The game that first opened up the world of video games to a wider audience is back, going beyond being just a virtual dollhouse to a complete interactive neighbourhood. The basic... more
beyond being just a virtual dollhouse to a complete interactive neighbourhood. The basic concept is still the same though, as you create your own computerised ...
The Sims 3 (PC/Mac DVD)
The game that first opened up the world of video games to a wider audience is back, going ... more
beyond being just a virtual dollhouse to a complete interactive neighbourhood. The basic concept is still the same though, as you create your own computerised ...
The Sims 3 for PC
The Sims 3 gives you complete freedom inspiring you with endless creative possibilities. ... more
Featuring a brand new engine that has been in development for nearly three years, The Sims 3 allows you to immerse your unique Sims in an open living neighbourhood...
you with unexpected moments of surprise and mischief! Create millions of unique Sims and control their lives. Customize their appearances and personalities. Build their homes ? design everything from exquisitely furnished dream homes to quaint cottages. Then, send your Sims out to explore their ever-changing neighborhood and to meet other Sims in the town center. With all-new quick challenges and rewarding game play, The Sims 3 gives you the freedom to choose whether (or not!) to fulfill your Sims? destinies and make their wishes come true.Key FeaturesNew Seamless, Living Neighborhood- Explore the ever-changing neighborhood?and take your Sims to meet friends in the park, go on a date at the bistro, visit neighbors? homes, converse with less-than-savory characters in the graveyard and more! Who knows what might happen?- Admire the natural beauty of the beach, the mountains, and more.New Create A Sim- Create any Sim you can imagine with easy-to-use design tools that allow for unlimited customization of facial features, hair color, eye color, and more.- Fine tune your Sims body shape from thin to curvy to muscular.New Personality Traits- Create over a million different personalities with traits such as evil, insane, kleptomaniac, romantic, and more.- Influence the behaviors of your Sims with the traits you?ve chosen. Will you create a neurotic romantic with a heart of gold, or a geeky super-genius with an evil streak?New Unlimited Customization- Everyone can customize everything?design and build your dream house and decorate it to fit your Sims? personalities.- Customize everything from floors to d?cor, shirts to sofas, wall-paper to window shades.New Gameplay That?s Rewarding and Quick- Face short- and long-term challenges and reap the rewards.- Your Sims can pursue random opportunities to get fast cash, get ahead, get even, and more.- Choose whether or not to fulfill your Sims? destinies by making their wishes come true. Will your Sims be thieves, rock stars, world leaders? You decide! Get Connected and Share Your Creations with The Sims 3 Online Community!- Get Free Bonus Content?Download Sims, outfits, furnishings, houses and more.- Create and Share Sims, houses, movies and more with anyone.- Join The Sims 3 community to share ideas with fans of The Sims from around the world.
favourite film, film star, music icon or celebrity. High quality photography that you can be proud to display in your home cinema/theatre, living room on your office desk or around the home.
outside their door interacting with other Sims using the new deeper personality system. The game also allows you to customize anything anywhere. From floors to flowers fashions to sofas wallpaper to window shades and more The Sims 3 gives you all the flexibility and options you need to be the architect of your dream house or explore your interior design skills to outfit your ultimate home. Your Sims can make home an ultra-deluxe mansion a cool bachelor pad familys dream home or charming cottage. The choice is yours. ; Live the highlife with our tips for getting all the big promotions making the most money finding love and achieving big lifetime dreams. ; Before spending a single Simoleon check out the Object Catalog for appraisals of each household item. ; Our Reference Tables are bursting with the quick-fix facts you need to make informed decisions in Sunset Valley. ; Never go into a conversation unprepared. Our relationships chapter details every social situation including how to fall in love. ; Design Corner features lots designed by The Sims pros. Get your dream home inspiration right here. ; Every Sim is guided by their wishes. These can be as small as wanting to take a class or read a book. Some wishes are a little more involving like having a baby. Each adult Sim is also defined by a Lifetime Wish such as becoming a master gardener or a rock star. This guide details exactly how to fulfil all wishes big and small -- even wishes as enormous as becoming an astronaut.
***Please be sure to read my updates at the end of this review, which now address many of the problems I found with my review of this game in its original 'straight out of the box' form.
Year of release: 2009 Publisher: EA Games
The Sims 3 is the latest in the ‘Sims’ life simulator series that began in 2000 with The Sims, in which you create lifelike characters and watch them live out their lives and interact with each other in many and varied, and often hilariously funny, ways. As a massively avid fan of The Sims 2, I got my copy of this new offering a week ago and have been immersing myself in it.
Installing it is easy, if a bit time-consuming as it requires a whopping 6.1 GB of hard disk space with an allowance of another 1 GB for saved games and custom content. Once installed, those who, like myself, had become accustomed to playing The Sims 2 with its eight expansion packs plus several thousand custom content files, will be pleasantly surprised at the quick loading times. (However, if you cast your mind back to the Sims 2 base game, it loaded in a flash – it’s the addition of expansion packs and custom content that result in ever-increasing load times. My Sims 2 game now takes ten minutes to boot up!)
So, having installed it, off I went to the ‘Create A Sim’ module to create my first family. As in The Sims 2, the family consisted of myself, my Significant Other, and two male lodgers. And this was my first stumbling block. I’d had a bad feeling, from screenshots and promotional videos I’d seen, about the way the new Sims looked – they looked more cartoony and less realistic, with flat featureless skin and round faces with strange small facial features. I’d hoped this would be improved by the time of release, but to my disappointment, when I opened Create A Sim I realised that it was not.
When I first bought The Sims 2, even as a newbie I was able to create Sims that looked uncannily like the people they were based on, which was remarked upon by everyone I showed my creations to. With The Sims 3, I could not get any of my Sims to look even remotely like their real counterparts. It looks as if the art team who designed and drew the character models for The Sims 2 were replaced by someone with a completely different style. I loved the look of the characters in The Sims 2 and found them endearingly cute. With The Sims 3, you get butt-ugly Sims. Everyone has big broad bloated-looking faces with double chins and pinched-looking, too-close-together facial features. Someone on one of the Sims discussion forums said ‘everyone looks like Miss Piggy’ and I agree. Also, strangely, whereas in The Sims 2 everyone looked about 21 years old, in The Sims 3 the women look matronly and the men look 12 years old, and there is little you can do to improve on that. The men also tend to have wild staring eyes for some reason.
You have to spend a lot of time fiddling with facial feature sliders to get someone that doesn’t look completely repulsive, but they still look unattractive. Thankfully, they provide a Head Width slider which improves a bit on the broad faces, but you still get the double chin effect. In the end, my Simself came out looking like a middle-aged bloated alcoholic who looked nothing like me and had a weird smirking mouth, and my Significant Other and our lodgers all look 12 years old with wild staring eyes and also nothing like themselves. Hair is also a problem – there are very few styles to choose from, all of them awful, and the long hair styles clip through the Sim’s clothing, which you would expect from badly-meshed custom content but not from the game’s publishers themselves.
Having had to resign myself to being a bloated middle-aged alcoholic living with three 12-year-old boys, I saved the family, went to the ‘Edit Town’ screen (formerly called ‘Neighborhood’ in The Sims 2) and moved them into a house. This was straightforward and much the same as how you do it in The Sims 2, including the familiar ‘Buy’ and ‘Build’ modes although these are arranged a bit differently. However, there is shockingly little to buy – gone are nearly all of the staples that you would expect in a Sims game: no hot tub, no Jacuzzi, no piano (though you get an acoustic guitar), no games except the chess set and a new football table (not even the ubiquitous dartboard) – in fact, there is very little to choose from in any category. And bizarrely, although you can still build a swimming pool, there is no diving board!
There is also only one Neighborhood/Town, which was quite a surprise, as The Sims 2 base game came with three. As I continued into the game, more and more glaring omissions struck me – there are no alien or fantasy characters such as the elf-eared face you could choose in Sims 2’s Create a Sim or the alien family you got in Sims 2’s Strangetown. There is no separate Bodyshop app for creating your own custom clothing (Create a Sim now includes a facility for choosing different patterns and colours for the default clothing, but this is nowhere near as useful for us creative types). It began to dawn on me that there was actually shockingly little content in this game compared to the Sims 2 base game and which I would have expected in something that takes up over 6GB for its initial bare installation.
Spending a good deal of time playing my new family and letting them ‘bed in’, I found I was really not very happy. I remember my joy at first playing The Sims 2, where I sat back laughing and marvelling at my little characters running amok interacting with each other and doing funny things. Now I found myself getting bored and irritated. Aside from being p’d off at what they all look like, I was surprised at how bad the AI and pathing were. Each Sim spent a lot of time just standing and staring, as if Free Will was turned off. When I ‘told’ them to do something, they spent ages standing there before going to do it. The same applied when they did things autonomously: stand there for ages before going and doing it. Pathing-wise, they constantly whined about things being in their way rather than turn around and walk, and when they did move, the animations were sporadic with the Sim often freezing in place for a few seconds in mid-walk. At first I thought it was my computer freezing, but then I noticed that other Sims were moving normally while one was freezing in mid-air. Bizarre.
I decided to have my family go out for a meal. When I clicked on their car and told them to go, instead of getting in the car and driving off as in The Sims 2, they stood at the side of the road. Their car suddenly materialised in the middle of the road, the Sims disappeared, and then you see them driving off in the car. I found this set of animations really poor. At the cafe, I clicked on them to go in. As they did, I moved the camera forward to enter the building with them and – nothing. The whole building disappeared and I was faced with an empty floor plan. I was unable to watch my Sims dine, but a progress bar came up onscreen to show that they were doing so. After the progress bar competed, they emerged from the building, got in the car and went home. I thought it was some bug to do with my computer, but on consulting a Sims discussion forum, discovered that this is actually how it’s been scripted and that forum members were very unhappy with what they referred to as this ‘rabbit holing’ of the community lots. I was shocked at this, as one of my favourite features of The Sims 2 was watching my Simmies enjoying themselves out on the town.
Altogether, this game feels more like ‘The Sims 1.5’ than a progression onwards from The Sims 2. It feels like a step backward – it comes across as unfinished and half-baked, like something the makers rushed to market due to publisher pressures rather than taking the loving care over it that was so much more noticeably taken with its two predecessors. There is an awful lot of basic stuff missing that was in the previous two games, and it feels slow and tedious rather than fast and funny like The Sims 2. The game is also buggy – for instance, as I write this, I have the game running on my other computer. The Repo Man has just arrived to confiscate our belongings, but as he turns his raygun on each item, they are not disappearing as should be the case – he’s now leaving and having a good evil laugh and my Sims are crying, but all of our belongings are still there!
In some ways, the look and feel are more reminiscent of The Sims 1 than The Sims 2. The Sims themselves are of a poorer graphic quality than their predecessors, although object graphics are of a better quality. The heads-up display looks like that of the Sims 1, including the low-resolution look of the Sims’ avatars, and the Sims themselves have a more sort of ‘chunky’ look like those in The Sims 1 did, rather than the slim look of The Sims 2.
I’m feeling hard-pressed to find any advantage of this game over The Sims 2. A good thing is that you can now have multiple savegames rather than just one. The one feature I do like a lot is the huge variety of new personality traits, of which your Sim can have five at the same time (I was pleased to be able to be a Computer Whiz like in real life!). They can now have such traits as Hopeless Romantic, Evil, Slob, Daredevil, Brave, Genius, Overemotional, and Couch Potato. Some of the traits are pretty funny – one of our lodgers is based on a lodger we used to have who was a gormless but pompous socially inept nerd (think Sheldon from ‘Big Bang Theory’ but sporting a big furry beard) and I enjoyed giving him the ‘Inappropriate’ personality trait, having him send an ‘inappropriate forum post’ on his PC and then get an insulting reply. But what I would have liked even better, would be for this feature to be an expansion pack for The Sims 2 where I would have enjoyed it much more.
I would say that if you are a Sims 2 fanatic like myself, you will want to buy this out of curiosity and just to experience something new, but will probably be disappointed. If you are undecided and you have a friend who already has this, try it out there first. At present, I am not happy with this product, but I live in hope that there will be a patch to make some improvements and fix the bugs, and that with its future expansion packs it will eventually become the game it should have been. I am only just recommending it, on that basis. The game comes as a dual-format (PC and Mac) DVD.
UPDATE 14/6/09: Thanks to the wonderful people at Mod The Sims, it is now possible to create non-pudding-faced Sims! You can download the CAS (Create a Sim) Slider Hack, here: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=344369 . This gives the sliders much further travel and enables you to create more varied and realistic-looking face shapes. And also, very UNrealistic face shapes: I've created some real monster fuglies with enormous ears, Pinocchio-length noses, huge alien-style eyes, ridiculously high eyebrows, and so on. Your imagination's the limit now! I'm starting to like this game better.
UPDATE 09/07/09: It's getting better - Mod The Sims has now come up with realistic-looking replacement default skins and eyes. Between these replacements and the Slider Hack, you can now make sims that look almost as good as Sims 2 sims. Here are the replacements I'm using in my game with great success:
'Asian skins' by 234jiao - despite the name, these are suitable for all and look great in-game: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=349827
Eyes by aikea_guinea: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=348047
And also, EA have now released a bug patch (1.2.7) that has addressed many of the issues that were ruining the game, and I'm now finding that it's running better with less freeze-ups. They've fixed such things as the fast speed on the timer not working and have allegedly fixed the inability to turn Story Progression off, though I need some time to see if this is really working - I was fed up with finding my families with random babies that I didn't want them to have, or 'moving out of town' after I'd spent ages creating them and furnishing their house. The game is still far from perfect, but a lot better than it was and I'm finding it more fun now.
Advantages: New careers; personality traits; Great graphics and speed on my laptop Disadvantages: Lack of choices within Create-A-Sim; Could be slow on some users PC's/laptop's
So, The Sims 3. If you're here, you've probably played The Sims before, and are thinking about buying the latest game. Or maybe you're someone who has never played any of The Sims games before and are interested about it. I hope to give you a detailed review weighing up both advantages and disadvantages of the product, which will hopefully guide you into making a decision on whether to purchase it for yourself or not.
A LITTLE BACKGROUND INFO ... ...The Sims (which I will abbreviate to "TS"), was released in 2002. It was fairly simple compared to what we have now in 2009, but nevertheless, still an amazing game even by today's standards! There have been three "base" games - The Sims 1 (TS1), The Sims 2 (TS2) and now The Sims 3 (TS3). You could get various "expansion packs" for both TS1 and TS2, including Hot Date, Superstar, University, Pets. Right now, there are no expansion packs available ...
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Advantages: Never gets boring Disadvantages: cannot turn into werewolf like in sims2
...am very experienced with all the Sims games from the original 'Sims' and it's 'making magic' etc to the new addition of the Sims 3.
First Appearance:
On advertisements it is VERY appealing, showing us the new and improved version the Sims3 has a complete new feel to it. With more human-like characters and a more varied and random behaviour traits. The sims3 has been packed with many different aspects to make the game last forever and ever without ... ...Mode.
The first thing i noticed about the town was that you cannot move your lots into a complete random space. This is a big disadvantage for me as i like to re-arrange alot. Yet there is an alternate asset which is more satisfying; For example: there are many special places in the town, such as mines and almost 'crater like' lots which are unusual places to live or build on, yet people like me would love to be unusual, and place a house there!. ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Still very addicting, and a great seamless neighbourhood. Goodbye loading screens! Disadvantages: Still quite 'basic' whilst we wait for all those inevitable expansion packs.
...you haven't even heard of The Sims before then, well, where have you been?! The Sims took off years ago and is now a huge, best selling popular PC game, along with its never ending expansion packs. First there was The Sims, then came along The Sims 2 and now this year has come The Sims 3, bigger and better than ever before. The Sims is anything you want it to be. You can create a Sim that resembles you, someone famous or just a completely made up ... ... What's New in The Sims 3? The main difference between The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 is here is now a seamless neighbourhood. The problem with The Sims 2 was if you wanted to take your Sim say, grocery shopping downtown, you would sit staring at a loading screen with a picture of a taxi on it for a good 5 minutes! By the time you waited for this to load, take your Sim shopping, then get them back home again you began to wonder if it's worth it having ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Addictive, fun and still very familiar Disadvantages: Too addictive sometimes, and a little empty without the expansion packs
I absolutely love the Sims games. Have had every game, every expansion and spent hours downloading additional content to the point that my computer has slowed to a crawl! So, obviously, I was quite excited by the release of the Sims 3.
First of all, game requirements. This looked a little scary for me because I recently traded my desktop for a laptop, and worried that it wouldn't be able to cope. I met the minimum requirements, but there wasn't ... ...have to turn off the shadows, and reduce the detail/texture to improve performance on slower machines, and I expected this game to be a total drain on resources. However, I was pleasantly surprised, and even with Vista as my OS, the game runs smoothly and without jumps or pauses in the action. So, don't be too afraid of this game as far as the requirements go... be afraid when the expansion packs come out! lol
After the nice intro scene, you get ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Addictive, fun and easy to play Disadvantages: Addictive and slightly costly
...After an altercation with the HMV security guard, I purchased the recommended item for a rather costly £34.99, although I had seen it priced up to £40 in some outlets (Zavvi - no wonder they're in administration). Is £34.99 too much to pay for a computer game? Its certainly a high price, despite the games newness, and would require a great deal of justification. I will move onto this later. Incidentally, I also purchased some home-made garlic French ... ...should take a trip to the doctors. Despite the fact she is a nurse, I am not going to follow her advice. We are talking about a woman who still believes my local baker is named Victoria Sponge, and the lady who runs the sweet shop is called Annie Seed. Also, my doctor is rude and antipathetic - I once told him I'd get more sympathy going to a doctor with a bone through his nose than one the NHS churned out. But the real reason, I'm not going to the ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Many different activities to do to survive and become self efficient Disadvantages: Disappointing, easy to become bored of
...I have really enjoyed the Sims games in the past. Disappointed that my computer is not compatible with Sims3 due to my display card not being up to the requirements I decided to play castaway.
In the game my sims character is stranded on an island and has to find a way to get off it. As the game progresses the sim comes across a medic, chef, girl and a gardener and offers to help them and in return receives items and eventually the ability to trade goods.
As in the usual sims standard functions such as hunger, energy, hygiene, bladder, social, comfort need to be maintained.
"Hunger"
The sim is able to explore the island and hunt under the rocks for bugs as nutritional snacks, however this does decrease comfort and hygiene. These bugs also come in handy later for fishing and dying clothes. Coconuts can be collected from...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Some fun tasks, keeps you occupied Disadvantages: Poor graphics, poor sounds, too structured, limited
...I love The Sims, The Sims 2 and can't wait for The Sims3 (which comes out on 5th June), however this game really does belong on the PC. It's just not the same on any other console as I found out whilst playing The Sims 2 on my DS.
The Sims 2 on the DS is very limited, even the fun part of creating characters is lost with about four hairstyles and very little clothing, OK so this isn't the most important feature of the game but still, it's not the same.
This game starts with a little video, in which we see a car breakdown in the middle of nowhere, this is the character you've created. There's only one hotel in town and so with no money and a broken car, you get hired at the hotel where you must earn money so you can leave. The tasks your given are quite simple and easy, there's also mini games which are fun but nothing special...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Excellent add on role playing game. Very addictive Disadvantages: NONE
....
Two new Talent badges are also availiable within the game Sewing and Pottery, items made by the sims can be used in the Sims 2 Open for business and earn the sims extra monies.
There is also 5 new career paths to follow within the game Architecture, Dance, Entertainment, Intelligence and Oceanography.
Mr Humble now arrives on your first day of a new sim lot and drops off a nice shiny new computer - preloaded with the Sims3 for your sims to enjoy (so unfair when do we humans get a copy!!!???)
Another fantastic new feature to the game is that when your sim grows older they can now grow old with their friends, the game now allows you to choose upto three sims you wish to grow older with. Which is great if you have a teenage sim who has a relationship on the go as they do not need to leave their loved one behind anymore!!
Any...
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The game that first opened up the world of video games to a wider audience is back, going beyond being just a virtual dollhouse to a complete interactive neighbourhood. The basic concept is still the same though, as you create your own computerised family and help (or hinder) them in achieving their lifetime dreams. This sim's charisma rating isn't quite as high as he thinks The rest of town is now just as interactive as your sims' home As ever, different sims have very different desires Manage your sims' lives from baby to old age pensionerInstead of just dealing with one house at a time though, your whole sims town is part of one continuous map, with neighbours going about their business independently. Likewise your own family can explore at will and interact with any and all buildings and people.Once fully grown a sim can have up to 60 personality traits - from loner to flirt - all of which you can influence via their environment and the people they interact with. However you want to play and whatever you want to do it's easier than ever to create your own virtual soap opera.Key Features Instant expansion: The game includes many feature from the The Sims 2 expansions from the off, including personal inventories, pets, private cars, restaurants and gardening. Sims in the mood: Monitor your sim's six moodlets - hunger, bladder, energy, social, hygiene and fun - to see how they're feeling and what they want to do. Life goals: Every sim has their own wishes and opportunities, including a main lifetime wish - it's up to you whether you help them towards it or purposefully confound them. Wide world: The giant game world not only looks better than ever but means that your sim is no longer just tied to their house, but is able to interact with the whole town. Virtual makeover: The Create-A-Sims tool is more flexible than ever, with the ability to alter weight, fitness, hair and clothing down to the tiniest detail - including freckles and birthmarks! About the Developer: EA Redwood ShoresSituated in the same San Francisco bay area as EA's main headquarters, the Redwood Shores studio has created many licensed games including The Godfather and The Simpsons Game - as well as original titles such as Dead Space. In 2004 it was merged with The Sims creator Maxis.The Sims 3 lets you immerse truly unique Sims in an open, living neighborhood just outside their door! The freedom of The Sims 3 will inspire you with endless possibilities and amuse you with unexpected moments of surprise and mischief. Your Sims can roam throughout their neighborhood, visit neighbors' homes, and explore the surroundings. They can stroll downtown to hang out with friends, meet someone new at the park, or run into colleagues on the street. If your Sims are in the right place at the right time, who knows what might happen?! New easy-to-use design tools allow for unlimited customization to make truly individual Sims. Determine your Sims' shape and size, from thin to full-figured to muscular - and everything in between! Choose your Sims' facial features, their exact skin tone, hair eye shape and color and select their clothing and accessories. Create realistic Sims with distinctive personalities. Select from dozens of personality traits and combine them in fun ways. The combination of traits you choose - brave, artistic, loner, perfectionist, klepto, romantic, clumsy, paranoid, and much, much more - help shape the behavior of your Sims and how they interact with other Sims. Your Sims can now rise above their basic set of every day needs. They are complex individuals with unique personalities. Build your dream house or design the ultimate home. Customize everything from floors to flowers, shirts to sofas, wallpaper to window shades. It's fun and easy to change colors and patterns giving you endless personalization options. Or you can populate your Sims' neighborhood with pre-designed buildings and furnishings. Which of your Sims will live in high-end mansions, cool bachelor pads, ultimate dream homes or low-cost cottages?
AKA: My Sims Kingdom - Genre: Simulation, Kids/Family - Life Sim/Virtual Pet - Publisher: Electronic Arts (EA) - Developer(s): EA Redwood Shores - Age Rating: 3+
19.07.2009
16.07.2008
