The Sims 3

The Sims 3 is one of the most anticipated games ever released. It is the sequel to the third best selling computer game of all time. In fact the only two games that are ahead in the chart of best selling computers in history are Lineage 2 (with the vast majority of its sales coming from South Korea) and the original Sims game.

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With the series having sold over 29 million on the PC alone, not including expansions packs, a direct sequel brings a lot of excitement.

The main selling point of The Sims 3 over the previous games is that it gives your Sims freedom which they never had before. In older games leaving the home was a chore. Going to another part of the town involved sitting through a long loading screen (even on the most powerful computers). By the time you got there you were usually disappointed because there was little you could do there that your character could not do in their own home. On top of this any area outside of your home was little larger than a big house.

In The Sims 3 this has completely changed. No more long loading screens, in fact no more loading screens at all. Your characters now have the freedom to roam the entire town without a single loading screen. They will no longer be driven from one side of the area they are in an appear arriving at a new area as if they were teleported. You will now be able to follow their journey. You are just given a list of options of where you want to go in the town now. Instead you can actually explore the whole town and find interesting shops, buildings, parks, restaurants and places of interest.

Sims 3

The freedom really brings the world of The Sims 3 to life. You won’t know how you put up with being virtually confined to one plot of land at a time before. Being free to roam around adds unexpected benefits too. You can for example stay in shape by jogging around the town and maybe socialise with others as you do so. Since you are less restricted you will make a bigger variety of friends in the world rather than just the people that randomly walked into your house to use the toilet in previous games.

Along with freedom, another of the themes of The Sims 3 is that our actions can affect people all over the town. In the original trailer a Sim calls their friend to tell them about a concert happening in the town centre. The friend then tells a few others about it and word quickly spreads and a large group assemble for the concert all because of that original phone call.

On the map you are given tags which show you places of interest to visit for different reasons, as you discover more places, more tags will appear on the map. This gives you a greater feeling of exploration and discovery which is a great incentive to keep playing the game.

The Sims series has been one of the most successful franchises in all video gaming history selling over 100 million copies worldwide. The results of that success allowed the producers of The Sims to release various expansion packs, sequels, and spin-offs of the addicting life simulator that all gamers love.

Now the 3rd major sequel of The Sims series titled appropriately as The Sims 3 gets announced by EA and is slated for an early 2009 release.

Here are the things that you can look forward to in this highly anticipated sequel:

Improved Graphics and Animation

When The Sims 2 was released, many have praised it for making big improvements to the graphics engine since the first installment. Now The Sims 3 plans to extend it even further to keep up with the newest graphics cards. Judging from the trailers and screenshots, more details can be seen in the characters and environment, but still maintaining the overall look and feel of The Sims theme.

Free Environment

Expect a more open ended environment from Maxis The Sims 3 with even more things for your Sims to do in one seamless and continuous map. This allows smooth transitions between house and neighborhood giving you more flexibility than the previous games. More freedom to explore means more game play possibilities.

The neighborhood itself is much bigger and livelier compared to the previous games with people left and right all doing activities in real time just like your typical sandbox game. You can take your Sim outside your house, follow him to work and jump to other areas without all the loading.

More Personal than Ever

A new personality system is revealed in The Sims 3 allowing your created Sim to be totally unique. Personalities are can be customized and also developed from the six basic needs which can directly control their behavior. In addition to their personalities, every created Sim also has their own list of wishes and opportunities and their own lifetime wish which you also have control of.