The Sims 3
Preview
Tired of running your own life? Grab a Sim!
by Howie Howard
previewed on PC
Walk around the neighborhood
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have your Sim take a walk around his neighborhood? Now you can. Have you ever wondered what your neighbors and the legion of friends that you were forced to acquire are doing? Now you will be able to find out because you can go over and knock on their door. I remember from the previous two games how frustrating it was to have my character and his family advance in their lives only to see his friends remain at square one with their only requirement being to provide friendship in the form of a number. That is all changed in the new game.
The new game’s AI works in the background and advances the lives of other Sims in town. Now your next door neighbor will go to work, fall in love and need to clean his house too. You may be thinking why should you care about what other Sims are doing because it won’t impact on what my Sim is doing in life? In The Sims 3 thinking like that and not knowing what other Sims are doing could get you into trouble. The possibility that your wife could fall in love with this lover boy next door neighbor is now a very real possibility. This new part of the game opens up all kinds of exciting possibilities for your gaming pleasure.
In previous Sims games you are required to purchase expansion packs in order to go on a “Hot Date” or to take a vacation among other things. That was all well and good but the expansions just didn’t run seamlessly. It was kind of a herky-jerky experience if you decided to hop in a cab and go into town because your life at home simply stopped. When you returned home you were required to take up where it left off. In the new version all of that is integrated in the main game. When you purchase new expansions, and there will be literally dozens of new ones in the future, you can rest assured that your wife will feed the dog while you are out partying with that hot new neighbor from down the street!
Character design
I have talked above about the new AI and how it changes the way characters interact with each other and how the various game aspects are now integrated. That, however, isn’t the only thing that is new. The character generation system is being revamped and you are given way more leeway in how you design a character. Gone are the generic body types with the only option being the ability to change gender, hair color and simple facial features. The Sims 3 now provides a more detailed character design option and you can make your character look exactly the way you want by adding a few muscles here or a couple of curves there. You can even make the Sim look like yourself if you are so inclined.
