The Sims 3

This is my review of EA's the Sims 2.5 - ugh, I mean Sims 3. This is the third installment of the best selling Sims franchise, and the only one to not have creator Will Wright on the team. At its heart, it's pretty much what you'd expect from a Sims game, you create a Sim or Sims, and govern their lives like a God, helping them achieve their dreams, or letting them wallow in hopelessness, or alternatively, murder them in a variety of ways. The Sims 3 is much like the Sims 2, to a point where it is basically Sims 2.5, really, calling it 3 is a bit strong. The major, or minor, changes include taking out the goddawful aspiration system, and replacing it with a much nicer, and non-compulsory promises system, where you can decide whether or not to fulfill your Sims aspirations.

Your Sims no longer have certain personality bars, rather 5 different traits, which is most certainly a plus side, and even though it can be harder to keep them happy, the crazier traits, such as neurotic or clumsy, are funner to play with. However the actual impact of the traits is questionable, the artistic trait basically determines your Sim's occupation and general life, while the clumsy trait has little impact, short of my sim nearly dropping the wedding ring mid proposal. Having said that, the new personality system certainly gives your Sims more...um, personality.

Now, moving onto one of the biggest changes, the good ol Create-a-Sim (CAS). CAS is still basically the same as always, just with more features. Gradient skin tones (and crazier skin colours without the need of cheats), a whole rainbow for eye and hair colour, as well a different hair tones, allowing you to put in highlights, tips and different root colours. For the clothing, its basically the Sims 2, with the nice addition of shoes. Of course, you can now change the colour, patterns and material (seriously, you can have metal or wood clothing). This Create-a-Style (I just realised that is also abrieveated to CAS) is not exactly as amazing as one would have hoped, in fact, unless you have a perfect idea of exactly what you want your Sim to look like, you end up simply choosing a pre-made style. This also applies to furniture.

And what about your house and furniture? Has it been revolutionised in the Sims 3? Well you can check out a preview, it's called the Sims 2. Architecture and furniture haven't really changed at all since the Sims 2, although the Create-a-Style does offer a little more choice, but again, you end up simply keeping the pre-made colours, and the broken up placement grid and 360* rotation are nice additions. I feel I maybe complaining about nothing, because in reality the build and buy tools were almost perfected by the Sims 2, and little needed to be done by the Sims 3.

OPEN COMMUNITY!!!! YAYYAYAYAYAYAY ;) or whatever. Really, the ability to move freely around town, (or so they said, you still have separate lots, and the game enjoys really stressing that separation in moving between lots) was severely underwhelming. Instead of open neighborhoods where you can walk down to the local park whenever you want, the game still has your sim take a mode of transport, and you do zoom out to a neighborhood screen, then back in on your Sim. So it's basically the Sims 2, or 1 for that matter, except instead of a load screen, you get to wait for your Sim to ride or drive somewhere. One good thing, or possibly bad, depending on preference, is that if you have multiple Sims, and send one away to another lot, the other remains in play, and you can jump between the two, meaning you really do need some micromanaging skills. One good thing out of this open neighborhood system (I'm calling a lot of things 'system' aren't I?) is that time is flowing in lots you aren't playing, this is good for one reason, if I have two teens who I want to be lovers, they both age at the same rate, meaning I don't ahve to play both families to keep them up to date with each other, and it doesn't become creepy in a cradle-snatcher sense. While not a bad idea, the open neighborhood was a little over hyped, and wasn't really that revolutionary.

Ok, conclusion time, while the Sims 3 included many new improvements, the jump between Sims 2 and Sims 3 wasn't as revolutionary nor as evident as the jump between Sims 1 and 2. The new ideas and improvements in the Sims 3, while almost all welcome, are not as amazing as the hype and publicity would lead you to believe. While the game is far from crashing and burning, the game is not soaring to the moon, it's a leisurely flight from London to Geneva in business class, pleasant, but not sensational. Simply put, this is the Sims 2, with some improvements. Of course, how far one can take the Sims is up for debate, the core principle, a virtual dollhouse, will always remain the same, however this time, I thought rather than expanding the Dollhouse, they were simply updating the current model.

P.S. If anybody from EA reads this, or has any affiliation with them, then can someone please, for the love of God, fix the ultra speed in this game. In the Sims 1 and 2, it went normal speed, slightly faster, then really fast. In the Sims 3, it goes normal pace, then normal pace, then slightly faster. I think it's about 3 in game seconds to one real world second at full speed, so when your Sim goes to work or sleep, it's still quite a wait even at Ultra speed, which, to put it mildly, is boring as hell.