The Sims 3
The Sims 3 is a new game in The Sims series. Prior to The Sims 3 came the popular and critically acclaimed social simulation game The Sims and The Sims 2 video games. The game is due to be released on February 20, 2009. A collector's edition will also be available.[7]
Teasers and preview
In the 7th expansion pack for The Sims 2, The Sims 2: FreeTime, an event occurs in which a Sim-version of Rod Humble, The Head of the Sims Franchise, gives the player's Sim family an unopened gift box. When opened, the family gets a computer with The Sims 3 on it. The Sims 3 game cannot be bought in the catalog. Sims can then play The Sims 3 on their computers or console systems. Like all the other games that Sims can play in The Sims 2, The Sims 3 is a looping game play video shown on the player's Sim's computer screens when played by a Sim.
In the expansion pack Apartment Life, players can purchase computers or posters with The Sims 3 logo.
On July 15, 2008 the first video preview of The Sims 3 appeared on the official website as did 7 new screenshots and 5 Create-A-Sim screens. Four screenshots that appeared on the website and were then taken down soon after, leaked onto the internet from a member of the community.
Copies of the video game Spore also came packaged with flyers advertising the game, with information stating whole-neighborhood accessibility and endless possibilities on character creation.
On October 31st 2008, two teaser trailers were released by Electronic Arts featuring a comical view on the upcoming presidential election in the United States. Candidates John McCain and Barack Obama were included along with John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin. [8]
Another developers walkthrough was released on November 6th 2008, featuring in-depth previews of the neighborhood and Create-A-Sim. [9]
VIP service
On May 15, an email was sent out to early sign-ups on the website. The people who signed up early, known as "Founder" VIP's, get special screen shots before their release to the website. The regular VIP email service is still available to the public. As of August 13, 2008, accessing the VIP section of the official site requires a passcode, which is received when signing up to the service.
Gameplay
In the April/May 2008 edition of the Games for Windows: The Official Magazine, there is a 12-page preview of the game.[10] This preview explains that Sim houses and neighborhoods will be entirely in one seamless, continuous map, and states that "What you do outside your home now matters as much as what you do within".
All the families in the neighborhoods age and live out their lives, even when the player is playing a different family. [11]
Of the eight needs of The Sims 1 & 2, only six - bladder, hunger, energy, fun, hygiene and social - remain. [11] These will be completed by moodlets - attributes which are acquired by special events (minor events like tooth brushing, and major ones like wedding), and affect the Sims' behavior.[12] The Want and Fear system of The Sims 2 is replaced by Wishes and Opportunities. Sims will also have a Lifetime Wish - similar to the Lifetime Want from The Sims 2: University
Several minor features from The Sims 2 expansion packs appear in the original The Sims 3, such as the "young adult" life stage, lifetime wants, personal inventories and mobile phones (The Sims 2: University), private cars and restaurants (Nightlife), fishing (Seasons), jewelry, beaches (Bon Voyage), toothbrushing and ceilings (Apartment Life)[13][14] but none of the main features (universities from University, seasons from Seasons etc). So to clarify, there will be no weather, no pets, no apartments, no universities, no open-for-business style jobs or businesses, no downtown (though this is no longer necessary because restaurants and clothes shops, etc are all included in Sunset Valley) and no holidays.
As in previous games, Sims can paint, but paintings will now be more unique to each Sim.
All new features are set difficulty levels for each family, hospitals where pregnant Sims may give birth, and bicycles for riding around the neighborhood.[14]
Sims at work
Some available careers are politics, criminal, military, science, chef, and entertainment. Each career has a workplace building in the neighborhood, which Sims travel to for their shifts. Sims can also apply for jobs within these buildings. Though Sims are hidden inside buildings during the workday, the player can control their behavior at work to a certain extent. Like previous Sims games, the job yields "opportunities" - tasks that could be finished for a reward. There are also part-time jobs. Sims can also take actions to increase their productivity while not at work, such as bringing work home or working overtime.[11] Each career has several rewards, instead of only one as in The Sims 2. Careers can also branch into several possible promotions. Children and teens go to school, just as before, but now they can do homework with computers or library books.
Each career branches off into different jobs that branch off as well - say if there were two sims that had a business career they may not end up with the same jobs or duties even if they were on the same level in their careers. Nonetheless, once the Sim(s) reaches the peak of his/hers respective career they can still receive raises, rewards and additional payment if he/she keep performing well at work.[15]
Create-A-Sim
Create-a-Sim is the character (Sim) builder, where the polygon 3-D models of Sims can be modified by changing a wider variety of properties than what was available in previous installments. This opens the door to creating completely unique Sims with regard to weight, fitness, hair, and clothing, etc.[16] Footwear and headwear can now be chosen individually. Players can customize nearly everything in the game, including furniture, clothes and shoes. Rod Humble described the new interface in Create-A-Sim as "drastically different". Freckles can also be added to Sims. [11]
Individual fitness bars have been added to adjust the Sims' obesity and muscularity between extreme levels. Arm and legs are separate so players can create Sims with fat bodies and thin arms. In The Sims 2, there were only three body types. As in The Sims 2, body shape varies with diet and exercise, so that Sims created as overweight can become slim by exercising and Sims created thin may become fat by eating too much and not exercising. Skin color is also continuous, instead of the four colors of The Sims 2. Other customization options are those of hair, fashion, and eye color.
Players can personalize much more about their Sim, such as changing body shapes as they could with faces in The Sims 2. Players can choose specific Asian and African models as well. Clothes are also customizable from Create A Sim. Players can change the color of a certain piece of clothes or use their own patterns.
Sims' personalities
Personality configuration for Sims has also been made more complex, with the original 'percentage bar'-style personality points replaced by a combination of traits, similar to those in the personals section of newspapers. Zodiac signs are no longer included in the game. Toddlers have two traits, and a new one is added for each new life stage, until they reach young adulthood - so they will have 3 as a child, 4 as a teen, then 5 as a young adult, which are the five traits they will stay with for the rest of their lives.
In The Sims 3, youngsters inherit their parents traits, but if a young Sim grows up "badly" then they will get bad traits.
In Create-A-Sim you will have a list of over 70 unique traits to choose from. Some of these are Evil, Good, Good Sense of Humour, Charismatic, Loner, Computer Wiz, Neurotic and Flirty. It is not possible to give a Sim traits that contradict each other (such as Brave and Cowardly).
The player can now choose their Sims' favorite hobby, color, music genre, food, etc., an option not available in The Sims 2.
Buy and build modes
The buy and build modes have been improved. The grid is finer, and there is an option to turn off the grid. Objects can also be rotated freely. Certain pieces of furniture, such as chairs and tables, can easily be moved together. The "auto-roof" function updates the roof when walls are rebuilt. Wide staircases can be built in one action. Basements are also easier to build.[13] A "wall drag" tool allows the player to move a wall including wallpaper and objects attached to the wall.
Nearly every object in the game, from cars to TVs, to chairs to closets, can be recoloured and re-textured. You can apply different types of fabric like wood, paint, brick, etc, then change it in every color possible. Any specific combination can be used on every object in the house just by simply dragging it from the tool to the object.[11]
The grid is now 4x4 per tile. This feature will make objects easier to locate at the players desired location instead of being restricted to one tile like on The Sims 1 and The Sims 2.
The wall drag tool will be introduced in this game. The wall drag tool will allow you to click and hold the wall and drag it to the desired size. All objects on the walls such as lights will move with the wall, as well as fill the spaces made with matching floor tiles.
Create a style allows the player to customize clothing, furnishings, walls, and nearly anything else your Sims can interact with. Each item has between one and four customizable regions that can be modified. You can apply patterns to these areas. You can choose the colours within a pattern and choose from warm or cool colour palettes. The designs can be saved and used later on other objects.
The Grabber/Hand is a new tool that can pick up stuff like plates, books, garbage, etc. It is meant to get rid of some of the boring tasks for your Sims, give them more time to do other things.[17]
Seamless, living neighborhood
On March 19, 2008, EA revealed new game play experiences for The Sims 3, one of them being neighborhood exploration. Players will be able to have their Sims wander around the world outside of their homes with no loading screens. This has been deemed a significant improvement from The Sims 2's method of restricting a player to a single lot at a time. This also means that the entire game is played in real-time, so the Sims that the player is not using will still age and may get married, have children, and/or gain other memories and experience other events. With the absence of loading screens, it is possible to zoom in and out from a complete view of the neighborhood to the inside of a house, a feature not technologically possible in previous The Sims games. Players will be able to interact with every building in a neighborhood; none will simply be there to improve aesthetics.[18] The game ships with one neighborhood & 97 lots; a neighborhood editor will become available for download later. Some buildings will be transparent for the player, while others - especially workplaces - will be "rabbit holes" where Sims are hidden.
The environment will be more dynamic with shadows and trees moving in the wind.
With absence of loading screens, sections of the neighborhood that Sims have visited or are visiting will be stored as RAM or page file which allows the player to zoom in to that section of the neighborhood almost instantly. At a recent conference with Ben Bell, guests observed that zooming in to locations with a laptop, the objects would take almost a second or two longer to appear fully. Some objects may appear a transparent white when zooming in until the player has been there for a few seconds - when the objects have fully loaded. When zooming out another problem occurs. The roads would disappear for a fraction of a second and the same with swimming pools.
The seamless neighborhood concept is not a fresh idea to The Sims Creators but, has been there many years. Simsville was a game that was cancelled in 2000 but remains a concept in many The Sims Series including The Sims 3. The city hall next to the park centralising the town, The seamless neighborhood were all concepts added to both Simsville and The Sims 3 and through many more The Sims games in the past. Technology let the ideas in the past down due to the games with the added concepts would be to slow to run on computers. The Sims 3 is classified to some Creators of The Sims Seires as the lost Simsville of 2000.
Sunset Valley
Sunset Valley is a wide-open, place located next to the beach. The centre of town is in between a valley. The town centre has a library, museum, city hall, cinema, gym, cafe, local pool, grocery store and clothes store. All of which is surrounding the park - A gathering place for Sims. In the park Sims meet their friends and neighbors, talk, play games, toss the ball and go fishing. Outside of the town centre there are homes, beach homes, townhouses, houses on high terrain, and the occasional mansion on the hill top.
Sunset Valley will be the only neighborhood shipping in The Sims 3. A tool will be released by the game makers a few weeks after the game has been released to create your own custom neighborhood(s), available at The Sims 3 Exchange.
Some notable characters from previous The Sims games will apear once again. However they appear as their younger selves in The Sims 3. Families established in the game are the Goths, the Crumplebottoms, the Landgraabs, and the new Nouveau Riche family and the Keaton household.[19] Executive Producer Ben Bell said this at a recent conference, "The neighbourhood itself is set before the neighbourhood we see in The Sims, as if it's a prequel to the story we already know."
Neighborhood navigation is made easy using map tags that are visible above the lots which show the subject that the player has clicked on.
Movie Making Tool
The Movie Making Tool was first seen in The Sims 2, but has been expanded. Players can upload a movie and then shape it in any way. The player can cut the movie into pieces, give it effects, make a title, transitions, cutting, pasting,etc. However, this can only be done online. There is also a tool to produce screenshot stories. [11]
Advertising
If connected to the internet the player will receive updates about current movies in the form of posters that will be posted across the Sims' town. However, an internet connection is not required to play the game.[11]
Music
The music to The Sims 3 was written by composer Steve Jablonsky, who recorded the score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox.[20]
Editions
| Name | Includes |
|---|---|
| The Sims 3 | The first release of the core game. |
| The Sims 3: Collector's Edition | The Sims 3 core game, a 2GB The Sims Plumbob™ USB drive with matching Green Carabiner, an exclusive European-styled Sports Car download for in-game, a Prima Tips and Hints Guide, Plumbob stickers, and a quick start reference guide.[21][22] |
References
- ^ Purchese, Rob (August 20, 2008). "The Sims 3 due in February". EuroGamer. Retrieved 2008-10-21.
- ^ "The Sims Label Announces Steve Jablonsky as Mastermind Behind the Creative Sound of Sims 3". IGN. October 23, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-24.
- ^ http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/860/860687p1.html
- ^ http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3169784
- ^ a b GameSpot, March 6 2008
- ^ "The faces of innovation gather at annual Nokia Games Summit". Nokia. Retrieved 2008-10-29.
- ^ "The Sims 3 in Stores February 20, 2009". Electronic Arts. Electronic Arts.
- ^ Gamespy's Coverage of The Sims 3
- ^ The Sims 3 developers walkthrough at Gametrailers
- ^ Games for Windows 17 April/May Issue from Games for Windows
- ^ a b c d e f g Snooty Sims Sims 3 Preview
- ^ http://simparool.nl/features/sims-3-usa-event/
- ^ a b http://www.thesimsresource.com/article/sims3
- ^ a b http://dms2c.net/info/?p=242
- ^ http://thesims3.ea.com/view/pages/blog.jsp?author=Ray%20Mazza#CareersandOpportunities
- ^ The Official site
- ^ http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sims_3
- ^ The Sims 3 Preview from IGN
- ^ http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sims_3
- ^ Dan Goldwasser (2008-11-02). "Steve Jablonsky scores The Sims 3". ScoringSessions.com. Retrieved 2008-11-02.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ http://thesims3.ea.com/view/pages/ce_preorder.jsp
- ^ http://www.electronicarts.co.uk/news/25147/
External links
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