Sims 3 pets ign

It's a get-rich-quick scheme that actually works, but it's contained just enough not to unbalance the game. Strangely, you can adopt a horse—just like dogs and cats—for free at any time. Previous pets-like expansions forced you to spend several hundred Simoleons, shutting it out from first-generation newly made families. This is a bit gamey, but it allows you jump into working with the pets right away, rather than having to wait to establish a family before trying them.

You can always pick up strays or attempt to tame wild horses, but doing so takes time and resources new families may not have. If profit is the main thing on your mind, horses, dogs, and cats can all be bred and sold, giving you an amount of money relative to their training, skills, and known tricks. Of course, selling them means you can't use their hunting or racing skills for your own profit anymore, so you have the choice in how exactly you want to approach pet ownership.

This freedom is what makes The Sims such a fun franchise: there are a number of ways you can play with your pets or use them to get cash, and experimentation is the whole reason The Sims exists.

And speaking of experimentation, the absolute best feature of The Sims 3: Pets is the coat design options. While the game's default breeds are all normal and realistic, you can create pretty much anything you can think of with the easy-to-use tools as long as you understand what the graphical concept of "layering" is. You can even save a custom coat, and later breed it with something else.

Like with human Sims, DNA is at play, so your markings and colors may transfer over to the kittens and puppies. Frankly, this is the way I prefer it: The Sims has always been a life simulator of sorts, and if the pets were able to take the spotlight away from the humans, it would be getting away from the point.

All the animations for all the animals are spot-on, from a kitten sleeping on the floor to a deer loping across your front lawn. You'll need a lot of room on your lot to take advantage of larger animals, but a new neighborhood called Appaloosa Plains features large, roomy lots. New traits, lifetime goals, and objects round out the experience. Sadly, there are very few new clothing options and absolutely nothing new in Build Mode, but much of your time will be spent tinkering with the pets themselves, and you probably won't notice.

Thankfully, The Sims 3: Pets puts the series and franchise back on track and continues to make its virtual worlds even more fleshed out. As always, this expansion isn't going to make any non-Sims player a convert, but if you're still enjoying your digital families, this is a good expansion to pick up.

Was this article informative? YES NO. In This Article. For the first time in franchise history, players will be able to take full control of their pet and play out their life story. Release Date.

What did you think? More Reviews by Jon Michael. The Sims 3 Seasons Review. Farming Simulator Review. The Sims 3: Supernatural Review.

Presented by truth. This means that at a glance, it feels like the exact same game. If you speed up time to tackle activities more quickly, the characters will stutter around the game world completing their tasks. If you try to move between any given area of Sugar Maple Coast the town unique to the console versions of The Sims 3: Pets you'll get hit with a load screen. But problems aside, The Sims 3: Pets' depth and complexity is robust.

You can customize, build, design, and share your creations almost to the extent of PC players on your own platform-specific network. If you're detail-oriented, you can create a matching living room style and set in your dream mansion. But if you don't care about design, you can spend just as much time leveling your character's skills and adventuring through town. The Sims 3: Pets limits animals to dogs and cats, unlike the horses, snakes, and gerbils of its PC cousin.

Utilizing The Sims 3's impressive character creator to make puppies and kittens is adorable. Regardless of how tough you might think you are -- it'll melt your heart.

And that's the appeal right there. For a world where you can be whomever you want and live the life you desire, the addition of man's best friend and criminally-employed cats adds icing to an already interesting cake. And with the unusually detailed AI that derives from giving characters traits and desires, comes chaos and comedy.

For example, to recreate my own life in this virtual world, I created a cat who was mortal enemies with its owner. The cat's every interaction was mean: it wet the floor all over the house, vomited after cleaning itself, and made mince-meat out of its human's furniture.

But because the owner was a cat person, he never stopped trying and I rarely controlled him. He refilled my cat's bowl, he cleaned up the wet spots, and he'd always try to pet, brush, and hold his little feline -- despite her malice. They're arcade-y additions that make the game feel more accessible for those who can't get a leg up on keeping a character's needs straight. But the real meat of the game comes in the form of five different Mysteries.

These are multi-tiered quests that involve searching for treasure, making friends, showing dominance as pet, hunting ghosts, and more. In and of themselves Mysteries aren't a huge game-changer, but they encourage read: force you to learn new skills, explore different areas, and talk to people you might otherwise miss.

I appreciated that these quests had me play the game in way I normally wouldn't. Kinect owners get the opportunity to utilize voice commands, but I found it easier to simply stick to the controller in the same situations. While you can tell Sims to be mean, be friendly, stop everything, go to the bathroom, or call out dog breeds during character creation, it never felt like a requirement and I quickly queued up specific commands with the controller, rather than shouting out a generalized feeling.

Have you played The Sims 3: Pets? The Sims 3: Pets. The Sims 3: Pets Review.