SIMS 3

It's official: Maxis is hard at work on Sims 3, the next major step forward in the greatest selling PC game series of all time. While a ton of details have been revealed through various interviews with major gaming publications and PC Gamer, a few really caught our eye.

The Sims 3 is a strategic life simulation video game in the popular and critically acclaimed The Sims franchise, originally created by Maxis. Within the in-game chronology of the series, it can be considered a prequel. A collector's edition is also available, which comes with a free sports car download, a sticker sheet, and a 2GB Plumbob-shaped USB drive. Both the collector's edition and the standard edition of the game come with a coupon for 1000 Sim Points (equivalent value in local currency, eg. 10 USD) to spend at The Sims 3 Store. In contrast to the previous versions, the houses and neighborhoods are seamless, allowing players to explore and interact with their neighborhood without loading time. The game set a new record for Electronic Arts, selling more than 1.4 million copies in its first week of release.

Gameplay
Sim houses and neighborhoods are entirely in one continuous map, and the developers state that "What you do outside your home now matters as much as what you do within." The game includes an optional feature called "Story Progression," which allows all NPC Sims in the neighborhood to autonomously continue as if the player was controlling them, i.e. grow up, get married, get jobs and promotions, have kids, and so forth. It should be noted that the player is only allowed to control one family per neighborhood, with "story progression" replacing the previous ability to direct the interactions of many families. Many more features may be toggled on or off that previous Sims editions did not offer, for instance, a player may toggle off aging/death if they do not want that feature to be enabled.

Of the eight needs of The Sims 1 & 2, only six (hunger, bladder, energy, social, hygiene and fun) remain, removing comfort and environment. Furthermore, while The Sims 2's Wants panel remains, Fears have been removed, and the Aspiration and Motives meters have been streamlined into a single "Needs" meter. The impact of Aspiration (self-esteem) on Motives (physical comfort) is accomplished by the inclusion of "Moodlets," bonuses of varying duration and impact that modify the Sim's overall mood. Moodlets are acquired via emotional events (a first kiss yields two days of positive affect; losing a friend yields a day's depression) as well as physical ones (getting a good night's rest; losing bladder control). Fulfilling Wants also contributes to the "Lifetime Happiness" score, which can be used to purchase gameplay bonuses (mostly pertaining to increased efficiency). Finally, the "Platinum Aspiration" game state, in which a Sim is overwhelmingly content, has been modified: the Sim's excess Mood now contributes to his/her Lifetime Happiness score.

Several minor features from The Sims 2 expansion packs appear in the The Sims 3, such as the "young adult" life stage, mobile phones and guitars (University), private cars, personal inventories (Nightlife), run stores (Open for Business), fishing, gardening, and storing leftovers (Seasons), jewelry and accessories (Bon Voyage), tooth brushing, ceilings and playground structures (Apartment Life).[ However, the majority of features from the Sims 2 expansion packs, such as a Sim going to college (University), are not available yet.

Neighborhood exploration
On March 19, 2008, EA revealed a new feature to The Sims 3: neighborhood exploration. Sims can now explore the world outside their homes without having to face strenuous loading times. Every lot is now synched to the main neighborhood time, whereas before, the time of day (and weather) was different in each lot and would continue off from the last time it was played. Players can also interact with every building in a neighborhood. So, for example, the player can enter their neighbor's house by "ringing their doorbell". Every Sim lives out their lives simultaneously; people will move in, move out, get married, etc., all as they play. There is also a setting that restricts their actions to minor things like showering, eating, and going to the bathroom. Each job has a specific building designated to it. Players are not able to see inside but are able to have limited control of their Sims—tell them to work overtime, laze around, listen to the boss and so on.

As in The Sims 2, there are residential lots and community lots. Most community lots in The Sims 3 are dominated by a public building, which functions as an elementary object - larger than most other gameplay objects. A Sim can interact with a public building - working, going to school, shopping, taking lessons, watching performances etc - but is hidden inside the building during interaction. Sims can easily move around the town with various transportation devices such as taxicabs, private cars, bicycles, or running, while letting the rest of the family stay independent at home - compared with The Sims 2, where time freezes on the home lot when a Sim visits a community lot.

Skills
There are several skill-dependent abilities — such as advanced social interactions available from high charisma, special songs for guitar players and appliance upgrades (self-cleaning, more TV channels etc) for high handiness. Painting, writing and guitar are now different skills, instead of the all-encompassing "creativity" skill of The Sims and The Sims 2. Paintings are now more particular to each Sim, based on their traits. Sims can increase their skills by practicing a skill (e.g. playing the guitar, working in the garden, writing a novel, etc.), reading a book about the skill, or taking a class in the skill at a civic building. Sims can begin building their skills as early as their toddler days. While skills do not show up in the meter right away — using skill building objects is rewarded once the toddler grows into a child.

Careers
Many careers are available to pursue and each 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 beyond the normal workday, such as working overtime or carrying out assignments. Some of them are associated with unique career interactions, such as interviews in the journalism career, meetings in the business career, or interrogations in the law enforcement career. Job performance is in most cases affected by the relation to the boss or the partner (but not the number of family friends, as was the case in The Sims and The Sims 2). Each career has several rewards, instead of only one as in The Sims 2. Careers can also branch into several possible promotions.

Each career branches off into different jobs that branch off as well. For example, if there were two Sims in the Business career track, they may not end up with the same jobs or duties even if they were on the same level in their careers. Nonetheless, a Sim who reaches the peak of a respective career can still receive raises, rewards, and additional payment if he or she keeps performing well at work. There are also several part-time jobs around the town. These are available to teenagers, as well as young adults, adults, and elders.

Create-a-Sim
reate-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. 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". Prominent birthmarks such as freckles can also be added to Sims. A preview tour of The Sims 3 with Ben Bell showed that players could create their own eye color with the color wheel (As used with Create-a-Style tool).

Individual fitness bars have been added to adjust the Sims' obesity and muscularity between extreme levels. In The Sims 2, there were only three body types—fat, normal and fit. 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, and exotic colors such as blue and green are available. When customizing hair, the player is shown a circle with all shades and hues of colors, and able to choose the base hair color, tips, roots, and even highlights. Texture for clothing follows a similar formatting scheme. Players can also adjust the pitch of their Sim's voices. A "Create-a-Twin" feature is also included, allowing players to create identical twins.

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. Create-A-Sim features 63 traits to choose from.[18] Some examples of these traits are: party animal, kleptomaniac, daredevil, childish, hot-headed, ambitious, snob, vegetarian, hates the outdoors, technophobe, inappropriate, loner, grumpy, great kisser, workaholic, excitable, green thumb, never nude, insane, flirty, evil and clumsy.

These traits control the way Sims behave. For example, a clumsy Sim may break items while using them and a hot-headed Sim may annoy another Sim at random. They also open up special interactions which might not be available otherwise. Toddlers have two traits, and a new one is added for each new life stage, until they reach young adulthood—so they have 3 as a child, 4 as a teen, then 5 as a young adult, which are the five traits they stay with for the rest of their lives. When creating a Sim, however, all trait spots do not need to be filled. The player can also select a Sim's favorite color, music genre, and food.

Build and buy modes
The build and buy modes have received their own makeover. The square tile outlines that appeared on the ground in previous Sims games' build and buy modes are now a quarter their original size to give the player more liberty to place objects where they want. However, walls and wallpapers do not configure to fourth tiles. The square grid allows the player to see where they can possibly place the objects in the game. The player can also turn off the grid and rotate objects freely as well as place objects freely with in-game toggles.[19] The overall game has the option to "customize everything", choosing a color through all 32-bits and use different patterns (the game has predefined samples for objects, etc). For instance, on a couch the player is able to customize the arms, cushions, base and seats separately. The "auto-roof" function now updates the roof when walls are rebuilt. Features such as wide staircases and basements are also easier to build.[13] The spray paint terrain feature returns from the Sims 2, but this time allows the player to spray square floor tiles. A "wall drag" tool allows the player to grow or shrink a room, moving the furniture with it. A new “slot” system gives several choices where to place decorative objects on surfaces, such as tables and dressers. Most existing objects can be recoloured and re-textured.

Movie making tool
The official website has announced that there will be a movie making tool. This tool, known as the Movie Mash Up tool will enable the player to create and share movies on the Sims 3 exchange using footage from their own game. As the camera angles within the game will be more accurate and the graphics will be better, the quality of these movies has the potential to be greater than those produced using The Sims 2.