Post by Skyline on Sept 6, 2007 18:14:42 GMT -5
Well as I promised, here's my review for the Bon Voyage Expansion Pack:
After playing Bon Voyage for a while I think I have a pretty good Idea of what the game does well and other things the game doesn't do so well.
We'll start with the Vacation System itself. Right off the bat when you install Bon Voyage and boot it up it will create "Exotic Destinations" ( takes 3-5 minutes depending on your computer speed) Then it will boot you into your neighborhood (for this review I used Pleasantview) Then you'll be asked how many of the Vacation Neighborhoods you want to apply to your neighborhood (Mountains, Beach, Far East) I selected all 3 and it took maybe about 10 minutes to create all 3. Once that was done i again launched into Pleasantview and Created a Family (you can also use the new Travelers Family) Once you move into your house it's fairly simple to get off on your vacation. Simply use the Phone and select "Book Vacation" Choose your location, Note: You can only choose ONE location for each vacation you make, in order to get all 3 you need to take 3 separate vacations. As for the days, I would not suggest really more than 4-5 days, as when you're just starting out there's not a whole lot of lots to start out with in each. Airfare is expensive so prepare for the §500 Per Person price-tag on your airline tickets. Once your on the plane you go through a couple more loading screens and then arrive at your destination (choose one of the following)
The Mountains
The town of Three Lakes is where EA/Maxis spent most of their time, it's fairly obvious. The hotels are pretty nice, I like the cabins MySelf. Once you check in, you can basically do whatever, the Tours are always a good idea but they can be fairly risky. For instance one time my Sims brought §500 back from a Tour, another time however they were chased by bees for about an hour sim time (LOL) Their needs dropped harshly, however. There is a chance you may discover a map on your tour, leading to a New Location. If you don't want to take a tour head on down to one of the community lots (walking is a new option and works very well) At the Community lots you may discover saunas, log rolling, Giant Tree Stumps, and maybe if you're lucky The Mountain Men. Oh and Axe Throwing. Most of these work well, some are funny to watch, others not so much (Seeing your sim get rolled off a log is pretty funny LOL) All these things you do them well enough will be added to your Vacation Achievements Panel In your Inventory Section. Another thing you may find in the Community Lots are Pick-Pockets. My Sim got Pick-Pocketed and tried to attack the pick pocket but lost, so she lost §100. It ss however a funny addition to my trip to Three Lakes. There are three types of lodging at Three Lakes, Tents, Cabins, and Hotels, I personally suggest the Cabins, the Camp Grounds don't have many facilities, and the Hotels are really expensive. With that we move on to our next destination...
The Beach
The Beach, the place to have some fun in the sun right? In Bon Voyage the Beach was what I was looking forward to, however I was disappointed, the Hotels, and Community Lots didn't have much to them. The "Swim in the ocean" option was also not very deep (as in you can't do anything but swim) Being able to swim in the ocean is cool and all but if you really can't do anything in it whats the point? Sandcastles are rather pointless as they take time and really don't do a whole lot, and if you don't do it well enough you don't get the achievement for it. Now for the Ruins. Basically they're decorative items, I mean they don't really do much, you can't exactly climb them (unless they're stairs) You really don't do much there, in my opinion they are kinda pointless. Now the Pirate ship is probably one of the best OBJECTS in the game, that's right, you can actually buy your own pirate ship! Cool, huh? The Pirate ship has oh maybe 8 or so interactions - multiple Sims can use it at once, some of these interactions include: "Raise The Jolly Roger" "Use Cut-laces" "Steer The Ship" etc. It's a fairly cool item to have in the game, but I must warn you, it is.... Huge. With the beach leg of our vacation behind us let's travel to.....
The Far East
The Far East was the part of Bon Voyage I was most looking forward too. Some parts are well done, some parts seem to be missing. First off, I'll start with the architecture, fantastic simply fantastic. If you have the seasons Expansion Installed you'll notice some pretty sweet detail when rain rolls off the Far East Roof. It's pretty cool! The way the Hotels and everything are built is also very well done. Another thing about the far east that is well done is the clothes. The clothes look like they're imported from the far east. The robes look truly amazing. Now for the bad about the Far East, There's not a whole lot to do outside your hotel. Especially if you get one of those bigger nice hotels it will most of the time include the Zen Garden so you don't have to worry about going anywhere to find it. There's really only a few things to get achievement wise, the Massages, the Coin Toss, and Find the Ninja, granted I never did find the ninja so he might be a challenge to find, to go with that i never found Bigfoot or mountain men either. Anyways the Far East is good, and definitely has that far easty feel but there's just not a whole lot to do there for 7 days. Now that we've done our Vacation lets go over some other things in Bon Voyage.....
Local Customs and Food
This is one aspect of Bon Voyage that I love. Unique foods for each area of the pack is a great idea. There will be 3 different foods in each area at Special Bar like Outdoor Places to Eat, basically an Outdoor Bar that serves food. Once you get the recipes for each area you can take them home and make them for yourself! Some of the Dishes include: Flapjacks, Pineapple surprise, Ramen (Gourmet), Ribs, and theres a few more coming to a total of 9 new Foods. The local gestures and greetings are also great but can be very hard to find. In my travels I wasn't able to learn any of the new dances, however I did learn ''Hang Loose'' from one of the Hula Guys i found on my trip to the Ruins. It's pretty funny seeing your sims try to imitate the pros at Greetings and such. With that out of the way, we move on to the Achievements Panel....
Achievements
One of my favorite parts on Bon Voyage, in my opinion they should add a new one of these with all Expansion Packs. The Achievement Panel, located in your sim's inventory, It basically sets up goals for you to do over your vacation. The more Achievements you unlock, the more rewards you get when you get home. There is also a ranking system that really adds a bit of competition to the game, you can always brag about what rank your sims are to someone else It really does add a lot of depth and challenge to Bon Voyage.
Music
The music for Bon Voyage is simply amazing. 3 new radio channels (reggae, Surf, and World) The surf is my personal favorite of the 3, it adds some pretty cool guitar Surf songs, meant for the Beach. Of course there's no surfing in the game . The new Neighborhood theme (what was in the trailer video) is also really well done, with the three themes to it (Far East, Beach, Mountains). Overall the music in Bon Voyage is simply fantastic.
Final Thoughts
Bon Voyage adds a ton of "Out of Home" gameplay, but adds pretty much nothing for your sims to do at home. The Mountains is a definite plus, as it is very well done and clearly the main focus of the pack. Where the Mountains is great and surprising, the Beach and Far East are disappointing. Not a whole lot to do in either one. The tours are always a plus as are the Achievements Panel as they both add depth, chance, and challenge to the game (wondering if they will put the achievements on the website) Overall Bon Voyage is good, but I think it probably could have added more.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gameplay: Bon Voyage adds a lot of nice Out of Home things but not a whole much Back at Home. Achievements and Tours are well done. 7.0
Graphics: Standard Sims 2 Graphics, some of the animations are nice though such as the Pickpocket action and the Hang Loose action. 8.0
Sound: Fantastic music along with really good sound effects 9.5
Presentation: Not a whole lot different than normal Sims 2 But loading Times are a real downside. 6.5
Lasting Appeal: You can play Bon Voyage a lot more than you would think because of the Achievements Panel mainly. 8.5
Overall: [glow=red,2,300]7.5 [/glow]/10 (Not an Average)
Thanks for Reading ;D,
Skyline7284
After playing Bon Voyage for a while I think I have a pretty good Idea of what the game does well and other things the game doesn't do so well.
We'll start with the Vacation System itself. Right off the bat when you install Bon Voyage and boot it up it will create "Exotic Destinations" ( takes 3-5 minutes depending on your computer speed) Then it will boot you into your neighborhood (for this review I used Pleasantview) Then you'll be asked how many of the Vacation Neighborhoods you want to apply to your neighborhood (Mountains, Beach, Far East) I selected all 3 and it took maybe about 10 minutes to create all 3. Once that was done i again launched into Pleasantview and Created a Family (you can also use the new Travelers Family) Once you move into your house it's fairly simple to get off on your vacation. Simply use the Phone and select "Book Vacation" Choose your location, Note: You can only choose ONE location for each vacation you make, in order to get all 3 you need to take 3 separate vacations. As for the days, I would not suggest really more than 4-5 days, as when you're just starting out there's not a whole lot of lots to start out with in each. Airfare is expensive so prepare for the §500 Per Person price-tag on your airline tickets. Once your on the plane you go through a couple more loading screens and then arrive at your destination (choose one of the following)
The Mountains
The town of Three Lakes is where EA/Maxis spent most of their time, it's fairly obvious. The hotels are pretty nice, I like the cabins MySelf. Once you check in, you can basically do whatever, the Tours are always a good idea but they can be fairly risky. For instance one time my Sims brought §500 back from a Tour, another time however they were chased by bees for about an hour sim time (LOL) Their needs dropped harshly, however. There is a chance you may discover a map on your tour, leading to a New Location. If you don't want to take a tour head on down to one of the community lots (walking is a new option and works very well) At the Community lots you may discover saunas, log rolling, Giant Tree Stumps, and maybe if you're lucky The Mountain Men. Oh and Axe Throwing. Most of these work well, some are funny to watch, others not so much (Seeing your sim get rolled off a log is pretty funny LOL) All these things you do them well enough will be added to your Vacation Achievements Panel In your Inventory Section. Another thing you may find in the Community Lots are Pick-Pockets. My Sim got Pick-Pocketed and tried to attack the pick pocket but lost, so she lost §100. It ss however a funny addition to my trip to Three Lakes. There are three types of lodging at Three Lakes, Tents, Cabins, and Hotels, I personally suggest the Cabins, the Camp Grounds don't have many facilities, and the Hotels are really expensive. With that we move on to our next destination...
The Beach
The Beach, the place to have some fun in the sun right? In Bon Voyage the Beach was what I was looking forward to, however I was disappointed, the Hotels, and Community Lots didn't have much to them. The "Swim in the ocean" option was also not very deep (as in you can't do anything but swim) Being able to swim in the ocean is cool and all but if you really can't do anything in it whats the point? Sandcastles are rather pointless as they take time and really don't do a whole lot, and if you don't do it well enough you don't get the achievement for it. Now for the Ruins. Basically they're decorative items, I mean they don't really do much, you can't exactly climb them (unless they're stairs) You really don't do much there, in my opinion they are kinda pointless. Now the Pirate ship is probably one of the best OBJECTS in the game, that's right, you can actually buy your own pirate ship! Cool, huh? The Pirate ship has oh maybe 8 or so interactions - multiple Sims can use it at once, some of these interactions include: "Raise The Jolly Roger" "Use Cut-laces" "Steer The Ship" etc. It's a fairly cool item to have in the game, but I must warn you, it is.... Huge. With the beach leg of our vacation behind us let's travel to.....
The Far East
The Far East was the part of Bon Voyage I was most looking forward too. Some parts are well done, some parts seem to be missing. First off, I'll start with the architecture, fantastic simply fantastic. If you have the seasons Expansion Installed you'll notice some pretty sweet detail when rain rolls off the Far East Roof. It's pretty cool! The way the Hotels and everything are built is also very well done. Another thing about the far east that is well done is the clothes. The clothes look like they're imported from the far east. The robes look truly amazing. Now for the bad about the Far East, There's not a whole lot to do outside your hotel. Especially if you get one of those bigger nice hotels it will most of the time include the Zen Garden so you don't have to worry about going anywhere to find it. There's really only a few things to get achievement wise, the Massages, the Coin Toss, and Find the Ninja, granted I never did find the ninja so he might be a challenge to find, to go with that i never found Bigfoot or mountain men either. Anyways the Far East is good, and definitely has that far easty feel but there's just not a whole lot to do there for 7 days. Now that we've done our Vacation lets go over some other things in Bon Voyage.....
Local Customs and Food
This is one aspect of Bon Voyage that I love. Unique foods for each area of the pack is a great idea. There will be 3 different foods in each area at Special Bar like Outdoor Places to Eat, basically an Outdoor Bar that serves food. Once you get the recipes for each area you can take them home and make them for yourself! Some of the Dishes include: Flapjacks, Pineapple surprise, Ramen (Gourmet), Ribs, and theres a few more coming to a total of 9 new Foods. The local gestures and greetings are also great but can be very hard to find. In my travels I wasn't able to learn any of the new dances, however I did learn ''Hang Loose'' from one of the Hula Guys i found on my trip to the Ruins. It's pretty funny seeing your sims try to imitate the pros at Greetings and such. With that out of the way, we move on to the Achievements Panel....
Achievements
One of my favorite parts on Bon Voyage, in my opinion they should add a new one of these with all Expansion Packs. The Achievement Panel, located in your sim's inventory, It basically sets up goals for you to do over your vacation. The more Achievements you unlock, the more rewards you get when you get home. There is also a ranking system that really adds a bit of competition to the game, you can always brag about what rank your sims are to someone else It really does add a lot of depth and challenge to Bon Voyage.
Music
The music for Bon Voyage is simply amazing. 3 new radio channels (reggae, Surf, and World) The surf is my personal favorite of the 3, it adds some pretty cool guitar Surf songs, meant for the Beach. Of course there's no surfing in the game . The new Neighborhood theme (what was in the trailer video) is also really well done, with the three themes to it (Far East, Beach, Mountains). Overall the music in Bon Voyage is simply fantastic.
Final Thoughts
Bon Voyage adds a ton of "Out of Home" gameplay, but adds pretty much nothing for your sims to do at home. The Mountains is a definite plus, as it is very well done and clearly the main focus of the pack. Where the Mountains is great and surprising, the Beach and Far East are disappointing. Not a whole lot to do in either one. The tours are always a plus as are the Achievements Panel as they both add depth, chance, and challenge to the game (wondering if they will put the achievements on the website) Overall Bon Voyage is good, but I think it probably could have added more.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gameplay: Bon Voyage adds a lot of nice Out of Home things but not a whole much Back at Home. Achievements and Tours are well done. 7.0
Graphics: Standard Sims 2 Graphics, some of the animations are nice though such as the Pickpocket action and the Hang Loose action. 8.0
Sound: Fantastic music along with really good sound effects 9.5
Presentation: Not a whole lot different than normal Sims 2 But loading Times are a real downside. 6.5
Lasting Appeal: You can play Bon Voyage a lot more than you would think because of the Achievements Panel mainly. 8.5
Overall: [glow=red,2,300]7.5 [/glow]/10 (Not an Average)
Thanks for Reading ;D,
Skyline7284