This report is by Patul, a member of http://daily-sims.com and MTS2. He was invited to the Bon Voyage Fan Day at EA. He is graciously sharing his review and screenshots of the event with us here.
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As they do for each new EP, EA Games organized the Bon Voyage Fan Day on July 20 in its Redwood City offices near San Francisco. I was the envoy of the French net newspaper and forum the www.daily-sims.com, and the director kindly accepted to share with the S2C community the info I brought back.

The next products from the Sims Laboratory were shown: Castaway on WII and DS and a short preview of this in SimStory, But the main event was for us the test of Bon Voyage. In this demonstration only the base game and the future EP6 was installed.

I will tell you first about the gameplay itself then of the CAS and construction modes. Like the preview said, Bon Voyage is a destination for holidays, and the main gameplay it is like a community lot in relation to date and time.

The new EP consists of new neighborhoods to visit by tourists. By default there are three: a paradise island, a western mountain, and an oriental countryside. Adults may choose a destination, phone for transportation, and invite up to 7 other sims they know (no pets allowed). Of course you will be able to create your own destination choosing the climate as summer, winter or temperate. I was pleased to see that the EP6 default neighborhoods and buildings are more beautiful than the previous extensions.

You can also own an holiday house. As has been the case with other EPs, there is little interaction with the other EPs, so it is impossible to manage an hotel as a business, for instance.

Once you arrive at your holiday location, your sims get about by walking to the different locations. When you arrive, there are new wants to be satisfied, such as

bronze with the sun… caution, may be hot !

make sandcastles or swim in the sea, yes it is from now on possible thanks to a new type of ground….the beach

learn new dances…

and enjoy new meals.

…new attractions also , but I shall speak about them later.

Satisfying wants, going shopping, sun bathing, having fun and keeping up relationships might be a bit boring without the extra spice added by the many ‘quests’ that you can take upon yourself. With the help of the new mementos you can start a search for a hidden character or recover a piece of a treasure map that leads to the hidden shack.

Here is the secret character which you will be able to make a friend, and even a member of your family — the big foot. Note the word friendly… no closer relations with this character of unspecified sex…

After you’re done having your fun on holiday, you will return back to your home … at the hour you left it, just like a community lot visit. This does mean that your sims won’t miss work or other activities by taking their vacation.

New CAS Items

As usual there’s a few new items for your sims, some exotic outfits, some sunglasses and even a new bathing suit for our lady sims. Of interest for those who don’t have Seasons, is the ability to choose your hair individually for each outfit type (everyday, formal, swim, etc), which comes in handy with all the new hats.

But the great new feature is the handling of jewelry, in this screen you will be able to embellish your sims according to their outfit with earrings (separate right-hand side and left), collars, rings, bracelets and watches, and also with piercings (starting from teenager) and rings (for the adults)

I will finish my article by my preferred part :

Construction and Decoration

It should be mentioned that the softly sloping beach part can not be modified. In build tools, you’ll also find new terrains, and some new trees, a new predefined roof in the shape of a pagoda (it was possible to make this before with build cheats, but it was very hard to do) and also three new roof colours.

In addition to the already described objects, there are variations of existing objects, such as a collection intended mainly for the hotels: beds, cupboards, bedsides, grounds and wallpaper, along with some new objects like the hammock or the tent where your Sims will be able to rest… and to …have fun in it!

There are of course new activities like the duel on rolling floating trunk (unverified report), the Zen garden, and the throwing of axes (at a target only). I will have preferred the game of pétanque which is my favorite sport for relaxing. And then there is the gem of this expansion as regards objects : the pirates gallion which must be placed at the edge of the beach!

At least 6 interactions are possible - fighting with the sabre, raising and lowering the flag with a Lama head, climbing with the watchtower, the rudder, the dive, and for the most persevering player there is a hidden bonus to discover!

Ah… I did not speak about the hotels… They will not be manageable by the player, as I pointed out it… which is a shame as the prices charged seem to have been inspired by the hotels in California. They would have been very lucrative!

As with many things in this ep, the relationship with the university sub-neighborhood is obvious:
* The hotel has a door similar to the dormitory, not the same one, this one is of course equipped with a card reader.
* The university required a cook… this hotel needs the reception desk and the receptionist who comes with.
They are the two items necessary to have a functioning hotel. Then it will require the usual use of a code to transform the residence lot into a hotel lot.

On arrival you will have to choose your room before confirming it at the reception desk. Fortunately a message is posted to instruct you.

In short, and with the first look, and only a one day test, Bon Voyage seems to be a have a lot to offer with new activities, mementos, outfits, hats, new jewelry options, and new objects and additions to construction.

They’re real holidays, without direct influence on the daily life of our Sims, in which they can let go of the daily routine. It is also a wonderful place to deepen relationships (with more time to spend with each other). In the game, it will be a bit expensive for the purists, like us, that don’t like using cheatcodes, and that have to save up several weeks to go to one of these paradises, to send their sims on a Bon Voyage ((pun)).

In these few pages I have tried to summarize as best as I can what I saw of the sixth ep of our favourite game.

Don’t hesitate to post your question about this future EP in the S2C forum, I shall try to answer.

(The Bon Voyage EP is expected to ship Sept, 2007.)

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We at Sims2Community and ModtheSims2 thank Patul and Par Krysec from Daily Sims for sharing this information with us.