Is it time for a new expansion already? We go hands on with Sims 3: Generations

So here we are, three years later and The Sims 3 is about to receive its fourth major expansion back. Whilst the third generation of the reality simulation game started off its add-ons with a bang in the form of World Adventures, it's interesting that the expansions since then have been more common fair. These kind of expansions can sometimes be a bit divisive, especially when they reintroduce content that was there in the previous game, and the newest expansion - Generations, is going to be no different.

There are plenty of new costumes for the little terrors

The thing is, it's too easy to dismiss Generations because the improvements aren't as obvious as in previous outings. In World Adventures, it was clear you were getting new holiday destinations and associated features. In Late Night, it was a new way of living as well as a proper nightlife. Hell, even in Ambitions it was clear the focus was on Jobs and everything around it, but Generations doesn't have an obvious focal point to its improvements, and indeed reading the official press releases on the game can leave you a bit hollow inside.

Thankfully though, there is a wealth of content to discover in this game, and the fact that it's spread through-out all of the life-stages of a sim means that there's a constant influx of new things to get to grips with. Admittedly, some stages have been given more focus than others - the final stage, for instance, apart from being able to look through any in-game pictures or videos you taken (to simulate the act of reminiscing), doesn't appear to have anything else majorly new about it, and the toddler stage as well, apart from items like strollers and a few new interactions, is also pretty sparse on content. Saying that though, these two extremes are relatively simple stages, so not much would be really needed anyway.



It's mainly the young child, teen, young adult and adult stages that have had the most improvements, and each life stage has a 'theme' which dictates what the additions are. For children, it's all about the imagination, and this takes form of new activities such as the Tree house, new outfits with which to play 'make believe', and also the possible presence of an imaginary friend - which looks a little bit creepy, actually. I would not want to be the only person who see's that.

For Teens, it's all about rebellion. A troublesome teen can concoct weird and wonderful potions with his or her chemistry set (each potion has an actual use as well, from turning into a ghost, to a quick getaway), they can set booby traps and otherwise pull a wide range of pranks, and even have house parties whilst the parents are away. The concept of trouble and consequences has also been improved, with teens susceptible of being grounded or sent away to military or boarding school, but then they also can try and sneak out of the house as well.

We can't wait to try out even more of the tricks that Generations has up its sleeve

At the young adult and adult stage, the general focus is 'relationships'. Dating is added in for the first time this generation, adding that extra layer to the game. In addition to this, there's new celebrations in the form of Stag and Hen nights, as well as better wedding ceremonies, and adults can now take home-videos using the video camera. Entering into home-video mode propels you into a first person perspective, with which you can control your sim with the old school WASD keys in order to capture the footage. Once taken, these videos can then be watched on the sim's own tellies. This feature forms part of the wider 'Memories' system that was also in The Sims 2, although that's more about snapshot photos and scrapbooks.

Aside from these, there's the standard addition of new items, new buffs, new traits... there's even a new profession - Daycare. Interestingly enough, it doesn't look like there's going to be a new location for you to get to grips with, which is a shame, but then again it may not be needed as there's no 'theme' that may need its own town, like Late Night, or World Adventure's holiday destinations. Also, every sims update so far has included a new way to die, however there's no confirmation of a new death in this update either. Just FYI.

There's probably some things we've missed - as we mentioned at the start, this is a more subtle expansion, with more evenly spread content. It's funny how, up till now, we never really thought much about some of the new features that are being included, but now that we're aware of them, we don't really feel like jumping into The Sims 3 again until this expansion is out.

So, four down, and if The Sims 2 is anything to go by, another four left to go. Whilst side projects like Medieval will definitely help explore what else the franchise can do, some of these nuggets will need to start bleeding back into the main franchise, otherwise it runs risk of going a tad stale. Still, never underestimate the need for people to lose themselves into a strategic life sim, and this particular life sim is about to get a whole lot better. The Sims 3: Generations is due out on PC on May 31st in North America, and June 3rd in Europe.

Most Anticipated Feature: With the content so wildly spread, it's hard to pinpoint one thing, but we're interested in seeing how dating is going to work.