The Sims 3: World Adventures Expansion Pack Review

When the Sims 3 first released fans were both thrilled and aggravated. Thrilled because the game was a streaming live world that allowed our Sims to travel outside of our Sim homes to fart around town, and visit our neighbors without having to wait for the page to load up to begin playing.

The downside however was that the base game came with very little content, and there honestly was not much to do in town anyway.

EA however launched the very first expansion pack, World Adventures hoping to satisfy the cravings of their fans.

After owning the expansion pack for a few months now, I have to weigh in on how I feel about it. There are both cons and pros with the expansion pack.

Cons and Pros:
 
The Sims 3: World Adventures came packed full of cons on the very first day the game released. If you're a fan like me, likely you bought the game the day it hit stores. If you're a fan like me then likely you experienced the very same hair pulling, teeth gritting, cuss fests that I did.

The launch of the game bundled out expansion packs with some of the worst glitches and bugs fans of the franchise had ever seen. From disappearing neighborhoods, to Sims vanishing, and not being able to save the game.

The glitches though were thankfully all ironed out within just a few short days. However once the game was finally up and running properly on my PC, I experienced some glitches and annoyances that you should know about.

The first being that when you place your Sim to go on an adventure (another country), it does need to load. I have a pretty powerful PC, with a sweet graphics card, so my load times were less than a minute. However if you're running an older PC, expect your load times to vary.

The next con is that even though this expansion pack came packaged with new lands for your Sim to visit, there truly is not much else to do except explore the new terrain, catch some new fish, and collect some small items to place in your home when you return back to your hometown.

The pros however are that the game adds new game play. You're Sims not have the option to take photographs and become a photographer as a career option.

The con with this though is that many gamers experienced the game booting them once they went to use the camera. This is an issue my game still faces, even with the latest patches and game updates installed. The photography career is there... but it's a booting gamble whenever you take a picture.

An appreciated addition to the game are the lands that your Sim gets to visit. They include China, Egypt, and France. Each location has the expected cultural theme going on which is really neat. Your Sims can fall in love while on vacation, they can invite foreign friends back to their home land. The possibilities are all pretty endless, but add the same types of possibilities one could find in their hometown. Such as meeting a Sim in town square, falling in love, etc. It's just cooler having the option to have foreign Sims come visit you.

Other added aspects to game play include placing your Sims in adventures, which for the most part include poking your way through tombs, and retrieving artifacts or items which are hidden in the tombs.
My favorite addition to the game though was the addition of the basement tool in build mode. Before out Sims could only build upper levels on to their homes. Now we are given the option to add basements, or other small rooms below our homes. This addition is my favorite, because I like 1 or 2 story homes. If you wanted 3 levels the home ended up looking a little ridiculous, so the basement feature lets us go down, instead of up.

New clothing has also been added, all of which match in theme to certain cultures. Hair, and hats have also been added, but to be honest none of the clothes, or hair styles are nice. Likely you won't even use them. User created content is still better in my opinion, and I wish EA would hire some website
owners/designers for the job next time. Its a request fans have asked for since the first Sims game.

New objects have also been added, but most of them consist of objects that you hang on walls. There is not enough of a cultural variety to really amp up your destination worlds with though.

The addition of new roof types to make houses in China is neat, and useful for building homes that look as if they belong in China. I really like this addition, and gamers of the Sims 3 will like it as well.
One of my favorite additions besides basements were the new makeup choices that have been added.

You have a heap of new options now as far as eyeliner goes, and I love the Egyptian eye makeup that has been added.

You will also find new articles of jewelry. The jewelery is a necklace and a matching earring set, as well as a snake arm band. Although the necklace and snake band is only suited for Egyptian Sims living in Egypt, its nice that they added it, and the colors can be changed to your liking; same with the earrings. Colors can be changed.

Music clips have also been added to the game to suit the destinations your Sims can visit. Another neat addition to the music category is that your Sims can learn songs while traveling. Like in the Sims 2, when you Sims in Sims 3 return home, if they picked up the native songs, they can teach other Sims how to sing them as well.

Overall:
 
I really like the expansion pack. I would have liked to see something else as far as the first pack goes, but all in all I like it, and would recommend it to those who are fans of the Sims 3. It adds new elements to the game, new game play, new worlds, and it's a lot of extra added fun. I would have loved to have seen weather, or a snowy destination for my Sims to visit (ski lodge!!!), but for now, this first pack will do.