Anyone else have this one yet? Hobbies for Sims!
They can engage in all sorts of hobbies from cooking, to sports to science and nature, arts and crafts and dance and music. Once their enthusiasm is high enough they can enter secret lots dedicated to their hobby where they can hone their skills and enter contests.
Also included in the game is more aspiration rewards and the opportunity to choose a secondary aspiration. Sims who earn aspiration points are rewarded with special skills...Sims with family aspirations can make a special chicken soup that will cure colds, those with fortune aspirations can make money at their pc by financial consulting, and can even play the stock market (for good or bad), and science enthusiasts can search for constellations and even summon aliens! Other aspiration rewards allows Sims to go longer without certain need degradation.
There are new careers, and with them new career rewards. The one I'm most enthusiastic about is the architect's table because your Sims can now frame their paintings! YAY! Also, when your Sims write novels, they actually write a book that you can custom design from a limited choice of options, and the finished book can actually go on their bookshelf to be read, re-read, and discussed with others.
It's much more fun having children around. Sims can learn parenting skills so they can check up on babies to determine their needs, new and very cute cribs are available, there is an activity table for toddlers where they can gain creative and mechanical skills, and you can even teach your toddler a nursery rhyme.
There is another bonus to this ep...switching neighborhoods is quicker and easier. Instead of exiting the lot you were playing into the neighborhood where it exists then changing neighborhoods, you can just click on the options menu and go directly to whatever neighborhood you want directly from a lot.

So far, I am really liking this ep. I haven't had any glitches (yet), and it works well with all my custom content and hacked items. Actually, it has made me slow down a bit in my game playing...I've been working on a breeding program and haven't really spent much (if any) time nurturing the kiddies...I've just used the multi-purpose painting to grow them up to breeding age as fast as possible. This ep is actually making the kiddies much more interesting and I'm keeping them around now so they can develop as many skills and hobbies as possible: it's also fun watching them get chased by bugs!
I give this ep an A!