Sims is very much the Marmite of modern gaming, in that you either love it or loathe and the latest instalment, Sims 3, has popped up on N-Gage over the last few days. So, we thought we'd get re-acquainted with the 'virtual' life and see what it has to offer. See how we got on in our N-Gage: Sims 3 review....
Sims 3 starts out with you building a character. This isn't juts a case of choosing some clothes, a hair style and a name, as you also need to set five character traits from the list on offer. For instance, our character comes with a complex mix of Good Sense of Humour, Easily Impressed, Modest, Active and Slob, which a mix!
Once you've generated your character you'll find yourself in a rather cheap and basic house with some money but no job and no friends. What are you going to do? Sit in and watch TV or go out and get a life? This essentially is the essence of the game, do you do nothing but 'goof around' or do you get out and get on with things?
Covering off all the daily routine, such as eating, sleeping and washing need to be taken in to account, as well as meeting people and we found this part the hardest to get used to. In fact, our first character starved to death he was having so much fun going around getting involved with stuff!
It's this challenges part, or Goals as it's called in-game that adds to the Sims experience. Different Goals pop up and you can choose or ignore the ones you like or don't like, such 'befriend your boss' or 'learn to fish', and add an extra dimension to the game. However, choosing 'use someone else's toilet' is a quick way to lose what few friends you may have.
You'll find there are less features and a tighter control of what you can actually do in this mobile version, so it's a faster moving game. However, every time you move between screens it does prompt you to save, which can slow things down.
Sims 3 is a decent game and there is enough here to keep you playing. Sure, it lacks the breadth of features found on the full PC game and to go back to the Marmite analogy, there is nothing here to tempt you to taste it again, but if you just need a quick fix of your 'virtual life' when out and about.
Details
Price: £6
Rating: 3+
Size: 3MB
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