Michael Langley - Tuesday, May 4, 2010
PC
I am going to start by saying how much I loved the series that Maxis has created. I have been lucky enough to own all of the major games in the series on PC. When it was first announced, I definitely had my doubts about the Sims 3. It looked completely devoid of the character and charm that I was used to seeing. The graphics looked amazing, but the engaging and addictive gameplay seemed lacking somehow. How wrong was I!
So yes, first of all I will tell you about the new style of gameplay. From the off, it is incredibly easy to start up a game in the sims 3. Tutorials are available to those who are not familiar with the intricate style of gameplay the sims has. Essentially, the gameplay is left mostly unchanged from the rest of the series, and believe me, this is a good thing. What the sims has always been about is playing and controlling the lives of various virtual humans that you can create. You can control almost every aspect of their lives, from their house and job, to their personality and hair colour. Of course, this means a great deal of the game can be spent simply creating objects and people. This is where the gameplay slightly changes from what we are used to seeing in a sims game. The sims 3 shifts the focus off looking after the individual "sims", or people, and instead focuses more on what's around them. This means less time is spent telling your sim to use the bathroom, for instance. This makes the game a lot more enjoyable than other iterations in the series! So yes, make your sim, build them a house, get them a job and family etc, etc. While the sense of freedom is still very much a part of this sims game, it is a much more refined experience!
The graphics and sounds in the sims series have always been excellent, and this game is no exception to that. From the music to the voices of each sim, every sound is perfect to hear, and never seems to get old!
The graphics have taken a big jump from the sims 2, and look amazingly good, depending on your type of PC. However, I cannot stress enough how you don't really need an amazing new computer to play this game. A lot of older PCs can play it just fine, albeit on a lower setting. Even so, it still looks great on the lower settings!
Really, the only gripe I have with the game is the new EA store that comes with it. This feature, obviously created by the publisher EA, means that to access more items in the game, you must first pay more money. This is no fault of the brilliant Maxis developers, and instead it is really just a nasty scheme by EA to make a bit more money. While it isn't essentially a bad feature, the store isn't needed to enjoy the sims 3 experience in its entirety.
With a price of less than £30 in most shops and online, it really is a great deal to get this game! You will not regret your purchase!