The Sims has traditionally been a stronghold on PC. For EA, it was a license to print money. Endless expansions and now on its 2nd sequel, it seems nothing can stop them now. But on console it has been a different story. The Sims 2 did not sell as well on console as it did on PC, and I am having a hard time recalling any version before that. So it’s with some trepidation that I’m venturing back to the land of the Sims with this new version for console, The Sims 3.

Let’s recap for newcomers to the Sims universe:

You play some sort of detached cursor that sees to the needs of a little family of Sims. They, like normal people, will need to eat, sleep, have relationships, go to work, earn money, spend money, go to the loo, and ultimately die. By paying careful attention to a Sim’s specific needs you can tell them when to have lunch, and when to take a bath.

It sounds rather mundane, looking after someone else’s life when your own is probably more in need of attention, yet it has to be one of the most addictive game series available today. Sales charts will back me up here: there is almost always a ‘Sims’ title in the top-sellers list, and often more than one at a time.

A copy of a copy of a copy…

The first thing that strikes you about The Sims 3 on console is that it is a near identical copy of the Sims 3 on PC. The music is immediately familiar in a cute family sitcom kind of way. The Sims themselves also look kind of familiar, but since they tend to all look identical, this is not such a big surprise.

The Sims creator is as detailed as any version before, but has a few less items of clothing than expected. After creating your family of up to 8 family members, assigning things like personality traits and skills for performing certain tasks, you can have them move into their dream house. If you want a crazy granny living with a troublesome teenager, then so be it. You do need at least one young adult (or older), however, to begin with.

The town the Sims live in has been divided into smaller neighbourhoods, each with about 4 households. You can choose an empty plot of land to build your own home, or choose a prefabricated house either with or without furniture. Building a house and then furnishing it is nearly half the fun of the game. Bragging rights aside, I always tend to build a home just the way I would like, with all the toys I could imagine.

Losing control

The first problems with the console edition of the Sims become apparent as you try and build your dream house. The controls are very finicky, and the accuracy of a mouse is sorely missed. Starting with the foundations, then the walls, doors, windows and the roof, you soon move over to the shopping mode and buy the furniture, flooring, paint and decorations that your Sims need.

You are limited by a budget though, and your first house will be sorely lacking in the decorative department - you can fix this in one of two ways: go to work, or marry a rich Sim in the neighbourhood. You can find a job for your Sim in either the newspaper (which gets delivered every day), the internet or by going to a place of employment and applying directly. Finding a job that suits your Sim’s personality is not required, but will sure help them get promoted quickly.

Marrying a rich Sim from the neighbourhood might be quicker in getting some cash, but then you are stuck with another Sim in the family to control, which might detract from the fun if you only wanted to play with one Sim at a time. Sims are not completely useless though, and if their needs get too high they will just start to look after themselves.

Making friends

Sims are pretty social creatures, and interaction with fellow Sims is required from time to time. You can invite someone out to one of the many establishments in town, or invite them over for a party at your house. Building friendships is vital to their happiness, but like normal friends they will need a bit of attention to remain your friends.

These vary from simply talking to them and telling them jokes, to asking them about their day, giving them back-rubs or hugs, or maybe a bit of romantic interaction from shy kisses all the way through to the nasty act of woohoo (Nasty? - Ed). Yes, they play under the covers of a duvet so the kids playing this game will not be sure what is going on, but it can still be a bit awkward.

Giving your Sims things to do introduces the second problem with the game. Besides the controls still being really hard to get used to, every interaction pauses the game until the commands have been issued. This is obviously an attempt to counter the tricky controls of using a joypad instead of a mouse, but has the counter-effect of slowing the game down immensely.

Half the time will be spent issuing commands - more if you are a megalomaniac who has to be in complete control. This means a single day of Sim-time (which usually takes around an hour of real-time play) will take a lot longer to complete. This also means it will take longer for more money to roll in, longer to progress in your career and longer to learn more skills.

Skills are picked up either by performing certain tasks or by reading about it. For example you can learn the cooking skill while cooking, or you can learn some recipes and progress that way. If you feel you need more recipes you can visit a bookshop and buy better cookbooks and progress even further. These skills will then have an effect on your career as well. Certain promotions will require some skills to be at certain levels.

The yin and yang of Karma

One thing not found in the other editions of the game is the effect of Karma. As the Sims perform tasks that they dream about, they score Karma points. Say your Sim really wants to play the guitar in a park - you can help him reach that dream, and score some Karma points in the process. These points can then be used for either good Karma or bad Karma events. The list is not very extensive, but adds a bit of spice to their dreary lives: Choose to cause an earthquake that will destroy their property, or up their happiness to astronomical heights. You also gain some extra karma points every night at midnight.

While not all the karma actions are available at the beginning, you can buy some with challenge points. Challenges vary from dreams as these are not the Sims’ dreams, but tasks that they need to perform anyway, like go to work. Enough points will give you access to some of the more interesting Karmas. Challenges are basically a way to add more of an objective to your gameplay as opposed to just going through the daily lives of your Sims.

This is one of the few games that does not have a clear end. The Sims you create might have died ages ago, but their children, grandchildren and as many generations as you want to follow behind will carry on their legacy. And depending on the Sim, they may even hang around and haunt the rest of the family for a while.

This allows endless playtime without it really getting boring. If the game could pick up the pace a little bit more and maybe throw in some sort of historical progression, it could have been totally awesome. I can imagine a game starting in the 1920’s, and as the generations come and go things like faster cars, computers and space flight kicks in. That would really make this game perfect (A bit like that favourite game of yours, Civilization, eh? - Ed).

Thats a wrap!

The last thing we should talk about is the Exchange. This online portion of the game allows you to buy new furniture sets, house modifications or even complete houses. These will cost you some real world cash though, and works pretty much the same way as the market on the PC version.

If you are a fan of the Sims you will probably be a little bit disappointed with this version of the game. It’s still fun with endless gameplay and lots to do, but the controls might just be a deal breaker for you. If, on the other hand, you have no experience with the Sims and don’t own a PC, then the Sims 3 on console is the perfect way to get you introduced. Regardless, this will be a big money pot for EA.

- The good: As addictive as the Sims get, lots of challenges to give you some direction
- The bad: Iffy controls and not as many items available as pc version.
- The ugly: All Sims tend to look related, so marrying always feels a bit wrong…

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