The Sims 3

The Sims 3 is a confirmed next-generation simulation game. This was confirmed on November 2, 2006, by EA chief financial officer Warren Jenson who said, "Yes, there's a Sims 3 in development and it's likely to be a fiscal '09 title." In July 2007 AI researcher Richard Evans, who is part of the TS3 team, gave a talk at the annual AIIDE (Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment) conference in California, notes from which can be read here. The title was to be released on February 20, 2009 according to the official Sims 3 website, but was delayed worldwide to June 2, 2009. Electronic Arts cites the reason for the delay was to "create awareness for The Sims 3".

In The Sims 2: FreeTime, a computer is delivered, to every household that a player plays, by Mr. Rod Humble. On it, Sims can play The Sims 3 game. A video of this can be seen on YouTube. It shows something towards a continuous, panning neighborhood, diagonal placings for objects, better lighting systems, and the ability to change shoes in the CAS, an ability previously limited to only console versions of The Sims. The preview only lasts about one minute, and has poor resolution.

The Sims 3 Official Site also reveals that players now have greater customization options. Such things like Personality, Create-A-Sim, and Build Mode have been expanded.

It has been confirmed that several expansion packs will ship periodically after the game's initial release.

The game will have disc-based copy protection – there is a Serial Code just like The Sims 2. To play the game there will not be any online authentication needed.

Will Wright, the creator of the original The Sims, is not involved in the production of The Sims 3.

The Neighborhood
The neighborhood is a beautiful setting with 97 lots full of characters. Sunset Valley has been built before Pleasantview, founded by the Goth Family and the Bachelor Family and built up by the Landgraab Family to be a quiet, peaceful town. Looking at the neighbourhood view there seemed to be at least 21 playable households. Each household has a difficulty rating.

Neighborhood Continuity
The neighborhood shipping in The Sims 3 is Sunset Valley. A second neighborhood will be available as a free download on The Sims Exchange when you register the game. Rumors suggest that this neighborhood will be Pleasantview after the Sims 2

In an interview with producer Ben Bell and members from the EA Forum in UK it's written "He said that the neighbourhood itself is set before the neighbourhood we see in The Sims, as if it's a prequel to the story we already know. He said the Goths are in the town, as their younger selves obviously as well as other familiar names and faces. Lots of new characters too."

Mrs. Crumplebottom will make an appearance as her younger self in the game and players will discover that the source of her crabbiness is due to the death of her husband who features as a ghost. Other families established in the game are the Landgraabs which are a very affluent family; the new Alto family, the Keaton household, the Wolff family, the Hart family and the Ursine household.

Since the neighborhood will be going back in time 25 years before The Sims, the stories from The Sims 2 such as Cassandra's love-life and Bella's disappearance will not be answered.

Open Neighborhood
According to the Games for Windows magazine, "The biggest change to The Sims 3 is that it takes place in a wide-open, constantly changing neighborhood -- a much bigger sandbox." It is confirmed that the game will be an open neighborhood by the official website (this probably means the game will have an Open World or Neighborhood similar to games like Grand Theft Auto, Bully, Need For Speed Carbon and Burnout Paradise).

The loading of lots during play and lot-based playing will be eliminated. Now every action will take place in a seamless living neighborhood. In that Neighborhood will be lots, colleges, parks, shops and other places Sims like to explore. All your Sims, and their Sim friends and family are in this Neighborhood. They can dine, visit, shop, and relax. Map Tags will help players navigate the neighborhood, find interesting places to visit, and locate their Sims.

Also on the map icons for buildings are different colours. It looks as if red are for jobs, darkish blue are community lots, light blue are shops, orange are for other sims homes and green is your sims house. In some cases this seems to not apply but in most it does.


 * Sims farther from the town center will spend more time commuting to work.
 * Sims can have parties at public pools
 * Sims have many more places to "public woohoo" and the chance of getting caught in their underwear.
 * The area of the town where your Sims choose to live now depend on income. For example, Summer Hill is a more expensive residential.

There will also be new public events in The Sims 3, such as music concerts, movie premieres, pool parties, barbecues, sporting events, outdoor fishing, and the most civic-minded public activity in a Sims game to date, attending a public protest at SimCity Hall, where your Sims can voice their discontent with the administration's legal mumbo jumbo by angrily shouting their own nonsensical "Simlish" mumbo jumbo.

When a teen sim finishes school there's a chance they may bring a friend home, there's also a chance your teen sim may get invited over to a friends house. You have the option to decline. You can then follow your teen sim to their friends house. Depending on how good of friends they are, your sim can 'request to stay over'. If the friend accepts, they'll say 'sure make yourself at home'.

Collecting

 * A note on the sims 3 website
 * My name is Eric Holmberg-Weidler and I am one of the designers on The Sims 3. With the new game we’ve added a plethora of items to grow, catch, and create that translate into skills for your Sims.  Two examples of this are in the gardening skill and fishing skill.  There are over twenty varieties of fish to catch, scattered across various beaches and lakes around town.  Some of the rarest fish can only be found in special locations around the neighborhood, or only at specific times.  An example is the experimental robot fish, which can only be caught behind the science facility.  Once caught, fish can be used for many purposes.  Two of my favorites are purely for collecting: you can mount any fish you catch on the wall, or if you prefer to keep your fish alive, you can put them in fish bowls and display them around your house.

The gardening skill also has many different fruits and vegetables to discover and grow. This includes old favorites like the money tree, and many new types of plants including a special sort that will allow you to grow almost anything from eggs (not your normal type of eggplant!) to steak, as well as much more. Some of these rarer plants can only be obtained after completing special opportunities, exploring out of the way parts of town, or even by fishing them up.

I have to say my favorite types of collection in The Sims 3 aren’t tied to skills at all. These include the ability to collect all sorts of insects, butterflies, and beetles, as well as space rocks, minerals, and even gems. We’ve tucked these all around the neighborhood for you to find and collect as you play. Once you’ve found something cool, you usually have several options with what you want to do with it. It can be quite lucrative to find gems and sell them, or if you like the way they look, you can put them on display. Raw gems can be sent out to get cut into one of many different shapes of polished gemstone. Space rocks can be displayed in their raw form, although they won’t all conveniently fit in your house, as some are bigger than your Sim! Insects can be named and kept around the house as pets in terrariums, and minerals can even be smelted into bars. Want a treasure room stacked with gold bars? Go ahead!

When these collectables are put on display in your house, they can make a big difference in how happy your Sims are when nearby.

Recently, while playing the game, I created myself as a Sim and set out to explore the neighborhood and do a little collecting.

My Sim self had been looking forward to going on a fishing trip all week. He’d recently moved to Sunset Valley, and had heard there was a lake in the woods near his house where he could do some killer fishing. He woke up early Saturday morning, took a quick shower, and was off at 5am, hoping to get to the lake by six. The fish are always the most enthusiastic in the morning.

My Sim ran across the street and was quickly in the woods, walking down a somber forest path. Lost in his own thoughts and enjoying the great outdoors, it wasn’t long before a sparkle in the periphery of his vision caught his eye. A few quick steps brought him closer and crouching down he found a strange rock. As he picked up it and examined it, it sparkled at odd angles, bending the light in bizarre ways. While my Sim was by no means a rock collector, he had seen his share of geology, and this was like nothing he’d witnessed before. Pocketing it for later, he continued on his way, still eager to get to his fishing destination.

Climbing over a small boulder in the path and topping a hill, the lake spread out before my Sim, shimmering in the sun. Expecting calm waters, he was surprised to see the surface covered in ripples. Everywhere he looked, fish were breaking the surface, some completely leaving the water, fighting for food or a touch of morning air. Without a moment to lose, my Sim pulled out his trusty fishing rod, baited it, and cast into the middle of one of the liveliest areas.

Some hours later he’d caught a half dozen fish of several common varieties. A few were perfect enough specimens to be considered for mounting on the wall. My Sim was on his last cast of the day, when he made the catch of a lifetime! He reeled in what felt like an unusually small fish. Grabbing it out of the water, he stared into the malevolent, blood-red eyes of an almost pitch-black fish. Tiny fangs protruded from either side of its mouth. A chill ran through my Sim, whether from fear, or from the prospect of adding this prize to his collection of fish he did not know.

Satisfied with my story, I quickly saved my game and shut down the computer.

There is a ton more to find and collect in The Sims 3 that I would love to tell you about, but since I am running out of space I will have to leave you to discover them for yourself. Happy hunting and thanks for reading!

- Eric Holmberg-Weidler

Buy mode

 * There are only 4 TV Channels: Sports, Kids, Action, and Romance.
 * There is no diving board for the swimming pools yet.
 * When a sim opens a fridge, you could see the cold air coming out.
 * The fire alarm is lower, and changed to able to hang a wall lamp above it.
 * On the easel, there are three sizes of paintings.
 * If you tinker on some objects, you can get upgrades like, fireproof, self cleaning and unbreakable.
 * You can buy a Rubber Ducky for your bathtub.
 * On a computer, you can find coupons, browse the web, play chess, play computer games, tinker, and get a job. Computer Whiz Sims can also hack and overclock. Evil Sims will be able to troll the internet.
 * There are 10 different buyable cars in the base game.

Build Mode

 * There is a button that lets you choose to buy houses furnished or unfurnished.
 * The sledge hammer tool has been enhanced, you can now drag an area to delete multiple objects.
 * When placing objects against a diagonal wall the object will snap into place perfectly.
 * There’s a roof height slider.
 * The biggest lot size is 64x64 (same as a 5x5).
 * There is an option for Auto-Roofs. So, while you build, the roof automatically appears.
 * There’s a button that paints / carpets the entire room (instead of holding Shift).
 * You can set light colours and brightness levels (both indoor and out).
 * There is now a square terrain paint brush. Imagine using it to paint a sidewalk.
 * You can change the floor / walls of a pool.
 * The maximum width of a set of stairs is 8 tiles.
 * There are single tile doors, double tile doors, single tile doors that center on double tiles, and even three tile doors.
 * There are ceilings under ANY floortile placed. At this time, you cannot recolour the ceiling.
 * The maximum number of floors is 5.
 * There are no 1/2 walls yet.
 * You cannot move objects up and down on walls.
 * Sims 2's one tile equals Sims 3 four tiles. 45 and 90 degree rotation come with the game. Holding the ALT key is free rotation.
 * You cannot import patterns into the game yet.
 * You can move the mailbox anywhere you'd like on your lot. Whatever door is closest to the mailbox is considered the front door.
 * Fences rise with terrains.

Creatures
In The Sims 3 ghosts have been confirmed. Ghosts can be turned back into playable characters and can also have babies. Then the Ghost will be added to your household, like a family member. Ghosts whisper all the time and can become invisible and move your furniture. To have a playable ghost, you should resurrect a dead Sim by taking the urn to the science lab. If you decide to have a baby with a ghost, it will be a ghost baby. Mrs. Crumplebottom appears to be haunted by the ghost of her husband in the promo pictures and it is possible that he has been resurrected. There are aliens in the game, according to Sunny, and you can also choose green and blue skintones in CAS. There may be vampires as seen in the CAS video and a trailer (CAS video seen dancing, trailer seen hissing).

Live Mode


The player has the ability to control one family at a time and easily switch from one family to another. All the Sims of the city evolve together, but if you want you can stop the aging or the story progression. In this way Sims that you don't control won't get married or evolve.

But players can pause age progression on a Sim/family which stays on even when you are not playing the family.

The player can choose the length of a Sims life, from 25 Sim days to 1000 Sim days.

Difficulty Levels
Families are rated by how difficult they are to play. Difficulty is based on Sim relations, traits and more... for example, surly grouchy Sims with wishes to have lots of friends will be hard to manage.

Interactions with other Sims
As Sims interact with other Sims, they learn about them. Past relationships and traits of a Sim your Sim is currently interacting with is displayed on the screen. 

Sims
Improvements to Sims include more customization options, a trait system that creates unique personalities, Sims that take care of themselves, and wishes that allow the player to set short- and long-term goals.

Create a Sim
Create a Sim will have more customizable options for your Sims than the CAS in Sims 2. You'll now have a larger selection of body types for your Sims, and will be able to create different hair styles for every Sim. It is also shown in The Sims 3 game previews that you'll now be able to pick your Sim's shoes.

There are a total of 22 hairstyles for female Sims and 17 hairstyles for male Sims. There is no curly hair, however there is some nice wavy hair one with a flower one with out. There's a variety of hats and hair accessories that you have an option to use, but they all come with set hairstyles. But each of the hats and accessories can have their colours and textures altered.

Everything has so much detail, you can change just about everything. If you just want to change the nose you can, but you can use the 'dot' system to go into more dept, i.e. change nostril definition, nose tip scale, bridge height, etc.

Accessories will also be added (gloves, socks, eyeglasses, bracelets, earrings, shoes...) can be customized with Create a Style tool. There are more styles for hair than before. Male Sims can wear makeup. Changing hair/clothing/face is easy All clothes can be customised. You can not choose layers, but if the clothes already have layers then you can alter the colours and texture of both parts. You can just click on them and the CAS takes you directly to the right menu for editing whatever you selected. There is an eyelash length slider bar. Socks and shoes are also fully customizable. They are chosen separately per outfit, as well.

The player can choose the Sim's full name, age, gender, skin tone, weight and muscle tone.

A skin tone is chosen by using a slider from fair to dark. The slider that is used to change the color of the skin tone is great. Lots of selection of tones. The Blues and Green can be altered from light to dark, and also light pink to dark red.

Body modifiers also use sliders that adjust weight from thin to obese and from flabby to muscular. Height still can not be changed. Even in neighbourhood view you can to see the different sizes of Sims.

Players can now create twins in Create-A-Sim using a button.

Five of over 60 personality traits can be chosen for each Young Adult Sim and above, with the chance to change them with a Lifetime Happiness reward. (Younger Sims have fewer traits. A teen has 4 traits, kids have 3 traits, and toddlers have 2 traits). One Lifetime Wish is also chosen.

Players will also be able to choose from three types of voices and a slider to choose the pitch of a Sim's voice.

Ages
Age types of Sims within the game are baby, toddler, child, teenager, young adult (confirmed default age). Adult (middle age) and elder. The lifespan of Sim can also be edited, making it any number of days between 25 and 1000


 * Short (25 Sim days)
 * Medium (50 Sim days),
 * Normal (90 Sim days)
 * Long (190 Sim days)
 * Epic (970 Sim days).

The whole town will age at the same time, but there will be an option to turn off aging.

Needs
Sims in The Sims 3 have six needs: Hunger, Bladder, Fun, Hygiene, Energy, and Social.

Sims will be able to take care of themselves, allowing the player to concentrate on what happens in their lives rather than taking care of them. Sims now have wishes which you can fulfill or you can choose to ignore, which makes controlling a Sims life a bit easier because you are more in control. Wishes are part of the needs but are not necessary.

During gameplay, if a sim is sleeping you can hover over the bed icon (which the sim is currently doing) and it will tell you the time that the sim will be fully rested. And if you allowed them to sleep until they were fully rested, they would receive a positive moodlet.

Pregnancy
Pregnancy in The Sims 3 is similar to pregnancy in The Sims 2. Pregnant Sims experience the same mood swings and belly expansion. New features to pregnancy include reading books about pregnancy and getting medical advice at the hospital. Another difference is that pregnancy now lasts six Sim days instead of three. Sims can give birth at home or they can be driven to the hospital.

Death
Sims in The Sims 3 can die of old age, as well as other ways. Two new features of The Sims 3 are the automatic transfer of all inventory belongings of the deceased to the family inventory, and the ability of the player to throw a funeral party. When Sims die they become Ghosts. Rumor says you can resurrect a Sim by taking their urn to the science lab. There is also a Sunset Valley Cemetery in Sunset Valley were your Sims can rest for eternity.

Traits
Traits are like atoms of personality that you can assign to your Sims. You combine them to create complex personalities. There are about 60 Traits to choose from. When you assign Traits to a Sim, that Sim will look and act the part. Toddlers, Children and Teens get a new trait at their birthday. If children had a good childhood, then you can choose a trait. If not, the game will give them a random one. They’ll have unique behaviors, preferences and advantages. Some traits give you special abilities. They can be useful to improve skills (Artistic and Athletic traits, for example) and to get special interactions (Childish sims can play with toys. Mooch Sims can ask for food.)

Young Adults and up have 5 traits, Teens have 4 traits, Kids have 3 traits, Toddlers have 2 traits. The less traits a Sim has, the less complex that Sim's personality will be. For example, giving a Sim the Kleptomaniac trait only will result in him constantly stealing while giving a Sim 5 traits will result in more balance. A Sim can acquire more traits also. In fact, they can acquire all traits that don't contradict each other.

Traits are genetic and what occurs during pregnancy can affect what traits are passed on. The parents also help pick the traits. For example, bad parents don't get to pick their own traits and will have randomly assigned ones, these are generally unfavourable.

A special object in the game, called the “Mid Life Crisis”, can randomise and change all your Sim's traits, resulting in new behavior. A list of traits you can choose from can be found here.

Wishes

 * See also List of Lifetime wishes.

Wishes are a new system in The Sims 3 that provides you with a wide selection of requests that keep your Sims happy as well as working towards some short and long-term goals and rewards. Wishes come from anywhere and everywhere, based on your Sims’ traits, their job, their skills, their friends or coworkers, where they are in town, or what they might be doing. You can promise to help your Sims with a wish or you can throw it away. Satisfying these basic tasks will unlock minor rewards and increase your Sim's overall morale with a "moodlet"--a minor condition that contributes to your characters' overall mood. Evil Sim just stole candy from a baby? Ahh, that's a good moodlet: +15. Having to listen to the annoying sound of the crying baby? Ugh, that's a bad moodlet: -15. Working toward your lifetime wish will win your Sims "lifetime happiness points" that can be spent on extremely powerful items.

You’re now free to pick or ignore your Sims’ wishes without fear of some sort of mental breakdown. Instead, you really get to focus on telling the story and making decisions; your Sim just makes suggestions along the way. If you promise that you’ll help your Sim get married, then decide to throw that wish away, your Sim will be a little sad, but otherwise it’s really all up to you.

Skills
Skills have been expanded on from previous versions adding skills that were Talent Badges in The Sims 2. They still have 10 levels of proficiency.

Examples:
 * Handiness Skill
 * Fishing Skill
 * Writing Skill
 * Gardening Skill
 * Logic Skill
 * Cooking Skill
 * Guitar Skill

Sims with high levels in a skill will unlock new abilities, for example, high level Logic allows a Sim to tutor other Sims, Cooking unlocks recipes, Fishing unlocks bigger fish.

Sims get a Power Study moodlet if they study at the Library.

You do not see the skill in your bar until you unlock the first point. You can then view the skill journal. For example, in the Athletic skill journal you have your statistics: hours of cardio workout, hours of strength workout, distance jogged.

Careers
Many of the careers from The Sims 2 such as the Law Enforcement and Athletic tracks will be in The Sims 3. Of course, there will also be some new ones. Your Sims can look for these jobs in the newspaper or apply right at the building where they’d like to work. Sims will also be able to make a living at home selling paintings or growing fruit and vegetables to pull in a little extra cash on the side or get a part-time job at local shops.

Actions outside of work, such as schmoozing the boss or reading medical journals can have an impact on a Sim's job performance. Opportunities can still cause you to lose your job but may actually help you get a better job in another career track.

A new feature The Sims 3 offers is branching careers, and reaching the top of a career doesn't mean it’s over if you keep excelling at your duties, you can rake in extra Simoleons through additional raises.


 * Every career has its own building in the Neighborhood.
 * Advancing in career is changed as it depends on skills, personality, relationship with colleagues/boss and even certain goals that have to be fulfilled. For example taking work home.
 * Confirmed careers are Culinary, Science, Journalism, Politics, Criminal, Entertainment, Musician, Medical, Military and Education.
 * You can decide how hard they work while on the job. You have options as to what kind of performance you want to give: Business as Usual, Work Hard, Take it Easy, Meet Coworkers, Hang Out with Coworkers, Suck Up to Boss, or Practice a Skill.
 * There are part-time jobs for teens, adults and elders, including such positions Bookstore Clerk, Grocery Store Clerk, Spa Receptionist, Spa Specialist, and Burial Specialist.
 * If you are a rockstar, other people recognize you and react. The same if you are at the top of other careers, like the military one: people will use the military greeting with you.
 * Jobs pay hourly, not daily.
 * You can become business partners with community businesses. Once you own the company you can rename it, fire the staff, and make use of its facilities for free.
 * Full-time jobs, for adults, include the Science, Business, Journalism, Professional Sport, Military, Music, Law Enforcement, Medical, Criminal, Political, and Culinary careers.
 * On the map screen picture there was a symbol which looked like a school so you might be able to have a job in the education career track. Sunny has confirmed that there is a career track in Education!

Community Features
Producers claim that The Sims 3 Exchange will make it easier to create and share custom creations.

Features:
 * Better searching and browsing.
 * The ability to make recommendations with an all-positive rating system.
 * The ability to run the in-game Launcher and see the latest news.
 * The ability to use the in-game Launcher to browse and download featured game items that members have created.
 * The ability to "favorite" areas of the site directly from the Launcher.
 * The ability to utilize the "Movie Mashup Tool" and upload your own video clips and screen shots and use them to make movies about your Sims. It provides a library of video clips and images that you can use along with your own, as well as a music library with hundreds of tracks. The tool lets you choose transitions and effects to use on your clips and you can also use text captions to add narration and dialog.
 * The Story Tool lets you create our own stories using uploaded and common screen shots.
 * The ability to share anything you make via email or blog post to sites like Facebook and MySpace and through blogs and fan sites.

Gallery of Images and Videos
See more at The Sims 3/gallery.

New Updates

 * The Sims 3 Hands-On Events: Post your questions here!
 * The Sims 3 Hands-On Event: Day 1