(no subject)

[sapote]

I gots the Sims 3!

To hell with my tendons anyway.

It is gorgeous and I really like it, though the rounder more realistic sim faces plunge me right into ye olde Uncanny Valley and keep me there. I played for three hours this morning (I do work the evening shift) and honestly it was as much fun as Sims 1, which is to say, kind of a lot in a whole brand-new-world-to-explore way. My favorite thing so far is the slower mood decay - that's the thing that's going to completely liberate me from Sims 2, I think. I've been playing Sims 2 a lot lately, but Sims 2 sims are a lot needier and more demanding and they melt down in like thirty seconds if you try to take them anywhere. My lovely Sims 3 Sim can actually get to the grocery store and home without peeing her pants or crying. Also without loading screens. I am told that the Sims (3) also have a lot more voluntude and will take themselves to the bathroom and/or shower as appropriate, but I'm so used to having to jump right on a low mood bar or face grisly sim death that I haven't tested that much.

I love the moodlets and traits (my first sim has the loner trait, so she essentially has slower mood decay any time she's in her house by herself, which is kind of awesome) and the replacement of Wants with Wishes - you get to choose whether you really want your sim to want to garden or gain +4 cooking or whatever, instead of constantly having to respond to Sims 2-level demands or face, again, meltdowns. It's already a tangibly mellower gameplay experience, and makes me kind of wonder why I spent all those years fighting the actual gameplay of the Sims 2 to get to what most players, I think, wanted from it, which was control over the storytelling.

And while I honestly think the Sims 3 Download Store is a ripoff and hope player content kicks its ass, I will say that the women's clothing that comes with the game is a huge relief. No meshed-in visible nipples, only one or two super-visible midriffs (maybe the game is just reflecting styles, but still), no mandatory meshed-in jewelry, and you get to choose your fecking shoes, which is a lifesaver. God, I know 90s women's fashion tended towards the skin-baring, but the Sims 2 outfits for women were just so bad.

I am a little resentful of having to start back over at the start of the expansion packs, but since Sims 3 basic gameplay is less of a hard slog against falling mood bars and uncontrollable aspirations (and they kept the gardening and a couple of other skills that I liked a lot from the last expansion packs - gardening is key) I am much less bothered than I thought I would be.

Heads up, though - I have mostly kept my sim in her house so far, so I don't think I've encountered 95% of the terrible unresolved bugs some people are reporting. As often happens with these games, a user has stepped in to make it playable with a mod. But if you're going to buy the game and you're not a giant freaking addict like I am, you might want to wait until it's got some patches under its belt.

Also if you haven't started playing Sims games do not now because crack, crack, and what's worse, crack that allows for an easy pre-contained outlet for the storytelling impulse that keeps you from doing more pro-social things like writing Kirk/Spock genderswap fempreg. For me.

But if you're already in, just so you know, fun is to be had.

This from the girl who has self-policed out nearly every mention of the only thing between me and couchdeath Wii fit because I didn't want anyone to feel peer pressure to get one of those expensive balancy cutepanels of fun things. And yet apparently I feel it's appropriate to laud EA Games. Sigh.