The Sims 3

Five years and 374 (give or take) expansion packs after the release of The Sims 2, the most successful series in PC gaming history is back for its third installment. This latest addition to the ever-swelling Sims franchise takes the series’ premise of nurturing or destroying virtual peoples’ lives to the next level by expanding its setting to encompass an entire town, Sunset Valley.

Before you can start nurturing your Sims you must first create them with a collection of sublime customisation and character creation tools. If you’re impatient, there’s a selection of ready-made Sims to choose from, though crafting your own characters is a highly entertaining process that shouldn’t be ignored. Whether you want to create a toddler or a geriatric, you can customise every physical and personality trait – from hair colour or girth. You can also select their key personality traits (brave, evil, scared of water, clumsy, etc), which influence how they act in isolation and around other Sims, resulting in a far richer and more unpredictable character-driven experience than in either of the previous two games.

Every Sim also harbours a life ambition, whether it’s to become a cook or a rock star. Whether they’ll ever achieve those dreams or end up stacking ready meals at the supermarket is entirely down to how you play and the personality traits you furbish them with. Sim creation is simple, allowing you to create anything from a Walton-style family to a kleptomaniac loner with hygiene deficiencies.

Once satisfied with your creations you must pick an abode and start nurturing your contingent of virtual people. Even if you’re a veteran of the series you’ll probably feel a little daunted by The Sims 3’s new found scope. Sunset Valley is a seamless, living, breathing world that can be traversed end-to-end without a single loading screen disrupting your tour. Offices, supermarkets and a giant park nestle in the town centre. Further afield are houses, research facilities, lakes and the isolated, plush abodes of the super rich – residencies that your Sims can aspire to and perhaps one day own themselves.

At first glance, Sunset Valley is an impressive sight. Zooming to ground level reveals excellent levels of detail. Adolescents compete in the pool to see how long they can hold their breath, overweight Sims humiliatingly fall onto their groin pouches while trying to shed excess pounds on gym treadmills, buskers strum guitars outside restaurants, vain musclemen pose in mirrors (with real reflections) and Sims cam watch animated programs or play EA games on TV.

Attention to detail is first rate, with Sims acting and reacting charismatically to every event. If one loses control of their bladder mid conversation they’ll stoop over in shame before sheepishly mopping up the spillage, while burgeoning love affairs escalate with ever more intimate body language. New arrivals can bolster your contingent of Sims or those of other Sim families in Sunset Valley, with pregnant women steadily blooming throughout the term of their pregnancies. You really can spend hours just watching the world unfold. However, at times it’s surprising how empty Sunset Valley can look, as footpaths and roads can be eerily deserted.

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