Important Guide and Game Notes

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Important Guide and Game Notes

This guide is the third Sims game guide that I have written -- prior to writing it I also have written guides for The Sims FreePlay (http://www.supercheats.com/guides/the-sims-freeplay), and The Sims 3: World Adventures (http://www.supercheats.com/guides/the-sims-3-world-adventures/) -- but it will be the third of many, as I am commissioned to write a guide for each of the games in the third series, and may be writing mini-guides for the games from the previous series if Web Media goes forward with launching a Sims-centric website, which seems to be likely.  I mention this for a reason -- and not simply to ring my own bell...

I did not write the guide for The Sims 3 base game (http://www.supercheats.com/guides/the-sims-3/) that was written another good guide writer, Mike Hazleton, but if I had the order that these guides would have appeared would have been The Sims 3 followed by The Sims 3: World Adventures, and then The Sims 3: Ambitions.  Why?  For a simple and logical reason that includes the fact that this is the order in which the games were released, but also because that order is important -- in fact important enough that it is getting its own little section here...

If you are new to the series and plan to play all of it, there is every likelihood that you will pick up one of the special compilations and the expansions that are not included in it.  If you do that, or if you pick the games up as individual titles, it is important that you remember to install them in the order that they were released, mostly because of the patching system that is in place.  If you install them out of order it can (and often does) break small segments of the game, and cause bits of it to function in unusual ways.

Passively acquiring skills is the secret to Success!

So just to be helpful this is the order I will be writing the guide in, and it is also the order that you should be installing and patching the games in (and you should be sure to fully patch each game BEFORE you install the next):

(1) The Sims 3 base game
(2) The Sims 3: World Adventures
(3) The Sims 3: Ambitions
(4) The Sims 3: Late Nights
(5) The Sims 3: Generations
(6) The Sims 3: Pets
(7) The Sims 3: Showtime

Now in addition to that there are some other factoids that you should be aware of.  When most gamers begin to play the game they will eventually join Sim fan sites at which a number of game unofficial add-ons (both free and paid) are available, including what are called "Nude Skins" as well as utility add-ons that allow you to automate some stuff and add more control over other things.  Perhaps the most popular item that most gamers will install is the anti-censorship patch/app.

What this does is remove the blur that appears whenever your Sims do something that modesty is attached to -- take a bath or shower, use the toilet, that sort of thing -- and there is really nothing wrong with that if you want to remove that censorship blur, but if you do there is something you need to be aware of.  The blur is implemented in the game as a particle effect -- and the small app that you install that removes it basically turns off particle effects to accomplish its purpose.  With me so far?

Unfortunately there are some other objects in the game that ONLY appear as particle effects -- among them certain bugs -- including beetles -- which means that if you go looking for bugs with the anti-censorship patch in place, you will not be finding them.  That being the case, and if you do decide to install that app, you need to remember to remove it when you are doing bug collecting and, when you are playing one of the games that has a mission or challenge that specifically requires you to find bugs (World Travels has one) you will need to remember to remove it. 

You can put it back later, no worries, but if you are out trying to complete a challenge or mission and you cannot find the object that is required, there is a good chance that it is a particle effect and this is why you cannot find it!

Hopefully your PC is better than theirs...

-- Gaming System --

While the basic requirements for The Sims 3 are not that high or demanding, you will find that having a good computer will make all the difference in the world, especially if you want to see the best level of graphics in the gaming world.  The minimum specifications for play for this game, as provided by the publisher, are listed below, with the specifications for the system that I use to play them in parenthesis next to each line item.  I provide this in case you notice that there is an apparent difference between the images/videos that are used to illustrate these guides, and your own game play experience.  The system I use was custom-built by me, with an eye towards gaming.

Minimum Specifications (My Specifications)
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OS: XP SP2 / Vista SP1 / Windows 7 (Windows 7 64 bit)
CPU: For XP 2.0 GHz P4 or equal / for Vista and Win 7 2.4 GHz P4 or equal (i7 930 2.8 GHz Quad)
RAM: for XP 1 GB / for Vista/Win7 1.5 GB (12 GB)
Disc Drive: DVD Drive (DVDR/CDR)
Hard Drive: at least 3.5 GB free plus 1GB for expansions (2 Terabyte Mirrored RAID Array)
Video: 128 MB Video Card w/Pixel Shader 2.0 Support (ATI Radeon 5970 w/ 2.0 GB RAM)

While the minimum specifications listed above will allow you to play the game, you will find that if you have a basic 128MB graphics card and you upgrade it to a 1GB or 2GB modern card both the difference and the improvement in play will be amazing.  Since the graphics card tends to be the system bottleneck for most PC's that should be the first place you look to upgrade.  In doing the math you will find that it almost always makes sense to budget two to three times the cost of your motherboard/CPU for the graphics card...  I am just saying.

-- Serious Bug --

While there are more than a few bugs in this game only one that I experienced was game-breaking -- and I have no idea what caused it to happen.  Basically if you get hit by this bug your Sims will refuse to go to work.  Their ride arrives and the icon for it in their stack disappears.  If you click on the go-to-work button, it does nothing.  They just flat out refuse to go to work and there is nothing you can do to fix it if you happen to have saved after getting hit by it.  That is the reason that the Sims in the images that illustrate this guide change mid-way through -- I had no choice but to revert to the family from a previous guide because the one I spent thirty hours developing was no longer of any use.

Sadly as there is no fix for this you just have to hope you do not get hit by it...