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In our most recent epic adventure of our Sims, we’ve been reading a lot of books, eating cheestesteaks and slapping ghosts. We’ve finally come to the conclusion that the third installment of the franchise is actually the best of them all.

The first and most important thing that distinguishes itself from its predecessors is the fact that you have the ability to travel around your neighbourhood with different means of transportation, including your very own car ! Luckily, this time, the pesky loading screens aren’t that much of a bugger.

Major improvements are to be seen in the game. Managing the life of your Sim isn’t so hard, their need bars take much more longer to empty, and jobs aren’t so stressful now.

Lets start with the Create-a-Sim phase at the start of a new game. The interface is much more improved, and you have many more possibilities to customize your Sim. You can go even more in-depth to shaping your Sim’s specific body area. Furthermore, you can customize your Sim’s personality much better. You have a lot of traits to choose from, but you can only have 5 per Sim. These traits generate a lifetime wish that your Sim is recommended to complete for a lot of lifetime reward points (we’ll talk about them later). These wishes range from mastering the art of cooking, to becoming The Leader of the Free World.

OMG ! The Rolling Pebbles are here !

Once you’re done creating a Sim, you’re thrown in your specific neighbourhood, and can choose whether to buy a house or a lot. Houses come furnished and non-furnished.

There are many new items and furniture in The Sims 3. The building mode and the construction mode features more possibilities, and it has been made a wee bit easier to use. In fact, building houses is my favorite part in the game.

Lifetime reward points are gained by fulfilling your Sim’s wishes that randomly generate. These can range from preparing a meal to owning a lot worth 1.000.000 Simoleons. Lifetime reward points are used to buy lifetime rewards. These can be traits or items that help you in your Sim’s life.

Work isn’t so stressful now. When you go to work, or school for that matter, you have different modes to choose from, for example, ‘Business as Usual’ is the default mode when going to work. Your chance of promotion is normal, but you don’t stress yourself so much; whereas ‘Work Hard’ has a higher chance of promotion, but you stress yourself a lot.

Moodlets are.. things that affect your overall mood. Treat your Sim well so that he may have the time of his life !

Isn't she beautiful ?.. I'm talking about the car...

Interacting with other Sims is much more rewarding. You don’t have to actually chat with another Sim for 4 hours to get your Social meter maxed… You have more options of interactivity, making it interesting to watch how the other Sim reacts to what you say or do. Speaking of interactivity, it has been improved in all domains. Cooking a meal doesn’t require you to click so many times, you have more TV channels etc.

Your neighbourhood is usually huge, and you can go and visit many places, go shopping, take lessons, look for a job. You can even play your guitar in the park. Getting there, however, is a bit awkward. Cars stroll through the neighbourhood at impossible speeds, they take turns almost instantly and run over anyone or anything in front of them. But that’s a minor setback to this awesome game.

Too lazy to get a job ? But are you rich ? Not a problem ! You can become partners or even buy out neighbourhood shops to generate a weekly revenue that you can go and pick up ! It’s worth it if you got the greens ! Too lazy to do that as well ? Not a problem ! You can play your guitar in the park for tips ! If you’re a talented musician and go to a crowded place, you can get up to 500 dollars in tips per day ! Don’t want to get out of the house ? No problem ! Write novels and earn weekly royalty payments !

As you can see, the UI is much cooler.

The graphics are also improved in the game. The Sims still use the good old gibberish, but they all have different voices. What I don’t really like is the fact that there are no cutscenes when a Sim marries, or has WooHoo, or gets its first kiss. Oh well…

Overall, the improved gameplay, graphics, sound effects… pretty much everything makes it the best of its franchise, and if you’re not familiar with it, it’s the best place to start.