The Sims 3

Synopsis

The Sims 3, the third game in the Sims franchise, allows players to explore a seamless, open neighborhood, visit neighbors’ homes, and create realistic Sims with distinctive personalities. Your Sims can roam outside of their home with no loading times. They can stroll downtown to hang out with friends, meet someone new at the park, or run into colleagues on the street. New community buildings are available to let your Sim run wild, socialize, work, and play. Easy-to-use design tools allow for unlimited customization to make truly individual Sims. Determine your Sims’ shape and size, from thin to full-figured to muscular—and everything in between. The Sims 3 offers much more in the way of customizing the Sims that live in the neighborhood and also the buildings and places. Thanks to the new smarter AI, Sims will know when to do chores, activities, socializing and how long they should do them for.

Sunset Valley

The new seamless neighborhood

The Sims 3 neighborhood is now completely seamless. There are no longer multiple neighborhoods such as Downtown, Vacation, and so on. Load time when moving around the neighborhood has been eliminated and the whole town is able to be explored including Neighbors, Shops and Recreation. There are close to 90 houses in the town, each with its own family. The released game includes 1 neighborhood, but the developers to released a tool to add more neighborhoods.

Neighborhood features:

• Everyone in the town will age together.
• Trees and shrubs sway in the breeze.
• The town is fully customizable and allows you to remove and change lots and Sims.
• "Map Tags" float over areas to allow a quick way to find your way around.
• Sims can move nearer to their place of work to reduce traveling time.
• Land values are not just based on size, but now include location.
• You are able to zoom out to see the entire neighborhood or zoom in to a see a single Sim.
• Move houses to bigger or smaller lot sizes.

Sims

Is she stuck-up or friendly?

The Sims themselves have been completely changed from previous games. Now you are able to create realistic Sims with distinctive personalities. Select from dozens of personality traits and combine them in fun ways. The combination of traits you choose help shape the behavior of your Sims and how they interact with other Sims. Your Sims now have a very basic set of every day needs and they are more complex individuals with unique personalities. There will no longer be "happy" or "sad", or even "furious," Sims now have a new range of Emotions which they will follow, allowing them to express themselves even more. The concept of a mood bar in the game has been replaced with a set of icons called moodlets that show how your Sims feel. Moodlets will stay with your Sim and the duration will be set by a number of factors, including severity and Sims' disposition. Special moods such as embarrassed or depressed are all part of the moodlets system.

Fulfill his dream of looking through your trash.

Sims now have dreams and traits. Dreams are desires of your Sim that can include wanting to talk to another Sim, get a new career, have a baby and much more. You can decide then to turn it into a Promise. Ignoring a Dream is okay, but ignoring a Promise gives you negative repercussions. There will be around 80 different types of traits to choose from and each Sim will have a total of 5 once they reach the young adult life stage. These Traits will affect how a Sim behaves towards others and affects their moods, like the mood of a Sim that enjoys the outdoors will rise when he/she is outside. There will be 7 age groups: Baby, Toddler, Child, Teenager, Young Adult, Adult, and Elder. Every career has its own building in the neighborhood. Advancing in a career is changed as it depends on skills, personality, relationship with colleagues/boss and even certain goals that have to be fulfilled. Sims can take part-time jobs. Besides the newspaper, you can also apply for a job at the specific career building.

The job system has also received an overhaul. Rather than the Sims simply disappearing for a few hours before coming home, they will actually physically go to a building in the city to work. For example, if a Sim is a musician, they will travel to the theater for work. While they are working, players are able dictate how they work, with options ranging from "Take It Easy" to "Work Hard" (which tires them out and causes stress but gets more stuff done). Jobs can also have specific options, such as the musician career path having the option to chill with your band mates or study music theory.

Keeping Sims Fulfilled

Once you created your Sims on PS3, DS, Wii, XBOX 360, PC or Mac, you can either make Sims happy (Fulfilled) or Unhappy (Unfulfilled). Although you earn more experience if they are fulfilled in even the simplest way. To Do: just look at your Sim's needs and dreams and complete them.

Sims Features:

• There are only 6 needs: Bed, Toilet, Entertainment, Food, Social, Hygiene.
• Sims have certain skills like cooking or fishing.
• Hair will not grow but you can 'paint' certain parts of the hair.
• They will look after themselves better.
• Instead of fixed interaction (like Talk or Joke), the options are filtered based on your current Mood or your Traits.
• Sims still spin around to change clothes.
• Sims have likes and dislikes to certain foods, colors, music and much more.
• Sims will now focus on many new skills, skills will not be static as in The Sims 2.

Customization

Add patterns and colors to almost everything in the game

The Sims and the neighborhood are more customizable than ever before and new and improved tools will be provided to help you create everything you want. Build your dream house or design the ultimate home. Customize everything from floors to flowers, shirts to sofas, wallpaper to window shades. It’s fun and easy to change colors and patterns giving you endless personalization options. You can also populate your Sims’ neighborhood with pre-designed buildings and furnishings. Create-A-Sim has also been vastly improved and will allow you to really make the sims you create unique. There are now sliders for weight and fitness. Sims that you created fat can become thin by exercising, and thin created people get fat by eating a lot. Sims no longer have to have shoes that are fixed to the outfit, as with The Sims 2. These are now separate and can be chosen individually. You can choose a Sims' favorite color, music type, food, etc. One of the most exciting features is now the ability to change voice and even pitch, so your Sim can sound unique and will be recognizable by just listening to them talk.

Another great addition to the build tools is the ability to move objects 360 degrees and without a grid. You can now also position stuff on counters or desktops as long as the objects aren't overlapping. There will be a grid available if you need help placing objects, but it will be much smaller. You will be able to center a 3 tile couch to a 2 tile TV set.

Customization features:

• You can choose specific Asian and African models.
• Shoes are separate and you can also choose barefoot or wear socks.
• Body can be shaped just like the faces are able to.
• Adult now considered more 'middle aged' and includes wrinkles.
• Use your own patterns/colors and then apply it to anything through a drag-and-drop interface.
• Buy an empty bookcase and then buy and place books in it.
• Table and chairs link and can move as 1 object (same with beds and end tables).
• You can make a certain stair wider (up to 4 tiles wide) with a slider.
• You are able to build 5 stories high.
• You can pick up items (garbage, books,etc.) yourself with a Hand cursor.

The Sims 3 Online Store

EA (Electronic Arts) have created a new unique "The Sims 3 Store" where you can shop online for interesting items for the game. The items on The Store are much different to regular items found in Build/Buy Mode (In Gameplay). Purchasing the items, you will be paying by Sim Points, exclusive to the Store. However, some items are Free of Charge such as, Registration Rewards. When you Register The Sims 3, you will be given 1000 Sim Points to freely spend, but on other Expansion Packs you will receive rewards (Exclusive Registration Items)...

Visit The Sims 3 Store

The Exchange

The Exchange can be found on the console versions of the Sims 3. It allows players to trade user created content. Like similar EA games, The Exchange is the one feature in the game that requires players to activate this ability via an online code bought in new versions of the game.

Traits

Below is a list of traits along with a small description. These are subject to change.

• Absent-Minded - A Sim who often forgets what he/she is doing
• Artistic - High skill in creating art
• Athletic - A very active person
• Ambitious - A Sim who desires a lot in life
• Brave - Shows a lot of courage
• Charismatic - High charm/appeal to others
• Childish - Behaving immaturely
• Clumsy - Lacking dexterity or grace
• Commitment Issues - Avoidance of long-term partnership and/or marriage
• Daredevil - A reckless person
• Evil - Has a bad character and does bad things
• Excitable - Easy to get into action or excitement or reacting to stimuli
• Family Orientated - Emotionally directed to family
• Flirty - Showing interest or liking in other person
• Friendly - Generally warm, approachable and easy to relate with
• Frugal - Economical, avoiding to waste anything
• Genius - Possesses extraordinary intelligence or skill
• Good - Favorable character or tendency
• Good Sense of Humor - Very comical or amusing
• Green Thumb - A natural skill for gardening
• Grumpy - Unhappy and/or irritable
• Hates the Outdoors - Negative moodlet when outside
• Handy - Clever in using their hands in a variety of useful ways
• Hot-Headed - Easily angered
• Hydrophobic - Fear of water
• Inappropriate - Not suitable for the situation
• Kleptomaniac - One who steals compulsively
• Light Sleeper - Is easily wakened
• Loner - Avoiding the company of others
• Loves the Outdoors - Gains a positive moodlet when outdoors
• Lucky - Is favored by luck
• Mooch - To wander around aimlessly
• Mean Spirited - Loves to fight
• Natural Cook - Good cook or cooking with organic ingredients
• Neat - A habit of being clean and orderly
• Neurotic - Tends to whine or complain
• Over-Emotional - Intense emotion or full of passion
• Party Animal - To attend or give parties
• Perfectionist - Having extremely high standards
• Playful - Likes playing, prone to play frequently
• Romantic - Emotional appeal of heroic, adventurous, mysterious, or idealized
• Rude - Offensive in manner or action
• Schmoozer - Chatting friendly and persuasive to gain favors
• Slob - A lazy and sloppy person
• Snob - Prefers only the finest of things and enjoys looking in mirrors
• Unlucky - Unfortunate, marked by misfortune
• Vegetarian - Does not eat animal products at all
• Workaholic - A compulsive worker

Skills

The following Skills can be found in the Skill journal:

• Painting
• Athletic
• Charisma
• Cooking
• Gardening
• Guitar
• Handiness
• Logic
• Writing
• Fishing

Like previous Sims games, these skills can all be upgraded by simply working on them. For instance if you want to improve the cooking skills some of your options are watching a tv show about cooking, reading a cookbook, and actually practicing making meals. All of these skills will eventually rise if the Sim continually works on them and a scale from 1 to 10 represents where they currently fall within that skill. When a skill is complete, it will be highlighted green and considered 'mastered' in the Skill journal.

Cheat Codes

The Sims franchise is notorious for including a bounty of cheat codes, and The Sims 3 is no different. The game includes many cheat codes that modify the game in some truly bizarre ways. Note that these codes should be used your own risk, some may harm game performance or stability. To enter the codes, press the Control and C keys at the same time. Then enter the code desired.

Challenges and Rewards

The Sims 3 has its own challenge system built into it. Challenges can be broken down into 3 distinct categories: Life, Feats, and Collection. Life challenges are simple and usually require the Sim just to do one thing to complete it. An example of a life challenge is to start a painting or take a bubble bath. The Feats Challenges usually require more time and are longevity based. An example of a Feats challenge would be like that of improving a skill to level ten or watching TV for ten hours. The collection challenges require the Sim to complete all tasks in a set of items. These can range from reading all the books to catching all of the perfect fish in the game.

For every challenge you complete, you gain points that can be used to buy things at the collection shop. The collection shop contains many varying sorts of items including clothes, furniture, and some of the karma powers are unlocked in the collection shop. The challenges are tied to one account so every time you create a new Sim household you will have all of your challenge points available to use.

System Requirements

PC/DESKTOP

XP (Service Pack 2):

• Processor: Pentium IV 2.0 GHz / Athlon XP 2000
• Memory: 1 GB
• Graphics: GeForce FX 5900 / Radeon 9500
• Graphics Ram: 128 MB

Vista (Service Pack 1):

• Processor:Pentium IV 2.4 GHz / Athlon XP 2400
• Memory: 1.5 GB
• Graphics: GeForce FX 5900 / Radeon 9500
• Graphics Ram: 128 MB

LAPTOP

XP (Service Pack 2):

• Processor: Pentium IV 2.4 GHz / Athlon XP 2400
• Memory: 1.5 GB
• Graphics: GeForce Go 6200 / Radeon mobile 9600
• Graphics Ram: 128 MB

Vista (Service Pack 1):

• Processor: Pentium IV 2.4 GHz / Athlon XP 2400
• Memory: 2.0 GB
• Graphics: GeForce Go 6200 / Radeon mobile 9600
• Graphics Ram: 128 MB

Mac OS X

• OS: Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard or Higher
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo
• Memory: 2.0 GB
• HDD: 6.1 GB of hard disk space, with at least 1 GB additional space for saved games and custom content.
• Video: ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of RAM or Intel Integrated GMA X3100
• Supported Video Cards: ATI Radeon ™ X1600, X1900, 2400, 2600, 3870, 4850, 4870, NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 7600, 8600, 8800, 9400M, 9600M GT, GT 120, GT 130, Intel ® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) GMA 3-Series . This game will not run on Mac systems with processor PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) or video cards with integrated GMA 950 series.

The Sims 3 Soundtrack

The Sims 3 Soundtrack

Released on May 26, 2009. Music by Steve Jablonsky

Track list

1. The Sims Theme
2. Simmering Mallets
3. Consumerism Simplified
4. Verisimilitude
5. Simple Assembly
6. Aisles Of Miles Of Smiles
7. Identity Check
8. Simple Directions
9. Some Assimbly Required
10. Let's Assimilate
11. Don't Be Parsimonious
12. Constructive Simicism
13. Maps & Simbols
14. Amazing Facsimile
15. Striking Similarities
16. Cartographer's Simphony
17. Fortissimo Personality

Expansion Packs, Stuff Packs, & The Sims 3 Store

Like previous games in the series, The Sims 3 has a number of expansion packs (EPs) and stuff packs (SPs) which add a range of new content and features for the player to use in the game.

Expansions

The Sims 3: World Adventures

The Sims 3: Ambitions

The Sims 3: Late Night

The Sims 3: Generations

The Sims 3: Pets

The Sims 3: Showtime

Stuff Packs

The Sims 3: High-End Loft Stuff

The Sims 3: Fast Lane Stuff

The Sims 3: Outdoor Living Stuff

The Sims 3: Town Life Stuff

The Sims 3: Master Suite Stuff

The Sims 3 also introduced a new micro transaction based store, in which players can buy from a variety of virtual items and sets.

Special Tools

The Sims 3 website also offers two free tools that can be used to make even more content for the game. The Create-A-World tool (more frequently called CAW) can be used by players to create entirely new towns to explore, and these towns can be shared on the Sims 3 website. The second tool is the Create-A-Pattern tool (known as CAP) where players can make their own patterns that can be used on furnishings or clothing in the game. Both of these tools are fully supported by EA and are regularly updated along with the game itself.

Xbox 360, PS3, DS, 3DS, and Wii release

The Sims franchise has already generated $2.5 billion in revenue.

EA lived up to last year's promise after releasing Sim's 3 for the PC and has officially announced the development of Sim 3 for consoles and handhelds this holiday season. The console versions will have several new features such as "Karma Power" which determines whether your Sim can get lucky in certain tasks or ultimately fail. The PS3 and 360 versions will feature Facebook connectivity to enable the sharing of achievements and trophies via wall posts, and the Wii version will get it's own beach town. The DS will introduce a brand new story mode, not seen previously in handheld Sims games. A 3DS version was also released, this version was similar to the iOS release with added 3D effects. The Sims 3 Pets was also released on The Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo 3DS. The Xbox 360 version added Kinect support to the franchise.

Karma Powers

Accumulating Karma in the Sims 3 can be done in two ways. Firstly, Karma is gained by completing the wishes your Sims desire. At midnight, Karma is also dispersed upon your Sims and the amount given is directly effected to whether or not the Sim used one of their Karma Powers earlier in the day. Karma Powers can be placed into two shades of categories: light(good) and dark(bad). Some of the powers are locked from the start and must be unlocked in the challenge shop.

The following good Karma Powers are as follows:

• Instant Beauty: Give any Sim in your household an instant makeover by taking him or her back to create a Sim!
• Good Times: Remove bad moodlets from everyone at the same time to put all your sims in a better mood!
• Bless the Mess: Instantly repair and clean anything broken, dirty, or messy!
• Super Satisfy: Satisfy any Sim by maximizing all of his or her needs at once!
• Stroke of Genius: Make any Sim learn skills at a supper-accelerated rate for a few hours!
• Get Lucky: Make any Sim super lucky in love, at work, at finding rare items and even catching fish!
• Giant Jackpot: Let any Sim hit the jackpot with free money from the heavens! Drop anywhere from 1000 Simoleans to 15 thousand Simoleans instantly!
• Divine Intervention: Bring any dead family member back to life! Use on their ghost.

The five bad karma powers are listed as follows:

• Cosmic Curse: Lower any Sim's need to rock bottom instantly!
• Fire Storm: Rain fire and brimstone down on the world with a flaming meteorite shower!
• Quake Maker: Shake the world and watch things break and burn!
• Poltergeists: Haunt any house with these angry ghosts to scare the living daylights out of your Sims!
• Epic Fail: Make any Sim an epic failure in love, career, and even simple household tasks for a few hours!

The Karma Powers 'Get Lucky', 'Giant Jackpot', 'Good Times', 'Stroke of Genius', 'Divine Intervention', and 'Fire Storm' must be unlocked before use.