The release list also contained other dates, including The Sims 3 Console on 3DS and The Sims Medieval, both set for release on March the 22nd,  2011.

For more information check out the thread on Reddit.

[Source Sims 3 Expansion 4 Leaked]

By now, you know The Sims 3 and the story of The Sims in general–a series of games that lets you control the lives, loves, and potty breaks of little computer people who live in little computer houses and go to little computer jobs every day. While your sims’ jobs typically take them out of play for several in-game hours, the upcoming Sims 3 Ambitions expansion actually adds several new careers that you can play through all day long, plus new career-related gameplay features that add a lot more variety and choice to the daily grind. We got our hands on an early version of Sims 3 Ambitions to try out and have much to report.

Sims 3 Ambitions’ new features run through the entire base game of The Sims 3, including new traits that play into the new career. For example, “eccentric” makes your sims handier inventors and “perceptive” makes your sims better at sniffing out clues when working as private investigators. The Sims 3 Ambitions expansion also adds an entirely new (and huge) neighborhood called Twinbrook, a backwater bayou town with plenty of amenities in the center of the city. And, perhaps in keeping with some of the new professions, like ghost hunter and PI, the town has lots of weird, backwoods swamps on the outskirts.

While we’ve covered the other professions in some detail, we haven’t focused in on the ghost hunter or the inventor until now. The ghost hunter profession benefits greatly from logic skill (to work the experimental Ghostbusters-like contraptions that capture loose spirits), so it helps to pick logic-based traits like “genius” and “computer whiz” to aid your performance.

Like with all of Sims 3 Ambitions’ professions, you can sign up for the career path straightaway by picking up the nearest newspaper (and using the “find a profession” option rather than the “find a job” option), which will immediately get you started on your career path. Better still, even though professions do have set work hours each day, they don’t always require you to start an hour beforehand by jumping into that pesky carpool car. Instead, you’ll get an onscreen pop-up alert that lets you know it’s time for work, and you can get started on your own time. Early on in your career path, you can actually take your time, but as you gradually get promoted, your job will become more time consuming and you’ll be better off if you hurry to your job.

As you might expect, bustin’ ghosts requires you to work odd hours (you’ll start off at about 5:00 p.m. in game time and work until the wee hours of the morning). The meat and potatoes of the profession are “spirit collecting” jobs that require you to don your ectoplasm-stained jumpsuit, hop into a cab, and travel across town to an infested house. Once you arrive, you’ll be given an onscreen meter that keeps track of how many loose ghosts are on the premises, and you must head into the building to capture them, which you can do simply by clicking on a ghost to interact and choosing the “capture” option.

Ghosts appear as glowing blobs of varying colors and have different ages (such as young or old) and different temperaments (lower-level ghosts are “kind” or “nice,” while higher-level ghosts will put up much more of a fight). They also have a monetary value attached to capturing them. Once you’ve sucked up every specter, you’ll receive a cash bounty for clearing out the property and have the spirits in your inventory, which you can then donate to science. Interestingly, while you’d figure that working the graveyard shift as a ghost hunter would be a lonely and isolating job that cuts deeply into your sim’s need to socialize, it turns out that several of the jobs you’ll take will actually be in the inhabited homes of other sims across town. You can interact before and after you’ve taken care of their ghost problem, so you can still make friends, chat, and get to know their traits. However, these other sims won’t feel like talking when there’s a ghost within sight range–they’ll be too busy running in terror.

On the other hand, if you decide to take a more hands-off profession, you might try the inventor career, which benefits greatly from both the logic and handiness skills. This profession is a much less social gig that requires your sim to make frequent trips to the local junkyard to hunt down piles of scrap from the trash heaps. You must then invest in a pricey workbench for your home and then spend hours hammering away until you can invent something useful. You might start with less-than-useful tchotchkes like a dipping llama (similar to the dipping bird but with a llama) and move on up to more-powerful stuff like a tunnel that goes directly to the beach or the ever-popular time machine.

In all cases, you have different choices for advancing in your profession (rather than simply performing one and only one task). While there are jobs that are directly related to your gig that contribute to your advancement (which is measured in a meter in your profession tab), you can also perform other tasks that will advance your profession level and earn you extra cash. For example, there’s a riddle contest downtown that tests your logic skill as a ghost hunter and earns you a nice chunk of change for your trouble. All professions have built-in money makers that will let you pursue them full time and keep your sims supplied with all the delivered pizza they want.

Sims 3 Ambitions’ profession system is a much more flexible, much more open-ended and lenient way for your sims to earn some extra scratch. Each one has clearly been designed to be self-contained enterprises that ensure your sims can meet their basic needs of health, wealth, and social interaction without having to constantly come to a jarring stop to take that urgent bathroom break. Sims 3 Ambitions is scheduled for release on June 1.

[The Sims 3 Ambitions Hands-On via Source]

Shop For Sims 3 Ambitions

You will not get as much with a stuff pack than you would with an expansion pack. A stuff pack usually consists of new décor options and objects for your Sims to interact with….  An expansion pack will give you new décor options and objects for your Sims to interact with as well as completely new interactions and gameplay.

In fact, most Sim players already gave out a verdict with Sims 2: Stuff packs are a waste of money!  And considering that EA has given us a Sims 3 store, I can’t even begin to understand what is the point of coming out with a stuff pack when they could have sold all the items in the online store!

So why bother buying a stuff pack?  If you can’t afford it, then don’t bother.  Some of the free downloads that you will see around are build from objects in a stuff pack, so if you don’t have the original mesh you will not be able to download custom contents made from High-End Loft items.

With the gazillions of absolutely fantastic free downloads available on the Internet,  you are still a winner by not buying the High-End Loft Stuff pack (also called The Sims 3: Design and Hi-Tech Stuff by the way).  But if you are like me, a hardcore Sim player, then you just have to own it!

Though I also know a few people who will not -or will not let their children – download anything from the Internet and would rather physically buy games and add-ons…  So we have to cater for different people though I doubt Electronic Arts would have taken that point into account…

The only really good thing about this pack is that your Sims will an aquarium which can hold up to eight fishes of any type, replacing the single fish bowl.

Other features of the High-End Loft Stuff pack that sounds better than it actually is:

• Add a sleek, high-end, tech-inspired look to your Sims bedroom, living room, bathroom, office and den.
• Upgrade your Sims’ wardrobes with forward looking apparel, tailored suits and sophisticated outerwear.
• Transform your Sims’ homes into cutting edge spaces with contemporary inspired furnishings, eclectic art and modern designs.
• Give your Sims coveted electronics including high-tech, ultra-slim TVs, video game systems, stereos and more.
• As a special 10th Anniversary gift this pack includes three coveted items from The Sims and The Sims 2 games: The heart shaped vibrating bed, the electric guitar, and the aquarium.

Download High-End Loft Stuff pack on Direct2Drive!

If you don’t already know it, here’s what you get with this new expansion pack…

World Adventures Expansion Pack is the first expansion pack for the The Sims 3. Playable both on PCs and Macs, it focuses on a range of travel opportunities available to your sims, which allow for everything from pleasant family vacations, all the way to an adventure-filled, possibly even dangerous Indiana Jones like adventures. Along the way your sims can accumulate unique skills and abilities, learn about new cultures, enjoy a unique soundtrack of real songs recorded in Simlish and get $10 worth of free SimPoints for use at The Sims 3 Store.

Explore realistic environments set in France, Egypt and China. Enjoy Indiana Jones like adventure. Develop new skills and abilities. Meet and create unexpected new sims. Put your new abilities to use. Story and Gameplay Like every The Sims game, the story behind the World Adventures Expansion is whatever you want to make of it, but in this case within the realm of international travel. And why not, since what sim doesn’t need a vacation. Players choose from environments set Egypt, France or China, with the possibility of others via download. Similarly, gameplay follows the same well-worn path familiar to veteranThe Sims players, and easy to pick up for those coming to the franchise for the first time. Players create their sims as they like, customizing everything from physical characteristics, all the way down to personality traits, habits, etc. They can mix with other sims, build relationships, start families and even die. Because this expansion is based around travel, your sims can also discover rich, new cultures, develop brand-new skills and abilities and explore and adventure through realistic environments. New skills related to these destinations include photography, martial arts, and nectar making (a sim beverage) among others. As part of of the exotic locales available, sims can get adventurous and explore the caves and tombs of Egypt and China. Here they will put their new adventure related abilities to work as they participate in Indiana Jones like adventures full of excitement and even danger, including some not-so friendly mummies and the Grim Reaper. Unique Simlish Soundtrack Just as with travel, every sim has his/her particular musical tastes. With that in mind the World Adventures Expansion Pack features an all-star soundtrack of real songs, recorded by the original artists in the sims native tongue of Simlish. These tracks include: Audrye Sessions – “Turn Me Off” Broken Hearts Club – “Na NA NA” Esmee Denters – “Outta Here” Fefe Dobson – “I Want You” Friday Night Boys – “Can’t Take That Away” Nelly Furtado – “Manos al Aire” Stefanie Heinzmann – “No One (Can Ever Change My Mind)” Pixie Lott – “Mama Do” Madina Lake – “Lets Get Outta Here” Manchester Orchestra – “I’ve Got Friends” Matt and Kim- “Daylight” Katie Melua – “If the Lights Go Out” Metalkpretty – “Wake Up, Wake Up” Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head – “Me + Yr Daughter” Hot Chelle Rae – “Say” LeAnn Rimes – “You’ve Ruined Me” Cassie Steele – “Summer Nights” Evan Taubenfeld – “Pumpkin Pie” Young Punx – “Juice and Sim” Key Features Accept challenges, find treasures, discover what’s lurking in hidden caves and more. Explore famous landmarks in China, Egypt, and France. Learn new skills like photography and pursue new opportunities. Meet new Sims from exotic locations and share their cultures. Get $10 worth of free SimPoints for The Sims 3 Store. Enjoy a unique all-star soundtrack of songs, especially recorded in Simlish for the expansion.

The Sims 3 World Adventures Story and Gameplay

Like every The Sims game, the story behind the The Sims 3 World Adventures Expansion is whatever you want to make of it, but in this case within the realm of international travel. And why not, since when what sim doesn’t need a vacation?

In the Sims 3 World AdventuresPlayers choose from environments set Egypt, France or China, with the possibility of others via download. Similarly, gameplay follows the same well-worn path familiar to veteranThe Sims players, and easy to pick up for those coming to the franchise for the first time. Players create their sims as they like, customizing everything from physical characteristics, all the way down to personality traits, habits, etc. They can mix with other sims, build relationships, start families and even die. Because the Sims 3 World Adventures expansion is based around travel, your sims can also discover rich, new cultures, develop brand-new skills and abilities and explore and adventure through realistic environments. New skills related to these destinations include photography, martial arts, and nectar making (a sim beverage) among others. As part of of the exotic locales available, sims can get adventurous and explore the caves and tombs of Egypt and China. Here they will put their new adventure related abilities to work as they participate in Indiana Jones like adventures full of excitement and even danger, including some not-so friendly mummies and the Grim Reaper.

The Sims 3 World Adventures Unique Simlish Soundtrack

Just as with travel, every sim has his/her particular musical tastes. With that in mind the Sims 3 World Adventures Expansion Pack features an all-star soundtrack of real songs, recorded by the original artists in the sims native tongue of Simlish. These tracks include:

Audrye Sessions – “Turn Me Off”
Broken Hearts Club – “Na NA NA”
Esmee Denters – “Outta Here”
Fefe Dobson – “I Want You”
Friday Night Boys – “Can’t Take That Away”
Nelly Furtado – “Manos al Aire”
Stefanie Heinzmann – “No One (Can Ever Change My Mind)”
Pixie Lott – “Mama Do”
Madina Lake – “Lets Get Outta Here”
Manchester Orchestra – “I’ve Got Friends”

Matt and Kim- “Daylight”
Katie Melua – “If the Lights Go Out”
Metalkpretty – “Wake Up, Wake Up”
Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head – “Me + Yr Daughter”
Hot Chelle Rae – “Say”
LeAnn Rimes – “You’ve Ruined Me”
Cassie Steele – “Summer Nights”
Evan Taubenfeld – “Pumpkin Pie”
Young Punx – “Juice and Sim”

The Sims 3 World Adventures Key Features

• Accept challenges, find treasures, discover what’s lurking in hidden caves and more.
• Explore famous landmarks in China, Egypt, and France.
• Learn new skills like photography and pursue new opportunities.
• Meet new Sims from exotic locations and share their cultures.
• Get $10 worth of free SimPoints for The Sims 3 Store.
• Enjoy a unique all-star soundtrack of songs, especially recorded in Simlish for the Sims 3 World Adventures expansion.

Shop For The Sims 3 World Adventures

* Sims 3 World Adventures expansion requires a copy of The Sims 3, or The Sims 3 Collector’s Edition for play.

So check out the latest screens from this upcoming game!

Interesting…. What do you think?

Press Release here.

As listed on the Sims 3 Official site:

“The Adventure is Near…

Take your Sims on the adventure of their lives with The Sims 3 World Adventures. Guide your Sims to acclaimed fortune—or potential doom. Take your Sims to exotic destinations to hunt for hidden treasures.  Uncover new skills, experience new personality traits and garner rewards, if your Sims succeed.  Explore ancient tombs in the pyramids of Egypt, master martial arts in the Far East, and discover rich culture and famous landmarks of France.  Adventure is on the horizon — what will your Sims discover?

FEATURES

• Accept challenges, find treasures, discover what’s lurking in hidden caves and more.
• Explore famous landmarks in China, Egypt, and France.
• Learn new skills like photography and pursue new opportunities.
• Meet new Sims from exotic locations and share their cultures.
• Customize your Sims homes with new styles & artifacts from their adventures.
• Get $10 worth of free SimPoints for The Sims 3 Store, and additional online features to be announced.”

//

//

The Sims 3: World Adventures Q&A from IGN