There’s something comforting about playing any installment of The Sims — it’s the one game franchise that largely hasn’t made any concessions to changes in trends games have seen in the past decade. Case in point: The Sims 3: Showtime is the first Sims game I had played since the first one, but I instantly picked up the basic gameplay mechanics. The interface hasn’t gotten any less cluttered and the Simlish language is just as indecipherable as before.
As the title suggests, The Sims 3: Showtime is an expansion pack. It’s not a complete overhaul of the formula, but rather a revision. To The Sims 3’s refined gameplay, Showtime adds new swag, a new city and a new goal — to achieve stardom and fame for your little digital people.
But even with these additions, Showtime plays out pretty much like a Sims game. You start out by making your own mini-me. I took the theme of this expansion pack to heart and birthed Frank Allens, a hipster-prick wannabe singer who is secretly afraid of children and a massive coward.
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