The Sims 3 – My next obsession

During the summer I was browsing the EA website and saw that in 2009 they would be releasing the Sims 3.  For some, that’s not big news, but to me-an avid Sim lover since they first came out, this was huge news.  All I had to go on was that this one would give the user more control over their individual Sim and the neighborhood.  Excited and Thrilled were not enough to cover my feelings.  My roommates girlfriend is also an avid Sim’er so I broke the news to her and she was equally as excited.  So, since the summer months, it has kind of been off my radar due to it not being released until 2009.

Today, or yesterday, I received an email from EA offering a discount because its the holiday season, and all that good cheery stuff that I don’t subscribe to. In the email they mentioned discounts on all Sims 2 things, so this instantly bought up my curiosity as to when the exact release date was for Sims 3.  So I Googled them and came across their website, thesims3.ea.com.  I watched the video that the developers put together, and saw the endless possibilities, stemming from more choices in age ranges, more job choices, and more house designs.

The biggest new feature is the interactiveness of the town.  Being able to join protest outside city hall, to being able to fish in the pond in the park, and being able to drop in on neighbors are all features that are new to the game. Also, it hopes for easier user online transition.  Before you had to go outside the game to upload stuff online or even import things from online at thesims2.com.  And there are new “personality traits” that are supposed to have a big affect on your Sim and their interaction with other Sims.  AND they can have more than one job at time, you can be a doctor with a part time gig playing for a rock band! How cool is that?? A cool scenario presented was this one, “your Sim can choose to Whoohoo at work, but if they get caught then both Sims run out of the office naked. Now, that could be a lesson you don’t want to learn in the real world!” This is about some of the moral choices shown in the game. But I think one of the biggest changes users will see is that everyone ages while you play.   In past Sims games you could build two families at the same time. But if you played with family A more than family B they would be on different ages. Now, your seems are alive as your playing with your family out on this free-world.

If anyone is familiar with Sims of the past you know that your control pretty much is in your house and thats it.  Life outside the house, like at work, you have no control over.  With the introduction of the Sims 2, we saw more control, like your Sims could now “Woohoo” aka have sex, but this takes it to a new level.   And in the Sims 2  your Sim could be pregnant, which was cool.  And you had teenagers who could sneak out the house and have their first kiss.  I was hooked when I got this game.  Although having a laptop kinda made me play less, I still liked it.  I have the Sims on my Nintendo GameCube too, but I don’t play that as much.  I am eagerly awaiting the release of Sims 3, and while I may purchase it off eBay to try to get a discount, it doesn’t make me love it any less, it just means I’m cheap!!