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hkellickIt's no surprise that I am SUPER excited about Sims 3, and it's no surprise that.. I'm a little worried as well.
I read a bunch of Sim fan sites and one of them, a UK-based fanboard, asked the dreaded question, "What if Sims 3 fails to deliver?"
EA has put out some pretty awful drek in the last couple of years.
Truth be told, I think every new Sim game EA's put out SINCE Sims 2 has been.. lacking. Which is worrying.
First there was SimCity Societies. Instead of offering a game that fulfilled the wishes of people who wanted to try to build a realistic city, they handed the game off to Twisted Mill so that fresh eyes could look at the series and find a game everyone wanted to play. Twisted Mill did, in fact, take it in a brand new direction, offering fantastic fairy-tale cities, haunted cities, authoritarian nightmares, et. al
But there was no challenge to the game, and after a while, it felt like there was no point. I know they've since patched the game so that there would be more challenge to it, but... I know, personally, I try to go back and play this and.. it isn't what I want, what I'm looking for. I have far more hope from an upcoming city simulation, Cities XL, (not an EA game, btw) which looks like it's trying to offer realistic city simulation again (and hopefully, unlike City Life, an actual manual)
And then there was MySims. To be fair, MySims was never created for me. It was created for younger people. MySims has Sims in the title, but.. they aren't Sims, really. It's far more like Animal Crossing, in some ways. In terms of collecting things (essences) and then doing things with those essences. Namely, putting them to use painting objects you're creating. It was cute, but.. the game lacked depth and it lacked much in the way of a real point. It was kinda disappointing.
Then there was SimCity Creator, for Wii, also clearly geared more towards kids than adults, which offered alot of the challenges in SimCity 3,000, but with a crappy interface. Though the special buildings were neat. I wouldn't mind seeing those buildings offered in a the future. The idea of buildings that could change how your city looks, visually.
And then there was Spore...
Spore, awesome in scope, brilliant in concept, so overhyped that when the game itself came out, it was a huge disappointment.
To me, a telling tale of the lack of depth of this game was the Prima Guide. Every GOOD Sims game had a HUGE Prima Guide to go along with it. At least 300-400 pages. Chock full of tips and tricks on everything to do with the game. The Spore guide was 200 pages long, and the actual amount of pages developed to building neat characters, buildings and crafts was about half that.
Truth be told, Spore did one thing well.. if you were looking to use your imagination to build interesting creatures, unique buildings and unique crafts, this game had it! If you were looking for a great game with lots of depth and lots of replayability, this game had.. very little to offer. And I'm not certain what the upcoming expansion set will offer. Truth be told, that expansion set will be the telltale sign. If no one buys it, I'd say Spore is dead. We'll see...
So the question comes down to, when you look at all this, does EA/Maxis KNOW how to make a good game anymore?
That said... I've been keeping my eyes on what Sims 3 has to offer. I can't speak for what the rest of EA has been up to, but the team behind Sims 3 seems to be at least filled with people who not only love The Sims 2 themselves, but listens to their fans. That's not to say the Fans got everything they want, by any means, but that it's clear the team listened.
The driving force behind Sims 3, I truly believe, was to offer the Open Neighborhood. It was to offer your Sims a chance to get out of their house and live as part of a community. But along the way, they've definitely listened to their fans and offered tools that will help us do the types of things we wanted to do. So the Sims look even more realistic now. You can do small simple things that make our life easier like pulling an existing wall, with things on it and pulling it back with everything still attached, instead of having to move/delete and redo it all. Like having furniture that can be moved at more than 90 degree angles and desks and tables that can hold more stuff. Like having even more chances to have individual Sims, with different hair colors, face shapes, body types and voices...
Some of the things they're proposing COULD get lame. If the AI for the various different personality traits doesn't meet expectations, and your Sims still all act alike, that would be very frustrating. And the open environment is a *HUGE* risk, though one I'm excited about myself.
I can't help but think alot more details have been leaked out this time around too. There's been alot of official leaking from Maxis over Sims 3. On their website, in special fan events where fan site owners have been asked to come over and see the game (including one two days ago in Manchester and London), and everything we're seeing suggests a huge depth of game here.
So.. could Sims 3 disappoint? Yes, it could. But I don't think it's likely, so much as you don't have god-like expectations that this game is going to fulfill every want for a Sim you could possibly have. The game looks cool, in and of itself, with alot of depth and a lot of replayability. That.. should be enough.
I read a bunch of Sim fan sites and one of them, a UK-based fanboard, asked the dreaded question, "What if Sims 3 fails to deliver?"
EA has put out some pretty awful drek in the last couple of years.
Truth be told, I think every new Sim game EA's put out SINCE Sims 2 has been.. lacking. Which is worrying.
First there was SimCity Societies. Instead of offering a game that fulfilled the wishes of people who wanted to try to build a realistic city, they handed the game off to Twisted Mill so that fresh eyes could look at the series and find a game everyone wanted to play. Twisted Mill did, in fact, take it in a brand new direction, offering fantastic fairy-tale cities, haunted cities, authoritarian nightmares, et. al
But there was no challenge to the game, and after a while, it felt like there was no point. I know they've since patched the game so that there would be more challenge to it, but... I know, personally, I try to go back and play this and.. it isn't what I want, what I'm looking for. I have far more hope from an upcoming city simulation, Cities XL, (not an EA game, btw) which looks like it's trying to offer realistic city simulation again (and hopefully, unlike City Life, an actual manual)
And then there was MySims. To be fair, MySims was never created for me. It was created for younger people. MySims has Sims in the title, but.. they aren't Sims, really. It's far more like Animal Crossing, in some ways. In terms of collecting things (essences) and then doing things with those essences. Namely, putting them to use painting objects you're creating. It was cute, but.. the game lacked depth and it lacked much in the way of a real point. It was kinda disappointing.
Then there was SimCity Creator, for Wii, also clearly geared more towards kids than adults, which offered alot of the challenges in SimCity 3,000, but with a crappy interface. Though the special buildings were neat. I wouldn't mind seeing those buildings offered in a the future. The idea of buildings that could change how your city looks, visually.
And then there was Spore...
Spore, awesome in scope, brilliant in concept, so overhyped that when the game itself came out, it was a huge disappointment.
To me, a telling tale of the lack of depth of this game was the Prima Guide. Every GOOD Sims game had a HUGE Prima Guide to go along with it. At least 300-400 pages. Chock full of tips and tricks on everything to do with the game. The Spore guide was 200 pages long, and the actual amount of pages developed to building neat characters, buildings and crafts was about half that.
Truth be told, Spore did one thing well.. if you were looking to use your imagination to build interesting creatures, unique buildings and unique crafts, this game had it! If you were looking for a great game with lots of depth and lots of replayability, this game had.. very little to offer. And I'm not certain what the upcoming expansion set will offer. Truth be told, that expansion set will be the telltale sign. If no one buys it, I'd say Spore is dead. We'll see...
So the question comes down to, when you look at all this, does EA/Maxis KNOW how to make a good game anymore?
That said... I've been keeping my eyes on what Sims 3 has to offer. I can't speak for what the rest of EA has been up to, but the team behind Sims 3 seems to be at least filled with people who not only love The Sims 2 themselves, but listens to their fans. That's not to say the Fans got everything they want, by any means, but that it's clear the team listened.
The driving force behind Sims 3, I truly believe, was to offer the Open Neighborhood. It was to offer your Sims a chance to get out of their house and live as part of a community. But along the way, they've definitely listened to their fans and offered tools that will help us do the types of things we wanted to do. So the Sims look even more realistic now. You can do small simple things that make our life easier like pulling an existing wall, with things on it and pulling it back with everything still attached, instead of having to move/delete and redo it all. Like having furniture that can be moved at more than 90 degree angles and desks and tables that can hold more stuff. Like having even more chances to have individual Sims, with different hair colors, face shapes, body types and voices...
Some of the things they're proposing COULD get lame. If the AI for the various different personality traits doesn't meet expectations, and your Sims still all act alike, that would be very frustrating. And the open environment is a *HUGE* risk, though one I'm excited about myself.
I can't help but think alot more details have been leaked out this time around too. There's been alot of official leaking from Maxis over Sims 3. On their website, in special fan events where fan site owners have been asked to come over and see the game (including one two days ago in Manchester and London), and everything we're seeing suggests a huge depth of game here.
So.. could Sims 3 disappoint? Yes, it could. But I don't think it's likely, so much as you don't have god-like expectations that this game is going to fulfill every want for a Sim you could possibly have. The game looks cool, in and of itself, with alot of depth and a lot of replayability. That.. should be enough.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-06 07:09 pm (UTC)The personality AI sounds like a more complicated version of the personality traits from MySims. I'm curious to know if your town is full of a certain trait, say evil for example, if it has an effect on the type of NPC's you get as well as things that happen around town. Like a town full of goths getting more ghosts. Sort of like what happened in Sim City: Societies.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-05-06 07:42 pm (UTC)However, killing more people means getting more ghosts ;)
If the personality traits are done well and if they come out when you aren't playing (if Evil sims are ALWAYS evil, whether you're playing them or not), then I agree, the AI system is significantly more complicated than that in Sims 2, which is tres exciting! :)
It really comes down to how smart the AI is. If the AI is consistent (ie.. excitable sims are always excitable, kleptomaniac sims are always kleptos, etc.), then.. I think we've got a quality product. If not...