Review: The Sims 3 (PC)

I've sunk way too much time into The Sims 3. The sim couple I created has grown old and passed on, and now their children grandchildren's children are going to school. I certainly can't complain about the hours of entertainment the game has given me, but they shouldn't be equaled by those hours spent fighting game bugs.

First, for those who've missed out on the best selling computer game franchise of all time... The Sims is about running the lives of virtual people (sims). One household of up to 8 sims is under your control while you try to get them to satisfy their needs and achieve their ambitions (or quash them if that's your desire). It's all touched by a cartoony sense of humour with robot butlers, ghosts and vampires all being members of my household at one time or another.

Ground floor of my Sims 3 household

The franchise has evolved, so now the entire neighbourhood containing your household is simulated - your friends and coworkers will have families, age and die along with your sims. And if there's one thing the franchise is known for, it's laying on extra features with expansions and content packs such as overseas adventures (ho-hum), forming a band and taking it to superstardom (haven't quite got there yet) and tons of interactive items like a doll that can become a child's imaginary friend.

Rocking out in another empty dive

The Sims 3 is clearly aimed at the casual gamer. For a more experienced gamer, the needs and ambitions are fairly trivial to achieve. You can be content with a challenge-free fantasy fulfillment experience (everyone seems receptive to your romantic advances regardless of looks or personal hygiene) or set your own goals, like seeing how many simultaneous relationships you can juggle at the same time.

Things get steamy in the hot tub

Maybe you enjoyed previous games in the franchise, or maybe the above makes it sound like you'd enjoy this particular release. But beware - I've never played a game this buggy since Daggerfall. Below is a list of bugs that I've encountered that have effected my gameplay. (I've left out purely cosmetic ones like the baby bottle that can't be cleaned up and I've had to hide behind some bushes.) Some of the bugs I've managed to work around or live with as indicated.

• The tombstone of a dead sim has become invisible and spawns her ghost every few nights - not a big problem as the ghost tends to just play games on her laptop :/
• None of my sims are able to sleep in a particular bed; they teleport outdoors as soon as they approach it - sold bed and bought an identical replacement.
• Vampire guests run away from my house before they're even able to ring the doorbell - romanced a vampire entirely at a dance club before marrying her into the family.
• Sims won't leave the house while a family member is having a birthday even when it means missing a paid gig - get out of the house and to your gig really early to avoid such a birthday.
• The negative mood modifier for being hunted by a vampire never goes away - you just learn to live with the small penalty.
• Becoming well rested giving a negative mood modifier instead of a positive mood modifier - downloaded a mod to recalculate mood.
• Elevators stop working - need to enable cheats and teleport out of those high-rise death traps.
• Child sent to boarding school is never picked up; won't attend public school now either - not been able to fix yet.

No crashes to desktop or avatars falling into the void so at least it beats out Daggerfall there. (By the way, my favourite error from that game was during installation: "An unnamed file could not be found"!) From my research, major bugs introduced in the first expansion are still unfixed while the fifth expansion is being worked on. I have a mental image of a mustachioed villain cackling away in his lair built of gold coins and hundred dollar notes - it seems EA's disregard for quality just doesn't hamper their sales at all.

Final Score: 4 / 10 - It makes me sad that such a buggy mess can make so much money. There's still some fun to be had here, but it's outweighed by the numerous frustrations.

Notes on my personal rating scale: They are entirely based on my personal feelings about the game - I don't rate a game on its own merits but rather how much I've enjoyed and how much time it's sucking out of my life. Strategy games will do well and shooters poorly because those are my gaming preferences.

0-4 = Poor game that I won't be bothering to play any more
5-7 = Decent game - fun enough that I'll try play it some more if I have the time
8-10 = Good game that I'll be playing a lot more or have already finished and greatly enjoyed