My review of Sims 2: Free Time can be found on the new and improved Games Radar. It’s a decent expansion – nothing like the joy of Pets or openness of University. And most of the stuff it adds is covered in one way or another by other expansions; do we really need a hobby mechanic for “gaming” when it’s a reliable source of fun for most Sims in any case?
This will likely be the final expansion in the Sims 2 series. Stay tuned for news on Sims 3 once the Games for Windows exclusive hits newsstands. From the little I’ve heard, this one sounds like a real game changer.
If that’s the last Sims 2 expansion, I’ll be shocked. Shocked!
My understanding is that the only reason EA stopped making Sims 1 expansions was that because of the way the game was created, testing each subsequent expansion became an excercise in exponential math (testing the first required the original game + expansion, the second required the original game + expansion 1 + expansion 2, OG + X2, the third required OG + X1 + X2 + X3, OG + X3, OG + X1 + X3, OG + X2 + X3, etc). The Sims 2 was intentionally designed to get around this problem, so they shouldn’t have to stop releasing them…ever.