The Sims 3 review

The Sims 3 has been a long awaited release this summer, promising a ton of new features since the franchise’s previous release. One thing is for certain, whether or not you are a huge fan of The Sims, the available features are definitely entertaining to play around with!

The game starts off with the new Create-A-Sim program, where you are able to completely alter almost every aspect of your Sims. The standard facial changes are allowed along with the ability to adjust all preset models to your liking, and many new haircut styles are introduced, as well as the ability to literally create your own wardrobe for the Sims. Another very cool feature is being able to choose a voice for your Sim, then adjusting the pitch to your liking.

This new feature is the Create a Style tool, which allows you to create a new style of clothing or add your own flavor to existing patterns. This also lets you copy styles from one type of clothing and carry it over to anything else so they can match! Another bonus is that this isn’t limited to your Sim’s clothing “" the Create a Style tool can also be used on anything you can buy for your Sim, so you can add your own touch to almost every design element of the game.

Depending on what age you make your Sim, you are able to choose a different number of personality traits. There are 63 personality traits to choose from, from being absent-minded to hating being naked to being evil! This gives you an endless variety of combinations to completely shape how your Sim acts and views the world. On top of personality traits, you can also choose a few of your Sims favorite things and their life goals!

When I was able to play The Sims 3 it was the first time I had played The Sims in at least two years, so the creation phase alone took me a solid hour to explore the different features and be happy with my Sim. Not being an avid Sims player, I am happy to say that the character creation part of the game is very simple to learn even with all of the given options. So how better to begin playing the game than with an evil computer genius with a good sense of humor?

When it comes to The Sims 3 world, it allows much more freedom than previous The Sims titles and it is now seamless. This is always a very nice touch to a game, providing a much more sandbox-style feel to game that already lets you do whatever you wish.

Whether you decide to buy a house for your Sim and decorate accordingly, or build a new house from scratch, you will spending a lot of time in Buy Mode. This is standard in The Sims games, but from what I remember from the other titles The Sims 3 offers a much simpler UI and it’s much easier to cycle through tools and items. The only thing I found that was a pain was the way to move your camera view around, as it was extremely awkward.

During my play time I created my own house for my Sim, with fully outfitted rooms with custom styles thanks to the Create a Style tool. After a while it becomes a bit captivating as you take the time to carefully design each room while building houses, then having so much freedom to decorate and outfit them with many types of appliances and furniture.

Another new feature is the Create a Movie tool, which lets you record up to 1 GB of gameplay at a time. After uploading the recording, you are presented with many tools for video editing to give your movie a polished look. I was unable to get the chance to play around with this feature as of yet, but it is something I look forward to experimenting with.

This game expands on the previous style of gameplay in other Sims games, providing new jobs and choices for your Sims as well as more items to purchase for them.

The Sims 3 was overall a fun a game to play, with many new features and tons of new items to improve gameplay. The game is even more sandbox than ever, allowing limitless amounts of customization and the choice to do whatever you please, making your experience more unique than ever.

The Sims 3 is available on Windows and Mac OS X, retails for $49.99, and comes with $10 worth of Sims Store points upon registration.