Fans of The Sims will be quick to notice that a lot of features are still left out. One obvious downside to starting out with The Sims 3 is that, with The Sims 2 having built up an exhaustive glut of content over the years, the customisation options are a little bit on the sparse side: The Sims 3 will look positively barren for anyone who owns the Sims 2 and a few of its many expansion packs. But it’s hardly lacking content, and there are many creative opportunities afforded by subtle tweaks that sound rather boring on paper but in actuality prove to be super useful. The palette tool, for instance, allows you to modify the colours of almost anything. Perhaps one of the more significant changes, though, is the store, where you can quickly purchase all kinds of knick-knacks from an ever-expanding catalogue after converting boring, old sterling into exciting SimPoints – the game, handily, throwing you six quid’s worth of points as a way to get you started. Which you’ll probably spend on hairstyles, as there’s simply not enough included with the game.

Overall, Play gave the game an 85%