The Sims 3 Pets (Utrecht) Event Preview

Friday, September 16, 2011 - 23:00

Click Read more below to continue reading our Sims 3 Producer Tour preview!

The producers from The Sims 3 Pets team were touring Europe, visiting several countries to promote the new The Sims 3 Pets games. Luckily, they also stopped by in The Netherlands. And we were invited to this event!

So I went on my way, by train. And Junior was with me. I met up with Rens from Simlicious in Eindhoven. There we waited for the train to Den Bosch. Unfortunately the train wasn't functioning properly so we rushed to another train going in the same direction. We managed to get that one, but with quite a delay. In Den Bosch we met Cheetah from The Sims Zone and Wouter from Sunset Valley Times. All of us traveled to Utrecht by train and we barely made it on time. But we did and that's what counts lol.

Producers George Pigula and Nicola Jenkins stopped by to demo the new games. I won't be telling you anything about the demo itself, because I have already seen the exact same demo a few times before the event on Gamescom and in a live chat online. I don't want to write the same thing twice. So I urge you to read our Gamescom Pets PC preview and Pets Consoles preview first, if you haven't done so already!

One thing mentioned during the demo that I did not see in the previous demo were collections. If you played The Sims 2 before, you will probably know what I'm talking about. These are folders in the game you can create or edit to add furniture and such! Really convenient. So I'm happy this feature is back, and I bet I'm not the only one.

Something funny did happen during the demo, but we were not allowed to take pics during the demo so I can't show you what it is. Shania, one of the main characters on the PC version of The Sims 3 Pets actually died. I'm not even sure Nicola Jenkins noticed it until it was too late. But it happened because Nicola showed us one of the jumping obstacles on the home lot. Shania was riding her horse and jumping over these obstacles. One of the obstacles was an obstacle with flames. It's possible that when you jump over it, your Sim will catch on fire! And Shania did. You could see her avatar getting more red by the second until eventually she seemed to have disappeared and everyone else on the lot was mourning. It certainly was a lot funnier to see during the demo than reading it here.

Something I didn't see during the Gamescom demo, maybe I just missed it, was the unicorn causing a rainbow to appear while drinking water! This will also happen when the unicorn is grazing. It's a funny and magical thing to see. It apparently means the unicorn is well cared for.

People who have The Sims 3 Generations, will already know about this feature, but there is a scrapbooking feature in The Sims 3 Pets on PC. For me this is still a new feature, and I'm sure there are more people who haven't had the chance yet to buy Generations. So I thought I'd mention this too!

After the demo we got a chance to ask some questions. There was some useful information there so I will try and process some of that information here as well. In case some people weren't sure yet: Pets can have babies too! Yay! If I got this right, pets usually have one puppy/kitten/foal. They can have twins, and in rare cases there will be triplets as well. But those are just as rare as with Sims itself. It barely happens. The pregnancy is the same length as with Sims. Pets have three age stages in life; kitten/puppy/foal, adult and elder. Although during Gamescom we heard clearly that there will not be any new kind of death in Pets, this time neither Nicola nor George were able to tell if there were any, since it's common in each new pack.

When everyone asked their questions we were allowed to go and play the games on PC and consoles. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough, because by the time I was there all the PC's were occupied. So we were forced to use the consoles instead. Now I don't mind, but a lot of people have commented that they don't want to read about the consoles, because they simply don't care for the consoles games. As sad as this makes me, I can't force people to like it. However I had no choice but to play consoles. Instead I chose to let Cheetah to all the playing so I could take notes. We managed to write down all the karma powers rewards. I hope you can appreciate this, took some time to write it all down.

Tier 1

A Little Sunshine
Instant Beauty
Bless the Mess
Cosmic Curse

Tier 2

Good Times
Lucky Break
Small Wish Bonus (Karmic Adjustment)
Feral Possession

Tier 3

Divine Intervention
Stroke of Genius
Bless the Mess (Power Upgrade)
Max Karma (Karmic Adjustment)

Tier 4

Super Satisfy
Lucky Find
A Little Sunshine (Power Upgrade)
Epic Fail

Tier 5

Transmogrify
Giant Jackpot
Max Karma +15
Meteor Strike

Tier 6

Get Lucky
Ghostify
Backlash Respin
Fire Storm

Tier 7

Storm of Genius (Power Upgrade)
Good Times (Power Upgrade)
Negative Balancing (Karmic Adjustment)
More Effective (Karmic Adjustment)

Tier 8

Divine Intervention (Power Upgrade)
Giant Jackpot (Power Upgrade)
Max Karma +25 (Karmic Adjustment)
Cry Havoc

Tier 9

Ghostify (Power Upgrade)
Super Satisfy (Power Upgrade)
Tangible Aura (Karmic Adjustment)
The Sickness

Tier 10

Lucky Find (Power Upgrade)
Longer Lasting (Karmic Adjustment)
Large Wish Bonus (Karmic Adjustment)
Solar Flare

Tier 11

Get Lucky (Power Upgrade)
Positive Reinforcement (Karmic Adjustment)
No Backlash (Karmic Adjustment)
Ghost Invasion

The loading screen in The Sims 3 Pets on consoles is also different from the Sims 3 game on consoles. In this version you can see an overview of the Sim you are playing with!

Pets on consoles and on PC are controllable, meaning you can literally control the pets without having to use cheats to achieve this. This just opens up a whole new world while playing. You can have the pet give the Sim commands haha. So the pet can ask the Sim to play with for example. And the Sim can do the same thing. But there are differences between the interactions you can use from Sim to pet and from pet to Sim. The Sim can give the pet a treat, but the pet can only beg for one. And the pet can be mean to the Sim, but not the other way around.

Ew fact!
Pets can choose to pee somewhere. And the blue puddle will also be something the pet can drink. Yep, ew. Big ew! Pets can't poo on the lawn or something similar like peeing. Maybe that's a good thing lol.

Pets in the consoles version can get jobs, this will help the household financially.

Pre-order fact
For both PC and consoles you can get a special edition by pre-ordering the game. The extras in the games have been mentioned before in my other previews, but I will mention them again. The PC version will have a special pet shop with objects, decoration and toys for pets. This pet shop will ONLY be available for people who pre-order the game. However during the event in Utrecht Nicola mentioned she wasn't sure if the lot is a rabbit hole or a lot we can actually see on the inside. Either way. It's a nice addition to the game that I really want to have! The consoles version has several special breeds in the pre-order edition. Some of these breeds contain breeds inspired by other EA Games!

After we had something to eat, we managed to get our hands on one computer. Imagine that, basically 4 fansites hogging one computer because all the others had been claimed by others. Not exactly convenient, but we managed to work together. I think I drove Mogway from DMS2C crazy by asking if she could stop moving the camera to take another picture, and another, and another. After some time I was offered the computer in use by SWW, from Platinum Simmers! Very nice of her. Some of the pictures in the preview we took together.

I had a look at some of the items for Pets in The Sims 3 Pets (PC) in buy mode. I noticed the items for each group have been divided. So cats have their own category, as do dogs and horses. Some of the items include litter boxes, pet beds, feeding bowls, toys, scratch poles, pet houses. But there's more. And I'm not sure what kind of pet extras the Limited Edition pet store will bring us. Exciting!

Like in many expansion packs, there is a new way to woohoo for Sims! In this expansion, Sims can sneak into a haystack and woohoo! That's where the magic happens!

In between playing, we managed to get something to eat: Hot dogs and pizzas! Bad quality pics unfortunately but it gives an idea of what we ate during the event hahaha.

We asked George Pigula and Nicola Jenkins if they wanted to have their picture taken with Junior. Nicola even gave Junior a kiss! Junior was flattered! :junior:

While we were playing the games, Junior had some fun with all the other animals present at the event!

Afterwards we were allowed to take home the screenshots taken during gameplay, on a Plumbob USB stick. I'd like to thank EA for this, because like many other attendants, I didn't bring my own USB stick. We also got a goodie bag on our way out, which was quite unique I have to say. A horseshoe, hot dogs, a Pets key chain and a bag of cat candies! Have a look yourself:

Usually a group of fansites go for a drink and something to eat after an event. Well the eating part happened at the event itself. But we did manage to go to Starbucks, with a laaaarge group. There weren't enough seats for all of us! XD