- Site: The Sims 3: Ambitions
- Publisher: EA Games
- Developer: EA Games
- Genre: Simulation
Game Media
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By Brad Cook
What do your Sims do while they’re at work all day? Previously, you could only choose a career and make a few basic decisions to nudge their jobs in certain directions, but now with the Sims 3 expansion pack Ambitions, you can follow your Sims as they fight fires, hunt ghosts, investigate mysteries, and more.
And like everything else they do away from home, their interactions with other Sims while working will affect their domestic relationships. A doctor who intervenes while a rich neighbor’s child is choking may find herself with not just new friends but a healthy Simoleon bonus too, while an architectural designer who doesn’t listen to his clients’ requests may find himself on the outs with them.
Career Tracks
Let’s head over to the employment office and learn more about the seven exciting careers waiting for your Sims:
- Firefighter: Make a beeline for the neighborhood fire department to apply for this job. Sims who want to excel at this career track should have the Athleticism and Handy skills. They should also be ready to respond to an emergency on a moment’s notice. Typical crises include gnome invasions, blazing infernos, and the aftermath of experiments gone horribly awry at the science lab. You may also find yourself rescuing Sims trapped after an earthquake.
- Ghost Hunter: Who you gonna call? Your Sim, if she heads over to the science facility and applies for this creepy career. She’ll roam town with her Banshee Banisher, eliminating all kinds of poltergeists, ghosts, and spirits from homes and businesses.
- Doctor: A hospital is the best place to embark on this career, of course. While Sims in this profession are expected to adhere to the Hippocratic Oath, some may choose to inject their peers with experimental treatments as part of a company-sponsored clinical trial and see what happens. Warning: side effects may include passing out and catching on fire.
- Investigator: Do you aspire to be the Sam Spade type, or a P.I. of the Jeff Lebowski (a.k.a. “The Dude”) variety? Keep the town safe as you investigate suspicious activity and spy on other Sims. You can also cross the line and use what you learn to blackmail friends and neighbors. The Logic and Athletic skills come in handy here.
- Architectural Designer: Home design shows are all over TV, so why not bring a little of that feng shui into your Sims’ lives? Your clients will request everything from a baby nursery to a complete home makeover, depending on what’s currently happening in their lives. Ambitions includes a new mode, Renovation, aimed specifically at Sims who choose this career. Make sure you stay within the allotted budget so you earn repeat business.
- Stylist: Like architectural designers, stylists have access to creative options that regular Sims don’t. Embark on this career path and soon you’ll be hard at work coming up with new fashion concepts and using them to dramatically transform fellow Sims’ looks. Don’t forget to photograph the results and build your portfolio. Sims who own a Styling Station can work from home, if they prefer.
- Self-Employed: All your Sim has to do is register as a self-employed worker through the Jobs and Professions icon on their phone and obtain a permit at city hall. Then they’ll be free to use their skills to make money. For example, perhaps they’ll use their photography ability, which they honed while on vacation in the World Adventures expansion pack, to snap shots that they can sell in Ambitions’ new consignment store.
Happy Job Hunting
So what will it be? Tangling with the supernatural as a ghost hunter? Fearlessly dashing into a burning building to save trapped Sims? Sneaking through the shadows to build a case against a wrongdoer? Charting your own course as one of the entrepreneurial self-employed?
Install Ambitions and discover the colors of your Sims’ parachutes.
Game Hardware
Check out our systems for your best gaming experience.
Does My HMO Cover This? Helping those in need or conducting sketchy “experiments”? You decide.
I See Dead Sims. A ghost hunter aims his Banshee Banisher.
Easy Rider. Check out the wicked tatts on Mr. Wrong Side of the Law’s forearms.
Sims 3: Ambitions on Your iPhone or iPod touch
The seperately available The Sims 3: Ambitions for iPhone is the most ambitious experience of The Sims on the app store! Now your Sims can turn passions into professions…build dream homes or businesses…even have babies!
The Sims 3
Learn more about The Sims 3 by reading our previous feature which covers the original version of the game. The latest version of the wildly popular people simulator offers a host of new features, including: a seamless world uninterrupted by loading screens; more robust options in Create-a-Sim; the ability to apply any color, pattern, or material to any object; overhauled personality indicators; and more.
If you liked this game, check out:
- The Movies
- The Movies: Stunts & Effects
- The Sims 2: Bon Voyage
- The Sims Castaway Stories
- The Sims Pet Stories
System Requirements:
- Full version of The Sims 3
- Mac OS X version 10.5.7
- Intel Core Duo processor
- 2GB of RAM
- 128MB Video RAM (ATI X1600, Nvidia 7300GT, or Intel GMA X3100 video card; Intel GMA 950 not supported)
- 3.5GB hard disk space (plus at least 1GB of additional room for custom content and saved games)
But That’s Not All
Ambitions offers plenty more for your Sims to do, including:
New Skills: Creative Sims will find new hobbies — or even revenue streams as self-employed workers — when they take up the inventing and sculpting skills. For the former, all they need to do is stop by the inventing workbench at a local junkyard and buy some scrap. They must start by creating simple objects, but eventually they’ll get to build Sim Bots and even a time machine. What would happen if a Sim couple went into a time machine, made WooHoo, had a baby, and then returned to the present day? They might end up with seriously old Sim offspring.
Sculpting lets Sims create anything — from chairs to statues of friends — by using clay, metal, wood, ice, or topiary. A more advanced skill level lets them unlock new sculpting materials as well as the ability to design bigger and better objects.Tattoos and Laundry: Create a Sim mode now lets you add tattoos to your new digital friends. You can place them anywhere, with the ability to layer tattoos and tweak each one’s scale and opacity. Already-created Sims simply need to visit a salon’s tattoo station to add imagery to their bodies. Don’t forget to upload your favorite tattoos to the Sims Exchange and share them with friends.
Laundry may seem mundane, but buying a washing machine and dryer (or clothesline) lets your Sims improve their moods by wearing clean clothes and sleeping in fresh sheets. Just make sure you buy a hamper or they’ll start leaving piles of dirty clothes around the house.- Twinbrook: Your Sims now have a new town to explore. Twinbrook began as a small industrial town at the mouth of the Simislaus Creek, but it went into decline after a dam was built. In recent years, however, Twinbrook has seen a renaissance, thanks to the artists, inventors, and other off-beat creative types who now live around the Sim-made lake. What part will you play in its rebirth?
New Businesses: Twinbrook features a variety of new businesses that you’ll also find in The Sims 3’s other towns, Sunset Valley and Riverview: the consignment store, salon, junkyard, Laundromat, and fire department. The consignment store is the place to find cool treasures and sell things your Sim has collected or created.
Stylist Sims will want to set up shop at the salon, which is also the place to go for tattoos, while inventors need the junkyard for pieces of scrap that are destined to become amazing inventions. And if your Sim is cheap, they can use the Laundromat in lieu of spending Simoleons on a washing machine; it’s also a fun place to socialize.