The Sims 3

The Sims 3 is an upcoming strategic life simulation computer game for the Windows operating system. It is a sequel to the highly popular and critically acclaimed The Sims and The Sims 2 computer games. It was announced in an interview by EA in November 2006, where it was also mentioned that the release date of the game would likely be in the "fiscal 2009" year.

Teasers and previews
In the 7th expansion pack for The Sims 2, The Sims 2: FreeTime, a secret unlockable event occurs in which a Sim-version of Rod Humble, The Sims 3 ' s executive producer, gives the player's Sim family an unopened gift box. When opened, the Sim who opened the box gets a special computer with The Sims 3 on it. The Sims 3 game cannot be bought in the catalog. Sims can then play The Sims 3 on their computers or console systems. Like all the other games that Sims can play in The Sims 2, The Sims 3 is a looping gameplay video shown on the player's Sim's computer screens when played by a Sim; The Sims 3 is not a playable demo game that the user can control. The video of the gameplay (recorded during one of The Sims 2: FreeTime preview sessions for fansites of The Sims franchise) was taken by the German The Sims fansite 'SimTimes'.

Since late February 2008, multiple gaming magazines and websites have featured articles describing the changes made in The Sims 3 from its predecessors.

On May 23rd, an email was sent out to early sign-ups on the website, the people who signed up early, known by them as the VIP's, get special screenshots before their release to the website.

Gameplay
In the April/May edition of the Games for Windows: The Official Magazine, there is a 12-page preview of the game. This preview explains that Sim houses and neighborhoods will be entirely in one seamless, continuous map, and states that "what you do outside your home now matters as much as what you do within". Also it is claimed that other Sims will age with the player's Sims as they interact with them. It also states that the typical bladder and energy motives will be overhauled, and replaced with "moodlets". The game will also incorporate further aspects of real life, including several new jobs.

Create A Sim
Create a Sim is the character (Sim) builder. In Create-A-Sim, the polygon 3-D models of Sims can be modified by changing a wider variety of properties than what was available in previous installments. This opens the door to creating completely unique Sims with regard to stature, height, weight, hair, and clothing.

Personality configuration for Sims has also been made more complex, with the original 'percentage bar'-style personality points replaced by descriptions similar to those in the personals section of newspapers. In addition to this, individual fitness bars have been added to adjust the Sims weight and muscle. Sims now have the capacity to become extremely obese, or extremely muscular. This is in comparison to The Sims 2, where Sims simply had 3 levels of fitness/fatness.

The player can now choose their Sims' favorite color, music type, food, etc., an option not available in The Sims 2. Players can personalize much more about their Sim, such as changing body shapes as they could with faces in The Sims 2. Also there are sliders for weight and fitness, although Sims created as overweight can become slim by exercising and Sims created thin may become fat by eating too much and not exercising. Arm and legs are separate so players can create Sims with fat bodies and thin arms. Players can choose specific Asian and African models as well. Clothes are also customizable from Create A Sim. Players can change the color of a certain piece of clothes or use their own patterns; shoes are separate and players can also have their Sims run barefoot.

Create a home, architecture and building abilities
Although little has been described by EA Games towards the building capabilities of The Sims 3, it is known that there will be a new function towards design in objects. If an object has a certain pattern, the user only needs to select that pattern and move it to another object to give the second object the same pattern. This is an improvement from earlier The Sims games, because it was previously necessary to use an external program in order to make multiple objects have the same style. A player can also place objects at 45° angles, whereas before object placement was restricted to 90° placement, without the aid of cheats.

Recoloring (Sim name for change textures) can be done in the Create A Home. Now every object in The Sims can have custom textures. Every mesh can be changed by anyone.

Ceilings will be included in Sims 3, unlike its predecessors. Also, building tiles will be a lot smaller. This will allow greater flexibility when designing rooms; for example, it will be possible to build a lamp almost touching a sofa, or a TV facing the middle of a double bed.

Open neighborhood, neighborhood exploration
On March 19 2008, EA revealed new gameplay experiences for The Sims 3, one of them being neighborhood exploration. Players will be able to have their Sims wander around the world outside of their homes with no loading screens. This also means that the entire game is played in real-time, so Sims that the player is not using will still age and may get married, have children, and/or gain other memories and experience other events. Due to the lack of loading screens, it is possible to zoom in and out from a complete view of the neighborhood to the inside of a house, a feature not technologically possible in previous The Sims games. Every building in a neighborhood will be interactable, none will simply be there to improve aesthetics.

Neighborhood creation tools have been confirmed to ship several weeks after launch, allowing users to not only create their own towns, but to download those made by others. Neighborhoods may also be added in expansion packs.