The Sims 3 Pets: Hands-on!

Click read more below to read our hands-on article about The Sims 3 Pets! It includes a lot of screenshots, comics, animations and videos!

Enjoy!

We were invited to play The Sims 3 Pets at EA Netherlands. I had already seen and played The Sims 3 Pets on Gamescom 2011 and during the Sims 3 Pets Producer Tour. But I couldn't resist going to EA to play it once more. This time it wasn't an event like the other events. Several fansites were invited, but all the fansites got their own time slot, one computer per fansite, two hours to play and three people per fansite. I had asked my team members if they would like to join, but only ChEeTaH could make it. So I went to EA together with ChEeTaH. And of course Junior was with us as well.

I didn't have a clue what to do this time. I didn't feel like trying to find the unicorn. I understood several fansites had been trying to find it. I gave it a try for a few minutes but no more than that. Thought it was pretty useless since there was such a small chance at finding it. Instead I focussed on just one household and the neighborhood itself. And I don't regret that choice. Instead of a large preview we usually write, we now have a small story and snippets of what happened, along with a lot of funny screenshots, some animations and this time we also have a few videos! Enjoy. And be sure to comment when you're done reading.

The Marshall's home:

So I decided to choose the Marshall household. Two adults (a man and a woman), their foal/horse GooGoo, puppy/dog BaBa and kitten/cat Oopsie-Daisy! All pets were babies when we started playing. But I soon decided to age (ahem, yes, I cheated) the cat and dog because they were limited in their interactions. Something else I should mention, I noticed that all the pets hated each other. Not sure if anyone else played with the household before me, but I didn't like this so I cheated friendship between all of them. This just unlocks more fun interactions.

I aged Oopsie-Daisy first:

And then it was time for BaBa as well:

BaBa loooooves eating!

BaBa is a cute dog. She likes getting the newspaper:

BaBa also loves sitting on the chairs:

But BaBa also loves to chew on this toy. It helps the destroy meter, both dogs and cats have this, and if you do not fulfill this desire, they will destroy stuff like your Sim's furniture!

Like I mentioned before, BaBa and Oopsie-Daisy weren't the best of friends...

But that soon changed after I did my best I cheated to improve the relationship.

Cats and dogs love to destroy things... Should I do it, or not?

Gotta love cats...

Just look at how small kitten Oopsie-Daisy and puppy BaBa are!

Some more screenies of birds. We were able to choose between a couple of birds. We tried two different ones.

Oopsie-Daisy sure loves playing with the bird toy.

But you know. Not just toys... Cats and birds. What can I say about this? Well Oopsie-Daisy thinks the cockatoo tasted like chicken. Ahem!

OH HAI! I CAN HAZ BIRDIE TOY?

Save meeee, please! Someone, aaargh! Translating: Bird toy trying to fly away!

Lazy cat is lazy... But yeah, Oopsie-Daisy loves this scratch post. I think I would too if I was a cat!

While playing, I spotted a nursery upstairs. So this family has plans for the future? Anyway I finally came across the unicorn! Yes! The unicorn. In plush form! Hahaha. No I didn't see the real unicorn. But since I didn't get pictures of this last time, I decided to show you the cute plushies:

And while I was there, Estela Marshall appeared, a ghost horse! She floated from the nursery down, through the walls and ceiling, to the kitchen and then outside. She went into the barn and started to possess a haystack!

Estela the ghost horse and GooGoo seemed to know each other:

Somehow the Sim is revolted by the ghost horse. Hello, have you looked in the mirror today? Leave the poor horse alone!

So GooGoo the horse did a lot of running around town. I'm not really into horses, although you might think otherwise after seeing all the horse images in this hands-on report hahaha. But I just wanted to say that I do think it looks amazing.

GooGoo the horse was feeling sleepy:

But even ghost horses need sleep sometimes!

Maybe this ghost horse wasn't ready to die. Because Estela was also eating hay in the barn!

Funny thing is, Estela the ghost horse also appeared during the day.

After some time I found out why Estela appeared in the nursery. It's because of this urn/box:

I spotted a couple of tiny animals in the wild. A bird and a chameleon!

There are strays as well...

Besides the birds at home, we also added some other minor pets, such as the squirrel:

Mister Squirrel having fun on the treadmill:

There are three different kind of turtles you can choose from. Here is one of them, the pond turtle:

Appaloosa Plains, the new world in The Sims 3 Pets on PC/Mac, is a beautiful green neighborhood.

I love the houses in this town!

Some even have a Victorian feel to them.

That goes for the community lots as well.

This is a wonderful neighborhood for animals. And you can see the houses match the neighborhood. There are barely any modern homes. Barely. There are a few though:

Decoration around the neighborhood:

The cemetery:

The pet cemetery:

Llamas are not welcome at the water bassin:

Cat pond and dog pool:

Some objects I spotted and wanted to share with you... On the kitchen counter there was a bag of food, and something that looks like a leash? Oh and the Marshall family had this hyper modern litter box as well! And just look at those cute paintings!

That pretty much concludes our hands-on! We hope you enjoyed it. If you are looking for a more informative preview about The Sims 3 Pets on PC/Mac, check out our Gamescom 2011 PC/Mac Pets preview or the Pets Producer Tour preview!

I would like to thank EA Netherlands for inviting us to play the game. I was already excited, I hope this hands on report helped our readers to get even more excited as well! The Sims 3 Pets will be in stores on October 18 in the USA and October 21 in the UK!