Judson HudsonToday marks the day that The Sims 3 releases in the US!  Sim fans are rushing to the store (or standing at their front door) getting their hands on the game!  I had the pleasure of playing the game since this past Saturday (I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound like I’m rubbing it in, just stating a fact).  Normally when you review a game, you’re suppose to experience the most out of it.  Well…I wish I can say that, but it’s not the case for me.

You see, I’m stuck in Create-A-Sim mode right now… It’s not due to an error with the game as I can play the other parts of the game.  No, my problem is that it’s ADDICTING to me.  For the first time, I’m actually creating Sims am I’m and loving it.  With the original ‘The Sims’ game, I focused on object creation.  I was not much of a skinner.  When TS2 rolled out I attempted to get into CAS but for some reason I could not grasp it.  But The Sims 3…once I attempted to create the Sim version of myself I knew I was going to have a blast.  There are a few issues I have but for the most part, creating Sims with the CAS is nearly limitless.

XzibitMy head is full of many ideas at the moment of the Sims that I want to create – I’ve already created a few:  The 10th Doctor from the Doctor Who series, Will Wright – founder of Maxis and creator of The Sims, Xzibit – from the TV show Pimp My Ride and originator of the “Yo Dawg, I heard you like…” meme, and even Paul Blart – Mall Cop.  Tons more Sims are on my to-do list and I don’t think I’ll be stopping until I do them all!  My whole town will be filled with various famous characters!

CAS featured in Create-A-Sim is very flexible.  You’re still limited to how close you can get your Sim to look like a real person.  One of my biggest gripes in trying to accomplish this is the lack of hair styles.  Sure, we’re going to get new styles in expansions…but I believe we should of gotten more in the base game.  Where is the bald head?  In order to get close to having a bald style, we have to select the short hair and then color match it to the skin.  Even then, it doesn’t look that appealing.  We’re also lacking curly hair as well.  Not to mention, I wish it was possible to layer hair styles.  For example, you can only select 1 piece of facial hair.  Well, what if I wanted to create Sims with sideburns and a mustache?  Not possible at this time I’m afraid.  🙁

The 10th Doctor (David Tennant)   I’m also surprised there is no “animate” button for facial expressions.  Traits may be their way of handling said task, but it’d be nice if they could of used Spore’s setup and have small buttons to show off their emotions.

One more complaint (and final one before I list the positives) is the lack of a height adjustment slider.  We’re in the 3rd revision of The Sims series…When will we be able to edit our Sim’s height?  Not everyone stands 6′ tall.  I want to create midgets…They are awesome…especially midget wrestling – search for it on YouTube and you’ll know what I mean. 

Will WrightThe good…Well, for starters the clothes aren’t too bad.  In my opinion the choices we have for the various styles are satisfying.  Would we benefit from more?  Of course, but for starters they’ll do.  When I create my Sims, I usually focus only on the everyday style and leave all the rest as default.  I could spend a very long time in CAS if I were to adjust each style!   The traits list is filled with too many traits to pick from.  In fact, I wish we had more slots to fill.  I can only imagine what new traits expansions are going to bring!

Going back to the face modification…I love the detail The Sims team put into the parts of the face.  There is a few improvements I’m hoping to see in an expansion…small details like the beauty marks and freckles should be able to move, not stay in one place.  Not only that, but they left out acne!  Think about the hopeless teen sims that work at the fast food restaurants!

Anyhow…this concludes my rambling, poor attempt at a writeup.  If I ever move off of CAS and play the game like I should be doing, hopefully I’ll ramble about that as well 😛