The Sims 3 (Game)

The Sims 3 is a 2009 strategic life simulation computer game developed by The Sims Studio and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to the best-selling computer game, The Sims 2. It was first released on June 2, 2009 simultaneously for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows. The Sims 3 was released to home consoles on October 26, 2010, for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS and later the Wii platform on November 15, 2010. There is also a Nintendo 3DS version under development, which will be in 3D.
It has also been released for mobile phones, such as those running the iOS, Bada OS, Windows Phone 7, webOS, Android, Symbian^3, and Nokia N-Gage platforms. A much simpler version is also available for mobile phones with support for the Java platform.
The Sims 3, an instant success, sold 1.4 million copies in its first week and dominated the sales charts over a month later. Critics issued mostly positive reviews. The Sims 3 gained an 86% score from aggregator Metacritic.

Gameplay
The Sims 3 is built upon the same concept as its predecessors. Player controls their own Sims in activities and relationships in a similar manner to real life. The gameplay is open-ended and indefinite.
Sim houses and neighborhoods are entirely in one continuous map. The developers stated, "What you do outside your home now matters as much as what you do within." The game includes an optional feature called "Story Progression", which allows all Sims in the neighborhood to autonomously continue as if the player was controlling them, such as grow up, get married, get jobs and promotions, have children, build or buy their dream house while the player isn't playing.
The Sims 2 used a reward system called Wants and Fears. This is replaced with a new system called Wishes in The Sims 3. Fulfilling a Sim's wish contributes to the Sim's Lifetime Happiness score and mood. Some wishes, such as "Go to the Park", may add little points to their lifetime happiness while "Have A Baby Boy" may add thousands of points. In The Sims 2, Wants and Fears also contributed to a Sim's "Aspiration" meter, roughly analogous to current self-esteem. In The Sims 3, Aspiration is removed entirely, replaced with "Moodlets", which contribute positive or negative values to the original Motivation meter. Moodlets can be inspired by physical events, such as having a good meal or comfort from sitting in a good chair, as well as emotional events like a first kiss or a break-up. Most moodlets last for a set duration, but some negative Moodlets can be cured (such as the one incurred by an urgent need to urinate) and some positive ones rely on the Sim's surroundings and traits.
Sims live for a set duration of time (adjustable by the player) and advance through several 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, electrocution, (as of the World Adventures expansion pack) The Mummy's curse, (as of the Ambitions expansion pack) a meteor, and (as of the Late Night expansion pack) by thirst (vampires only).

Open World
On March 19, 2008, EA revealed open world, a new feature, for The Sims 3. Players can explore the world outside their Sims' homes without having to face strenuous loading times. Every house lot is now synchronized with the main neighborhood time. In previous Sims games, the time of day was separate and different for each house lot.
Players can interact with every building and amenity in a city. Although players are unable to see inside of certain commercial buildings (grocer, bookstore, theater, police office, school, etc.), they are able to enter and retain limited control over their Sims' actions while in these locations. The player has complete control in some other commercial buildings - such as the gym, library and the beach house. All occupied residential buildings can be entered in the same manner as a Sims' home, provided that they are not empty or too late at night.

Skills
There are several skill-dependent abilities, such as advanced social interactions available from high charisma, special songs for guitar players and appliance upgrades (self-cleaning, more TV channels, etc.) for high handiness. Painting, writing and guitar are now different skills, instead of the all-encompassing "creativity" skill of The Sims and The Sims 2. Paintings are now more particular to each Sim, based on their traits. Sims can increase their skills by practicing a skill (e.g. playing the guitar, working in the garden, writing a novel, even flirting, etc.), reading a book about the skill, or taking a class in the skill at a civic building. Sims can begin building their skills as early as their toddler days. While skills do not show up in the meter right away, using skill building objects is rewarded once the toddler grows into a child. Logic can be used to teach children skills that will help them in later life.

Careers
In The Sims 2, Sims 'disappeared' once they took the carpool to work, and the player had no control of them until they returned, whereas in The Sims 3, each career now takes place in a building in the neighborhood that a Sim travels to. New aspects of careers include self-employment, part-time jobs, overtime, and salary raises. Sims now have a boss to report to. Each career can yield several different rewards and some can be split into several tracks. A new function is that instead of having just skills to advance in a job, Sims also depend on relationships with co-workers and their boss. While at work, the player has a certain level of control over working Sims through 'Options', adjustable settings that dictate how the Sim should go about their work (e.g. take a break, socialize with co-workers, run errands, , etc.), which all come with their set of advantages and disadvantages.

Opportunities
One of the major new additions to gameplay is Opportunities, tasks that Sims can complete to earn rewards. These challenges occur randomly based on aspects of each Sim's lifestyle, such as relationships, skills and job. Career opportunities such as working overtime or completing special tasks can yield a pay raise, cash bonus, or relationship boost. Skill opportunities are requests by neighbors or community members for Sims to solve problems using their acquired skills for cash or relationship rewards.

Create-A-Sim
Create-a-Sim (CAS) is the character (Sim) builder, where the polygon 3-D models of Sims can be modified. New features include the ability to change footwear and headwear separately and add facial details. Sliders have replaced prior functions in CAS. For instance, muscular and obesity sliders replace The Sims 2 system of three body types (fit, regular, and overweight). Skin color, voice pitch, hair color, and chin size among other things may also be adjusted on sliders. Tattoos were introduced in the update patches from version 1.12/2.7/3.3.
The original system of percentage bar personality points has been replaced with a system of traits. These traits include moodlets, interactions, and behavior associated with the trait. For example, a Workaholic Sim is not easily stressed by work and enjoys being at work while a Flirty Sim is more successful with their romantic advances and has more romantic interactions than the average Sim.

Build / Buy modes
The build and buy modes have received their own makeover. The square tile outlines that appeared on the ground in previous Sims games' build and buy modes are now a quarter of their original size to give the player more liberty to place objects where they want. Players can re-color and re-pattern the furniture and other items to specific shades and patterns with the new Create-a-Style and make six story houses with basements.

Create-A-World
On October 29, 2009, Electronic Arts announced "Create-A-World (CAW)", which is a game world editor that allows players to create their own custom cities from scratch for use within the game. The editor tool is offered to players as a separate download (156MB), and was released on December 16, 2009 as a beta version. EA will offer technical support and updates. Players are able to share their neighborhoods as with other content. The Create A World tool is currently only available for Windows based PCs.

Cheat Codes
Like most of the other Sims games, cheat codes are available to accomplish a number of things, including getting simoleons, force events, and setting Sim attributes (career, clothing, etc.). Cheats are entered through the console.

The Sims 2 (Game)

The Sims 2 is a 2004 strategic life simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the sequel to the best-selling computer game, The Sims, which debuted on February 4, 2000. It was first released on September 14, 2004 for Microsoft Windows. A port to Macintosh was released on June 13, 2005. Eight expansion packs and nine stuff packs were subsequently released. In addition several console versions have been released. Though not commonly known, The Sims 2 is offered on mobile platforms. Mobile manufacturers such as Nokia offer The Sims 2 from the Ovi Store. It costs $2.99 USD. A sequel, The Sims 3, was released in June 2009.

The Sims 2 has the same concept as its predecessor. Players control their Sims in various activities and form relationships in a manner similar to real life. The Sims 2, like its predecessor, The Sims, does not have a defined final goal; gameplay is open-ended. Sims have life goals, wants and fears, the fulfillment of which can produce both positive or negative outcomes. All Sims age, and can live to 90 sim days depending on the degree to which their aspirations are fulfilled. The Sims 2 builds on its predecessor by allowing Sims to age through six stages of life and incorporating a 3D graphics engine. Although gameplay is not linear, storylines exist in the game's pre-built neighborhoods. Pleasantview is based 25 years after the town in the original The Sims. Strangetown's storyline is based on the supernatural, and is loosely connected with Pleasantview. Veronaville's characters are based on Shakespearian characters.

The Sims 2 was an instant success, selling a then-record one million copies in its first ten days. As of June 2009, The Sims 2 has sold more than 14 million units worldwide and was the best-selling PC game of 2004. During April 2008, The Sims 2 website announced that 100 million copies of The Sims series had been sold. In addition to its commercial success, The Sims 2 was well received by critics gaining a 90% score from aggregators Metacritic and GameRankings.

Gameplay

Buy and Build mode
From the neighborhood view, the player selects one lot to play, as in The Sims. There are both residential and community lots, but Sims can only live in residential lots. Community lots are where Sims travel to in order to purchase things like clothing and magazines, and to interact with NPCs.
The player can choose between playing a pre-made inhabited lot, moving a household into a built-up lot, or constructing a building on an empty lot. One novelty from The Sims 1 is foundations.
The player switches among the "live" mode (default) to control Sims, the "buy" mode to add, move or delete furniture, or the "build" mode to rebuild the house. Buy and build mode for community lots is locked when player Sims visit the lot but are available from the neighborhood view. It is also possible to import neighborhood terrains from SimCity 4.
The game contains some time-bound social challenges that provide a reward if successful. Sims can throw parties to gain aspiration points or invite the headmaster over for dinner in order to enroll their children in private school. Some expansion packs have new mini-games, like running a Greek house in University or dating in Nightlife. In Nightlife, each day is a challenge to keep both Sims as happy as possible while accumulating aspiration points. Various other expansion packs introduce supernatural characters which Sims can be turned into. This includes Vampires, Werewolves, Plantsims, Zombies, and Witches.

Comparison to The Sims
Graphically, The Sims 2 is more detailed than The Sims and lets players to view its world in full 3D. This is a change from earlier Sim games, such as SimCity 2000, which used dimetric projection and fixed resolutions, as the camera was in The Sims. In The Sims, Sims are 3D meshes, but The Sims 2 introduces far more detail in mesh quality, texture quality, and animation capability. A Sim's facial features are customizable and unique, and Sims can smile, frown, and blink. The player can adjust a Sim's features in the in-game Create-a-Sim tool; for example, noses can be made to be very large or very small. Texturing is achieved through use of raster images, though it appears more lifelike.
The Sims 2 characters' pass through six life stages (seven with University), with eventual death of old age, while babies in The Sims only become children before ceasing to continue aging. The aspiration system (described above) is also new to The Sims 2. Sims can become pregnant and produce babies that take on genetic characteristics of their parents, such as eye color, hair color, facial structure, and personality traits. Genetics play a major role in the game, and as such, dominant and recessive genes play a larger role than they did in the original game. A player can also aspire to have a Sim abducted by aliens. Males then have the chance to become impregnated and produce after three Sim days a half-alien child.
Some of the other additions to gameplay are career rewards, a week cycle, the cleaning skill (which was a hidden skill in The Sims), a variety of meals (depending on time of day), exercise clothing, body shape affected by diet and exercise, and houses built on foundations.

Game Customization
The Sims 2 is an extremely malleable game. Modders alter the game in ways as simple as creating a new floor texture of rocks or as complicated as writing entire patches for the game code to customize its behavior. Such modifications are all loosely referred to as "custom content". Specifically, custom content can be divided into four categories: exporting (creating Sims and lots in-game or using the game's included Body Shop and exporting them to a file), recoloring (creating a new texture for an object), meshing (creating an object or modifying its shape) and hacking (writing code that manipulates game and object behaviors). There are two major ways that custom content is implemented into the game. One is by way of downloading a .Sims2pack file (these are usually items of custom content that were uploaded from the game or Bodyshop, such as Sims or Lots), placing it into the game's download folder, and double-clicking to install. Another way is downloading a file, usually in Rar or Zip format, unzipping it with one of those programs, and placing the resulting .package file into the game downloads folder. The second method is usually used for items, such as hacks or original meshes, that were not created with original game software, but with third-party software. These kinds of downloads are more often available on fan-sites rather than the official site.
It should be noted that players must be fairly advanced in order to properly use hacks, especially in large numbers, as conflicts between hacks can cause game damage. Certain hacks, particularly those that change game behavior in ways that raise the game rating from T to M (for example, teen pregnancy hacks), are not allowed to be discussed on the official forum.
The modding community for The Sims 2 is self-supporting, with more advanced modders writing tools and tutorials to help in creating custom content and modifying the game environment. The "Sims 2 Body Shop" is a program shipped with The Sims 2 that allows users to create custom clothing and body recolors, such as eyes, hair and skin tone. These custom created parts can be imported directly into the game, or can be uploaded onto the official The Sims 2 Exchange for other users to download and implement into their own games. Two elements that propagate customization are the official Sims 2 Exchange and the extensive network of fan sites that distribute custom content. More than 250,000 Sims and lots have been uploaded to the Sims 2 Exchange on the Official Site.
There is an ongoing debate in the Sims 2 Community between paysites (sites that charge money for their custom content downloads) and free sites about whether or not custom content downloads should be free. Opponents of paysites claim that EA owns the rights to certain types of content created with the game, and that sale of this content is inconsistent with EA's intellectual property rights and violates the End User Licensing Agreement. Certain sites have actually given out PayPal details because they thought the users of their site had been giving out the downloads (which they had paid for) for free.

The Sims Expansion Packs (Game)

Expansion Packs

A Sim using a virtual reality simulator
The Sims is one of the most heavily expanded computer game franchises ever. In all, a total of seven expansion packs were produced for The Sims (listed in chronological order):

The Sims: Livin' Large
Release date: August 31, 2000 (North America)
The Sims: Livin' Large (known as The Sims: Livin' It Up in Europe) is the first expansion pack released for The Sims. This expansion pack focuses on adding new characters, careers, items, and features that allow for more obscure and extreme gameplay. Many of the games new additions may seem a bit out of place. For example, sims can transform into Frankenstein-esque monsters by ingesting certain potions made from the chemistry set.

The Sims: House Party
Release date: April 2, 2001 (North America)
The Sims: House Party is the second expansion pack for The Sims. House Party gives players the ability and facilities to hold elaborate parties and gatherings in their sims' homes. For example, sims can purchase dance floors, costume trunks, and buffet tables complete with hired caterers. Interestingly, if a Sim throws a really good party with a lot of guests, Drew Carey will make a guest appearance and mingle with the guests at the party.
House Party was reissued in October 2002, not only to mark the release of The Sims Deluxe Edition, but also to match the box covers of the Hot Date and Vacation expansion packs.

The Sims: Hot Date
Release date: November 12, 2001 (North America)
The Sims: Hot Date is the third expansion pack released for The Sims. Hot Date adds a significant new feature not present in previous versions of the game - the ability for sims to leave their homes and travel to new destinations. In this expansion pack, the new destination is composed of ten new lots and is called "Downtown". This new feature sets a new legacy for the franchise as all of the following expansion packs for The Sims adds new destinations as well. At this new destination, sims can enjoy various activities such as eating at restaurants, shopping at stores, and going out on dates. Hot Date introduces other new features such as a revamped relationship system involving daily relationship and lifetime relationship scores. Sims can also carry inventory and give gifts to other sims. As with other expansion packs, Hot Date also adds a variety of items such as the heart-shaped hot tub, cuddle swings, and items used to build eateries and shops. New characters such as the blonde bombshell and lounge lizards are introduced.

The Sims: Vacation
Release date: March 28, 2002 (North America)
The Sims: Vacation (called The Sims: On Holiday in the Republic of Ireland, the UK, China and Scandinavia) is the fourth expansion pack for The Sims. Vacation introduces a new destination called "Vacation Island" where Sims can take vacations with family members or with other Sims. This marks the first time sims can stay on lots away from home. In other words, the game can be saved while a sim is on Vacation Island. Vacation Island is split into three distinct environments: beach, forest, and snow-capped mountain. Sims can stay at a hotel or rent a tent/igloo to rough it in the wild. They can also purchase or find souvenirs. As with other expansion packs, Vacation introduces new items, characters, and features pertaining to the theme of vacations.

The Sims: Unleashed
Release date: November 7, 2002 (North America)
The Sims: Unleashed is the fifth expansion pack developed for The Sims. Unleashed introduces pets into the game. While dogs and cats are treated as sims, other pets are treated as objects. However, they cannot be controlled directly like human Sims are. Furthermore, Unleashed introduced gardening, allowing sims to grow and nurture plants that could later be harvested and consumed. In Unleashed, the original ten-lot neighborhood that was featured in all previous games is now expanded to over forty and there is now an option to re-zone lots into residential or commercial. In commercial lots, one can build shops of numerous types and restaurants which sims can visit by calling the Old Town trolley to take them there. The theme of the game is considered to be Cajun or Zydeco. One could compare it to New Orleans' French Quarter with voodoo shops and jazz musicians appearing on commercial lots.

The Sims: Superstar
Release date: May 13, 2003 (North America)
The Sims: Superstar is the sixth expansion pack of the seven released for The Sims. This expansion allows the player's Sims to become entertainment figures and includes representations of several famous personalities. They can impersonate several great stars like Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, The Beatles, Richie Sambora, and Avril Lavigne. Along with new work items such as the runway and leisure items such as the mud bath tub, Superstar includes a new destination called "Studio Town" in which celebrity sims can utilize these work items to generate simoleans and fame.

The Sims: Makin' Magic
Release date: October 29, 2003 (North America)
The Sims: Makin' Magic is the seventh and final expansion pack released for The Sims. It introduces magic to the game and allows Sims to cast spells, forge charms, brew potions and buy alchemical ingredients. Baby dragons are also available as hazardous pets and it also introduces a new neighborhood area. In addition, it introduces baking and nectar-making. This expansion pack includes a disc containing a preview of The Sims 2.
The theme of the game is Mediterranean and Eastern European/gypsy carnival.

The Sims (Game)

The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It was created by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity. It is a simulation of the daily activities of one or more virtual persons ("Sims") in a suburban household near SimCity.
The Sims was first released on February 4, 2000. By March 22, 2002, The Sims had sold more than 6.3 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling PC game in history; the game has shipped 16 million copies worldwide as of February 7, 2005. Since its initial release, seven expansion packs and sequels, The Sims 2 and the newest sequel The Sims 3 (each with their own expansion packs), have been released. The Sims has won numerous awards, including GameSpot's "Game of the Year Award" for 2000.

Gameplay and Design
Instead of objectives, the player is encouraged to make choices and engage fully in an interactive environment. This has helped the game successfully attract more casual gamers. The only real objective of the game is to organize the Sims' time to help them reach personal goals.

Life Stages
There are three life stages in The Sims: infant, child, and adult. While babies grow up into children, children and adults never age. This means children and adults remain in their life stage indefinitely. Sims, however, can die from various causes (e.g. burning to death in a fire, drowning in a pool, starving, or dying from diseases). The Sims: Livin' Large, the first expansion pack, introduces the Grim Reaper who appears after the death of a sim. If a relative of the dead sim wins against him in Rock, Paper, Scissors, the dead sim will be revived. If the relative loses, the dead sim will remain dead and his/her tombstone will appear and the option of Rock, Paper, Scissors will not be available. The tombstone will stay in its place, unless the player decides to move it to another place, or just delete it.

Build and Buy Modes
Each newly created family will begin with §20,000 regardless of its number of members. These funds can be used to purchase a house or vacant lot, build or remodel a house, and/or purchase furniture. All architectural features and furnishings are dictated by a square tile system in which items must be placed on a tile. Walls and fences go on the edge of a tile and can be diagonal, whereas sims and items cannot be diagonal. Items that are attached to walls cannot be placed on diagonal walls in the same way that items cannot be placed up against diagonal walls. The base game contains over 150 items including furniture and architectural elements.

Sims' Lives
Sims are directed on the basis of instructing them to interact with objects, such as a television set, or other sims. Sims may receive house guests from other playable lots or from a pool of unhoused sims. If enabled within the game, sims can have a certain amount of free will, allowing them to autonomously interact with their world. However, the player can override most autonomous actions. Unlike the simulated environments in games such as SimCity, SimEarth, or SimLife, the sims are not fully autonomous. They are unable to take certain actions without specific commands from the player, such as paying their bills, finding a job, and conceiving children.

The player can make decisions about time spent in skill development, such as exercise, reading, creativity, and logic, by adding activities to the daily agenda of the sims. Daily needs fulfillment such as hygiene maintenance and eating can also be scheduled. Although sims can autonomously perform these actions, they may not prioritize them effectively. Much like real humans, sims can suffer consequences for neglecting their own needs. For example, sims can die from starvation if they do not eat for prolonged periods of time. Needs govern the overall moods of the sims. If the needs are not fulfilled, the sims can become grumpy and unwilling to obey certain player-directed commands, particularly ones that do not fulfill the depleted needs in question. This system follows the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, in which physiological needs must be satisfied before other needs can be attended to.

In addition to fulfilling their needs, sims need to maintain balanced budgets. The most conventional method of generating an income is to obtain a job. The game presents various career tracks with ten jobs (levels of promotion) in each. The original careers include Business, Entertainment, Law Enforcement, Crime, Medicine, Military, Politics, and Science. Sims may earn promotions by fulfilling skill and friendship requirements of each level. These promotions lead to new job titles, increased wages, and different work hours. The Sims: Livin' Large and The Sims: Unleashed introduced additional career tracks including those of Paranormal and Education. Other means of generating an income include creating and selling various items such as artworks and gnomes at home, or growing produce at home and selling them at a nearby farmers' market. The latter option is introduced in The Sims: Unleashed.
The inner structure of the game is actually an agent based artificial life program. The presentation of the game's artificial intelligence is advanced, and the Sims will respond to outside conditions by themselves, although often the player/controller's intervention is necessary to keep them on the right track. The Sims technically has unlimited replay value, in that there is no way to win the game, and the player can play on indefinitely. It has been described as more like a toy than a game.

In addition, the game includes a very advanced architecture system. The game was originally designed as an architecture simulation alone, with the Sims there only to evaluate the houses, but during development it was decided that the Sims were more interesting than originally anticipated and their initially limited role in the game was developed further.
The first game of The Sims has several limitations, most notably that children never grow up to become adults, though babies do eventually become children. Also, adult Sims never age (or die of old age), and there is no concept of weekends. For example, adults and children are expected to go to work and attend school respectively, every day. In particular, adults receive a warning if they miss one day of work, but they are fired if they miss work for two consecutive days. Children can study at home to keep their school grades up.
While there is no eventual objective to the game, states of failure do exist in The Sims. One is that Sims may die, either by starvation, drowning, perishing in a fire, electrocution or by virus (contracted from a pet guinea pig, which can happen when its cage is left dirty). When a Sim dies, a tombstone or an urn will appear in place of him/her. Their remains can be sold, or placed anywhere, inside or outside the building. At night, the ghost of the deceased Sim may haunt the building where it died. In addition, Sims can leave a household (and game) for good and never return; two adult Sims with a bad relationship may brawl, eventually resulting in one of them moving out. If a child has failing grades for too long, he or she will be sent to military school and also leave the lot for good. There are also more complicated ways of killing Sims, including getting them into a pool and deleting the steps, or putting them into a room then deleting all of that room's doors.
The Sims uses a combination of 3D and 2D graphics techniques. The Sims themselves are rendered as high-poly-count 3D objects, but the house, and all its objects, are pre-rendered, and displayed dimetrically.