The Sims 3 Hands-On Preview - bit-tech.net Forums

Tim S · 18th May 2009, 08:08

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/20...s-on-preview/1

Is The Sims 3 destined to be another casual game for the masses, or will it go down in history as one of the most difficult, micro-managing strategy RPG games ever? Joe finds out in his hands-on preview, but be warned that this article does contain pictures of him in the shower!

Pricester · 18th May 2009, 08:24

I'm curious - you mention framerate issues, but no details of the specs of the machine you played this on...

My Fiancée is an avid fan of the Sims 2, to the point where she has so many expansion packs, add-ons and custom downloaded things that it's taking up over 30GB just for the install. The game was taking over 10 minutes to load at one point (impressively, we reduced that to just 5 mins with a simple de-frag), and even my "ultimate" (well, 3 years ago) gaming rig was struggling to keep up...

So - knowing that I'm going to have to support this game when it comes out - what specs did you play it on, and what would you recommend for a PC to play this on smoothly? Will I need to upgrade to dual GeForce 200 series, or will my ageing GeForce 7800s, 2 GB of ram and AMD FX55 cope?

EvilRusk · 18th May 2009, 08:39

I'd like to see what kind of machine I'd need to run this. When the other half plays games she just wants them to work (crazy!). It seems to be my job to actually get them working

eeced · 18th May 2009, 08:51

I'm in trouble if my GF's computer can't run this... then I'll never get to sit by my computer again. So it would indeed be interesting to hear what specs the machine you reviewed this on.

lewchenko · 18th May 2009, 09:22

Ive pre-ordered this for the wife. She is like the people above... had the whole collection of Sims1 and 2 expansions and will no doubt be counting down the days for this release too. Once it arrives.. I expect to hardly see her for months !

Same question though... what specs will she need realistically. Her current machine has an AMD x2 7750, 2GB, XP, and a 7800 GTX 512.

Im wondering if it needs a bump in memory, and whether that GPU will cut it these days ?

Zut · 18th May 2009, 09:22

Am I the only one who tries to re-enact sitcoms and reality TV shows in the Sims?

CardJoe · 18th May 2009, 09:45

Usually we don't talk about the requirements for previews because, well, there's no real point. The system requirements can move about still quite dramatically as the engine gets optimised. That said, I previewed this on our standard gaming system - Vista 32, 3.25 accessible RAM, X6800 @ 2.93GHz and a GTX 280. The stutters only really came when you zoomed in or out really quickly and it had to increase the detail or load more of the map, and it's worth mentioning we had every single setting maxed out.

For those interested, EA lists the Sims 3 system requirements as below.

THE SIMS 3 MINIMUM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS

FOR WINDOWS XP
* Windows XP (Service Pack 2)
* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 1 GB RAM
* At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content
* 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

FOR WINDOWS VISTA
* Windows Vista (Service Pack 1)
* 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 1.5 GB RAM
* At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content
* 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0

For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least:
* Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA X3000 or above.
* 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent
* 0.5 GB additional RAM

Dreaming · 18th May 2009, 10:02

Is there a contract killer option?

Just like the other 2, I won't be getting this, partly because it's EA and partly because I don't think the sims are great games in terms of fulfilment. I like a game where I can feel like I've achieved something and can then put it down. All the sims does is makes you keep playing so you buy all 5000 expansions.

I wonder whether they're selling it in the summer because then the sales from the sims 3 - undoubtedly to be their biggest seller in the past few years - will go in the 2009/2010 accounting year meaning it should be a bumper year and they can compare that with last year's $1bn loss and say "hey investors, look how great we are! give us your money!".

p3n · 18th May 2009, 10:11

Weird, my mind is telling me SIMS3 should have been released like 5 years ago, surely this is like the 7/8th iteration of the game?

Zurechial · 18th May 2009, 10:40

I have a partition on my gaming hard drive set aside solely for every version of the Sims along with every expansion pack. I even have a dedicated installation of Windows in the same partition whose only desktop shortcuts are to the various Sims games.
It's bigger than my main gaming partition and is given backup priority over the Planescape Torment partition.

Honest.

No, really. Why don't you believe me?..

DarkFear · 18th May 2009, 14:04

I must confess that I do enjoy playing Sims from time to time.

Not in the traditional sense mind you. What I do enjoy however is the initial building of the house and then deciding the fate of those digital fools under my control.

Will they drown in a pool? Or maybe furniture will inexplicably materialize around them blocking their paths. Or perhaps someone will decide to throw a huge party in a house with only stoves and no fire alarms…

FUN!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zut

Am I the only one who tries to re-enact sitcoms and reality TV shows in the Sims?

No. You are not.

B1GBUD · 18th May 2009, 14:09

More EA gash.... thanks, but I'll stick to wearing my cactus skinned underwear..... inside out.

Gunsmith · 18th May 2009, 14:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by B1GBUD

More EA gash.... thanks, but I'll stick to wearing my cactus skinned underwear..... inside out.

that sounds....interesting.

perplekks45 · 18th May 2009, 14:52

Sims? Meh.

B1GBUD · 18th May 2009, 15:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gunsmith

Quote:

Originally Posted by B1GBUD

More EA gash.... thanks, but I'll stick to wearing my cactus skinned underwear..... inside out.

that sounds....interesting.

More interesting then Sims... believe me!

KayinBlack · 18th May 2009, 15:49

My wife has been camping the site for months hitting F5. I'm not gonna show her this article-I want to keep my rig.

Janellelynne · 18th May 2009, 16:11

I'd definitely have to contest the fact that it is only women and older people who play the sims. I personally am a woman, but I am also a hardcore gamer on World of Warcraft and find sims to be a break from the crazy hours worth of raiding and grinding I do in WoW.

Also, just from being on the sims forums constantly, I notice that a lot of men actually do play the sims!

Anyways, thanks for the review. It was REALLY detailed and I'm glad I read it! Can't wait for Sims 3 to come out..... *fidgets in her chair*

Natima · 18th May 2009, 16:13

I like how the first 5 or so posts are all like "yeaaah... my wife/my girlfriend LOVES this game".
Guys.... Its okay. You can tell the truth :P

HourBeforeDawn · 18th May 2009, 17:00

huh well visually it looks A LOT better but the only time I enjoyed playing the Sims was finding ways to kill them lol to be honest Im surprise this game is still as hot as it it. For me the best "Sims" game will always be Sim City series ^__^

cyrilthefish · 18th May 2009, 17:49

Quote:

So, anyway, since the explicit goal of the game was to fulfil your lifetime wishes, we created Guybrush and Elaine Threepwood, with Guybrush based on an idealised version of Joe. That’s how geeky we are.

Win!

My mum is driving everyone nuts about this game, to the point she's now counting down the days until release

I always found it interesting how different people play it, in sims2 i'd mainly mess around with the building editor and try and 'break' things. Whilst my mum plays it properly

Handy to know about the specs, when i last upgraded her PC, i spent a little more on it than she needed to try and guarantee she'd have something that can play this well
2800+ X2, 2GB RAM, ATI 1900XT
(and my very loud, but working old 2900XT can be swapped in if the above GPU struggles)

18th May 2009, 08:08	#1
Tim S Pewlius Caesar bit-tech Staff Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Ascot, Berks Posts: 18,021	The Sims 3 Hands-On Preview http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/20...s-on-preview/1 Is The Sims 3 destined to be another casual game for the masses, or will it go down in history as one of the most difficult, micro-managing strategy RPG games ever? Joe finds out in his hands-on preview, but be warned that this article does contain pictures of him in the shower! __________________ Tim on Twitter \| Tim's Blog \| Tim's Flickr The bit-tech Blog \| bit-tech on Twitter \| Join the bit-tech & Custom PC folding team (#35947)

18th May 2009, 08:24	#2
Pricester Multimodder Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Coventry, UK Posts: 105	I'm curious - you mention framerate issues, but no details of the specs of the machine you played this on... My Fiancée is an avid fan of the Sims 2, to the point where she has so many expansion packs, add-ons and custom downloaded things that it's taking up over 30GB just for the install. The game was taking over 10 minutes to load at one point (impressively, we reduced that to just 5 mins with a simple de-frag), and even my "ultimate" (well, 3 years ago) gaming rig was struggling to keep up... So - knowing that I'm going to have to support this game when it comes out - what specs did you play it on, and what would you recommend for a PC to play this on smoothly? Will I need to upgrade to dual GeForce 200 series, or will my ageing GeForce 7800s, 2 GB of ram and AMD FX55 cope? __________________ Rule 7: By the time you've finished building it, it will be out of date Known as Rocketeer almost everywhere else

18th May 2009, 08:39	#3
EvilRusk 69 Dude!! Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Arrg Yarrg Posts: 69	I'd like to see what kind of machine I'd need to run this. When the other half plays games she just wants them to work (crazy!). It seems to be my job to actually get them working __________________ Desk: brown wood Chair: black with wheels Desk Lamps: in SLi Pen: Bic Medium GTS

18th May 2009, 08:51	#4
eeced My finger is in the fan Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Sweden Posts: 10	I'm in trouble if my GF's computer can't run this... then I'll never get to sit by my computer again. So it would indeed be interesting to hear what specs the machine you reviewed this on. __________________ I always said, if there was a way to go, it'd have something to do with computer cases, spraypaint, and a dremel...

18th May 2009, 09:45	#7
CardJoe Player Character bit-tech Staff Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 8,009	Usually we don't talk about the requirements for previews because, well, there's no real point. The system requirements can move about still quite dramatically as the engine gets optimised. That said, I previewed this on our standard gaming system - Vista 32, 3.25 accessible RAM, X6800 @ 2.93GHz and a GTX 280. The stutters only really came when you zoomed in or out really quickly and it had to increase the detail or load more of the map, and it's worth mentioning we had every single setting maxed out. For those interested, EA lists the Sims 3 system requirements as below. THE SIMS 3 MINIMUM HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR WINDOWS XP * Windows XP (Service Pack 2) * 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent * 1 GB RAM * At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content * 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 FOR WINDOWS VISTA * Windows Vista (Service Pack 1) * 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent * 1.5 GB RAM * At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content * 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0 For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires at least: * Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA X3000 or above. * 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent * 0.5 GB additional RAM __________________ this is joe's non-bit-tech blog

18th May 2009, 09:22	#5
lewchenko Supermodder Join Date: Dec 2007 Posts: 322	Ive pre-ordered this for the wife. She is like the people above... had the whole collection of Sims1 and 2 expansions and will no doubt be counting down the days for this release too. Once it arrives.. I expect to hardly see her for months ! Same question though... what specs will she need realistically. Her current machine has an AMD x2 7750, 2GB, XP, and a 7800 GTX 512. Im wondering if it needs a bump in memory, and whether that GPU will cut it these days ?

18th May 2009, 09:22	#6
Zut Multimodder Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Near Sheffield, UK Posts: 127	Am I the only one who tries to re-enact sitcoms and reality TV shows in the Sims?

18th May 2009, 10:02	#8
Dreaming Supermodder Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: The University of York Posts: 502	Is there a contract killer option? Just like the other 2, I won't be getting this, partly because it's EA and partly because I don't think the sims are great games in terms of fulfilment. I like a game where I can feel like I've achieved something and can then put it down. All the sims does is makes you keep playing so you buy all 5000 expansions. I wonder whether they're selling it in the summer because then the sales from the sims 3 - undoubtedly to be their biggest seller in the past few years - will go in the 2009/2010 accounting year meaning it should be a bumper year and they can compare that with last year's $1bn loss and say "hey investors, look how great we are! give us your money!". __________________ Dreaming C2D E6300 @ 2.8 \| \| Abit IP35 Pro \| \| 4GB Corsair XMS2 800 \| \| BFG 8800GTS OC2 320MB \| \| 500GB Western Digital for OS + 1500GB Seagate for Storage \| \| Antec NeoHE 550 \| \| Lian Li PC A05B \| \| Samsung 226BW 22"

18th May 2009, 10:11	#9
p3n Hypermodder Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 737	Weird, my mind is telling me SIMS3 should have been released like 5 years ago, surely this is like the 7/8th iteration of the game?

18th May 2009, 10:40	#10
Zurechial Elitist Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Ireland Posts: 886	I have a partition on my gaming hard drive set aside solely for every version of the Sims along with every expansion pack. I even have a dedicated installation of Windows in the same partition whose only desktop shortcuts are to the various Sims games. It's bigger than my main gaming partition and is given backup priority over the Planescape Torment partition. Honest. No, really. Why don't you believe me?.. __________________ www.valyr.net Core i7 920 @ 4GHz <-> 8800GTS 512 @ 785/1946/1990 <-> GA-EX58-UD5 <-> 3GB Dominator 1600 <-> Xonar D1

18th May 2009, 14:09	#12
B1GBUD Multimodder Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 208	More EA gash.... thanks, but I'll stick to wearing my cactus skinned underwear..... inside out.

18th May 2009, 14:52	#14
perplekks45 BSc... finally Join Date: May 2004 Location: Vienna, Austria Posts: 3,352	Sims? Meh. __________________ "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far." Blame it on Cheaps! [now a social group]

18th May 2009, 15:49	#16
KayinBlack I am the Pumpkin King! Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Tuscaloosa, AL Posts: 2,028	My wife has been camping the site for months hitting F5. I'm not gonna show her this article-I want to keep my rig. __________________ Mithril, ongoing... Sponsored by Petra's Tech Shop And Sidewinder Computers FFVII: Fatal Optimization Sponsored by Koolance Found cat. Anyone know how to CONTROL cats?

18th May 2009, 16:11	#17
Janellelynne What's a Dremel? Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 1	I'd definitely have to contest the fact that it is only women and older people who play the sims. I personally am a woman, but I am also a hardcore gamer on World of Warcraft and find sims to be a break from the crazy hours worth of raiding and grinding I do in WoW. Also, just from being on the sims forums constantly, I notice that a lot of men actually do play the sims! Anyways, thanks for the review. It was REALLY detailed and I'm glad I read it! Can't wait for Sims 3 to come out..... fidgets in her chair

18th May 2009, 16:13	#18
Natima Minimodder Join Date: Mar 2009 Posts: 25	I like how the first 5 or so posts are all like "yeaaah... my wife/my girlfriend LOVES this game". Guys.... Its okay. You can tell the truth :P

18th May 2009, 17:00	#19
HourBeforeDawn a.k.a KazeModz Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Cali, USA Posts: 1,796	huh well visually it looks A LOT better but the only time I enjoyed playing the Sims was finding ways to kill them lol to be honest Im surprise this game is still as hot as it it. For me the best "Sims" game will always be Sim City series ^__^ __________________ Current Rig: RubyRED • Lian-Li A05B • (2) Swiftech 220 Radiators • (2) D5 Variable Pumps • (2) Res • and a whole lot of modding • Retired Rig: Project F.E.A.R. • TT Lanbox Lite • Swiftech H2O-120 • Q6600 G0 OC@3.6ghz • 2900XT • 4gb SuperTalent Memory •