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Game Features:

• Create-a-Sim

  • Create-a-Sim is the character (Sim) builder, where 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 weight, fitness, hair, and clothing, etc. Footwear and head-wear can now be chosen individually. Players can customize nearly everything in the game, including furniture, clothes and shoes. Rod Humble described the new interface in Create-A-Sim as “drastically different”. Prominent birthmarks such as freckles can also be added to Sims. A preview tour of The Sims 3 with Ben Bell showed that players could create their own eye color with the color wheel (As used with Create-a-Style tool.) Individual fitness bars have been added to adjust the Sims’ obesity and muscularity between extreme levels. In The Sims 2, there were only three body types—fat, normal and fit. As in The Sims 2, body shape varies with diet and exercise, so that Sims created as overweight can become slim by exercising and Sims created thin may become fat by eating too much and not exercising. Skin color is also continuous, instead of the four colors of The Sims 2, and exotic colors such as blue and green are available. When customizing hair, the player is shown a circle with all shades and hues of colors, and able to choose the base hair color, tips, roots, and even highlights. Texture for clothing follows a similar formatting scheme. Players will also be able to adjust the pitch of their Sim’s voices.
  • According to those who attended the Creators’ Camp event held, a “Create-a-Twin” feature has also been added, allowing players to create identical twins.

• Sim’s Personalities

• Personality configuration for Sims has also been made more complex, with the original ‘percentage bar’-style personality points replaced by a combination of traits, similar to those in the personals section of newspapers. Toddlers have two traits, and a new one is added for each new life stage, until they reach young adulthood—so they will have 3 as a child, 4 as a teen, then 5 as a young adult, which are the five traits they will stay with for the rest of their lives. When creating a Sim, however, all trait spots do not need to be filled.
• Create-A-Sim now features more than 60 unique traits to choose from. It is not possible to give a Sim traits that contradict each other (such as Brave and Cowardly). The player can also edit a Sim’s favorite color, music genre, and food.

• Buy and Build Modes

• • The build and buy modes have received their own makeover. The square outlines that appeared on the ground in previous Sims games’ build and buy modes are now four times smaller to give the player more liberty to place objects where they want. However, wallpapers will not configure to fourth tiles. The square grid allows the player to see where they can possibly place the objects in the game. The player can also turn off the grid and rotate objects freely. This feature will make objects easier to locate at the player’s desired location. If a counter or connecting objects is placed on a diagonal wall, it will automatically snap into place and furniture such as chairs and tables can easily be moved together. Also, many small objects can be put on a table very close together.
  • The overall game has the option to “customize everything”, choosing a color through all 32-bits and use different patterns (the game has predefined samples for objects, etc). For instance, on a couch the player will be able to customize the arms, cushions, base and seats separately.
  • The “auto-roof” function now updates the roof when walls are rebuilt. Features such as wide staircases and basements are also easier to build.The spray paint terrain feature returns from the Sims 2, but this time allows the player to spray square floor tiles. A “wall drag” tool allows the player to grow or shrink a room, moving the furniture with it. A new “slot” system gives several choices where to place decorative objects on surfaces, such as tables and dressers. Most existing objects can be recolored and re-textured.

• Movie Making Tool

• • The official website has announced that there will be a movie making tool. This tool, known as the Movie Mash Up tool will enable the player to create and share movies on the Sims 3 exchange using footage from their own game. As the camera angles within the game will be more accurate and the graphics will be better, the quality of these movies will be greater than those produced using The Sims 2.

• Lost Features

• • Almost everything from the original The Sims 2 can also be found in the original The Sims 3, but among the “lost” features are separate underwear styles (though Sims can wear underwear as their pajamas style), hot tubs, pianos (replaced by the guitar), physical aspiration rewards (replaced by lifetime happiness bonuses), diving boards, private school, visible retail stores (they are now hidden from the player), the cleaning skill and the slacker career.

Site Features:

• The Exchange: Building off of The Sims 2 Exchange’s success of more than 100M downloads, The Sims 3 Exchange highlights featured items, most popular downloads, powerful search and browser capabilities, along with giving players the ability to see what other players are recommending.
• Create a Movie and Create a Story: New easily accessible tools inspire creativity and allow players to create movies and stories and then show them off or share them with friends. Players can show off their Movies with the Create a Movie Tool by embedding them on external sites or with an email link back to their Movie on TheSims3.com.
• My Page and My Studio: The Sims 3 product site will allow players to maintain their profile pages on their My Page section as well as offering them the new My Studio section to manage all their creations – Movies, stories, Exchange objects. My Page is also a blog space where players can post news, customize it with a personal avatar, track favorites and more. Users can make friends with other The Sims 3 players and share their content across a number of social network sites.

Site Elements:

• The Sims 3 Store: Included with purchase of the game is £6 worth of SimPoints, which players receive when they first register their game online at TheSims3.com. They can use their SimPoints towards downloading exclusive in-game items from The Sims 3 Store, to customize their game. For additional items, players can purchase bundles of 500, 1000 and 2000 SimPoints in $USD, EUR, GBP and other major international currencies using a variety of payment methods including international and national credit cards, PayPal, and EA cash cards (in North America only). Whether it’s the must-have new outfit or the latest style of plaid furniture, players have the opportunity to further customize and populate their Sims world with additional items.
• Game Launcher: The Game Launcher is the key entry point for players into TheSims3.com community. This hub page connects players to both the Store and the Exchange, and provides them with news and information about game updates. Players can keep track of their downloads, uploads, installs, game updates and their media portfolio that includes the videos and photos they can capture while playing the game. The Game Launcher also alerts players to new content in the store, localized game and store promotions along with relevant updates to the Store and cool new content from the community.
• TheSims3.Com Site: With the launch of the game on June 5, the marketing website at TheSims3.com will be replaced with the full community and product site for the game. The site will not only connect players, encourage new ways to be creative in the game, and offer personally relevant information for each user, it also will serve as the hub site where players can share their content with other members, and embed them on social networking sites and blogs.

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