The Sims 3 (PC) - Review by Emily Smith
I PLAYED the first ever Sims game and kind of enjoyed it. Bizarre, unique and downright addictive.
Oh the joys of watching your on screen characters urinate on people's shag carpets and puke in their dustbins... I am a bit long in the tooth for it all now and my own life is hectic enough to not have to look after a virtual one!
We asked Emily Smith, a teenager with far too much time on her hands, to tell us what she thought about the game. Here is what she had to say:
As with the other games you can create your own characters and or choose a pre-made sim.
When creating you own Sim you have to choose their age, their gender, their skin tone and how chubby they are. There are loads of different hairstyles and colours, and a wardrobe so vast even Gok Wan would be impressed.
It's not just what they look like though - you also have to give your Sim a personality, choose their favourite food, music, colour and decide on their traits.
Your choices are reflected throughout the game and you have to work towards their lifetime wish.
The game is full of new features, you can now build your home in Sunset Valley and make it as funky as you want!
There is much more of a neighbourhood feel to the game now - you can travel around your estate or village by foot or you can get a ride to where ever you wish to go. In map view you can view all of the available destinations such as the swimming pool, the beach and the spa, and visit them with a click.
When editing your town you can choose to evict families, move in families, merge families and place pre-built new homes anywhere you like. As you play the game, wishes pop up and you can either fulfil or abolish them.
Your Sims can have a relationship with anyone they wish, I know, I split up a family and had a baby with a married man, I then decided to move in with him and his wife, she didn't like me cooking in the kitchen though!
Also now when Sims become pregnant, the baby doesn't just appear in a crib, your Sim has to buy baby essentials and after a while will give birth to the baby either at home or at the hospital. You can also hold parties at your house or pay a small fee and hold your party in any area like the beach or a museum.
If you visit the graveyard late at night you can meet a ghost and become their friends and you can visit them at night when they come out but any other part of the day you cannot see them.
When Sims move into an empty and unfurnished house they may find the house already has a resident ghost or even rodents! The game is wonderful and very open-ended, you have to live the life of your Sim, but there is a lot of flexibility to the game and it is so much fun!
It is very hard at first but the tutorial guides you through it, the graphics and presentation are superb as is the overall concept of the game.
Highly addictive and the best fun ever!
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Authors
Steve Wollaston - Sunday Mercury games reviewer Steve has been writing about video games for donkey's years. In fact he is probably far too old for it now which is why you will see a lot of reviews been done by kids... He has been nominated three times for Regional Games Journalist Of The Year at the Games Media Awards, but never wins. His major love is sports games and rates Sensible World of Soccer circa 90's as the greatest game ever made - closely followed by Championship Manager 2. Skyrim has currently taken over his life.
