Review: The Sims 3

Two days ago I bought The Sims 3 (TS3) via their direct-download store. For two days I’ve been a happy girl playing god to my Sims. :) Personally, the direct download store was a leap of faith, so to speak, for me. It’s certainly a little disconcerting buying a legitimate game over the internet, without CDs. Fortunately they offer a 5-year download extension so that I can redownload the game infinite times for the next five years. (Of course, only on one machine at any one time.)

I’m a fond supporter of the The Sims franchise. I’ve been playing the first version, The Sims (1) since I was in secondary school. Over the years they have produced better installations with more 3-D graphics and more features. But I think TS3, when compared to TS2, has many things lacking. I assume they might fix that in later patches or expansion packs.

1. No parking sequence – the cars will miraculously end up in a parking lot without animation.
2. Sims no longer “sit” in cars – i.e. they can no longer listen to the car radio, cuddle or Woohoo! in cars.
3. Sims cannot lock doors – a feature in Sims2 I really loved because it helped to partition the house.
4. Where are my spiral stairs?
5. No two user-created families can exist in the same town.

Despite the these shortcomings, TS3 is revolutionary, even for a Sims aficionado like me. Some new features that awe me:

1. Now I know what my Sims are doing at work, and where they work.
2. My Sims can ride a bicycle, go fishing, plant vegetables (a feature I had to hack to get in TS1), visit friends … i.e. all things that entail a wholesome life.
3. I can put windows and doors on a diagonal wall, and put furniture in the diagonal axis. Yay!
4. I can tinker with colours and textures in Create-A-Sim itself to give my Sims new clothes.
5. New “Personalities” rather than just playing around with horoscopes!

All in all, I think TS2 lovers will love TS3. It’s bigger, better, and infinitely more entertaining.

Now allow me to conclude this post and get back to killing playing god to my Sim.