18 Jul, 2011
Title The Sims 3: Generations
Platform Windows, Mac OS X (reviewed using Windows)
Developer EA Play/ The Sims Studio
Publisher Electronic Arts
TWOL: Ten Words or Less Subtle and welcome additions but no big changes
Family Friendly? Click here to skip the detail and see if this game is right for your family!
The Sims 3: Generations is a slightly odd addition to the Sims universe – it’s certainly the black sheep of the family in that it’s very different to its siblings and has generated a lot of disappointing reviews. It’s also a very difficult game to review. For the most part, Generations tweaks the mechanics of The Sims 3 and fleshes out its original content. There are, however, no big changes to core game. The vast majority of the additions are cunningly and subtly woven into the game with no clear theme to link them together as has been the case with past Expansion Packs such as Nightlife and Pets. On the other hand it’s clearly too large to pass for a Stuff Pack.
Instead, Generations seeks to enhance each life stage in different ways. Sims with toddlers will notice new toys and the very welcome addition of strollers whereas Sims families with Kids gain items and actions connected to imagination. Kids can now dress up and pretend to be a Princess, Astronaut, Dinosaur, or whatever else takes their fancy for the day. You’re also given more of an insight into their life outside the house in the form of updates from school and field trips.
Revenge, Sims style; you can't harm her, but you can put her up for adoption
The Teenager life stage has been injected with a hefty dose of rebelliousness and comes armed with the tools and drive to indulge in numerous pranks. This aspect does add some excitement to the game but personally it began to wear a little thin for me – it can be incredibly irritating to be faced with a shower repair for the third time that morning when your Adults are already late for work. The great thing about The Sims if that if it gets too much you can always pack the little darlings off to boarding school or switch off free will.
Adults certainly get the best deal from Generations. Dates are back which makes forming and maintaining relationships far easier, with the added twist that your neighbours will take more notice of your romantic interactions. If you’re not careful (or you fancy having some serious fun with your Adults) they will get a reputation for being, ahem, less than choosy (or a spouse stealer, which has some hilarious results). Once they’ve found the woman/ man of their dreams they can look forward to a white dress, wedding arch and other new additions to The Sims 3 weddings. They can even throw a hen or stag party before the big day complete with strippers.
It was always going to be difficult to find additional fun stuff for Elders, but they don’t fare too badly and obtain their own unique additions in the form of walking sticks and ability to think back fondly (or not) on their lives.
The are many new features which have an impact on all your Sims no matter what their life stage, such as the new Day Care career path. Adults can choose to open their own home nursery and take in other Neighbourhood youngsters during working hours with humorous and stressful consequences as your charges will often begin to behave badly the moment their parents have left. Also important milestones and events are now recorded using the Memories feature.
Mid-Life Crisis: You can, however, harm him
Some smaller but just as welcome add-ons can be found scattered throughout Generations. Your Sims can now proudly show off body hair (men only for the time being), and choose new and exciting places to Woo-Hoo such as the shower. They can record events using camcorders, and can even use their recordings to blackmail other Sims if they manage to capture something incriminating. Your Adults can clone themselves, explore ten new community lots, and finally, you can now purchase bunk beds to save space in your communal lots. Adult Sims can have a mid-life crisis, and all Sims have access to more parties. There’s something to please every Sims fan here – the most important change it brought my game was the ability to adjust the life span of each life stage, enabling me to shorten the Toddler and Kid life stage to just a few days without having to speed through my Adults lives as well.
A lot of Generation’s content came as standard with The Sims 2 and has always felt missing from The Sims 3, and so the game is certainly improved by its addition. It has however led to some fans branding the game as overpriced. It certainly doesn’t contain as much content as we’ve come to expect from Expansion Packs from The Sims. However, the more you play Generations the more new content you will discover – it’s so interspersed that it will take most players dozens of hours of game play to come across it all, and from that perspective Generations is quite good value. The game should please hardcore and regular fans.
White dresses and wedding arches are back in fashion in The Sims Universe
Good times!
- Ability to shorten or lengthen specific life phases.
- New memory system to record all important events.
- Additional lifetime awards make the game more fun.
Bad times :(
- Can be difficult to spot what’s new.
- You don’t seem to get a lot for your money.
Family Focus
The Sims 3: Generations is rated 12 (or Teen if you’re in the United States). It contains no violence or bad language but there are some sexually suggestive themes; nothing risqué enough to offend the prudish gamer, but it does make the game inappropriate for children.
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