Whenever I get a new Sims 2 expansion, I immediately create a new Sim so I can see the new outfits and options. There were a few nice new looks to enjoy, but the biggest change to the character creation process is the selection of turn-ons and turn-offs. You choose both from the same set of options, so perfume can be a plus or a minus. There’s also a new Pleasure Seeker Aspiration, devoted to having a good time and enjoying life.

After my new Sim was ready, I moved on to the neighborhood, where I had to associate a Downtown zone. I was surprised to see that the previous commercial area is a separate zone from Downtown. A standard Downtown zone is included and can be associated with any neighborhood. For advanced builders, a blank Downtown can be created and all of the clubs and restaurants built from the ground up. If you’re not that creative, you can always download lots from thesims2.ea.com or one of the many fansites out there and create your Downtown zone that way.

With so many new destinations to visit, I am very glad they have finally introduced cars into the Sim universe. You can pick anything from a Gremlin look-alike to a sports car. Your house has to have a driveway or garage in order to keep a car. New pre-built lots come with driveways and garages, or you can place one from the Build menu.

The cars are great, but my Sims still seemed to spend a lot of time in taxis. When invited downtown on a date or group outing, I didn’t get an option to take my car instead. If you do manage to take your car downtown, its much faster getting home, when all you have to do is walk out to the car rather than phoning a taxi.

We’ve come a long way from the early Sims days, when you had to spend most of your time having friends over just to keep your Sim from going into that social death spiral. In general, it is now much easier to meet people and make new friends, and not only when you’re hanging out downtown. Friends of friends sometimes call up and invite you out to go bowling or dancing. You usually start out ahead with these people and they can become friends quickly. Watch your behavior, though, because if you flirt with the wrong person you might become the enemy of the whole group.

Sims can date now, too. First, you can “check out” your future date and see if there’s any chemistry before you decide if you want to go out with him or her. Chemistry is based on the turn-ons you picked for your Sim. Whether you are asked out or do the asking, a date meter kicks off in the upper right corner of the screen. If your date goes well, your rating goes up and the date gets extended. Plus, you may receive a token of your new friend’s affection the next day. If you fail to impress your paramour, the date ends pretty quickly and he or she will suggest that maybe you shouldn’t ask them out again.

As cool as the date meter is, I didn’t really see the point. When I was trying to gain a new friend or crush for my Sim, inviting them over in the normal way was just as effective and there wasn’t any time limit. Also, I had a really hard time keeping my Sims on task when they were on a date downtown. They seemed just as likely to join a stranger for poker as to pay attention to their date. Even when they did pay attention, it’s hard to have a successful date. Flirting can help, as well as asking questions. You can even discover their turn-ons and turn-offs, if they like you enough. Still, the only Dream Date I had was one that ended in WooHoo! At least he was gentleman enough to send me roses the following day.

Group outings, like the one I mentioned above, work the same way as a date. A casual outing meter, just like the date meter, appears when your group gets together. You can form groups that make it easy to round up the gang when it’s time to go bowling…just give the group a call and get going. While the meter aspect is still lost on me, gathering a specific group of people does make sense to me, since you can keep your relationship ratings “topped up” all at once.

Of course, any Sims 2 review that I write wouldn’t be complete without pointing out the irritating quirks that drive me crazy. Specifically, my Sim still sometimes goes out of the house in her nightie. It’s mostly when she’s been asked out on a date, and it could explain why she gets so many dates in the first place, but seriously – it wasn’t cute in University and it’s still not cute here.

Also, the first time any of my Sims was invited downtown, the casual outing meter didn’t show up. This meant that the casual outing never ended until the other Sims wandered off. Once, my female Sim went home and went to bed after one of these outings, and the guy Sim who was with her came into her bedroom every 10 minutes, stood by the bed, then left again. Stalker, anyone?

In terms of performance, The Sims 2 Nightlife won’t require you to upgrade your computer or anything. However, load times are getting longer on my middle-of-the-pack Windows XP machine. Once loaded, the game performs well. Graphically, there’s no change from the previous expansions.

Overall, The Sims 2 Nightlife is a worthy addition to the Sims 2 universe. It’s packed with a bunch of great new features. Most of them, like dating and group outings, will appeal more to players who enjoy the social aspects of the game. For those who don’t like the social aspect, it’s really easy to keep that Social bar filled, but other new items like cars will be more appealing. The architects among us gain some new tools for building the latest downtown mecca. I do wish they would fix some of those nagging bugs that I’m always pointing out in these reviews, but I’ll live with them if the folks at Maxis keep pumping out new content for the Sims 2 that’s as fun and interesting as this.