The Sims 3: Stuck with Low Moods; Miserable after Latest Patch Workaround

Oh wow I’m back.. Today we’ll discuss a bug where after installing 1.18/2.13/3.9/4.6/5.4/6.1 patch, your Sims have increasingly low moods into the red and are often miserable. If you’ve noticed the opposite occurring, continue reading..

The description of this bug does not apply to everyone since there are cases where players have gotten this bug through other ways. This bug workaround will work specifically for those who noticed their Sims mood dips after sleeping on particular beds.

 

Low Mood Bug Description

Players have discovered after installing the latest patch, their Sims mood has dropped into the red and will no longer rise into happy or elated status no matter what they do. This bug occurs regardless of whether your needs are filled, and if you have multiple positive moodlets. When Sims are affected by this bug they will be too miserable or depressed to garden, change their appearance, woohoo, and try for a baby.

This bug can occur with or without Custom Content and Mods either through official site or third party.

This bug may not always cause low moods, in fact, some particular beds cause your sim to be stuck with elated and high moods that gradually rise over a period of time.

Workarounds

After several days of testing and reading various responses we have come up with a workaround until EA patches the bug. This workaround works only for those who are affected by low moods after sleeping in a bed.

Due to a faulty calculation with the “Well Rested” moodlet, some beds will either permanently increase or decrease your mood until you reset your save.

• Workaround 1
  • Reloading a save file will temporarily fix the mood your Sim is having. You must save your game, load into the main menu and then load your game. This will place your sims mood back into it’s appropriate value.
• Workaround 2
  • Due to a faulty calculation, one sim must use the Luxorlove Sleepset or beds with +25 Well Rested Moodlet.
• Workaround 3
  • If you can’t afford the bed, one must awake a Sim before the Well Rested Moodlet appears. You can avoid this by waking your Sim up before the energy bar is completely green.
• Workaround 4
  • Install the Mood Hotfix Mod which will check and recalculate the correct mood throughout the day.

 

Researching the Moodlet Bug

Since this workaround works specifically for those affected through beds, we have compiled several cases and posts that match up with the symptoms players are having. If you are affected by this bug but not through beds, you should post your observations on how it occurs on The Sims 3 forums. Then we can add your problem and solutions to this post.

This bug was first mentioned on a gamefaqs thread where the well rested moodlet was incorrectly stacking negative or positive moods. The incorrect mood isn’t  caused by the bed itself, but by the “well rested moodlet” which can only occur if your Sim sleeps on a bed and the game decides that they had a good night’s sleep. Particularly it is noticed on the cheaper BRASS type beds which give a +10 value to the Well Rested Moodlet.

 

You can click some pictures for larger size

Since the Well Rested Moodlet gives +10, it will drop the mood meter regardless of positive  moodlets.

As you can see, even though most of the needs are full and this sim has 2 positive moodlets, he is still miserable. This can only be remedied temporarily by sleeping on certain beds or awakening a sim before well rested mood shows up. But one must load the save file first so the mood is accurately calculated.

This value doesn’t happen on all beds however..

• Well Rested Moodlet Bug
  • Cheap and Mediocre beds with +10 ~ +20 create negative moods
  • Upper Mediocre beds with +25 have correct moods.
  • Expensive beds with +30 and up create positive moods.
  • If  two Sims sleep on an unaffected bed, one Sim’s mood will still drop.

There has been a reported case where two sims who slept on expensive beds at the same time had one of their moods permanently drop while the other sim’s mood permanently increase.

Please note simply, “buying a better bed,” does not avoid this issue. The most expensive bed can cause a permanent green mood making the game too easy. You will need to buy a bed with +25 Well Rested Moodlet and have only ONE Sim sleep on it.

Using the LuxorLove Sleepset keeps the correct mood value in tact.

 

 

The Following quotes match the description and issues described in this post..

Using cheats to drop negatives hiked the mood up a little, but many times the moodlet would reappear and had to be removed again. Taking off the “well-rested” moodlet caused an immediate sharp drop, same thing happens if you let that moodlet expire on it’s own.  [dhouse2]

You can experience this for yourself through cheating. Just by sleeping and cancelling the well rested moodlet on a bed that’s affected with this issue causes a permanent sharp drop to your sims mood.

I would wake my sim up before getting a completed night of sleep(sometimes just before it would complete). This kept me from getting the slept like the dead moodlet(sim is a vampire so not well rested). [Becket1]

Same process, avoiding well rested moodlets avoided the bug.

I quit out of my game (keeping the expensive Medieval bed) and restarted with the same Sim who was having the misery problem. Since then I have played over 5 Sim days and I am not getting the mood problems (yet). Everything is staying in the high green, even with no energy, low fun & social bars, dirty surroundings, etc. I even had a house fire at one point and still stayed well within the happy range. [dhouse2]

Coincides with expensive beds giving permanent positive moods.

The way the “well rested” buff is applied with the current patch seems to be the problem: a default value of +25 (from the buff definition) is subtracted from the mood and the actual value given by the bed is added. This logic would be correct if the default buff was in effect at the time, but I guess it isn’t. For a cheap +10 bed, this results in an accumulating loss of 15 mood each sim day. It also works the other way around: any bed or similar giving a stronger buff over +25 will produce an accumulating daily gain. [gatomontes]

A great description of this very bug.

 

Permanent Positive Moods Before the Patch

This bug has existed in previous patches but in reverse. Sleeping and getting the Well Rested Moodlet caused a Sim to gain a permanent increase in moods making the game too easy.

 

The Sims 3 Patch version 1.3: Crashes, Pathfinding, Rage, and More!

Lets Play The Sims 3 in 3 hour bursts!

Its been around a week since the Sims 3 patch 1.3.24 came out.

We’ve seen comments and threads of users detailing the mischief the patch caused.

Besides the  much needed story progression fixes the patch introduces, the game can still crash and will occasionally deliver a blue screen of death (BSOD).

 

Before you install Sims Patch 1.3 and 1.4

Remove ALL your mods! Yes, I do stress ALL of them. The patch is very picky. It does not like modifications to any file whatsoever. It will pass over official custom content but will freak out with any type of hacks you implemented. The folders where mods are usually installed are:

 

C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts
\The Sims 3\GameData\ Shared\NonPackaged\Ini

Usually contains camera modifications, you must restore the original unmodified file!

 

C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\resource.cfg

The resource.cfg file tells the game where to check for mods.

 

C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods

The mods folder is where all mods are installed. You can move them to Desktop.

 

C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin

This is where the original nude patch installed. It doesn’t work with The Sims 1.3 patch. You need to restore the original files the nude patch edited.  Download the orginal Shaders_Win32.precomp  file in this directory. Please install No Mosaic  instead once the patch is finished.

 

How to Avoid Crashes

After you install the patch you can safely add certain mods back into the game. However, due to player feedback, certain mods will crash the game. Please be sure to check each mod’s website to see if the author has updated for the latest Sims 3 1.3.24 patch. Some  general tips you can follow are to:

• Remove the AwesomeMod if installed before July 30th, 2009.
• Reinstall the AwesomeMod post July 30th, 2009.
• Remove the IndieStone version 0.5a, wait until the author updates it.
• Remove the  bodyslider casslider hack mod wait until the author updates it.
• Reducing the high detail lot sizes to 4 may help to reduce crashes.
• Disabling antivirus software may reduce crashes.
• Deleting “cache” package files in the
  My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/
  especially scriptCache and simCompositorCache.

 

Even if you follow everything listed above, the game will still crash. I don’t know, but I think EA just couldn’t find a way to make this game stable on all computers. There have been reports of crashes and video card failure on machines that highly exceed the minimum requirements.

User Experience with the Patch

Certain users experienced path finding issues where a Sim will not autonomously use any items in another room.  This caused issues where a Sim won’t go to work because they somehow cannot find the car outside. 

For the path finding bugs, the current suggestion is to delete the files:

 

My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\scriptCache.package

This file is located in the My Documents folder, not the Program Files folder! Deleting Cache files will force the game to reload it’s data.

 

C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Game\Bin\d3dx9_31.dll

Removing this file will also stop certain mods from working, be sure to check which mods install this file.

 

I’ve also seen complaints regarding sound issues whether it’s stuttering or not playing at all. Make sure you update your sound drivers before posting a dxdiag log at the official forums.

 

My Experience with the patch 1.3

My game for the most part ran as well as it did before the patch. It was able to start and load everything in the previous game. However, the longer I ran the game, the more likely it was to crash.

I can last 2-3 hours without a crash. The more serious “blue screen of death” occurs only when I’m editing a Sim in Create a Sim mode.  There was also an issue where the arrows to expand or shrink rooms appear in Live Mode and are practically unusable until you switch to Build Mode.

 

The Sims 3 Patch Downloads

Did the patch kill your game? Looking for an older patch to upgrade to?

• 1.2.7.0001 from 1.0.631.0001
• 1.2.7.0002 from 1.0.631.0002
• 1.3.24.0001 from 1.2.7.0001
• 1.3.24.0002 from 1.2.7.0002

Second Sims 3 Leak now claims to be Final Version

A Developing Story… updated 6/3/09

Just when you thought it was safe to go back outside, another Sims 3 leak is released. This time another group claims their leak is now the final retail version that is expected to ship on June 2nd. News of this leak was sent on May 25th, after several days of performance and testing issues discovered by members of various forums and blogs we can now project that there are no noticeable changes between the two leaks.

We still can not say whether or not this leak is the final version until June 2nd. There will be a new post after I purchase of the game where we will compare reports made over the past two weeks on issues that have been fixed or not. Unless there is any other major news story released, the next Sims 3 blog post will be the last discussion over the authenticity of the two leaks.

Story Progression Fixed in Retail ?

On June 3rd: There are complaints at the official board about story progression. It appears it does not deactivate if you uncheck the feature. I guess for those who thought the second leak was the final version, you can officially say “I told you so!”

The First Leak’s Demise

Will EA step up their game plan with this new leak?

As reported by SimPrograms, a SnootySims member found a link to the first patch to be released officially by EA. According to the story, the first leak’s version number is  1.0.615.00107. The patch to be delivered by EA will upgrade the retail version, 1.0.631.00002 to 1.0.632.00002. This was to put an end of all forum debates on whether or not the first leak was final.

Still as addressed in the previous article, there are doubts over whether EA is telling the truth. The version numbers aren’t so incredibly far from each other either making it sound as if there were only minor bug fixes between each build.

The Second Leak Steps Up

Sunset in Sunset Valley: Screenshots via [SimGalaxy]

According to the info file contained within the second leak, this version is slated to be 1.0.631.00002. This leak also appears to be a DVD copy of the game and does not include SecuRom.

The second group is boasting how their leak is the “real deal”. They’ve made sure to post evidence of this by comparing the version numbers and dates of files in both leaks. They have included a link to EA’s patch update file to explain how the first leak cannot be patched since EA will only update version 1.0.631.x to 1.0.632.x.  So it seems there’s a little competition going on here.

 

Differences between 1.0.615.x and 1.0.631.x ?

This week, several players from various forums and blogs described their experience between the two games. Players reported no gameplay differences between both versions. They found no additional items, hairstyles, or objects. Some gamers experienced minor bug fixes between each leak, but there were conflicting reports and we can not confirm them at this time.

The inability to deactivate Story Progression was a major bug in the first leak. Players reported this bug was still not fixed in the second leak. 

The only major difference players noted between each leak were the version numbers and dates of files. The second leak had files 7 days in advance from the previous leak. 

 

EA encourages pirates to purchase the full game

Pirated “615″ Posted by a forum member on Gamespot,
the thread was later deleted.

Thursday May 27th: EA sent a message through the game launcher:

You are playing a non-final, unauthorized copy of The Sims 3.

Purchasing and registering an official copy of The Sims 3 will entitle you to benefits including access to an entirely new game town called Riverview, 1000 SimPoints which can redeemed for game objects in The Sims 3 store, and access to The Sims 3 Exchange.

It was very interesting to see EA’s response to the piracy matter. There is something very significant with this message. Note that the version number says 1.0.615.x. Put your thinking caps on!

Real Retail Version “631″ Posted by SnootySims Forum Member

The version number for the retail version with no patches installed is version 1.0.631.x. The last four digits refer to the region it came from and if it is a digital download. There is something interesting here though. Compare the three screenshots.

Pirated “631″ posted on SnootySims Forum

Unlike the first screenshot of version 1.0.615.00107. The second leak does not show the “non-final, unauthorized” message.

 

The Sims 3 Store Money Pinch!

EA officially released The Sims 3 store prices and it has left several consumers upset, concerned, or refusing to buy anything due to the cost of items. An estimate to purchase all store items cost over $250, thats way over the retail price of $49.95.

EA Claims Sims 3 Leak is not the Final Build

In an interview with the Associated Press, EA claims The Sims 3 leak is only a “buggy, pre-final” version. This is pretty good news on behalf of the whole  Sims gaming community as the leaked copy featured some glaring bugs that should have been caught during testing.

 

The Second Leak (May 25th, 2009)

The Sims 3 has been leaked again, this time by another group. This group claims their leak is the final retail version and has been posted on many different websites and torrents.

After several observations found from forums and blogs we can conclude the retail version does not present the same bugs as the second leak. Click here to read more information about the  second leak. The article below consists only of the issues and bugs concerning the first leak. 

The Major Concerns with The Sims 3

The police station, so far EA hasn’t sued file sharers.
Screenshot via [SimGalaxy]

In the leaked copy, players found numerous bugs and oddities that would potentially disrupt the fanbase. It was very interesting to see SecuRom  packaged within the leak. This lead to doubts over the authenticity over EA’s statements. They claimed the physical copy of the game would be shipped without it, however, the digital copy would still include SecuRom.

Fortunately, it was later found within the EULA that the leaked copy was derived from the digital release. Even though SecuRom is used to protect unauthorized copies of the game from running, it was already bypassed by the time the leak was released.

The lack of objects, clothing, and hairstyles became a hot button issue among fans. EA has not revealed if the base game will include more items when it hits retail. EA does plan to sell more objects through The Sims 3 store, and will allow 1000 points free for all players who legally purchase the game.

As the hours went by, the mystery surrounding the leaked copy took on a huge forum debate whether the game was the final build. Players brought up major points to support each side of the argument. One issue that supported both sides were game freezes and crashes. In each case, players reported crashing incidents starting within 3 minutes to 6 hours of gameplay. However, some players did not receive any crashes whatsoever.

A general theory over the cause of the crashes were related to old graphic and audio drivers. It’s recommended that players should update their NVIDIA or ATI graphic card drivers before installing the retail copy of the game.

 

Bugs, Bugs and more Bugs!

Screenshot via [SimsDomination]

We do expect the Sims 3 will ship with bugs, and many of these bugs will most likely get patched. Alas, players were complaining about various glitches and screwups within the leaked copy.

A bug some players found early on during gameplay was the inability to kill a Sim in a fire. This bug was quite interesting in that one would think EA would allow this ability in the first place as it’s one of the most popular deaths in the whole series.  On May 20th, we finally saw the first leaked video that included the fire death animation, so we’re not sure as to why some players couldn’t do it and others could. Rumours and speculations arose as players felt that maybe EA was trying to soften the game’s image by removing the death. However, the leak was programmed to include other methods of killing a Sim. We concluded that this form of death will return in the retail version.

Another bug found by players was the inability to deactivate story progression. This feature controls any drastic changes your neighborhood Sims would do, for example, this feature controlled if your neighbors would move in or out, become pregnant, advance in jobs, and die. This became problematic towards players who wanted a similar play style of The Sims 2. They did not want to worry about other Sim families they created to suddenly die or move out of the neighborhood for good.

There were also some minor issues with the music not playing, fast forward speed button malfunctions, and guitars stuck on a Sim’s body.

 

Players are still skeptical

Protesting at City Hall

It’s quite hilarious to see the debate move right back to where we all started, as now there is still a lot of discussion on whether or not EA is telling the truth. Discussion among forums and blogs seem to theorize that EA is now speaking out to avoid bad press. It’s still likely that EA will release a patch to fix all major bugs related to the gold copy on release day.

We’re also concerned with EA’s choice of wording with the term, “pre-final”. This implies the leaked copy is probably just a few small builds away from the gold copy. If this were the case then it means the leak pretty much sums up everything that’s going to be in the game. Fans will not be happy!

The Sims 3 Leaked with Earthquake?

Pirates don’t Pre-order? Or do they?

There are several reports and screenshots circulating around the internet around the unexpected release of The Sims 3. The game has surfaced on some bittorrent sites and has been downloaded by 1300 people at the time of this post. Several screenshots on a popular image board show that this leak was real. This included fulfilling requests made by others to verify they were actually playing it.

With these screenshots some minor tidbits have been revealed.

• Some described how the game runs much smoother than The Sims 2.
• Newspapers can actually be read in popups. Stories remind me of Simcity 2000.
• Junkie XL is back.
• You can actually troll on a forum on the computer.
• Someone may respond to your forum post.
• Something resembling EA’s Skate and Madden can be played as a video game.
• A 60s style Diner.

Unfortunately for EA, we don’t know what stance they will take on future games. I do applaud them for removing SecuRom from the physical copy of the game (SecuROM still exists in the digital copy) after the backlash they received from Spore. However, it’s uncertain whether this leak will have a huge impact on sales of the game. Please don’t post any links here, we’re not that kind of site.

Is the leaked copy the final build?

It’s official! The leaked copy is not the final build!

 

The leak is not the final retail version because…

• Mouse pointer graphical bugs.
  • Debunked: A bug that occurs during the use of Fraps.
• Several glaring bugs in the game.
  • Some players were unable to kill a Sim in a fire while others were able to do it. -May 20th
  • Fast Forward Speed Malfunctions.
  • If Story Progression is disabled, it appears to have no effect.
• Handful of objects released in the game.
  • Debunked: The Sims 3 store will release the remaining items.

 

 

May 18th:

As the buzz spreads to more and more forums, players have described this leak as some sort of preview version. Rumours have swirled where players have described only seeing a handful of objects available. It seems EA will be selling the rest of the objects in the Sims 3 store.  We’re also wondering  about several posts regarding the mechanics of death. It seems some players are unable to kill their sims in a fire.

It could be possible that this leak may have been given out for the gaming magazines for their “hands on” experience but we can’t confirm if this is the case.

May 19th:

There’s some arguments regarding if the release is the “retail” version or an earlier preview build. They have pretty much figured it’s not a demo. EA has been taking down “some” leaked footage on Youtube, claiming copyright infringement.

May 20th

Two gaming review sites with legit copies of the game stated they had a preview build (bit-tech.com and eurogamer.de). It’s still uncertain if the leaked copy is the same version the gaming sites reviewed. More arguments whether the game is retail or not.

May 22nd

Leaked copy is not final build!

 

Coincidentally there was a 5.0 earthquake in Sourthern California, then GOD proceeded to say…

The Sims 3: The Road to Sunset Valley

New Info! 5/21/09!

The Sims 3 is nearing its June 2, 2009 release date.

As we get closer and closer to the date, it’s time to update some information from the previous articles.

Over the past few months various information, promotions, and CDs have been released to the public.

We”ll try to condense all that information into one blog post, sticking on the more important things.

Obtaining The Sims 3

EA has listed several release dates based on where you are in the world. The two options for buying The Sims 3 include purchasing it in a store, or purchasing it as a digital download. Please note that the digital download version includes the SecuRom DRM.  

EA states you will be able to download The Sims 3 at 7am PST on June 2nd, 2009. This may not apply to other areas outside of US/Canada. The Sims 3 costs $49.95 and is available for Pre-ordering now!

May 17th, 2009: It also appears The Sims 3 has been leaked illegally online. Please don’t ask on this site where to find the game.

 

The Sims 3 Story

The storyline is sort of a prequel setting up all the families you’ve seen in past games. The main family everyone keep’s track of is the Goths. This time Mortimer Goth will be a kid. You’ll be able to see both his parents Gunther and Cornelia Goth.

The second family everyone loves to hate is the Crumplebottoms! This time Mrs. Crumplebottom is at her younger adult age and will be haunted by the ghost of her husband. (Presumably if The Sims 1 is Canon, her husband died from a chandelier accident.)

Next up is the Landgraabs who were featured in many Sim titles, including Simcity 3000. There appears to be a rival between the Landgraabs and the Altos.

 

Welcome to Sunset Valley

Sunset Valley is the main town featured in The Sims 3. In Sunset Valley there are a few areas your Sim can visit, the beach, science center, gym, library, city hall, park, public pool, hospital, cafe, police station, graveyard, stadium, a local diner, movie theatre, and more. Though your Sim may be able to visit such places it does not mean you as the player will be able to see inside all of them.

Updated 05/18/09 Message for SnootySims Forum:  As for the areas you can walk  inside with your Sim, so far the park, public pool, library, beach, gym, the art gallery, and the graveyard, are currently known. These are the non “rabbit hole” areas shown to the public.  This list is not 100% complete and confirmation of other areas would be revealed eventually.

You will play as one family at a time, you can switch between different families if you choose to. Everyone around you will age and die alongside with you. Your neighbors can get married, move in, move out, have kids,  and get promotions on their own. Your neighbors actions are directed through story progression and autonomy sliders. The higher the autonomy, the more drastic changes you will see in your neighborhood.

 

The Map view will be your guide to getting around on the game. In this view you can see every building with their appropriate icons. By hovering your mouse over an area, you can see what Sims are currently in that vicinity, and instantly zoom in without any loading screens at all.

You can also allow your Sim to travel to different buildings by zooming out to this view. You can select a house icon and your sim will travel their by car and even by bike.

This zoomed out shot will also be the home for a neighborhood editing screen.  This is where you’ll switch families to play with. After you create a Sim you have the option to move a family into a lot. You select the family you want at the bottom right corner and click on an empty house or lot to move into. If you would like to switch between families, click on the options button, then click Edit Town, then Click Change Active household.

Neighborhood View screenshots via [gamesguide]

Selecting the hand will allow you to move lots around. Selecting the bulldozer would allow you to delete a lot. The paint and saw would be editing a lot. The button at the top of the shot means “return to game.”

You can also view where your Sims go to work and actually see them travel to that location. However once they are at work they will disappear from the map screen. The map view actually reminds me of  the canceled Simsville game.

 

Welcome to Riverview

Riverview is the second Sims 3 neighborhood to be released after you register the game. Not much is known about this particular neighborhood other than it includes a river that splits and converges back into one. This neighborhood takes place along the Simomon river. More and more Sims have escaped city life to this picturesque and serene town.

Riverview screenshots via [simfans]

 

Careers and Entrepreneurs

The Sims 3 explores different ways one may earn income. The main system will be through careers. Your Sim can travel to one of the many career buildings in town and start a job there. There will be different careers shipped with the game, some of these include athletic, music, medical, politics, chef, and more.

Once your Sim heads off to work they will disappear from the screen.

Your Sim doesn’t have to work in a 9-5 job to make money, there are other ways to earn by looking around the neighborhood. Your can earn money through fishing, collect bugs and selling them, painting, stealing, gardening, becoming an author, investing in businesses, among others.

 

Pregnancy and Babies

Screenshot via [SimsDomination]

This seems to be a hot topic. I don’t know why. You people are so obsessed! Pregnancy pretty much plays out like it does in The Sims 2. One major change is now you can select which location to give birth. You can give birth at home or at a hospital.

At home your Sim will scream and shout as they are about to deliver. Next, you name the baby and it will show you what traits it has taken from the parents.  The baby appears magically out of thin air and the mom spins around and grabs the baby.

If you choose to give birth in a hospital, the mom and dad will go off into a cab and will walk into the hospital. After a while the mother will walk out with the baby in hand and drive back home in a cab.

The mom and dad can now carry the baby around with them.

 

Create A Sim – Create a Style

Create A Sim has been enhanced further to allow for more customization over past games. This is due to the Create a Style feature. In Create A Style, you will be able to set up patterns and colors for any object, floor, wall, and clothing. The create a style has a small palette dock where you set all the colors and patterns. If you drag this dock to a specific item, it’s colors and patterns will change. This makes unlimited color combinations for clothes.

For example, in Sims 2, if a dress didn’t come in a certain color, you would have to edit the color through Photoshop. In the Sims 3, all you would have to do is select any color you want and apply it to your dress and it will instantly change to that color.

Personality, Wishes, and Skills

Each Sim will have their own personality through the selection of traits. After you create your Sim, you will be able to choose up to 5 traits that describe his behavior. These traits will dictate his personality and actions. 

The inappropriate trait will let a Sim belch in public or sneeze in public. A Sim  with a kleptomaniac trait might even steal items from your home. A Sim with the hot headed trait will get angry very quickly and yell at others. These personality traits can be changed by purchasing a special mid life crisis item.

You’ll also be allowed to customize what “preferences” your Sim has, like their favorite food, favorite music, and favorite color but you will not be able to change any of these after you create your Sim.

For a little eye candy, once your Sims’ family has been created, they will be placed in a little picture frame on a wall as the neighborhood screen loads.

 

After you select traits, you will be provided with a few lifetime wishes. If you fulfill them they will make your sim happy. There are also short term wishes that can be fulfilled at any time. By spending your happiness points, you can obtain achievement traits, which are special traits that allow your Sims to “cheat” their way through life. For example the haggler achievement trait lets your Sims get discounts when they go shopping.

 

Skills have been brought back yet again, but this time skills have a more social experience than before. If you excell at a particular skill, other Sims might want you to run errands for them. Some opportunities at work might arise and allow your Sim to be promoted in a field. There was one example where your boss might ask you to bring in a piece of artwork you made since he knows your creativity skill is high.

 

Freed from your need

Needs are one of the most boring features of the Sims. You often found yourself  having limited time to do anything just because you had to go pee or sit down. The Sims 3 will still include needs but the game has been designed to have less focus on them. Instead you’ll have more time participating in socialization and achieving your Sims’ wishes and lifelong dreams. Your family for the first time will be able to take care of themselves on their own.  This frees up time for you to explore the town and meet new Sims.

 

 

The Sims 3 will be released in NA on June 2nd, 2009

The Sims 3 will be released in UK on June 5th, 2009

The Sims 3 will be released in AU on June 4th, 2009

Minimum Requirements

Windows XP SP2

• Pentium IV 2.0 GHz / Athlon XP 2000+ or equivalent
• 1GB RAM
• 6.5 GB of hard drive space with 1 GB additional space for custom content
• 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

Windows Vista SP1

• Pentium IV 2.4 GHz / Athlon XP 2400+ or equivalent
• 1.5 GB RAM of Memory
• 6.5 GB of hard drive space with  1 GB additional space for custom content
• 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

Computers with built in Graphics Chipsets

• Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA X3000 or above.
• 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent
• 1.5 GB RAM (XP), 2 GB RAM (Vista)

NVIDIA GeForce series

• FX 5900, FX 5950
• 6200, 6500, 6600, 6800
• 7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
• 8400, 8500, 8600, 8800
• 9600, 9800, GTX 260, GTX 280

ATI Radeon™ series

• 9500, 9600, 9800
• X300, X600, X700, X800, X850
• X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
• 2400, 2600, 2900
• 3450, 3650, 3850, 3870
• 4850, 4870

 iPhone 2.0 or iPod Touch

 

Catching up with The Sims 3

So in the past few weeks several fan sites were able to see a glimpse of The Sims 3. No EA didn’t ask me to attend. Anyway we’ll take a look at whats been announced since the last time we covered it, and summarize all the major details from the fan sites.

Seamless Neighborhood

All fansites pretty much agree there will be no loading times from place to place. Everything is done seamlessly so you can play inside your house, zoom the camera out and get a glimpse of whats going on in your town. By that, you select where you want to go and your sim will reach there by walking, cab, or car. The location of the neighborhood is alongside a rocky shore and mountains off in the distance.

There will be many places to visit in the neighborhood, including civic areas, the beach, the café, and more. Certain buildings will act as jobs which you can plop inside the neighborhood. One of the most requested additions to the Sims 3 is the abilities to place objects in any direction without grids. This will certainly add to the realism that fans want.

Seamless Lives

As you play the game, everyone around you no matter where they are will be doing something and aging alongside with you. Each action they do will have a purpose and their behaviors will be dictated by each traits they have. You will start out with a few traits and expect to gain some more as you play through. Social interaction will play a much larger role, and even “negative” actions might make someone more happier.

Screenshot Analysis

For more detailed information about The Sims 3, you can visit the fansites at the bottom of the article. Now we’ll take a look in some new screenshots to see whats been improved since the game was first announced.

Fat is in! The new body shape adds more variety to the people you’ll likely meet around the ‘hood. Talking on the cellphone is now a base game feature that everyone will have.

The trailer showed off some of the new seamless neighborhood transitions by zooming out. We do know that this may be a huge struggle for lower end PCs. Fan sites have said that developers will be able to solve this problem by making the neighborhood smaller for PCs that struggle. Still I would recommend buying a new graphic card to support this game. Nvidia 8800+ seems to be a surefire way to make this game run smoothly.

The whole neighborhood will transition into day and night at the same time. Some sims may come out at night to do some mischief.  This sunset along shows off some shadow mapping that is based on light from the sun.

Sims will be aware of others actions and may get irritated by them. This was in development for The Sims 2, but it wasn’t so apparent as they made it sound once the base game was released. So we hope they can enhance this even further in The Sims 3.

The Sims 3 will be released on June 2nd, 2009
  On PC then later on MAC

[ via Sims 3 Resource, Eyecandy for The Sims 3, and forum posts]

Can The Sims 3 Help EA Get its Groove Back?

Old Article Below
Click For Newer Details for The Sims 3

Electronic Arts has been known for its struggle on garnering trust to its gamers. Economically EA’s potential for profit is huge with their Sports line, Maxis, Boxing, Action, and Mobile gaming department. They continuously flaunt their in-game advertisements and its economic success.

Still this all takes a toll on a consumers by the recent drop in stock shares and quarterly earnings reports. The Sims 3 has many potential spots to solidify game play and do well with gamers. But we worry if EA’s marketing strategy will get the best of it.

A New Gaming Approach

The Sims 3 has an ambitious goal ahead of it. One of the major changes is that it now focuses on ONE household. Your person is placed into a world where everyone’s lives evolves with or without you. It sort of follows the lines of a MMORPG. Everyone existing in the game has their own schedule, love life, and personality. This doesn’t seem to worry fans too much since this concept was used during the Life Stories product line.

The Art Style

The most critical component for potential consumers at this stage is the graphics. The graphics look marginally better than they appeared in The Sims 2. A more realistic approach was expected, unfortunately the only areas so far that seems to be visually improved are the outdoors.

 

This screenshot depicts of a more detailed and realistic look of how a neighborhood is like. Now that the world is seamless, the gameplay allows you to leave your house and walk to another in real time. You will be able to move around the world with as much freedom as the console games. Hopefully as you move around, there should not be anymore loading splash screens that break up the action, but I do expect a loading screen before you enter another building.

Interior design still has that barren Sims 1-like look, every object is placed on a grid. The only new feature with object placement is diagonal rotation. This is not enough to make this game stand out from its predecessor. [Editor's Note] They have now revealed 360 degree rotation. This will now place the game way above Sims 2. Path finding need’s to be able to adapt to these rotations though.

This is the only screenshot so far has the most radiant lighting effect. The sun shines through the windows and the couch gives off its glossy glow, if only every screenshot presented this rise in quality…

User Feedback

Here are some various user comments from different message boards:

What I was most looking forward to in Sims 3 was a major overhaul in the department–a more realistic looking game–after all, it is a life simulation, but apparently that’s not going to happen. This looks like more of same to me, with incremental improvements.

Actually I looked at some of the graphics and they are dramatically improved hardware wise. The problem is that everything is unquestionably UGLY

Lindsay Pearson Interview Response:

However the screenshots give a somewhat distorted image, because when you see the Sims 3 live at work, you immediately notice the high detail in the world and its characters.

We shall see how this will turn out, there isn’t much uproar for this game as Simcity Societies. So far EA, your on a positive note here.

The Sims 3 will be released in US on June 2nd, 2009

The Sims 3 will be released in UK on June 5th, 2009

The Sims 3 will be released in AU on June 4th, 2009

Learn More About the Sims 3