By John Walker on February 1st, 2012.
I’m not sure whether Channel 4′s The SuperMes is an extremely extensive advert for The Sims 3, or an arch criticism of the nature of reality television. Either way, it’s a man commentating over edited footage of the game, in an attempt to create a Big Brother-style narrative. You can see the first episode, spotted by Gamasutra, below.
Mods And Ends
By Adam Smith on November 5th, 2011.
Oh no! It’s for girls! And not even the good type of girls. The bad ones. The ones who like Hollyoaks and reality TV, and feast on swirling and scurrilous rumours about Brangelina.
Except that’s a load of old rubbish, like claiming that games with guns only appeal to violent sociopaths or wargames only appeal to retired colonels. I have it on good authority that many current ranking members of the Armed Forces also like to play wargames. The Sims has long been a fascinating piece of software, in many ways experimental and exploratory, and supporting a type of creative play that is rare to find. Let’s mod it. Let’s really open it up.
By Adam Smith on October 19th, 2011.
The Sims 3 Pets is now out and a little birdie informs me that horses are exclusive to the PC version, so that’s good. That same little birdie is in every version though, being the sort of creature that doesn’t care too much about the company he keeps. I actually had quite a bit of fun with the Create a Pet doohickey, treating it as a cruel and unethical genetics laboratory, but the advertising campaign for the expansion takes that one step further with a hybrid of man and dog, called Trevor Mountleg no less, encouraging ownership of pets. And sex in haystacks. Peculiar.
By Jim Rossignol on September 23rd, 2011.
Since I know just how much you lot love playing with cute fluffy animals, I thought I’d better point out this pet creator demo. From The Sims 3 website: “Create a wide variety of unique dogs, cats, and—for the first time ever—horses!” HORSES!? Best of all the animals?
You can download Create A Pet here. This concludes our The Sims 3 Pets coverage for today.
By Quintin Smith on April 7th, 2011.
Information about this expansion leaked, like a rude analogy, onto a German Sims 3 site a couple of weeks ago, and now The Sims 3 Generations has been officially confirmed by Electronic Arts. Sims will be able play in treehouses as kids, play pranks as teens, and have a mid-life crisis as an adult, but in general the expansion seems focused on fleshing out the different eras of a Sim’s existence. A shiny new trailer has been birthed, and awaits you after the jump.
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By Quintin Smith on January 31st, 2011.
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.
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By Quintin Smith on September 9th, 2010.
That’s got to be one of the more opaque headlines I’ve written in my life. Look at it! It’s just a collection of words, strung together like clothes on a washing line. Man, this job*.
So the Stuff packs are little chunks of DLC for The Sims 3 that retail at some £7.50 each. The first, High-End Loft, added a catalogue of sleek, expensive designer belongings to the game. The second, Fast Lane, comes out tomorrow (or, two days ago if you live in North America) and adds both cars and belongings for “four different fast-lane lifestyles: racing, intrigue, rockabilly, and classic luxury”. At last! A game that lets me accurately recreate my intriguing rockabilly lifestyle. Launch video after the jump.
*Is awesome!
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By Quintin Smith on July 21st, 2010.
It seems every Sims game means a sexy expansion pack. The original game had Hot Date, the second had Nightlife, and this Autumn The Sims 3 will have Late Night, adding nightspots, celebrity-filled parties and a new hot tub to everybody’s favourite domination simulator, as well as the chance for your sims to go on tour with their bands. Meticulously choreographed teaser trailer can be found after the jump.
I’ve just noticed the guy in that video has a Sims cursor tattooed on his back. That’s a bit meta, isn’t it? A bit disturbing. It implies the sims are aware of the cursor over their heads, and yet are still slaves to it, perhaps even worshipping it. Eee.
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By John Walker on June 15th, 2010.
During EA’s E3 press conference last night there was one moment that was by far the most extraordinary of the evening. Rod Humble, the man in charge of the Sims, came out and began to lecture on free will. The corporate reason for this was the announcement that The Sims 3 is to come out on consoles this Autumn – not something we need to concern ourselves with, unless the changes and improvements of the console version are not also updated into the PC version. But that’s a concern for another time. Because as far as we’re concerned, this was a glorious moment of sunshine amongst the usual pomp and explosions of a gaming press junket. You can watch it below.
By Jim Rossignol on January 11th, 2010.
The Sims 3 Create-A-World Tool, which is a tool for creating worlds in The Sims 3, is now available in beta. EA says: “Design Entire Worlds – Players can choose terrain patterns, vegetation and neighborhood accents like water towers and lighthouses, then place lots and roads to create something totally unique.” It actually looks fairly impressive, and appears to be a free download update for the game. There’s also a large PDF walkthrough which shows off some of the features and teaches you how to use the tool. The tool appears at the same as the Hi-Tech pack, which can be used to furnish the houses in your landscapes with contemporary furniture and consumer gadgets.
By Alec Meer on November 27th, 2009.
‘Tis a quiet day indeed in RPS’s musty central brain-chamber. More Friday words by one of the hivemind nodes can at least be found over on Eurogamer, where they tasked me with reviewing the first Sims 3 expansion, World Adventures. It’s far more conceptually interesting than you might expect from this much-milked series – but is that entirely appropriate for the Sims? Find out here. Includes words such as these:
My Sim had traipsed through a Chinese tomb, suffering a near-death experience with a firetrap halfway through. Upon finally emerging into fresh air, I duly ordered him to head over to the buyer of rare goods in order to spend all the ancient coins he’d collected. What I forgot was that a) it was about 3am in-game at that point, b) I hadn’t ever met the buyer of rare goods yet, and c) the firetrap mess meant my fat, bad-tempered Sim was now virtually naked and caked in ash. The second this frightening apparition turned up at a stranger’s house in the dead of night, they fled – a screaming, arm-waving Chinese merchant running away from his own house in absolute terror.
