The Sims 3 is a 2009 life simulation video game developed by the Redwood Shores studio of Maxis, and published by Electronic Arts. Part of The Sims series, it is the sequel to The Sims 2. It was released on June 2, 2009, for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows and smartphone versions. Console versions were released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS in October 2010 and a month later for Wii. The Windows Phone version was released on October 15, 2010. A Nintendo 3DS version, released on March 27, 2011, was one of the platform's launch titles.[7]
The game follows the same premises as its predecessors The Sims and The Sims 2 and is based around a life simulation where the player controls the actions and fates of its characters, the Sims, as well as their houses and neighbourhoods. The Sims 3 expands on previous games in having an open world system, where neighbourhoods are completely open for the sims to move around without any loading screens. A new design tool is introduced, the Create-a-Style tool, which allows every object, clothing and hair to be redesigned in any color, material or design pattern.
The Sims 3 was a commercial success, selling 1.4 million copies in its first week.[8] It received mostly positive reviews from critics, with an 86/100 score from aggregator Metacritic indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[9] The game has sold over ten million copies worldwide since its 2009 release, making it one of the best-selling PC games of all time.[10] The Sims 3 has additionally received eleven expansion packs and nine "stuff packs". A sequel, The Sims 4, was released in September 2014 for PC; it received mixed reviews, largely due to the removal of the open world, Create-a-Style tool, and lack of content.
Gameplay
As in previous games of the franchise, in The Sims 3 players control their own Sims' activities and relationships. The gameplay is open-ended and does not have a defined goal. The sims live in neighbourhoods, now being officially referred to as 'worlds', which can be customized, allowing the player to create their houses, community lots, and sims, although many of these come with the core game.
These worlds are now 'seamless', allowing all sims to move around freely without any loading screen in between lots, as happened in the previous games. Thus, the neighbourhood includes community lots which can be leisure lots (such as parks, markets, gyms, and movie theatres) and job lots (town hall, hospital, businesses). Since the neighbourhood is open, the game includes the "Story Progression" mechanic, which allows all Sims in the neighborhood to autonomously continue their lives without the player ever controlling them. This helps to advance the story of the whole neighbourhood instead of only the active playing units. Sims live for a set duration of time that is adjustable by the player and advances through several life stages (baby, toddler, child, teen, young adult, adult, and elder). Sims can die of old age or they can die prematurely from causes such as fire, starvation, drowning, and electrocution.
The primary world in the game is Sunset Valley (in the console version, the main world is Moonlight Bay), while an additional world called Riverview can be obtained for free. All expansion packs to date (except Generations and Seasons) have included a world, and additional worlds can be bought at The Sims 3 Store for SimPoints. Additionally, Sunset Valley and a few of the other worlds available have some degree of connection to the storyline set up by The Sims and The Sims 2. In-game Sunset Valley is stated to be the same town as the default neighborhood in The Sims, and Pleasantview from The Sims 2, although set twenty five and fifty years earlier, respectively. Several pre-made characters from other Sims games appear throughout the Sims 3's worlds, many of them in younger form.
Career opportunities like working overtime or completing tasks can yield a pay raise, cash bonus, or relationship boost. Challenges occur randomly based on each Sim's lifestyle, like relationships, skills, and jobs. Skill opportunities are the requests by your sim's neighbors or community members for Sims to solve problems using their acquired skills for cash or relationship rewards.
The new Wishes reward system replaces the Wants and Fears system in its predecessor The Sims 2. Fulfilling a Sim's wishes contributes to the Sim's Lifetime Happiness score, allowing players to purchase Lifetime Rewards for the cost of those Lifetime Happiness points.
The game introduces a big change in terms of customization with the "Create-a-Style" tool. In this way, every object or piece of clothing in the game is completely customizable in terms of color (which can be picked from a color wheel), material (plastic, stone, fabric, wood...) or design pattern.
Create-a-Sim
The Sims 3 introduces many more character customization options than its predecessor The Sims 2. Like the previous game, the player can customize age, body build, skin color, hairstyles, clothing and personality. A new life stage is included between adolescence and adulthood: young adulthood. This stage was introduced in The Sims 2 only during university period, but is now the main life stage for the game. Additional options were added in expansions and updates, such as tattoos, breast size, and muscle definition. The Sims 3 offers a wider range of skin tones than its predecessors, ranging from realistic light and dark skin tones to fantasy green and purple colors.
The game builds upon a new personality system. As opposed to previous games, where personalities consisted on sliders, and a limited set of personality points to distribute among them, The Sims 3 introduces a trait system: adult sims can have up to 5 personality traits to pick from a list. These traits can be mental, physical, social or influenced by lifestyle and jobs. The traits will determine different actions the sims can make, as well as behaviors and wishes.
Skills
The sims can learn skills from interacting with different objects. Skills improve gradually in 10 levels. Skill improvements are useful for achieving career goals, as well as unlocking new possibilities for those activities which require the skills, for example, a high gardening level allows the sims to plant different rare seeds. The basic skills include Logic, Cooking, Painting, Gardening, Writing, Guitar, Athletic, Handiness, Charisma and Fishing. New skills were later added in expansion packs.
Careers
Many of the careers from The Sims 2 and The Sims are back in The Sims 3. The careers in the core game are Business, Culinary, Criminal, Education, Journalism, Law Enforcement, Medical, Military, Music, Political, Science, and Professional Sports, as well as part-time jobs in the book shop, supermarket or spa, which can be accomplished by both adults and teenagers. Each one of the jobs takes place in a community lot of the neighbourhood. However, these lots are only "rabbit-hole" buildings, with an external façade, but the player cannot access them and is not able to see what happens inside. Thus, jobs are automatic in the game, even if the player will sometimes receive challenges and questions with different options to have more control over the sims' career performance. Advancing in a career still depends on mood and skills, but with the addition that relationships with colleagues/boss and even certain goals that have to be fulfilled. Players can control if the sims "Work Hard", "Take It Easy", "Suck Up To Boss", etc., thus affecting their performance. A new feature The Sims 3 offers is branching careers, which allows Sims to choose a certain path in their career (such as a Sim in the Music career can eventually choose to specialize in Symphonic music or Rock). These branches are generally offered around level 6 of a career, depending on which career the Sim is working.
