Your Sims can choose from among 11 career paths, including law enforcement, politics, journalism, and music. Each one branches into more specific areas as they climb the ladder. Thanks to the game’s seamless world, you can simply visit the location where your Sim wants to work, although you can still look for jobs in the newspaper or on the computer. Part-time jobs, such as bookstore clerk, are also available.

Your Sim’s mood and skills affect her job performance, and The Sims 3 introduces the ability to take specific actions at work, such as “work hard,” “take it easy,” or “meet co-workers.” Your Sim could be fired for poor job performance, while a highly successful Sim will rise to a prominent position, such as rock star. Many of the game’s lifetime wishes coincide with specific careers, so keep that in mind when making long-term plans for your Sims. Powerful objects, such as the Steel Bladder or the Teleportation Pad, await Sims who achieve their lifetime wishes.

Of course, your Sim won’t get anywhere without the right skills. The Sims 3 features 10 that you can develop: athleticism, charisma, cooking, fishing, gardening, guitar, handiness, logic, painting, writing. You advance your Sims’ skills by having them practice, read books, or take classes at specific buildings in town.

• A good mood not only lets your Sim develop a skill faster but also perform better at work or school. For optimal job performance, make sure your Sim is well-rested and had some fun after they last arrived home. The best benefit from a good mood comes before bed, because it will carry over to the next morning.
• The activities available at each location in town depend on your Sim’s personality traits, skills, age, and job, so visit each one with different characters.
• Make sure your child Sims put extra effort into homework — slackers may have less-desirable traits assigned to them upon graduation, while honor students can earn an extra trait.
• You can change the rate at which your Sims, or the entire town, age. Or you can even stop time completely.
• Ghosts’ afterlives have been expanded in The Sims 3. They can even have babies.

• Your Sims can earn some extra Simoleons by collecting and selling collectibles they find around town, including bugs, precious gems and metals, and more. Skilled fishermen may even hook the rare robot fish. Of course, you can always save and display those items too.
• When a Sim dies, their family and friends can inherit their possessions.
• Sims who share the same house should have at least one trait in common or life will become a daily struggle. Then again, you may want that for your latest episode of “Big Brother: Sims Edition.”
• Classes build skill levels quickly but cost a lot of Simoleons, whereas simply reading books is a cost-effective, albeit slower, way of accomplishing the same thing.
• The new sledgehammer option in build mode offers an easy way to quickly clear a room, house, or entire lot.

Legacy Family. Mortimer and Bella Goth try to share a quiet moment, but Gunther always seems to be hovering nearby.

Made in SimNation. Holly Alto tries to connect with her mother.

Down by the Simomon. Fishing is popular in Riverview.

While the rich 3D technology that drives The Sims 3’s visuals is well beyond the 2D isometric views found in the original game, the latest edition is actually a prequel: Sunset Valley became Old Town in The Sims before turning into Pleasantview in The Sims 2.

Sunset Valley was founded by Gunther Goth, whose family has played a major role in each incarnation of the town. He arrived from the Old Country, a nondescript place that could be part of SimNation, whose capital is SimCity. Gunther is the son of Victor and Gretle and has a sister named Frida. He married Cornelia and had a son, Mortimer, who married Bella Bachelor and fathered a boy and a girl. Mortimer and Bella’s generation is featured in The Sims 2.

In The Sims 3, Gunther battles Nick Alto in the Sunset Valley mayoral election. The Alto family is new to town, but that hasn’t stopped Nick and his wife Vita from trying to force the residents to side with them or the Goths. The Altos are also fighting the Landgraab family for control of the town’s businesses. If they succeed on both fronts, no one will be able to stand in their way — if you thought Alto was a play on the last name Soprano, you were right.

Many more families inhabit Sunset Valley, so you could always control one of them and take the Goth, Alto, and Landgraab families by surprise. After you’ve fully explored the town, don’t forget to download Riverview from the Exchange. It’s a sleepy village on the banks of the Simomon River, but its inhabitants offer plenty of new secrets for you to uncover.