The Sims 3: Dragon Valley plunges you into a Celtic paradise. The landscape is marked with Celtic symbols and other things like dragons. All over the place are lost ruins, parts of buildings that you can just barely make out what they used to be. The area that you have to work with is extremely vast. It’s one of the largest worlds I’ve played, if not the largest. I spent quite a long time looking through all of the new families just trying to see which one I wanted to start on. Usually, I pick one of the more side families as they allow more leeway or I create my own.

This time, I noticed the families almost always run to an Irish or Scottish surname, such as the MacGrath family, Murphy family, and O’Shea family. In the end though, I decided to go with one of the others, the Elfen Mithrilen family. The Mithrilen family used to be one of the main families in town, but lately the O’Connells have unseated Fintan Mithrilen. There are 23 pre-made families that live in the town. Of course, you can always create your own or use one of your own pre-mades. You can edit the town however you wish and if you have The Sims 3: University installed, then your Celtic families can still go off to the University like any of the other towns.

Obviously the major appeal of Dragon Valley is going to be the dragons. To get a dragon, you simply buy a dragon’s egg in the shop and place it in your home. You can find it in the shop under Kid’s Room, then Pet Essentials. Once you place the egg somewhere, you will need to talk to it to start the hatching process. What you talk to it about will determine what color dragon hatches. You can get either red, green, or purple dragons. There is also a special Black Armored Dragon. To get it, you have to have both Dragon Valley and the new The Duke of Bows Renaissance Faire Venue installed. Once you talk to your dragon, it will start the hatching timer. 6 hours after speaking to the egg, your dragon will hatch in one of the four colors. I highly recommend you go ahead and name them as soon as they hatch so that guests to your house don’t walk off with them.

The different colored dragons have different powers. Red dragons have the power of fire. You can use them to flame your enemies. A really nice bonus from the red dragon is the "Mark of the Red Dragon" which increases your energy and hygiene. Basically, if you play with the red dragon enough, you don’t have to bathe or sleep! This is really handy when you’re tired before work or school and need a quick boost.

The green dragons are much more down to earth. Sporting the emerald colors of the surrounding greenery, the green dragon can be quite helpful in your gardening tasks. You can even learn or increase your gardening skill by talking to the green dragon. Instead of flaming your enemies like red, the green dragon is known for its treasure hunting skills. It can find gemstones for you. You will also get the "Mark of the Green Dragon" bonus which will help with your hunger or bladder pains. As you can see, these dragons are quite handy!

The purple dragon is the prettiest to me. If you decided to play as the Mithrilen family, you'll find that Fintan Mithrilen wants to be leader of the town (and the free world). He’s not the world’s nicest guy though, so it’s an uphill battle. The purple dragon is all about making friends. He can make your party the best in town! If you don’t have enough friends for a party, even then he can go find you some new ones. The pretty purple dragon will also increase your fun and social meters with the "Mark of the Purple Dragon." Actually, talking to any of the dragons will increase those, but not as quickly. Purple dragons are quite handy for getting rid of those stressed-out moods.

As I said before, you need the Renaissance Faire Venue with Dragon Valley to get a black dragon. The black dragon is all about death and darkness. You can use it to bring ghosts to you, if you so desire. The "Mark of the Black Dragon" will help with your hunger and lack of energy both. You can discuss logic with a black dragon to increase your skill. Even better, when the grim reaper comes for you, a black dragon can banish them, which is quite handy when you die of something accidental like electrocution. For those of you who love zombies, black dragons also have the power to curse people to become zombies. As you can see, they are quite powerful!

Some expansions are purely fun to play with and entertaining to look at, like The Sims 3: Seasons (which I currently don’t even have installed because of a bug that won’t let you save after you add a story to a house), and some are a must have to truly enhance your Sims game, such as The Sims 3: Supernatural. The Sims 3: Dragon Valley definitely falls more on the must have end. Ok, so yes, you can live without it but for the small cost that it is, I highly recommend you don’t live without it. Each of your Sims can carry one of each color dragon in their inventory at any given time. I recommend you get one of each for all your characters (as you can afford them, of course). These dragons are so very beneficial at any given moment that they will make your life infinitely easier. Plus, they’re totally adorable! They can do everything from give you mood bonuses, increase skill knowledge, provide infinite entertainment for your Sims, and even cheat death. How could you not want your own pet dragon in The Sims 3: Dragon Valley?