Open For Business - worth the wait... if you're an EP collector!
New objects include:
- workstations to build robots and toys, and arrange flowers
- toys, flowers and robots (including Servo) - made at the already mentioned workstations
- ninja, gorilla, knight and diver statues to decorate your business
- elevators!!
- awnings to place out the front of building
- new roof shapes, including domes and spires
- new chairs, tables, paintings, sculptures etc
- lots and lots of brand new outfits, ranging from regular clothing to full-body mascot outfits - you can make a household full of ninjas or gorillas if you want!!!
- more new headwear, including mascot heads
- new building option which allows you to place stages/raised platforms inside buildings.
The way the game works is that your Sim opens a business using the phone, buys a register and some display cabinets and then buys objects to sell, marking them as 'for sale' using the special business tool. Sims can then employ other Sims to work at their store, and earn talent badges for making robots/toys/arranging flowers, using the cash register, restocking items and selling items to customers. Depending on a business's customer loyalty rating, various 'bonus' cards are available which improve the business. You can sell pretty much anything - even cars (if you have NightLife) or entire lots!
If your Sim doesn't want to sell stuff, they can also bake goods, open a restaurant, have a video arcade or make a salon.
The game is best used in conjunction with the University and Nightlife expansion packs. Used on its own with the base game will be OK, but you won't be able to open a bowling alley or restaurant or sell some of the more interesting objects.
The new location, Bluewater Village, doesn't add much to the game and, like NightLife's Downtown area, I didn't end up using it much.
The main problem with OFB is its high learning curve, especially if you don't have the game guide. Learning the best way to run a business will take a good few hours, and you'll probably end up deleting your first one. One thing to note - although you can open a home business, you can't access all of the business objects unless you're on a community lot. So it's not possible to open a restaurant at home, for example.
Compared to Uni and Nightlife, OFB doesn't add as much to the game as either of the other EPs - there are no new age groups or drastic changes to the base gameplay like dates. However, the addition of robots, elevators and the business function is enough to make it worth purchasing. If you've really been looking forward to this, it might be a bit disappointing at first, but, like Uni, after 4-5 hours of gameplay the actual value becomes obvious. In a similar way to Uni's requirement to play your Sims through a degree before you could access the new careers, OFB makes your Sims gain talent badges so you can get to the awesome robots and toys.
Possibly the best feature of OFB is that it reinvigorates an already fantastic game, and is well worth the $30-40 or so it costs to buy. More experienced Sims players will probably enjoy it most, as running a business will probably be beyond new users. I didn't notice any increase in loading times or decrease in frame rates after installing OFB (unlike the EPs from the original Sims, which progressively slowed the game down).
Anyway, it's a really good game, although it has a high learning curve and is best if you have both Uni and NightLife. If you don't own any Sims games yet, go for Uni and then get OFB later.
Oh, and see if you can spot the music that's been recycled from TS1 in buy mode.