The Sims 3

[Ironklaw]

Game: The Sims 3
Platform: PC or Mac
Rated: T (for Crude Humour, Sexual Themes and Violence)
Released: June 2nd, 2009
Genre: Simulation

System Requirements:
OS: (PC) Windows XP SP2 or Vista SP1 (Mac) Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard or higher
CPU: (PC-XP) 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent (PC-Vista) 2.4 GHz P4 (Mac) Intel Core Duo processor
RAM: (PC-XP) 1GB RAM (PC-Vista) 1.5GB RAM (Mac) 2GB RAM
HDD: 6.1 GB for the install, at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games
VIDEO: (PC) DirectX 9.0c compatible card (Mac) ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM or Intel Integrated GMA X3100.

Now, I had been away from the Sims for a long, long time before my girlfriend insisted I try The Sims 2 (with all the expansions added). Instead of a tedious, endless game, I found myself enjoying the experience completely. Tons of things to decorate the houses with, lots of neat new features and so many possibilities. A fan was born. So it wasn't surprising that I picked up The Sims 3 the day after it was released.

I knew that the third game in this long-running series was going to be different. While I wasn't aware of the full list of features and changes, I knew that, for example, the game would no longer focus on a single lot like the last games did. In previous versions, when you'd play, you'd select a family to play as by clicking on the home you moved them into. Whenever a character would leave the lot, it would save the lot and then send the character elsewhere. No matter how long the character was gone, it would be the exact same time it was when he/she left their home lot when they returned. In the newest version, the whole city was active and you could just zoom in or out of wherever one of your Sims was at the time. Coming into the game, I thought managing multiple sims over the entire city would be frustratingly difficult, but it has proved to be much easier than I'd anticipated.

When you start a new game, you choose a town to play in (there's usually only one, but if you buy the game you get an extra town and $10 worth of items from the Sims 3 online store.) After choosing a town, the player creates a family of as many sims as they please. The game assigns a difficulty rating based on the amount of sims being controlled at once. I started with 1. From there, like in previous games, the Sim has a set amount of money they start with and they can choose to move into either a furnished or unfurnished starter house or you can choose an empty lot and build your own house on it.. You can have multiple games that you can switch to from the main menu. From there, the game takes off marvellously.

Back on the subject of character creation; in previous titles, you dictated your Sim's personality by adding or subtracting attribute points from assorted attributes (shy/outgoing, messy/neat, lazy/active, etc). In The Sims 3, you select different personality traits (neat, friendly, evil, insane, kleptomaniac, green thumb and many more) and THAT dictates the personality of the character you're creating. It also governs their lifelong wants/dreams. For example, someone with the Party Animal, Flirty and Great Kisser attributes might end up with the "Heartbreaker" lifelong dream where they want to be the boyfriend/girlfriend of 10 different Sims. Others might want to become master chefs, the CEO of a multinational corporation and so-on.

The personality traits also give the characters unique abilities and interaction options. Someone who is neat will get the "Clean House" command, where they'll go around their house and tidy absolutely everything. Also, a Neat sim won't use ANYTHING if it's dirty. A sim who is ambitious will be able to discuss his/her job with anyone and boast about promotions. Also, they tend to work harder and get promoted faster.  

Another new addition are the "moodlets". "Moodlets" are bonuses to your Sim's mood that appear when certain criteria are met. If a sim is in a well-decorated room, he/she will feel happier as a result. Same thing if they are comfortable (the "Comfort" metre has been removed), have eaten a better-than-average meal, made a new friend and a slew of other things. Some negative effects can occur as well. For example, my CEO sim got to where he was because he worked hard every day (you can choose what your sim does at work, now) but working hard is exhausting and isn't fun. As a result, over the day, the sim's energy and fun metres will drop, lowering his mood overall and giving him the "stressed out" moodlet which significantly lowers his mood until I get him home and have him entertain himself with the TV or a computer game for a while.

There are a lot of new features in this game and I'd be typing forever if I tried to name them all. I'll just give you a rundown and a score for the game.

Gameplay: 9.5/10 - The gameplay is never frustrating, the controls are simple and intuitive and everything is contextual. You'll have different actions depending on your state. For example, if you click on a bed, you'll get the Relax, Sleep and Nap functions. If you relax on the bed, you'll have other options that will unlock. Especially if your sim isn't alone on the bed. Also, as an improvement certain commands can be performed without the sim doing them. The player can turn the radio on and off and change the station. The player also controls the lights. Certain items can even be moved around in real time without having to pause in the Buy or Build menus. Also, the addition of a button that speeds the game up only until the current action is completed is handy so you don't accidentally forget about your sim and have bad things happen. On top of everything, you now have the ability to adjust how long the Sims live on the fly with the lifespan slider in the options. Easy to pick up and learn and extremely addictive.

Sound: 8/10 - The sound is what you'd expect from a Sims game. There's lots of ambient noise, the Sims still speak their "Simlish" gibberish, though it's come a long way and, over each new game, sounds more and more like it's own language. There isn't a whole lot of music on the radio but there are several stations to listen to (Classical, Indie, Pop and Dance, to name a few). There's also the option to import your own music and have it play over the radio instead. Musical stings give you clues to things that are happening in your home, as always. Not much has changed here.

Graphics:8/10 - The graphics are, refreshingly, not too demanding. The game's bare minimum requirements for graphics is a 128-bit card, which isn't asking that much, really. A nice new feature is that players can now modify the appearance of every single item in the game, changing their textures and colours. The graphics are simple, but refined. The textures are sharp and are smart. The game really cuts down on loading and lag by only rendering the lot you're on. If you travel quickly to another lot, the textures will snap on and then sharpen. While that CAN be annoying to the hardcore gamer, it keeps the game running smoothly. The characters themselves are much more detailed and look far more realistic than they did in previous titles.

Online: 10/10 - The Sims 3 works with the EA download manager to bring you the Store and the Exchange, two places where items, characters, houses, towns, building materials and even vehicles can be downloaded and added to your game. Want to have your friend's character walking around your town? Have your buddy upload the character to the exchange and download it for free.

Overall: 9/10 - The game is, hands down, some of the most fun I've ever had on the PC. This MORE than makes up for how painfully awful Spore was. It's easy to play; really, really addictive and it's only going to get better once expansions become available. For the beginner, there's a brief tutorial and help messages that appear which can be dismissed temporarily or permanently if they get annoying. The aesthetic is pleasing and watching the characters spaz out when something bad happens is gratifying. This is a truly great game.

Verdict: Buy it. The free stuff you get for registering is worth the $50. Pirate it if you're broke, but if you can spare the change, get yourself a physical copy.

TL;DR: Great game, lots of new features, rather pretty, almost as addictive as nicotine. Enjoy.

[Lycus]

I have sims 3 also :D, its a great game ^^ and its true ,the way that you can exchange stuff with other people and downloading more stuff makes it so much more easily then in the second one.

[Ethan-Wolfcat]

Not Into Sims Series.... Sorry

[Ironklaw]

Not Into Sims Series.... Sorry

Err.. That's okay?

[Drajiel]

No actual online component I'm taking it?

I'm still waiting for a Sims game where I can link my neighbourhood with a friend, and we can both do our own business in realtime with one another.
(and maybe set his place on fire while I'm there)

[Ironklaw]

No, no online component except for the ability to export anything and everything you make/edit/customize to the exchange. Frankly, adding new things to a town takes long enough, I couldn't imagine things constantly being edited in real time. Also, they tried that once with The Sims Online and it was a complete disaster.

[Draantier]

Got a chance to try it, I've been enjoying it ^^

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