I am pleased with this change as I feel it is somehow more realistic and less of a burden when finding a home for a new family. §20,000 for single sims and families of eight alike was biased in my opinion and I am glad to see this has been rectified and changed. I might overlook the hair overstatement earlier because of this, Maxoids but as there are other glitches and grumbles ahead, I will still have to think about it.

When looking for accommodation to rent, there is a new icon over the lots that are designated as such. It is pale if there is no playable families living there and bright if there is. When moving the mouse over one of these lots, it tells you what the weekly rent is. As I felt the Cartmans were an up-and-coming family, I chose something that might have been just outside their price range but attainable given a bit of work. I also chose to pick one that did not have any existing families in there.

There are pro's and cons to renting accommodation. Firstly, with not having to pay for the property, the Cartman family had quite a large amount of money to play with. Basic fittings such as bathroom and kitchen and lighting is covered, but can be replaced. They need to buy everything else, though. Although they cannot pull down walls, they can redecorate the walls, floors and ceilings (yes, ceilings) to their heart's desire. The drawback with this is that there are still bills to pay and the mailman delivers them every Tuesday and Thursday.

With not owning the property and instead renting it, rent has to be paid every Monday and can be posted into the new postbox outside the apartments. If the landlord doesn't get the rent, he comes calling for it. If he doesn't get the rent in three days, then he hands the debt over to the repo man.

The landlord does have his good points, though. He does the gardening around the apartments and also handles repairs. You don't have to fix the broken fixtures yourself. One phonecall and he'll come over immediately, whatever the hour of day or night. If only reality was so good.

Then there are the neighbors. In some cases, they can be noisy. This image is from one of my other apartments. If your bed is up against a shared wall, you'll know about it. Banging on the wall might make them stop, although I find that getting to know them is more effective. They can be quite helpful as well if you get a good rapport with them.

At this stage, I am still trying to understand how reputation works, but I will hopefully be more enlightened later in the review when I look at it in more detail. It appears to be based on how well someone gets on with people. If someone is grumpy and aggressive, then a negative reputation will result. If they are kind and friendly, then a positive reputation should result.

You cannot build a reputation just by being at home. It involves getting to know people and the best way is greeting those at community lots and also taking note of how they greet you. You need to be seen around. In Billie's case, she was able to do the "greeting and meeting" while James was on stage doing his stand-up. She was able to talk about computers with some techies and that seemed to get her noticed. With a job offer and a promise to influence the rent from the landlord, she did quite well for one visit.

Sims now have five new gestures and can tell five different stories. This relates to the five social groups that many sims now belong to. Tough handshake and telling a story about Mechanics works well with the Gearheads, Kiss Kiss Darling and telling a story about Fame works well with the Socialites. There are five groups - Gearheads, Bohemians, Jocks, Techies & Socialites - and finding who belongs to who is not too easy. I am watching how my sims are greeted to indicate which group someone is with. However, it is not always possible to tell who is in which group by how they dress.

Personally, I am finding myself at a bit of a loss with this, but with time and experience, I should hopefully pick things up and get back to you later.

We will be giving the Cartman family a break for the next part.

In the third part of the review, we will be looking at what changes have been made to the build and buy modes and how simlife for both those in apartments and those who own their own property has been changed with this expansion.