New Sims Expansion Revealed!

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011
by GL News

After teasing a big surprise for some time now, the grand reveal from Sims HQ is indeed the latest Sims expansion – Sims 3: Generations, which was leaked some time ago. The official trailer hit the net moments ago, ending speculation and cementing the family oriented pack as the next release in the Sim calendar, due in June.

A wealth of new options and activities makes your Sims’ lives more meaningful than ever before, whatever their ages. With new celebrations, dramatic life events, and all-new ways for your Sims to express their creativity

Generations focuses on fleshing out your Sims’ personal lives and building life memories, and while little is known at this current time, speculation is already running rife as to what this exactly entails. The graduation scene in the trailer, in particular, has sparked excited rumours about the much-missed University from Sims 2 making a very welcome appearance in order to flesh out the young adult portion of Sim life, though it is equally likely to be a high school graduation. Indeed, there seems to be much to occupy younger Sims now, not in the least, pranks. When you consider how hamstrung young Sims actually are in many ways, with the adults being able to hold down careers, or potter around in self employment, the new depth that Generations could offer to these portions of Sim life is welcome.

Other activities revealed include School dances and ballet classes for kids, along with more celebration and party options for Sims of all ages, from wild teen parties, to crazy bachelor and bachelorette raves. Playing on the new gossip system in the Sims 3: Late Night, Sims who stray from their partners and engage in sordid kinkiness with other Sims will be the subject of local gossip and rumour – nice – and presumably will have an impact on existing relationships.

We don’t yet know whether there will be a new neighbourhood on offer, from the looks of things it would seem that Generations is the kind of pack which quietly slots in with the base game and existing neighbourhoods, but we could yet be thrown a curve. Not only are more interactions clearly on offer, but eagle-eyed Sim fans may be able to spot some other new elements, notably chest hair – not a big deal to many, but for those who crave realism and enjoyed the boob-slider more than anything else in the Late Night expansion, it is one step closer to creating the perfectly realistic sim and we look forward to seeing how it will be implemented.

One of the most compelling scraps of info however, is the new memory system. This seems to be unlike the crude system from the second game, and instead allows your Sims to build a lifetime of memories that can be stored in a scrapbook and even, in an interesting new move (which will no doubt cause aneurysms from non-Sim fan friends), posted on Facebook.

As far as objects go, we can always expect a wealth of those and the ones seen thus far seem to be more geared around fun and entertainment, with chemistry sets, tree-houses and water slides making an appearance. Some fans are already wondering whether the game will bring in elements of Freetime in the form of hobbies, but this could just be a new expansion that is its own beast for once, not just a vague rehash of past packs. While, understandably, Sim fans want to see some of their favourite elements from the second game make a return, Generations may truly be bringing something new. We guess we’ll have to wait for EA to pay out a few more details.