Sims News

Happy Holidays Simmers!

We wanted to let you know that a new Game Update for The Sims 3 and the release of The Sims™ 3 Create a World Tool – BETA will be coming this month. Updates are the primary way for us to offer new features for your games, address any issues, and keep you up-to-date on the latest information to support online features. The upcoming December update will include several items, but we’d like to tell you today about one new feature specifically that we’re really excited about.

Introducing – Shop Mode! You heard right folks. The December update will introduce a button that will allow you to shop from The Sims 3 Store from inside your game. This new feature will enhance your shopping experience at The Sims 3 Store and allow you to access The Sims 3 Store via Shop Mode from the main menu, build or buy mode or during Create-a-Sim. As you purchase new items, they will be added to your catalog, while your game is running. You can browse the full Store catalog directly from your game and purchase furniture, décor, hair, clothing – without ever closing your game. This is a really exciting new experience for The Sims series, and we look forward to sharing with you!

Create your own worlds for The Sims 3 this December!
Create and share unique new worlds that you design with The Sims 3 Create a World Tool – BETA. Download for free and step into the shoes of The Sims 3 development team by using the same tools the team uses to create worlds and towns for The Sims 3.

Stay tuned for specific details on the Game Update coming in December including everything it will provide and more news around Create a World Tool – BETA.

Thanks,

The Sims 3 Development Team

Evan Taubenfeld is one of the artists featured singing Simlish in The Sims 3 World Adventures. Be randomly selected to receive cool stuff signed by Evan!

More details

GameSpot has posted their review for the Sims 3 World Adventures!

Read the full Article

The Sims 3: World Adventures Review

By Kevin VanOrd

World Adventures introduces a number of fresh ideas and a bunch of great new content to the series.

The Good

• Tombs are fun to explore and give you lots of great rewards
• Charming and attractive presentation
• The new content blends well with the old
• Lots of new items, tools, and other goodies.

The Bad

• Scattered technical issues.

Upon initial consideration, it seems unusual that the first expansion for The Sims 3 would revisit a concept the series has already trod. After all, in 2002, The Sims: Vacation let you visit three different travel venues and introduced a few new (but minor) concepts to the formula in the process. The Sims 3: World Adventures sends your digital counterparts back on the road, but don't assume that this expansion simply retreads what has already been done. World Adventures isn't just a bloated content pack, but rather it introduces new ideas to the series, fun rewards, and great new areas to explore. If you've somehow overcome your addiction to The Sims 3, the expansion feels so fresh that you'll be able to overlook its scattered flaws and devote yourself once again to the happiness of your little computer people.

The puzzles won't tease your brain, but they will tickle your fancy.

Like Vacation, World Adventures introduces three new locations to discover--in this case, France, Egypt, and China. Traveling costs a few simoleans, of course, but even if you haven't been playing The Sims 3 for long, you should be able to afford a visit to the Egyptian tombs or the Terracotta Army. You simply tap a few buttons on your in-game cell phone or computer, choose a destination, and you're whisked (if you can call it whisked, what with loading times lasting upward of two minutes) away to your overseas adventure. The first thing you may notice upon arrival is the job board outside of your base camp. Using the board, you can select an adventure, which may entail a task like talking to a local in need, who in turn will send you off to retrieve a priceless artifact, search for items lost in the desert, or have a chat with the neighbors about their lights. Most of these tasks involve exploring tombs, dungeons, and other subterranean environs; collecting loot; avoiding traps; and pushing a few statues around to solve puzzles. It's like a role-playing game, just without the sword swinging and spellcasting.

And like with dungeon-crawling RPGs, it's hard to tear yourself away from the tomb raiding once you've started. The actions you take during your subterranean jaunts aren't complex: pull a lever, examine a strange-looking wall, stand on a plate to trigger a door, and so on. However, the moment-to-moment balancing of your sims' needs (such as energy or bladder) enrich the exploration, and the loot you find sweetens the deal, because it affects you outside of the adventure. You'll find relics that you can sell or display in your home, ancient coins that you can use to purchase cool items from a specialty merchant, and more. Additionally, completing adventures raises your visa level, which in turn allows you to take longer vacations and get access to better items from the specialty vendors, among other perks. Yet while the rewards are the biggest part of what makes adventuring so involving, the exploration is entertaining in and of itself. You may need to navigate a hedge maze while retrieving artifacts, look for secret doors, or pray to the statues adorning the area. And, of course, you'll want to take a tent, some morsels of food, and the charmingly illogical "shower in a can" to keep your standard needs met while you trudge about the dim dungeons.

Even when you've left your vacation behind and returned to your life back at home (time stands still in your own neighborhood while you're away), you'll find that the new content is expertly woven into the old. For example, if you are a musician, you might get an opportunity to learn about the musical traditions of Egypt. Completing the task entails learning several different folk songs from the Egyptian populace--which you can in turn teach to other sims in all locations. As you play, the game frequently prods you to visit your homes away from home, and each visit is rich with the charms and surprises for which the series is known. The new Simlish phrases and sim animations are whimsical and enchanting, and the new areas are fun to investigate. The new music is quirky and upbeat, and while occasionally plain, the villages and tourist attractions are lovely to look at. However, like previous expansions in the Sims series, World Adventures doesn't fix any faults, and in fact, it calls attention to existing ones. As you run (or bicycle or motorbike) to your next adventure, texture pop-in and visual jitters become more noticeable than before, and the camera gets shaky when you traverse the newer hilly areas and navigate tight tombs.

You can meet your daily needs at the base camp, though eventually you'll be able to own your own vacation home.

The quests and ensuing rewards aren't the only delights you'll gain from playing World Adventures. If you like the scenery, you can snap a photo and sell it or hang it on your wall, which is a great way to enhance a themed room. And if you're into theming, the fun doesn't stop there. The expansion includes all sorts of new furniture and decor, so if you want to turn your backyard into a Chinese garden, you've got new foliage and lighting to do it with. If you stared with envy at your new Egyptian friend's furnishings, you can purchase them for yourself and turn your dining room into a mummy's paradise. In fact, should you really get into the tombs, you can even build one yourself. The new basement tool lets you build up to four floors underground, and you get access to all the traps, levers, and other accoutrements you encounter during your adventures. For an extra good time, add a dungeon to a community building and share it with others using The Sims 3's sharing tools. Additional goodies include pagoda-style roofs, new traits and lifetime rewards, new books and food items, and a lot more.

The Sims 3: World Adventures further explores the series' continued focus on performing specific tasks for specific rewards, yet offers enough new tools, items, and social interactions to please those who prefer the free-form play for which The Sims is known. From martial arts and nectar (that is, wine) making, to firetraps and puzzle solving, there's a lot to do and a lot of playthings to muck about with. This expansion may not fix the few technical troubles that still ail The Sims 3, but it adds enough to keep your mind off the drawbacks and centered directly on the fresh and wonderful new content. In other words, Sims fans should expect plenty more sleepless nights ahead.

Sinds kort ligt de allereerste De Sims 3 uitbreiding, De Sims 3 Wereldavonturen in de winkel. Een aantal fansites hebben speciaal voor jullie een verslag op hun website geplaatst waarin ze meer vertellen over hun belevenissen met de uitbreiding. Bekijk ze hier:

Simparool
“De Sims 3: Wereldavonturen is een hele mooie uitbreiding, waar ook compleet nieuwe gameplay concepten in zitten die we tot nu toe nog niet gezien hebben in de hele Sims lijn.”

Sims Planet 2
“Volgens de makers is Sims 3 Wereldavonturen de grootste uitbreiding ooit. Na uren spelen kun je niet anders zeggen dan dat de makers gelijk hebben. Het is een enorme uitbreiding.”

Sims 3 Nieuws
“De Sims 3 Wereldavonturen is erg goed uitgewerkt en de nieuwe manier van spelen is een welkome en vooral prettige vernieuwing. Ik lieg niet als ik zeg dat dit mijn meest favoriete De Sims uitbreiding is in jaren.”

Sims 3 Hyves
“Ik heb werkelijk met verbazing zitten kijken naar De Sims 3 Wereldavonturen. De landen zijn zo perfect en grafisch geweldig mooi vormgegeven! En de nieuwe gameplay die de landen te bieden hebben zijn ook zeer vermakelijk!”

Simlicious
“Het spel krijgt van mij een dikke 9 omdat het spel er zo mooi uitziet en alles superfijn werkt.”

Mammasims
“Van wat ik er tot nog toe van gezien heb is het een super leuke uitbreiding.”

DMS2C
“Wereldavonturen is echt een leuke uitbreiding vooral als je van puzzelen houdt of weg bent van 1 van de drie landen.”

Ook SNW werkt aan een review van De Sims 3 Wereldavonturen, maar dankzij de vele technische problemen (bugs!) met het spel, is er een vertraging.