The Sims 3 (PC, 2009)

The Sims 3. The Pinnacle of all Simulation and Virtual Life games. It was the year 2000 when the original Sims game was released, a game that changed several opinions and set a whole new level for simulation games. One of the most successful games of all time TS1 (The Sims 1) was, and the several expansion packs proved it was a huge choice among the casual gamer. The Sims 2 delivered almost the same results, and helped propel Electronic Arts to over 100 Million copies (including expansion packs) sold - making it clearly the most successful game series of all time. Now, 9 years later, comes The Sims 3. The next step into a realistic, yet fun life simulator. Is it as good as it's hyped to be? Maybe. Is it the best game in the series? Yes. But what is it about The Sims 3 (TS3) that makes it so great? Is it the seamless neighborhood? Is it the virtually no loading screens? Or do the cons of the game (very few objects, lack of neighborhood editing in base game, etc) make the game unplayable or not enjoyable?

MAJOR PROS:
I'll start with the basics. The Sims 3, or as I will refer to as TS3, has an incredible amount of new features. TS3 includes a completely seamless neighborhood, where everything moves along the life as the sim or sim family you're playing as. TS3 also includes a completely new Create-A-Sim and "Create a Style", where people have the power to custom color every object in the game. The create a style is an amazing feature, and doesn't fail to disappoint. You can choose from over 10 different categories, with tens of tens of choices of patterns in each one. Plus, you can color every single one just the way you want it, right down to the lightest touch. The fact you couldn't custom color things in TS2, and therefore, the Custom Content community was forced to make unnecessary different colorings and tools to do custom coloring. The seamless neighborhood also doesn't fail to impress, although it could be improved slightly. What is a seamless neighborhood? Well, have you ever imagined a Sims game where everyone moved along with you? New babies are made, new families move into town, and people die as you live your life? If so, you're in luck - because that's just what the seamless neighborhood offers. Along with this includes virtually, or basically unnoticeable, loading screens (excluding the first 2, which are still shorter then the Sims 2 loading screens). Along with this comes some "Events" in which the whole neighborhood can participate. Unfortunately, for now, there are only about 4 or 5 different events. All of these get extremely repetitive quickly, and will not hold your interest for very long. Finally, there is the trait system. Forget "turn-ons" and "turn-offs", now, you have the ability to create whoever you want. Weather you want to create Chuck Norris or Bill Gates, you can do it by choosing 5 out of over 80 traits for your Sim. And, if the trait system wasn't enough for you to make Bill Gates or Chuck Norris, you can also use the all new customization in Create-A-Sim which includes Eyebrow tweaking, and up to 5 sliders for adjusting such things as cheekbones, jaws, and noses.

There is now a Lifetime Reward System. By completing "wishes", or the equivalent of Wants in Sims 2, you can get lifetime rewards that help you cruise by life easier. Some of these lifetime rewards range from Hardly Hunger, where you hardly have to eat at all, to Extra Creative, to Teleportation. There very helpful, and make the game much

I have been a Sims since the very beginning. I have bought every expansion pack for both Sims 1 and 2 because I loved the game so much. When Sims 2 came out I stopped playing Sims 1 because it was such a huge improvement! Now, even with Sims 3 being out, I still love to play Sims 2. I won’t be buying any Sims 3 expansion packs. Sims 3 is more like a different game instead of an improvement. A lot of things that I loved about Sims 2 are gone. First, Sims having memories is gone. They now have “moodlets” but they eventually disappear. There is no record of their lives! Two, the aspect of having the ability to roam everywhere in the neighborhood is great. However, we can no longer see inside community lots (except for the park). The sims disappear when they go inside a building. What fun is that? Yes you can watch your sims go to work, but isn’t fun just watching the building. Also, the genes are horrible. All of my sims’ children look pretty much just like one parent. It is just about impossible to make a decent looking sim. All of them end up looking weird. Most of the clothing and hairstyles in the base game are ugly. At least in the Sims 2 base game there were decent looking clothing and hairstyles. Now you have to buy better looking hairstyles and items at the Sims 3 website. In my opinion, it is not worth paying extra money for them. It's way too greedy. There are more things that I don’t like, such as the new control panel, but there are really too many to list.

I admit that there are minor improvements. You can now choose what your sims do at work. For example, you can have them work hard, slack off, socialize or suck up to their boss. There are also little missions you can do to get your sims a promotion or raise. Also, some career fields have a higher level to get to than before. Those features are neat. Another minor improvement is adult sims can now just be boyfriends and girlfriends. Your sims can dig in other people’s trash cans and find neat stuff. If your sim is a reporter, they can find juicy stuff to write about, or if they are in the law enforcement field, they can write up reports about other sims. There are now more things you can do with ghosts, but the ghosts are even weird looking than living sims. You can bring back sims if you have their gravestone (once the game eventually gives you the option, but they will only be a controllable ghost. There is an improvement on fishing and depending on where your sims fish, they will find all different kinds of fish. Sims can even fish in the ocean, but they can no longer swim in it. They also can’t search for stuff in the sand or sun bathe. I know those features were not available with the Sims 2 base game, but neither was the ability to fish so why remove some abilities and keep others. Does it require too much graphics since it is now an “open” neighborhood? Is that why we can no longer see inside community lots? If so, then the “open” neighborhood aspect isn’t worth it.

Story progression would be neat if it wasn’t so flawed. The patches have improved it, but not by much. I sometimes turn that feature on just to see what happens. In 2 of my sims’ families their babies and toddlers died! What is that all about! Now I really don’t care if my sims in Sims 3 (not in Sims 2) die, except I don’t want sim babies and toddlers die. That is just wrong. Do not remove Sims 2 b/c you will regret it. I'm glad I didn't.

If you're reading this, there's a very good chance that you've heard about The Sims. It's been difficult to escape the popular franchise's web, what with two full games and a seemingly endless stream of expansions. The first thing you may be asking, then, is whether The Sims 3 is worth playing, or if it's just more of the same. Well, it most certainly is worth it, and yes, in some ways it is more of the same. But in this case, that's a very good thing. For anyone who's played The Sims or its first sequel, this familiarity will let them ease into it, feeling like a welcomed guest rather than an outsider. But this doesn't make The Sims 3 a simple rehash of what's come before. Instead, returning elements have been energized and extended by a number of terrific improvements, such as expanded customization tools, additional tools for interaction with other sims (and other players), and more tangible goals and rewards. Most importantly, the free-to-explore town makes you feel like part of an entire virtual society--a feature approximated but never fully realized in the previous games. By blending together the old and the new, developer Maxis has created the best, most charming game yet in the series.
If you're new to the series, here's a quick primer. The Sims 3 is a virtual life simulator. In it, you take control of a character called a sim, or an entire household of them. Sims have needs; they need to empty their bladders, to eat, to sleep, to bathe, to have fun, to socialize. It's real life boiled down to simple mechanics, but within these mechanics lies an entire universe of possibilities. Your sims can have babies who will cry in the middle of the night, needing their diapers changed. You can manage their personal development by sending them to the gym to work out, or by telling them to fix a broken television, or by having them play chess, or by sending them to the park to play the guitar. Sims go to work to earn simoleans (money, of course) so they can buy better things for their homes and redecorate--or just buy a brand-new home. They make friends and enemies, they go swimming, and they clog up the toilet. In other words, they act a whole lot like real people, except that they yammer in a delightful gibberish called simlish and communicate via speech bubbles that appear over their heads. It all sounds terribly mundane, but balancing the needs of your sims and tending to your digital playmates can keep you happily glued to your monitor for hours at a time.

For experienced Sims players, the laundry list of new features in The Sims 3 is extensive, but the one overhaul that has the biggest impact on the game is how seamlessly you can now move around your virtual town. In previous games, the presence of various neighborhoods led to a disjointed experience, so you rarely felt like you were in a living world. Now, your burb is freely explorable, so traveling to the gym, the art gallery, or your place of work means walking, biking, driving, or taxiing to the location in question without any loading times to break things up. Want your sim to head to the library and read up on the latest mystery? Just zoom out to the city map and select your destination, and your sim will travel there automatically, using the most efficient means of transportation. You might even get the option to invite someone along with you, so you won't have to head to the diner alone if you've got a friend or acquaintance nearby who's available to tag along.

a game you can live a different life other than your own. you no longer are stuck in one house and can move freely around your whole game. you can also send your sims out in different directions and react with other sims. less bathroom time is needed in this game so leaves more time to play and explore. it allows you to create your character with more style and looks than before. you have a bigger sense of living in a real town as you see other sims go about their daily lives. now you can give your sims a personality so they will live according to what type you pick. smoother game play on more powerful computers but a bit lagging in lower end computers. no longer have to wait for loading of new areas you goto as it is smooth and you just move around and it all changes with you without having to sit and wait for new view to load. now you can create your own patterns for wallpaper, furniture, curtains etc. revamped theme music is nice and new background music is nice as well. overall it is much better than sims 2 and there will be much more that sims 3 will be doing in the future. the only gripe i have is that some of these games are getting pretty high priced and this makes it harder for many people to buy during this bad economy. i feel if they lowered the price of the more popular games that they would sell much more of the game and would cut down on piracy. this is only common sense to do this and why they choose to pick high pricing and increase the piracy of their game than just to lower the price and sell more games would be much better for them. i did notice a trend now in many games that you buy that when you go online for that game they offer you many extras at a cost for this item or that. and when you think about it they get the money for the games and then nickle and dime you to death over all the little extras they have. yes you can get some of it free they offer but most you pay for. so in reality you are always paying for that original game you bought in the first place. over all the game is very good for its type and just keeps getting better and they say more will be coming! i rated it good only for the reason of the price of the game when i bought mine when it came out. the other is they should include the official game guide on the game disk as a bonus feature instead of making you pay allot more for the game guide separately. the above is my thoughts and opinions on this game and game practices in general.

I bought this game because I love all the Sims games
My Only con is also a Pro. Time moves slower, but fast forward not fast enough
This game makes you wonder what they could come out with next
Thanks to this game, I learned that by adding the Windows logo to the CTRL Shift C combination, I'd get my cheat box, and be able to take off aging
Here you can really roam the city. You can't really go into your work building, or school, but you can visit it, watch your sims ride their bikes, cars to work, and go even if you're late
There are so many jobs that you can't get bored. Different things change the outcome of your life
Raising a child properly, making them get good grades and stuff allows you to pick traits, and if not, you don't pick them. The same thing with pregnancy,if needs are met, pick traitsYou get paid vacations too
I would still stick to the ratings here...wooHooing is still there
As with the other sims games, there is still no nudity
The editing mode is great color & size sliders and better skin colors, hair styles & accessories
you can pick out more than one outfit if you go to a dresser or something after your sim is created
Change light color for one light,whole room, or house
Lifetime reward points got even better
You get better things as rewards
things that make you want to see how many thins you can get
You can buy out businesses, and even transfer them to others
You can grow so many things, and fish in so many waters, that life has just begun
Time does seem to be a bit slower this time around, especially when you're trying to fast-forward through the night
Lifetime happiness is the main goal here
They have more video games, but they got rid of the piano
If you're looking to be a rock star, I suggest you get a guitar. A sim may take it up after playing, so look in their inventory. If it's portable, they're likely to claim it as their own. You can't set owners to guitars, but mostly everything
(Sides of) Beds are owned by the one who slept in it first, so if you want to sleep in simA's bed, it says, "Sleep in SimA's bed?"
They know it's theirs too
Now you can see where your conversation is going with the box @ the top left "SimA thinks SimB is being flirty"
and you learn things about different sims if you talk enough. Some don't like flirty sims, and some are married...you can cheat, and friends and families of sims may tell on you
If you're going out w/ a sim as a teen, and they grow up b4 u, you're not kissing them till you age up too, but a birthday cake solves that, so blow out your candles
The best thing they did with this game is the interaction thing. Sims around you age too, and you can get into their lives even if you weren't b4. Make different families, and interact with them too. Take a jog to the beach or park, play guitar for tips, or perform, start a life of crime, be an astronaut, or whatever. There are so many choices, you can't get bored, just keep playing each generation of people, and see where you end up. Make sure you have a natural cook starting out so your food isn't crappy. Making food over and over again makes you better at that food type, so if you're a 5-star chef, but you never made grilled cheese sandwich b4, and you always make sushi
or some hard food
the one you make more will most likely b a better quality
Get recipes and song books to learn cooking or music faster
Use your pda 2 call people, every one has one!
U have favorite foods make em
Still no real time display, so watch the clock!