It's March 19 and as expected, Electronic Arts have revealed the first info on The Sims 3. As one of the best-selling PC games of all-time, it had better be good, don't you think? Based on these screens and the info EA have provided, things are looking good so far, if not kind of familiar. The first features announced are the game's new seamless, open neighborhood, an over-hauled Create-A-Sim, new and more realistic personalities, and "unlimited customization." Is it me, or outside of the seamless neighborhood bit, couldn't this be used to describe The Sims 2? Sounds good to me. The Sims 3 will hit PCs next year, and I guess it's only a matter of time before a version is also announced for next-gen consoles, the Nintendo DS, the iPhone, and the Sega Dreamcast. Full press release and new feature details can be found after the jump.
EA REVEALS FIRST DETAILS OF NEXT-GENERATION FLAGSHIP PC GAME, COMING IN 2009
The Sims 3 Gives You Complete Freedom, Inspiring You With Endless Creative Possibilities
Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) announced today the first details on one of interactive entertainment’s most anticipated games, The Sims™ 3. Featuring a brand new engine that has been in development for nearly three years, The Sims 3 allows you to immerse your unique Sims in an open living neighbourhood right outside their door. The initial feature-set unveiled includes the new seamless, open neighbourhood, new Create-A-Sim, new realistic personalities and new unlimited customization. The Sims 3 will launch globally in 2009.
The Sims franchise has long been recognized for its appeal to a universal audience, both male and female, and at any age. Its broad appeal and loyal The Sims community has vaulted the franchise to an impressive 98 million games sold around the world and translated into 22 different languages. Celebrated for its creativity, humour, and community, The Sims franchise has become a global and cultural phenomenon since its inception in 2000.
Now, The Sims 3 is being designed to be the next-generation flagship game from The Sims Label.
“In The Sims 3, Sims can go beyond the boundaries of their home lot, and immerse themselves in an open, living neighbourhood, interacting with other Sims using our new deeper personality system,” said Rod Humble, Head of The Sims Studio. “It is this type of open-ended gameplay that inspires endless creative possibilities. In addition the new goals and rewards systems will give players of all kinds from core gamers to storytellers the ability to enjoy long-term gameplay.”
New Seamless, Open Neighbourhood—Explore the Neighbourhood Freely. See the sights with your Sims! The new seamless neighbourhood architecture allows your Sims to roam freely around the neighbourhood and visit their loved one and friends—or foes. Discovering other Sims homes and families, traveling around to new locations like City Hall or the local park will create a whole new way of life for your Sims. Storytelling options will multiply as your Sims stroll downtown to meet new acquaintances, head across town for lunch, spy on their neighbours and bump into the boss when they least expect it.
New Create A Sim—Create Any Sim You Can Imagine. In addition to the open, living neighbourhood, the all-new Create-a-Sim interface will feature easy-to-use design tools that allow you to make truly detailed Sims that are more realistic than ever. Create-a-Sim gives you the incredible freedom to customize just about any Sim you can imagine. From thin to full-figured to muscular—everything in between and even the extreme! In addition to determining your Sims body shape and size, you will also be able to fine-tune every feature on their faces, customize their hair style and select their skin tone, all from a vast selection of options. With so many choices to choose from, it is fun to create more realistic characters that look like you, someone you want to look like, or even a famous personality.
New Realistic Personalities—Every Sim Is A Unique Person, With A Distinct Personality With the innovative and proprietary Realistic Personality System in The Sims 3, you can attribute each character with five distinct personality traits, helping shape your Sims behaviour and how they interact with others and their surroundings. This new system will empower you to create extremely complex and diverse in-game personalities. Will you create the nosy, inappropriate, kleptomaniac grandmother who loves to meddle in other people’s business? Or the commitment-phobic, hot-headed punk rocker whose rude nature and childish disposition keeps him from scoring a date? In The Sims 3, Sims will go beyond the basic set of day-to-day needs to be distinct individuals with multifaceted personalities, who can focus both on short-term opportunities and long-term goals. With a wide selection of personality traits to mix and match, more than 700 million combinations of Sims await. You never know who’ll meet in The Sims 3!
New Unlimited Customization—Everyone Can Customize Everything! New and accessible creativity tools in The Sims 3 make it simple for anyone to customize anything, anywhere! From floors to flowers, fashions to sofas, wallpaper to window shades and more, The Sims 3 gives you all the flexibility and options you need to be the architect of your dream house or explore your interior design skills to outfit your ultimate home. Your Sims can make home an ultra-deluxe mansion, a cool bachelor pad, family’s dream home or charming cottage. The choice is yours in The Sims 3.
”The new engine and technologies in The Sims 3 are designed to unleash the player’s imagination with realistic looking Sims who have distinct personalities and a seamless living neighborhood for them to discover,” added Ben Bell, Executive Producer on The Sims 3. “Players are going to be thrilled by the level of realism in The Sims 3!”
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can i has pre-order NOW?
I'm getting this on the fuckin Dreamcast.
Well, I'm sort of a whore to The Sims, so I'll probably be getting this.
But will it come with everything!?
Nooo, 50 expansion packs await.
Nabla dabla fla jibba na. Flibble habba hanna.
HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Hahahaha Cowzilla!
This game will sell millions to wives and little girls worldwide.
I feel like this is the same thing that happened with the Worms series. The jump from Worms to Worms 2 was a huge one, and then each iteration afterward was essentially just marginal changes that didn't amount to much.
The Sims 2 was a decent leap from The Sims, but I don't really see how they can take it much further.
OH MAN, THIS LOOKS exactly like the Sims 2.
So I'm assuming that there WILL be an Atari Jaguar version?
The only thing I realize is different is that the Sims ALL don't look the same. That's about it.
OH HAI SIMS 2.5!
I feel that the Gameboy Color community has been discriminated against, for the denial of a port to our beloved system.
That first Pic looks like PS3's Home if I were to squint my eyes.
Does this mean no more expansions for the Sims 2?
Comen snala osto tunnen-funnen deg deg, soodl soodl, shweigei, schweifon!
N-Gage port??
so is anyone else disappointed that it looks EXACTLY the same? I want me some crysis like graphics!
well my GF is going crazy about this...
Ill be sticking far away from this one. I already have one simulation life to look after.
Commodore 64 port?
Atari 2600 port?!
ENIAC port?!!!
I think I read that these pictures were taken from a pre-alpha version so they may well be improved for the final releas.
Honestly though, I think they look a fair bit crisper than sims 2 screens (from memory at least) and given all the extra customisation and a whole community being dropped into the sandbox this time I don't feel you could do much more without restricting the install base too much.
I've seen plenty of gamers harp on about Crysis' system requirements and the small percentage of people who can run it decently yet when people try to improve things that affect gameplay you all bitch about the graphics. There are more important thigs y'know?
This month's Games for Windows Magazine (No, no, I don't pay for it, they just send it, I swear) has a feature on the Sims 3. Yeah it looks pretty much the same, but it sounds like they're making it less of a hassle to look after your sim, there's fewer status meters, less telling them to take a dump, etc.
They're being smart. They know that not everyone who plays the Sims has an amazing PC. Bigger market = Big profit.
PLAYSTATION HOME SAYS WUT
PLAYSTATION HOME SAYS WUT
PLAYSTATION HOME SAYS WUT
Sounds awesome! Hope they fix the broken aspiration system though.
It's looking good. It seems less "cartoony" than the Sims 2 was to me, but I expect the core gameplay to be more or less the same.
I don't know, but I find the release of this odd or so. It seemed like the release period between The Sims/Sims 2 was huge... but I feel like the Sims 2 was released not to long ago, even though their in-between periods are roughly the same.
Then again, I haven't really been keeping tabs on the Sims, so...
It feels kind of incremental, but its definitely an improvement, and honestly, I think it reflects the way a bunch of people may have already started playing with the Sims2:
- creating themed neighborhoods for a Sim to play in - now the huge load times will be gone when "switching lots"
- always on continuous community: having different and varied personalities that you hope will meet each other and clash
- putting less emphasis on micro management: you can pick up the sims trash for yourself, for example. Also, less stress on making it to the bathroom in time
- less regimented "aspiration" system: works more on "promises" and "dreams" and doesn't lock you sim into being a family guy or a romance jerk.
This all kind of reminds me of the Simsville project, with less emphasis on family fueds and buildings being affected by the "aura" of the town.
I'm interested
@Dexter
Ludicrous statement. Worms Armageddon was a huge step forward in the series. Other than that point taken.
Oh boy I can't wait to buy all those expansion packs again.
Expansion packs for PC's are similar to DLC on consoles.
I dunno. Making them look more realistic just makes them look more generic to me.
So long as they put the Goths in there for me to rip apart, then I might consider purchasing it eventually.
Does anyone else find it funny that when we community blog something that's already on the front page we get slated but when the reverse happens....
I'm dissapointed with the character visuals. It looks almost worse than The Sims 2! It just doesnt fit in at all!
What I liked in The Sims 2 was to create a house filled with female characters who'd walk around in their underwear.
It would've been so cool to do that in next-gen visuals...
Well, I do realize that the AI in this game is probably going to be so power consuming that it wont have enough power to use for rendering visuals...
Oh well, back to The Sims 2 for some lesbian fun :P