I'm a huge fans of The Sims. I played the original from the very beginning (with all the expansions too), beta tested The Sims Online, and I played The Sims 2. Needless to say, I was excited when The Sims 3 was announced. I bought it right away, and even ditched my World of Warcraft raiding schedule to play it more often.

When Electronic Arts announced The Sims 3: World Adventures expansion, I was intrigued. The social network marketing machine went into full swing, and my Facebook account was bombarded with screen shots, videos, and updates. They had me hooked. I wanted to play it. The only problem was that the price tag was a pretty big slap in the face. I went home hoping that it was going to be worth it.

What Got Added to the Game:

The Sims 3: World Adventures added three new countries for sims to visit: China, Egypt, and France. Each one has multiple locations, catacombs/tombs, merchants, a “base camp”, and homes. I spent a lot of time exploring the little nooks and crannies of the various areas (which are stunning), and loved going into the tombs. Each one has secret areas, little puzzles to solve, and elicits some great emotional responses from the sims.

Some new furniture items, patterns, hair styles, make-up, outfits, skills, recipes, and other various elements were added. I loved the additional items (I love new furniture!), but was disappointed in the lack of new hairstyles and outfits. I just expected there to be a lot more included, given that the expansion was almost as expensive as the original game itself.

I did appreciate the new skills and traits added to the game. I quickly created a sim to explore the new Kung Fu skill. I took the sim to China, had them learn and practice it, bought some training equipment for home, and soon found my sim with an orange belt. I especially loved the facial expressions the sim made, and their fluid movements.