Being a Sims fan since I was little, I couldn’t pass up the chance to try out The Sims 3. It’s a little different than the Sims 2, but at the base it’s still the same game. It includes some things from the previous Sims 2 expansion such as;
Click pictures for full screenshot.
Some new features include being able to freely walk out your door and around your whole town. You are given an interactive map that shows you bubbles with symbols of what the buildings are. You can click on them for options to direct your sim.
Next to where you would see your sim’s needs, there is now a “moodlets” box. These are icons that tell you how your sim is feeling and how many points are going toward your sims happiness, or against it. For instance, if your sim likes the way its house is decorated it will get a bonus that lasts x amount of mins.
The “Create a Sim” option has improved, weights are drastically different. You can change the over all look of a facial feature, or click the advance options to change them individually. Which is about the same variety of change The Sims 2 had.
After this you can pick traits for your sim, some of which include; couch potato, evil, good, clumsy, genius, easily impressed, short tempered, absent-minded, and many more. These will affect your sim’s personality and interaction options, as well as their wishes.
The last real big feature is being able to change an object’s texture right in game. You can use pre-made textures and change their colors, or create your own. You are given a color wheel to work with and a drop down menu of different textures sorted by type.
So now we have that out of the way… it’s time to see what happens during the fruitful life of Unlucky TestSubject. Purely done in the name of science, I swear!
Meet Unlucky TestSubject. The first thing she did upon purchase of her new home was talk insanely to herself. That’s okay, being insane is one of her traits.
I decided to see what the locals were up to at the pool. There seemed to be a family swimming and picnicking. First plan of attack, annoy the little kid to see if his parents attacked Unlucky. After upsetting the little kid, she told him ghost stories and he ran away scared of my Sim. Mission accomplished. However his family was perfectly content to continue eating and his little sister swam around in the pool. D’aww… what role models.
My Sim then met the mother, and decided to teach her a lesson in parenting. Which resulted in slapping her around and grossing her out by eating dirt off the ground. She promptly decided to leave. Sadly I could not start a cat fight with her even though the hate meter was full. Mission failed. (Hopefully it’s still in the game).
It was time to go back home and eat. Oddly she changed into her bikini to cook dinner… I’m not sure if that was a glitch or just part of her insanity. Then watched TV in it. They seem to have facial expressions as they watch TV, I don’t remember if it was in The Sims 2 but if it was it’s more noticeable now. Finally it was time for a good rummage through the trash…
Then disaster strikes… i got bored. It was time for Unlucky to go down by my hands. Having played Muramasa all day and then beating Gears of War, it upset me I could not give her a sword to go joy killing throughout the town.
Test #1: Operation death by burning down the house. It took a while to get her to set the house on fire, after a few rounds of making waffles, getting full, then waiting for the bar to go down again, I managed to get her to set her stove on fire. She seemed happy, yet at the same time freaked out and grabbed an extinguisher that she seemed to be storing in her pants in an effort to put out the flames. This did not please me. So i made her walk to different spots in another room over and over to get her to leave it alone. The fire moved around the house in a wave of sorts. I was kind of hoping that it would just set everything ablaze and all that would be left is burnt little charcoal remains. Sadly disappointed.
Test #2: Operation death by drowning in the pool. In the Sims 2, the easiest way to kill a sim was to drown them in the pool by removing the ladder once they got in because they’re too stupid to get out any other way. So I built her a tiny little pool and sent her swimming in it. She wouldn’t go… and for some reason kept wanting to swim in her clothes, again I’m not sure if that was a bug or her insanity. Either way, once I got her in, she’d worry about drowning and get right out. Sadly disappointed… and I think she’s on to me.
Test #3: Operation “Help Help! I’m stuck in a box!” I was fed up, this sim was determined to win against me. So I stuck her in the bathroom and removed all the doors. I gave her a toilet and a shower so she could stay clean at least. Oddly she didn’t use either of them. Her hygiene was in the red and all she did was complain she couldn’t get out, call people on her cell phone, and freak out about the fire in the other room that had been set by the fireplace. So now I have a stupid sim that wont use the toilet or the shower regardless of being next to them, and her house is on fire but keeps burning itself out. Where is that AI you promised us EA? Maybe she should have read more books.
After a while the neighbors started worrying because they could see the fire through the door. A few took the opportunity to swim in the pool… About 30min had passed at this point, I decided to go make breakfast. My sim continued to complain as I looked at my watch and finished my poptart.
I came back and 15min later I had won, my sim fell over and curled up. Death appeared and turned her into a ghost, then proceeded to get stuck in the room. You’d think someone who poofs into existence can poof back out but apparently not. Then my screen read game over and sent me back to the town screen.
Later I went back with a new sim to see if death was still stuck in the room, and if Unlucky’s ghost was there. Both negative. Then I demolished the house to see if the sim would walk around town to find ways to fulfill its needs, but also neg there.
Don’t uninstall all those Sims 2 expansions just yet… All in all, the Sims 3 is at its core right now. There isn’t a ton of content, though customizable there are not many styles of objects. There is also a limited amount of things you can do. The Sims 2 has 50 bijillion expansions that let you go on vacation, have pets, live in apartments, turn your sims into witches or werewolves, and so much more. The Sims 3 lets you focus on your sim more than anything, what it wants, what it likes, what its ambitions are. The content out right now in the game is pretty much based around all of that. My guess is they will release expansions for 3 in due time. Possibly one that lets you actually follow your sim to work and play out their day, as it is now you can only see what building they work at. There are no pets so that’ll probably be another one.
I’m interested personally in seeing what the modding community will do with this version, it has a TON of potential there, and once the tools are available I think we might see some impressive stuff. Here’s what I’m talking about;
Original Sims 2, fairly far into expansions:
The Sims 2 after being modded:
I think it’s safe to say that while it’s pretty basic right now, as long as the fans are supporting it, the enjoyment for this game can be endless. I look forward to seeing how it will turn out, and don’t worry, I don’t burn, drown, and starve my sims on a regular basis.
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