Sims 3 Multi Player | World Adventures Expansion

As the release of the expansion pack draws ever nearer, EA teases us with promised of added functionality. Using the new 'basement creation' tool, we'll be able to build basements which will function as tombs. Tomb objects, such as Sarcophagi, in which you can Woohoo, or out of which a mummy may spring to curse you, Floor Switches, which can activate or deactivate behaviors, Treasure Chests, which you can apparently fill with treasures, Torch Levers, which may sometimes activate behaviors and sometimes not, and many more fun objects.

At first, I have to admit that I was a little nonplussed by these tools, after all, if you're the one designing the tomb, and you're the one playing the game, there's not very much mystery and adventure involved in that, is there? It's like hiding Easter eggs for yourself at Easter. Then it dawned on me, you can either treat your Sims like rats in a maze and leave them to figure things out for themselves (I'm foreseeing a lot of foot stamping and 'Oh noes, I can't go there' thought bubbling in your future if that's the case,) or players will share tombs online. That makes the most sense to me.

This takes Sims 3 game play into a whole new realm, instead of simply playing your sims through mundane little lives meaningless even to themselves, your Sims will become puzzle solving detectives. Just download a shared tomb from the exchange, pop it into your world and let your sims run riot. Or sit in a corner and cry, whatever they would prefer to do, really. What does this mean? This means that Sims 3 just became multi player! Sort of. Kind of. Not really.

At least it encourages greater collaboration between players. Maybe at some point in the future there will be the ability to truly allow other players to have an impact directly on your Sims world. Of course, were that to happen, the howls of anguish from Sims purists would drown out the roaring floods caused by global warming and be heard on Mars.

I love the direction that World Adventures is going in and I have but one query. In the hints and tips EA keeps dropping, they keep telling you to CTRL + SHIFT + C to access various options. This is a fairly laborious process that seems entirely unnecessary .

For example:

TIP 1: Basements cannot be built directly underneath pools or ponds. When building above ground, it helps to plan for stairways that descend into basements ahead of time to reduce rework! You can access the Special Items Buy Menu sort by going to Buy Mode, opening the cheat console (hit Shift + Ctrl + C) and entering “buydebug.” This new sort allows you to pick out new tomb objects such as floor traps, floor switches, dive wells, and more!

Why? Why would you do that? Why not just add functionality to the existing menu? Am I old fashioned in believing that items essential for fully enjoying the game should be clearly labeled on the in game menus rather than only becoming accessible by accessing a cheats section and entering a code?

Just when they start to do good things, EA has to throw a spanner in their own works.