The Sims 3: Generations – first-look preview

Unlike previous Sims 3 expansions like Late Night and World Adventures, which added specifically themed content to a particular aspect of your Sims' lives, Generations is a more comprehensive add-on that adds a wide range of content to fill out your Sims'development more fully from birth to death. The focus here is on age-specific content, so that each life stage your Sim undergoes feels more fleshed-out and distinct, from childhood to teenage years to adulthood and old age.

Starting from childhood, there's more stuff for kids to do. They can have bunk beds for the first time, and you now have gear like sleeping bags so children can sleep outside in their backyard and tell ghost stories. Their toy boxes have been expanded too, with costumes so kids can play dress up, pretty-pretty princess-style. And if your Sim is brimming with imagination, you can even create an imaginary friend for him or her, that acts like a regular Sim from the child's point of view, but is invisible to other Sims.

You can set specific traits for your little Sims too, like giving them a rebellious streak so that they can make trouble pulling off various pranks, like doorbell ditching, adding hair dye to your sibling's shampoo, making the toilet explode and so on. Conversely, your parental Sims can also have anurturing trait that emphasizes punishment for naughty Sims, like timeouts, videogame bans, and being grounded.

Speaking of adults, they haven't been forgotten in Generations. Grown-ups can now have elaborate bachelor and bachelorette parties before marriage, which include all manner of festivities like pink limousines, sexy dancers and plenty of "nectar" (that's code for booze). Partygoers should be cautious though, since Sims can now use video cameras to record events and play them back on their home TVs, so spouses-to-be can sneak in and record incriminating party antics to use as evidence later. Sims keep memories of big events too, so you can go back and review your Sims' milestones when you feel like reminiscing.

Overall, it looks like Generations hopes to add robustness to each step in a Sim's life cycle so that they feel more fully-realized as characters. We're told it also includes lots of extra details that Sims fans will appreciate (is customizable body hair really a big deal?), so we're eager to see more of what Generations has to offer. Look for more details in the coming months.

Apr 6, 2011