About a month and a half ago we bought the rather disappointing stuff pack Fast Lane. And now EA brings us a full expansion pack already. Late Night does make up for the last stuff pack. I wonder if they knew how disappointed sim players would be with the stuff pack, knowing that Late Night would be received a lot better. Not only because the theme of stepping out on the town is more exciting than driving some cars, but because the stuff in the expansion pack is actually better, more entertaining and interesting.

I can’t say much yet, because I only played the game for a few hours, since getting it on Thursday evening. It was timed perfectly for me personally, because I had to study for an exam which I took on Thursday. So there were no sims distracting me from studying. Or that was the idea. Unfortunately I got the idea on Tuesday to patch my game. It ended in tragedy, making Five sacrifice his evening and Wednesday evening to fix my game. Suffice it to say, patching is not as effortless as the game wants you to think. So even though I had no new game to play, I worried about my saved sims, games and houses. Thanks to Five all was rescued, so I could play Late Night on Thursday after my exam.

I started with a simple sim, created in CAS (Create a Sim). With the latest patch, any sim player can now decide on both muscle definition and breast size, even if they don’t have Late Night. We had a lot of fun sliding those breast sliders back and forth. The breasts look odd at maximum on a thin body with muscles on full. Seriously disturbing. But create a fuller sim with larger breasts and it all looks okay. There are no moob-sliders though, to add man-boobs to guys. New hair, new clothes and even new beards for guys give a slightly retro-look to the sims. There was a 1980′s vibe going on there.

The sim was moved into an apartment after being created and I set out to get her to meet celebrities. She went to loads of clubs and bars, and got to her second star-rating quite quickly. Living in an apartment is fun, if limited. You can interact with your neighbours, but you can’t see into their homes. The sims help section did mention you could get invited into other apartments though. The bars and clubs look nice, if a bit American. It will be a challenge to create some regular Amsterdam bars for my sims. Bridgeport is the new town that ships with this expansion pack, and it does look very city-like. Again, creating Amsterdam will be easier now that I can make building sites that never get done building. Plus metros!

Finally there are two things that really make Late Night interesting: new dance moves and vampires. The vampires of The Sims 2 were more comical than scary, and The Sims 3 vampires aren’t that scary either. But they do give me the opportunity to create the vampire Angel, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer more accurately. Vampires look more human, with glowing eyes, and they have special abilities such as super-speed. I have not played a vampire-sim yet, but I am looking forward to that.

All in all, again a worthwhile expansion. Though waiting for it to go down in price is an option, as it costs about as much as a regular game should. Don’t buy it for the registration rewards, as they are absolutely sucky.