"The Sims Vacation" is the fourth expansion pack for "The Sims." The theme this time is vacations and letting your Sims enjoy themselves. An island that the Sims can escape to is added to the game (similar to "Hot Date's" downtown). If you ever wanted to take your Sim family (kids included) on vacation, you'll love "Sim Vacation."

Gameplay
To go on vacation call a cab and choose the vacation option. A car will arrive and whisk your family away from the daily stresses of life. You'll have your choice of nine lots, each with it's own theme - forest, winter, tropical. They can go camping in igloos in snowy areas, or stay at a hotel in a warm climate. Renting tents to go camping in the woods or on the beach.

While on the island you'll discover there is plenty to do. You can play volleyball, hunt for treasure, go swimming, have snowball fights, play carnival games, build snowman and sand castles, and go fishing, to name a few. Each area has something special to offer.

An important part of the expansion pack is the new interactions for kids. Before there wasn't much the adults could do with the kids. But now with the new interactions my Sim families actually feel and act like families. Adults can scold kids and hug them. They can even rough house with them. My favorite new interaction is the adults and kids making a snowman together. An adult will pick up a kid so they can put the face on. The completion of the snowman is a moment of warm fuzzies for all the Sims, and even me.

You'll be happy to hear that you can save the game while you are on vacation. So you can play your Sims while they are on vacation for more then one gaming session. After saving and exiting the game while they are on vacation, there will be a little vacation icon with the house info. Simply click on the family's home that is on vacation, and it takes you to the vacation lot they are on.

When your Sim family is the only family that will stay at the hotel. Other tourists will leave once its time to go to sleep. So you'll have the whole hotel to yourself, and don't have to worry about staying in a particular room. While your Sims are sleeping the janitors are busy cleaning up the lot.

Like to win cool prizes? Sims will be able to play carnival games and win tickets that they can collect to use to buy souveniors. After winning a good amount of tickets, Sims will be able to pick something out from a booth that has many prizes. Buy your sims a souvenir cabinet to keep their prizes, so they can remember the good times they had.

Graphics
Same great graphics, with the usual problems of some objects bleeding through walls. The quality and style of the new objects is better then the previous expansion packs.

Sound
The game still has the same style of sound. It does add some new sounds to go along with the new interactions and objects. I could have sworn I heard one the kids telling his dad he was too slow when they were rough housing. There were other moments when I was pretty sure I heard them say some English words. Either they added some new sounds, or I have been playing too much.

Conclusion
After a smooth installation, minimal added minutes to load time, no crashes, and many hours of playing, I highly recommend this expansion pack. The new kid interactions make the game worth buying. I never really cared for playing the game with Sim kids. After all, there wasn't much they could do. But now, Sims can finally act like a family, and show love for each other. But the game is still great for couples without kids. It did wonders for Bob and Betty Newbie's relationship. If you are a fan, don't hesitate about buying this one.

System Requirements
I know many of you are concerned about whether your computer will be able to handle another expansion pack. How your computer runs the game depends on a few different factors - how many downloads you have added, RAM, hard drive space, and processor speed. If you find "Vacation" does slow down the game you may want to uninstall one of the other expansion packs, or delete downloads you no longer use. If you have the minimum amount of RAM you should consider buying more. The game was tested on Windows XP. I had no problems with running the game. It installed smoothly, and added a few minutes to the game's load time.