Living a double life is possible, as long as your battery is charged – The Sims 3

Since the Palm CES conference in early January 2010, there’s been a lot of buzz about 3D gaming on the webOS platform. EA Games (Electronic Arts) was one of the game developers to debut their popular Sims franchise on the mobile handset, and with the latest update for the Palm Pre (version 1.3.5) opens the doors for developers to design what they want.

The Sims has been around since the year 2000 and has released a number of expansion packs and new releases to set an image for itself The mobile handset is not the direct port from the PC version, but does follow a similar formula, plus includes a few mini-games, goals and designing features to extend the replay value. The game was developed by EA games and was originally released for the iPhone for $9.99, the same price being sold through Palm’s App Catalog.

The performance of the application is fairly quick; however I did encounter the Too Many Cards error a few times. In order for me to counter this error, I was forced to reboot the phone. It’s possible with the latest 1.4 update coming in February will resolve this error or EA Games needs to release a patch. I started to experience some slight frame-rate issues when other sims started coming into play. It’s somewhat expected, since the game does have some A.I. and will definitely make use of the CPU to handle it, including the amount of polygons rendered in-game. The hardware sticks to it pretty well, and hasn’t crashed on me yet, the textures are detailed enough and offers a nice level of anti-aliasing to the environment.

Since the game uses a lot of the hardware capabilities, you can bet that your battery will be used more substantially then your typical power drain . It’s a good idea to close all your app’s and hardware features (except for the cell radio) to maximize the battery life or just keep it plugged in if you’re at home or in your car. I managed to play a few hours until the phone decided to power down during game play.  Other than that, the game is a lot of fun, and makes use of multi-touch gestures and the accelerometer to progress through the game.

UI

The games user interface has been streamlined and designed to be finger friendly. A lot of the UI elements are large and legible without taking up too much screen real estate. Since this application was built using the new PDK, also by a large corporation, you will definitely not find any default API buttons here. The entire theme and overall workings of the game is very similar to the PC, using blue and green colors to make up most of the interface. The game uses  the multi-touch display for tilting the camera into different angles by placing to fingers on the screen, and perform a gesture as if you’re twisting a dial. You can take the camera to a P.O.V level, by keeping one finger static and the other moving up or down. These controls does take some time getting used to, but it’s fun to watch how well the graphics render on screen while adjusting your settings in real time. One part that I didn’t expect was how to zoom, instead of using the typical pinching method, the developer decided to use a scroll bar. Not a deal breaker, just odd that they opted for a zoom bar then using touch gestures.

Your menu is organize and easily accessible throughout the game. On the left side, you have some basic notifications that your sim is well rested or may need something. Towards the bottom left, you have the chair icon that allows you to purchase, move and sell your items. These features are very easy to use, simply by tapping and confirming your purchase, move the object around a neon green grid and rotating it. The rotation method could be better, the user has to be in moving mode, tap the object and tap rotate. The object will rotate 90 degree clock wise, but you have to repeat these steps until your finished. The developers could have just created a left and right arrow button, signifying to rotate left or right and tapping the OKAY button to complete the process. Selling your items will be cheaper from the original price tag, and not a lot of items are available from the start. As you progress through the game, new appliances and household items will go on sale and allow you to buy them. This does delay your chances to design right away, but it does allow a deeper involvement with your sim and provide some self satisfaction that you’ve worked enough to be able to purchase that stove you always wanted.

Next part is your sims status meter, these meters will indicate by color and symbols, green being good and red being critical. These status lines indicate how hungry, dirty, bloated, sleepy, bored your sim is. If you’re not paying attention to these elements,  itwill cause the game to react and the sim will suffer the consequences. If your sim is smelly, your chances of making friends will be harder and your overall hygiene will plummet as well. Be sure to check their bladder, they will soil themselves, thus dropping their hygiene as far as possible, plus humiliating and embarrassing yourself at the same time. If your sim is hungry, it must be fed or he/she will die of hunger. If your sim is tired, they will sleep in more and potentially miss work, and that will lead to getting fired. Managing your sim is crucial to this game, and will require attention.

Your sims wishes will also appear in your menu as a yellow icon. These wishes are events that this sim wants to do, and when completing all these wishes, you’ll receive a bonus. I’m not sure what the bonus is, since I was not able to complete the wishes, but most likely it will be a cash prize. The next icon is the sim diamond icon, this will open the status menu and access all the information you need, who your friends are, what job status, persona, inventory, wishes, skills and more. You can also use this menu to quickly transport your sim from your home, to your town and your work. So if your sim is taking a shower, and you have about 5 seconds to go to work, you can tap the work icon to instantly take your sim to work and the time lapse will kick in.

One thing I’ve noticed was the game’s lack of backup. I wasn’t able to locate it when in USB mode, but since the game progresses quickly, it would be simple enough to create a new Sim and start over again. However you’ll notice that in most of my reviews, I always encourage a backup solution. I personally had suffered losing my application settings and always keep a look out for a backup solution. The Fuel application that I reviewed earlier this month, does an excellent job of doing this, by exporting your data to Google Docs. I wouldn’t mind backing up the app data in a folder, as long as its available and easy to import when needed.

Who Am I?…WHO……Am I?

The Sims is well known for customization, from the color of your hair and eyes, down to your clothes and personality. The mobile edition hasn’t cut any corners and have ported a lot of the sim customizations to the game, allowing for unique flexibility, plus if you just want to dive right in, you can randomly generate your sim by tapping the dice icon. Interestingly, when I ran this generator, it built a sim with a sharp mohawk, a pair of green jeans, a jacket and sneakers. You have the choice of five persona’s for your sim, from being nice, trashy or just wild. Then you have to choose 5 traits for your sim, and these are laid out as being shy, having a good sense of humor, being a slob and your level of intellectualism. I named my random generated sim Tim, and he’s a maniac. He’s a genius couch-potato that is a slob and has some neurotic issues. The personal goals of this sim really reflects the persona that I picked out for Tim; for example, he wants to use everyone’s toilet and shower at least once, creep out some people and watch them sleep. I really know how to choose them. :/  Once you’ve designed and named your sim, the game immediately starts with the option to turn on the tutorial system, this will generally hold your hand throughout the game. If you haven’t played before, I would recommend it since there’s a lot of management involved and you need to know these tools to be successful in the game.

Unlike the PC version, a basic house is picked out and designed for you. You have the opportunity to expand your pad and customize it with different furniture and create a whole new house layout. The bare necessities are there for you to survive, a kitchen & refrigerator, bathroom (complete with sink, toilet and shower), a connected living room and dining room with a table and tv, and a personal bedroom with a bed. The sim has 700 simoleans ($700), and can be used with whatever you like. You can’t expand right away, nor buy certain appliances; therefore cooking home made meals is out of the question at the start.

Workin 9-5

Just like most of our lives, we work to earn money, we then spend that money on stuff, then we eat, sleep, rinse and repeat. Your sim needs to work in order to earn more money, and to do this, you will need to go out to town and search for a job. Finding a job is easy in Sim World, simply tap on the building of choice, tap ‘get a job’ and you’re in! A schedule will be saved in your status menu, and you will need to pay attention to the time, for it flies by quickly. Hours are actually minutes, minutes are actually seconds; therefore players need to budget their time a lot faster, and just like any job, your sim will get fired if you’re late too many times. Once your sim starts work, you will immediately skip forward about 8 hours, and be available to play around for the afternoon. There are some unexpected surprises; for example, when my sim got out of work, I was brought to a game over sign, because my sim ate a pretzel and choked to death from it. If this happens to you, your game will revert back to the last saved game, and make sure that you save regularly too. I’ve only owned this game for about a week, and only logged in a few days of gameplay; however it’s quite possible that the game will allow you to receive promotions, thus your income and living area can be lead to a luxurious life.

There’s Always Something To do

All of us will get bored from time to time, and it’s natural instinct to do something that will entertain ourselves and keep us happy. The same rules apply for you sim, and will want to have fun and socialize with other sims in the game. In PC version, your sim will be come disobedient to your commands and will even lose their family and job if the player doesn’t meet these sim’s needs. Entertainment will involve some activities like, watching TV, listening and dancing to music. It’s a good idea to keep a TV or radio around, or get into a hobby. One of the hobbies that is definitely fun for both the user and the sim is fishing. You must purchase a fishing kit from the store, which came around $200, and have your sim go to the town’s pond. There you’ll be able to cast out your fishing line to catch a fish, but in order to lure the fish to your line, the player must tilt the phone into the direction you want the lure to go. Once the fish has taken the bait, you’ll see a green flashing notification and you must immediately lift your phone upwards to catch your fish. The fish can be sold to other sims and be used to cook your meals, but a recipe and ingredients are required (this will be explained later).

The town’s park area is also used to meet new people that passes by, and this is your opportunity to make a friend or a foe. Before making friends, you need to initiate a general conversation to become an acquaintance. From there on out, you can start telling jokes, secrets, make romantic moves and just be rude. If you choose the wrong thing to say, you will creep out the sim and will lose points in your conversation, thus slowing your progress of making friends. Choosing what to say if fairly simple, just tap on the sim you want to talk to, and scroll through the list of categories. Each category will have a few things to talk or say, and additional selections will appear as your sim starts to build a relationship. A marquee notification will appear, letting you know the other sims general thoughts. So if you’re creeping someone out, you will be warned about it, and have the opportunity to apologize. Saying the right things will earn double points and build the relationship much faster.

You can also visit other sims by going to their houses, you need to be careful with what you do; barging in and using their refrigerator will usually result to a negative response and will be thrown out of the house. The original games were a bit more forgiving in these levels, however you will receive the notification if the sim is offended. One of the sims I created, walked right in and helped herself to something to eat. At that point, I’ve lost these sims trust and they forced me to leave. I wasn’t ready to give up, so I returned back to that house, knocked over their trash can and started to insult them. The negative points racked up enough to be their nemesis, and at that point, I was able to slap and humiliate them, and use their bathtub. Of course I can also take this opportunity by taking the nicer approach, where they would accept me as a friend and even accept my invitation to come hang out at my house. If you’re lucky, you can build up the relationship enough where the sim will move in with you and start a new loving life.

Getting into hobbies will also level up your sim and will find it enjoyable. You can go to the hobby store to pickup up some equipment and supplies for fishing, gardening and even a tool kit (although it’s more for fixing, but I’ll get to that in a little bit). The gardening part does require you to build enough income to upgrade your house, but unfortunately I haven’t played enough to get that far yet. As your sim starts to plant their vegetable seeds, they are able to grow their own personal crops that will help build their inventory of ingredients. You can buy more ingredients at the convenience store and recipe’s from the bistro. In order to cook, you must purchase a stove when it’s made available.  Once you start cooking, you will need to cool down the pots before they boil over and ruin your food. As one of the pots start to turn red, you tap it to pick it up and shake the device to cool it down. Repeat these steps for all the pots on your stove while the clock counts down and your food is ready, just be sure to have a seat with an empty spot on the table. Your sim will lose the food it had just created if there’s an object on the table that will block your sim from placing food there. This is annoying, because you waste food and money at the same time, and you have to re-cook your food.

Fixing stuff is part of maintaining your house, you have the choice to buy a replacement TV or Stove, or you can buy the repair kit from the hobby store and fix the appliances. This will launch a mini game, where you have to drop the damaged circuit into the trash and install the new one before time runs out.

So what’s the verdict?

The overall game deserves a solid 8 out 10 and I feel that its worth the $9.99 in the app catalog. The game feels complete and has a lot of things to do in the sim world. With the ability to virtually customize your character any way you want, extends the replay value by providing personal goals, creating relationships, house upgrades and mini-games. With the new PDK being released to selected developers (and will be released to the public hopefully soon), we can expect to see more complex applications and games that will utilize the GPU for optimal mobile 3D graphics. The graphics are nice, and the interactivity via the multi-touch and accelerometer add’s new gaming standards to the webOS platform.

P R O	Great visuals • Fun mini-games • Great customization
C O N	Cannot backup • not all items are available