My girlfriend won't put it down.
Now, folks out there with non-gaming loved ones, it's important to point out that my girlfriend isn't just some chick – she's Kristine Steimer, associate editor here at IGN and Girlfight Podcast panelist. She loves games, so her getting into one isn't newsworthy, but her edging me out of the experience is.
It started innocently enough. I jumped at the chance to preview a final version of The Sims 3 as everything I had read about the game's Karma Powers (these force good or bad events to happen depending on what you choose) had me intrigued. I brought it home, popped it in, and started fooling around with the character creation tool, and that's when Kristine struck.
Before I even had the red hair in place to make my own version of Atom Eve from the Invincible comic book, Kristine asked if we could play Sims 3 together. The experience was suddenly a co-op one. We kept making Eve like the woman I knew from the Robert Kirkman comics, but then Kristine insisted we have another Sim. I handed over the controller so that she could make one, went to walk the dog, and that was pretty much the last time I had direct control over that universe.
I was still – and am still – part of the experience, mind you. When Kristine decided she didn't like the blue carpet in the Sims' three-bedroom home, I was asked to consult on which hardwood flooring was the best. When Eve's brother was promoted in his lab technician job, I was asked what color his new work outfit should be.
Now, here's the crazy part – I actually enjoy this. I think it's cute that her past three nights have been spent in front of the TV ordering Eve to make out with men while Eve's brother makes money to support his sister's lifestyle. But on top of that, I'm into seeing how her story unfolds.
Part of that is because The Sims 3 is more geared toward me (a traditional gamer) than it has been in the past. When I played The Sims on PlayStation 2, I focused on making my Sim toil at a workbench making garden gnomes all day so that I could sell them and have more money than God. It worked, but once I had the super-sonic shower, I was a bit lost and stopped playing. The goal was over.
In The Sims 3, there's always another objective – or a wish, as the game calls them. When you start playing, you create your character and assign him or her a Lifetime Wish. These can be as normal as becoming a superstar athlete or as crazy as having the "perfect private aquarium." As you play, you're working toward that goal by completing mini-wishes that are somehow related to the overall goal. Atom Eve wanted a bunch of boyfriends, so she kept wishing to make out with people. Knocking off the challenges gets you points to use in the game and generally keeps your Sim happy.
If it sounds confusing, it isn't once you start playing. Well, maybe it is a bit overwhelming, I'm honestly not the best judge of this because when I booted up the game for the first time, Kristine kind of talked a lot and wanted me to just jump into playing. I clicked through the tutorials that pop up whenever you try something new, and as such, I didn't completely get what I was doing. Thankfully, the game shows the same help screens again and again until you tell it to stop.
This is the difference between Kristine and me – when it comes to The Sims, that is. When she plays, it's a social experience; she wants to talk about where Eve can go to meet new love interests (you can pick places all over the map and head out for a visit) and discuss which stove she should invest in (the catalog of available goods is huge). When I play the Sims household I've started in the office, it's a game between my Sims and me. I've created Daemon Hatfield and Bizarro Daemon Hatfield. I put on headphones and make choices for my them that are taking us to the Lifetime Wish; I don't need frills. Daemon pursues his music career, and Bizarro Daemon focuses on being an evildoer. Daemon's worked his way up and is already a roadie. Bizarro Daemon starts fistfights with women in town. We're doing good.
When I go home and watch Kristine play, she's not doing this stuff. I'm focusing on clawing my way up the Sims employment ladder and making Daemon a rock star. When Kristine plays, she's got a bunch of other people working whatever job they want and one person she focuses on making happy. My house is a barren place where the guys just zonk out or try to bed ladies, and her house is meticulously color-coordinated and styled. You should've seen her face when the kitchen she had just remodeled caught fire when one of her Sims ignored the stove.
Now, that's not to say that Kristine's Sims don't want to screw. While she and I are chasing different Life Wishes and searching for different roles in the community, we're both trying to get our Sims to bone as many different people as possible. Thankfully, this game makes that easier than ever before.
When creating a Sim, you choose traits that give your characters in-game pros and cons and influence what your Lifetime Wish can be. They also open up special selections on the action menu for that particular Sim. Independent of each other, Kristine and I both created characters that have the "Flirty" and "Great Kisser" traits. These allow our characters to make out with people earlier and break-up marriages – it allows them to be complete sluts. It's been a race to see who could make "woo-hoo," as the game calls it, and she won the other night when she exclaimed "Try for a baby?!" before settling on the more plain Jane "woo-hoo" option.
This is what's the most interesting for me about Sims 3: it's deep enough that two players can invest in a world and have completely different experiences even though the traits and goals of those Sim households are totally similar. Even though Kristine's making her house pretty and hemming and hawing over which bed to buy, she's pursuing overall goals that are like to mine. I know having objectives in The Sims seems awkward to hardcore fans, but they blend so easily into the game that you can ignore them or focus on them and still get just as much out of the title.
That's a pretty diverse experience, and I find it a bit fascinating. When I'm at home watching Kristine play, part of me is daydreaming about what I'm going to do with my Sims and what different types of people I'm going to create when I get back to work. For as many games as I play, taking up my thoughts when I'm at my IGN desk and on my couch at home is pretty impressive, and Kristine's in the same boat seeing as how she blurted out at lunch today, "I wish I was at home playing the Sims."
Not bad for a port of a PC game that's never been too awesome on consoles before. Now, if we just had two copies of the disc…
Lees het ook op IGN UK en bekijk daar ook de gameplay video's!
Overige screenshots:
