Review by: Toni Schwartz

World Adventures is the first in what’s guaranteed to be a long line of expansion packs for The Sims 3. While this isn’t the first time your digital pets have been able to go on holiday, (e.g. The Sims: Vacation and The Sims 2: Bon Voyage), World Adventures allows them to unleash their inner Indiana Jones in addition to soaking in the local culture.

In World Adventures, you can visit up to three fictional towns in three countries – China, France, and Egypt. Traveling is as easy (provided you have enough Simoleans to finance the trip) as picking up the phone and choosing a country. Don’t worry about missing work or school; time stands still while you’re on vacation (if only real life were like this!). During the first several trips your visa restricts you to staying for only three days, but you can slowly upgrade your visa for up to 12 days by completing adventures.

When you arrive you’re dropped off at a base camp, meant to take care of your basic needs (food, bed, bathroom). Feel free to spend your trip sightseeing on your own -- but if you really want to make the most of your vacation (and the game), check out the adventure board. You’ll likely be asked to talk to one of the locals, who’ll send you on a quest (e.g. recover an ancient artifact). Some are long quests that’ll take your whole vacation to complete; others are short tasks that are part of a larger quest chain. In some cases you may even need to hop from one country to the next.

If your Sim has a family you can bring them along on your trip though there are some restrictions. Visibly pregnant Sims, toddlers, and infants cannot travel. However, I’ve found that even if you only have a two-person household, it’s best to go tomb raiding solo. Not only are these catacombs often cramped (which lead to Sims whining about obstacles in their path), but since you’re on a time restraint via visa, you’ll waste precious time managing your extra Sims when you should really concentrate on your main Sim to complete the quest(s). In spite of this, I’m sure there are still people who’ll create a Sim Short Round to accompany their Sim Indiana Jones.

The three foreign towns are impressive and beautifully rendered. The French base camp is a charming country chateau, while the Egyptian one is more rustic, fit for rugged backpacking Sims. The shops in the town squares are equally well designed and decorated, capturing each country’s culture beautifully. It’s disappointing that the towns are so under populated and lifeless. This is in stark contrast to the towns in the standard Sims 3 game, which are full of people walking around. The base camps are particularly lonely, as you may only find one or two other Sims there, if at all.

As lovely and detailed as the towns are, this expansion pack seems to put a heavier load on your PC compared with the regular game. It felt a little slower and lagged whenever I’d zoom out from my Sim’s view to the town view, and zoom in again. There were times when my Sim would just stand there for a second too long after I’d give a command. And while I’m used to long load times in a Sims game, this takes the cake. Load times from leaving your home and traveling, and vice versa can take several minutes. Worst of all was that the game crashed to desktop twice, two days in a row – after I had downloaded and installed patches for it. Fortunately I save often, but it would be frustrating for someone to have to repeat a half hour’s playtime because he or she didn’t save every five minutes.