Given the response to our review of Sims 3 from the other day, I decided to dig through the screenshots I’ve been collecting to give you a closer look at the some of the neat (or just pretty) things in the game.  These are all from my personal gameplay, not official promotional shots from EA.  Feel free to use them if you like, but please link back to this post!

Items like laptops and guitars can go into a sim’s inventory, so they can be taken out of the house.  Playing guitar in the park for tips is always fun.  And there’s a pre-made sim named (I kid you not) Cycl0n3 Sw0rd who sits in the park and games on his laptop constantly.

One of the games featured in the “play game” action for both computers and consoles is a skating game that looks like Tony Hawk but must be intended to be EA Skate since there’s a convenient EA logo on the screen.

Each of the different foods looks different as it’s being prepared, and much of the time you can actually pick out the individual ingredients – which are now purchased separately at the grocery store as opposed to simply generically restocking the fridge.  (Though I’m still not sure why you put the oil/dressing on the salad while it’s still on the cutting board.)

Butterflies aren’t the only things you can collect – also rocks (that can be cut into gems), seeds, fruits…  It’s rather convenient to be able to pull an apple off of a tree when you’re hungry (especially if you’re poor).  Oh, and of course, fishing!

Fishing is a new skill, and the more a sim does it, the better he gets, and the bigger fish he catches.  There are various lakes in the town, as well as the ocean, and even a pond in the graveyard that holds the super rare deathfish.  (There are also tales of a robot fish in the waters by the science center.)

It’s actually pretty entertaining just to see what pops up on the television.  I’ve even heard that if a sim gets the “handiness” skill up far enough, he can upgrade the TV to get more channels.  Of course, some of what’s on there is kind of scary.  Like this.  It’s a kid’s show.  No wonder these guys grow up so bizarre sometimes.

Rather than reading simply being “fun” reading or “skill-building” reading generally, there are lots of specific books to choose from, which you can get at the library or from a bookstore.  Even fiction has different genres, and how much a sim enjoys reading it can depend on their personality (“hopeless romantic” sims, for example, just love those trashy romances).  My personal favorite is Zombies? Zombies! (Though I’m not sure that the graveyard has the best reading light.)  Also, sims who write books can write in specific genres and pick titles – which might then show up in the library for other sims to read.

If you’ve played Sims or Sims 2, you might remember Bella Goth and her husband Mortimor.  Since the Sunset Valley neighborhood is Pleasant View before it was Pleasantview, Bella and Mortimor are children when a new neighborhood is spawned.  Here they are playing tag in the graveyard at night.  Awww.

And speaking of graveyards, ghosts in Sims 3 are endlessly fascinating.  You can find them either by going to the graveyard at night or having the remains of a dead sim on a lot.  Or there is actually a way in Sims 3 to make ghosts into playable sims – some “scientific experiment” that a sim may be randomly called upon to participate in.  Only playable ghosts are around during the day.  However, sims can interact with any ghost – and that includes making ghost babies.

In case you were wondering about the different colors on ghosts, it’s not arbitrary – it’s based on the type of death.  Red for fire, yellow for electrocution, blue for drowning, white for old age.  (And yes, I too was wondering why the ghost of a drowned girl would be interested in swimming.)  Of course, killing off sims is a favorite pasttime of many players, and unfortunately the options are more limited in Sims 3 (no falling satellites or killer flies…).  I verified that the classics still work, however.

You know, being a policeman and all, you would have thought that guy would know better than to use a cheap stove in a locked room full of potted plants.  His wife didn’t seem to bothered by the whole situation, either.

And since the previous Sims post generated some pretty interesting discussion on the subject of gay marriage and the general state of sims romance, here’s a few relevant shots.  I even managed to orchestrate a lovely same-sex wedding on the beach.

I for one think that the library is an excellent place for love to bloom, especially if you’re bonding over your love of Harry Potter while irritating a small child.

Of course, with sims as in life, romance doesn’t always end well.

And one final picture, a bird’s eye view of the town.  Hey, I can see my house from here!