The Sims three is the next installment in the smash hit franchise from Electronic Arts.  Many things have changed in the world of The Sims but one thing remains the same.  If you enjoy crazy, off-the-wall, innovative ideas in a game simulation that emulates real life; The Sims three is for you.

To start off with, everything is much more fluid and natural looking.  Even the character creation screen has gone through an overhaul.  With all of the different facial reconstruction parameters EA has given, it is fair to say that it might be possible to create anyone you know as a sim.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with this title, those of you who have been living under a rock, the game is all about simulating real-life in a fun and funny way.  The Sims have their own language and own ways of getting things done.  Just like in the previous versions, your job is to keep the six different motivation bars as full was possible at all times.

On top of that, each Sim is given five unique personality traits, which affect how your character will interact with other Sims.  Once you choose personality traits for your Sim an option to choose a lifetime wish will appear.  It is up to you what the ultimate goal of the Sim will be.  Unfortunately, you can only choose one lifetime wish initially.  Whereas, in the previous versions, you could select many different wishes.

The different personality traits and wishes are quite extensive.  There are 63 different personality traits and 32 different lifetime wishes.  Also, the artificial intelligence in this game is amazingly strong.  Not only will your Sim do what it needs to do to survive but it will do what it wants when it wants unless you intervene.  In fact, the way that you control your Sim affects how it will behave when you are not controlling it.  Including, how you treat the other Sims and your character.  For example, if you create an overweight Sim but regularly exercise, over time your Sim will lose weight.

If the small touches like that that make this game interesting.  EA really went out of the way to give us unique choices that prevent the game from getting dull.  But what is there to do?  Is there ultimate goal?

Build a life

There is no ultimate goal of the Sims other than to have fun, so what do you do?  The idea is to build a life for your Sim in any way you see fit.  Your Sim can fall in love, get married, have children or even to be gay if you so choose (being gay is not a choice in real-life, but it is in the Sims).  But building lives is not the only thing that can be built.

As is tradition with all games in the Sims lineage, building homes is a big part of the game. Now for those who are die-hard fans, you will be familiar with this process, it is a mouse intensive exercise in civil engineering. For those new to the process, it is intuitive, with few "tricks" to make a masterpiece. Now the die-hard fans are going to find one thing very different from the Sims of yesteryears, the number of objects for your house are very limited, and community driven content is scarce. Why? EA has decided to go with the micro-transaction model for things in the game. Want a new lamp? That will be $1, want a cool new rug for your den, $.80 please. This goes for clothing too.

It needs to be said, this game violates the micro-transaction model that has been laid out and tested. Charge me for the game, and give me the objects for free (WOW), or give me the game for free, and charge me for items in it (Maple Story). EA has done both, and for that I am very disappointed.

Just be warned, it may get expensive to fall in love with this game.

Game accessibility

This is definitely an accessible game for the motion impaired as long as you are willing to use a few tricks.  The on-screen keyboard does not currently work even when the game is put in windowed mode to open up that chat boxes.  However, if you can use a switch or a voice command program to open up the cheat box or get to the area in which you enter your name, the on-screen keyboard will work.

One-handed gamers will also have no problem.  There are very little shortcuts because everything is done with the mouse.  The camera and controlling the action is all controlled via the mouse.  Some keyboard shortcuts make things easier if you can hold down a key and move the mouse.  However, these are purely for ease of use and can be done the hard way.

Unfortunately, one major drawback for the Sims three is the lack of options for the colorblind and visually impaired.  The text on the many options for buying objects is incredibly small.  Some of us have no visual problems and yet still had a difficult time reading the words, especially on large monitor.  Another drawback, colorblind players may be a bit left out because the colors change in the mood bars from green to red.  There is a shade-sliding bar that some colorblind users may be able to use to tell the different between a happy and unhappy Sim.

Those with colorblind issues will not be able to tell at a glance whether they're saying is happy or not because the small jewel above their heads changes colors with no symbols to designate mood.  The Sims protest loudly when they need an action done but by the time they complain, the repercussions are already happening.

Deaf gamers are not going to be at any real disadvantage with the Sims 3. From an audio stand point the game is little more than music; very very happy music, and nonsensical musing as characters talk to each other. The "jest" of the conversation is shown to you in thought bubbles and body language, but the audio portion of the conversation is just baby talk, no real words are exchanged. Other activities, like your house being engulfed in flames is accompanied by a red box around the whole play area, flashing at you. All in all, this game is a winner to the deaf gamer.

Is Sims 3 a great game, you bet it is. Can it be played by many disabled people, we sure do not see why not. Can you afford to really love this game? That's up to you and your financial planner.

Comments (6)

Barrie Ellis

June 09, 2009

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Everyone prefers the "rosebud" cheat for free money to paying real cash surely?

Mark C. Barlet

June 09, 2009

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In the game you can do a Ctrl+Shift+C to get the cheat line up and type "motherlode" and you get 50k, of Sims money... still need real money for new hair due.

Aaron Baker

June 13, 2009

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The title of this article confuses me. What's expensive about Sims 3? It costs the standard PC game price...

Keep in mind that I'm not complaining, I'm just cconfused is all.

Mark C. Barlet

June 13, 2009

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Hey BE, How are you... read this part.

"Now the die-hard fans are going to find one thing very different from the Sims of yesteryears, the number of objects for your house are very limited, and community driven content is scarce. Why? EA has decided to go with the micro-transaction model for things in the game. Want a new lamp? That will be $1, want a cool new rug for your den, $.80 please. This goes for clothing too."

beth

September 07, 2009

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look.i just played the sims 3 this couple days. and i figure out that we cant scroll the map by just put the cursor in the edge and it will go to the left or right.but in the sims 3 we must hold the right click and move it to the left or right. i think its really annoying.
and then. i would like to say.the time control is so useless.even i forward it until 4 its still so slow.its really boring when we should wait our sims sleeping and working.

MESanborn

January 31, 2011

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if you are color blind just look at the bar u can see the difference in amount of green. plus the sims face next to the bar looks miserable when shes upset and smiles when shes happy. its easy to tell.

and the shortcuts are so much easier than using the mouse the mouse takes a lot of time.

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