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

From what I believe, the very first edition of 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 for TS3, but from several forums it is believed that an expansion pack is due to be sold later this year.

WHAT IS/WHO ARE 'THE SIMS'?

People ask me regularly, 'But what IS it? What's the point of it? What do you do?'. Put in very simple terms, The Sims (all editions) let you lead their lives. They are computer generated characters of whom you can edit however you like, who have desires and aspirations. They can follow careers ranging from anything from a world-renowned surgeon right down to a world-renowned thief! In TS3, there are plenty of careers to choose from - you can be a doctor, a thief, a businessman/woman, culinary chef, a journalist, work within the Police force, within the military services, or even have a professional career as a footballer (more on this later). You can edit your Sims to look however you want them to look (overweight, underweight, beautiful, ugly...). They must then carve out lives for themselves - moving into houses (you can build these yourself), furnish their houses, get on their career ladders, have families...the possibilities are (almost) endless!

CREATING A SIM

With TS3, you can create Sims with far more detail than you could in the previous two games. You can create toddlers, children, teenagers, young adults, adults, and elders. You can either choose one of the pre-loaded faces on screen, or you can shape a face easily by dragging the mouse to create cheekbones, or a stronger jaw, for example. You can make your Sim have big muscles, a bony physique, or largely obese. I was disappointed with the range of hairstyles TS3 has to offer - there are only a few to choose from, and only a couple are what I would call stylish (for both sexes). Also, the choice of clothes for female adult/young adult Sims are shocking - they're unfashionable and just awful! Male Sims have a lot better choice, as do children and elders. You can edit their underwear, sleepwear, sportswear, formalwear, and swimwear - giving them sunglasses, earrings, necklaces too. You can also give Sims makeup, and you can adjust the colour of their eyes and hair by a colourwheel. You can also alter the shade of their skintone by dragging the mouse up and down until the skin tone is right. I was disappointed to learn there are no tattoos, but this is only a minor annoyance. I also like how you can change the colour/pattern of clothing, so if you like a certain pair of trousers but don't like the colour, you can change it quickly. Create-A-Sim is amazing compared to TS1 and TS2, and your Sims can truly look as unique as you want them to look. If you have a male and female Sim, you can create a baby using both of their genes - e.g. the Mother's nose and the Father's hair colour. You can determine your Sims personality by giving them 'traits' - are they humerous, a flirt, and afraid of commitment? Or are they geeky, hopeless romantics and clumsy? You can also select here the aspiration you want to select for your Sim - they might want to be an acclaimed chef, or have the ambition of raising five children from babies to adulthood. You can also select their favourite food, favourite colour, and favourite music genre. Of course, you can make homosexual couples and "build" children for them, too (if you don't want to adopt later in the game), but you can't create a baby using both of their genes, which is a bit rubbish really, but then again I suppose EA are only being realistic! It's not hard to create children which look like their parents, though, so it's no big problem. Also, you can have single parents with children...in other words, you can create just about any family you want, but you must have a "Young Adult" Sim or older if there are teens, children, or toddlers in the family.

Positives

• You can create virtually any Sim
• You have the choice to control their physique (e.g. muscular, overweight, bony)
• Can change the colour of skin/hair/eyes easily
• You can alter the pattern of clothes, change the colour of clothes (e.g. a yellow top can quickly become pink).
• You can download additional hairstyles from The Sims 3's official website (you can download for free from The Exchange, or buy them using 'credits')
• There are more 'ages' to choose from - e.g. you can now create 'young adults'
• You can choose their personality and aspiration goals!

Negatives

• Hairstyle choices are minimal
• Female clothing isn't great
• It can be fairly tricky to get your Sims to look exactly how you want them to look!

BUILDING HOUSES AND BUYING FURNITURE

Building places for your Sims to live in TS3 is a little more complicated than building has been in the past - it is a lot more detailed which is a great thing once you get used to designing houses yourself. I have designed quite a few and uploaded them for other Sims 3 users to download so they can move their Sims into one of my homes. If you want an incredible house for your Sims, log into The Exchange and download them for free (it is legal and part of EA, it isn't some other company). You can create pretty much anything you like, and can change patterns on your furniture - e.g change the colour of your sofa, so everything in a particular room co-ordinates. There are, of course, some pre-loaded houses for you to buy and move into already, particularly if this is your first time playing the game.
Furniture choice is extensive and I was pleased with how much you could choose from. You can also now place furniture into corners of rooms, which means you can make better use out of smaller houses! You can also buy sports cars and bicycles to put outside your house (or in a garage, if you want to build one). You can buy swimming pools, add mosiacs to decorate the pool, there are plenty of childrens toys to furnish their bedroom/nursery...the only thing I am disappointed with is there are no hot tubs! It's not a major problem, but nevertheless I wonder why EA decided not to include hot tubs in TS3, as they had previously included them from the very beginning.
Depending on how rich your Sims are will reflect what they will be able to buy for their homes. The money cheat "motherlode" still works, which basically 'gives' your Sims 'simoleons' (they're currency) so they can lavish their homes in whatever they wish - plasma screen TVs, mini-bars, numerous swimming pools, etc. The more expensive Sims possessions are, the happier your Sims will generally be. My tip is to try not to make their houses TOO big - it's VERY time-consuming getting your Sims from one room to another if it's too large, especially as it can take your Sims over 20 minutes to use the toilet! (In Sims time). So as you can imagine, it can usually take them a good few minutes to walk them from one room to another (only in Sims time - it will only take a few seconds in our time). ****************************************

• You can create just about any house you can imagine
• Using the cheat 'motherlode' will give you as much money as you would like if you don't want to follow the rules and make your Sims earn money before filling their houses with expensive products!
• Lots of choice for furniture etc

****************************************

• It is fairly tricky to learn how to build houses
• If you want new furniture, you have to buy them from EA's TS3 website using 'credits' which you can purchase by calling them and giving your credit card details. I can't help thinking this is just a crafty way of EA to make money. Why not add the furniture into the game in the first place, rather than making users pay for additional furniture? Especially when they didn't add things like hot-tubs in the game when they had previously done so - I wouldn't be surprised to see a hot-tub for sale on their website before long.

EASE OF GAME PLAY

If I am honest, I was a little disappointed when I first began to play TS3. The graphics were great - crystal clear, just about perfect, but it was just a little slow. The Sims would do all their duties and the game wouldn't lag, it would just be painfully slow for them to carry out small tasks. This has ALWAYS been a notorious problem for The Sims - it takes them 10 minutes ish to use the toilet, can take them 20 minutes to walk between rooms, over an hour to eat meals...it's just all a little unrealistic, but in previous games you could click 'high speed' and it would whizz through these tasks and therefore they'd be on the toilet for 20 minutes still but we'd only be waiting for them for about 5 seconds (I hope you're following me Ok). But for me, and for many other users, the 'high speed' option just wasn't working. However, EA fixed this using a 'patch' which you downloaded off The Sims 3 official website, and it fixed it completely. Now the game runs quickly and easily. For me, there's never been no juddering or freezing - if this is happening to you, then it could be because your graphics card isn't a very good one, or it could be your PC/laptop in general. Call their tech support if you're experiencing these kind of problems.

== SIMS AND THEIR INTERACTION ==
It's easy to play - you literally make your Sims do whatever you want them to. If you want your Sim Jane to flirt with the Sim Tom, then you simply click on them to get chatting and build up a little friendship before allowing her to flirt with him, simply by selecting HOW you'd like her to flirt with him - e.g. whispering in his ear, sweet talk, hug, etc. Or if you want Tom to imply to Jane that her Mother resembles a Llama, he can do that, too! (Their relationship has to be pretty negative for him to say something like that to her). You have to click on one of the conversation topics and what you click determines how well your Sims will get along together. If you want them to fall in love, you have to get them to like each other and understand each other's personality. If you want them to hate each other, you have to make them loathe one another by slapping, arguing, poking, etc.
You can make a Sim heterosexual/homosexual/bisexual generally by choosing for them who they want to fall in love with - e.g. making Jane flirt and lust after Tom. However, you may find Tom might naturally lust after Ben, so it's up to you what sexuality you want your Sims to have.
To make sure friendships and relationships last, you have to keep on working with your Sims by letting them invite friends/partners/family over to keep the good feelings alive. If Tom flirts with Ben and Ben's wife Sally is in the same room, then Sally will spawn a hatred for Tom, and it can then be quite difficult for your Sim to host parties because if Tom and Sally are in the same room as each other, a fight will most certainly break out!
You can no longer invite headmaster's over for dinner (there are no private schools yet), but you can invite your boss over for dinner, and ask for a promotion, or 'smarm' with them so they will think better of you and you can therefore progress within your career sector. You can host dinner parties, birthday parties, wedding parties, and you will be rated as to how much of a good host you were; it will totally depend on whether your guests are having a blast or not!
When you create your Sim, you will have selected certain 'traits' for your Sim. A Sim who is rude and unsociable is probably not best invited to a party (unless you want to cause trouble), which is the same for shy and reclusive, 'loner' Sims. When Sims get along with each other and find out each other's traits through talking, their friendships will grow stronger, as they will know more about each other's likes and dislikes.
You can also interact with ghosts like you would normal people. Usually ghosts appear in the graveyard, where you can visit and chat to them (at night time!). ****************************************

• There are plenty of interaction choices to choose from
• The Sims in TS3 will actually tend towards Sims they will get along with more, rather than just starting friendships with Sims they have nothing in common with

****************************************
* It can be very hard to juggle family, a career, and friendships at the same time, so some friendships can easily slip away if not carefully maintained

SIMS AND THEIR CAREERS

There are now more career choices than ever before, and Sims can choose from being a businessman/woman, a criminal, a master thief, a five-star chef, a journalist, a policeman/woman (forensics, spies), a surgeon, a movie composer, an astronaut, a rock-star, a leader of the free world, a sports legend, or a mad scientist. You can even work from home and also be 'self-employed' - if your Sim has a trait of 'kleptomaniac' for example, you can steal from other Sims houses! You can hack the Internet to make money, and write books. Getting to the top of a career ladder is hard and requires plenty of work and attention, but it's attainable. A good way to get a promotion within your career sector is to go to work in a good mood and this way your Sim will be more successful in their job. Your Sims can get part time jobs and teenage Sims can work at supermarkets, in hospitals, for example - getting them ready for their future career. To be in with a chance of getting a promotion you must fulfil the specific requirements - for example, be fit up to level 3 which would mean a lot of exercising (you can exercise in front of your TV, on your home gym equipment, or at the gym itself), or gain cooking skills up to level 2 (you would then have to read up with recipe books, or even watch The Cooking Channel on the TV). If you want to have careers for all your adult Sims in your household but their are babies to take care of, you can invite nanny's round who will work around your schedule and take care of your childrens' needs. You can employ cleaners to clean your home whilst you're at work, too, so your Sim won't be left to tidy up when they arrive back home! All of this costs money, though, so make sure you add the cheat or that your working Sims can afford the expense! With their money, Sims can buy more furniture/better furniture (e.g. upgrade from a small TV to a plasma), and also pay bills, put more food in the fridge and buy new outfits/books/toys for the children etc. When going to their job, your Sim can either await a taxi or go in their own car, by clicking on the car and selecting 'go to work', or clicking on their bicycle and selecting 'go to work'. Be aware that teenagers can drive cars, too, so if you don't want to share the car, you can 'select owner', and anyone other than that Sim will not be allowed to use that specific car. You can see the Sim driving the car but you don't see them whilst they're working, which is really disappointing. They just disappear into a building and re-emerge after work! ****************************************

• A variety of careers to choose from
• Can employ a nanny to care for children (at a cost)
• Sims can travel to work in their own vehicles

****************************************

• Some careers which I thought would have been included are missing, e.g. teacher, lawyer, even maybe celebrity? Perhaps 'sports legend' is supposed to be a famous footballer, but there could be a few more careers to pick from
• You can't see the Sims working
• It can take a long time for your Sim to progress through their career

HAVING A FAMILY

Sims can reproduce and it's only young-adults and adults who can have children. Teenagers are not able to have sexual relationships and therefore can't have children themselves. If a heterosexual couple wish to have a baby, and are in love with each other (they don't have to be married), they can go to the bedroom and 'have a baby' (you click on the option which says 'have a baby'). I don't think this game is suitable for children as even though the 'baby-making process' (!) isn't explicit, you can certainly tell what is going on! However, at least it is more realistic than on previous games where a cradle would just appear out of nowhere! The female Sim may become pregnant - you will soon find out in a day or two when she is running to be sick into the toilet! A tip to discovering if she is pregnant or not is to turn the volume up and hear whether you can hear gentle music playing - if you can, she is pregnant! The female Sim will take a good few days to give birth - her bump will grow bigger and she will change into different clothing which accomodates her expanding stomach. When she is ready to give birth, you can take her to hospital, and she will give birth there. I was really disappointed to learn you can't actually view her giving birth in a hospital - again, she just walks in with her husband and walks out again when she's had the baby/babies. Not that I wanted to see the graphic birth process (!), but I was hoping to see her actually inside the hospital, rather than just waiting for a few minutes outside staring at the building. Your female Sim can have twins, or triplets! If your Sim eats certain foods, it can sway them into having a female or a male baby, too! You can name your Sim's baby whatever you wish, and can change it at a later date if you want to at the Town Hall (although I've had problems with this. Sometimes the option to change a Sims name is available, sometimes it isn't, it's a little touch and go). To increase your chances of having twins or triplets, you can 'buy' the privilige through spending your 'happiness points' your Sim earns when it fulfills little aspirations. For example, if you can see on the screen your Sim wants to eat fruit, and you allow it to eat fruit, it will earn happiness points. You can then spend these on rewards, and the chance of having twins or triplets is one of these potential rewards.
If you have a homosexual Sim couple, or you simply want to adopt, you can do so by calling the adoption agency on either your Sim's mobile phone or through their house phone. They can adopt a baby, a toddler, a child, or a teenager. If it's a baby or toddler, you can name the child whatever you choose. If it's a child or teen, it'll already arrive with a name, but you can change it at Town Hall.
I'm not sure what the limit is to how many people you can have within one house. One of my Sim families have six children and all live together in one home, so you must be able to have quite a few! ****************************************

• Quite easy to get a female Sim pregnant, and you don't have to marry them first
• Only a few days (Sim days) until she gives birth, so you aren't waiting too long
• Can have twins and triplets

****************************************

• With adoption, you have to accept whatever comes along! You can't choose what you want the adopted child to look like
• You can't view the birth inside the hospital
• It can be tricky maintaining relationships with lots of children!

STORY PROGRESSION

Basically, this means that when you are playing with one family of Sims, your other Sims within the neighbourhood are still playing and living their lives. I first thought this was great - it meant my teenage lovers were growing up at the same rate, and pregnant Mother's were going through their pregnancy whilst I played with other families.
Then, I kept 'losing' Sims. I had two brothers, and one day, one of the brother's had just vanished. He was nowhere to be found and I still haven't found him since! Then, when I went back to the remaining brother who still lived there, he suddenly had a toddler on his arm - where from?! It really annoyed me so I just deleted the family and considered it a one off.
However, similar things kept happening - Sims would have babies, name them, then be pregnant again by the time I'd play with the particular family again! I turned off story progression mode within the game settings, and it's stopped it to a fair degree, but it does still keep happening in small amounts - for example, the families continue to have their babies and name them. It's not a huge problem, but it can be really annoying when you have plans for your Sims families and things happen which really get in the way! Like I said, you can turn this option off, but it doesn't make a huge difference even when it's turned off, but at least no family members have gone AWOL since I did switch it off (yet!).

THE TOWN

Within the Sims neighbourhood, there's a gym, bookstore, library, supermarket, a town hall...you can visit any of these places by either calling for a taxi or driving yourself to these destinations (by clicking on your car and selecting 'go to...').
If your Sim is lonely, looking for friends/relationships, getting them outside of the house and to these social places will help them meet new people and establish friendships and suchlike. It can also generate them some future contacts which they may need later during their career, for example.
The best thing about this is that it is 'seamless'. I basically mean that you can pop over to your friends house by simply clicking on it, which is a great way to get your Sim meeting people. Playing the other Sims games, I used to get frustrated waiting for the Sim I wanted to walk past, and now you don't have to wait around - you can just direct your Sim to go wherever you want them to go!
The worst part of being in the town is that you can't actually go inside some of the places. For example, you can't go inside the gym, and if you go to the supermarket you only get a list of groceries to pick what you wish to buy from, you can't walk down the aisles for example. You can, however, see inside and walk around the library.
=== Positives ===

• You can drive/walk/cycle to any Sims house to socialise and meet new friends
• The town is a great place to meet other Sims

****************************************

• Instead of using the phone to call for groceries, you have to take the time to go into the town to visit the grocery store, which is a bit time consuming
• You can't go inside some of the buildings

ONLINE

You can access TS3 forum on TS3's official website by signing in with your game details. This is a great way to meet other players and exchance cheat codes (if you wish to use cheats) and generally get some sound advice and tips on playing the game. You can also have use of 'The Exchange', where you can download houses, clothes, and household objects for free to use within your own game. ****************************************

• You can receive help from other users
• You can download things for free

****************************************
* You have to pay for some items, which to me is a little bit cheeky of EA - if you've already spent money for the game, then why should you have to spend further money on additional items which should have come WITH the game?!

MY EXPERIENCE PLAYING THE SIMS 3

Overall, I have enjoyed playing TS3, and am enjoying playing it on a regular basis. It is VERY addictive, but a great boredom buster - I have spent many a happy hour playing this game when having nothing else to occupy myself with!
The best part of the game for me is the ease of playing. It's easy, once you know how, to establish relationships between different Sims and keep relationships going. I've also been able to have many families and been able to play with each successfully, with no lagging or juddering during gameplay. I also love how you can create 'traits' for your Sims, so they can be 'insane', 'hopelessly romantic', etc...it just makes the game even more exciting!
I do occassionally use cheats to improve my gaming experience with TS3 - I like the money cheat, because otherwise it can sometimes be a little difficult to progress with careers, for example. If your Sim doesn't have a TV to help them improve their skills, or even a computer to find a job with, it can be hard getting the Sims on their way. I use cheats only when I really need to, but it makes my gaming easier, so I don't hesitate to type in 'motherlode' when I need extra simoleons!
The story progression is the worst part of The Sims 3, as is the fact you can't go inside hospitals or the workplace. As I have previously mentioned, Sims can just suddenly vanish and can't be retrievable, and it can seriously screw up a game, especially if you're playing without cheats and the Sim who vanishes off the face of the earth is the one who earns all the money to help your family of six Sims survive! It can be really frustrating and sometimes results in having the entire family deleted.
I would definitely recommend TS3 for gamers over a certain age; it's not overly sexual, but when a woman conceives it is certainly apparent as to what is happening! So it's up to you, if you're a parent, to let your child play this game. I'd personally allow teenagers to play TS3, but not young children. Plus, young children simply won't be ABLE to play the game - it's a lot more confusing than the original Sims games, and some children will no doubt be overwhelmed by how much you have to do within the game. Plus, Sims do die, and this could be quite upsetting for some young children!
For me, TS3 is the best out of TS1 and TS2. It includes SO much more than before, and there are many improvements. Expansion packs are due for release very soon (apparently it's due out in November, we'll have to wait and see). A bad point about TS3 is you need an expensive machine to run it, and with expansion packs due for release it will only take up even MORE memory - please don't buy this for your loved ones before checking it works on their PC/laptop first! Just to avoid disappointment.
I thoroughly enjoy playing TS3 and hope this review helps people in deciding whether or not to purchase the game. Personally, I feel it's the BEST PC game on the market - there are so many possibilities, and it's a different game each time you play it. There are no 'rules' you have to follow - you can simply play however you wish to play!

Thanks for reading this review. Have a good day!