The Sims 3 - Hands On Day 1 Feedback Over in the UK, The Sims 3 team is showing off the game to various fansite owners with a hands-on demonstration.* They have posted questiosn and answers for Day 1, in which you can read at the following link at the UK Sims forum. Posted by EAUK_Aurora Thank you for posting all of your questions in the days leading up to the first Hands On Day There were so many asked! Unfortunately we have not been able to get answers for all of them at this time. There are some that we were unable to answer as they did not relate to gameplay and some that would have required a lot more time playing and exploring to investigate. Please also bear in mind that the version of The Sims 3 that we played today is not the final release and that we had a limited time to play so some answers may be correct for what we saw today but do not tell the whole story. However we do have lots of answers for you and interesting information to share and the members or the community who were there on the day will be posting up their findings over the next few days and adding to what has been posted Open Neighbourhood. Are the community lots rabbitholes? It would appear that some are and some aren’t. The Sims I played today could be seen inside the gym and the library but not in the diner for example, or at least this is what appeared to be the case. Will hair sway in the wind? Longer hair did seem to move whilst walking. Will there be an option to turn aging off for individual families? I did not explore what cheats were available but I did see that you can choose to adjust the life expectancy of your Sims or turn aging off altogether in the game options. How do you switch between families? You can change the family that you are playing by using the Active Household button. In the information screens it does say that if you elect to change the playable family then your current ones will have their wishes and opportunities removed. Then those Sims will continue to age and live as normal while you are playing the new family. Do we visit clothes shops now? It appears that you can use an option on a set of drawers to select outfits which will take your Sim into CAS and you can choose clothing from there. Can we turn free will off? In the game options you can change the amount of free will that you wish your Sims to have. Can we still control more than one Sim at a time or so we have to switch between Sims in a household like on the console version? Imagine playing The Sims 2 and one of your Sims is cooking and the other in the yard. You click on their thumbnails to take you to each. It works exactly the same in The Sims 3 only one of your Sims might be reading at home and the other at the beach. Oh and there was no real delay in getting to either as well Can you customise the neighbouhood? Apart from the additional lots in the bins I couldn’t find any neighbourhood decorations today. In the open neighbourhood is it really possible to go up to houses whose occupants you don’t know and look in through their windows? It is kind of possible. If the house is empty you can go right up to it but if it is occupied then anywhere within the lot grid you get the option to visit that family. You could maybe spy on them through a side window that is close to the edge of the lot. Are the career buildings now open to view? The career lots are rabbit holes but if you move your cursor right into the lot area there are sound effects relating to the jobs that take place there. Is the Grim Reaper in the game? There is a rather awesome statue of Grim in the neighbourhood. The non-statue variety also comes when your Sim meets their end. Will there be weather? In the time I played today I saw no weather conditions but the animation of the sun lowering in the sky is beautiful. Will there be a sports stadium in Sunset Valley and if so what kind of sports events will take place? There is a stadium called Llama Memorial Stadium. When I visited it with my Sims there was no options available other than to visit it but there do appear to be both sporting events and concerts held there. As we had weeds growing in The Sims 2 will we see the grass/trees growing in The Sims 3 neighbourhood? It did not appear that plants or grass grew or deteriorated at all. There is no option to hire a gardener. How do the parties work? Are there any new parties to plan? Parties seem easier to make a success than in The Sims 2. You can hold them at home or hire a public area to hold them in. I held one at home and one at the beach and both went well with limited input from the party host. You can also choose what time you wish the party to start and what the dress code should be. At the times that I chose to throw these parties there were no additional options as to what kind of party they should be but they did not coincide with any milestones so this could be why. What speed will the time progress in the normal game mode? There are still the three speed options which appear to be similar or the same in time to The Sims 2. Is the Social Bunny in the game? I did not see the Social Bunny other than in a painting that you can buy for your Sims. Can your Sims transport items around to use? Sims have a personal inventory and a family one. It appears that some objects can be placed in the family inventory and used by any family member in any location. This is in theory. Which familiar Sims are in Sunset Valley? In the course of my Sim’s travels they came across Bella, Mortimer, Kaylynn Langerak, Michael Bachelor and Malcolm Landgraab. I am sure that the other Simmers who were there may well have met other familiar Sims from the past. Posted by limabifrost The Sims 3 preview day was so much fun- the game was excellent and I know you won’t be disappointed when you get to play it at last. </p> The thing that really stands out for me is the level of customisation that goes into everything- and I mean everything! It will take you much longer to build a house, because you change the colour/hue/pattern of every surface imaginable. This struck me as a development from Sims 2 as large as the seamless neighbourhood (which is amazing in itself). The moodlets are useful. They really reflect your Sim’s personality and help tell you what they are feeling. I used those much more than the old hunger/hygiene type bars to determine what my sim wanted. As for all your questions regarding the Create-A-Sim interface, I answered all that I could. However, I paraphrased the questions below and popped my answers underneath. I can clarify anything which comes across unclearly or ambiguously. Clothing What are the clothes like? Are there lots of styles? Lots of different tops and trouser/skirts, as well as lots of dresses/outfits. There were fashionable clothes, as well as some aimed for the older sim, comfy casual clothes- most of the time the item focused on the cut of the clothing as the textures were all customisable. Can we create our own patterns on dresses as we see on the stores? Are there Hearts andFlower patterns? There is the capacity for custom patterns to be downloaded and put into your game. Therefore we can download the patterns for the dresses in the games. There are both heart (under themed heading) and flower (abstract) patterns. Can we design our own clothing on it? We can download CC clothing, but we can’t design the clothing in the game, other than customising colour/texture. Can we layer clothing so we could choose a top, jumper and coat that the sims can wear at the same time? Or do they just look layered like The Sims 2? They just look layered like in Sims 2. Can you add things to your clothes like a tie, jacket or scarf or another shirt? No- all clothing comes in set layers (as above). Can we create shirts with designer labels? Not that I saw- but that’s just an opportunity for CC! Is there a puffy pirate shirt for guys? Nope- but there is a t-shirt with a skull and crossbones on! Close enough? Can you go shirtless all the time? Not that I saw, although I don’t remember checking males. Females definitely had to have a vest top on, at least. Can Sims go barefoot all the time? Yes the can! Can you change the colour of their hats and hair ribbons? Like all materials in the game, this is fully customisable. Will there be clothes/different coloured nappies for babies? As toddlers are the youngest people to be created in CAS, I can’t answer this. However, toddlers have lots of clothes to choose from. Are there wedding veils, bath robes and turbans? Not that I saw. Hair What are the hairstyles in the game like? Are they more diverse or different from previous Sim games? More diverse than Sims 2, but still fairly limited. However, it’s only the base game so I’m sure we’ll get plenty later on! The styles contain casual ponytails and untied hair, as well as some classier hairstyles and plenty of hats/hair-bands/flowers for your Sims’ hair! Can we create what ever hairstyle (including layers) that we want? No, but you can have CC hairstyles. Will there be hairstyles with curly hair in TS3 and if so, how many? Sadly not in the build that we were playing. Can we create Sims with “wavy” hair? Is it the same as Sims 2? Yes we can- however it’s different from Sims 2. It’s less ‘rigid’ waves and more loose and natural looking. I liked it and used it for one of my Sims. Is there an Afro? Yep for both males and females! How many different ponytails there are, and what types? There are two: one mid-height and one low ponytail. There are also two types of pig-tails and one plait pig-tail. Do they have the Apartment Life hair for females? The one with the scarf/headband in the hair is there, but not the others. Other notes on hair: You can customise the highlights, roots and main body of the hair using most of the standard hair colours. Hair is divided into hair worn down, and hair with accessories (ie ponytails, hats, scarves, flowers etc). My personal opinion on this one: but the beard styles for mean are pretty horrible! Maybe I’m unkind, as I’m not a fan of beards myself, but I didn’t think they were great. Accessories Are there piercings and tattoos? If so, can we have them on our teens? Only ear-piercings for adults and teens. What kind of jewellery will there be in CAS? Rings, Watches, Bracelets/sweatbands and Ear piercings. Will there be braces/retainers? I didn’t see them. Will there be different styles of glasses? Plenty! Nice styles, too. Face How much can you tweak the facial features in CAS? How large can you make the chins and noses? You cannot tweak them as much as before; the scale on the sliders is much more subtle. However, you can shrink an area such as an eye or nose pretty small, so you can still have crazy looking sims! Facial features rendering is meant to be much more detailed and precise. How will the new ”dot” system work? Will this system help polish features so Sims really are unique? When you click on an area to edit, such as the cheek, there are general sliders to edit features with. However, on the diagram above in the CAS screen, there is a picture of the cheek with three dots on. If you click on each of these dots, it will open up a few sliders for that area of the cheek. This allows much more customisation to the face and helps to really define a Sim’s look! Can you save face presets? You can save the individual facial editing that you do (ie if you like a chin you can save it to use on more sims). You can also save the entire sim. However I’m not aware of the ability to save the entire face. Are there freckles? Yes- and beauty spots too. There are two types of freckles (different places) and beauty spots. Your sim can wear both at the same time for a really freckly look. Can you put lip-gloss over lipstick and also can you use them without lipstick? How shiny are they? There is a glossy lipstick so you can have the effect of lip-gloss over lipstick. As with everything else, you can customise the colour of the lipstick so you can have whatever lip-gloss colour you want. The lip-gloss isn’t that shiny, not like some of the wet look lip-glosses available in real life. It’s still shinier than the lipstick in-game. Skin-tone Are there different shades within non-standard skin-tones (i.e. green/blue), or a preset shade? There are sliders so you can select all sorts of shades of green and blue skin-tone. There is also a white/pink/red slider too, so you can create red Sims as well. Can we make different parts of the body different colours (i.e. blue arms and green legs?). Unfortunately not. Will skin textures be able to be made and added to the game as in The Sims 2? I couldn’t see a place for CC under this heading. But remember we weren’t playing a final build of the game. Body: shape and customisation What are the body shapes like? Fat to thin, lean to muscly. What species are currently available, and if only humans and ghosts, are there plans to introduce new species and can we make our own? You can only make humans in CAS. Can you change the height of a Sim? No sadly not. Is breast-size customizable? No, there isn’t any customisation for bodies other than the body shapes described above. Sims Family Names and Connections Will you be able to have a household of people with different last names? How will this work? You sure can- the first sim loads up and you can pick both first and last name for them. If you make another sim, they start with the default surname of the first sim. However, this can be changed as readily as the first name. This is because the surname isn’t separate to the sims (like Sims 2- that’s the best I can describe it!), but is part of the editing of the individual sim (just like the first name on Sims 2). When creating two Sims in CAS can you tie them together as ex-girlfriend, ex-boyfriend, girlfriend or boyfriend? Can you still marry Sims in CAS? There are the same family ties as Sims 2: spouse, sibling, roomie, and child/parent. General Celebrity/Maxis-team Sims available in CAS? I don’t think so- although I don’t know what the maxis team look like! What kinds of voices are there available in the CAS? 3 kinds for adults, 2 for kids. The voices are all pleasant and you can change the pitch of the voice in CAS. Is the Create-A-Sim tedious or just the right amount of detail? It’s just right- although if you want to create a family in a hurry then it may drag out a bit!
