The Sims 3

The Sims 3 Reviews

I’ve played all the Sims games from the original to this one and pretty much all of the expansions and stuff packs. I have to say the changes in this version are well worth the purchase…though there are caveats. One thing to note: this is the first game released as part of EA’s backstepping away from DRM. Just the CD key and the CD…no DRM required. Nice timing.

I’ll split this review into two pieces and won’t go into crazy depth as those depths are covered elsewhere anyway. If you’ve played the previous Sims games, skip the next section. Otherwise, newbies, read on.

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New to the Sims Universe?

If you’re new to the Sims Universe, the simple version is that you should just start here with Sims 3. A lot of the “updates” that were incorporated into this version are long needed and really enhance gameplay. The biggest problem we used to have was loading screens…constant loading screens. Those are gone so now the game is a lot more immersive.

You create and take control of a Sim which you can define with a number of traits and of course design from the ground up to look however you want. It’s very RPG in the end but open-ended as you can follow any career or life path you want. Feel like creating an Evil slacker that mooches off the neighborhood? Go for it. Want to be the leader of the free world? By all means.

With a combination of skills you can learn/improve on (Cooking, Fishing, Logic, Charisma, and others), you gradually open up choices and opportunities. Speaking of which, as you progress through your sim life, you’ll get opportunities which are essentially missions to undertake with rewards of money and other things tangible or intangible. These combined with random events (like grill-offs, or chess tournaments) are designed to get you out there interacting with other sims and advancing your sim. In the end, what happens is all up to you.

Your sims can eventually die (though you can turn this off) so you’ll likely want to look at starting a family and progressing your family tree. This essentially means, the death of one character isn’t the end of the game.

Now, this isn’t a traditional RPG so you have to keep in mind that there are moments of boredom where you wait for something to happen (really that’s only when your sim is at work). You can speed up time but for things like work, you’re sitting around for a couple minutes waiting. Not terrible but it can become a drag at times. This combined with the needs for your sim (hunger, energy, etc.) which without help from lifetime rewards (rewards paid for with points you accumulate living your life) can sometimes leave you in a time management crunch. It’s one of those things that you learn to deal with as you play but it can become tiresome after a while. Consider yourself warned.

There’s also a huge community of people tossing up items, sims, and the like on the Sims Exchange online. EA’s also got a store where you can buy more items, sims, lots, etc. for a price. The average item will cost you anywhere from 25-100 sim points. The exchange rate is $1 = 100 sim points. You can buy more points on the site. Just keep in mind that the bread and butter of this franchise is expansion packs and stuff packs which add features and content to the game every 6-9 months. You can either stash cash for these packs or just microtrans your way into a new car or new set of furniture that your sims can eventually buy.

All in all, though, the game is fun. There are interesting interactions and sometimes surprises. You have a lot of freedom which is great but if you’re the type that really needs goals, unless you put your sim through the career paths offered in the game, you might find yourself bored with nothing to do. Yes, it’s a bit like playing with a dollhouse but I look at it more like an open-ended RPG where you’ve got to kick your imagination into gear and have some fun playing around with your sim.

Take a look at the Sims 3 site (http://www.thesims3.com) and watch some of the videos. If you like what you see, you’ll probably have fun with this game. If you’re a hard-core gamer, you’re probably already steering clear of this game so you’re good to go.

For newbies, I definitely don’t recommend the Collector’s Edition. Unless you really want that USB flash drive or the $10 of sim points (= 1000 sim points), it’s not really worth the extra $20. The prima guide thing is ridiculously short and is more of a teaser to buy their full guide at 25% off. Ignore.

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Sim Veterans, stop here!

What can I say? No more of those damned loading screens! You start up (which is a bit faster than the Sims 2) and load a saved game (no more lot saves) which takes a lot less time to load than lot loads in Sims2.

Once you’re in, you’ve basically got a big map of a town that you’re looking at top-down. You can zoom in to the house level but have to switch to sim mode in order to see inside. Kind of stupid…should’ve been one continuous movement but this is what you get.

At the map level, you get SimCity (3000) style bubbles attached to landmarks that you can click to show the bubble menu (like when you click on a sim) and select actions related to those places. Once you get the hang of it (which doesn’t take long) it’s really nice not having to go through all the hassles of picking a lot to go to and waiting for loads. It’s such a big deal, I can’t tell you. One thing they also did was move some of the functions you might have done at home (like ordering groceries) into the logic place for those functions (grocery store).

The UI is still familiar because most things are in their original places but a lot of things have also changed. No more aspiration points or influence. Now, you’ve got lifetime wishes (essentially your lifetime aspiration) and one off wishes which are sort of like selectable wants. So, instead of the Vegas-style slots where you just got random wants you could achieve, now there’s a box with the Sim’s wishes that pop-up for a short time. You can add up to four wishes to the Sim’s wish list and try to fulfill them for lifetime happiness points. These points are sort of like an amalgam of achievement points, lifetime reward points and whoknowswhat. These points are generated from wish fulfillment but also by just being in a good mood. They buy enhancements or one-off benefits for your sim like Steel Bladder (which eliminates decay on your Bladder meter). Interesting idea but we’ll see if it works in the long run.

The other big thing is the traits system. Instead of the five traits (Shy vs Outgoing, etc.), there are a lot more individual traits of which your sim can have up to five. These can be positive or negative traits. If you grow a sim from a baby, the traits are randomly picked (though slanted based on the mother’s traits). If you create a sim from scratch, you get to pick them. The traits work a lot like those Sims 2 traits in that they affect the way the Sim responds to events, other people, etc. and also infer bonuses. For instance, you can add the Bookworm trait to make it easier for you to learn from books. They’re pretty interesting and definitely add to the color of the game.

What else? 45 degree angles on furniture placement, free movement to anywhere in town without a loading screen, new interactions–some of them based on your skills–and the ability to upgrade some furniture items. There is a lot to see and discover. There are a lot of good enhancements. When you’re on the job, you can change your actions so you can slack off or work harder.

What’s missing? Vacation homes, pets, apartments, loading screens, etc.

What’s wrong? Here’s a dumb idea…let’s take the interaction to Call someone off your Sim and put it on the landline only. Or you can click into your inventory and select the phone and then finally call out where there isn’t a phone handy.

The main problem: we’re starting over again. You know we’re going to start seeing expansion packs and stuff packs or something like that by Christmas. Sure there are somethings (like hobbies) which are largely included and there are a lot of little things to do as you explore careers and locations and start building your own towns. It still sucks that you can’t have pets, can’t do the apartment thing, and can’t do vacation homes/trips. It always feels like we’re getting used again.

Still, all the new changes (and it runs pretty smoothly despite those changes) definitely help take the bite out of that snub. I still can’t tell you how great it is not to deal with lot management any more. When you head to work or head off to the neighbor’s that first time and follow your sim around, it’s beautiful.

What can I say? You have to buy it. I kept my Sims 2 install in place just in case but I seriously doubt I’ll head back there any time soon. Give it a little time and I’m sure they’ll put out an expansion to rectify some of those missing activities. Then it’ll be time to uninstall the old and let all those packs collect dust.

What about the Collector’s Edition? It’s the same as the newbies. Unless you really want that USB key, it’s not really worth the extra $20. The guide is anemic, the sports car is interesting but you’ll be able to find something else on the Exchange eventually, and you can just buy $10 of sim points online. If you can find it discounted to the price of the regular game ($49) then it’s probably worth the pick up but by then you’d have missed out on a lot of gaming fun.

UPDATE: A few people complained about bugs (babysitter running off with kids, storytelling toggle not working, etc.). EA just released an update for the game, 1.2.7. Fire up the game to download it. Release notes are here:

http://www.thesims3.com/game/patches/-1206416818

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