We wish them the best being apart and hope it works well. We hope works out for Kate raising 8 kids in the same house. We hope it works out when Jon visits & spends time with the 8 kids. We wish Jon & Kate good luck on their divorce.
In order to win the heart of counselor Cindy Keyes, kitchen boy Will Cross comes to realize that becoming King of the Camp takes much more than beating tough guy Chase Gunn in a wake boarding competition.
The Sims 3 is a strategic life simulation video game in the popular and critically acclaimed The Sims franchise, originally created by Maxis. Within the series' in-game chronology, it is a prequel to both The Sims and The Sims 2, as well as spin-offs such as The Sims: Bustin' Out. A collector's edition is also available, which comes with a free sports car download, a sticker sheet, a 2GB Plumbob-shaped USB drive, and 10 USD to spend at The Sims 3 Store.In contrast to the previous versions, the houses and neighborhoods are seamless, allowing players to explore and interact with their neighborhood without loading time.
Gameplay Sim houses and neighborhoods are entirely in one continuous map, and the developers state that "What you do outside your home now matters as much as what you do within." The game includes an optional feature called 'story progression', which allows all Sims in the neighborhood apart from those the player is currently controlling to autonomously continue as if the player was controlling them, i.e. grow up, get married, get jobs and promotions, have kids, and so forth. Unlike previous Sims games, features may be toggled on or off to the user's preference; for instance, a player may toggle off aging/death if they do not want that feature to be enabled. Of the eight needs of The Sims 1 & 2, only six (hunger, bladder, energy, social, hygiene and fun) remain, removing comfort and environment. These are represented by "moodlets", attributes which are acquired special events, such as minor events like tooth brushing and major ones like a wedding, and affect the Sims' behavior. Several minor features from The Sims 2 expansion packs appear in the The Sims 3, such as the "young adult" life stage, mobile phones and guitars (University), private cars, personal inventories (Nightlife), fishing and gardening (Seasons), jewelry and accessories, (Bon Voyage), tooth brushing, ceilings and playground structures (Apartment Life) . However, none of the main features from expansion packs, such as a Sim going to college (University), will be available yet.
Neighborhood exploration On March 19, 2008, EA revealed a new feature to The Sims 3: neighborhood exploration. Sims can now explore the world outside their homes without having to face strenuous loading times. Every lot is now synched to the main neighborhood time, whereas before, the time of day (and weather) was different in each lot and would continue off from the last time it was played. Players can also interact with every building in a neighborhood. So, for example, the player can enter their neighbor's house by "ringing their doorbell". Every Sim lives out their lives simultaneously; people will move in, move out, get married, etc., all as they play. There is also be a setting that restricts their actions to minor things like showering, eating, and going to the bathroom. Each job has a specific building designated to it. Players are not able to see inside but are able to have limited control of their Sims—tell them to work overtime, laze around, listen to the boss and so on.[15] As in The Sims 2, there are residential lots and community lots. Most community lots in The Sims 3 are dominated by a public building, which functions as an elementary object - larger than most other gameplay objects. A Sim can interact with a public building - working, going to school, shopping, taking lessons, watching performances etc - but is hidden inside the building during interaction. Sims can easily move around the town with various transportation devices such as taxicabs, private cars, bicycles, or running, while letting the rest of the family stay independent at home - compared with The Sims 2, where time freezes on the home lot when a Sim visits a community lot.
Skills There are several skill-dependent abilities - such as advanced social interactions available from high charisma, and special songs for guitar players. Painting, writing and guitar are now different skills, instead of the all-encompassing "creativity" skill of The Sims and The Sims 2. Paintings are more unique to each Sim based on their traits.
Careers Many careers are available to pursue and each has a workplace building in the neighborhood which Sims travel to for their shifts. Sims can also apply for jobs within these buildings. Though Sims are hidden inside buildings during the workday, the player can control their behavior at work to a certain extent. Like previous Sims games, the job yields "opportunities" — tasks that could be finished for a reward. There are also part-time jobs. Sims can also take actions to increase their productivity while not at work, such as bringing work home or working overtime. Each career has several rewards, instead of only one as in The Sims 2. Careers can also branch into several possible promotions. Each career branches off into different jobs that branch off as well. For example, if there were two Sims in the Business career track, they may not end up with the same jobs or duties even if they were on the same level in their careers. Nonetheless, a Sim who reaches the peak of a respective career can still receive raises, rewards, and additional payment if he or she keeps performing well at work.
Features
Create-a-Sim
The gradual increase in weight on a Sim in The Sims 3. 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 are 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.
Sims' 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 have 3 as a child, 4 as a teen, then 5 as a young adult, which are the five traits they 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.
Build and buy 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 do 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 makes objects easier to locate at the player's desired location. If a counter or connecting objects is placed on a diagonal wall, it automatically snaps 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 is 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 recoloured 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.
Development [hide]System Requirements
Requirements Windows[20]
Operating System Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista Service Pack 1 CPU Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent2.0GHz (XP)2.4GHz (Vista) [If built-in graphics chipsets then 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent.] Memory 1 GB (XP)1.5GB (Vista)[If built-in graphics then add 0.5 GB additional RAM] Hard Drive Space 6.1GB or more for extra content Graphics Hardware DirectX 9.0c compliant card with 128 MB RAM (NVIDIA FX 5900/ATI 9500 or better) and support for Pixel Shader 2.0 Sound Hardware 100% DirectX 9.0c compliant card Macintosh
Operating System Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard CPU Intel Core Duo Processor Memory 2 GB Hard Drive Space 6.1GB of free space and 1GB for additional content Graphics Hardware ATI X1600 or NVIDIA 7300 GT with 128 MB RAM or Intel Integrated GMA X3100 Electronic Arts first announced Sims 3 on the 19th March, 2008. The game was developed at their studio in Redwood Shores, CaliforniaHYPERLINK \l "cite_note-techinfo-21"[22], whose other titles include Dead Space. On January 15, 2009, EA invited "some of the best" custom content creators to their campus at Redwood Shores where they were hosting a Creator’s Camp. Creators have been invited to spend the week exploring and creating content like Sims, houses and customized content. The Creators' work is used to pre-populate The Sims 3 Exchange.
Audio The music to The Sims 3 was written by composer Steve Jablonsky, who recorded the score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox.
Software copy restriction Some of EA's other recent PC titles, such as Spore and Dead Space, have used a SecuROM copy restriction scheme that requires online and offline authentication and limits the number of times a user can install the game to five. While it was speculated that The Sims 3 would use the same system, on March 26, executive producer Rod Humble revealed that The Sims 3 uses traditional disk-based copy protection as Sims 2 did, and does not require online authentication to install. A product key is also required. However, SecuROM based restriction is still present within the "Digital Download" version of the title, limiting users to a total of 5 authorizations for 5 different machines via online activation, each of which can be de-authorized online at any time.
Release The game was released as both a standard edition and a Collector's Edition. The standard edition contains the first release of the core game, while the Collector's Edition includes the Sims 3 core game, a 2GB The Sims Plumbob USB drive with matching Green Carabiner, an exclusive Italian-styled/Vintage Sports Car download for in-game, a Prima Tips and Hints Guide (not the actual Sims3 Prima Guide), Plumbob stickers, The Sims 3 Neighborhood Poster, and a quick start reference guide.[28]HYPERLINK \l "cite_note-28"[29] It is still unknown which countries are / will be able to purchase the Collectors' Edition. A preview CD with more information about The Sims 3, such as music samples, family descriptions, and career information, was also released. In the seventh expansion pack for The Sims 2, The Sims 2: FreeTime, an event occurs in which a Sim-version of Rod Humble, the head of The Sims franchise, gives the player's Sim family an unopened gift box. When opened, the family gets a computer with The Sims 3 on it. The Sims 3 game cannot be bought in the catalog. Sims can then play The Sims 3 on their computers or console systems. Like all the other games that Sims can play in The Sims 2, The Sims 3 is a looping gameplay video shown on the player's Sim's computer screens when played by a Sim. On July 15, 2008 the first video preview of The Sims 3 appeared on the official website as did seven new screenshots and five Create-A-Sim screens. Four screenshots that appeared on the website and were then taken down soon after, leaked onto the internet by a member of the community. Copies of the video game Spore also came packaged with fliers advertising the game, with information stating whole-neighborhood accessibility and endless possibilities on character creation. On October 31, 2008, two teaser trailers were released by Electronic Arts featuring a comical view on the 2008 presidential election in the United States. Candidates John McCain and Barack Obama were included along with John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin, and Barack Obama's running mate Joe Biden.[30] In the eighth expansion pack of The Sims 2, The Sims 2: Apartment Life, new objects were added including logo posters and framed screenshots. The game was shipped with a code and an internet address, where the player could download clothing with The Sims 3 logo on it. Another developer walkthrough was released on November 6, 2008, featuring in-depth previews of the neighborhood and Create-A-Sim. On March 23, 2009, the look and feel of The Sims 3 was seamlessly threaded throughout the storyline of an all new episode of The CW series One Tree Hill. On screen, the episode opens in an idealized Sims version of One Tree Hill and then transitions into the real Tree Hill. As this episode plays out, Sims versions of popular One Tree Hill characters are introduced and then morph into the real-life characters, including Dan (Paul Johansson), Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) and Peyton (Hilarie Burton). The Sims 3 versions of the characters are available for download via CW's official website. On April 19, 2009, Target exclusively released a promotional disc of The Sims 3 that features a Ladytron Band poster, The Sims 3 theme song music download, and a $5 off coupon. The main menu includes screensaver downloads, videos, Create-A-Sim, Create-A-House, and much more. There is no actual gameplay involved, but it describes what playing feels like. On May 8, 2009, EA announced that The Sims 3 had gone Gold meaning that the game had finished beta testing stage and was off for manufacturing ahead of its June 2009 Release. On May 15, 2009 EA released some online interactive teaser experiences on The Sims 3 Website, including 'SimFriend', which allows users to choose a vitual Sim Friend who would email them throughout the day. 'SimSocial', which allows users to create their own Sim online, and have an adventure with them. 'SimSidekick', which allows users to surf the web with a sim. Two weeks before the game was scheduled to be released, a pirated version of the digital distribution version of the game leaked onto the Internet. EA later commented the leak was a "buggy, pre-final" version. EA claims that more than half of the game is missing and is susceptible to crashes or Reportedly, the title has seen higher piracy rates than that of the most pirated game of 2008.