Like all the other Sims games before it, The Sims 3 has a ton of handy codes and cheats that can give you just about anything you could want. The more I thought about it, I don’t think calling it “cheats” is really the right word. Since there’s no way to really “win” in the game, all the codes are just changes to the basic rules. It does make some of the goals and aspirations easier to reach, but I don’t really think of it as breaking the rules. So, I’ll try not to call them that – I think of them as ways to make the game more fun. The best part about all the codes is that they also work for all the expansion sets for Sims 3 too.
I think having the codes makes the game slightly more addictive. Without them, some of the more challenging things would take waaaaay too much effort. For me anyway, I’d have given up on a lot of things if I wasn’t able to give my Sims a few thousand Simoleons here and there, or helping them buy some land, or move objects around for them – they’re not always the smartest. So, having the ability to help makes the game more enjoyable. You can debate that all you want, but for me, it’s the truth.
The details of using all these cheats are pretty simple. Just open up the console (hold down the “CTRL” and “SHIFT” keys, then press the letter “C”, or on Windows Vista, it’s CTRL+WINDOWS+SHIFT+C), and you can start acting to directly affect the lives of your Sims. With the console open, the thing to remember is that you can always type: “help” to get a listing of most of the actions you can do. It’s a lot easier than printing out a page. You can also type: “testingCheatsenable true” to turn on some of the more advanced actions.
The codes that I use most often are “Motherlode” (gives 50k Simoleons) and “resetSim” which I use if I ever get into trouble – it puts the Sim in their home and makes them happy and safe. If you turn on the testing cheats, you can also make toddlers “go away”, but typing “ageuptonpc“. This makes them turn into an adult NPC. But my all time favorite benefits of turning on the testing cheats is to hold the “SHIFT” key when pressing: the Mailbox, Work place, Ground, any Sim, or any Object. By holding SHIFT and clicking, you get some great options that are now available. I use these new menu options constantly to adjust the game exactly to how I like it. Sure, I can get a little abusive in my “god-like powers” but that’s what makes it so fun! Right!?
We have the full list of cheats for all the platforms (PC’s and Consoles) as well as for most of the expansion sets. Though, the expansions generally don’t come with their own custom codes. You can check out cheatcodes.com for PC, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, iPhone, Nintendo 3DS, Android, in addition to Xbox 360. If you’ve got some great tips or hints for Sims 3 – let us know! You can send them to us, and get credit for your sage advice!
