The Sims 3

Sims 3 is the newest update to the popular “Sims” series. In these games, the player takes control over the life of an actual sim, and helps direct them through their life. Sims need to eat, sleep, socialize, go to the bathroom, and more in order to meet all their needs—and they need you to help them do it. Sims 3 brings a range of new features to the game, so much so that it really does feel like it’s a new game rather than the same old one.

True free exploration

In Sims 2 and earlier versions of the game, moving between areas in the game was very glitchy. It made a game simulating real life to feel very far from it. In Sims 3, the game mechanics are much smoother. Passing from one area into the next feels natural, and makes the whole game feel much more lifelike.

Not only is traveling from one area to another more smooth, communication has also been made easier. Socializing with friends is as easy as calling people from other neighborhoods and inviting them over. The game is also stocked with fun additions that only appear if you are in the right place at the right time. If you want to see ghosts for example, stop by the cemetery at midnight, or if you happen to be at the park when others are there, you can join an impromptu picnic.

Travel has been greatly improved in this game as well. If you want your sim to go to the outskirts of town, simply clicking on the area will have your sim travel there on their own. They’ll take the most direct route, which really helps in making travel easier. While this is greatly improved over previous versions, it’s not perfect. Sims sometimes struggle to find paths, which can slow down travel.

Control SIM life

The major point of the game is that you get to control every aspect of your sims life. This usually means trying to make them happy, but of course, what’s the point of playing at god if you don’t have some fun too?

The sims react in remarkably realistic ways if you put them through situations they may not be wild about. If your sim isn’t a natural athlete, sending them to the gym for an hour gives hilarious results. You can also place them in a room without doors, or have them kiss a stranger in front of their spouses to see their reactions. Sims are very lifelike in how they react, which is what makes this game so addictive.

Pros:

• Great improvements to past games
• Open world exploration
• Better sim communication
• Unlimited game play

Cons:

• Path finding doesn’t always work.

We Have Ah uncomfortable relationship with The Sims here at PC. We might occasionally do a 'Sims-free' Top 20 chart or give a risible expansion pack such as The Sims 2: H&M Fashion Stuff a well-deserved Dump award, but we also thoroughly enjoyed mucking about with toilet training our Sims in a Jackass feature and will heap praise and a 72% score upon a genuinely excellent addition to the franchise such as The Sims 2: Open for Business. Maybe our schizophrenic behaviour is because we're gaming snobs, unable to appreciate the fact that within our overwhelmingly male hobby, nearly 60 per cent of Sims players are female, and convinced that this isn't a proper game like World of Warcraft or Crysis. Or maybe it's because of the endless chartclogging expansion packs - Teen Stuff, Makin'Magic, University et al - that for us, sum up everything that is bad and cynical about the gaming industry.

More likely, it's both of the above, and the fact that perhaps, after all, there is a great game here - created by game visionary Will Wright - that has become a worldwide phenomenon, shifting close to 100 million units.

Sim City

So while The Sims 3 will never be a PC cover game, you can be sure we'll be keeping an eye on it - especially as the EA development team are apparently taking tips from Wright's forthcoming opus Spore, and are promising more features to appeal to us so-called hardcore PC gamers.

The first of these new additions will be a more open, seamless world for your Sims to inhabit Rather than being trapped in a pit of your own virtual filth, with only a few token public areas (shops, parks and the like), you'll now be able to wander across the lawn and have a peep through your next-door neighbour's window. You'll be able tb freely wander through the Sims' town, see other Sims walking around greeting each other in Simlish (the game's gibberish language), driving cars, shopping, hanging round on street corners scaring old Sims - a real-time virtual settlement directly around your Sims' homes.

However, The Sims 3 won't be revisiting the failed Sims Online MMO project of a few years back. Instead of multiplayer, EA will be pushing the community side of the game, with features such as a Facebook-style social networking service. Here, you'll be able to upload Sims to a homepage, where friends and other players can download them into their own towns.

Toilet Trouble

Another major complaint about The Sims was the 'hamster cage' mentality of the previous games - that you spend too much time making sure your Sims don't piss their pants rather than evolving their characters.

The Sims 3 is much lower maintenance, removing the previous games' mood bars, so rather than micro-managing your small- bladdered chum in the morning as he/she juggles a shower, breakfast and wee-wees, there'll be a simple bubble that pops up stating that your Sim is hungry, and with a deft click, all the tasks will be taken care of. Long-standing features such as the ability of your Sims to work hard for their money will return, and they'll have a range of jobs they can do to bring in the cash.

The major nods to the role-playing genre continue with the new inventory system, which allows you to, for example, pick apples and cook them rather than pop down your local Sim shop (it's bound to be a WalMart rather than a CostCutters) and buying a ready-made pie. Plus, if your Sim gets a kiss from his girlfriend, or is given a present for example, you'll see an icon called a 'moodiet' - a classic MMO buff -to indicate your Sim's state of mind after an important event.

Further RPG elements include 'traits', which are simple one-word descriptors that can be applied to your Sims, such as genius, grumpy, frugal and evil. Six or so can be assigned to the little Al folks; so if your Sim is an insensitive, kleptomaniac, outdoors type of person, then watch your wallet if you go out jogging. On the reverse side, that particular Sim would feel happiest when shouting abuse and stealing personal property on a fun run. Probably. Anyway, if you can't be arsed with all that charactercreation stuff, you can also pick from a selection of pre-configured personalities -although angry Northern games journalist has yet to be confirmed.

Given that EA have ambitions to create a more fun, open 'sandbox' kind of game, rather than a domestic boredom simulator, The Sims3coM be surprisingly great. At this stage, however, the only thing we can guarantee with certainty is that the add-on packs are already being planned.