The Sims 3 Review (PS3)

A year later and it’s just as good

It has been over a year since the release of The Sims 3 on the PC, so of course the console versions of the game have to come out now. The Sims 3 on consoles, is there anything new or different? Well, not really. While it’s not necessarily a bad thing, the console version of The Sims 3 offers nothing new to the people who have played it on the PC. So if you were expecting a whole new experience, sorry but you will be disappointed. Luckily I wasn’t expecting that at all and was hoping they wouldn’t change a thing to see how it would translate to a console.

As with every Sims game you create a character or a family of characters and trying to make them live however you want them to. You start off creating your characters in the create a Sim screen. As far as I could tell it went into as much detail as it did on the PC. Now if this is your first venture into The Sims 3, then you should be aware that you can now choose up to five traits for your Sim to have. These traits shape how your Sim will react to things other Sims say and do and their ability to do certain things easier or just different things. For example you can choose the genius trait, this will make it very easy for your sim to hack computers, overclock them, and fix them.

There is also the addition of wishes. Fulfilling your Sim’s wishes with give them points towards getting lifetime rewards. These rewards are a mix of items and traits, for example there is a teleportation pad which is exactly what it says it is. There are also lifetime wishes, if you create an adult Sim then you will have to choose one right away, if you have a younger one you get to chose later. These lifetime wishes are given as choices based on what traits you chose for your Sim. One example of a lifetime wish is the perfect mind, perfect body wish, it’s as simple as getting your logic and athletic skills up to level 10.

Aside from those things The Sims 3 is basically the same game with just a couple more slight tweaks. Instead of being secluded to only seeing what’s happening around your house, you can see what is happening in the neighbourhood. This makes some things more convenient, like visiting other Sims or going to a park.

Is this game worth purchasing if you already have the PC version? Probably not.

The ability to purchase a car has been added, though it’s not really of much use. After purchasing the car you can assign it to a Sim and they will be the owner of that car and can use it whenever. The thing is, the Sims don’t automatically use the car, for instance if it’s time to head to work they will automatically head for the carpool even when they own a car. It makes one wonder why purchasing cars was added to the game, it doesn’t really add anything. The cars say they have a certain level of speed, but as far as I could tell it makes no difference and you still arrive at your destination in the same time as you would in a carpool or taxi or “slower” car.

Another slightly new thing in The Sims 3 is the ability to take a class whenever you want you Sim to learn. These classes are made to have your Sims quickly improve your skills. This also seems like an unneeded addition, it didn’t seem to improve the amount of time it took for my Sim to gain a skill level than it would to do an activity relating to that skill.

Despite the unneeded addition this is a solid addition in The Sims series. It still plays exactly like The Sims 2. So fans of the series should rejoice for this fantastic game coming onto consoles because it translates very well. It’s easy to move around the levels of houses and controlling the camera doesn’t feel off at all.

The last thing I want to mention is The Exchange. It’s an in-game version of downloading things that people have created and it makes it easier than having to go to the website to find something or as in the case of The Sims 2 on consoles not have that at all. Unfortunately it’s part of EA’s new online thing. So if you buy this game used then do not expect to be able to download things right out of the box. You can still do so though, by purchasing a key code through the Playstation Store. Although do beware even if you purchase the game new you might find a key code missing, I for one did and was highly disappointed and as far as I could tell it’s apparently not a huge deal and will rarely happen.

So, is this game worth purchasing if you already have the PC version? Probably not. Is it worth it to buy it if you haven’t purchased the PC version? Well it does offer exactly the same as the PC version, but it’s starting price is higher than the PC version. I’d say that this game is a discounted buy.