Probably the best promoters of the motto "if it ain't broken, why fix it?!", EA proudly presents the third installment of the most sold PC franchise of all times, if I'm not mistaken. Yes the little Sims are back once more with a new look, but hey, we haven't missed them that much because every now and then (read: a couple of months) they've made a comeback in a cool new expansion set. Slowly, the development team introduced thousands of things to do, buy and enjoy in the Sims universe, and if you are a fan you will be happy to know most of them are straight out of the box included in Sims 3.

The first impression is that even if the game changed in so many areas, it's still the same recognizable Sims that many got familiar with over the years. If I enter a room where you are playing this game, I can instantly say what it is, no matter where you find yourself at.

A new character creation module will pleasantly surprise you the first time you enter the game. From creating a character and picking from pre-define body features and clothes for every occasion, to tweaking it in detail and designing your own clothes for it - the editor has it all. And of course, all of this is done in 3D.

Once you've created your perfect Sim or family, you buy a lot and start building your dream home, well... if you haven't bought a lot with a house already. You are limited at this point by the amount of credit you have however, so it won't be anything too fancy.

As you quickly examine changes in your bottom toolbar / game interface, you will probably notice Sims' life just got easier - only six stats you have to take care of now. Environment and Comfort have been removed, though designing or not a good home for Sims will affect them in other ways.

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Furthermore, if you keep your Sims mood happy for long periods and fulfill every dream she has, instead of buying unique but strange stuff that prevents aging or does other whacky stuff - like in previous titles - you can pick from quite a few "Lifetime Rewards" available for each Sim individually instead.

Your Sim will get various thoughts, depending on surrounding environments, her born traits, and what she talks about with her friends. You can see them pass by on the bottom bar, and pick up to four at a time by clicking on them. Completing a personal Sim wish will also grant a bonus in Lifetime Rewards Points and is a thing you should try to do as often as possible.

Happiness is influenced by new pop-up things called "moodlets". Eating on time, being well fed, a clean house, some nice new wallpaper or a nice new painting - these are just a few example of positive moodlets that raise you happiness bar. Positive moodlets are combined with negative ones. Each is worth a specified value. The final result is used to influence your mood meter. Sounds more complicated than it really is.

Because I've been playing a little Sims in the past, I thought I try an experiment this time. It was always very hard to take care of a single Sim in the past, as opposed to a numerous family. That is mostly because of the modest income one can bring home, especially at start.

Well, with the new changes to the franchise, not only did I made it into the rich guys' community, but I made it with a part-time job and painting from time to time.

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A combination of changes make the difference here, including the more simple character management page, with less needs to take care of, powerful Lifetime Rewards, and of course, a whole "living, breathing" city to explore.

Yes, that is indeed the biggest addition: the city isn't just a mysterious place your Sims goes into or gets home from, with no control whatsoever. Pressing you map button will zoom the camera out, and you will be able to see what's around you, visit your neighbors, go to the market, spa, see a movie or a concert, visit a museum, buy books from shops and so on.

Even going to work is an interactive experience now, because various work related activities can be picked from a drop-down list: socializing with colleagues, working harder than usual to finally get that promotion you've been waiting for, being lazier than usual, researching stuff to help level your skills, and the list goes on.

Another smart new thing is bonus cash - you receive it even after you reach the peak of your job career, and of course all this happens a lot faster than in previous games.

While a lot of effort was put into expanding the Sims universe without losing too much of any of the game ideas, including tools to ease design of homes, customizable objects, textures and all of that other stuff... and while Sims customization and looks are better than never... I find that the worst aspect of Sims 3 despite all of these is the graphics.

Indeed, I don't know how much work has been done on the game engine, but out of too much worry not to alienate fans probably, the game... just looks the same as Sims 2. When I heard the game will migrate everything to 3D, I started to imagine cool stuff and how everything will turn out to be.

Instead, the same old, boring look was given to the game. A little revision here would go a long way, but I guess I'll have to wait for Sims 4. There's a moderation in everything, limiting creation too much in my opinion. If I want to make my character look really ugly, I should be allowed to; it's a thing hard to explain - you see it the first time you experience the game, but you get used to it as you play along I guess. Even with plenty to choose from and plenty of stuff to do, you feel somehow very limited.

And this is my opinion - that everything could be solved with a more appealing, fresh new graphics.

Another big problem is that the game slows down really bad on higher than normal speeds, especially in town view. This problem is so bad that it sort of forced the programmers to slow down even the fast forward mode.

As a direct consequence, getting passed time consuming things like sleeping or the time your Sim works takes forever. Even worse, fast forward is interrupted by any minor change in the environment, like thoughts or desires your Sim has, moodlets changes, newspaper boy passing by, etc. Gameplay switches to "very fast" mode then - too fast for you to react to anything really, but slower than max speed.

Keys 1-4 control game speeds, and ~ is pause. So I found myself spamming 4 while sleeping, not the most smart idea of an interactive gameplay.

While most bugs from Sims 2 have been fixed somehow, I still noticed my Sim losing its train of thoughts and just standing there, or deciding to do anything other than what I asked her to do. Like "have lunch", resulting in my Sim preparing the food, but not eating. Or cleaning up 5 old newspapers - takes forever, because she picks every one of them, drops it in the basket, closes the basket, and repeats the thing with the next one. It's a little sad when gathering newspapers to trash consumes as much time as going to the toilet, washing your hands, brushing your teeth and having a bubble bath all at once.

A pleasant surprise was to see various achievement-style objectives for each maxed skill a Sim knows. For example, painting 10 masterpieces gives you more money for your paintings; or learning all the songs available helps you more in the singer career.

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Conclusion

As you can see, there are a plenty of changes all around, and plenty of things that haven't changed. I tried to mention only a few that seemed more important, or that I especially noticed. No matter how you see it, Sims is a successful game and has a certain attractiveness in its gameplay - you being God and all, making decisions for your own creations. The fact nothing much has changed in this direction doesn't make the game bad over night, and with the thousands of expansions packs to come you can be sure this will top the charts once more, like its predecessor.

Gameplay: 91

This will probably be one of the most unusually marked games here, because I am gonna give it so much in the gameplay area, and less in the graphics department. I think the changes made to this latest installment are enough to offer an incentive for old players to start playing Sims again, and to new players to just get to know what it has to offer.

Graphics: 68

You gotta take more risks than this, with a new game. I understand EA completely not wanting to mess with gameplay too much, but at least they could of made significant changes to graphics. If a friend of mine saw it for the first time, he could claim I'm playing Sims 2 or one of its numerous expansions.

Multiplayer: N/A

Sims 3 interacts with the internet to bring the latest online content to your PC. Just like Spore, various objects, textures, models, and user created content can be downloaded if you wish to do so to enrich your Sims experience. There is no proper multiplayer other than that however.

Sound: 82

Again, even with a new soundtrack and an added character voice pitch setting, it just sounds like Sims. I wouldn't mind it so much if something other was different... umm... let's say graphics?!

Hardware: 84

The same problems after five years, even though the game doesn't look that fancy, it can have major slowdowns and freezes at certain moments, and fast forward just makes it a lot worse. Load times also became a small problem meanwhile...