The Sims 3: Pets

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I am a big Sims fan and have always played the PC versions before this. The reviews I read said that Sims 3 Pets was fairly robust for PS3 so I opted to get that and play on the couch rather than drop a ton of money on the PC game and all the expansion packs. (I already did that on Sims 2 and it still plays fine!) In general this game is entertaining but there are a few limitations that were not mentioned in any of the reviews I read, which are actually pretty upsetting when you consider that for many of us, The Sims is all about creating a family, building relationships, etc.

1) Your household can only have 6 Sims (pets included). Not knowing this, and still getting the hang of the controls, I thought I'd start out by breeding my dog before I moved onto having kids, giving my couple time to save up some money and build up careers. Y'know, what responsible parents are supposed to do. So the dog had three puppies a lot to handle, but I was up for the challenge. Once I got the hang of it I decided to move onto kids only to learn that my household was maxed out three puppies, one dog, and two adults equals six Sims. Okay, the responsible thing to do is send some puppies to the shelter, right? I agonized over which one to keep and which two to give up, then went to the phone to adopt them out. Except...

2) You can't adopt out your pets! There is NO WAY to get rid of an unwanted pet. Well, there is one way... you can gift your pets to PlayStation friends who also have Sims 3 Pets for PS3. I don't have anyone to gift them to. Oops. (For people who can use this option, you have to be online and logged into your PlayStation account for the "Gift to a friend" option to show up. The online manual doesn't bother to mention that.)

3) After reading up on this a bit online I learned that attempting to kill off pets by closing them off in a room without doors etc. doesn't work (which I personally think is a good thing, and I don't think I would have wanted to do it anyway), but there are some karma rewards that can help. One turns your pet into a ghost (which I guess you can then "zap" if you have the right skills?) and another one turns your pet into a human, who can then leave the household (and take other unwanted pets with him). Not wanting to "kill" anything, I set my sights on the second option. Building up enough challenge points to get this karma reward took me at least six hours. Once I finally got it, I was able to turn one puppy into a child, and then give him a couple of birthday cakes to make him an adult. Finally, he and the other puppy could move out so my poor Sims (who have had babies on their want lists for weeks now) could have a child. I thought I'd move them into another house in town, and they could still keep in touch with the family. Except...

4) YOU CAN'T MOVE SIMS OUT OF THE HOUSEHOLD WITHOUT DELETING THEM COMPLETELY! Unlike on PC, you only get to play one household in this game. Worse than that, the members of the household who move out are just gone, poof, as if they never existed. Your Sims' relationships with them disappear. (I had a hard enough time "killing off" my pets in this way, can't imagine how much more unpleasant it'll be once I've raised some kids and it's time for them to leave the nest.) And to add insult to injury, you can't just kick them out, you also have to MOVE the Sims you're keeping into a new house. There's no option to kick people (or pets) out of your household but keep the rest of the family where they are. As far as I can tell, in order to split up the household, everyone has to leave the house altogether.

For me, a big part of the fun of playing Sims is building a huge family that continues for generations. The family I've been playing in The Sims 2, going on five years now, has turned into a huge dynasty. I know the PS3 has memory limitations, and I didn't necessarily expect to be able to do that with this console version of Sims 3. But I certainly didn't expect the game to be so nonchalant about killing off or deleting Sims you've worked hard to nurture, or to make it so difficult to enjoy some of the basic joys of Sim life (like having a family). If I'd known ANY of this up front, the many hours I've now wasted trying to humanely deal with my puppies could have been avoided... I just wouldn't have bred the dog in the first place. I really want to like this game, for bringing a decent Sims experience to consoles (which I don't think has been done before), and I don't doubt that they had to make hard decisions about what to keep and what to cut when bringing this game to PS3, but anyone who's attached to the Sims should realize that this is just bogus. Come on, EA Sims players get ridiculously attached to their characters. After more than 10 years developing this franchise, you must know that by now. So why screw with us like this?

Oh, and the game freezes every so often, too. Not a ton, but I've had more freezes with this game than any other PS3 game I own.

I don't usually write Amazon reviews and actually feel a bit silly for getting so passionate about this. But hopefully someone else who plays The Sims for the same reasons I do will read this and it'll help you make a purchase decision. Don't get me wrong, $20 is not a bad price for this game and I don't regret buying it, but I would have played it differently if I'd understood all this from the beginning.

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This game is almost exactly identical to the Sims 3 base game for PC (except, now there are pets!). You can marry, have twins or triplets, have a home birth or go to the hospital, work interactive jobs, hire a maid, buy a car, adopt a child, take advantage of Karma Powers and earn Lifetime Rewards, customize everything (including voice, favorite food, appearance, etc.) and so much more! There are also options to turn off story progression, to lengthen your Sim's lifespan, to alter your Sim's freewill, and to even take screenshots! The pets are a wonderful addition, but not everyone wants a dog or a cat. (I'm still wishing they'd left in the horses)

I originally purchased this game for my fiancee', hoping a guy like him could get into The Sims so we could share it. He is normally a fighting game/shooter game player the most boyish games you can imagine. Now, he is ADDICTED to The Sims. I've never seen anything like it! (Haha) He's married, had a child, bought a pet, and has advanced very high in his career. If he can like this game, anyone can!

We haven't encountered any glitches and the gameplay is completely smooth. With The Sims 3 and The Sims 3: Pets for PS3/Xbox360, this is the very first time console gamers have gotten a Sims experience so close to home. None of the other previous Sims for console were this identical to the PC version. The only thing I wish EA would include is the possibility to have direct control. Since it's on console, I don't see why we can't have the option to play directly as our Sim. Regardless, I'm looking forward to more Sims for console in the future. (Psst! Bring The Sims 3: Late Night + Generations to console...Haha! I wish.) If you have the PC version, there's really no reason to purchase the console version unless you're curious. Truthfully, it's still not as good as the PC, but it's so close that it will definitely impress you and give first-time Simmers a perfect impression on what Sims is all about. Being a seasoned Sims player, I would still recommend this console version to anyone looking for something addictive and captivating. BUT, if your PC can handle it at highest performance, spring for the PC versions.

*Please remember that this review is in reference to the PS3/Xbox360 versions. The Wii and DS versions of any Sims 3 game are completely different and cannot compare in quality.

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All i can pretty mch say is that its fun. If you have ever played the original sims 3 for console then this is pretty much an expansion pack. however the loading does take longer. but other that that its fun.

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I read all the reviews for this game before I bought it, so I was expecting it to be super glitchy and not too fun. I have only experienced one tiny glitch so far and I have been playing for a few weeks. I also own Sims 3 for PS3, and I would say that this game may be a tiny bit more entertaining. The town map is different, because it's a different town, and you get to play as the animals, who are also able to gain skills (hunting, digging). You can sell everything your animals find. For example, in one of my games, I have a cat who hunts all the time and I earn more money from selling bugs and spirits than my sims do from their jobs. There are also a few more clothing options and hairstyles available than the Sims 3.

The only setback is how much slower the game feels than Sims 3. The loading screens stay on longer, and you can't make time go by as quickly as you can in Sims 3. Also, and this may just be user error, I had a more difficult time than I thought I should making my pets, mainly when changing their coat color patterns.

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I love this game!!! It is soooo fun and addicting. If only there were not so many glitches!!! It's driving me nuts!!! I bought the game, played it for a day, then it started freezing up on me randomly. I kept having to exit the game and redo everything only to have it freeze on me AGAIN!!! Then, yesturday, my playstation stopped reading the disc AT ALL. It read all my other games, so I figured something was wrong with THIS game. There were no scratches on the game, so I figured it might be warped or something and went and bought a new game. This one plays, but the freezing is still there and, even with the new game, it says that there was an error reading the disc, so it takes a about two to five times trying to load the thing before it will load only to have it freeze up while it's loading. When I finally get it to successfully load I still have to save it every five seconds in case it freezes, which it always does!!! So, is the game fun, YES YES YES!!! But, does that really matter if you can't even play it? The fact that it is so fun just makes me that much more upset. I wondered why the game was only twenty dollars, now I know. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME FOR PS3!!! My brother has the game for his XBOX 360 and he doesn't have any of the problems I'm having. And, it's not just me this is happening to. There are posts all over the internet about the PS3 glitches. EA, FIX THIS!!!