《模拟人生3-梦想起飞》IGN试玩心得[英文|含4张图]

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The Sims 3: Ambitions Hands-on
EA gives Sims fans more of what they want.

by Anthony Gallegos

May 7, 2010 - The Sims has become one of the biggest franchises in gaming for a reason (see IGN's review of The Sims 3 here). Either through focus testing, reading message boards, or simply playing the game for hours on end themselves, the Sims team at EA is always learning how to improve their games or give players more of what they want with each expansion. And the upcoming Sims 3 expansion, Ambitions, is the perfect example of this: not only does it add new professions that change the way players view the pre-existing notion of "work" in Sims, but it's coming out alongside a host of smaller (and completely free) changes that affect everything from the interface to how players modify their surroundings -- all in an effort to make an experience that's easier and more option-filled than before.

In Sims games players essentially are the overlord of their characters, directing them to do various activities throughout the day. One place they had no control over their character, however, was in the workplace; players could dictate the goals of their character or guide them in how hard they wanted them to work, but they didn't get to micro-manage their careers, or make them complete their work-related tasks. Ambitions addresses this directly, giving players the option to have "jobs" that work as they have previously, and "professions," where players directly control their character throughout the work day. All the professions in the expansion (except Doctor) are new to the franchise, but older jobs will unfortunately remain hands-off for players. To the uninitiated it sounds relatively unimportant, but it's a substantial change -- instead of simply watching a clock roll by while your character is at their job, you can now actively make decisions and take actions that directly influence your income and your career progress.

The new professions make the Sims 3 more engaging then ever, and made me more invested in my characters than I've been before. My first character is an aspiring firefighter, who -- through daily hard work and just the right amount of schmoozing -- is quickly working his way towards being chief of the station. While not every moment of his job is action-packed and full of disasters (though a fair share of fires do get fought in a week), enough activities are available at the station for the down time -- like playing games, eating, talking with other employees -- that I essentially get all the same addictive nature of micro-managing a person's life without the drag of having to wait for them while they go off to a magical, far-off work land. Like a puppy you watch over, it's easy to become wrapped up in every moment of your character's life when you're actively participating in it from start to finish.

If firefighting doesn't appeal to you, Ambitions has other professions you can earn a living with, including Private Investigator, Stylist, Architectural Designer and Doctor. For the demo I played I was allowed to try all but the Ghost Hunter and Doctor out, but the other four already indicate that the tasks of each job are highly varied from one another. The firefighting and stylist professions were located in a central location that I had to keep my character at, while being a P.I. or an Architectural Designer (think interior designer/contractor) kept me moving from place to place in order to dig up clues or build new rooms, respectively. The tasks of each job make sense, too: P.I.'s have to interrogate and spy on people, while stylists have to hang out in a salon and give people makeovers. The most important thing I got out of my time with each profession? Every job is a lot of fun to play, and range from being as simple as directing your character in a few simple actions, to being complex jobs that test your artistic side and your skill with the game's building tools.

Loyal Sims 3 fans who aren't interested in professions can still expect a lot of changes to their game, as EA is planning a huge free update to go along with the expansion's release. The first of the major new pieces of content is the ability for players to give their Sims tattoos. Without Ambitions players will only have access to a limited set of Tattoos, but they can still apply them to their characters and other Sims. Even with Ambitions the art seems fairly limited at first, but the range of what you can do with the images is impressive. Through resizing and layering players can create some fairly realistic and genuinely good-looking body art.

Other new features free to all players with the release of Ambitions are self-employment, more options with customizing a neighborhood, and increased build/buy features. Sims who have the proper skills like photography or painting can register as self employed, making it so players who are aspiring to a life goal that links to the skill will no longer have to live with that pesky "unemployed" title. The other neighborhood and build/buy features are pretty specific sounding to the uninitiated Sims player, but trust me when I say that players who love to customize the minutia of their town and buildings have a lot to look forward to with Ambitions whether they buy it or not.

We also learned about the Create a Pattern tool, a downloadable tool which will be released to registered users from TheSims3.com on July 28. This tool will allow players to use existing stickers or import their own pictures or other graphics and modify them in order to make patterns for walls or other items (though this will not make tattoos). Players can place dozens of images on a single pattern in up to four layers. Additional layers will allow for background colors and specularity. It's a fairly simple sounding tool, but it's just another way EA's allowing Sims 3 players to manipulate their surroundings to their liking.

Ambitions isn't anything that's going to change your mind about the Sims franchise, but it's already shaping up to be another fantastic addition for players who simply can't get enough content and options with which to alter their sim's digital life. And heck, even if you don't pick it up but are still a loyal Sims 3 player, EA's got some great things planned for you too.

梦里彷徨

第一张图好囧.........
是打仗么？
还有导弹？

永恒的州长

外星石头爆炸？