Sims 3: From Character Creation to WooHoo

I've now had The Sims 3 for a couple of days, and here are my first impressions.

Download from EA went without a hitch. I did not, as I expected, get an email from EA telling me that the game was available for download - I just kept checking the EA Download Manager on the day before release and, sure enough, there it was at about 9pm. It downloaded at a solid 2.3 megs a second, taking about 40 minutes (for 5.6 gigs, as I recall), so none of the server overload or crawling download speed issues that I have had previously with downloading games on release. Installation went just as well (although the game didn't recognise my graphics card, a GTS 250, despite this being listed in the readme), and I was playing well before release day arrived. I duly downloaded the free extra town, Riverview, with only a slight problem - some of the dialogues were located too low in my browser, making it difficult to click the appropriate button.

I initially started a game in the default town, Sunset Valley, but this was lost with the only technical issue I have had: the game crashed when saving, and I was unable to re-load. I haven't had the issue since, but I recommend saving under different names, rather than overwriting saves, to avoid losing a lot of your hard gaming.

For my new game I used Riverview. As usual, the first task is to create your sim. It is a long time since I played Sims 2, but it seems to me that there are a lot more options for character creation, meaning that you can end up with a sim looking reasonably like yourself (if you so wish), or looking like just about anything you want. What is new is the traits system. You get to choose five personality traits and, depending upon these, five choices for a 'lifetime wish'. I tried to choose traits that reflected my own personality, and was pleasantly surprised to find that one of the lifetime choices I was offered was to become a chess grandmaster - something I once aspired to in real life. Naturally, this was the wish I chose.


So on to gameplay. Well, the game plays pretty much as previous versions, and this is no bad thing. For any seasoned Sim-er, getting into the game is a breeze. You still have the usual mix of the mundane tasks (eating, cleaning, sleeping etc.) with the things you really want to do (career, wish fulfilment, romance etc.), and the interface hasn't changed a lot. What has changed is the graphics, which are a real improvement. Also, some of the micro-management seems to have gone or been reduced, which allows you more time to concentrate on the interesting things. One of the best improvements, though, is that the town is now a seamless whole, which really does add to the sense that you are part of the larger community.


As for my sim, his career is now progressing (he works in the medical profession, and has risen from 'organ donor' (really!) to paramedic), his chess career is starting to take off (despite mistakenly leaving a tournament to fulfill a sleep requirement, before the tournament had ended) and his love-life knows no bounds. He met Fatima when he went to the chess tournament and, despite finding out she was a 'snob' (hey, he still fancied her) made his move. He eventually persuaded her to give her previous boyfriend the elbow, and has just married her! Oh, and for all you saddos who wonder what 'WooHoo' (yep, sex) looks like on screen, you may be disappointed:


Keep tuned to find out what happens next to my sim...