Notable Additions

Notable Additions

With each of the new expansions to the game new features are added and old features from The Sims 2 series return, though often with a different twist, but each new expansion to the series always contains something notable, and Ambitions is no exception to that rule!  Some of the more notable additions include:

-- Twinbrook --

The first notable addition to the game is the town of Twinbrook -- a new city that was added to the game as a neighborhood that comes with Ambitions -- and is likely named after the two twin rivers that flow on either side of the more affluent section of the town.  The premise of Twinbrook is the new career system, along with the new special skills and independent career options.

Twinbrook offers players a variety of conditions, from typical town and suburb to a bayou area, contains a number of bridges and in particular offers players support for key activities, hobbies, and collections, like fishing, rock hunting, bug collecting, and searching for seeds.

While it is not a documented feature in the game we suspect that the bayou area easily and obviously is meant to serve as the starting point in many a rags-to-riches Sim family line, and considering how easy it is to create generations of Sims when not using the timer-extension settings, in a matter of only a few months your family could easily be on its 10th or greater generation in Twinbrook, with memories of the wooden-porched bayou shack that was their ancestral home distant indeed!

A great soundtrack but what are they saying?

-- The Ambitions Soundtrack --

The practice of having a mixture of English and Simlish songs, with many of the tunes being created or performed by famous real-world artists though well established with the previous games, returns in Ambitions very strongly.

Considerable effort goes into planning out and implementing the official game soundtrack for each of the Sim expansions so that the music in the game properly supports the game play in it, and Ambitions includes the following contributing artists and songs:

Charice --  Pyramid
Daisy Dares You --  Number One Enemy
Eli Reed --  Come And Get It
Hal Linton --  Lock My Heart Down
Kerli --  Tea Party
Lady Antebellum -- Need You Now
Melanie Fiona --  Bang Bang
Mike Posner --  Cooler Than Me
Murder by Death --  As Long As There Is Whiskey In The World
Neon Trees --  Animal
OK Go --  This Too Shall Pass
Old 97's --  Early Morning
Radney Foster And The Confessions --  Until It's Gone
Rise Against --  Savior
The Acorn --  Restoration
The Constellations --  Setback
Toni Braxton --  Make My Heart
Violent Soho --  Jesus Stole My Girlfriend
VV Brown --  Shark in the Water

-- Additions to the Build Mode --

Ambitions introduces an expansion to the build mode that allows players to create different appearances in style for their homes -- including expanded roofing options -- and adds the new "Renovation Mode" to the build menu that is used by the Architect Career to alter and improve the homes of their Sim clients.

The newest member of the family?

-- Simbots --

Along with the new job of Inventor comes a new creature -- the SimBot -- which is created by Sims who have developed great skills in the Inventing Career.  Not only can they create a SimBot but the process is included in the game as part of the opportunity and goal system.  Gamers who opt for a different career path can still purchase a SimBot with 40,000 Lifetime Happiness points.

-- Three New Skills --

In addition to all of the new content and careers that were added to the game, there are also three new base skills:

-- Inventing: Thanks to the new Inventor Career there are a wide variety of inventions and new tech to be had in the game through the skill of Inventing...  One fun aspect of this new skill is the manner in which your Sims obtain the scrap material that they require for their inventions -- they can either buy it (which is expensive) or they can obtain items from junkyards, a new type of lot in the game, and  blow them up to get their scrap!  Explosives?  Sims?  Are you kidding?  That is awesome!

-- Sculpting: Previously the artists in the game were restricted to painting, but now Sims can create sculptures too!  The medium varies, and includes clay, ice, metal, and wood -- and they can either use their imagination or they can have another Sim pose for them! 
 
-- Tattooing: Twenty years ago a person with a tattoo was considered to belong to the rougher elements of society, but today the body art is considered a form of expression and is as likely to be found on a soccer mom as it is on a bikie or a sailor!   Well in Ambitions players are provided with a tattoo editor where they can choose tattoos with up to five layers, modify colors, alter the size, and choose where to place their new creation on their customer's body!  How cool is that?

-- Five New Professions --

The base game allows players to pick from full-time careers in Business, Crime, the Culinary Arts, Journalism,  Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Politics, Science, and Sports.  Part-time jobs included in the base game are Bookstore Clerk, Grocery Store Clerk, Mausoleum Clerk, Receptionist, and Spa Specialist.  In the non-traditional Slacker careers for the bast game they can choose Artist, Hacker, Musician, and Writer.  While it is generally not considered a career they can also be Collector's and make a modest living off of the collection items that they find.

In the World Adventures expansion the Adventurer career was added, allowing Sims to earn money from their Tomb Exploration, as well as the Slacker careers of Photographer and Wine Maker.  The addition of Wine Making gave the Green Thumb (Gardner) career -- also often considered part of the Slacker path -- a major boost so that it can be considered a non-traditional career path when the Sims partner is a Wine Maker.

In Ambitions new careers were added -- allowing players to have their Sims to enter the careers of Architecture, Education, Fashion, Firefighter, Criminal Investigations, Paranormal Investigations, and more, and though it does not actually add the Medical Career per se, Ambitions changes it, allowing Sims to begin careers as Physicians (Doctors).  The Medical Career path is not the only one that Ambitions alters -- the previously Slacker-based career of Artist has been formalized in Ambitions, so while players can still do the Bohemian stay-at-home and paint when you want to style of slacking off, they can also enter into a more formal career and become a star in the arts!

While it is not really a profession as such, Sims who are progressing along the slacker route will find that the addition of the new Consignment Shop means that they now have a place that they can sell the products of their slacker goodness -- which combined with the ability to register at City Hall to be self-employed as a writer, painter, sculptor, inventor, photographer, Nectar (Wine) Maker, Gardner, or Fisherman -- they now have a place to sell the fruits of their labor.  And of course the true slackers in the game -- the Professional Collectors -- can also sell their items via the Consignment Shop!


-- New Traits --

It is of course Traits that add to the successes -- and the failures -- that Sims have in the pursuit of their chosen career and life goals, and Ambitions includes six new Traits that will help you to shape your Sims into individuals:

Born Salesman/Saleswoman
Eccentric
Eco-Friendly
Dramatic
Perceptive
Savvy Sculptor

The SimBot can be Invented or obtained as a Lifetime Wish

-- New Lifetime Wishes --

Traditionally each game expansion also adds new Lifetime Wishes, and Ambitions is no exception, offering players the following:

Descendant of Da Vinci (Master Inventing, Painting, and Sculpting)
Fashion Phenomenon (Reach Level 10 in the Stylist Profession)
Firefighter Super Hero (Save 30 lives on the job)
Home Design Hotshot (Earn 100 Top Scores for jobs in the Architectural Design Profession)
Monster Maker (Create 3 Monsters)
Paranormal Profiteer (Reach Level 10 in the Ghost Hunter Profession)
Pervasive Private Eye (Solve 35 cases on the job)


-- New Lifetime Rewards --

As with Lifetime Wishes, the game would not be complete without some new rewards added to the Lifetime Rewards program, and Ambitions includes:

Artisan Crafter
Efficient Inventor
Entrepreneurial Mindset
Fireproof Home
My Best Friend
Professional Simolean Booster
Suave Seller

Tasks like doing the laundry can provide positive moodlets

-- A New Laundry Moodlet --

The addition of washing machines and dryers in the game now has a new moodlet to go with it!  Sims who are wearing freshly washed clothes benefit from that fresh-smelling goodness, but be aware that some dryers are not what they seem...


That pretty much covers the more important and notable additions, but there are plenty of other new features for you to discover on your own -- like Motorcycles that would make Hagrid happy -- but the only way to do that is, of course, to play and to play with the different game options and explore as you play...  But yeah, play...