The Sims 3: Seasons is the eighth expansion pack for The Sims 3. After initial rumors, EA confirmed the existence of the pack through an online posting on their website on August 1, 2012, followed by a Summer Showcase on August 2, 2012, which officially confirmed the pack and released the first official trailer for it.[1]Seasons was released on November 13, 2012 in North America and on November 16, 2012 in Europe.
Let your Sims swim in the ocean on a hot summer day, bob for apples in the autumn leaves, test their snowboarding skill on the half pipe, or welcome spring showers with a walk in the rain and a colorful umbrella. All-new activities, like soccer, big seasonal festivals, and celebrations, bring the spirit of each season to life. Your Sims can pucker up at the kissing booth at the spring festival, or see what Halloween surprises await in the haunted house. Dress for the weather with seasonal fashions from sun dresses to raincoats to snow gear. With new foods, décor, and weather effects, your Sims can enjoy the bounty and beauty of the ever-changing seasons and play with life like never before!
Delight your Sims with new activities for every season: Whether building an intimate igloo, carving a scary Jack o’ lantern, taking a plunge off the diving board, or setting off all-new fireworks, your Sim can always find new things to do throughout the year.
Join the fun with seasonal festivals: Sims can get in a snowball fight at the annual winter festival, get their faces painted at the summer festival, whoop it up at the spring dance, or bob for apples during the fall festival.
Experience the joys and challenges of changing weather: New weather effects and Sim reactions capture the power and beauty of nature! Sims can get a tan, be struck by lightning, or catch a cold!
Bring the outdoors inside: Your Sim can now learn the recipe for pumpkin pie, or style their home with new furniture and décor. There are a host of new items to ring in each season. Get a tanning booth in time for summer or bring in the holiday spirit with house lights and decorations.
Dress for the weather: Outfit your Sim in new styles for the season, including snow gear, wetsuits, raincoats, umbrellas, and new Halloween costumes!
Welcome mysterious visitors: New weather patterns aren't the only things appearing in the sky! Befriend an alien visitor and use their UFO to abduct a neighbor, invade a community lot or travel to the stars.
Relax in style in the Limited Edition Ice Lounge: Let your Sims entertain in style with the elegant ice bar, bar stool and pub table. Items like the ice dining chair, dining table, coffee table, sofa and loveseat can add distinctive style to any room in your Sims’ home. The ice lounge also includes architectural elements to add a subtle touch of style to your Sims’ buildings.
Holidays: You can celebrate spooky day in the fall, leisure day in the summer, love day in the spring, and snowflake day in the winter.
Your Sims can even brave the icy waters during winter in search of the Polar Bear Club moodlet.
The ocean will freeze over when the temperature drops low enough in the winter, preventing Sims swimming.
Sims will be able to swim in a body of water even if it has unroutable paint laid down beneath the water. There’s a different paint type that can be used around the edges of the world to block the camera from going too far so that they won’t be able to swim beyond that point.
As long as the ocean, river or lake is not on a residential or community lot, has a gradual slope into the water, and your Sims can walk to the coast, then they can dive right in![4]
Sims can gain their Athletic skill but lose energy, may cause fatigue.[3]
Sims cannot drown when swimming in the ocean. (Technically, this is due to gravestones' inability to be spawned outside of lots.)[3]
Diving boards are added in the game, which allows Sims to dive into swimming pools.
Sims can enter the pool by either making a big splash or diving in gracefully. dive. - stunt moves
Sims can try to drench other Sims when diving into the pool.
The larger the Sim, the bigger the splash the Sim will make in the pool.
Snowboarding
Sims can snowboard on half pipes.
Sims can snowboard throughout the year as artificial snow will be on the half-pipes when snow isn't on the ground.
Description: Your Sims can head to the winter festival or plop down the snowboard half-pipe in their very own backyards to start learning how to snowboard! Practice makes perfect; the more time your Sims spend on the half-pipe, the better they will get, and the more EPIC the tricks they’ll be able to do!
Illness
Sims' health can be affected. Examples are:
Sims can get sunburned when staying out in the sun for too long
They can get struck by lightning during a storm
They can catch a cold or even the flu
They can freeze, but other Sims can warm them up
Sims can get seasonal allergies, but they can get vaccinated. They can also get a flu shot which is a cure for the flu.[3]
Children and teens will not automatically get the day off when sick, however, their grades won't suffer if they choose to stay home that day.
Sims who work now get the option to call in sick or fake it.
Weather and Seasons Control Options
Seasons and weather are completely controllable via a brand new panel in the options menu.
Seasons are a week long (7 days) each by default. The length can be changed from 3 days per season to 28 days per season.[6] There is an option to set a season permanently in a save file.[7]
Seasons and weather options are not controlled per-world. They are controlled per-save file.
There are five weather types. Weather will be available and work the same way with store and custom worlds.
Rain
Varying degrees of rain (light rain, regular, lightning storm).
Sims can splash in puddles for a little fun, which can help put out fires in their town or water their plants.
Sims are able to jump on water puddles created by the rain.
"It can actually rain at any time of the year. However, the frequency will be different for each season. If the temperature is above freezing during winter you will see rain then, too."[6]
"It'll rain more in the Spring, but it'll still rain in the Summer occasionally."[8]
You might hear thunder and see lightning when storms are really bad.
SimBots[TS3:A] can interact with rain.[6] They better be careful before stepping out in adverse weather conditions.
When raining, Sims who are floating on inflatables in the ocean will get to shore and pull up their umbrellas.[3]
Sunny
Hail
Snow
Snow storms
Small pets get buried in deep snow
"There's a really snazzy x-ray type effect that lets you see things that are buried underneath the deep snow."
Treehouses[TS3:G] are different from other trees. Treehouses are objects, so while they do not lose their leaves, they will get blanketed in snow.
Temperature will control how easily snow will accumulate on the ground or trees, or how quickly things like puddles will evaporate.
The temperature can range from -17°C (0°F) to endless °C (°F)[confirmation needed]
The sky is a good indicator of what type of weather will next take place; for example, clouds will get darker, which means the storm is approaching.[6]
A Sim can check the weather by View Weather interaction at most windows and via newspaper, computer, or TV.[3]
Season symbol showing what season is it. Can also check days till next season there.
Temperature (can be set into Celsius or Fahrenheit)
Gardening can be affected by the weather.
"Rain will actually water your plants but you will still have to remove weeds from them. If the world gets too cold they will frost over and go into hibernation. When plants go into hibernation, they will be immune to dying."[2]
When water freezes at cold temperature, fishing is not available. Fish in the pond will disappear until the ice breaks.[3]
Seasons
Seasons are a week long by default.
Spring
During Spring, Love Day occurs, a holiday based on Valentine's Day.
There are occasional drizzles, fogs, heavy showers and lightnings expected during Spring.
"The trees will start to re-grow their leaves, and you’ll see our new collectable wildflowers sprouting throughout the town."
If your Sim is out in the heat for too long, they’ll start to sweat and may even spontaneously combust![4]
Wearing swimwear, holding a parasol, eating an ice cream or just heading indoors are some of the ways you can keep your Sim from overheating.[4]
During the summer, the grocery store will be holding a firecracker sale, so be sure to stock up for the rest of the year.[4]
Ways to cool off during the summer heat: swim in the ocean or a pool, wear swimwear, hold a parasol when walking, eat ice cream, be indoors or be Immune To Heat[3]
Fall
During Fall, Spooky Day occurs, a holiday based on Halloween.
The leaves of deciduous trees change color into red, orange or yellow. As winter approach, these leaves will fall from the trees. These leaves may make a leaf pile.[11]
Temperatures drop during the last days of Fall. Sims will wear an outer gear outfit.[7]
Sims can rake the fallen leaves to make a pile. They can also play or jump on the pile or even woohoo in it, but that may cause dismay to the Sim who raked it into a pile.[7]
Winter
During Winter, Snowflake Day occurs, a holiday based around Christmas.
There are snow storms.
Snow ball fights (water balloon fights are still available)
Sims can build igloos and snowmen.
Sims can be frozen solid.
"Sims who decide to take a dip during a particularly cold day may receive the Polar Bear Club moodlet, giving them a temporary immunity to the cold."
Daylight is shorter in winter.
Winter will still drop to below freezing temperatures, even if it doesn't actually snow.
Disabling snow will not affect the temperature of the world.
The ocean will freeze over when the temperature drops low enough in Winter.
Water inside fountains, the sea, and pools cannot freeze.[12]
Seasonal Festivals
Festivals can work in Custom and Store worlds.
Each festival, unique to the season, will transform the Sim's world completely with new objects and decorations throughout the year.
Each festival has fun-filled activities for Sims, such as competitions.
Each festival has a greeting card booth where Sims can take pictures with their family or friends.
Sims gather for the festivities for seasonal activities, food, decorations, objects, and costumes. Examples of such activities during these festivals are:
Eating contests
Carving pumpkins
Ice skating
Painting faces
Watching fireworks
Turning off the weather options does not affect the festivals.
If the player disables a season, it will skip over that version of the festival.
Festival tickets
Sims will get them if they participate in any festival activity
They can be redeemed for items at the concession stands.
The holidays are Love Day, Spooky Day, Snowflake Day, and Leisure Day.
All holidays take place on the last Thursday of every season. If there is no Thursday nearby, then they will take place on the last day of the season.
Sims around the neighborhood celebrate these holidays with a party.
These holidays "are more hyped" than other normal festival days.[2]
They cannot be disabled on the options.
The Chinese, Egyptians, and the French[TS3:WA] observe these holidays even if they are culturally different from the Sims' home world.
During Leisure Day, Sims may not need to work or go to school.[3]
During Snowflake Day, child and teen Sims may not need to go to school.[3]
New Lot Type - Festival Grounds
The Festival Grounds is a lot where all festivals will take place during all four seasons.
When starting a new game save in a town, a festival lot will replace the largest park lot in the town.[13]
There are twelve different Festival Grounds lots from the community lot bin on Edit Town mode.[13]
After installing Seasons and play on an old save game, a player will be asked if they want to replace any large park lot to a festival lot. But they can manually place a festival lot anywhere else.
List of lots where festivals will take place from different towns:[14]
All of the functionality of the lot changing its appearance throughout the world is controlled by a Seasonal Lot Marker object that’s available in the buydebug section at Buy mode.
The Seasonal Lot Marker opens up many possibilities for advanced builders who want their lots to change throughout the year.
The Seasonal Lot marker "will allow you to change what objects appear on a lot in any season; but it does not allow you to update things on lots that are controlled by build mode tools, such as walls or terrain height. You’ll even be able to use the Seasonal Lot Marker to update other community or residential lots to change throughout the year." [citation needed]
To create a festival lot, the lot can change its type to Festival Grounds from Edit Town mode. This will place the marker automatically.[6]
Appropriate looking clothing from base game, expansions, stuff packs, and the store will be updated to be selectable as outerwear to keep your Sims warm.[6]
Custom Content can be used as outerwear if the creator tags it with "outerwear".
Sims will be affected on wearing their outerwear depending on the four seasons.
During Winter, Sims will automatically change into their Outerwear.
The type of clothes Sims are wearing does not affect their suntan pattern. Their skin will get slightly darker when they get a suntan. After it wears out their skin color turns back to the original color.
It is not an online social feature for The Sims 3 community.
A Sim can create their own online dating profile on their computer/laptop and fill in their zodiac sign, traits, favorites and much more. They can also fake them out, but when meeting with their love interest, they may react badly to the Sim.
They can browse through profiles, send and check messages.
They can also send a date request to another Sim. They will get a reply from them after a few days.[17]
Sims will have a natural talent in seasonal activities like snowboarding, ice skating, soccer, snowball/water balloon fights and much more.
Uses 10,000 lifetime happiness points
New skills
Snowboarding
"Your Sims can head to the winter festival or plop down the snowboard half-pipe in their very own backyards to start learning how to snowboard! Practice makes perfect; the more time your Sims spend on the half-pipe, the better they will get, and the more EPIC the tricks they’ll be able to do!"
Soccer
"That’s right--you’ve been asking for it for a while, and now it’s finally here! Your Sim can now compete in an epic shootout against another Sim, practice on their own, or even take part in a tournament! Just place the brand new soccer goals in Buy Mode, and watch any open space turn into a soccer pitch!"
Available to all players without Seasons via Patch 1.42
When in build or buy mode, players can create or edit any lots by easily placing down pre-made room layouts.
They can also modify the details of design, décor, and furnishings after placing the blueprint(s).
They can create blueprints.
New Build/Buy objects
Food booths and new registers
Different food is served during different seasons.
Kissing booth
Sims get paid for working at the kissing booth.
Does not cause jealousy or a naughty reputation.[6]
There are a variety of kisses, depending on the Sims' traits.
Face Painting booth
(Spray) Tan(ning) booth
But even the tanning booth isn't a foolproof way to get an even tan. Results will vary from the successful to the downright hilarious, depending on whether malfunctions or pranking kids are involved.[4]
Hot Dog Eating Contest Booth
Pie Eating Contest Booth
Diving boards
Cannonballs and swan dives (Stunts) are possible.
Inflatable pool rafts/floats
Sims can use them in pools and the ocean.
Umbrellas
"With water-proof umbrellas in hand, Sims can walk, chat and even run outside without getting wet. Not only can you change the color and patterns on the umbrella, you can even upgrade them to glow!"[6]
Sims will automatically use them when it starts raining, or if they walk outside into the rain.[6]
Since most of the firecrackers are too dangerous for kids to handle, we've added another firecracker option that's safe for nearly all ages: sparklers! They come in two types, white and rainbow.
Trees are either deciduous or evergreen; some will change color in the fall and lose their leaves and others will not. The store team will support Seasons content as well, so any trees that they release that should lose leaves will be updated to work properly.
Children and teenagers still have to attend school year-round but they do not need to if a snow storm rolls through town or school is cancelled for Snowflake Day.
There is a Weather Channel, the first channel added in since the base game. Sims can check the forecast at the channel.
This list shows the things that the developers have confirmed as not having been added in Seasons.
Town
Air conditioners/Heaters – Indoor rooms will naturally adjust to comfortable temperatures for Sims to protect them from the heat or cold outside.
New toddler interactions - Toddlers can put on outerwear to stay warm when they go out to play in the snow, but they don’t have specific new interactions with it but can play in the snow or eat it.
Limited Edition - Original Edition with an exclusive lot, the Ice Lounge, and some exclusive objects
The Sims™ 3 Seasons Limited Edition
Relax in Style in the Ice Lounge Pre-order The Sims 3 Seasons Limited Edition and receive the exclusive Ice Lounge community lot. This sleek and elegant social club can be placed in any world from The Sims 3, and is available in all seasons. It is a great place for your Sims to chill on a hot day or get out of the winter wind. The venue includes new ice objects that can be placed on any lot to make your Sims’ lives just a bit cooler.
Build a hangout in your Sims’ home Let your Sims entertain in style with the elegant ice bar, bar stool, and pub table.
Make your Sims’ everyday décor cooler Items like the ice dining chair, dining, table, coffee table, sofa, and loveseat can add distinctive style to any room in your Sims’ home.
Spice up your architecture The ice lounge also includes architectural elements to add a subtle touch of style to your Sims’ buildings. Install the ice column, double door arch, chandelier, or wall sconce light to add some chilly flair.
Origin Exclusive Trick-or-Treat Costume Pack Edition - Limited Edition with two new costumes
Origin Exclusive Trick-or-Treat Costume Pack
Order The Sims 3 Seasons at Origin.com and receive these exclusive costumes - perfect for special occasions or to spice up your Sim's wardrobe year-round!
Shark Costume Your Sim is sure to be the life of the party in this goofy shark suit. Fits male and female Sims aged “child” to “elder”. Your Sim can even swim in it!
Little Bee This adorable children’s costume fits male and female, and is great for trick-or-treating or for those who like to bumble around.
The Sims 3 Plus Seasons - A combined pack which includes the base game and the Original Edition of the pack.
This is the second time that games or expansions packs in two different "generations" of The Sims series have the same title. (The first being The Sims 2: Pets and The Sims 3: Pets.)
Like the Generations expansion, there is no new town included in the pack.
Dr. F from the MySims series is mentioned a few times with his inventions.
After the announcement of this pack, the first live chat showcasing this pack was announced and it was to be shown after the second Supernatural live chat. During the live chat, it showed the aspects of Spring and the festival during the season. A Q&A session was also held.
A second live chat of the pack was announced on August 8, 2012 and was broadcast on Wednesday, August 15, 2012 at 5pm Central European Time (8am Pacific Summer Time) from gamescom 2012 in Cologne, Germany.[21] It had showcase the aspects of Summer and a look at a variety of fun features that come with the change of seasons.
During the Maxis Live Broadcast broadcast on October 9, 2012 at 10am PST, it showcased on aliens. Before the broadcast, SimGuruHydra asked the community in the forums to post questions for Q&A session.[22]
The forth live chat was on Thursday, November 8, 2012 at 10am PST. It focused on the Winter season.[23]
Embargo
There was an embargo on information about Aliens which started on October 9, 2012 at 1pm PST.[24]