The Players
The Hottie: This Sim is a lot of fun to be with, but very lazy too — don’t invite this person to move in with your Sim unless you plan on hiring a maid.
The Lover: Get ready for a bucketload of charm from this medical intern.
The Romantic: Loving but shy, flirtatious but lazy, a relationship with this Sim is like a rollercoaster ride.
The Flirt: This Sim means well but is also socially awkward and tends to wear outdated fashions.
The Partier: Did you enjoy the House Party expansion pack? Then this Sim is for you — outgoing and fun to be with but not very interested in serious discussions.
The Wallflower: The nerdy type, this Sim is shy and sensitive.
The Waiter: If you want to increase your Sim’s Hunger motive, talk to this person.
The Maitre’d: If you include the Gastronomer Restaurant Podium in one of your downtown buildings, this Sim will show up and seat you and your date. He also brings higher prices, although the food is more satisfying.
The Minstrel: This Sim also comes with the Gastronomer Restaurant Podium and will come by your table and play his guitar while you and your date eat. If you don’t tip him, your relationship with him will deteriorate, and eventually he will trade in his guitar for a puppet that he will use to mock you (and make you look like a fool in front of your date). If your relationship with him improves, however, he will swap the guitar for a violin that will likely score points with your date.
The Bartender/Barmaid: The bartender serves up drinks at the bar and the barmaid will appear if there are tables where you can sit and order drinks.
The Chef: Watch the chef while he prepares your food. If his actions look unsanitary, you can refuse the food (and avoid getting sick, a sure date downer).
The Busboy: He’ll clean up any mess you leave behind.
The Janitor: Unfortunately, this Sim cleans rooms with no regard to who is in them.
Cashiers/Rental Shack Attendants: Just like in real life, don’t expect a lot of help from these Sims, unless you want to hand them money.
Tragic Clown: This Sim first appeared in the Livin’ Large expansion pack. Watch what he does if he encounters a Burger Clown sign. You may discover why he’s so tragic.
The Old Prude: Her name is Mrs. Crumplebottom, and she roams downtown, complaining about how much better everything was in the good old days. She hates public displays of affection and likes to smack kissing Sims with her purse.
Claire the Bear: The first persistent animal character in The Sims, Claire wanders around and looks for food in the trash. If she sees a Buster O’Beast stuffed bear, she will try to have a conversation with him. If she sees a bearskin rug, though, be ready to witness some bear heartbreak.
|
|
 Pick your poison.
|
 |
|
|
|
 
Thanks to Prima Games, we have a few tips and tricks straight from their official strategy guide for The Sims: Hot Date, by David Chong and Mark Cohen. If you want more great information that will help you win a few hot dates and be successful while you’re out on the town with your dates, be sure to grab a copy.
Official Strategy Guide available from Aspyr
Puppy Love
With the new daily and lifetime Relationship scores, there are now two kinds of love. A romantic interaction that happens as a result of a daily Relationship score that is over 70 inspires a crush. If the two Sims concerned also have a lifetime relationship above 70, a romantic interaction inspires love, instead. A crush is signified by a pink heart, while the red heart is saved for true love.
Been There, Done That
In The Sims 1.0, you could build friendships with a simple formula of repetitive interactions. Now, Sims pay attention to what you’ve been doing and no longer accept repetitive cycles. In every 80-minute time period, a Sim responds fully to a given interaction only once. The second time it is initiated, the Sim is indifferent, and the changes in the Relationship score are halved. If you attempt to use the same interaction a third time in any 80-minute period, the subject Sim rejects the interaction, resulting in a hit to your Relationship scores. Note that some interactions will be tolerated a total of three times instead of only twice, but it’s better to avoid repetition altogether.
A new thought bubble icon represents a Sim’s annoyance with repetition. You see two heads facing away from each other flashing red and black pop up over a Sim that is getting bored with a one-trick pony show. If your interactions lead to the display of the three strikes icon, change tactics and go for another form of interaction. It’s more important to avoid this situation, however, because the icon means damage to the relationship has already been done.
The Hot Date
Getting a Sim ready to be his or her best on a date requires thoughtful planning. There’s much more to a successful date than simply putting bodies in close proximity. Mood plays a heavy role in the duration of the date and the success of each interaction. Because a date’s success is entirely based upon the ambiguous sum of the interactions you have with your partner over its course, a slew of bad interactions results in a bad date.
If you get downtown only to find you’ve got no Energy, you’re out of luck. Your Sim tires quickly, and without any way of recovering Energy downtown, you’re forced to head home. The same goes for any other Motive score — try to leave the house with maximum values, so that you can concentrate on your date instead of satisfying low Motives.
The best way to go downtown is to take a day off work, and go in the morning. Have your Sim wake up, go to the bathroom, shower or bathe, then head right out. Go to bed the previous evening with a good Fun Motive by playing just before bed. After this morning routine, your Sim should be well rested, comfortable from a long night’s sleep, clean, and hungry.
Your Date
There are three basic ways to get a date:
- Ask a housemate or visitor
- Call a friend or acquaintance
- Randomly meet someone downtown
Each method has the same requirements for acceptance of the suggestion, but you’ll have the most success with the first two choices. This is because your Sims have stronger relationships with the Sims they live with, while you’re likely to have a zero Relationship score with someone you meet downtown.
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 
 Full version of The Sims required to play
Mac OS X version 10.1 or Mac OS 9.1 or higher
300MHz PowerPC G3 processor or higher
128 MB of Memory
ATI Rage Pro, NVIDIA GeForce 2 (with at least 4MB of video memory)
600 MB of hard disk space
4x CD-ROM drive
|
|
|
|
