The first thing I will mention in this section is not an actual buyable item but a new way on how you can place some of them. This is the ability to raise or lower the position of wall hangings and - almost - all wall lights. To raise or lower the object, you select it and then use the {/[ key to raise it and the }/] to lower it. Using Ctrl+Alt with this as well, you can place more than one item on the same bit of wall and depending upon the size of the items, you can place quite a few of them on the same wall. In this illustration, we have three pictures on the same wall.

I am very pleased with it, but I would have liked to see it cover all of the wall lights. From my own experimenting, it does not work with the §75 & §85 wall sconces that came with the original game although it does work with every other wall light in the game and all EPs and SPs. I would have also liked it if windows could have been moved up and down to a degree. For example, some windows overlap edging on a wall covering or cannot be placed because of a bit of roofing. Overall, though, I am pleased as this is something that we have not had before and it works well.

In the aptly named shelving subsection of the Surfaces section, we have shelves with either a one or two tile width. Depending upon the width of the shelf, you can place various items onto it. Some fit well whereas others that should not fit properly do fit. Also, as it is technically a wall covering, you can move them up and down and even stack your shelves. I would have liked to see this raising and lowering feature applied to the shelves that came with Bon Voyage, but apparently not. They are stuck at the same level. Perhaps in a patch, it might be changed.

Now we've got the two new features of buy mode out of the way, we will continue with what is new for your sims to buy. However, I am not going to look at everything. If I did, this part of the review would have taken even longer to release and I do want to give you some surprises to find.

A Lapdog is a pet that doesn't require too much attention and it might be to your taste if either you do not have the "Pets" expansion or do not have a hankering after a womrat. The Modern Arf Indoor Dog Pen is not cheap, costing §525 and adopting a dog to go in it will cost another §500. You can watch your new lap dog, carry it around, play with it and generally enjoy it as company. It will need feeding from time to time and needs at least a 3x3 area for its pen, but it looks cute and I think the returns justify the expense.

The Playground Equipment can even be put indoors, although personally I think it is more suited to being placed outside. Originally, there was just the swingsets, now there are monkey bars, a merry-go-round, a slide and even a lookout tower that will keep any kids and teens happy for hours. Just so your toddlers don't feel left out, there is even a spring rider for them to play on .

One thing to watch out for with the merry-go-round is that if a sim in there is spun for too long, when they get off, they'll be sick. Ricardo Cartman had the misfortune to be "spun 'til you spew" by City Councilman Rani Patel, who is an existing sim who lives in Belladonna Cove. Instead of kissing babies, make teenagers sick. Not very good PR for an aspiring politician, I would have thought.

French Roofs, or literally "Roof Decorations by Conexion Bohemia" , are bought rather than built. Although a similar option could have been accomplished with a "roofslopeangle 71" cheat, I have to say that these look better. It also reminds me of how the community got around creating gable-end roofs back in the bygone days of The Sims (1). In the same way, these roofs are also expensive and it can be time consuming to place a large roof. My advice is to be aware of the colour choices available before you start adding the roof as recolouring it will take as long and can add further expense, especially is the roof is on an owned lot.

The Dance-Off Break Dancer Mat can only be found in community lots. Although the description says that it is a slick foam mat, it looks more like a flattened cardboard box to me with a ghetto blaster on top of it. It comes with a guy just called "Break Dancer" and you can get him to teach you to break dance for §75 or wait for a performance from him. This reminds me a lot of fire dancing in Bon Voyage (EP6) where it was a grass mat, a boogie box and a grass-skirt-clad guy called "Fire Dancer". Once you've learnt, your sim can entertain other people, even for tips, with his newly acquired breakdancing ability.

Keeping in the theme of entertaining others, the Small Superstar Microphone allows your sims to do stand-up comedy, sing or recite poetry. Use of it at home improves your sim's creativity. Personally, I would have liked to see this come out with the Musical Instruments in the University EP, but I am glad to see it nevertheless.

In Beds, the The Heart Bed has made its return and it doesn't seem to look as tacky as the Heart Bed back from the "Living..." EP for The Sims (1) was. Once your sim is relaxing on it, click on them and the option comes up to vibrate. Also, there is the Murphy Bed, which is a bed that folds up into the wall when not in use. Although it looks good and there is the rumour that sims can have accidents in them, I find that when it is not deployed, nothing can be done with the space that has been freed up. A bit disappointing, really, from something that is supposed to be a space saving device. There are also a few more sets of bedding, which is welcome.

There are also new bookcases. Bookcases that took up two tiles were in The Sims (1) and have finally made it to The Sims 2. There are two models, one of which has the clever job of being a doorway to a secret room. In order to use the doorway, the sim has to pick a mysterious book from the shelf. A secret room could be useful for sims who do not want their money tree picking by visitors nor want their visitor spending all of their time using the home computer, which is something not uncommon following FreeTime.

For those who want a change from normal clothes closets, you can create one of any size and have clothing ranks in there in the same style that are used on community lots. Now you can be Carrie Bradshaw and have the closet of your dreams. Also, there is a 2x1 fitted closet which comes in two models, one with a mirror. With this fitted closet, there is yet another place to have woohoo. These are all illustrated on the right.

There is now a 3-tile TV, which costs §10,000. I'm sure every sim can spare that. It looks impressive although I would have hoped for a better on the screen. The picture appears to just be the same as on the normal §500 TV and has been enlarged. As a result, it is quite fuzzy and indistinct, which is very disappointing.

For those who do not have either University or FreeTime, you can now play pool. Skilled players can even hustle for money. For those who already have one or both of those, there is now another design of table to add to your pool halls. However, I really like the look of this design as it reminds me of table I used to play on in my distant youth.

There are plenty of heating pipes and ventilation ducts. These will add atmosphere to old tenement buildings but as they are purely decorative, it is a bit disappointing that they are only that. I would have preferred them to be functional but I must admit that they do look good.

I could mention the snack machines of which one features in this picture and you can buy for residential lots, or the new and expensive aquarium and various other things ... but I really have to leave some things for you to discover.

As happens with every EP, there are new collections. This time, instead of there being a collection for residential and a copy for community, there is one collection for both.

There is the usual collection that contains everything and as is the norm, there are various other smaller collections following different themes, in this case related to the different social groups.

Among these is a new collection called "Bohemian". For those of you who have FreeTime, you might recall the collection in there called "Bohemian", suitable to the more artsy of your sims. Enjoy it while you can. The old collection has been replaced by this new one and it does not incorporate any of the previous items. I think someone might have not been paying too much attention to previous EPs during development to allow this to happen. It is little mistakes like this that disappoint me with this EP as apart from these things, it has a lot of potential so far.

We are returning to the Cartman Family. Some of the family are concerned about Ricardo who has become very good friends with someone who has a pointed hat, has a cat and travels around on a broomstick. What is more worrying to the family is that Ricardo has himself become a warlock. We're getting weird. We're looking at magic.