The Sims 3: Ambitious?

The new Sims3 expansion pack, Ambitions, was released today, and after the UPS man was kind enough to bring it straight to my door, I loaded it up to see what had changed. I mean, after all, with this expansion EA was supposedly finally giving us the option to see our sims while they were at work. We could supposedly have complete and total control over our sims 24/7 - for whatever that's worth, anyways.

After loading the expansion and fiddling about with the new bits for a while on my legacy family, I decided that the family I had been playing had way too many children, and way too many ghosts. I knew it would take forever before I had a sim high enough in the "Ghost Hunter" profession to catch them all and leave my house ghost-free, therefore my only option was to start a new legacy. I'm crazy. I know.

Since I don't play by the official legacy rules (point-keeping, etc) I decided to put my new family in the new city of Twinbrook. Only problem is, they had no money, so they had to buy a cheap house in the swamp on the poor side of town.

To compensate, I had my legacy founder get a career as a stylist at the salon in town. Ooh! One of the new jobs! I can control her at work! One of her first customers was this fellow, who only wanted some new formal-wear to celebrate his recent job promotion. That was it. New suit. I was to leave his horrible hair alone. *shudder* I am beginning to learn, through several botched jobs and unhappy clients, that when they tell you what they want, that is all you are to do. No more, and no less.

When she was not working, my founder would head upstairs to the drafting table and work on new sketches (which so far I have found have absolutely no effect on her abilities/performance as a stylist, but it is a nice touch). It also seems that her artistic abilities have little to do with the outcome of her sketches other than the fact that as her painting skill increases her sketches have moved from pencil/charcoal to colors, possibly paints. I don't know. I think I'm putting way too much thought into this.

I also found that the new careers are salaried jobs, that earn sims a certain amount of simoleons per week (with added bonuses earned per job completed, I suppose as some sort of commission), while the original jobs are still wage jobs, earning per hour. I have yet to determine which is more profitable in the long run.

My founder's husband I had join the Law Enforcement careers, one of the original careers in the game. This, to my disappointment, I saw had not changed at all. Apparently it's only the NEW careers that can be controlled. All the original ones are still off in the land of whoknowswhatsit. And so, for the first time, TS3 falls flat on a promise (that of complete and total control) but I'm sure it's for a reason. I mean, if I had the max limit of playable sims (eight) at a time and was trying to control all of them at work at the same time, each at a different job, I would probably go crazy and quit the game. EA doesn't want me to quit, so I suppose that's why they made the game the way they did.

Work and gameplay issues aside, I am enjoying some of the changes in the home. My favorite, in a sort of ironic way, is the new laundry feature. Before, when sims would change clothes or get in the shower or go swimming or anything, their clothes would magically change to whatever was needed. Now, when they change, there is a little pile of clothes on the floor. Which they then have to pick up and put in the hamper. When the hamper is full, they have to wash the clothes, and then either put them in the dryer or hang them out on a clothesline (gasp! Just like IRL!!!! Only, irl I don't do the laundry, and it just keeps piling up). Of course, the more appliances you have in a house, the more chances there are for things to go wrong, like the little episode pictured above. My poor Sean was trying desperately to keep the thing under control (at one point he actually had the option to "subdue" the washing machine, which required him to then hang onto the thing in terror while it jumped and shook like a thing possessed). 

Most all the other elements of the game remain the same, but then I have still only dabbled at the surface of Ambitions.  Babies still look adorable playing with blocks on the turtle table, and there is still no weather (give me seasons, EA!!!) but I am still just as addicted as ever to the game.



 On a side note, I think the game's randomizer when it comes to generating styling jobs can be a bit too random at times. I received a notice that a Coy Jones-Brown wanted a complete wardrobe do-over to celebrate being hired for a new job. I get to the house of the client, ring the doorbell, and who answers, but this guy, my client.  A child. A very, very, creepy looking child. What kind of town is this Twinbrook, that they hire children? And what is in the swampwater, to make them look like that?