New Sims 3 Expansion Adds Snowball Fights, Fireworks, UFOs

[Sarah LeBoeuf]

New Sims 3 Expansion Adds Snowball Fights, Fireworks, UFOs

Bundle up for some cold weather when the eighth Sims 3 expansion comes out later this year.

The seventh expansion pack for The Sims 3, Supernatural, hasn't even been released yet, but that hasn't stopped EA from announcing what's next for the long-running simulation series. The publisher announced that it would follow up Supernatural with The Sims 3: Seasons, which will add weather and seasonal festivities to the core game.

Producer Ryan Vaughan said in a press release that adding seasons to the game was one of players' most-requested features. "The seasonal changes in this game offer incredible realism, simulating nature in a way that is unprecedented for The Sims." Players will be able to control the length of each season, as well as what seasons exist, perfect if you were hoping to create a world of never-ending winter for your Sims. Rainy, snowy, and excessively hot weather, along with the new clothes to go with them, will also be included in the expansion.

Additionally, seasonal events will give Sims even more to do. According to the press release, "Sims can snuggle up with their crush and get crowned the king or queen of the spring dance, visit the face-painting booth at the summer festival, bob for apples beside a pumpkin patch at the fall festival or head to the snowball fight arena for an epic wintertime battle." And though they're not exactly weather-related, UFOs and alien abductions will be making their triumphant return to the series.

This isn't the first time The Sims has gotten seasonal; The Sims 2 also had a Seasons expansion pack. The Sims 3: Seasons will be released for the PC and Mac in November, making this the first time since The Sims 3 launched that there have been three expansions in a single year.

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[antipunt]

I used to love the Sims, starting from Sims 2. So addicted; every expansion would bring more and more joy.

And then, something weird happened. My brain 'clicked' or something. The thrill went away. Sims 3 came out and I was underwhelmed too; it was like the 'sim' part of my brain had died.

I recently tried it again; nope, I just get really bored. New expansions can't even save the deadness of the franchise to me. The magic is gone, why?! T_T

edit: actually i have a few theories. Not sure which one is correct though.

#1. As a younger person, I had a richer imagination so it was much more fun to 'invent' fantasy stories, etc.

#2. When I was younger, I was more idealistic and less cynical, so life seemed 'fun' to mess around with ('life is an adventure yay!')

#3. The game now reminds me too much of real life, which makes me think, 'why would I play "going out" when I could just go out'. For example, making dinner, going jogging, talking to friends, etc. Starts to feel like real life except hollow, and well, more unproductive.\

#4. The whole 'meeting the perfect girlfriend/raising a family' thing was exciting before, but seeing that 'digitally' now just makes me annoyed, because I'd much rather meeting a real girl. More irritating than fun.

 

[Trekkie]

sounds good are the pool tables back yet? and what about owning businesses again?

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Too much is missing whenever they re-iterate the games. That's my biggest problem. They feel so stripped/barren whenever you get the core game again.

 

[kajinking]

Finally! I've been wanting this since the game came out! How on earth did they think Wizards were more important to the game than weather?!

 

[halobolola]

Too much is missing whenever they re-iterate the games. That's my biggest problem. They feel so stripped/barren whenever you get the core game again.

Thats so you wait for them to sell it too you later.

I mean i am a fan of the sims, but the amount of expansions is rediculous. i think i worked out once you could spend over £300 before even touching the sims store.

They need to stop milking, and give out free stuff once in a while.

 

[dragongit]

I'm still waiting for the expansion pack, where buying all of them doesn't cost over 500 dollars. Oh wait this is EA, they would charge extra for it.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Too much is missing whenever they re-iterate the games. That's my biggest problem. They feel so stripped/barren whenever you get the core game again.

Thats so you wait for them to sell it too you later.

I mean i am a fan of the sims, but the amount of expansions is rediculous. i think i worked out once you could spend over £300 before even touching the sims store.

They need to stop milking, and give out free stuff once in a while.

Oh I know why they do it, it's just too much is stripped away from the game.

 

[NLS]

I'm still waiting for the expansion pack, where buying all of them doesn't cost over 500 dollars. Oh wait this is EA, they would charge extra for it.

Well, I'm wondering how they'll manage that. Each expansion takes about 4-7GBs on a DVD, I'm not kidding. It's like they just let tons of assets already in the game or have some insane patching system ala Mass Effect (they couldn't fix Garrus' low-res face because of the way they store the textures, unless they made a patch over 1GB) left on the disc or maybe it's the multilingual stuff, I dunno. Either way, they manage to make a few extra features and some new models take up insane amounts of data. And this not only eats up your hard drive, but makes loading time looooooong. My GF usually has to start up the game 15 minutes in advance so it's ready for play when she wants to. And even on my high end gaming PC it's still loading for minutes. Sure they could probably cut down on the size by releasing it all mashed up together, and then removing common files such as 5 copies of the same patch and duplicates here and there, but something tells me that even if they were to release a Mega-Bundle, they wouldn't bother with cutting out all the extra duplicate crap, and instead just copypaste everything onto a Blu-Ray and call it a day. And then also leave it up to you to manually install each expansion yourself, which is quite a pain in the ass itself when you have to patch to correct version before installing each expansion in the correct order.

It's a mess, and even though the game is good, the constant release of more content that bloats up my computer is what's kept me off the game for now.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I felt 3 was a downgrade to 2...

Sims 1 was a masterpiece for it's time and still holds up today! It is is a brilliant simulation game!

Sims 2 surpassed it with tons of new options in creation camera angles, facial expressions, stuff to do, interaction and much more, one of best sequels of all time and one of the few to literally improve everything from it's predecessor!

Sims 3 felt it did not do much to help the series and seriously, barely any good clothing options! I definatly think of it as a downgrade.

I still rock the original sim city. So fun, get bored of building? Hello disasters!

 

[Scorpid]

I use to like the Sims till the EA decided since Sims 2 and it's expansion made them so much money why not hit the reset button and make their customers repay for the same features they already had in Sims2 and add nothing to the core gameplay, except now less moddable. Cue maniacal laughing and dollar bill counting.

 

[marurder]

Pro tip - fix bugs that have existed for the past 2 years instead of trying to buy favour with more expansions.

 

[Ruedyn]

My disease addled ghetto will be sure to improve with snow. Now if you'll excuse me, I think I hear Godzilla coming for the 8th time today.

 

[DarkRyter]

I don't even want this game to make the sims have sex anymore.

YOU HAVE KILLED IT.

 

[Radelaide]

I really enjoy the Sims. Say what you will about it, the community is great and all the user-made stuff is really well done.

That being said EA are fucking lazy. This shit could have been added to the game in the beginning, but they're just trying to make more money. Normally, I can defend EA for being money-grubbing assholes but this shit annoys me. They wonder why their game is so heavily pirated.

Captcha: grape soda.

YES, I DO WANT ONE.