The four years of twice-yearly expansion packs for the Sims 2 have come to a close. The Sims 3 has arrived.
On the surface, Life in The Sims 3 isn't that different from the previous games: Build a house, create some Sims, then take control of their day to day lives, from deciding what to cook for dinner, to hitting on the blond you just met at work. It's hard to put a finger on what the allure of the Sims is, it's all very voyeuristic but its appeal spreads into many people who wouldn't typically try out a life simulation game. Casual players might be content with building houses, completionists will likely look towards climbing to the top of their chosen career ladder, others may take on the challenge of trying to raise a large family. There's many ways to play The Sims 3 and they all offer their own unique challenges and rewards. No matter how you choose to play there's likely to be some enhancements in this latest game that'll make you want to walk a few more miles in your Sims shoes.
The biggest enhancement by far in The Sims 3 is the neighborhood. Previous games made a real chore out of simply leaving your house. Going to visit another lot inside your city would trigger a loading screen which interrupted gameplay and made exploring most of what the previous expansions had to offer more trouble than it was worth. Those loading screens have now been removed and your Sims can wonder freely between lots around the city. If you happen to live next to your job you might choose to walk there rather than carpool, or you might visit your neighbours a few times a week after work since they're now just a few steps away. The new freedom this grants to your Sims makes for a far less frustrating gameplay experience and really makes you feel as if you're living in a city, rather than a house out in the boonies.
Inside the houses there's a few new options for the home builders. Objects can now be placed at 45 degree angles, allowing for far more creative layouts and these objects can now be placed in between two grid lines, so now you can center that computer in the middle of a desk or leave enough room behind a table for a Sim to squeeze by. Minor as these changes might seem they do add a lot potential designs, although complete free-form item placement would have been a far better feature to have. When purchasing items you've previously had the choice of only a handful of styles and while you do still have some preset styles The Sims 3 gives you the option to add new textures and colours to your objects without having to download hacked items. These textures can be applied to many different things, so if you want carpet pants, a wooden shirt and metal walls? You got 'em. All these new options for better customizability means that we'll be seeing some rather creative player made houses on the EA's online Sims Exchange.
Now we come to the Sims themselves, who have been tweaked in many ways. A new trait system replaces the old star sign selector and gives each Sim uniqueness well beyond the basic nice, tidy selections from the previous games. For example, your Sim could be an Absent-Minded, Ambitious, Athletic, artistic, angler and he'd behave vastly different from the evil, neurotic, insane, kleptomaniac, genius in both his wants and his available actions. Left to their own devices one will be good at both sports and fishing and will be frustrated if his skills don't advance regularly, where as the second will steal, talk to themselves, take delight in the misery of others and be one hell of a chess player. The Sims always gave you plenty of reasons to go back and play again with a different family, but with these new Sims behaving so differently from each other it gives each a real unique personality. Dialog options between Sims has also been expanded on, repeatedly spamming talk then flirt won't be a quick path to some hot Sim "WooHoo" any longer. Instead you'll need to understand the traits of your partner as she may hate flirting, so spending a little time asking her how her day was might stop you from embarrassing your Sim later and giving them a bad mood. Skills have also been adjusted slightly, you can't just keep reading a single book to become a master chef, nor can you keep painting to become a great guitar player. New books need to be purchased, recipes need to be learnt and guitars need to be practiced on if you want to work on your abilities.
Players who have kept up with the expansion packs of The Sims 2 might have forgotten how few options the game had back in 2005 when it was first released. It's easy to get a little spoilt by the new additions of pets, seasons, home businesses and the like, so you'll be in for a bit of a shock with The Sims 3. Despite the new options and tweaks of this new generation game you will be trading in your expansive item catalog for one that's a little more basic, also, your pet Mr Tinkles won't be coming with you. There's no doubt that expansions will be coming to The Sims 3, but until then even basic objects such as hot tubs and diving boards will be missing from your home. If there's an item you can't live without then you may find it on EA's online Sims Exchange, where they'll sell you items individually providing you're willing to purchase some SimPoints.
The Sims 3 does a great job at building onto previous games with some great new features that make the game feel new. However if the last couple of games didn't grab your attention then you won't find anything here to change your mind.