The Sims 3 Supernatural - Limited Edition (PC/Mac)

At last EA games has brought magic back to the Sims ! Those of us who remember the "Making Magic" pack from the original Sims, have been waiting impatiently for this theme to return. Yes I know they've toyed with vampires and spellbooks (the latter as premium content), but this expansion pack just adds a whole new dimension to the game.

From the moment you enter the "create a sim" screen" you have a whole new range of options. Now as well as human sims, you can also create fairies, werewolves, vampires, and ghosts (I think there was even an option for zombies & genies). They also let you create both aspects of the werewolf appearance.

There's no printed manual and I would recommend that even experienced Sims players should check out the in-game "Do you want to know more about ..." pop-ups regarding the new character types, because there's just so many new actions & interactions. Witches & fairies can cast spells & curses (check out the backpack for the magic wand), the former fly with broomsticks, the latter have an "I can fly" clickable action.

There's a new town "Moonlight falls", with new magical families (the Goths return as ghosts), new locations (like the Elixir shop), and new rabbit holes like the Fairy House (where fairies can recharge their "magic meters).

Gameplay is further enhanced by the addition of new Lifetime Wishes & Rewards, and 2 new careers (Fortune Teller & Alchemist).

The pack also includes 230 new objects. One of the most interesting is the Alchemy Station, which allows you to develop a new skill learning and mixing magical elixirs (you'll need to collect special plants, gems, ores etc to help you mix these potions). They've even brought back good old Bonehilda the skeleton maid (to get her, purchase the special coffin in the buy menu).

My only minor grumble is that the new clothing available, while catering well for zombies, does not include much in the way of special outfits for your fairies and witches. Also transforming werewolves simply appear in whatever outfits their human was wearing (what no shrinking trousers or tattered shirts!). All in all though, I would definitely recommend this pack, it completely revitalises gameplay and there just isn't room here to write about all the new objects and features.

New players should note that this an expansion pack, so they will need the base game Sims 3. Also it's a good idea to check out the free "Can You Run It" website, cos Sims games can lag or have graphics problems, if you don't have enough RAM or a suitable graphics card.

I was surprised by just how good this expansion pack was. Previous expansions have been alright, but this one has so many new features and interactions that you could play for hours and still not have experienced them all. We have a new town, Moonlight Falls, which is sparse but great. It even has a few new lots to visit - like going to see a fortune teller or visiting some of the other mystical areas to search for fairies.

With this expansion comes new characters. Now in "Create a Sim" you have further options which allow you to select what kind of creature you want your Sim to be. You can still be human, or you can go on to choose a werewolf, witch, ghost, zombie, vampire or a fairie. The werewolf, for example, allows you to dress and style your sim as they are "unchanged" but when the full moon hits your sim will change into a werewolf so now you can style what your sim will look like when they're in their creature form too. This is a nice addition and adds a little more variety to the create a sim area. Additionally, and what you all really want to know, there are whole load of new clothes. Some of these are actually quite nice too for a change - there are also some torn-up looking outfits for that scruffy-zombie look!

What I especially liked was that you don't have to be a supernatural creature in order to use the new features. For example, human sims can master alchemy by dabbling with the alchemy equipment or vising the new alchemy shop. The best part of this feature is the new collectable journal. I can't even explain how annoying it is to have to remember what fish you've already caught, which plants you've already planted, what butterflies and beetles you haven't caught yet BUT NOW, with the addition of the Collectibles Journal we're able to keep track of what we still have or haven't collected. The journal has every collectible in the game and when you've collected one it basically crosses it off for you like a giant tick sheet. It's a fantastic feature, maybe I'm just being nerdy but I think it's a massive improvement for the entire game rather than just something specific to Supernatural.

Some of the new in-game items you can buy for your sims are nice too. They're quite old fashioned items, intentionally, and seem to cater towards a less modern household which is nice for an eerie or old-world witchy feel but isn't great for those players who like their game to feel realistic and modern. Additionally, there are new promises, wishes, lifetime happiness awards and lifetime ambitions available to choose from, not to mention some great new personality traits.

As for what your sims can now do, there are so many new interactions that I'm not even sure I've found them all yet. It really depends on what kind of creature, if any, that you are as to what you're able to do or say to the other sims in the game. The more "accomplished" a creature you are (which basically goes on how long you've been that creature) the more options open up - like infecting other sims for instance. I particularly liked that you could use your lifetime happiness points to buy things like "Leader of the Pack" for the werewolves (or similar for other creatures) to give them a status within the supernatural world.

The only pointless aspect for me was the "Limited Edition Content". I like Plants vs Zombies just as much as anyone else but adding it to my Sims game just didn't appeal to me. You can buy pea-shooters which basically guard your house and dress your sims in some featured clothing but essentially it adds very little to the game. Having said that, we're probably not paying extra for it so we can't complain really!

Overall, a really good expansion pack. I might go so far as to say that it's the best one we've seen yet due to the sheer amount of new things we can see and do. For those of you who, like me, enjoy the collectibles then you'll really like this expansion pack. As for the Supernatural stuff, it looks good, it's fun to play and I really recommend it. Let's just hope EA can bring us another great expansion with the upcoming Sims 3: Seasons!

I love this EP. Being able to play with fairies and witches etc. is really great fun, and a great new twist for building lots for them with a different slant.
As usual the EA designed new content leaves an enormous amount to be desired as the design team appear to have absolutely zero imagination. So the new clothing and lack of hairdos is basically awful. The fairy wings, however, are lovely. There are hundreds of new interactions and things to do so it is exciting playing the game.
The new 'world' is just awful. Lazy designing yet again. It is very, very basic where it could have been wonderfully creepy, haunting, misty. It is just a very basic town with very dull buildings and extremely boring landscape.
It could have been so much more.
Yet another missed opportunity by the 'designers' (sic).
If you are starting out on a Sims3 journey, I would definitely recommend this EP, it has lots of fun things to explore and if you don't have many EPs installed it SHOULD run well. However, if, like me you have all EPs and a lot of the Stuff Packs you may run into some trouble with game play, especially if you are playing on a Mac.
There are hundreds and hundreds of people who are having horrible problems trying to keep playing this game.
i, unfortunately, am one of them. The Sims3 is written to run natively on Windows and in order to make it available for sale to those of us who use a Mac, EA have 'wrapped' the game inside something called 'Cider' which translates the game so that we can play it on the Mac platform. Sadly this process does NOT WORK WELL and causes all sorts of difficulties for us.
Your wonderfully powerful Mac may be able to run a small country, but CIDER renders it incapable of running a little game.
I am sad to say that EA's customer service is almost non existent and they have NO ONE on the team who know anything about Macs, so if you do run into trouble with this game, and you are playing on a Mac, do please be careful of following any instructions from the so called 'Gurus' who may offer help on EA's help lines.
They have been known to offer instructions which may fry your hard drive.
Be very careful!!
There are a number of sites where Mac using Simmers try to solve the myriad of bugs and problems, by themselves, for the Simming community, as EA just keep on churning out the EPs and patches without testing them properly. There are hundreds of bugs which will render your game unplayable, but a lot of them CAN be fixed, you just have to be directed to the good help sites.
Here is a list of sites which could help you if you get stuck.

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If you love the Sims3 like many of us do, you will go ahead and buy all the EPs available in the hope that eventually you will be able to play for a little while, as someone somewhere will find a way to fix whatever problems you are having with your game. Just don't expect to be able to play the game out of the box, some will, but more often than not, you WILL HAVE TO FIND A WAY TO FIX THE GAME so that you can play.

I hope that this helps some of you.