The Sims. Every time I see a list of video game sales numbers, it’s always there right at the top. It’s the franchise that corporate bean counters dream about at night, the one that has worked its way into nearly every demographic you can think of, the series that has sold over a hundred million copies and practically given Electronic Arts a license to print money. There’s quite a reputation for the latest sequel, Sims 3, to live up to.
Sims 3 is, much like its predecessors, all about creating virtual people and families, and then guiding them through all the events you’d expect an average person to go through in their life. That’s everything from potty training to doing homework, getting that first kiss or your first part time job. Later in life your Sims tackle issues such as their careers, relationships, managing their money and perhaps even having children of their own. Newcomers to the series might think it all sounds a bit drab and boring, but legions of obsessed Sims fans can tell you that the game is more about the journey and less about the destination.
The charm in this game, and the others that came before it, is the brilliance with which the designers have incorporated the tiniest little details throughout the entire game. For instance, raising your child well imparts them with better traits later in life, giving them an advantage over children with less responsible parents. Recipes now require specific ingredients to create, which your Sims can either grow themselves or get from the grocery store. You now have the option to choose how your Sim spends their day at work, either working hard to get a promotion, slacking off to ward away stress, schmoozing the boss or a handful of other choices. There are a million little details that made me laugh, and nearly every one of them ingeniously dovetails into some sort of game mechanic.
Another enormous change to the game is that your entire town is now completely seamless. That means you can be counting the corn flakes in your Sim’s bowl of cereal one moment, then roll back your mouse wheel to see the entire town the next. Ensure that your Sims at home are behaving themselves, then click a button to fly across town in an instant and issue orders to someone at the gym. I really can’t stress enough how big of a difference this one feature makes. Previous Sim games felt cramped and homebound, and the knowledge that you’d have to endure a long loading screen made it much easier to have groceries delivered, for example, instead of going out to get them yourself. It also resolves all of the strange time warp issues that the previous Sims titles had, along with allowing your friends, neighbors and enemies to continue going about their lives and evolving alongside your own characters.
Perhaps my memory is fuzzy, but the visuals of Sims 3 don’t seem that far advanced beyond what EA had managed to do with Sims 2. Not that it needs it, really. The game never looks dull or boring, and there’s a nice selection of tools that’ll allow you to create stuff in all sorts of visual styles. One major complaint is that the amount of included content (things like clothing, objects, wallpaper, etc) is relatively small. This made sense once I discovered the Sims online store. EA, in typical form, seems intent on nickel and diming their fans to death, much like they have with previous Maxis titles. Content of all types can be purchased from the EA online store using real money, making them available for use in your copy of Sims 3. Registering your copy of Sims 3 provides you with a free 1000 points (equivalent to $10), but I soon found out that ten bucks won’t really get you all that far. It somehow feels wrong to spend hard earned cash on a new haircut for my Sim, or a new outfit. EA has even gone so far as to partner with various companies to offer their products on the store, one example being a Toyota Prius that you can download into your game. I understand the necessity for a company to make money with their games, but the way EA seems to be going about it has left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
Overall, Sims 3 is an excellent addition to the series. It takes all of the things that made its predecessors good and applies a new layer of ingenuity and polish to bring the series closer than its ever been to what I think Will Wright’s original vision for it was. Sims fans will certainly want to pick this one up, although those of you with Sims 2 and a pile of the expansions will find many of your favorite expansion pack features (such as pets, seasons, etc) missing from Sims 3. Fear not though, I’m sure EA won’t be long in releasing a whole slew of $40 expansions to patch it all right back in! Sims 3 is looking like it’ll keep the franchise in its place as the best selling video game series of all time for the foreseeable future.
Title: Sims 3
Price: $49.99 ($69.99 for the Collector’s Edition)
Platform: PC
ESRB Rating: T for Teen
Score: 8.0