concepts in Hot Date would be re-introduced in The Sims 2: Nightlife. The Sims: Hot Date is the third expansion pack released for The Sims, released on November 14, 2001, with overall positive reviews thanks to the addition of a Downtown area as a sub-neighborhood, which became the set up for upcoming expansion packs in which new areas were added. The last expansion pack, Makin' Magic, was released on October 29, 2003. The first expansion pack, Livin' Large, was released on August 27, 2000. Expansion packs tend to focus on major new features, with many objects, clothes, styles, worlds and life states are geared towards the pack's major theme. Windows versions were published by Electronic Arts, and Mac OS X versions were published by Aspyr. All expansion packs were developed by Maxis for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Seven expansion packs were released for the 2000 life simulation video game The Sims, the first major title in The Sims series. Video game series The Sims expansion packs