MENA Gamer - Where Game Begins

The Sims 3                                              9/10

[PC]

The Sims have been around longer than most typical social life genre games, that seemed to dominate the gaming shelves with such expansions as ‘Sims : Makin’ magic’ or ‘Sims : Unleashed’ though they never did acknowledge my idea of ‘Sims : Credit Crunch’ either way, your either a Sims fan, or you’re sick to death of the idea of playing a life of someone when you could just play your own life for free! If, options number two, then this review is hopefully going to turn your ideas around…

The Sims 3
If your new to the Sims then a quick synopsis is that it’s a virtual life simulator, you take the role of one character, or a bunch of characters living together in a house, and just like real life they have needs, they have urges, they can even make babies that will alter your entire houses wellbeing, they have to earn jobs, earn lots of simoleans, they then progress through there life, socially developing, and developing ones house, or buying a new home, moving neighbourhood to encounter more/different people (sims) the list of possibilities is seemingly endless, and Sims 3 seems to have increased the number of endless possibilities.

Aspire to what you've always wanted to be

Previous Sims players will notice the biggest difference, that you can now freely explore your town, whereas before, even in expansions that set you to be outside your house, e.g. ‘Busting’ out’ you still felt rather constrained to the four walls of your house or scene. Sims 3 takes it to a new level, so now travelling to areas of desirability, such as a club, the gym or even work has to involve walking, biking or driving, instead of just the usual public transport that would pick you up everyday at a specific time, now your in charge of how he/she arrives to work, and in the most efficient way, as not everything’s free.

Because of the new exploring capabilities you will always be meeting new Sims, and using your phone you can never be out of reach, you can call them, or they’ll call you, some at different times of the day, for example if you head to the cemetery at around midnight, you will find some ghastly ghouls lurking, though befriend them and they’ll be your pals to invite wherever, this goes for any location, each has its prime busy time, and not only will your Sim realize who’s the best friend for him/her but so will you as you both take a liking to the Sims around you.
 

Make literally any variation of person, thousands of possibilities

Whilst creating a Sim you will notice the massive many new things you can use to create your very own personal Sim, sliders determine to what precision you want their skin colour to be, nose, chin and other various features, you can also establish traits that will help your Sim through everyday scenarios, or even scenarios out of the ordinary, you can pick five traits to aid your Sim, and help get the desired career path you want.

The AI of each Sim has been improved greatly, now at parties you can sit back and let the action unfold, whereas before you’d have to prompt them to start a conversation, or even produce some kind of entertainment, instead, just sit back and enjoy the comedy that occurs. There are a lot more conversational topics now so talking to people aren’t just limited to repeating the same old Simlish over and over.
The ultimate goal in Sims 3 is to complete aspirations, and these are set via the traits you give your Sim at the beginning, for example one major aspiration may be to have a big family, so thus you develop your life until you get a wife, make babies, and lots of them! Or perhaps to become a famous rockstar, which would include socially developing and throwing the best parties around, the game can be played multiple times as each time is always different.
 

Portray your life, or expand beyond your imagination

Online play is fairly disappointing, it features a social exchange of objects, such as pictures or movies, though when you look at games like Spore and its online functions, it really makes you think it could have taken a step towards the prominent features in that genre, though with your online account you can buy lots of new things, including an entire town, though most additional content does require spending real money, yes real money, not simoleans!

The Good
Graphics have been improved greatly and masses of action happening on screen doesn’t reduce frame rate
So much more freedom, which gives you a true community feeling
Brilliant fun to play
Great place for new simmers to begin and learn

The Bad
Additional content usually costs real money…

The Ugly
Slightly sluggish when a lot of things appear on screen
 

When life gets you down, make an online one and lose yourself

Summary
The Sims 3 is a great game, though some of the aspects of the expansions have been left out, being at work is left out, and I feel that its something the next instalment may bring, nevertheless The Sims 3 is a brilliant and totally addictive game that will be a great addition to your gaming shelf this year.