Besides the extensive new gameplay for running businesses, Maxis has added quite a few new things in the other modes. In buy mode, you can now expect more fences, a couple of (yet unfinished) modular stairs, elevators, and also new are the awnings. Awnings come in various colours and styles, and can be built in a way similar to a foundation - just drag squares to place them, and if necessary they'll automatically connect. They can work nicely to decorate the entrance of a building, in the figuration of your choice - although diagonals didn't seem to exist for these. Elevators too are brand new for the Sims. You have to put a piece of the lift on every floor. You can choose between an shaft piece, which doesn't have a door and so your Sims can't go there, or a regular piece where your Sims can get in and out. Sims can move from floor to floor by clicking on the lift door on the floor where you want your Sim to go to, then just pick "Go to this floor" from the pie menu. Besides that, broken elevators can kill Sims, and couples can (probably) woohoo in them.
More stuff had been added to build mode when it comes to the roofs. Rather than just having the pointy roofs that have been in the game until now, you can also build custom cone and pyramid shaped roofs. These two shapes each come in three different variations. With these you can create new roofs and add some more variety to your neighbourhood, despite the lack of new textures in this pack.
If you like building houses, then you might also be happy to know that there are now split level floors. A new type of foundation, a sort of stage, can be placed anywhere in a room, including against walls, and furniture and other items can be placed upon it. Access for Sims is granted by using modular stairs. In nightclubs, for example, this allows you to make a stage that a band can perform on.
Another new thing that shows up at least in Build mode, is a "Lot information" screen. This little dialog box shows the name of the lot, its value and size, the neighbourhood it's in and what kind of lot it is. This can be useful when you're creating a house that needs to have a certain value - it saves you going to the neighbourhood to check the lot value.
When it comes to objects, don't expect just a few. Most will are focused on the businesses (salon chair, workbenches, etc). There are various objects that can be created on the workbenches, like the robots and the water wiggler on the toy bench. These are not available in the catalogue, so you'll have to either create one, or buy one in a shop that sells them. Other than that, there are some new objects for toddlers and children to play with (including a kite or lemonade stand, where children can sell lemonade for very few or ridiculously many simoleons). When it comes to furniture, there's a new country-ish set of couches, counters, tables, chairs, etc., but other than that not too much for at home. There are also more styles for new connecting couches, that fit nicely in a salon, just like the new screens. A large mirror also looks nice in such a place.
More objects for your businesses come in the shape of statues, that you can put right outside your business doors to pull customers. Think of a gorilla, diver, ninja, knight or a teddy bear statue. Naturally, all of these are also in various colours. Indoors there is a new till, with which you can start a business, and the phone has been updated to accommodate all the new business functions. A open/closed sign allows you to keep customers out while you train your staff, new wall speakers can set a mood. Each of these speakers has a different soundtrack. New there are the purple New-age speaker, and a white speaker with music that's good for shopping.
New clothes and fashion are also part of all expansion packs, and Open for Business is no different in that. There are many new outfits, including several mascot outfits in the same fashion as the statues. There are new hats, caps and helmets as well, including some for toddlers. Also expect some new makeup, haircuts and glasses to make the Sims look the way you want to. Most of the new stuff is for adults though, children don't get too many new clothes. Nevertheless the new hair meshes do increase the variety you can have between your Sims. Just look at the pictures to see part of what's new.
Fashion also affects your business. Your employees can come in their daily clothes, but planning a uniform is also a possibility. By assigning a uniform to an employee, that employee will always come to work in that outfit. Assigning is not that hard, you just click on an employee and choose to plan the uniform, similar to planning any other outfit. It probably will be possible to assign a different uniform to each employee, so if you want a mascot not everybody in your shop will walk around like a ninja or medieval knight.
There are rumours of a new creature in the game. This could very well be Servo, as one of the robots you can create (or buy in a shop) will become a family member that you can turn on and off, and control like any other Sim. Other details regarding this robot are a little sketchy - for example I'm not sure if it has any motives that need to be kept green, and if it can be told to clean and it won't complain. If it's anything like the Servo in the Sims 1, the latter will be the case. Either way, before it becomes active it has to be turned on, otherwise it won't move an inch, no matter what you tell it to do. This has to be done by a living Sim, so when they're all off to work or school, a hibernated robot won't exhaust itself.
Little changes in the neighbourhood itself. As before there are some new neighbourhood ploppables, like a lighthouse, and as you might expect there's also a new shopping district area. It doesn't look much different than a regular neighbourhood though, and just like downtown Sims can live there as well. I'm not entirely sure, but I assume businesses can also be ran on community lots in the main neighbourhood, and probably also on campus or downtown. There's one shopping district that ships with the expansion pack, Bluewater Village, that also contains several families and naturally businesses as well.
Finally there are also a few minor tweaks. There has been some discussion about adding the shortcut Ctrl+S to easily save the game, without having to go through the menus. This wasn't in the expansion pack yet, but might still be put in after all. Other than that, Tim also mentioned that there won't be any new cheats this time.
You've just read what Open for Business will be like: a business-focused expansion pack, with several new additions for the architects. There don't seem to be as many small bits and pieces that Nightlife had, instead it seems to focus on running a business a lot. Although there will be new places and ways for your Sims to go shopping, and apart from the robots and some new objects, the pack doesn't seem to add a lot of actual gameplay for regular families. The new shopping district is nice for those with a full neighbourhood, but doesn't seem to have many advantages at first sight, except adding more space to move Sims to. You're always able to create one or more for your neighbourhood, but there's no harm in not doing so. If you like Maxis families, you might like using Bluewater Village, just to get those families in your game.
It depends on what kind of player you are, if this pack will be a good addition to your Sims playing experience. Either way, the business part of the expansion pack has turned out very well and allows quite a bit of variation in the types of businesses you can let your Sims run. Play time was too short to find out how easy it is to grow a business successfully, but if it's not too easy it'll definitely take quite a lot of time to unlock all 25 perks and have a booming business. If you like to see your Sims in their working environment, then this might just be the expansion pack for you.
Maxis is still working on Open for Business, although it's mostly tuning and tweaking bits now, as well as making the final pieces of content. It should go gold near the end of this month, and then it'll be released in the first week of March. Until then, various other gaming websites are likely to come up with previews, and more details will be revealed about the expansion pack. We'll keep following and posting the news around this expansion pack, and give you a full review of the game, with some more certainties, after it's been released.
