Sims 3 has been my ‘game of choice’ this week before deadlines hit me hard for work and I’ll barely have time to do anything else, and I’ve had a blast playing. It started out simple enough. I created one Sim and started working on her career. When she was established in that, I started getting her out and involved with the community and meeting other Sims. She eventually fell in love and (thanks to the fertility goal) had twins, two baby girls.
Things started to get complicated after that, and it was actually the first time in any of my sims adventures that I controlled a whole household instead of just one sim. Much like others out there, I enjoyed making the decisions so much in day-to-day activities that I decided it would just be easier to control one sim and let them do their thing, instead of actually raising a family.
Having four sims to control was actually turning out to be a LOT of fun. I do allow them to have a mind of their own and so from time to time they do their own thing, but the majority of the time I’d say it’s still me who’s controlling what they’re doing. Watching sims interact with one another has been especially fun – and I have to say the way children are handled in the game are amazing. The sim children develop traits from both the mother and father, as well as appearance qualities. If you don’t raise them ‘properly’ and give them the qualities they need in life (like walking, talking, and potty training) they can develop bad traits. One of the sim babies had a particularly horrific upbringing, so she developed the evil trait, and takes sinister baths and cackles randomly. The other sim child had an ok upbringing and she turned into a vegetarian. I forgot this, and called the family to a meal of hotdogs. Woops. That poor sim spent more time in the bathroom getting sick then my mother sim did when she was pregnant with the twins.
Even the pregnancy of a sim is involved. You have a choice of giving birth at a hospital or at home. You watch your sims body change, watch them get morning sickness. They get a few days off work and you watch their back cramp in pain. Nothing like the real thing of course, but it’s fun to see just how detailed everything is.
When the twins were just newborn sims things were really complicated. Especially since all they did (literally) was eat, sleep, cry, and poop. As they’ve ‘grown up’ and developed a personality and traits it’s slowed down some what, and it’s a comfortable pace for a game (for me in any case). I couldn’t see myself having any more then two at a time though, it just gets too complicated with the decisions and choices that have to be made. As the sim children grow the quality of their homework will determine any other negative or positive traits that they’ll inherit. I can take a look at my family tree, and I like watching it grow. Eventually my two adult sims will grow old (and eventually die) while their two girls will carry on the line.
Another aspect I love to sims is how open it is with the ‘family’ concept. It doesn’t matter if you’re gay, live with 5 women or any other combination of sims. You may not be able to get pregnant from your sim partner but you CAN always choose the ‘adopt’ choice from the list of services available. The game really is all about choice, and that’s fantastic.
You’ll have to excuse my messy house in the picture above, heh. Still teaching the sim kids how to clean up after themselves. Oh. Be careful with the ‘tinker’ ability, too. It’s been known to kill the president.