06-11-2009, 12:08 AM
The Sims 3
June 1, 2009 - For most of the past decade, The
Sims franchise has maintained a permanent presence on the Top 10 sales
charts of PC games. Often, it occupied multiple slots on those charts.
That's because for every hardcore gamer who scoffs at The Sims, there
are many more non-traditional gamers who love the series. Yes, many of
those people are female. That makes it easy for some to simply describe
The Sims as the equivalent of a virtual dollhouse, but that
oversimplifies things. The Sims, like almost any game, is about living
a different life than your own. Some people escape reality by diving
into MMOs. Others jump straight into shooters. It turns out that whole
bunches of people turn to The Sims. And in this regard, The Sims 3
won't disappoint. With the third chapter in the series, EA has
introduced some overdue growth and made some bold changes, yet much of
this brave new world's potential remains relatively untapped.
I've been a fan of The Sims since the very beginning; Will Wright's
idea of letting you control virtual people in their everyday lives taps
that desire that we all have to be ruler of the world and tell everyone
else where to stuff it. The Sims is the closest that many of us will
ever get to Ed Harris' character in The Truman Show; that's the movie
where he plays the director who gets to "cue the sun" and manipulate
events around the unsuspecting Truman Burbank, played by Jim Carrey.
The thing is, Truman doesn't realize that the quaint, coastal town that
he lives in is in fact a carefully staged set and that his every move
is caught on camera and beamed to the outside world. The Truman Show is
an apt description for The Sims 3, because it too takes place in a
quaint, coastal town that your sims can go out and explore. Yet
wherever they go, you'll be carefully watching.
Screenshot
June 1, 2009 - For most of the past decade, The
Sims franchise has maintained a permanent presence on the Top 10 sales
charts of PC games. Often, it occupied multiple slots on those charts.
That's because for every hardcore gamer who scoffs at The Sims, there
are many more non-traditional gamers who love the series. Yes, many of
those people are female. That makes it easy for some to simply describe
The Sims as the equivalent of a virtual dollhouse, but that
oversimplifies things. The Sims, like almost any game, is about living
a different life than your own. Some people escape reality by diving
into MMOs. Others jump straight into shooters. It turns out that whole
bunches of people turn to The Sims. And in this regard, The Sims 3
won't disappoint. With the third chapter in the series, EA has
introduced some overdue growth and made some bold changes, yet much of
this brave new world's potential remains relatively untapped.
I've been a fan of The Sims since the very beginning; Will Wright's
idea of letting you control virtual people in their everyday lives taps
that desire that we all have to be ruler of the world and tell everyone
else where to stuff it. The Sims is the closest that many of us will
ever get to Ed Harris' character in The Truman Show; that's the movie
where he plays the director who gets to "cue the sun" and manipulate
events around the unsuspecting Truman Burbank, played by Jim Carrey.
The thing is, Truman doesn't realize that the quaint, coastal town that
he lives in is in fact a carefully staged set and that his every move
is caught on camera and beamed to the outside world. The Truman Show is
an apt description for The Sims 3, because it too takes place in a
quaint, coastal town that your sims can go out and explore. Yet
wherever they go, you'll be carefully watching.
Screenshot