Vacation also keeps families in mind.  Children will find a lot to do, and each resort has its own wandering character in costume to entertain the kids.  However, sims will need to keep a close eye on their kids.  If they let them run around too much on their own, they'll soon begin to run amuck.  Anti-social outburst and tantrums can quickly turn vacation dreams into nightmares.

Vacation cleverly provides an in-game help system in the form of the Vacation Director.  She is present at every resort to answer your sims' questions about the features and activities of Vacation Island.  She is apparently quite bold as well - while playing the game for this review, she wandered into this reviewer's sim's hotel bathroom while he was on the toilet and his sim-wife was in the shower.

Overall, Vacation does not really add any major new gameplay aspect to The Sims - it is more of a conversion of downtown from Hot Date.  Like Hot Date, Vacation allows players to take their sims away from their daily lives and concentrate on the more enjoyable aspects of life.  It also allows players to design their own resort hot spots and exchange them on the internet.  Unfortunately, it also shares some of Hot Date's problems, such as some slow-down and sputtering of the game engine when a large number of sims are present.  It's safe to say that if you enjoyed Hot Date, you'll probably like Vacation, although it does at times have a "more of the same" feeling to it.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 84%.  Vacation fulfills your sims' fun factor just as Hot Date served their social needs.  If you are a Sims fan, you'll more than likely enjoy the new places Vacation provides to let your sims loose to enjoy themselves.  

System Requirements:  The Sims; Pentium II 300;  64 MB RAM;  2 MB Video RAM; 4x CD-ROM;  700 MB Hard Drive Space;  Mouse.

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