The Sims 3 Review

Ok, read this: Peanut butter and chocolate. If you have an opinion you either just thought "GIMME!" or "Meh." For the people that hate it, there really is nothing you can do to improve upon the combination that will sway them in to the love it camp. For the people that are already fans, you can dress it up with crunchy peanut butter instead of creamy or use dark instead of milk chocolate and they will go crazy over the new features and changes even though it's still the same sweet and salty concoction they have been consuming for years.

Hey, did you see that EA released The Sims 3? (Oh yeah - Ed)

So, let's start with the good news. The latest release in the long series of Sims titles allows the player greater (perceived) freedom and control when managing their Sims, while at the same time, slimming down or flat out allowing you to bypass some of the chores that may not appeal to all players. Don't like having to design and furnish your house? Then buy a pre-furnished home instead. Hated the load times when leaving your house or going to another location? The Sims 3 now allows a smooth transaction as you move from one location to another all over town. Granted there is a bit longer wait when loading your game and when saving and exiting but I feel that's a fair trade off for a gaming session uninterrupted by loading screens. The music is better done this time around. Graphics look great on a higher end system and even scale pretty well on my laptop. As always, watching the Sims interact with each other and their environment is fun in an ant farm voyeur sort of way especially when a TV or computer is used. Also, your Sims no longer have a bladder the size of a grain of rice as they now require fewer trips to the bathroom (this was Vader's favorite part of the previous games so this goes into the Bad News column for him) (Such breathtaking impertinence for someone devoted to making doilies and playing The Sims all day long - Vader).

Your Sim or multiple Sims if you are, unlike me, coordinated and focused enough to manger more than one at a time, can be customized from looks, clothing and up to five personal traits that define how your virtual little person interacts with the other virtual little people in game. These traits also allow the game to dangle carrots in front of you in the form of goals, small and large, which they call Wishes. Wishes can be something simple and can apply to everyone like "Watch a Movie" or something more specific based on your traits. Each time you fulfill one of these wishes, you get a temporary boost to you mood and you also get points that you can use to purchase Lifetime Rewards.

Lifetime rewards offer you special perks or bonuses like being able to slack off while at work and not get caught or reducing the amount times your Sim has to go to the bathroom (much to Vader's horror). My Sim who had a trait that made him shun the outdoors. One of his Wishes early in the game was to get him back inside the house after he went out to check the mail. Granted, this one was simple to fulfill but it was interesting to see the wishes were being tailored to my specific Sim. You don't have to pursue the Wishes if you don't want to, but it does add some guidelines and structure to the game for those who are looking for a more direction when controlling their Sims.

The bad news: Not much has else has changed here. Sure there are lots of little refinements, graphical tweaks, streamlining of some of the annoyances of the past games but overall, EA was smart and did not mess with the core gameplay with The Sims 3. However, for long time fans and those who rushed out and bought every single add-on for the previous games, they are going to feel a bit short changed. While there are lots of ways to customize the colors and details of clothes, hair, skin, fabrics, building materials and who knows what else in the game, the default set of models that ship with the game feel very limited. Granted, the options will increase with future add-ons or by going to the online to The Sims site to download user created content or purchase new items via micro-transactions, but people are going to feel like they are getting milked. Maybe in an effort to soothe hurt feelings the retail copy of the game ships with a card good towards $10 in downloadable items. Of course the jaded gamers out there could also view this as you would a drug dealer who gives away the first taste for free, knowing that once the user is hooked on his product, he'll make up the difference later. But as we all know there are very few jaded gamers out there so this could just be me.

Ultimately, if you liked the previous Sims games, you will like The Sims 3. If the series has never floated your boat, there is nothing here that will make convert you the fan camp. If you have been a lukewarm fan, the new features and improvements might be enough to keep you engaged longer this time around but don't expect an entirely new experience (Big surprise, right?). As for the whole peanut butter and chocolate question, I'll leave it up to you to decide. Me, I'm gonna have a steak.