The Sims 3 : Pets

By Reardon Jones

There is one game from primary school that stuck with me for years. Sim City. The ability to build and run civilisation was pretty cool as a little tacker (Eventually, as most kids thought, destroying it was even better).

Advance 15 years and incredible changes to the gaming industry...

Enter The Sims 3: Pets. A new age in story telling that allows the gamer to control all aspects of the Sims lives.

Developers at EA Play and The Sims Studio allow gamers to take direct control of their pets as they help their Sims uncover and solve mysteries of the town.

With The Sims franchise spending most of its life on the PC, The Sims 3: Pets is the second title to be released on console and should appease those with a slight creative edge.

Playing the game on the XBox 360 the pets are limited to either Dogs or Cats. (However horses are available to adopt on PC/Mac and expansion packs are currently available that increase the variety of animals).

After selecting an adorable little puppy we got straight into the Sims character creator. Here the option to select specific character traits are available. 

The traits specifically relate to the beahviour of your selected pet, how they interact with their owners, other animals and so on.

This aspect is great as you can make your pet lazy, quiet and gentle or make them playful, aggressive and stubborn. All in all there are about thirty character traits to choose from.

We found that not knowing what the little guy was going to do was half the fun of playing through. A random act from your pet makes them even more cute then they already are.

Giving our dog an adventurous demeanour meant he would explore and sniff everything. The cheeky little thing would wander outside to see what was going on in the world of Sims.

However if you wanted a more carefree environment, than give them the lazy or clueless trait. Every combination of traits will provide varied results in character. 

Everything from a dog digging up the backyard or a cat clawing the furniture to shreds.

By the way did I mention that these pets are really cute? I did already huh? Well, I dare you to disagree. 

So with my adventurous and loyal pup in toe, I set out to explore the world I had created. The Sims 3 enables you to learn new skills and find collectibles throughout the city. 

As a platform gamer I found having specific goals or missions an added bonus as it added some direction.

There are side missions such as needing to make certain friends, searching for treasure or even hunting for ghosts which was an added surprise. 

All of these quests go into enhancing your Sim or Pet by levelling up, opening new skills and unlocking new areas of the city.

The introduction of Kinect technology, whilst an added feature, was probably not essential. The ability to provide verbal instructions to your Sim should make the gamer feel more connected to the virtual reality aspects of the game. 

However we found it easier using the controller to get the neccessary tasks completed. I am not completely sold on the Kinect and Move yet. Time will tell on that one.

My only other gripe with this game is that moving around the map is slow and tedious, the game even gets a little patchy at times. This may be done purposefully by the developers to regulate the game speed. Regardless, it’s annoying.

The Sims 3 Pets has certain key features available solely for the Nintendo 3DS. New karma powers will be available to collect play coins to satisfy for Sim. Also gamers will have the capabilities to trade pets with friends through Nintendo StreetPass on the 3DS.

If you ever wanted a pet and your parents kept saying "NO", than this games for you, whilst fans of the Sims franchise will appreciate this as a great addition to the collection.

Game: The Sims 3 : Pets
System: Playstation 3, XBox 360, PC, 3DS, Wii
Developer/Co-Developer: EA Plays / The Sims Studio
Publisher: Electronic Arts

Rating: 70%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)