So here's the thing about the open world, with regards to visuals. Generally speaking, TS4's worlds are more detailed. But:
- TS3's worlds are fully open and accessible
- TS3's worlds are much more realistic
- TS3's worlds are much larger, so every pretty sight you encounter is fully real despite being just as large as TS4's
- You can make them yourself
- There's a ton of them even if you only count the EA-made worlds. If you don't, you will get to discover dozens of beautiful, meticulously player-made worlds that go far above and beyond EA's

The fake backgrounds in 4 drive me nuts. I like my whole worlds to look as I want and I want things to be placed properly. I drives me nuts that in 4 if I do not want a fake city scape or whatever it is there automatically. One hood shows things in the background such as a warehouse or whatever and that is where the houses of the hood next to it should be. None of it meshes together properly. In 3 it all fits together and you see from wherever you are whatever is there for as far as you can see. There is no some fake cutoff where you switch to a totally fake looking backdrop. You don't have to see tacky dinosaurs or whatever. I might want to set a world in a totally different era or theme than EA has and it is not possible in 4. I do love the riverboat in 4 and the streetcars. But so much is not what I want that is forced on me. I love that we can do what we want so much more in 3.

Hi Zarathustra
I echo the others who would LOVE to have your creations for TS3!!!

For me there was not a steep learning curve from building in TS2 to TS3. Most of the cheats work in a similar way, though they have different names. CFE is a bit less precise in TS3, but you get used to it. As a builder though, one you go CASt you never go back. The Create a Style tool is the most amazing thing for builders. Imagine that any color, texture or pattern can be placed on almost any object or surface. Someone with your imagination will be lost for days in this tool. I cannot stress enough how freaking amazing this is.

As for game play, I think the TS2 sims are the most endearing. TS3 adds the open world, which is great, but the sims personalities lose a bit. I tried TS4 when toddlers were added. It is fine for what it is, but the game play is shallow. Building was made simpler in TS4, so the casual builder has an easier time at the expense of tools for the more advanced builder. The resizing options are nice, but everything is flat. The worlds are tiny with hardly any lots. If you want to add something you usually have to delete something. Modders have not been able to find a way to add more lots or worlds, and it seems unlikely that this will happen.

If you decide to get TS3, check your computer specs with the folks in the TS3>Help forum. Some Graphics cards don't play nicely with TS3. Also, there are several pros and cons to which version of TS3 to get. You want to ask about that also. Good luck and welcome to the dark side (oh wait- that's your line).

Oh yes, you have to check out your computere specks, ts3 drinks a lot of computer juice, ts4 seems to work best on small potatoes.

When I was talking about steep learning curve I was mostly thinking about the content on the store actually. Some of the sets there are great, but need studying to work properly.

Yeah, the thing with performance is that the open world is really, really heavy. I had another one of those crashes where it goes over the memory limit just now (no idea how it happened). What you can do, and this is totally great if you want to get shit done, is get an empty world.