Game Review: The Sims 3

Release Date: June 5 (UK)

Review Score:

9.5/10

Having notched up in excess of 100 million sales worldwide, strategic simulator The Sims is by far the most successful gaming franchise of all time. A follow-up to 2004's impressive sequel was always on the agenda, but never going to be easy. 

Immediately, players will surely be stunned by the new game's knockout visuals. Paired with typically cute and quirky animation, cutting-edge detail and beautiful lighting effects bring your sims and their imaginative little world to life with unprecedented finesse.

The first of many structural changes looks set to completely revolutionise the way in which most simmers play their game. Neighbourhoods are now completely 'seamless' with no frustrating load screens to contend with whenever you choose to leave the house.

Sims can now freely explore the town, flitting from the gym to the bistro in a single click, making the option to roam outside those cosy four walls much more appealing to the player and greatly enhancing the overall experience.

Customisation is another area of The Sims 3 that's almost completely unrecognisable from its predecessors. With an entirely new set of powerful buttons, sliders and switches at your disposal, making sims has never been more satisfying.  There's no reason to see two Sims characters looking even vaguely the same ever again.

The increased capacity for customisation extends right through the game, with every single item of clothing, furniture and house-building just waiting to be transformed beyond recognition in seconds. Community lots, such as restuarants and galleries, are the exception to this rule however.

Non-residential properties are no longer created by the user, but merely fixed in position and unchangeable. Slightly resembling a step backwards in evolution, we no longer follow our sims inside such buildings - we watch them disappear at the door and await their return. 

In the grand scheme of things, however, the reduction of community destinations to mere facades goes a long way toward streamlining gameplay and simply letting your sims get more things done in a single day. The marginally slower passing of time in The Sims 3 might cause some players to stress however; particularly during work hours and at nighttime where there's not much to do but sit and stare at the screen.

Time has always been precious in The Sims' world, but never quite so important as it seems in this incarnation. The banishing of 'wants and fears' sees the introduction of new 'wishes'. These will have you chasing your sim's lifetime ambition one little step at a time.

Further to this, employers now offer up occasional 'opportunities' which play out like a kind of mission-based task and reward system. Whether you're a politician asked to throw a fundraising gig or an aspiring chef gunning for top prize in a cookery competition, there's enough variety there to add a lot more depth the formerly quite repetitive promotion chase.

While some casual sim-players will undoubtedly find the largely superficial changes to the game unworthy of shelling out upwards of £30, die-hard Sims fans will be lapping up the gorgeous graphics, unified neighbourhood and heightened control over sims' personalities, lifestyles and happiness. In a nutshell, it won't disappoint.