When The Sims 3 Monte Vista was first announced at the Maxis Live Broadcast, right away we thought, “Another world already?! Didn’t we just get Sunlit Tides?” and I’m sure we weren’t the only ones. Sunlit Tides is that nice beach island world you’ve always wanted to put your Sims on, but Monte Vista is a whole different world.
The Sims 3 Monte Vista is not an island world, or desert like previous worlds we’ve seen (Sunlit Tides and Lucky Palms), but a world that takes place in a peaceful countryside with rolling hills, and old time Italian style charm. The world is magnificent from every view in the world, from the new lighthouse, coliseum, or up atop the walled in city that sits high above the rest.
The World Of Monte Vista
The overall landscape of the world is nice, with a light green grass, trees, rolling hills, and a few beaches for Sims to access the ocean to swim. During the day the world is bright and lush with a varying color than most worlds thanks to custom lighting. At night the world looks nice with the homes all lit up and the walled in city stands out on the hill. There is plenty of space in the world too with many homes and the familiar community lots, including a new one, the pizzeria, which will talk about later.
For those with The Sims 3 Seasons, the world will blend with the changing Seasons nicely! If you thought Monte Vista was nice in the sunshine, wait until you see it covered in snow. Monte Vista works with all seasons and will adapt. Not all of the trees in the world will change colors which is the same for other worlds depending on the type of tree. When playing Monte Vista for the first time I had hail in my game with rather thick fog playing just inside the walls of the city.
Overall the world is nicely done. There’s plenty of homes and even plenty of space for you to create your own villa or place down a few other lots of your own from the Edit Town Lot Bin.
Lots Of Monte Vista
The homes and community lots in Monte Vista are very spacious and fit the overall theme of the world. Each home is has large rooms and has a relatively easy and simple floor plan. There are many homes in the world that sit behind the walled in city, along the hill to the city, and all around the world. Most homes are inhabited by Sims, a few are empty that you can move your own Sims into, and there are quite a few empty lots too in varying sizes so you can build pretty much whatever you’d want.
Most homes in Monte Vista have some sort of courtyard or garden area that allow your Sims to garden. If you have The Sims 3 Supernatural though, watch out for the plant eating zombies! In the walled in city portion there is a mixture of the main community lots such as City Hall, Market, and Business building, along with many homes – some small and some large like in the screenshot above. Other lots such as the Community Pool and Fitness are elsewhere in the world, and the Sports Stadium is a new rabbit hole coliseum! All of the rabbit holes have been redesigned for that Tuscan/Italian style with their own accents depending on where they’re located. If you like building you will also find some new windows, doors, columns, and wallpapers available in the Build & Buy catalog that were used in Monte Vista!
All of the homes in Monte Vista are very nice and well decorated to fit with the world. You also won’t be disappointed in the amount of homes to choose from and their varying sizes from small to rather large mansion.
Sims In Monte Vista
There are many playable Sims in Monte Vista with two returning families from The Sims 2! While they only mention the Monty’s as the returning The Sims 2 family, a surprise is that Goopy GilsCarbo has also returned but as a toddler. If you don’t know who Goopy GilsCarbo is, Goopy was a townie from The Sims 2 that had no relationships but somehow every Sim managed to know him at some point.
The Monty’s also return with Monte Vista and to follow the storyline, it’s back in time from where you may have known the Monty’s from Veronaville in The Sims 2. They’re now playable and you can control their story. The Capps are not present in Monte Vista and the Monty’s don’t actually know the Capps yet so the family feud between the Monty’s and Capps like in The Sims 2 is not present in Monte Vista. There are plenty of other families and Sims to play in Monte Vista too, scattered all over the world. If you choose to make your own Sims you will find two new Create A Sim items for both adult male and adult female Sims that comes with the world. All of the Sims have great unique stories all of which you can decide by playing and with plenty of families and Sims ready to play!
New Premium Content
The new premium content included with Monte Vista is the Wood Fire Oven which allows Sims to make homemade pizzas, calzones, and breads. There are a variety of different types of pizza, calzones, and breads that your Sim can make with the new oven. Not all recipes will be available to your Sim unless they’re good at cooking. The higher the cooking skill, the more recipes your Sim will have to make. The Wood Fire Oven is a nice addition to the game adding lots of new recipes and foods our Sims can now have, and it’s nice to actually see them make the pizza rather than phone for a pizza! You can find the Wood Fire Oven in a few lots around Monte Vista, or in the pizzeria community lot in the walled in city portion. If your Sims want the oven in their home, it’s also available in the Build & Buy catalog.
Not included with Monte Vista but available separately is the Al Fresco Street Market. This new market is a new venue that was made for Monte Vista but will cost you 1,900 SimPoints extra and it’s well worth it. The Al Fresco Street Market adds new premium content harvestable carts and a lemonade stand! The new harvestable carts allow your Sims to purchase and sell vegetables, and the lemonade stand, when you buy the new lemons available with the harvestable carts, allows your Sims to make lemonade. The lemonade stand also offers Sims advice too. The only downside is that the lemonade stand can only be used by child Sims, but it’s nice to have an open market (sort of), a lemonade stand, and a new harvestable of lemons!
The Sims 3 Seasons & Monte Vista
For those with The Sims 3 Seasons, SimGuruGraham has made a seasonal festival lot for Monte Vista! (Make sure to thank SimGuruGraham on Twitter) The seasonal festival lot is available on The Sims 3 Exchange for free and will have a festival for each of the four seasons.
Final Thoughts
The Sims 3 Monte Vista is a great world for The Sims 3. While it’s not available for purchase with SimPoints, but must be purchased with real money included with a SimPoint bundle it’s well worth the price. When you factor in just the world itself and the Wood Fire Oven, it’s a great addition to the game. When you add in the Al Fresco Street Market and if you have Seasons, SimGuruGraham’s seasonal lot, this world is probably the most complete world that almost includes everything for your Sims to do. The only thing it would be missing is performance lots for The Sims 3 Showtime and Ambitions lots for the Ambitions careers. It works great with The Sims 3 Seasons, and also looks great even without The Sims 3 Seasons.
The detail of the world is great. We really like how the world looks and how it has the Italian/Tuscany style which is something we didn’t have in The Sims 3 until now. All of the rabbit holes, lots, and landscaping work well together. We also like that beaches were included so our Sims can also swim. Like stated above, this has to the most complete and official world we’ve had for The Sims 3 so far.
The Sims 3 Store Team did a great job with this world and you will not be disappointed in the amount of new content included with the world too!
I agree! Well worth the price especially if you were planning on buying some sim points anyway. Monte Vista and Sunlit tides are now my two favorite ea worlds. And I do have all the ea worlds. There is something “better” about Sunlit Tides and Monte Vista. Can’t put my finger on it. The sunlight in Monte Vista is gorgeous though. MV is the world I wish they had made for supernatural.
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Does it bother anyone else that all the townies wear aviators??
Yes! Most Sims in Sunlit Tides wear sunglasses too.