On Thursday April 14th I was invited down to London to get 'hands on' with the next Expansion Pack for Sims 3 and to talk with one of the producers on the game, Graham Nardone. Having already read many interviews that had been posted quoting Graham from his wild press tour of Europe I felt as familiar with his answers to the same questions I had already seen as I think he was. So rather than posting the same interview that every other fansite is posting I'll just incorporate what I learned from him in my article. We aren't allowed to call it a review, or a preview, so an article it is (probably because this is an early build of the game and may or may not incorporate all of the features and objects mentioned here, so don't be surprised if they pull something as they have done in the past).

"So... what do you think?" (asked countless times an hour all day)

"Unconventional". That's how I summed up Generations when people asked me what I thought of it. That's not a bad thing, but Generations doesn't quite follow the usual principle of Sims Expansions. There are no new neighborhoods, no new locations to visit, no pets, no snow. I've previewed got 'hands on' with most of the EP's from the games and this was quite different from all others. Generations is more about "bringing it back to being about the Sims" as Graham put it when I asked what the initial objectives were for EP4 in the early development plans. The reason you don't need all the new locations, 'hoods and places to visit with Generations is because this pack injects tons of new content into your existing Sims lives and worlds. It's a huge enhancement to the base game really, which I have seen criticised around the community already, with people suggesting that all these things should have been in the base game from the start. Well, we have to consider that The Sims 3 can be improved upon in almost countless ways, so if the Dev's tried to incorporate all of the Generations features (and all the others EP content that people say should have been included) the game would never actually ship. It's like a work in progress, it will never be "complete", and so EP's are the way that the developers build on this 'work of art'. Just had to get that off my chest before I delve into the goodies ;-)

Seen it, read it, know it

Like me (as a Sims fan) you probably read all the other articles already posted about Generations, so during my time with the game I tried to find new stuff and delve deeper into things we may already know. I'll have to include some of the obvious content because it's so prominent (use it as confirmation if you will) but read on for more juicy details. I'll stop waffling now!

Loading up the game, the usual addition of imaginary loading scripts sweep across the bottom of the screen. "Whittling canes... Sparking imaginations... Timing mood swings..." They give an idea of what to expect when your game loads for the first time!

Life: The long and short of it

Bouncing into the game settings, the first thing I noticed was that you now have more control over the Lifespan of your Sims. Rather than a generic 3 settings, you can now choose length in days for each of the life stages, so if a long retirement is more your thing, max out the oldies to 365 days. If you don't like baby or toddler chores, drop them down to 1 day so they grow up super speed or if you're a glutton for punishment, raise them up for maximum cuteness time. Effectively you now have a choice of lifespan for your Sims from between 7 and 1930 days! Here are the options:

Baby:              1 to 65 days
Toddler:          1 to 150 days
Child:              1 to 150 days
Teen:              1 to 300 days
Young Adult:    1 to 450 days
Adult:              1 to 450 days
Elder:              1 to 365 days

Writing of Elders, they don't miss out on having their generation enhanced with this pack. They can sit with their grandchildren and tell stories, reminiscing of days gone by, but if you buy them a cane they can also hobble around berating the world or anyone and anything that crosses their path.

Babies and Toddlers get a few enhancements with strollers, new toys and interactions with their families. Children and Teens get a great boost with fun stuff to do from dressing up in costumes and playing in tree houses to boarding schools and pranks.

Adults and Young Adults get to have more intimate relations with engagements and weddings being prominent once again, wild parties and the return of memories bring with them grudges and mistrust.

Boarding Schools for the Gifted

I just mentioned the new Boarding School so lets delve into them deeper. This EP does not bring with it all the detail of the University EP from Sims 2 but it does allow your Sim kids to get out of the house more to enhance their learning. Boarding Schools offer a unique educational experience for Child and Teen Sims if their parents are willing to take on the tuition costs. There are 5 styles available, each of which train students in different skills and advocate certain traits. They are:

Fort Starch Military School:        §800 per child
School of Peace and Love:         §800 per child
Dribbledine Sports Academy:     §1,200 per child
LeFromage Art School:              §1,200 per child
Smuggleworth Prep School        §1,600 per child

The kids also get to go on field trips (if you, acting as their parents? allow them to).They can be kicked out of school for poor performance but once graduated will leave with additional life skills which will certainly help them progress in later life.

One of the most memorable events of a Sim Teen's life is attending Prom. Teen Sims get an invite with the time and date of their school's annual dance. They could go Stag but they might be invited by a friend to go as a date, or they could ask a secret crush to the Prom. Once at the Prom they can tear up the dance floor or even reign as Prom King or Queen. Sims elected to the Prom Court receive a special object in their inventories.

Tree House Horrors

Grahame gushed over the tree houses, one of his favourite additions to the EP, of which there are 3 types:

Kids Clubhouse:                                     §1,000 - Fun 7
Sci-Fi Hideaway:                                    §1,500 - Fun 7
The Princess and the Pauper Castle:        §1,500 - Fun 7

Kids climb up into the trees to play and can act out all kinds of fantasies up there. For example, my kids were pretending there was a pirate invasion, so we saw cannons exploding all around while pirate music played away in the background, bringing you into the world of your Sims kids imaginations! Word has it, adults can use the Tree Houses too, for a little WooHoo! Here are some screens of the 3 tree house types (as with all images, click for a larger version):

Daddy Day Care

As I already mentioned, this unconventional EP doesn't add a lot of the common additions to the game but there is one new profession to add to those that you might already have from Ambitions. These aren't like the base game jobs as you need to pretty much manage the Sim in their work. Welcome to what I would consider my worst nightmare... the Daycare Profession!
Every weekday, several toddlers will be dropped off in the morning until the parents pick them up in the evening. You will need to feed, change and play with them all as happy kids lead to happy tips and rewards! The better the daycare specialist the more kids will turn up and the more money will be earned, including school age children after school. These kids will need to be encouraged to get their homework done during this time to get the best rating and rewards.

"Just don't blow yourself up"

Boys eh? I had one, every kid I knew had one, and I'm sure it scared the wotsits out of our parents when we played with them. Chemistry Sets have made their way into the game and can be used to make all manner of potions which can be used for both positive and negative effects on Sims.

Sims who are adept in the Logic Skill can mix potions into drinks, creating a "mysterious drink" that looks like colored water. Put it in the fridge or leave it on the counter for other Sims to find and drink. Potions I discovered included the 'Ninja Vanish Potion' which teleports Sims home instantly (great for getting out of trouble fast), 'Ghost Potion' which lets Sims spend some time on the other side, 'Mood Enhancer' which brings happiness,  'Bladder Flow' which causes a Sim to empty themselves post-haste and the 'Radical Repairium' which gives and instant Handiness Skill boost. Here are the others with costs, which I was able to create in my short time:

Mood Enhancer:                              §5
Stink Juice:                                     §10
Liquid Horror:                                 §20
Radical Reparium:                           §50
Bladder Flow:                                  §75
Sleeping Elixir:                                §90
Ghost Potion:                                  §125
Ninja Vanish:                                   §250
Imaginary Friend Metamorphium:      §4,500

Grahame suggested that there were 10+ potions so there are still some for you to discover for yourself using the Catalyst Chemistry Lab Station.

More about the things you already knew...

Video Cameras allow your Sims to film their surroundings and to use these videos later in life to reminisce or teach kids about their ancestors. The videos can also be used as incriminating evidence when challenging spouses! The great thing about Video Cameras is that it allows you as a player to see the game world from a Sim's perspective as game view drops down to Sim level while you act as director and cameraman. Videos are stored on memory cards which can be extracted and carried and played on almost any TV screen your Sim comes across. Sims in the area will respond to the video being played just as though they were witnessing the event happen, which is crazy impressive! And yes, Video Cameras can be used in Tombs! 'The Mummy Returns', anyone?

Memories and Facebook /TheSims.com integration: When a significant event happens in one of your Sims lives an entry is made in their new Scrapbook. You can browse and edit these entries but you can also create your own during gameplay whenever you want to save a moment for prosperity, marking it as either a positive, negative or neutral event. These memories can then be shared via Facebook or TheSims3.com.

Costume Chests allow your Sim kids to dress up as a Dinosaur, Astronaut, a Prince or a Princess. Interestingly, kids of either gender can be Princes or Princesses (a bit of cross dressing never hurt anyone), and there are a choice of 3 different colors for each outfit (might change before final release).

Sleeping Bags have been introduced mainly for the benefit of Slumber Parties, allowing your Sims to have friends over for late night shenanigans without them having to leave with the party in full swing. We don't yet know if these can be used in Tombs or outside the Bookstore awaiting the release of the latest thriller, but that would be a nice touch!

Lifetime Rewards see 7 new additions including the Hover Bed which costs 20,000 points. I was just able to achieve 20k in the time I had to buy this, the cheapest of the rewards available. Bask in the glory of the quickly thrown together screenshot! Sims can of course WooHoo on this causing it to tip and tilt all over the place. Other rewards include the Clone Voucher, Super Nanny, Clean Slate and more.

The Catalogue Filter: It returns! The filter allows you to turn on and off content from each of your installed Stuff and Expansion Packs to make it easier to find the content you are looking for. View just one pack or several, or you can filter only EA Store content or Custom Content you downloaded or created. No option to create your own collections yet but I did raise this with Graham, pointing out the foundations were now set for them to include collections and sets with the next pack ;-)

Imaginary Friends are the talk of the town with this EP so you have probably read all about the way that your Sim kids can play with them, that only they can see them and that you can actually control them, switching between real and imaginary Sim after drinking the 'Imaginary Friend Metamorphium'. But I couldn't resist showing you this screenshot I took showing the differences between having the child Sim selected and not:

So... what do you think?

Go on.. say it.. "Unconventional"! Do you agree?

I had a great time playing with Generations but as usual with these events, there just isn't enough time to see and do everything in the game. TSR Featured Artist BlackGarden was with me at the event and has no doubt covered different things in her report so be sure to check that out on BlackGarden's Blog. I know for a fact she has some screens from a bachelor party her Sim girls threw where half nekkid firemen turned up! You will also find more details about the Lifetime Rewards there.

Plenty of comedy in this pack as usual and I think people will generally be happy to see all of their existing families benefit as much from all the new content, rather than just those in a new neighbourhood.

I'll finish with a bunch of screenshots of things which I was unable to elaborate on as time just didn't permit for game exploration that deeply. One thing there are plenty of pictures of (because I knew you would ask) is one of the new Houses that come with Generations. Remember the Dolls House that kids have been playing with since base game? Well, that has been faithfully reproduced into a beautiful, very playable house for your Sim families to live in, so enjoy the many interior screens from there.

Feel free to post comments about the article in the news post and tell us what you do and maybe don't like about Generations along with a scale of 1 to 10 of how much you're looking forward to EP4 (1 being that you had to be woken up just to get this far in the article, 10 being that you have actually soiled yourself in the chair with excitement).
Bye for now!

/Steve

Screenshots

The Demo House

The Dolls House

But haven't our Sims travelled before?

OK I admit, I came here expecting to see the Sims 3 version of Vacation or Bon Voyage, based on the first snippets of info to come out about World Adventures. One reason being that because I have known for some weeks that I would be here previewing the EP, I tried to avoid reading most of the earlier sneak peeks posted by the big gaming sites because I wanted to write an article based on my own experience of the game without thinking about those other comments and comparisons.

As it turns out, I now see that you can't really compare World Adventures to the earlier Vacation based EP's as rest and relaxations is certainly not what Adventuring is about. I'm over that comparison now and I see World Adventures as more of a mini-game within the game, like the old, original role playing games seen on the PC. And that's not a bad thing. You could totally loose yourself as an adventure. In fact, by collecting relics and treasure and building your skills as you go, it's entirely possible (and tempting to me) for a Sim to make a career out of Adventuring!

So what about all those earlier previews of the game? I found it really strange that EA released so much information about this EP before the fan event. These get-togethers of players are usually the first source of juicy info about the games for our communities but this time was different, maybe due to Create A World, I never did quite get to the bottom of it. But as it makes it a bit harder for us to write fresh articles that aren't full of things you already know, I'm going to try and focus on the smaller things about the game, and areas that haven't yet been explored (excuse the pun) in such detail by the big gaming sites, but I will gloss over the big stuff for those of you that live in TSR land :-)

If you see a picture you like in this preview, click it for a larger version.

Use Page Nav to continue to page 2...

My first impressions from using the tool is that there may only be a small niche group of people within our community that will pull this off well. Of course, there will be a huge amount of people that will love to download and use these creations in their game too, so either way, you should find the release of this tool will enhance your gameplay no end!

The tool is planned to be made freely available via download in December and will come with a help document and a pretty substantial list of "rules" that creators should follow in order to make their Worlds realistic in a playable, game compatible sense, even if not in a worldly sense. They cover: Lot location and routing, Performance, Gameplay and aesthetics, Technical and Other areas for consideration. If I get time later I'll post some of these tips to give you some more insight into the power of the tool and the way EA themselves use it.

Object placement is a breeze and the way the tool works will allow for easy management of a large amount of content. People familiar with Photoshop will quickly get used to using layers for their content types and attributes for many of the plopables. Items can be manipulated on placement with rotation and height placement. Objects can float, be stacked, or partially buried in the ground.

Residential properties can either be imported from your game bin or you can drop out of the world editor and into a cut down version of the game which is basically build/buy, so that you can build on your lots and switch back to the editor seamlessly. Lots themselves can have attributes set too, such as the property value and vista bonus values for rooms with a view and Lots that provide Sims with the Vista moodlet.

The game can open preset lands for players to build upon but something you cannot do is open up an exported World and then start editing it. This means your masterpiece creation that will likely take days if not weeks to perfect, cannot be opened up and plagiarised by others, which many creators will be happy about I'm sure. Right now the plan is to make Worlds available on the Exchange via direct upload in the same was as game exports are managed, but if the export is a .sims3pack as is planned at this stage, there is no reason why you could not share them on your own sites or with friends. Expect pretty big file sizes though!

New Worlds can also be created by importing a height map. I tested this using an image of a plumbob. Once converted to greyscale this acted as my height map for a new world, as can be seen in this image. You could use anything from your face to a logo or just a beautiful formation of shades to create rolling hills and valleys. Water levels can be adjusted too so that you can flood certain areas.

Any Expansion Pack, Stuff Pack and Store content you have installed can of course be used in your Worlds too. Custom Content is most likely useable but as yet we don't know how those files would be packaged. World sizes can range between 2048x2048 and 256x256.

Oh, and during the demo we learned a trick about object placement on Lots which explained something many of us are unaware of. The rotation of the mailbox on a Lot determines the angle that the thumbnail image is taken from, so if you want your Lot thumbnail to show a particular side of a building, that's the way the mailbox needs to face. Useful tip? We think so :-)

I hope this helps you understand some of the power of Create A World, and its complexity. It's clearly not going to become a mainstream tool used by masses of people to create quality content. On the plus side, harnessed by the right people, this tool will eventually provide all players with a wealth of new and exciting places for your Sims to live, work and even take adventures in!

/Steve

TSR Featured Artist, Murano, attended the Simposium event and spent some time working with Create A World. Check out his blog for his perspective and some more technical details.

TS3 Creator's Camp: Day 1, 06:30

It's 06:30 in a still dark Redwood City, California. I'm always awake early on my first morning due to the 8 hour time difference from home, but it gives me some time to freshen up and start blogging for you all before I head over to EA!

According to my info pack there will be a total of 22 Custom Content Creators at the event from around the Simming community and from all over the world. 6 of those are from TSR so we have a great turnout! Our boys and girls are Estatica, Hatshepsut, Padre, Ulkrhsn, DOT and tdyannd. They will be blogging on their own profile pages during the event too so be sure to check them out sometime this week.

As well as the Sims 3 Demos, creator workshops and time with the developers, EA have some weird and wacky events planned as usual, just to keep us on our toes! These range from Plumbob Cookie and Cupcake decorating to time in the sound studios recording some Simlish, so expect some light-hearted storytelling in these blog posts as well as the more serious business of Sims 3 and Custom Content.

I'm off to hit the shower. My next post will probably be from within the walls of EA!

/Steve.

TS3 Creator's Camp: Day 1, 17:00

Day 1 got off to a flying start with breakfast! Signup at the lobby was the first time many people had met in person for the first time. After many years of chatting with some of our own site staff this was that first time I actually got to meet any of the TSR FA's and Artists that attended. There are many familiar faces here too, from other fan sites and official sites from around the world who have attended these events before.

After breakfast we went into the Triangle Room for the game demos and some updated info from the developers. We got to see more about 'Build Mode' than we have seen before in any previous demos, but there is still an embargo on certain things that we are not yet allowed to report about. I'll find out what I can tell you and post more later in the week (hopefully).

As this whole event is about custom content we got to see for the first time exactly how custom content, custom editing and content sharing works. As expected, all of this CC is done within the game. There are currently no external tools like CAS or HomeCrafter which we saw in Sims 2, and with good reason; the game does it all so much better!

As I write this update for you, all the CC creators are already creating! Well… creating their accounts on the new Sims 3 Exchange so that they can start sharing their first creations with you! After that they are jumping right into the game and getting hands on, learning the new interface and the techniques they will be using for the rest of the week.

I'm off to do the same! Expect more later if I can get the go ahead to spill the 'Build Mode' beans ;-)

/Steve

 TS3 Creator's Camp: Day 2, 07:00

Couldn't sleep again.. awake since 4am! I didn't have a relevant picture for this blog entry so have a look at the nice January Sunshine of the EA Campus yesterday instead :-)

So as I mentioned in yesterdays blog we saw some new things about the game during Day 1's demo that was not shown during the Sims 3 Preview which I wrote about last year. The main thing being Build and Buy modes as they were 'off limits' before, but now we have some more info about that which I'm allowed to share with you!

We also learned a lot more info about the custom content processes. The game tools are actually so powerful that pretty much all of the items which you will see in the basic game CAS and Buy Catalogue have been created in the game by the art team and content creators within EA. They didn't need flashy external tools to make all this stuff you truly do have the power at your fingertips to create content just as good as EA. The base meshes (shapes of the items) are imported to the game a default blue, then the artsy type get to work on them. That's pretty much how third party CC will work too.

The biggest power feature is "Create a Style". When editing clothing, hair, accessories, walls, floors, furniture, build items… anything in the game that's customizable, you have the option to either do simple pattern or color adjustments, or go the whole hog and drop into "Create a Style". Kinda hard to explain, especially given that I can't share pictures with you, but basically any item has between 1 and 4 channels to it. A bed for example might have the wood frame and the bedding, so 2 channels. A sofa might also be 2 channels, the fabric and the wood frame. Once you create the bed that you like from the range of hundreds of patterns and textures, and infinite colors for each of those, you can save them as a style and then apply them to any other item. And the process is a simple drag and drop. So place your bed in the bedroom, add a desk, a sofa and any other furnishings you like, then drag the style from the bed to all the other items. You now have a fully matching bedroom set designed by and probably unique to the Simming world! You can even drag it to the walls and have the pattern as paper and the wood as kick board and chair rails. And why not drop it on your chosen floor pattern too! Wildly open ended and freeform!

You can then share these Styles or individual creations with other players either through the exchange or your own websites.

Let me talk a bit about Build Mode! You builders out there are in for the treat of your life with Sims 3! Power tools are abundant here as well, for example, expanding your home as funds allow is so quick and easy! If for example you want a bigger bedroom, grab the outer wall and drag it out as far as you wish, the bed, side tables, window and any other objects along that wall will move with it too. The floor will expand in the same pattern, walls are redecorated and even the roof will free form around it in real time. Same goes for reducing rooms, or you can drag out an entire outside wall of a house and have all rooms enlarge, maintaining their scale and object positioning as accurately as it can.

Stairs have changed a lot: no longer do you have modular or internal stairways, they are now the same thing and just behave differently depending on how you use them. If you place a stairway internally between floors it will take the guise of an internal stairway, and will even box in the area below it with walls and finish it with the décor you already have in the room! These can be removed though if you want an open staircase. When placing modular stairs these can now be placed with a 90 degree L shape turn in them, making shaped stairways so quick to produce. You also have a width slider allowing you to place stairways between 1 and 10 tiles wide in an instant!

Doors will ship in 1, 2 and 3 tile sizes, and even with 1 tile doors that sit in the center of 2 tiles to allow more freedom in design than ever.

Lighting has had a major overhaul too. Internal and external lighting is better realized and put to best use when you build with open spaces in buildings, like courtyards. You can leave the roof off an area of the house and unlike previous Sims games, these will be recognised as outdoor, and lit accordingly. The lights that you place can be set to many different colors to provide ambiance and mood, with the ability too to set them to either dim, bright or normal!

Roofs are now truly dynamic and with the roof height slider you can make anything from flat roofs to tall spires instantly. They reform as you change the shape and size of your house too.

OK, I'm gonna leave you with that info overload for now and go freshen up for another day. I still have lots to tell you about Create a Sim so I'll start blogging again from EA later.

/Steve

Continued...

Unlike one of my usual in-depth previews, things will be a little different this time around. Here you will find bullet pointers and notes that I took during the event which have been somewhat hurried together in preparation of our live chat, held the day after the event and hosted by myself and Tug from Redwood Shores.

Unfortunately there were many aspects of the game that developers were unable to talk about for varying reasons. Some features are simply not developed yet, others were buggy and anything at all to do with custom content was taboo this time around. Obviously very much more solid detail will be released nearer the 2009 release and later this year when custom content is finalised and work starts on building out the tools.

In the meantime though, take a look at all the juicy details of the things that we do know and join us in the live chat if you are in time, or in our new Sims 3 discussion forums to discuss all things good (and bad) about The Sims 3.

I can tell you also that the game is far from Alpha, so if you have any desperate issues with features or really want to see something specific in the game, be sure to discuss it. EA will be sniffing around the community to see what people are saying and are still taking on board feedback that can influence final game tuning.

If the notes don't make a huge amount of sense to you, I'll try and clear things up in my summary at the end :-)

Disclaimer stuff: As usual, this preview has been written based on an early build of the game, so some of the content I talk about might be different in the final version.

Introduction

All info points are numbered so that you can refer to them when commenting in the chat or forums.

1) Ben Bell, Senior Producer of Sims 3 opened the demos by giving us a brief outline of the major changes between Sims 2 and 3. TS3 offers a richer, deeper experience with more emotional characters (Sims) with real depth to their personalities. The new world (or environment) is interactive and comes to life in front of your very eyes.

2) Thanks to new attributes, each Sim will be virtually unique in its behaviour, attitude, looks and even sounds! EA called this the 'snowflake effect'.

3) Wishes replace wants - more dynamic to actual life experiences.

4) The town is fully customizable and allows you to remove and change Lots and Sims.

5) Young adult is the new default age and is changed to represent life between 18 and 30 years.

 6) Adult now considered more 'middle age' and includes wrinkles.

7) The Town Centre plays a large part in gameplay and building socials.

8) The town is made of 'functional, plopable public buildings' as well as your own made homes and services.

9) Some old service NPC's remain and are joined by some new ones.

New Gameplay

10) No loner individual Lots, player have realtime access to the 'Open World'

11) No Loading when changing Lots or families, as the simulator is running for all Sims, all the time.

12) Everything in the game happens for a reason. If someone moves is across the street it's part of the dynamic population management and not some random action.

13) The base game with ship with several types of ownable cars.

14) Magical valet parking (car fades in and out) on all Lots and streets.

15) Job aspects that you can do at home called 'opportunities'.

16) Day/Night transitions over the town.. light changes and shadows move across the ground as the sun goes up/down.

17) Teenagers sneak out at dusk and can be seen around town acting suspiciously.

18) Quick click icons on Sims face in UI to go quickly send them to work or home.

19) "Map Tags" float over areas of the hood - a quick way to find your way around.

20) Sims also have Map Tags so you can find them easily

21) Can buy an empty bookcase and buy books in the game. There are lots of books!

22) Can still get jobs from newspapers and online or browse the city and apply to workplaces near the home.

23) Sims can move nearer to their place of work, or even find work near home to reduce travelling time.

24) Currently an 8 Sims per family limit.

25) Next to the mood bar is a small bonus bar

26) Socials are now more important.. not just good and bad

27) New timeline dragbar which is specific to a few interactions. This lets you control how long a Sim spends on certain tasks like sleeping, fishing etc…

28) High level logic allows a Sim to tutor other Sims - Cooking unlocks recipes (Moodlets like divine food) - Fishing unlocks bigger fish (Caught fish can be put in an aquarium at home, and even given a name)

29) Careers have more gameplay - No longer just sent to work - Can now decide how hard to work - You can choose a less stressful day but will gain less skill - You could sacrifice hard work for doing more socializing at the workplace

30) Specific homework tasks for kids, like read a certain book or catch a certain fish.

31) Moodlets replace memories.

32) Moodlets are icons in the UI and are based on activities and events that are happening that day (moving home, being comfortable, getting married, having a kids etc.)

33) Moodlets give an insight into why a Sim is acting the way it is.

34) Brush teeth is back - Gives a "minty breath" moodlet.

35) Cell phone notification system to noify you of opportunities and can be used for contacts etc. All Sims have one.

36) Funds and worth as 2 separate values now (worth includes property and object values)

37) Difficulty levels per family (suggest how hard a family is to play based on personalities etc)