The Sims 3 Fan Fest

Friday May 15^th 2009 was finally there: The start of the Sims 3 Fan Fest!

Along with 30 others, my friend and I were invited to the Sims 3 Fan Fest in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Also MJ Chun (associate producer of the Sims 3) and Anita Keeman (community manager @ EA Games Benelux) were there.

At 11:45 AM we were welcomed by Anita, who asked us to sign a paper in which we agreed to the condition not to make any pictures of the presentation nor the actual screen during game play. That’s why no Sims 3 pictures were taken by me that day.

After signing the paper we were invited for some drinks in the hall. Because the presentation started 15 minutes later then planned, they allowed us to stay and play a little longer towards the end.

When we came into the conference room, MJ Chun gave her presentation on the new game using a large screen. She played as the Crumplebottom family in Sunset Valley. Although Sunset Valley is the only neighborhood shipped with Sims 3, MJ said that after Sims 3 is launched, you will be able to download another neighborhood from the official site: Riverview. Whether you will be able to create your own neighborhood in the future is not known yet.

MJ also showed us how the behavior of a Sim can differ, depending on the character type you choose. For example, if you’ve created a Happy Sim, then you will have specials options for this character type (e.g. “pull a funny face”). One of the moderators of the Dutch Sims 2 site created an evil Sim. It also had specials options (e.g. “take an evil shower”). The various character types are taken literally during the game, which makes it very funny to watch.

After MJ’s presentation and demo we finally could play Sims 3 ourselves! I wrote down a couple of things that I saw, which are new:

Building:

You can rotate furniture 45 degrees without using cheats
You have more grid points (8 in total)
You can buy furnished and unfurnished lots
You have a color palette which allows you to choose all colors for an object
You can choose between various textures like: fabrics, leather and fur, carpets, abstract, geometric, wood, metals, synthetics and rubber, etc.
Reflections of transparent items, like windows and water are awesome. In them, you can even see the reflection of the sun
Shadows and sunlight are more beautiful and realistic
You cannot put a swimming pool in a diagonal position
You can choose certain categories by clicking on a small drawing
You have small beds for toddlers

Creating Sims:

You have many different characters (evil, hopeless romantic, party animal, happy)
Thanks to the color palettes you can give various items (clothing, hair, eyes, jewelry, etc.) any color you want
You can choose different textures for clothing, like: fabrics, leather, fur etc.
You can create toddlers, children, teenagers, young adults, adults and elders
You can choose shoes and socks
You can only choose between following outfits: casual, formal, pajamas, swimwear and sportswear
Any skin color you want (due to the color palettes)
You can make you Sim look fat or skinny, and muscular
You can adapt the length of eyelashes
Just like with Sims 2, you can adapt the face in every form and shape
You cannot make the Sims taller or shorter
Just like with Sims 2, you can create 8 characters max.
My family started off with 17,000 simleons, but I don’t think this is a fixed value

Game mode:

Controlling the screen is a little bit different then in Sims 2. You move the screen using your right mouse-button and turning your mouse-wheel.
If you let your Sims do several successive actions, like: ‘move here’, ‘watch T.V.’, ‘sleep’, etc. you will see these actions at the top of the screen just like with the Sims 2. But additionally there is an ‘action waiting list’ which shows for the selected action a ‘progress bar’ so you can see exactly when your Sim is ready with an action. Once one particular action is done, the progress bar is empty
You can pickup things from the floor, after which they will be added to your inventory
By means of a slide-bar you can set the lifetime of your family (25 to 960 days)
Babies can be carried
If babies are born, they don’t wear diapers, but are wrapped in a blanket
You can walk through your neighborhood and visit other Sims. If the destination is too far, you can take a cab or a bike
You can steal things and use them, but take care you don’t get caught!
Mail is delivered by both adults and children
You can walk, ride a bike or drive a car

Neighborhood:

You have different lots: Houses, empty lots, parks, placed where you can find a job, and many more
As I said before, you only have one neighborhood, but like any other game you can always start a ‘new game’. This way you can have various saves of Sunset Valley, but with different families. In other words, you can save your neighborhood just like your families.
You can buy furnished and unfurnished lots
No more ‘loading’ screens
You can zoom in much more, and have a better look of the neighborhood.

Cheats:

You open the cheat bar the same way as in Sims 2 (Ctrl-Shift-C)
The cheat bar is transparent blue and the game is automatically paused and screen darkens whenever the cheat bar is opened.
The maxmotives cheat still works
The motherlode cheat still works

I think that was it. Unfortunately I did not write down more because I was too busy playing the game!

After playing Sims 3, and a nice lunch, MJ Chun presented the new Sims 3 Community. She explained how to upload things from Sims 3 and what you can do with it.

Then we were all sent to the hall for a special surprise. Everybody received a green bag containing: A big 35cm Plumbbob made out of stiff cardboard, a hair band with a Plumbbob on top (really funny!), An introduction DVD to Sims 3 that included movies, interviews with the designers, screensavers, wallpapers and much, much more. It also included a special code allowing us to download exclusive style patterns for Sims 3 in the near future.

The best thing we received was a Plumbbob keyring that had a 2 GB USB stick in it, which you could pull out. The USB also included screensavers, wallpapers and the original Sims 3 theme song in MP3 format.

After chatting for a while, and having another look at our presents, we were asked to participate in a group picture.

And her it is! (Click on photo to enlarge)

(MJ Chun: sitting row 3rd from the right, Anita Keeman; sitting row 4th from the right, me: front row 4th from the right)

After the photo shoot we were given some extra time to create a Sim or a lot, which will be highlighted on the Sims 3 site. After uploading them, we received the group photo with an autograph of MJ Chun. A beautiful memory of this great day.

I would like to thank everybody of EA Games for this fantastic day, and the gifts I received. I am very happy that I was allowed to be present on this exclusive event, thanx!

Regards,

Chloë van Dosselaar