Ah, the Sims! The third one, in fact. Before EA has a chance to be... too evil.

So, been looking forward to this for awhile. Never really hit Sims 2, but I sure hit Sims. I also loved Urbz on the Xbox for some reason that I've never understood. (Honestly, I put hours and hours into that game.) So, I decided, heck, I'll try Sims again.

I wish I hadn't. It's really addicting. So, here's my review. It's done based off one game that I had.

Oldmun Jenkins!
First of all, the new Create a Sim feature is very robust. Especially the face creation. You have a few basic shapes that are predone, and then you have the advanced option, where you can pull parts of the face to be longer, shorter, fatter, or whathaveyou. The built in editor to create different clothing styles is really impressive too. My main gripes with this editor is the limited hair styles and limited clothing types (though the clothing ones can be fixed with use of the style editor thingus).

So, these trait things. Rather interesting. My first character I built was rather stupid, so we'll just pretend he didn't exist in hopes that he'll go die. Instead, we'll use my second character, who I fondly named Oldmun Jenkins.


Behold, this is your new Overlord!

Based off the idea of an ex-hippie who will never have a real job, Oldmun Jenkins was given the following traits: Handy, Angler, Friendly, Loves the Outdoors, and heavy sleeper. His overall goal in life was to create the perfect aquarium with 13 different species of perfect fish. I only got 10 species before I became bored with playing Oldmun.

Now, Oldmun was a peculiar person. For this character, I turned off aging, because I didn't want Oldmun to die. I mean I started him as old, he obviously wouldn't have much time, and I just wanted to have fun. This feature, the ability to turn of aging, that is, definitely scores The Sims 3 some points.

Now let the role playing begin. Oldmun never had a job, and never would. He lived in a small house (at first) and all he did was fish, garden, and have fun in the town. He also participated in every protest he ever saw at the Town Hall. He was a real rebel. Just imagine him mashing at a Rage Against the Machine concert. Pretty awesome image.

Time went on, and Oldmun eventually caught something very... interesting. A seed. And not just any seed, a seed that would eventually grow into...


Free money? Awesome!

Yes, the seed was none other than a money tree seed. It was very interesting, really, that you could have this. ESPECIALLY through fishing, which you really wouldn't expect to make much money off anyway. But Oldmun sure did, and he was eventually able to upgrade his small three roomed house into...


THE ULTIMATE SEA-THEMED HOUSE.

Well not really the ultimate, since Oldmun was still, in a sense, too broke to upgrade it much further. And I got bored of Oldmun, and now I'm doing another role playing type game. It isn't quite as entertaining as Oldmun, but hey, what's funner than an ex-hippie who spends all his days fishing? Not much, right?

Gripes

Now, a few of the gripes I have with Sims 3. First of all, there isn't nearly as much to do in town as you'd think. The best parts of being able to go into town is probably the fact that there are other people there. If that wasn't so, Oldmun probably wouldn't have left his house at all except to go fishing. Secondly, there seems to be content that's... missing. I mean, I never played Sims 2, but couldn't they have put a bit more of the content from it into Sims 3?

My last gripe, as of yet, only has half of its evidence. It is presented in The Store, where you can buy, with real money, more content for Sims 3. 100 Sims Points translates into one dollar, and 100 Sims Points is the amount that many things are being sold for in The Store. How much content came with the game? Well over 50 items? Well, if you want many more than fifty items from the Store, you'll have to pay more than what you payed for the actual game. The half that DOESN'T have evidence is the continuing milking of the game in the form of expansion packs. I mean, come on, you know there coming. (the fact that I'm complaining about them doesn't mean I don't want them coughhackcoughcoughhackcough)

Final Thoughts

In a combination of fun stuff to do (fishing, collecting, writing, TROLLING ON THE INTERNET HAHAHA), a sense of humor that presents itselfs through the lives of the Sims, and the option to say "FUCK YOU" to getting a career, the Sims 3 certainly has me hooked. However, its few flaws (and the evil that is the Store! (which, of course, I really don't have to use if I feel so strongly about it...)), while they certainly don't detract hugely from the experience, could have been easily fixed.

I give it, on the Destructoid review scale, a 8.5

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go create a Sim who's purpose in life is to go to other people's homes just to eat their food.