The demo of The Sims 3 started off as the game itself does, with the Create-a-Sim mode, which packs the basic framework of the character-creation system from The Sims 2 with more granular customization options. There are four discreet color regions for your sim's hair. There are three sliders dedicated to just the size and shape of your sim's nose. You can now choose to start your sim in one of five age brackets, creating a distinction between a young adult and a middle-aged one. If all that sounds like a bit much, there are plenty of presets that you can choose from during the process, which still work plenty fine. Spending only a few minutes with the Create-a-Sim tool, I was able to shape and clothe a decent, if admittedly idealized, approximation of mysimself.

More significant to the actual gameplay than the aesthetic changes are the way your sim's personality impacts the experience. During the Create-a-Sim process, you'll choose a number of personality traits, ranging from charismatic to hydrophobic. There are traits that contradict each other, traits that complement each other, and there seem to be a pretty equal number of both positive and negative personality traits to choose from. This, I think, really speaks to how the developers recognize that there is no right or wrong way to play The Sims, and it can be just as much fun to play a neurotic screw-up as it can to play as some Eagle Scout. In addition to having a significant impact on how your sim will react to other sims and behave in general, the traits you choose end up determining which of the lifetime wishes you can choose from for your sim, which will serve as the overarching purpose of your sim's simulated life. Your lifetime wishes, in turn, will inform the kinds of short-term activities your sim will benefit from engaging in. These personality traits aren't permanent, however, and it's possible to trigger a midlife crisis for your sim, allowing you to pick a fresh set of personality traits. 

One of the big draws of The Sims for a lot of people is its unique capacities as a virtual dollhouse, and one of the ways The Sims 3 improves on this is with the new create-a-style system. This feature lets you to create sets of custom-colored patterns that you can drag and drop onto anything your sim owns--clothes, furniture, homes, cars, you name it--making it much easier to create a cohesive sense of style for your sim. These style sets can consist of up to four different patterns, and the patterns themselves can consist of multiple customizable colors. While you won't be able to create custom patterns--at least not out of the box--there's certainly no shortage of stock patterns. EA wasn't giving out any hard numbers, but the fact that we saw no less than four different types of zebra patterns ought to give you a good idea of the scope here. 

The specter of death has always lingered over The Sims, though in The Sims 3 it won't be quite as permanent as it has in the past. Causes natural and unnatural alike can still claim your sim, though if your sim buys the farm in certain, specific ways, they'll return as a freaking ghost, whom you can continue to play as in some capacity. This wasn't something that was actually shown during the demo, but it's definitely one of the first things I plan on figuring out as soon as I get a copy of the game. Yeah, as though that's really any different from how I ever play The Sims.

The demo of The Sims 3 started off as the game itself does, with the Create-a-Sim mode, which packs the basic framework of the character-creation system from The Sims 2 with more granular customization options. There are four discreet color regions for your sim's hair. There are three sliders dedicated to just the size and shape of your sim's nose. You can now choose to start your sim in one of five age brackets, creating a distinction between a young adult and a middle-aged one. If all that sounds like a bit much, there are plenty of presets that you can choose from during the process, which still work plenty fine. Spending only a few minutes with the Create-a-Sim tool, I was able to shape and clothe a decent, if admittedly idealized, approximation of mysimself.

More significant to the actual gameplay than the aesthetic changes are the way your sim's personality impacts the experience. During the Create-a-Sim process, you'll choose a number of personality traits, ranging from charismatic to hydrophobic. There are traits that contradict each other, traits that complement each other, and there seem to be a pretty equal number of both positive and negative personality traits to choose from. This, I think, really speaks to how the developers recognize that there is no right or wrong way to play The Sims, and it can be just as much fun to play a neurotic screw-up as it can to play as some Eagle Scout. In addition to having a significant impact on how your sim will react to other sims and behave in general, the traits you choose end up determining which of the lifetime wishes you can choose from for your sim, which will serve as the overarching purpose of your sim's simulated life. Your lifetime wishes, in turn, will inform the kinds of short-term activities your sim will benefit from engaging in. These personality traits aren't permanent, however, and it's possible to trigger a midlife crisis for your sim, allowing you to pick a fresh set of personality traits. 

One of the big draws of The Sims for a lot of people is its unique capacities as a virtual dollhouse, and one of the ways The Sims 3 improves on this is with the new create-a-style system. This feature lets you to create sets of custom-colored patterns that you can drag and drop onto anything your sim owns--clothes, furniture, homes, cars, you name it--making it much easier to create a cohesive sense of style for your sim. These style sets can consist of up to four different patterns, and the patterns themselves can consist of multiple customizable colors. While you won't be able to create custom patterns--at least not out of the box--there's certainly no shortage of stock patterns. EA wasn't giving out any hard numbers, but the fact that we saw no less than four different types of zebra patterns ought to give you a good idea of the scope here. 

The specter of death has always lingered over The Sims, though in The Sims 3 it won't be quite as permanent as it has in the past. Causes natural and unnatural alike can still claim your sim, though if your sim buys the farm in certain, specific ways, they'll return as a freaking ghost, whom you can continue to play as in some capacity. This wasn't something that was actually shown during the demo, but it's definitely one of the first things I plan on figuring out as soon as I get a copy of the game. Yeah, as though that's really any different from how I ever play The Sims.

I'm going to pre-order this

I'm so pumped for this game/toy!

I loved the sims 2, I'll probably give this a shot.

Hope its good

This is the main reason why I'm coming back to PC gaming this year.  I'm totally gonna get milked by EA and I won't really care.

SimRyan is pretty accurate, but it seems like he lacks the proper "crazy eyes". Maybe wider or something, but I don't get the feeling that he could snap at any moment.

How many expansion packs will EA release for this to cash-in further? Hmm...

The very fact that the game was pushed back to summer really sucks.

Also, im fairly sure with "Free will" on, Sims would always look after themselves in that capacity in all the games, Leaving you do concentrate on life goals (if you wanted that is, i mean i still commanded my Sims to do all the basic stuff even with Free Will on, couldn't stand their way of thinking sometimes) if you're saying it's done better, then great.

Very excited for this. I'm so happy to hear they've cut down on a lot of the micro-management crap, too...

I have my doubts about the Sims formula. In relation to me, I mean. There are things from the first game that never carried over to the second, and a certain level of simplicity (no, that was totally not meant as a pun) that has been lost. One thing in particular that grated on me in The Sims 2 is that Sims would age. That itself isn't too big a problem, but it was the speed at which they aged that made it impossible for me to get much done before my Sim grew old. I can't remember if there was an actual mode, or only a code that would turn aging off, but I would always do that, for fear of accomplishing nothing with the Sim I created in my image in his short, meaningless existence.

Sim games come with so many (SO MANY) expansion packs these days, that it seems to me not including every single feature added in those from the getgo with The Sims 3 will be like a giant middle finger to the fanbase. They'll soon be selling back to you those features in yet another round of expansion packs, and people will mindlessly buy them because it's The Sims. Well, I already fell for that tactic with the original game. I bought every expansion pack up to Vacation, and then I stopped playing, at some point. Then I bought The Sims 2, and never bought a single expansion for that game. I actually didn't play much of it at all, to tell you the truth. I realized The Sims was a gigantic sink hole wasting your real life time. And yet, here I am, wasting more of my time commenting on it.

And I may yet buy The Sims 3, if something changes my mind in the mean time. I have less faith in it being that significantly different/better than the second game, but we shall see.

I don't personally 'get' The Sims, but my daughters love it.  Hence, I have pretty much every expansion (not Vacation, it was defective).  My only issue will likely be what power it requires to run it.  I am at least 2-3 years away from upgrading to my nextt Mac, so if it exceeds its limits (2.16Ghz dual core, 3 Gb RAM and won't work with the graphics chip), then I am out.

ooooh, perhaps i shall buy this game...

The question is will my netbook run this, and the answer is... no.

I've loved the Sims and Sims 2 (plus many expansion packs) so I'll likely be picking up this game too, not to mention that the open-world-ish aspect seems interesting to me. This series is like a brick of crack for me....I probably should stop, but I just can't.

For me The Sims was fun for a couple of hours but after a while the interior decorating and virtual activities just didn't do 'it' for me.

I dont know. I think its getting old. It looks good  n all but I think I'll pass this up. I'm with a new RTC game. But I dont think its going to happen.

Simsier XD

Sim Ryan, or Sim Billy Mays?

Wonder how my joyful, eternal optimist sim will react to wetting himself in a tiny room with no doors or windows until he dies of starvation?

I am most definitely looking forward to this game.

Any news on the system requirements on this yet? I've always enjoyed sims games, but I'm not sure if my lowly laptop will be able to run this. EDIT: found them. It seems I'm right on the borderline. It'd probably run at a super low framerate. I might have to give it a miss for now.

I didn't play Sims 2 because it's pretty depressing seeing people going through their whole lives and dying in a matter of hours. Seems Sims 3 will be the same...

"I didn't play Sims 2 because it's pretty depressing seeing people going through their whole lives and dying in a matter of hours. Seems Sims 3 will be the same..."

"I didn't play Sims 2 because it's pretty depressing seeing people going through their whole lives and dying in a matter of hours. Seems Sims 3 will be the same...
"

@VibratingDonkey

You are a sick, sick man. But hilarious.

I'll choose to stay addicted to 3D rendering instead.  I'm just not the house and garden type.

It may be less of a chore than the older games were, but I still hate the sims with a passion because it's so pointless.
So, I wonder how many expansion packs will be released for $20 each that add small features that should be in the main game anyways?

I so want this game, why the hell did it have to be delayed?

i have never liked  the sims but this might be worth checking out or atleast keep looking alittle more

oh by the way was rthat a nicotine patch on ben bell's left arm

It looks tons more promising than I first thought, I always hated the look of the characters in 2 and to hear I don't have to pull out hair worrying about the sim-kids skipping their homework to piss themselves and fall asleep on their feet only sweetens the deal.

Bummer, I probably need a new computer to run the Sims 3. The second one took ages to load lots (I think this was because the game wasn't optimized or something?). I'm looking forward anyways, I've had a good run with the Sims 2.

Does it annoy anyone else that they don't center their embedded videos on the posts?  Is it just me?

Interesting, but still not a franchise I feel like jumping on board with. That being said, looking back to the few hours of the Sims (1 or 2, I don't remember) that I did play, I recall "the micromanagement that all but defined" they way it was played. From what I remember it was an incredibly tedious battle with sub-par AI. It's nice to see, now that technology has permitted them to, that they've moved away from those annoying aspects.

Will be waiting for a review, if only to satisfy my curiosity.

I really liked the first one. This one looks like a totally improved experience overall. I really am considering getting this!

DUDE! I had no idea that this is what they were going for with The Sims 3.
I'm so totally hyped now!

Even in the first game, dead Sims could reappear in the form of a ghost. But they were attached to the grave/urn, so you could get rid of the ghosts just by getting rid of them.
They've never been controllable before though. That's pretty crazy.

I hope Ben's arm heals well.

Nice Akira shirt.

I haven't picked up an expansion in years, but the initial releases always grab me.

Not that I'll play it, but the game looks good.

I want that guy's Akira shirt.  Where can I get one?

I think the success of the game is going to depend on the system requirements a lot...and whether people still like the sims. and how much it's going to cost.

Looks good for a Sims game.  I like the added personalities.  And it's about time they made it easy for people to mod the designs of clothes/objects in game.

"Hydrophobic?  The Sims can have rabies now?"

For those wondering about the "hydrophobia" thing, that's just how that personality trait was listed in the game. I'm fairly certain they meant "afraid of water" and not "rabid," though stranger things have happened in The Sims.

simryan has some nice smooth legs.

It will be interesting to see how it turns out to be. I liked the second game. The graphics is a disappointment to me though, it looks like the characters are the sims 2 characters only in high res, and have lost some of the charm they had in that game.