December 28, 2011

Review of The Sims 3: Pets Expansion Pack

The Sims 3 Pets is a new take on the ability to have a pet in The Sims game. This game actually allows you to have control over the pet and can have complete control over them. Not all of the pets have this ability, but the major ones such as dogs, cats, and horses you can. So, if you’ve been waiting to have a pet in your Sims game, now you can with this expansion pack!


Game Description: The Sims 3 Pets
“Create perfect—or imperfect—pets for your Sims, from fierce guard dogs to destructive kittens to trusty horses and more as you determine not only how your Sims’ pets look but their personality traits as well. With a variety of new activities and social interactions, take control of these pets and experience the world from their perspective. Treat your Sims and their pets to an exclusive venue filled with unique objects found only in the Limited Edition. Give your Sims a new member of their household and discover all-new ways to play with life!

Features:
o More pets mean more fun! Create a wide variety of unique dogs, cats, and—for the first time ever—horses! Think your Sim has what it takes to tame a wild horse?

o Be the Pet. Wield control of your Sim’s pet to chase, dig, tackle and more. Be the perfect companion or wreck havoc on your Sims!

o Pets have their own traits! From intelligent, brave, and friendly to hydrophobic, skittish, and clueless to gentle, fast, and agile, determine the personality of your Sims’ pets.

o Pets can learn skills. Cats and dogs can learn to hunt, dogs can learn to locate collectibles and fetch your Sims a date, and horses can learn racing and jumping.

o Sims can take their pets outside! Take Spike to the park, bring Whiskers to the library, or ride Star to the new Equestrian Center.

o Exclusive Limited Edition content! Only in The Sims 3 Pets Limited Edition will you find a pet store filled with one-of-a-kind objects.
- The Sims 3: Pets




My Thoughts
The Sims 3 Pets is one of my favorite expansion packs for The Sims 3. It offers a lot of really fun new content, and someone that is a pet lover (such as myself) really appreciates being able to have pets in the game. After all, what home is complete without a few pets running around?

You can create your own pets in the create-a-pet mode, adopt them, and even breed them. So, if you want to create a pet that looks similar to your own, you can! Not all breeds are available in the create-a-pet mode, but you should be able to find something rather similar to the pet you have.

The Sims 3 cats need attention, though not quite as much as a dog does. They are more independent pets to own. They can learn the hunting skill to locate prey and to then stalk their prey. They are also able to catch (and eat) pet birds, so it is best to not have these two pets too close together.

The Sims 3 dogs that were added are Sim’s best-friends. They need quite a lot of attention, but make great companions for single Sims to have. They can also learn the hunting skill, and dig up items for your Sim. One of the really fun things to try out with a pet dog is having them “Fetch a Date” for your Sim while on a community lot.




The Sims 3 horses are great pets to have, if you have the space for them. They wouldn’t be a very good pet if you didn’t have enough space for a stable and running area for them. Horses are able to learn the jumping and racing skills. Once your Sim is ready to show off their skills, you can take them to the Equestrian Center and enter them into competitions.

The minor pets that were also added include the birds, lizards, snakes, turtles, rodents, fish, and even an ant farm. Many of these are able to be found in the wild, too. These aren’t playable pets, but they are fun to have, and are rather easy to take care of.

The new items and clothes all generally go with the feel to the expansion pack: pets! Everything you’d need for your pets, you can find in the expansion pack. Plus, a new addition to your neighborhood that you might notice driving around, is the new The Sims 3 ice cream truck!

There are also a few new lots that were added with the expansion including: Dog Park, Cat Jungle, Equestrian Center, and the Horse Ranch. These are the places to take certain animals and where like-minded pet-friendly Sims take their pets. Explore these new areas and have fun (as a pet or a Sim).

Overall, I think that this is one of the best The Sims 3 expansion packs to date. I highly recommend it to all animal lovers and players of the game. It is fun, and makes a great addition to the content in your game.






* Thank you to the publisher of The Sims 3: Pets, Electronic Arts, and Gamers Gate for providing me with a digital copy of this game and allowing me to review it. All experiences and opinions expressed are my own.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this game!

Mandy said...

Fun stuff!