So far, this "game pack" seems to be put together very well. A few notes that people may find of interest before buying:
1. If you're used to spending $20 on a stuff pack, you will find this to be a great value. If you are used to buying expansion packs, you may find the added content a bit thin, but I think it's worth the money. If anything, this game pack reminds me more of a neighborhood purchase in the Sims 3, but with slightly more robust premium content.
2. Go hiking if you want to explore the area. The trees are too thick to explore with the camera, and you can passively follow your sim to see what's out there, where wild plants might be, etc.
3. During a 2-day vacation, my sim was able to complete the first stage of the new aspiration (10 wild plants, 5 fish) without any skill in fishing, gardening or herbalism to start. And he had plenty of time to do other things.
4. I'm a story simmer, not a power simmer, so I find myself getting bored after a few weeks and starting a new game on a regular basis. I think there is enough content to give my families much richer lives and keep my interest longer.
5. Here's how manage worlds works with Granite Falls. Time runs in both Granite Falls and the home worlds at the same time. You may freely switch between families you have sent on vacation and families back home. You may split up families, and send only some of them on vacation, and freely switch between them and those household members who stayed home. However, the game will also populate granite falls with some other vacation groups. You may not take control of them, even if they are not homeless. You may, however, force them to end their vacation early. One aspect of this I have not tested is whether or not you may switch control to a household that you have previously played, but who have gone on vacation autonomously. Obviously, it will take a little luck for that situation to arise. Addendum: I noticed Mortimer Goth autonomously went on vacation by himself, so I selected Bella to play, and Mortimer came home from his vacation when the household loaded up.
6. You may also invite other sims you know who live in different households with you. I have not done this yet, but a lot of comments out there seem to suggest those other sims will wander off if you do not invite them to spend the night at your vacation lot.
Overall, I like this new game pack idea. I suspect they will end up releasing a lot of them, which will allow us to pick and choose which aspects to add to our games without committing to full-blown expansion packs that may only appeal to us partially. The way this game pack is set up would easily lend itself to other "traveling" packs, such as a University pack. I'm curious what they will do with global additions, however, such as a Seasons expansion - will it be a free addition like pools and ghosts, or a game pack, or even a full-sized expansion? Should be interesting to see how they deal with this in the future.
goat
