Lees je liever de Nederlandse Versie? Klik dan hier.
The Sims: Ambitions is the second expansion pack of The Sims 3. The players who expect a copy of The Sims 2: Open For Business will be disappointed. There are just too many differences. If you as a The Sims player can set yourself free from these expectations, you will experience a pleasant and playable expansion; one with new and long desired elements. Again, EA succeeded to make an expansion pack full of new fun stuff, which will make the gamer discover loads of exciting elements. This review will give you an idea on what you can expect, but it is almost impossible to give you a complete overview.
Introduction
This expansion pack focuses on following and controlling your sim while he or she is working. For this element there are five new jobs to apply for. The doctor profession has undergone some changes too. It is a so called hybrid-profession. Your sims will still vanish into a rabbit hole, but at a certain level the assignments will take you out off the hospital. You could compare it with the old police or journalism career, where you needed to ask people information or go to a match. So the hybrid-profession isn’t totally new.
A new feature is, that with a couple of jobs you can influence the neighborhood you are living in. As an example, when you are a stylist you can give other sims a complete make-over. You can do this in some kind of ‘Create A Sim’ for stylists. But because you are doing this in-game it feels completely different than usual. It is really nice to see the sim somewhere in town, wearing your creation. The same counts for being an interior designer; you redesign someone’s house in a build-mode, but because you have a limited budget and a wish list from your client, it feels like a part of the game. Slowly you will see the houses and gardens of your neighborhood change to due to you.
This expansion pack contains more than these big changes, like new skills, character traits and lifetime wishes which are all somehow linked to the new professions. Later on we will discuss these and other new features of the game.
EA gave the game interface a transformation, this to make playing the game more comfortable. Looking for a place in the neighborhood view is simplified as well, now there is a searchfiltre. Certain assignments come with instructions. These you can find in the left upper corner of your screen. The new way of messaging in the right upper corner takes some time to get used to. After a while you may consider it comfortable, you can reread messages or read them later on. But you will notice that you will probably delete them too often and too quick.
The new town: Twinbrook
The new town called Twinbrook is a town which some players will love, but others will dislike. Personally, I think this new town is great place for your sim to be living in.
Twinbrook is a town with 2 sides. At one side of the town you have a neat and decent area. Especially the centre of the town, with its central park and boulevard, looks amazing. Within this area you can find most of the old and new public buildings and workplaces.
At the other side of town you can find a dark, sinister swamp. Especially the mist, which is always around here, and the low hanging mosses of the trees make the atmosphere just right. In this part there are fewer lots than in the other part of town. Although the houses really match their surroundings, you will soon get the feeling that they are all similar to each other. I would have liked to see more variation in the different materials. Now they all look like they are build of the same type of wood.
New public places and workplaces
Some of the already known buildings and workplaces have undergone a transformation. You can also find a few new workplaces and buildings in Twinbrook.
First of all, there is a fire station. This is one of the new and open workplaces where you can still follow and control your sim while working. The fire station is completely furnished, so your sim could practically live there. There are objects to work out, a kitchen, showers and even beds.
One of the other open workplaces is a salon. Your sim can apply here for a job as a stylist. Sims who would like to have a make-over will come to you. This is also the place to be to get a tattoo.
The first new public building is a launderette. This is the place to be if you do not have a washing machine but you do want to have clean clothing.
The second new public place is consignment store, a shop specialized in recycled goods. Your sim could sell their home made paintings, sculptures and inventions here. This building is really important if your sim registered them self as an independent. We will discuss this later on.
Last but not least, the scrapheap. You sim can go to the scrapheap to collect junk, which they use to invent new items. A SimBot can eat here obviously; he likes junk.
All these places you can find in Twinbrook. This works kind of different for the other cities, Sunset Valley and Riverview. If you begin a new game the new places and buildings will be placed on empty lots. If you want these buildings in an already existing game you need to place them yourself. Unfortunately it is not possible to get all the buildings in your game. The launderette won’t be placed automatically. And it is missing in the library. It is really strange EA missed out on this point.
Page 1: Introduction and Twinbrook (The page you are right now)
Page 2: Create a Sim, Build mode and change neighborhood
Page 3: Jobs, Skills en shop specialized in recycled goods
Page 4: New items, time travelling and SimBot
Page 5: Bugs, pros and cons and conclusion