dan5678's Journal: Sims 3 Review By Dan

If you are new to the Sims, here is a quick primer. The Sims 3 is a virtual life simulator. In it, you take control of a character called a sim, or an entire household of Sims. These characters have needs, they need to empty their bladders, eat, sleep, bathe, have fun, and to socialize with each other. It is real life boiled down to simple mechanics, but within these mechanics lies an entire universe of possibilities. Your sims can have babies who will cry in the middle of the night, yhey need their diapers changed. You manage their personal development by sending them to the gym to work out, by telling them to fix a broken tv, by having them play chess, or by sending them to the park to play on a guitar. Sims go to work to earn their own money called simoleans so they can buy better things for their homes and redecorate, and also to buy a brand new home. They make friends and enemies, they go swimming, and they clog up the toilet. In other words, they act jus like real people, except that they talk in a delightful gibberish called simlish and communicate by the way of speech bubbles that appear over their heads. It all sounds terribly boring, but balancing the needs of your sims and tending to your digital playmates can keep you happily glued to your monitor for hours at a time. For experienced Sims players, the list of new features in The Sims 3 is extensive, but the one overhaul that has the biggest impact on the game is how seamlessly you can now move around your virtual town. In previous games, the presence of various neighborhoods led to a disjointed experience, so you rarely felt like you were in a living world. Now, your neighborhood is freely explorable, so traveling to the gym, art gallery, or your place of work means walking, biking, driving, or taxiing to the location you choose without any loading times to break things up. Want your sim characters to head to the library and read up on the latest mystery? Just pull out to the city map and select your destination, and your characters will travel there by themselves, using the most efficient means of transportation. You can even get the option to invite someone along with you, if you've got a friend or acquaintance nearby who's available to tag along. This way you won't have to head to the diner alone. When you create a sim, you're choosing more than just personality traits. The physical customization options are far more extensive than ever. You determine skin color and various facial features, you choose clothing hues, and there are a number of accessories, hair styles, and so on to choose from. The effect of the open town has a profound influence on the community aspects of game. You call up other sims and invite them over using your cell phone, but if you're feeling adventurous, just head directly to another sim's house and introduce yourself. You can travel to one of the many public venues such as the beach, park, even a trip to a graveyard. In these places, you will have a chance to interact with other characters, and there may even be surprises in store if you happen to be in the right place at the right time. For example, you might be able to join a picnic in progress, or a midnight visit to the cemetery may introduce you to some new ghosts. The game also provides spontaneous opportunities for your sims to socialize. Other sims will call you on the phone. If you are growing a garden, they may ask you to bring some veggies over in exchange for a few simoleans. They may ask you to repair a broken appliance for them. Either way, these tasks send you out on the town where you'll run into other sims characters, which will give you a sense of being part of a society that exists outside of your realm. Getting your sims characters together is usually a guaranteed laugh. As before, you can just sit back and let things happen, and the computer will do a good job with automated behavior, sims will act in ways remarkably true to the personality that you've established for them. But directing social encounters often yields even more hysterical results, and your sims' personalities and traits allow you to direct conversations more easily than before. There's a wider array of conversational subjects when meeting up with other sims, and you'll want to play around with all of them just to see how your friends react. Try jumping into a romantic interest's arms, he may not catch you! Take your weakling sim to the gym and watch what happens on the treadmill, kiss another sim in front of your husband and watch the slaps begin. Generate your own masochistic amusement by denying your sims the use of a toilet, or putting them in a room without doors. Watching the expressive animations and listening to the dramatic vocal sounds is always cute and funny, whether it's your toddler sim chewing on her toys or the man of the house throwing a temper tantrum because there is rotting leftover food in the fridge. Have fun!