14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts has announced today the hardware that players would need to have in order to play The Sims 3, the next “humanity simulation” under development at the Electronic Arts Redwood Shore studio. A quick glance at the system requirements shows that the new game in the multi million selling series will not stress gaming rigs too much and will probably be playable even on most of the mainstream laptops.
If you own a desktop system, Electronic Arts says that you must have at least a Pentium IV running at 2.0 Ghz or an equivalent Athlon processor complete with at least 1 GB of RAM, although Vista users should have at least 2 GB to make sure the game is running smoothly. Players will also need a GeForce FX 5900 or a Radeon 9500 video card with at least 128 MB of memory. The game will be playable on both Windows XP with Service Pack 2, and on Windows Vista with Service Pack 1.
On a laptop, future The Sims 3 players will need to make sure that they have at least a Pentium IV 2.0 GHz or Athlon XP 2000+ coupled with 1.5 GB or 2 GB of RAM. In terms of video hardware, players will also require a GeForce Go 6200 or a Radeon mobile 9600 with 128 MB of RAM.
The Sims 3 is set to be released on February 20 and will aim to offer those interested in the previous games in the series a familiar yet innovative experience. One of the most important aspects that Electronic Arts has been emphasizing is the power given to the player to completely customize the personality and the look of their Sim. The release will have a new neighborhood feature allowing players’ characters to roam freely in the game world, meet new Sims and discover important in game locations, like parks and restaurants.
With the Sims series selling more than 100 million copies of its various iterations world wide, The Sims 3 surely has some big shoes to fill. We'll see how it manages to do that on February 20, when the game is officially released.