Review: Sims 3 Create-A-Pet Demo
I'm a few days away from the opportunity to get the Sims 3 Pets expansion pack, so I have to be content for now with the Create-A-Pet demo. I hadn't tried it earlier, because getting the demo requires that you download and install Origin, and I just wasn't up for it just then.
Origin seems to be what the infamous EA Downloader turned into: a bigger, more unwieldy (less wieldy?) chunk of software that wants to run all the time and sell you stuff. The only good thing I can say for Origin is "at least you don't have to set up a new account." Your old EA account information will work.
The Create-A-Pet demo was unexpectedly huge, with a download of over 1GB of data. I was surprised at how long it took to download and install. And once installed, with how much it took to run. Clicking on the icon loads up the regular Sims 3 Launcher, which startled me. I wondered if I had accidentally bought the full expansion pack by mistake. I closed all my other applications, crossed my fingers, and launched the demo.
Once the darned thing finally loaded, I understood why it was so massive. You have control over about a thousand different options, which must surely be able to generate a billion different potential combinations. It's completely mind-blowing, and for someone like myself who is rarely interested in spending very much time in the Create studios, more than a little overwhelming. The demo only lets you create and customize a dog, but that was more than enough for me at the moment.
As an example, let's say you want your dog to have a spot on his right rear leg. You can do that. Furthermore, you can choose from a dozen different shapes and types of spots, and customize the exact shade as well. In fact, you have about ten different possible locations for spot placement, including all four legs independently, the top of the head, shoulders, middle back, chest, etc.
The game gives you a choice of a lot of "off the rack" breeds to start with, including several unusual breeds. (I noticed the Pharaoh hound and the Canaan, both of which are some of the world's rarest breeds. You can also choose between either a Pembroke Welsh Corgi or a Cardigan Welsh Corgi.) But the obvious appeal here is the ability to create either the dog of your fantasies (like Reginald, the rare long-haired purple-spotted Pug, seen above), or a perfect Sim reproduction of your own dog. I have every confidence that, given enough patience and fiddling, you could create a perfect replica of any dog that ever lived.