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The Sims 3
From PC's to consoles and even mobile
phones, The Sims has become one of the most popular gaming franchises of
all time. Although The Sims was not the first "sim" game, it did become
the definitive version and its
competitors spawned a variety of clones that never seemed to work. By
many people, The Sims is considered a life simulator but in actual fact,
there's quite a bit of gaming goodness in its content and whether it's
battling dragons
(The Sims Medieval) or exploring the world (The Sims World Adventures), the game
definitely branched out from its humble roots of the basics such as
cooking, working, making friends and of course good personal hygiene.
So
here we are again on a brand new console as EA Games launches The Sims
3, however as opposed to other versions of this game, this current
instalment supports the 3D abilities of the Nintendo 3DS console. Given
that I'm fan of the series, I was unfortunately let down by this game on
the 3DS. It seemed like the Sims 3 was missing something on this console
and from its blurry text to Spartan environments, what was EA thinking
when they released this game? For me, The Sims 3 feels a little
unfinished and like a BETA version due to some buggy graphics. This was
not The Sims that I was use to.
Thankfully the core
gaming mechanics are still there as you need to create your own virtual
avatar for the world of The Sims. One nifty feature is that you can take
a photo of yourself in order for it to be used for creating your Sim,
it's an interesting feature but doesn't work that well. However, before starting the game, you need
to choose your Sims gender, appearance, personality and lifetime goals
that could include something strange as world domination as an evil
mastermind to something more realistic like starting a family. The
choice is yours and depending on your Sims personality and what their
lifetime goals may be, there is a considerable amount of replay value to
be had in this game, provided you move pass the rushed feeling of the
game. If you do achieve your lifetime goals in the game,
the title gives you a little something in return where you can perform
something good or bad on the world of the Sims. I don't want to spoil
this feature because it makes great use of the 3DS capabilities and is
definitely a surprise.
Apart from going to work and making money for you Sim in order for them
to fulfil their wishes, the game relies heavy on relationships from
enemies to best friends and romances. Without these, generally,
depending on your Sims personality can be quite disastrous for your Sim,
so you need to juggle quite a bit in the game from eating to sleeping,
having a shower and even going to the toilet. Thankfully the game does
alert you if your Sim is not feeling very happy and assists in pointing
you to the right direction such as your Sim wanting to have fun and to
dance or some other activity.
If you have never played The Sims before,
the game does contain a rather in-depth tutorial process that will help
get your Sim started in this virtual world. As a regular Sim player, I
did find this a little annoying because I could not skip this process
but I'm sure I did learn a few things or two. Apart from buying new
houses or purchasing items to make your Sim happy like Plasma TV's or
entertainment systems, you can visit friends, go to the Gym, shopping
and even a nightclub if you want to get your dance on. Although you are
limited to the places that you can explore, it does create a miniature
city for your Sim to explore that does break up the monotony of staying
in one place only. Although no multiplayer perse, the game does support
the StreetPass system which allows you to invite Sims to visit your
world or visa versa. Unfortunately even the core mechanics are here,
something just feels off which is a shame, considering the excellent
release of The Sims Medieval.
Graphically, The Sims 3 on the 3DS is a bit of a mixed bag. The 3D
effects in the top screen look great, especially when your character is
engaging in some activity like dancing or just having a regular chat to
their friend. Even though the world is all polygon based and quite
simplistic, it does look good an pays homage to the original games of
the series. The top screen is generally used as filler, whereas the
bottom screen on the 3DS is used to navigate your character and interact
them with the world. It does take a little time getting use to the
process of the stylus and interacting with the world but overall it does
work well, except some of the little icons you need to press. This does
become a little frustrating because the developers attempted to cram so
much into the screen at once. The highlight for me was the decent audio
quality of the game from that classic Sim language to music and sound
effects that sounded amazing on this new console. However as mentioned earlier on this
review, there are a few graphical glitches from blurry text to a
sometimes frustrating frame rate issues that makes things shudder a little,
especially when you're trying to move your sim from point A to B, when
too much is happening on the screen.
In the end, EA did try to do good with this game but for me, there were
too many inconsistencies of the interface to the graphical problems. To
compound the problem, The Sims 3 was actually far sturdier and dare I
say, more fun on the DS as it was a strong game overall, not so on the
3DS version. From the
crystal clear screen at the top of your DS to the convoluted mess at the
bottom, I honestly don't know what happened to this game. It does have a
few moments like StreetPass and the inclusion of 3D that is sparingly
used but I was hoping for more, especially on the Nintendo 3DS!
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