I hear ya, OP. I was a TS1 player from the beginning and eagerly switched to TS2 when that came out. When I saw the first pix of TS3 sims I said "Heeeeeell no," and never even thought about giving them a try until last summer when I found myself parted from my desktop for several months and so bored at work I began to watch LGR's reviews of TS3 on youtube (it's his fault; his videos made me want to try it).

So. Fast forward a few months and I haven't touched TS2 since October. Okay, I'm actually not playing TS3 as ravenously as I was TS2, but I'm still only playing 3. The thing I learned quickly was that I couldn't play the same way. TS2 is great for families and generations and relationships and humor. In TS2 I played large families and I didn't play just the one lot, I played every lot in the neighborhood. At last count I was on the 7th generation of my alphabetacy and I had about 30 (related) households in one hood, each of which I played, rotational-style.

I can't do that in TS3. And it's not because of Story Progression (which I've turned OFF), it's because I get Zero fun out of playing relationships and families and generations in TS3 (and it's not funny; all the text is dry and boring). There's so much lacking compared to what I'm used to. I've tried having a few kids but it's just so disappointing compared to TS2. It doesn't help that the babies are burritos and the toddlers and children are creepy-looking and the genetics system is wacko. (Actually I think the sims in general are pretty horrid. They act like mindless robots and their physiology differs enough from a regular human to creep me out. I've added tons of mods to CAS and can now make sims that at least resemble human beings. I can't be bothered to take every single one of the premades into CAS so I only play my CAS-made sims and plunk down a bunch I've made to liven up the hood a little.)

Most of the systems in this game are half-assed and pretty awful compared to what came before, so I've chosen to ignore those and just focus on the things I've found enjoyable about this game. Things like the supernatural creatures, the skills (IMO, the biggest and most welcome improvement over what came before), the different careers and exploring the worlds - especially the travel destinations I think it's funny that as someone who loved the sandbox style of TS2 to death, I've now become obsessed with the quest gameplay of WA. Huh.

So yeah, I miss TS2 because it was a much, much better game for playing The Sims. I don't know what TS3 is but to me it's not 'The Sims' as I have come to know them from the two previous versions of the game but I do get some enjoyment out of it, though nowhere near as much as I did from TS2. I'm hoping that the best of all worlds will be combined into TS4 but given that TS3 was such a letdown in comparison to its predecessor, I'm not holding my breath. (Oh, some nice things about coming to TS3 late: a) tons of people have experienced the same bugs I have and - more importantly - have found fixes; and b) there are tons of mods out there to fix things I found annoying. Seriously, I can search for any little thing and someone's already made a mod to fix it. )

As far as the EPs I've purchased, I think Gen and Seasons are my two least faves. ..which I was actually surprised about! Neither add new worlds, skills or interesting jobs. The Imaginary Friend is a pain in the ass, the rain is a pain in the ass, the plants freezing is a pain in the ass (especially without a greenhouse which, ha!, is sold separately ), families are still boring as hell (but at least now you can send the boring children off to private schools), and the seasonal festivals are boring. Yes, the weather is pretty and there a couple nice new things, like the chemistry set (still better in TS1) and the aliens, but overall I wasn't thrilled with either EP. I uninstalled Seasons because I was so annoyed with the weather and that was even after tweaking it to death with mods from Twallan.

In summation... Try to find something you like about TS3. For me, it really came when I stopped trying to play it the same way I played TS2 and started focusing on the improvements in TS3 (skills and jobs) and added a couple EPs (Ambitions, Supernatural and WA) that really changed things. If you can't find something you like about it, go back to TS2. After all, it is a better game for playing 'The Sims.'

My philosophy is that if a Sim's game isn't fun, most of the time I have the power to change things. I can age up the babies/children early, or what I normally do is to tweak the ages so that they are only babies for no more than 3 days, no matter what life span I am using. Even then, I sometimes during the game bring up the Cheat Box, type 'Testing Cheats Enabled True' (without the quotes), and drag up (or at night, down) their motive meters as needed.

You can use the Advanced Options to turn off the rain, which I do and wish I could do in Sims 2. I hate toddlers in Sims 3, and I hate that I can't find mods to remove the annoying parts. I can't find a mod to stop the parents from swarming the baby/toddler, I can't find a mod to stop the parents from dumping the damn toddler in the crib when they aren't tired, and leaving them on the floor with orange energy when they are tired, I can't find a mod to make Sims 3 toddlers less annoying over all. I tend to grow Sims 3 toddlers up early after I teach them the toddler skills so they don't grow up with crappy traits from not being taught the toddler skills. I hate seeing inactive parents carrying the damn toddler around town, and getting endless notices from SP than the parents aren't at work. Yeah, well the dumbass is carrying a crying toddler around town instead of feeding them and going to work.

Well, for the vanilla game it doesn't matter whether an inactive goes to work or not; they won't get promoted and they will never get fired. In vanilla and with story progression off they will always remain at the same stage they were when the game started. For vanilla TS3 inactives are mere decoration, they are there to populate lots and provide background amusement. They are not much more than the townie NPCs on TS1's community lots.

I'm mostly TS3 myself but sometimes I play TS2.

A lot of the annoyances in TS2 (for me) were fixed by mods I've downloaded. As for TS3...it's like the EAxoids looked at what mods were created for TS2...and those annoyances don't show up in TS3. At least, what *I* consider annoyances.

TS2 is great if you play multiple families in rotation and micromanage everything. TS3 is great if you prefer to concentrate on one household.

This is exactly what I am doing. I am always on testingcheats, since with sims3..you can leave it on. But still...I love babies and toddlers, and i think it is a shame that I cannot enjoy them as much in 3..as I do in sims2.