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The Sims 3
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Graphics & Sound:
No matter what metrics you use to identify yourself as a "Hardcore" gamer, I am very confident in calling myself one. I have heard it repeatedly said, in both the Hardcore and Casual camps, that The Sims 3 is reserved only as a casual game. I decided to hold my own impromptu survey amongst my coworkers who, like me, are both developers and game enthusiasts. Most of them identified themselves as Hardcore gamers, all of whom did not immediately throw The Sims into the casual pile. Now I will say that the argument it raised most is whether The Sims titles were actually games at all. But you can argue that amongst yourselves later. I am just saying I don't follow the herd's impression of the The Sims 3 as a casual first, or only, game. More on this below.
I struggled to find any major break from the traditional look and feel of The Sims 3 over The Sims 2. It looks and feels very much the same. The real overhaul to the game has little to do with any revamped graphics. There is far more to actually see as the world is far more expansive, but not really a step outside of the comfort zone visually.
If for some reason you could recognize the small variations in the graphics, then maybe you could determine differences in the music style as well. I, for one, was not able to tell. No one who has poured months of their life into a project wants to hear that their efforts have gone totally unnoticed. But, alas, without direct comparison, my ears could not recognize any milestones here either. |
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Gameplay:
So let us begin by imagining that you have never heard of The Sims in its star-studded, nearly decade, years worth of content, and that the The Sims 3 will be your first experience. You create digital people and help guide them through their life. You can actually guide them from birth all of the way through to their unfortunate digital demise. You can guide their offspring as they, themselves, start families and begin their own lives. From where the game began so many years ago to what it is now is a huge part of the discussion I was referring to at the beginning and where it sprang from. For the largest part, the "game," as it were, is a giant digital sandbox in which you can create and control everything. In many conversations, the words Social Experiment creep up as well. The Sims 3 has continued the slow curve back to the word "game." You still have the ability to create, control, and for all intents and purposes play God. But, you are far more invested in the success of your Sims.
First thing first, you need to create some people to populate the world. I cannot begin to narrow down all of the physical characteristics you can assign any one character. If you have the talent and imagination, I would challenge that you can recreate any known person with great detail. From there, you can also create social characteristics that will very accurately mimic real world social interactions as your Sims go out and mingle, without your direct control. This is where the discussion of social experiment will begin to raise its voice to be heard. These decisions in social aspects will also determine their life's goals and endeavors they wish to pursue throughout the game.
Now that you have created a populace, you can begin to change their living environment. You can build houses for your Sims to live in or move them into pre-existing structures. Again, with a little imagination and time, you can create some amazing real world structures. They don't need to be real world for that matter. Build whatever you like. Though not winning any points for style, you could have tons of people in a really small space. There is also the ever-popular house with no doors and no bathrooms.
Where the game hosts its newest features is in the freedom you now have to move about the world. The Sims Life doesn't just happen in the confines of your house anymore. It used to be that a Sim that has left for work, or some other endeavor, was just off in digital ether some place. You can now follow your Sims across the city and see what they are up to in their day. For that matter, you can now follow and control multiple families at one time. This adds a lot more challenge in the macromanagement of life. |
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Difficulty:
This next portion might be better called "How to Challenge Yourself" instead of difficulty, seeing as how this still has a sandbox component, and you are not forced to conform to any set of traditional rules. If you wish to experience a challenge from the game, it is by your own personal will to succeed and participate actively in your Sims' development. Now I can mention a few things they have made a little easier. Previously, the best way to describe the life of a Sim was to say that you told it how to get up, shower, go to work, come home, and then go to bed. Repeat this a hundred thousand times and that was mostly it. The Sims do a lot more for themselves now. If it is hungry, it will eat. If it must use the bathroom, it will. This opens up a ton of time to be able to experience the game differently and hopefully for the better.
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Game Mechanics:
The The Sims 3 has made obvious advancements in taking the grind out of keeping a Sim alive. This has really opened this title up as an actual game, as you can now actually focus on the wishes of your Sim. I felt like I had a far more personal investment in my Sim's success other than just survival. The sandbox element of the game is as much a draw as the social curiosities. You can spend hundreds of hours in just building and creating architecture. It goes even further as it is not just the architecture, but the decorating of the house. The Sims has enjoyed and benefited from the creative drive of its populace players. Players and modders have invested countless hours of their personal time and effort creating masterpieces of art, objects, clothing, architecture, and Sims for their enjoyment and that of the community. They are actually hosting this content as part of their revamp of the front end. You can access the main page and add, track, and catalog the additional assets you add to your game. In a nut shell, they made it far more user-friendly without having to dig into your assets and move files around. Lets be honest for a second. They have also created a system where they can better control, and profit from, the additional content that is created. Nothing wrong with this, as far as I am concerned, at the moment.
I really feel like the few changes that have been made have made a drastic change in the gameplay of The Sims 3. To break it down, there is far more to do than ever before. You do not lose any of the feeling of control over the world. I felt liberated from a large part of the grind of the game. There are just as many tools to build with and I can only see improvements from my end.
I do not know what they did to streamline the loading of the game, but it only took mere seconds to load, compared to what felt like forever before. It has successfully shed its shackles of being labeled only one thing or another. It is not just a sandbox anymore. It is not just about the social experimentation and it is definitely not just a game. I believe it has a nice home nestled down between the three. I would have to say that the best way to enjoy this title is to make the decision of why you want to play it in the first place. I think that right there, and the fact there is a little something for everyone, is why it has sat so comfortably at the top of game rankings for so long. Of course, the fast-paced and copious amounts of new content that accompany these titles doesn't hurt either. |
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-WUMPUSJAGGER, GameVortex Communications AKA Bryon Lloyd |
Minimum System Requirements:
2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent, 1.5 GB RAM, 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0, Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1, at least 6.1 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB of additional space for custom content and saved games |
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Test System:
Dell XPS DXP061, XP Pro, Intel Core Quad, 2GB Ram, Gforce 8800GTX |
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