A good Sims expansion should, to my mind, deliver the core experience it promises while also enriching the wider game. Cottage Living's promise is a life of harmony with nature in a quaint country village, with bickering local eccentrics providing a little gentle drama.
Such a life is clearly inspired by the English rural idyll. Henford-on-Bagley is a village of honey-coloured cottages and red telephone boxes in which the hangout is a pub, not a bar. It's the spitting image of the almost sickeningly pretty town of Bradford on Avon, which is barely 30 minutes' drive from the PCGamesN offices, so it's a personal treat to play something so close to home. Obviously all the elements of this aesthetic, from thatched roofs to tweed jackets for your Sims, are ready to use in your own creations.
I roll a new Sim (Rich Samson, my hippie alter ego) and give him the new aspiration, Country Caretaker, which is basically a quest walking you through the whole expansion. Henford has two starter homes, one of which – in a lovely secluded spot near a waterfall – is full of animals both wild and domesticated, and the perfect place to begin. The purchase does empty Rich's account, until another new Sim named Tommy Largesse moves in and immediately leaves, forgetting to take his $20,000 starting cash with him. Replenished, I do a little light remodelling to accommodate both a cow and a llama, and embark on my garden-to-table life.
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