The Sims Is Back, And Better Than Ever! (The Sims 3 (PC))

Member Name: CheekyCharlie08

Product:	The Sims 3 (PC)
Date:	25/07/09 (228 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: All The New Features.

Disadvantages: It Can Take A While To Come On.

A few months ago I did my end of year tests at school. When I got my results back it turned out I'd done quite well and my Nan told me she'd ordered The Sims 3 from www.amazon.co.uk for doing well. When she told me I went barmy out of excitement because I'd wanted the game for a while. She had to pre-order it because it hadn't come out yet. It came on a Saturday, luckily for me because I go to my Nan's house on a Saturday.

- The Game Itself.

The Sims 3 came out in shops in the UK on June 5th 2009 selling 1.4 million copies in its first week out! The game was originally supposed to be released on February 20th 2009 but was delayed. The game was published by top game company EA. The Sims was originally published by Maxis, but changed to EA on the third game. As of yet there are no expansion packs out but there are rumors that there is one coming out soon though, I can't wait!

- Previous Characters.

The Sims 3 timeline is before the original Sim's was. Lets look at the Goth family for instance, on the original Sims Mortimer and Bella had grown up; gotten married and had a daughter, on the Sims 2 Mortimer had grown up into an elder and Bella had gone missing, but in the Sims 3 Mortimer and Bella are best friends as children! I find this really good because with these to you can deepen their relationship or completely destroy it. There is also the Langerak family, where Kaylynn (the maid in the Sims 2) is a child too. Another thing I love about this is that you can see the previous character's families that had been dead before you could see them in the Sims 1 or 2. Maybe the most interesting previous character is Agnes Crumplebottom, Mrs Crumplebottom from the previous Sims games! Something interesting about Agnes, is that she is the sister of Cornelia Goth - Mortimer's mother! All these Sims live in the neighbourhood Sunset Valley that comes with the game.

If you sign up to the Sims 3 Store at www.thesims3.com you can download a second neighbourhood, Riverview. Riverview is also the home of some of the previous characters from the Sims 1 and 2. The Newbie family (from the Sims 1) live in Riverview! Bob and Betty are teens, Betty isn't part of the Newbie family yet, she's Betty Simovitch. They live with their parents and siblings, and again the two that are known as a couple, grow up as best friends. The Broke family live their too! The Broke family are from the Sims 2, Skip (Brandi's dead husband) is a child, while Brandi isn't even born! And last but definitely not least is Don Lothario! Don Lothario is the 'womaniser' in the Sims 2, he is still the same in the Sims 3, he just can't stop flirting and cheating on everyone.

- Similarities.

There are a few similarities between the Sims 3 and the Sims 2 but there are more differences. The first thing that's the same is the aging system. Sims still grow through the same life stages, born as a newborn then growing into a toddler, then child, the young adult, the adult and finally an elder. I like this process because the Sims don't stay the at the same stage for too long but they're not rushed into changing every two minutes either. Another thing the same is the wants, fears, lifetime wants and aspiration points. Completing a certain Sim's wants will give that Sim, and only that Sim, aspiration points to save up, but making a fear happen will loose that Sim aspiration points. Aspiration points are like money, but you can't buy anything with it. You save them up to purchase something that will make life easier for your Sim, for example if you save up 15,000 aspiration points you can buy Fertility Treatment which increases your chances of twins or triplets. There are a lot of things you can purchase, prices ranging from 5,000 - 75,000 aspiration points! Parties for weddings, birthday etc are the same, you still have a restriction on how many people you invite. Another thing the same is pregnancy. The pregnancy is still split into three stages, firstly where your Sim first changes into maternity clothes, second she gets a LOT bigger, a finally she has the baby. You also still get four days maternity leave for when your Sim has the baby, two days before and two days after.

- Differences.

There are a lot of differences in the Sims 3 and the Sims 2. The main one is that your Sim now has traits. Traits are what makes your Sims unique. Like with real people everyone is different and have different parts of them that make them different to someone else. Another big difference is that you can customise absolutely everything! If you buy a bed instead of just choosing from a few variations of colours, you can now customise it right down to the colour of the wood, pillows and duvet covers! It also works for details on the Sims themselves, you can change the colours of the Sims roots on their hair or give them highlight etc, you can even change the eye colour to all sorts of wacky colours! Now Sims have moodlets which let you know exactly what your Sims are feeling, for example Pristine Picture means that you have brought your Sim an expensive TV with an excellent picture. There are around 100 moodlets altogether, you can't choose which your Sim has at a time but you can do something to encourage a good moodlet to come. Another major new thing is story progression. Story progression lets your neighbouring Sims have lives while your not playing them! If you play one family for a while, someone else in your neighbourhood could be getting married, getting a promotion or getting fired, etc etc. I'm not sure whether they can have babies on their own, but I know you can download some hacks to advance story progression further. Now when a Sim is just having her baby, or babies, she can choose whether to have a home birth or she can be 'rushed to the hospital' to go into labour. If she is rushed to hospital and has one baby, your Sim will walk out carrying her/him, and if she has twins she can come out carrying one and the father will carry one. But if she has triplets, she'll walk out carrying a basket with the three babies in.

- Traits.

Traits are the new thing to make Sims unique, there are 63 traits altogether which are absolutely brilliant to make up a whole neighbourhood! Traits give your Sims personalities and are very accurate to real peoples personalities. These are:
Absent minded, ambitious, angler, artistic, athletic, bookworm, brave, can't stand art, charismatic, childish, clumsy, commitment issues, computer whiz, couch potato, coward, daredevil, dislikes children, easily impressed, evil, excitable, family orientated, flirty, friendly, frugal, genius, good, good sense of humour, great kisser, green thumb, grumpy, handy, hates the outdoors, heavy sleeper, hopeless romantic, hot-headed, hydrophobic (scared of water), inappropriate, insane, kleptomaniac (thief), light sleeper, loner, loser, loves the outdoors, lucky, mean spirited, mooch, natural cook, neat, neurotic, never nude, no sense of humour, over emotional, party animal, perfectionist, schmoozer, slob, snob, technophobe (hates electrical things), unflirty, unlucky, vegetarian, virtuoso (loves music) and workaholic.

- Sound and Graphics.

The sound and graphics work fine on my laptop, but I know that it would be even better on a computer. The sound is very clear and never sticks. The graphics are also clear, and never have little pixels all over everything. It never sticks, but can take a short while to do something.

- Overall.

Overall I absolutely love this game! It's better than the Sims 2 by a lot. I love that you can now customise things a lot better, and that you can now explore the neighbourhood freely. Also I love the story progression because in the Sims 2 you could have a Sim in a relationship with another Sim as teenagers but once your Sim grows up, everything you worked to do is lost, so now your Sims actually grow up without you having to play them. I love all the new features, and the things that are the same, it's awesome! If you're a fan of the Sims series then buy this, you'll love it.

- Extra Information.

You can buy this game for £26.20 from www.amazon.co.uk new, with about £2.00 posting. The game works for Windows, Mac OS X, iPhone OS, Windows Mobile, Android, Mobile Devices.

Summary: The Best Sims Game Yet.