{mp3}The Sims Medieval{/mp3}
Year: 2011
Genres: Strategy (God Sim / Manage / Busin. / Real-time) / 3D / Virtual pets
Developer: The Sims Studio
Publisher: Electronic Arts
The Sims Medieval is a computer game developed by The Sims Studio. The game is a representative of the new game series from Electronic Arts. The new game will take players to the Middle Ages.
The game was released on March 22, 2011.
Review: Playability (by Bartleby)
On March 24, sales of The Sims Medieval game officially began in the CIS! Already from the name it becomes clear that you should expect something truly new and unusual for the series from the game; The Sims is transported to the Middle Ages! All the charms of the era are visible – knights, magicians, forest robbers, etc., it’s all there!
In principle, the mechanics remained familiar – all characters have their own characters and needs, each needs to furnish their home, feed them, help with work and friends! But all this happened before, but it differs radically from other games in the Medieval series! This is no longer just a dollhouse with Barbies and Kens to play at a tea party, it is rather a cross between the original and Majesty, in which there is a specific goal, tasks, quests and leveling up a la RPG.
The Sims Medieval gives players the chance to build a real medieval kingdom, controlling every character – from kings and queens to knights and mages, blacksmiths and bards. Players will also be able to create a chronicle of their state using a mission system – forge a legendary sword or organize a royal wedding, protect the country from evil magicians or find the fountain of youth.
Your character is a local monarch, everything in the game depends on your will (it’s up to you to execute or pardon), and, in fact, the characteristics of the hero! You should make informed decisions from the very beginning, because… in the future they will affect the course of the entire game, the character’s behavior, his relationships with his subjects, and the course of various quests! Already when creating a character, you need to choose 3 characteristics – two good and one bad habit, which definitely will not allow you to get bored from an overly sunny passage. Most of the quests must be completed by the king himself, which means that simply putting on the crown will not solve the problems, you need to learn everything yourself – read, write, fight, flirt, play musical instruments and so on, illiteracy is not held in high esteem here!
It’s certainly interesting to develop the protagonist, but you shouldn’t forget about the country! Initially, we are given only the king’s dwelling, i.e. a throne room, but without a forge, there will be no one to make weapons, soldiers need barracks, magicians need towers stuffed with ancient manuscripts, and to build all this you need resources, the production of which also needs to be established as soon as possible. There is not only one kingdom in the game, our kingdom, with the rest you can build your own foreign policy, be friends or go to war for the sake of new territories!
There are only 2 needs in the game – nutrition and vigor. However, if the character does not socialize, he will feel lonely (this will affect his mood), and if the character does not wash, he will smell bad. When creating a character, you can choose two common traits and one fatal flaw. Upon reaching level 9 and completing a certain task, your character can lose his fatal flaw and acquire one of the secret character traits. For example, the “arrogant” trait can be replaced with the “Celebrity” trait.
We invite you to evaluate part of the game walkthrough of The Sims Medieval, where you can see for yourself the quality of this product:
I’m not a fan of the previous parts of the series, but I must admit – Medieval surprised and intrigued me! Here at last there are goals, quests and achievements (achievements – without which no modern game can be imagined), which stir up interest! This is no longer just a dollhouse, this is a full-fledged game that is interesting to immerse yourself in!
Review: Graphics
Unfortunately, we could not find any data about the graphics engine used in The Sims Medieval, which is called The Sims 3 Engine version 1.1.10, so we can talk about the technological effectiveness of the game from personal visual observations.
The game is made in a very neat and original way Sims style. Compared to Sims 3, the graphics have noticeably improved, which has a positive effect on both the picture and the perception of the gameplay itself. I was very pleased with the detailed landscapes and carefully crafted game characters.
Separately, it is worth noting the wide palette of graphic settings, thanks to which we can flexibly maneuver, choosing for almost any gaming configuration of a personal PC. And then we will move directly to the tests of video cards and analyze their performance at maximum graphics settings.
Review: Resource-intensive game
All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. Below is the configuration of our test systems.
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Hardware configuration |
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Processors |
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T BE 3.33@4 GHz product provided by the company AMD AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE [email protected] GHz products provided by the company AMD AMD Athlon II X4 620 2.6 GHz products provided by the company AMD Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550@ 4.25 GHz Intel® Core™ [email protected] GHz Intel Core i5-760 [email protected] GHz |
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motherboards |
Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H products provided by the company AMD Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H products provided by the company AMD Maximus II Formula socket LGA775 product provided by the company Asus MSI X58 Eclipse Plus socket LGA1366 product provided by the company MSI MSI P55-GD55 socket LGA1156 product provided by the company MSI |
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Memory |
GOODRAM PLAY 1600MHz (8-8-8-24) product provided by the company GOODRAM GOODRAM Pro 2000MHz (8-8-8-29) product provided by the company GOODRAM |
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Video Cards |
GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB |
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Multimedia equipment |
3D monitor LG W2363D Monitor LG E2750 3D Vision Kit product provided by the company Nvidia |
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Power Supplies |
4xSeaSonic S12D 850 Silver 850W product provided by the company Syntex |
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System software and drivers |
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Operating system |
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition x64 |
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DirectX |
DirectX 11 |
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Platform Driver |
Intel INF Chipset Update Utility 9.1.0.1012 |
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Graphics driver |
Nvidia GeForce/ION Driver Release 267.31 AMD Catalyst 11.2 |
Less productive video cards up to the level of GeForce GTS 250 and Radeon HD 4830 are tested on the basis of Core 2 Quad Q9550 and Phenom II X4 940 BE processors, and more productive ones on the basis of more powerful solutions. Overclocked versions of video cards presented by sponsors were equal to conventional analogues by reducing their clock speeds.
Our video cards were tested in normal mode at a resolution of 1920×1080 and at a resolution of 3840×1080 for AMD Eyefinity. NVIDIA 3D Vision was not tested as the video driver is currently rated Fair. Using our graphs, you can evaluate how your video card behaves relative to other modern solutions in almost all modern visual modes.
Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080
At a resolution of 1920×1080 with maximum graphics quality settings, video cards of the Radeon HD 3870 or GeForce 9600 GT level will show an acceptable level of performance. The most optimal for this game should be considered video accelerators of the Radeon HD 4830 or GeForce 8800 GT level. Based on the purchase of video cards specifically for this game, then currently the Radeon HD 5750 or GeForce GTS 450 look most preferable.
AMD Eyefinity Technology Testing
All our video cards were tested at maximum quality settings on two Full HD monitors combined thanks to Eyefinity technology in a resolution of 3840×1080. At the moment, activating this technology does not cause any particular problems, thanks to the widespread support of ultra-high resolutions in modern games.
Testing at maximum quality settings using AMD Eyefinity technology on two monitors at a resolution of 3840×1080
With the use of Eyefinity technology, card performance is reduced by 20-30% of the standard mode, depending on the video cards model. For comfortable gaming at a resolution of 3840×1080, you need a video card of the Radeon HD 5750 level or higher.
CPU dependency testing
We tested processor dependence on 9 models of basic configurations, which are the most relevant today. The test was carried out in those places where the value of video cards for the game is minimal and its load was less than 99%, but this time at a resolution of 800×600 with maximum graphics quality settings.
Testing processor dependence at maximum quality settings 800×600
As we can see from the graph of our CPU dependency tests, all modern desktop processors will be able to provide a decent level of performance in The Sims Medieval.
Conclusion on system requirements
The game is not distinguished by grandiose graphics and all sorts of modern graphical bells and whistles, but it has a bunch of flexible visual settings, thanks to which all owners of modern desktop PCs will be able to play, even at maximum settings.
We express our gratitude to all the manufacturing companies that were able to provide test equipment for our GPU tests and we hope that in the future their number will increase significantly!
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