Sims 3 Review

Sool sool!

Electronic Arts has been at it again to release another version of their ever so popular Sims franchise. Does this one live up to the golden standards that made Sims 2 the world's best selling video game?

The Sims franchise has been around for quite a long time and Electronic Arts have been happily milking the franchise ever since it got ahold of Maxis and having them producing the franchise for EA. From humble beginnings with Sims never dying and having to be forced to adopt a child and have weird toilets with dialup modems attached to them, Sims 2 was released in 2004 which further accelerated the Sims to the level of popularity it is enjoying today.

Following Sims 2, Electronic Arts of course went on to make a better version of Sims 3 and promised gamers that there will be an option to go out and let your Sims explore the open world instead of being cooped up inside your own turf ... which has been the largest annoyance for Sims fans for years ever since its inception. Granted, Sims 2 was a relieve to grievances from Sims 1 which included the fact that you can naturally fall in love and bare a child and you actually died from old age and not from starvation. Sims 3 also promised that not only can you visit your town but there was to be more social interaction ... but did these combination really make Sims 3 the better Sims?

Sure, it's great that finally I know where my Sim works and I can see everything happening and the fact that there are more social interaction. In theory that's a great thing, but if you were like me, I usually use friendly and romantic categories to build a relationship for my Sim in Sims 2. Unfortunately, that will not get you anywhere in Sims 3 if you ever want to marry another sim of your interest. You must constantly hound on the Romantic category and this gets really awkward for most people since most people wouldn't have figured that out. Another thing that annoyed the hell out of me is the fact that there are no obvious way to get out of tutorial mode. There should be an opt-in tutorial mode instead of a opt-out game mode as the tutorial mode limits the choices you can make for establishing a house. In Sims 1, the tutorial mode was the Newbie family. In Sims 2, it was educational bubbles that you get or from opting into a tutorial mode.

Other than these annoyances, the fact that there are more choices makes the game a lot more interesting once you pass the longer than expected learning curve from Sims 2. Overall, the game is great, but if you can overlook the annoyances that were listed here.

Pros

• You can finally explore your neighbourhood seemlessly and visit your neighbour's house
• You can place your objects diagonally
• Taxis in game are now free and much easier to access than in Sims 2.
• Time is slower but flows correctly unlike in Sims 2 when the clock stalls on your lot but your vitals plummet when you get back to your lot.
• A lot more social interactions
• You can own your own car and have a garage for it.

Cons

• Much longer than expected learning curve
• Complex social interactions and awkward way to make your Sim marry another sim
• Lack of an opt-in tutorial mode
• No obvious button to opt-out of tutorial mode
• EA should seriously stop using Cider to make a Mac version, it's a horrid technology. They should stop being lazy and make a real port.
• When was it possible to put a car or bike in your own bag? like huh?

Rating: 7/10

Final verdict: Overall a good game, but should be taken longer for design and a public beta should've been given to those who bought Sims 2. Sims 2 fans wouldn't be happy with the game due to the hurdles but for regular Sims 2 gamers, then this is a great purchase as there's more to do. As a Sims fan, I'm quite disappointed at those weird hurdles.