By Quintin Smith on January 31st, 2011 at 9:22 pm.
I wasn’t going to post about this, but here I am posting about it. I wish I understood my mind. Sometimes it’s like I have a hedgehog inside my skull with whom I am not friends. So this weekend The Sims 3 and every single expansion to date appeared on Steam, and not only that, Steam are currently hosting a 50% off sale on the Ultimate edition (containing The Sims 3 plus the World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, High-End Loft Stuff and Fast Lane Stuff expansions). Yes! So instead of paying £115 you merely pay £57.50. Hm. I think I’ll be keeping my money, but I’ve deposited some thoughts on this plus the launch trailer for Late Night after the jump.
This is a more interesting development than you might think. The reason The Sims wasn’t on Steam prior to this was because of Electronic Arts’ faithful supporting of their own store. After all, The Sims 3 was always going to sell like Hell’s hotcakes. Why let Valve take a chunk of the profit?
The fact that EA have now gone ahead and allowed The Sims 3 to appear on Steam could probably be seen as a sign of not exactly surrender, but certainly acceptance of the importance of Valve’s delivery system. Can we take this to meann that EA will be releasing The Sims Medieval concurrently on both Steam and their own store? That’d certainly be a coup for Valve.
And now, some grainy footage of implied sexiness.
31/01/2011 at 21:25 starclaws says:
World record game series with most expansions?
31/01/2011 at 22:01 Man Raised by Puffins says:
The Sims 3 is just getting warmed up, its still got some way to go to beat Railworks‘ 71 expansions which clock in at 692 pounds and 34 pence.
31/01/2011 at 23:08 MattM says:
Tough to say if all the dlc for those two games should be counted. The Sims stuff packs and the Railworks stuff aren’t really full fleged expansions. They often only include some new models.
01/02/2011 at 01:28 Deano2099 says:
Yeah if we’re including all DLC then I think Rock Band might be winning.
01/02/2011 at 09:16 Optimaximal says:
Railworks DLC *should* be counted as part of the game, for the simple reason it’s analogous with buying new engines and other bits for a proper model railway – it’s just something you do.
31/01/2011 at 21:36 terry says:
I’ll buy it when its a reasonable price. 50% off a ridiculous price is still ridiculous :-)
31/01/2011 at 21:44 Duffin says:
Yep, £57 for a 2 year old game…. But you do get a stuff pack with new curtains and a fishbowl!!!
31/01/2011 at 21:45 Vinraith says:
Indeed. Hell, I’m still half-waiting for a complete pack for Sims 2 to arrive at a halfway sane price, though I suspect I’ll be waiting indefinitely.
31/01/2011 at 22:56 djbriandamage says:
My wife has loved the Sims for a long time, and I was skeptical after my disappointment with the first game. However, since Sims 2 I’ve loved this series. LOVED it.
I’m a hardcore gamer by all means. I raid in WoW, I revere Half Life, I love Civilization, I’ve got government-issued dual citizenship in Oblivion’s Tamriel.. and I will go on the record to say that Sims 3 is every bit as fantastic as all of these games.
If you’ve ever wondered about this series a 50%-off sale is the time to check it out. Playing a game where you set your own win conditions is endlessly liberating. Inventing alternative realities for your look-alike is uproariously entertaining.
Don’t hate this one for being the elephant in the room. Of all the games made famous by riding on their laurels, Sims is not one of them. This is a fantastic, detailed, charming game. $90 is a fair price for such a mountain of content.
31/01/2011 at 23:19 Bhazor says:
I will say that I think Sims 2 is better than Sims 3. Sims 3 just goes a bit… OCD at times such as having to pick individual ingredients when you go shopping or remembering to put books away one at a time. Those confusing buffs and status affects can fuck off as well.
The games main innovation was of being in single zone so sims can walk down the road to each others houses, shops etc without having to go through a loading screen. It’s a nice idea that never really worked just because the size of the town is so small that you’ll never have more than a dozen families so it could be an in-game week before you see your non randomised neighbors.
01/02/2011 at 00:09 malkav11 says:
The mountain of content is half the problem. A fully expansioned-up copy of Sims or Sims 2 is a bewildering, shapeless mass of systems and events and weirdness popping up at you without cessation or relent. It’s simply too much. Sims 3 probably hasn’t gotten there yet with only two proper expansions, admittedly, but it will no doubt happen.
And ultimately, I just don’t have the level of interest required to pay the steep and rarely lowered prices EA is asking, especially when the discount is only on the complete bundle, including two “expansions” full of decoration crap that I would only care about if I had an suppressed interior designer inside me waiting to get out. I recognize that the Sims is a franchise that’s got some genuinely interesting things to offer to gaming, and I enjoy LPs of the game because of some of the wackiness that goes on, but there’s ultimately too much day to day micromanagement for me to stick with it, nor do I sufficiently enjoy the “animated dollhouse” angle to spend much time getting their furnishings just perfect.
01/02/2011 at 01:19 GenBanks says:
Especially since a lot of the content in the ‘expansions’ just fills in stuff that should have been in the game to begin with.
01/02/2011 at 10:55 terry says:
Very much agreed on the systems overload of multiple expansion packs. I bought just about all of the expansions for TS1 and it was a very strange experience to play. Generally I’d end up going to nightclubs where all the patrons would spend their night standing in the toilets ooohing and aaahing over a performing dog.
01/02/2011 at 14:11 Kadayi says:
@GenBanks
“Especially since a lot of the content in the ‘expansions’ just fills in stuff that should have been in the game to begin with.”
I’d say the base game had more than enough content to it at launch, especially given the high levels of user customisation available. The expansions like Night Life & World adventures add in quite a lot of new game play elements, that tbh even if they had been available at initial launch (which I’m sceptical of, despite your claims) would of probably caused a lot of confusion to players attempting to get to grips with the base game. You need to learn to walk before you can run.
As for the bundle price, complete bargain Vs what you’d pay for all that at retail, and if it wasn’t for the fact that I already own them all on DVD I’d be all over it. The necessity to drop a products price is not based upon time as people seem to think, but in relation to staying competitive Vs the newer competition. Until some other developer starts making a rival people simulator franchise there’s little incentive for EA to drop their prices on Sims 3 products. With CoD Activision don’t lower their prices until a new game is out (and even then it’s a miserly amount), and likewise MS with Halo.
31/01/2011 at 21:43 My2CENTS says:
95EU are they retarded? Really who is this schmuck paying 95EU for Sims?
31/01/2011 at 21:56 Dances to Podcasts says:
Woops. Wrong reply. :P
31/01/2011 at 21:45 mwoody says:
It’s only 90USD but 95EU? Jesus, did your entire subcontinent insult EA’s collective mothers or something?
31/01/2011 at 21:57 Dances to Podcasts says:
I think the French may have compared her to a hamster.
31/01/2011 at 21:49 Frye2k11 says:
They forgot to mention on the box of the original Sims 3 that they ripped out so much stuff you HAVE to buy upgrades.
The game is full of menus with…one item. A peculiar choice at best in a game about being a consuming airhead. Especially considering the Sims 4 shelf in my local game store has more Sims titles than the virtual television shelf in the bloody game.
01/02/2011 at 00:13 Clovis says:
When I read this about Sims 3 I was disappointed, but I have to say that the ability to apply any of the hundreds and hundreds of swatches to any item is pretty nice.
OTOH, when your Sim has an “aspiration” to get in a hot tub, but that very standard object is not actually in the game it can be pretty annoying. Especially after searching for it for like 30 minutes.
I wish my local stores carried future versions of the game though …
31/01/2011 at 21:58 Crimsoneer says:
Hasn’t EA been adding games to Steam for awhile? They add them, just very, very late. When they’ve maxed out profit on the EA store, they rack up those who are totally faithful to Steam.
It would be a sensible strategy, if the EA store wasn’t such an utter embarrassment.
31/01/2011 at 22:02 Quintin Smith says:
Sure, but The Sims is the jewel in their PC-gaming crown. The Sims 2 never did show up on Steam.
31/01/2011 at 22:03 Jason Moyer says:
What’s wrong with the EA Store? I guess the website could be better, but I’ve never had a problem with the downloader or the process of installing/activating stuff. I’ve actually used the downloader to install games that I have disk copies of so that I wouldn’t have to deal with their medieval CD protection.
31/01/2011 at 22:41 Duffin says:
Problems I’ve had with the store:
- buying games and not receiving correct unlock codes.
- buying games and not having that game added to my account for several days.
- trying to call up to see whats going on and getting put through to someone in Canada and having to wait for half an hour for them to work out that I’d payed and not got my game (though the lady was nice I think they have poor structure and management).
31/01/2011 at 23:08 djbriandamage says:
My wife and I tried buying the Barnacle Bay vacation content but we just weren’t able to download it. EA was relatively cool about it. At first they just offered to refund our Sims Points, but when we told them there was nothing else on the store we were interested in they refunded our money.
The games are great but I’d advise avoiding the store.
01/02/2011 at 05:44 DrGonzo says:
I think the downloader was actually licensed from Valve if I remember correctly. I think lots of EA Downloader is actually Steam.
01/02/2011 at 16:49 savagerose says:
My issue with the EA store Sims 3 is that it doesn’t want to update when you transfer it to a new machine, no matter how much I’ve tried playing with the registry. And I don’t really feel like spending hours downloading and reinstalling the Sims whenever I want to play it. That’s probably my favoritest favorite thing about Steam; it doesn’t even bat an eyelash when you copy it wholesale to a new OS install, it just keeps on truckin’ and lets you get on playin’.
Of course, I also don’t feel like spending $90 to rebuy the Sims…
31/01/2011 at 22:05 ShawnClapper says:
I’ve always wondered why no one has really made a clone Sims game. It’s a money printing franchise and no one else wants to give it a try?
31/01/2011 at 22:15 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
There were quite a few of “Sims but with a twist” type games back in the day. The Partners, Playboy: The Mansion, 7 Sins. None of them were any good.
01/02/2011 at 00:55 mwoody says:
It’s weird how all the Sims clones were adult in nature.
01/02/2011 at 01:08 Bhazor says:
Don’t forget Desperate Housewives as well as Singles 1 and Singles 2: Triple Trouble.
Proves the old adage:
If you can’t beat them, copy it and add tits to it.
01/02/2011 at 03:12 JuJuCam says:
The Movies was a pretty decent Simalike, still worth playing even now. I think it owed it’s strength to the fact that it wasn’t just the Sims with a different coat of paint, there were genuine attempts to make the game mechanics thematically relevant. Shame the franchise died when Lionhead basically abandoned PC.
31/01/2011 at 22:07 luminosity says:
Quinns, there are no other articles tagged “Grainy footage of implied sexiness.” This state of affairs cannot be allowed to continue!
31/01/2011 at 22:49 Quintin Smith says:
Really? What the crap was Kieron doing when he was working here all those years? Slacking, I guess.
31/01/2011 at 23:03 Bhazor says:
The Sims 3 has been available on Impulse (N. America only) and Direct2Drive since June. Also EA sells everything else through Steam so I don’t really see how this is a big “get” for them.
http://www.impulsedriven.com/sims3
http://www.direct2drive.co.uk/479/7512/product/Buy-The-Sims-3-Download
It’s cheaper there too.
Edit: Sims Medieval is already available to preorder from Direct 2 Drive.
http://www.direct2drive.co.uk/10321/product/Buy-The-Sims-Medieval-Download
31/01/2011 at 23:13 Ricc says:
So anyways, I wonder what Rod Humble has been doing at his new joint…
01/02/2011 at 00:09 Oak says:
Why isn’t the original available digitally? I’d pay handsomely to not have to install it off 6 or 7 discs.
01/02/2011 at 00:22 Backov says:
I actually bought the original Sims 3 release a little after it came out and enjoyed it, although it was funny (in a bad way) just how obviously butchered the shipped content was for DLC purposes (indeed, lots of menus with 1 item.)
Fun game anyway. So I caved and bought it on Steam just now so that I can play it again, since that disk is long gone like every other game disc I’ve ever bought. I tell ya, if it’s not on a download service now I’ll never play it again.
Kind of pricey, but meh. It’s not like it’s going to get cheaper anytime soon – it’s the Sims.
01/02/2011 at 02:22 Bhazor says:
Yes some menus had one choice but there are three points I’d make in response
i) You are able to repaint everything in the game so one sofa could have hundreds of styles
ii) There wasn’t the same emphasis on stages of quality, it didn’t matter what fridge you put food in what matters is what food you put in the fridge, so there was no cheapest>cheap>decent>luxury, A fridge is a fridge and bath tub is a bath tub.
iii) The Sims exchange had plenty of home grown variations and mods to use including a number of freebies from Maxis themselves.
01/02/2011 at 00:35 Pani says:
I’d like to purchase the Sims3, but would like to see just the basic game at half off. Then if I like it, I’ll think about buying SPECIFIC expansions.
EA: Take note.
01/02/2011 at 13:03 Ginger Yellow says:
There wasn’t the same emphasis on stages of quality, it didn’t matter what fridge you put food in what matters is what food you put in the fridge, so there was no cheapest>cheap>decent>luxury, A fridge is a fridge and bath tub is a bath tub
That’s one of the thing’s I really didn’t like about the Sims 3, despite enjoying it more than any other Sims game yet (some, but not a huge amount, if you’re interested). The stages of quality gave a bit of (optional) structure to the game – the consumerist grind. You always wanted to get the better device to make your sim-life that little bit easier, to free up your time to do fun stuff. Making the differences mostly cosmetic took something out of the game for me.
01/02/2011 at 01:37 Deano2099 says:
It is an odd offer. It’s a good price but
I mean, either I like Sims 3, in which case this is a good price but I’ll probably already own at least the base game, destroying most of the discount.
Or I’m intrigued by the Sims 3, have been waiting for a sale, but there’s no way I’d want to spend £60 to try it.
01/02/2011 at 01:51 Bhazor says:
Well it’s currently number 3 on the Steam best sellers list so clearly someone is buying it.
01/02/2011 at 02:13 starclaws says:
Ya I was referring to boxed expansion copies ;p Not 0.99c models or songs.
01/02/2011 at 02:17 Brumisator says:
Aw poop, I got real exited until I realised I don’t have 100 euros to dish out on one game.
What can I say, I like the Sims, I’m a bit girly that way.
01/02/2011 at 03:12 Big Murray says:
£115.
And people complain about game piracy.
01/02/2011 at 14:20 Kadayi says:
Far as I’m aware games are considered a luxury item, not a universal right or a necessity.
Also that’s for the base game plus 3 sizeable expansion packs & additional content.
01/02/2011 at 03:14 Big Murray says:
Oh, and I’m assuming the reason that it’s suddenly appeared on Steam is a simple “we’ve wrung most of the sales we can out of this old cash cow by ourselves, let’s get it on Steam and flog it some more” strategy.
01/02/2011 at 09:22 TeraTelnet says:
Well, last week it was at number 12 in Chart Track’s list of the UK’s top-selling games (), so I would doubt that the, ahah, steam has run out on its sales yet.
01/02/2011 at 09:40 3lbFlax says:
Well, the bundle helped bring my attention to the game being on Steam, which was good, but I only bought the game itself – I’m in it for the Alice & Kev shenanigans rather than the dressing up and job hunting.
Anyway, all was well and good and Steamy until I launched the game itself and hit EA’s little launcher, which insisted on using IE to handle its web-related functions. Sadly I currently have the IE9 beta on there, which led to a steady stream of script errors and wonky links. I don’t blame EA for issues with someone else’s beta software (though I suspect their scripting might well be the issue), but I do blame them for ignoring the OS preferred browser setting and seemingly not giving me the option of specifying what should happen when I follow a link.
I felt better when I realised that I had little interest in what the launcher had to offer, and once I was in the game itself there were no problems. But by then I was in a bad enough mood to give my new Sims a few significant problems of their own.
01/02/2011 at 18:12 Moonracer says:
I recently saw a post at MoreAwesomeThanYou forum (awesome mod is critical for me enjoying the game) that the game version is different on Steam and this may be a temporary or long term issue with mods.