Wow! I just read through pretty much this whole thread, and watched some Sims 3 clips on YouTube.

I'm buying a nice new computer so I can run games better, and I initially planned to have both Sims 2 and Sims 3 (which I've not yet played) installed. Now it's looking like I'm just going to have TS2 and all expansion packs only.

I really have to agree with some of you about the look of the new Sims - they're ugly and creepy-looking. Obviously, it's preference and plenty of people don't like the look of the Sims in S2, to each their own.

I could get around the aesthetics of the Sims themselves (especially considering the CC that will be made in the future) if the gameplay was there, but from what I understand, it just really won't be my cup of tea. I like to switch between families and micromanage my Sims. I like to have more control over the neighborhoods. I like the weird creatures like aliens and such - you don't have to play them, but it's nice to have the option. I'm not a big fan of the rabbit hole concept. I can't believe the babies and children have been dumbed down SO MUCH from TS2 - seriously? Raising brats was one of my favorite things to do in TS2 - will Sims 3 players have to wait for a "Baby that moves!" EP to come out before they can enjoy raising kids on TS3? Look at this video of a woman giving birth in Sims 3 - the screams are blood-curdling and seemingly endless! And then the daughter screams bloody murder - terrifying. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjKi7NAyQdQ NO THANKS! I do like that the mom goes to the hospital, there are seemingly some nice new features in TS3 but it fails to hit the mark for me.

As has been said several times before in this thread, there's just so much missing from TS3 that I'm not interested in buying it.

I also don't appreciate the feeling of being scammed by TS3. The base game SHOULD have come with the more popular things from TS2 right from shipping. The expansions for TS3 should be conceptually NEW, not just "Oh, I can't wait til the next EP comes out so I can FINALLY have [cool thing] from [S2 EP]!!!!". I don't appreciate how every single expansion so far has been a supposedly improved re-hash of S1 and S2 expansions. Maxis just haven't given me an incentive to purchase TS3, especially when I can play TS2 with all expansions and all the wonderful CC available. IMO, they should be thinking along those lines - "OK, TS2 is amazing and so many people have beautiful games because of the CC - how can we make Sims 3 have that wow factor right out of the box?". I don't appreciate the franchise being used as a cash cow and sacrificing the quality of gameplay. It seems as though they're just not catering to much of their fanbase.

Part of me just wants to TRY S3 just so I can say I hate it, but what's the point of that? 50 bucks isn't just garbage to be thrown in the trash and from what I've seen, TS3 isn't worth it to me, personally. Tossing all notions of the lack of CC aside, the base gameplay itself doesn't sound appealing to me, so I'm going to resist the urge to purchase this just because I enjoyed TS1 and TS2. I'll keep an eye out for available CC and future expansions, but something's telling me I'd better just wait for TS4.

As a I only play the sims for building things, I was extremely disappointed with this, first things first, installation taking up huge amounts of space required my to uninstall the sims 2, expansions and custom content. After booting up the game I was rained on with tutorials like internet advertisements, after entering an empty lot to start building I noticed that the graphics were wore that the sims 2 (e.g. the grass is multi-shades of green in the sims 2 and sims 1 on a default empty lot and it is one shade of green in the sims 3) after the construction, furnishing and landscaping of only the first floor, I noticed lag, the sims 2 did not lag, even with 10 story hotels, 4 expansion packs, 3 stuff packs and more custom content than in-game content, lag with worse graphics?, you don't see gta 1 lagging and san andreas running smooth (san andreas is a much bigger game than the sims 3 and that runs smooth on maximum draw distance and with numerous high-poly mods, hitman 1, 2 and 3 don't lag and are more in pack than the sims 3), after completing the second floor of my house, I go to place the roof, due to the fact that only the first 3 roof options are available and the roof is ment to show up on the top floor, the un-patched roof glitch showed its true colors and I could only build flat roofs. So I though flat roofs would look ok on a community lot, thats when I really started hating the sims 3, you can't build community lots, instead they have been replaced with placeable buildings (rabbit holes as they are so called), not only resulting in boredom, but also all of your neighborhoods will look very similar or the same, a lack of creativity by EA forced on you, community lots could be built in the sims 2 basegame and in the sims 1 on its third expansion pack. So people are thrilled with new items; laptops, bicycles, diagonal and non grid snapping without cheats and upper cabinets, all of this can be put in the sims 2 with the easily installed custom content, the sims 3 blocks custom content to be installed so easy (it can still be installed I herd, its only really hard) and required additional content to be purchased with real money off their website. Overall the total amount of time that I had the sims 3 installed on my computer was 24 hours after that it was removed and the sims 2 is reinstalled and I am working on a vegas-typed casino inspired by the hitman blood money level, a house of cards. Somehow the sims 3 scored a 9.0 on gamespot and sims 2 scored an 8.9, overrated, overhyped, overliked and underhated. Judging by the poll I fell as though I am the only one who feels this way, after getting the game I expected to be seeing garbage trucks full of sims 3 games in a traffic jam backed up from the dump to eb games.

I have been trying to get into the game more with each EP/SP that comes out for it. I was finally able to update the drivers for my video card and that pretty much eliminated my CTD problems (took 2 years to figure this out). I can play for an hour before I become bored with the game. I have downloaded more clothes and objects from the exchange and that makes gameplay tolerable. I HOPE Generations add the gameplay elements that have been missing (memories, etc).

Rabbit holes: One of the features I dislike the most. I like being able to go in and see everything that goes on.

Tones: Another feature I hate. I tried this last night with a Sim and it took almost the entire shift for her to meet 1 co-worker.

CAS: I end up putting my Sims in the same clothes for each gender I create. I miss being able to select a zodiac sign and having the traits assigned for me. I don't like some of the traits this time around. Maybe I haven't played the game long enough to see them in action (remember I can only play for an hour before becoming bored and going back to TS2). The game also chooses the strangest favorite foods I have ever seen. I have Toddlers loving Stu and Steak (things I know kids don't eat. I have 3 nieces and they don't eat that stuff).

Skills: Why did they have to get rid of the overall Creativity skill???? And it takes much longer to advance in the skills needed to survive.

Building: Placing walls, objects, etc is annoying. I don't like some of the houses either. I downloaded 1 from the exchange so far.

Chemistry: I miss being able to match my Sims with others of the opposite gender who have the strongest Chemistry (2-3 lightning bolts).

Overall, I hope Generations makes things easier. Otherwise, I will collect all of the EP's and SP's for this series, then remove them all from my PC and give them away when Sims 4 comes out.

When TS3 first came out, I had no desire to get it. No... I should say there were things that intrigued me, like the open neighborhood, but the rabbit holes and the fugly pudding people turned me off. There was little content included with the game, EA expected you to buy the base game and then pay them again for store content which really should have come with the game, instead. The lack of player created custom content (which obviously was going to take time for the modding community to build the tools to make it...) was also a big problem for me, as I found even TS2 practically unplayable without mods, skins, default replacement everything, etc...

Then I started having problems with TS2 and my computer. Won't get into it all here, but basically, I could play for one session, and then the game wouldn't load, so I'd have to uninstall the last EP and then re-install to fix. Needless to say, this got frustrating and old, really fast. So I started looking longingly at TS3 again.

Ended up buying TS3 a year after the base game release. What sold me was the Evangeline Lilly sim posted over on Lady Frontbum's site. That was the first non-puddingy sim I saw, and she was gorgeous! I figured if there was enough custom content out there to make her, then TS3 was ready for me to jump in.

Well... it's almost a year later, and I've done very little actual playing. The game loads great when there's no CC, but once you start getting enough to actually make things look nice, it starts taking forever to load. (By that I mean like 20 minutes, which was about how long TS2 took, when I could get it to load at all...)

Then there was the game play itself. As much as I used to hate things like the neighborhood welcome wagon greeting me in TS2 (the random 3 or 4 sims who'd show up at your house and make pests of themselves), I miss it in TS3. No one ever comes to visit me.

I also really hate that my sim will sleep ten hours, and even if I get them up three hours before work in order to shower, dress, and have breakfast, they're nearly late. And then once they get home, they're so tired they don't have the energy to do anything. Just eat supper and go to bed. At seven o'clock!

Also, not keen on the rabbit holes, just as I expected. While I get that, with the open neighborhood architecture, maybe the developers felt you couldn't have everything (including interiors) constantly available for Sims to explore, but on the other hand... What's the point of having a restaurant if you can't actually go inside?

So for a lot of the past year, I was playing Farmville instead. (Yeah, I know... a very lame replacement for Sims, but still...)

Then I replaced Vista with Windows 7. This at least fixed a LOT of my stability issues. I could actually load the game and play again. Of course, it's still boring as anything, but at least it loads WITH all the CC I want/need. For now, anyway...

I played a family and quickly discovered what most of you already know: there's not much you can do with a toddler. You can't even bathe them! WTF?!? So I quickly got bored again.

I saw the threads about the new EPs coming out (Generations and the Pets one). On one hand, reading a lot of the info on them and seeing the trailers gets me excited. On the other, finding out that the treehouse is basically yet anothr rabbit hole (even though they definitely said no rabbit holes with Generations), I'm starting to feel pretty meh about this EP, too. What do y'all think?

I've read about people who manage to play businesses (besides the salon and consignment shops) with TS3, but I'm not entirely sure HOW. (Especially since even the ones who do it admit that they don't get a lot of customers if it's an actual business and not just a rabbit hole...)

A year ago I probably would have purchased Generations without a second thought, just in the hopes it'd add more interactions and playability. But now... money's tighter for everyone, and that 40 bucks could buy things I need more than a game I'm a little ambivalent toward...

I guess what I'm trying to say is I want to LOVE TS3... but it's not easy to do so. I love the whole CAS system, where you can recolor pretty much anything and everything. I love that shoes are separate from the outfit, so you can match them up any way you want, instead of being stuck with a great dress and a crappy pair of shoes, as in TS2 That is so far beyond TS2 it's not even funny. But then, I dislike that they don't have stages to use for building split staircases. Never got the hang of doing it the hard way in TS2 (since I didn't even buy the game until near the end of the series... just before the Kitchen and Bath SP came out, as I recall). I get kinda sea-sick trying to build anything taller than 2 stories, with the way the camera bounces around. After a while, it gets to be a drag that I can't even reliably put the camera where I want it to go. It goes too far to the left or right, or too high or low... it's never where I want it to be looking. I hate that even if my sim meets someone else, I can't seem to unlock anything but very basic interactions. (Tell a joke. Compliment them. Rinse, repeat.)

Guess I'll wait to see what the first wave of buyers have to say about Generations, or maybe I'll get it and HOPE it improves interactions enough to make the entire game worthwhile. But I'm also sitting here thinking how can I create my own ballet school for my sims to use, if EA is going to make all the after school programs more f*!&#ing rabbit holes. I'd much rather watch my simmie girls and boys trying to learn to dance instead of waiting for them to get home late...

I'm looking into some of the sims stuff packs; which would you guys say is the best? I prefer CAS items versus buy mode items and build mode interests me little.

Though clutter is possibly my favorite thing in the whole world.

After a LONG period of initial resistance, I bought TS3 last night. I was wrong, I don't *hate* it, in fact, it's actually kind of a fun game. HOWEVER, it's still not what I wanted or expected from the Sims franchise. Mind you, I only have the base game, but here are my impressions on TS3 now that I actually own it.

First off, I'm completely in agreement with the fact that EA intentionally gypped its customers on content so that they would be forced to buy more from the Sims store or whatever. That is so blatantly obvious it's almost insulting, and it's also pretty disappointing since I figured I would just play TS3 as intended and not use much, if any, CC. I like how without any CC I can be playing the game in less than a minute on my new computer, where my TS2 with its hulking 5+ gigs of CC takes about 3-5 minutes to load before I can play. But since EA included so few buy-able items in TS3, I'm afraid that will be impossible.

Also, I don't like the pudding faces. While I can find some Sims cute or pretty in the context of TS3, if I compare them to my dolls in TS2 they seem like fat headed freaks. I simply don't know why EA chose to make a bloated face and chin mandatory for every single Sim, when everything else about the body is so nicely customizable. It truly baffles. I do like the body sliders, but why not take it the extra step with adjustable height? The eyes and hair have been greatly improved though, I must say. I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed violet was an eye color choice, and they look much less creepy than the Maxis eyes in TS2. I do love how the colors are customizable in CAS as well. Last note on CAS, I was very pleased with how much deeper the personality traits system is in TS3 vs. TS2.

I like the look of the open neighborhood in TS3 as well as the concept, but like many others here, I hate the rabbit holes. I don't think I need to explain why. Also, I don't like at all how I can't move my own families into the town and have them interact with each other anywhere near the same level as TS2. I'm trying to get past that, but it's a totally different style of gameplay. I haven't experienced the story progression yet to be able to comment on it.

The graphics were a bit of a nice change for me, I know TS3 still isn't the greatest graphically but coming from TS2 it looks really nice, especially the oceans. BUT WHY CAN'T MY SIMS SWIM AT THE BEACH! OR SUNBATHE! Craziness.

Raising babies - perhaps my favorite thing to do in TS2 - is a huge disappointment in TS3. Really, why no changing table? Are we really going back to TS1-style "magical" babies with disappearing diapers and bottles? A big part of the realistic challenge of having a baby in TS2 means added time cleaning up messes, getting the bottle for the baby, being able to bathe the baby, etc. In TS3, that was flushed down the toilet in favor of stumpy caterpillar creatures with evaporating accessories that lives its entire life stage in a crib. It's nice that I can see the baby's needs now, but unfortunately, having my Sims satisfy the baby's needs is not cute or fun. Come on people, we're on the third Sims game here. Sims should be able to carry the baby around while doing tasks, take them out in strollers, more interactions, more items, the whole deal. We shouldn't be going backwards. I haven't gotten a baby to the toddler stage yet, but I know not to expect much from that either. Big, big problems with babies/toddlers in TS3.

Another gameplay irk for me is how utterly exhausted my Sims are ALL THE TIME, and how often they need to sleep for insanely long periods of time. The motive satisfaction in TS3 is tedious and weird. For example, in TS2 it was annoying how long it took Sims to eat, for sure. But it was a lot more realistic in that if a Sim was absolutely starving, one plate of food didn't magically satisfy its hunger like it does in TS3. If a family was really hungry, they could eat a main course and then a dessert. Not in TS3. In contrast to that, a Sim will have to watch TV for like 8 hours to fill up their "fun" meter all the way. I've seriously had to have a Sim take a day off work just so my they could catch up on sleep - what the hell? It's not fun to sit there and watch your Sims sleep constantly, I know having energy needs adds to the realism and I agree it belongs in the game, but why is it so insanely crippling? It's like suddenly all of my Sims are suffering from Epstein-Barr or some other awful energy draining illness. The littlest things just absolutely wreck them.

So, that's my first impression after sitting down for a nice long session with TS3. I haven't explored everything in the game, obviously. My overall conclusion is that it's a fun game if you take it at face value, but that's kind of hard to do from someone who's been playing TS2 for years. It's a frustrating game, because it vastly improves on certain areas where TS2 failed, but completely omits or ruins some of the things that made TS2 as amazing as it is. Will I be buying some EPs for TS3? That's a tough call. As I play TS3, it's glaringly obvious that we're being milked for all we're worth by EA. It truly does feel like an intentionally incomplete game that we're slowly being fed $40 pieces of - and I do not appreciate that at all. Maybe I will buy Generations if it fixes some of my issues with baby raising in TS3, but I don't plan on investing too much in TS3. I'm just hoping and praying that TS4 is leaps and bounds better than TS3, and I DEFINITELY hope that EA realizes they can't get away with selling incomplete games. I will not be buying anything from the "Sims store", that's for damn sure.

Oh - and I'll absolutely continue to play TS2. Kinda upsetting, since TS2 made me drop TS1 and never look back - and I LOVED TS1. That says a lot about TS3.

Honestly after spending 27 hours looking for a problem (unmatching patches going back to OCTOBER) only to find it was right under my nose was really frustrating just to play TS3. I was ready to take back my external CD drive but I persisted and got the TS3 Patch Downloader and it worked fine - after countless hours of my drive and/or disc not being detected and me having to "eject, retry, detect" during the installation.

All in all I'd say that EA needs to improve on their error messages - at least link us to somewhere with a solution to our problem. Google sometimes is not our friends.

For gameplay I'd say it's quite intuitive compared to TS2. I love the camera feature, it's an instant seller with me, and I can't wait for generations. My only real issues were Rabbit Holes - but I'll get to them in a minute - where your sims could swim and cars. THOSE CARS. GAH. Speeding tickets must be common fare around that place.

Rabbit Holes for me are nice for machinima if you need outdoorsy shots - no rendering time for me, and they look nicer than your average building. I like the grocery store but I wish that they would open a few obvious ones up in future expansion packs.

Having a family was really exciting for me. Pregnancy got tedious after about 3 in-game hours (3 minutes!) so I got a 24-hour mod and it made it really exciting for me to watch the bump grow without the -pop- in TS2. I took what seems like 100000 staged and non-staged pictures for the family photo wall.

But those babies. I'm not even going to get into it. But needless to say my sims always walked out of that hospital with a ticked-off face. xD

I love Sunset Valley and Riverview over the other ones for its sense of completeness and it didn't sprawl forever like Twinbrook or just look strange like Bridgeport. Plus Sunset Valley has a huge park that I use and enjoy.

Its going to take me a long time to explore the game but from past experiences I really, really hated Professions. They were annoying so I usually just static'd motives and motherloded them up so they didn't have to work, because jobs and professions . . . bleargh. I just don't like them.

Another issue I have is neighbours. Oh, no, can't go over for tea. Oh, no, can't go over with the kids for a swim. Oh, no, your neighbour saw you woohooing another man.

*headdesks*

I like the expressions in the game though, they're very realistic minus the relationship scores which are just whacked up.

All in all I'd say that TS3 is an enjoyable experience with a few expansions in there but without micromanagement and planned-beforehand gameplay your sims get kind of boring.

*boots up TS2*

I have no idea what exactly are you doing to your Sims but having to take days off to sleep? never had to do that. Even thou most of my Sims use the cheapest bed just because they can't afford anything better. With the cheapest bed they don't always get their energy bar fully filled because they went to bed so late. Which is why the moment they get extra money I change their beds, the more it costs, the better it is. Same with the TV, the cheapest, well, that's almost useless for fun, but the more expensive it is, the more faster it gains your fun.

For the exception of not being able to bathe or change the kid on a tale, TS2 and TS3 babies are not really that different. Until EA gave babies those two baby object that were suppose to be in AL, not just the store, babies didn't do much. They laid either on the floor or in their crib.

Sims can do many things while holding a baby or a toddler in their arm. You want strollers? buy generations when it comes out.

I also miss the stinky diapers toddlers left behind in TS2 but collecting those stinky piles was only a temporary interaction. After the toddler phase there was nothing more to clean up. If you want stinky piles, buy Ambition, or just the laundry system from the store, and you will be collecting stinky piles from dawn till dusk. Keeping the house clean and the children fed and alive was challenging in TS2 when you had toddlers, due to having to try and teach them skills and picking up the dirty diapers, but when the toddlers grew up, there wasn't that much house work to do around the house. With laundry, there's always going to be stinky piles to pick up. Thus, making laundry a much ore entertaining aspect of the game, than a stinky diaper.



Why can' you go over for tea? I have gone over to my neighbors for coffee, gossip and dinner many times. Visiting your neighbors is one of the best parts of the game, it gives you so many playing scenarios that TS2 cannot give, simply because in TS2 your house is your dungeon. For example, having a grandmother visit her daughter, bake cookies for them, play with her grandchild, or have her teach the new toddler his toddler skills. In TS2 granny had to live with the family to make herself useful. Now she can be their neighbor.

With every EP, the list of things you can't do in TS3 compared to TS2 gets shorter. And the list of things you can't do in TS2 compared to TS3 gets longer. We might (and most likely will) never get back all the things that were great in TS2, just like we never got back many great things that were awesome in TS1. But, we are getting new awesome things instead, like strollers, punishment, stealing, explosions, laundry, and the chemistry set that I for one have missed all the way since my TS1 days.

"I have no idea what exactly are you doing to your Sims but having to take days off to sleep? never had to do that. Even thou most of my Sims use the cheapest bed just because they can't afford anything better. With the cheapest bed they don't always get their energy bar fully filled because they went to bed so late. Which is why the moment they get extra money I change their beds, the more it costs, the better it is. Same with the TV, the cheapest, well, that's almost useless for fun, but the more expensive it is, the more faster it gains your fun. "

Yeah, well, my Sim married Thornton Wolff and they sleep on the nicest bed in the game - yet their sleep needs still remain problematic. Trust me, after playing the Sims series since Sims 1 first came out, I'm fully aware of the fact that more Simoleons = better motive satisfaction. What am I doing to my Sims? Uh, I dunno, playing the game? It takes forever for the sleep motive to be fulfilled in TS3 compared to TS2, pretty much no question about that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by zooba007
Come on people, we're on the third Sims game here. Sims should be able to carry the baby around while doing tasks, take them out in strollers, more interactions, more items, the whole deal.
Sims can do many things while holding a baby or a toddler in their arm. You want strollers? buy generations when it comes out.

"I also miss the stinky diapers toddlers left behind in TS2 but collecting those stinky piles was only a temporary interaction. After the toddler phase there was nothing more to clean up. If you want stinky piles, buy Ambition, or just the laundry system from the store, and you will be collecting stinky piles from dawn till dusk. Keeping the house clean and the children fed and alive was challenging in TS2 when you had toddlers, due to having to try and teach them skills and picking up the dirty diapers, but when the toddlers grew up, there wasn't that much house work to do around the house. With laundry, there's always going to be stinky piles to pick up. Thus, making laundry a much ore entertaining aspect of the game, than a stinky diaper. "

I think you missed my point: I don't want to have to spend tons of extra money on this game for it to be fun. The BASE GAME of TS3 should have improved upon the babies/toddlers in TS2 <-- (Really? 2 disagree with that? OK! I guess hoping a sequel improves upon its predecessor is out then). It's fine if there's an EP coming out that will flesh out the baby/toddler experience, but IMO, why take the step backward to begin with? Why go back to TS1 where you just have your Sims stand beside the crib to care for an infant? And WHAT IS WITH THE DISAPPEARING BABY ITEMS? Toddler food bowls, diapers, bottles, they all just *magically* disappear into thin air. Fine for those who hate having kids in game (which you have a choice not to do), but for those who like the challenge of having kids...it's a head scratcher. At least toddler's energy doesn't fully recharge lightning fast like it does in TS2, but that's only because it takes forever for all the Sims in the game to get energy from sleeping.

u r absolutly right on this one. It is hard to add custom content. and most say they are downloaded, but they are ot in the game when u go to play it. It sucks.

I detest the "auto scroll-to" deal in CAS. Look, EA, I know what this sim is wearing, and I know it's highlighted in the CAS catalog. So quit auto scrolling to the items and lemme search already. Sometimes I can choose before it scrolls, but nevertheless it always does.

I also hate the fact we don't have the "Collections" feature in TS3 like we did in TS2. This can be easily retro-fitted into the game at this point. Include it in an EP, and create extra collection icons for the previous EP/SP. For store stuff, everytime you download a set, you also get that set's collection icon.

I wish we could go as far as choose separate hair colors for each of the clothing categories. That would work nicely for stories/legacies. Like you have a sim whose "normal" hair is colored.....pink cause she is a punk rocker.......so she has a black "wig" for formal stuff.

The option for transformed simbots to be able to change clothes like everyone else, and not just rely on the Master Controller.

Stop the "Oh I'm sliding forward, lemme scoot back" animation that happens every FIVE seconds when you have sims in the jacuzzi's.

So this a list on things I would have liked to see in The Sims 3 and it's expansion packs so far, and not things that might me added later like "Pets".

Basically I would have liked to see more career options:

# Registered as self employed:

_Stand up comedian: Just like bands can go to venues and play "gigs", stand up comedians can stand on a stage with a microphone and tell jokes, and other sims can come watch. Of course they would level up just like bands.
The twists: Objects: Microphone / Interactions: Practice telling jokes on mirror / Needed for advancement: Charisma skill, and number of jokes (as jokes increase, the better your sims performs out of experience) / Sims with good sense of humor can easily level up and get paid more - Sims with no sense of humor cannot register for this job, and will not laugh if they are in the audience

_Bouncer: A night job where every night you stand outside the venue, allowing people in (or not). This would work much like the mixologist, except you can take bribes
The twists: Needed for advancemet: Athletic skill

# Rabbit hole jobs:

_Basketball career: There's a soccer stadium right? Why not a basketball court stadium? Start out as the towel boy, and end up being an SNBA all star (SNBA: Sims National Basketball Association). Basically a copy of the athletic career, but with a bit of diversity, and a little improvement (read twists)
The twists: Needed for advancement: Athletic skill - Basketball Skill (or shooting, or technical sport skill, whatever the name, same idea :P) / Object: Home basketball ring(hoop) where sims can practice the new skill from when they are a teenager. Of course level in skill and experience playing(hidden skill) would define who wins each match and the animations shown (games are 1 on 1) / Lots: An outdoors community basketball court where sims from around town can come to play, and possibly challenge each other to 1 on 1 games, even for money possibly.

_Car racing career: Life on the track, winning races and driving for the fun of it.
The twists: Needed for advancement: Handiness skill (only in the beginning when you start out on the mechanical team) and Driving skill (yes a driving skill which you can go to the racing stadium to practice, or simply through driving yourself to places around town instead of taking the taxi or the subway there) / Object: At level 8 or 9 you get a super rally racing car to drive around town and show off

*This isn't a career, but I always thought that it was weird how sims can play catch with a baseball or a football while the athletic career is soccer maybe there should have been a soccer ball for sims to kick to each other?

_Modeling career: With all the glitz and glamor of celebrities and late night, how could we not have this career? This job is focused around modeling clothes, from everyday to swimwear. Could also have a branch for clothes design for those sims that don't want to model anymore but still love the business, but its not necessary. There could also be a possibility for a model to get "discovered" and transfer to the actor career branch.
The twists: Needed for advancement: Charisma skill - Maintaining a really fit body, as you gain weight, the more poorly you perform (this is for the career being realistic) / Interactions: practice posing on the mirror

That's pretty much it for now concerning what I think about the sims 3, these careers are what I think the game is lacking to take it to the next level; as for everything else, it's great :D

I happen to like it more now with the expanisons. But they need to add in aliens

Ok, this is just my two cents on ts3 vs. ts2. This will be long

I got ts2 after it had been out for about 2 years, I believe (yes, I am lazy and cannot be bothered to check dates). My mother and I were driving past pizza hut when a sign proclaiming "Sims 2 + University expasion pack $10 with any two pizzas" caught my eye. Needless to say, we had pizza that night. Later in the year I also purchased night life and open for business ($55 each), and a friend of mine had ts2 with pets.

Base game + university
Oddly enough, the thing I loved most about ts2 when I first started was the university life. I loved having lots of sims together under one roof, but only having to control the one. I loved the doors with the pictures of your sims. I hated raising kids. The first time I tried raising a toddler, I had a mother and aunt taking care of it full time, and a dad whenever he could between working. The kid just learnt their basic skills in time. My first children (twin girls) were taken away by a social worker within a week. My other attempts at having children ended up with the social worker, constantly stressed, or dead in a couple of cases. Needless to say, I gave up until I saw the new eps.

Nightlife and Open for business:
My first reaction: OMG! New neighbour hoods! New clothes and hair! CARRRRRSSSSS! After that, my ethusiasim quickly dwindled. I felt a need for "completion", i.e. all teenagers grown up and married. Annoying when you had to pair up the same teenager 3 times. I loved, loved, LOVED the dating, however, and I spent several hours with my casanova sim dating. Never really did the vampire thing. I do miss the outdoor resturants and the interactions with that, and the above-ground hottubs (I know they're base game, but I discovered them in nightlife) Ditto diving boards, but I'm lessed fussed about that. I also really liked the cheap-o counters, the ones where there was just a counter top and support pieces of metal, and you could see the sink piping underneath. Open for business did nothing for me aside from the neighbourhood and clothes.

Pets:
Hated it.

Hated the skunks, hated the strays, hated the complete lack of control of the pets. When EA makes a pets ep, I will not be buying it.

The sims 3 was a completely different lead up experience. I knew it was coming. I had discovered the internet during my 4 year sims break, and I made sure I was ready for the new base game. I worked for 9 months on a paper round to get the money needed (and for other stuff too, including a start fund for a trip to Japan), researched the cheapest place to buy, submitted my pre-order a month in advance. I was ready. I cried the day I was supposed to get it, because there had been a delay and the store did not expect ts3 to arrive for another week. I came home the next day to find my mother had recieved a call from the shop, and had picked up the game while I was at school.

Base game ($89.90): I think I cried again while trying to install this. I had to reinstall about 12 times, but once it worked, it was amazing. I jumped right into CAS and made about 12 families. I started a legacy. Riverview wouldn't install. I bought clothes from the store with my free sim points. I trained the camera on the sky for a whole sim day and just watched it go by. I did the same thing with the ocean. I discovered birthday cakes. I built a pool. I did everything I could. Overall, I enjoyed the sims 3 base game more than all my s2 eps put together. I especially loved being able to grow my kids up and knowing I didn't have to switch to another family to age someone else up so they could be together. My game did it for me. I din't want to have to raise 20 billion babies for my game to grow. I wanted to stick with one family. And you can do that with ts3.

As far a rabbit holes go, I like them. It's nice to take a break from micro-managing to spy on your neighbours, and honestly, I don't want to watch my sims run drills or cook or repeat a concert loop. Plus, anyone who's ever tried micro-managing even 6 or 7 sims knows it's exhausting (or maybe it's just me). Rabbit holes mean I can make my sims disappear for a couple of sim hours and I can really focus on my other sims, knowing that my working sims are doing something productive. Plus, lots of people's computers lag as is. Add 30 or so sims doing jobs in buildings with animations running, and how much lag do you think that would create?

WA ($90[ish]):
I think my first reaction was; OMG! New neighbourhoods! New clothes! I think I've been here before!
But WA was about as different from NL and OFB as possible, for me at least. The adventures really appealed to me as something to drag me out of my repetative game play state. Plus, yay! Free sim points! I don't really have much else to say about WA, except at this point I moved computers, and suddenly my game loaded 546895489 times quicker, plus Riverview now worked.

AMB ($90[ish]):
By now, I was bored spying on my neighbours, and I really wanted a new town. Then, ambitions came along! I think my favourite thing is the trampoline. Comparing amb to wa, I suddenly felt ripped off with wa. How dare EA pass off WA as a proper ep? I'm less annoyed by WA now, and I appreciate it much more, but IMHO AMB is about 10x better than WA. However, many more lots/worlds require WA than AMB, so eh. The thing I love about ambitions is the professions. I especially love the investigator profession, as you can continue to work when pregnant. The self employed jobs were a plus too. I really appreciated the ability to work while still having control over your sims. I still, however, have not figured out how to do the doctor thing. Disappointed with clothes and hair.

LN ($90[ish]):
This has been one of the best eps build mode wise. I would have appriciated the ability to easily put hot tubs into apartments, and to build my own apartments. Clothes and hair were again disappointing, but the sheer amount of stuff in LN was enough to make up for it. Needs something to switch off celebrities.

The big lacking thing for me, over all, was the Story Progression. That's what twallan's mods have been for me.

Generations looks like it will be good. It seems interaction orientated, which I'm looking forward to. I will be buying this, though probably not till next May due to money restrictions. Wondering how long it will take before the first "Sims 3 shower woohoo NO MOSAIC" video will be on youtube.

Can you tell I got lazy towards the end? I don't believe the posts on this board reflect the majority of sims players, because they're too busy playing to post on boards

Does anyone know if there is such a thing as 'Elixor' or something to stop the sims growing old in The Sims 3? I would appreciate any help.

Thank you

Cath x

Ambrosia. You need to be a gardener to grow the ingredients and maxxed in the cooking skill. I think it's similar to the Elixir of Life from TS2.

I just bought Sims 3 WA and Ambitions on a whim because I decided to. I didn't want to get them at first because of all I heard, but I was bored and my internet keeps mucking up (I hope this gets responded to before it goes down again, if it does) and I didn't want to play my current NH until Pets arrived (Has a family I have grown to love).

Now I hope this is the right place to put it, and better then making a new thread. Now with the patches are they already in my game for WA and Ambitions? Or will they install automatically once I install the games? I only have Sims 3 and Late Night currently if that helps (No Generations either). Only mod I have is NoMosaicLN, will that mod still work regardless if I have WA and Ambitions?

Anything I should look out for? I know it's probably just like installing Sims 2 but I wanted to make sure (With Sims 2 I have always bought the next expansion that comes out, rather then skipping two).

When I was reinstalling due to a HDD replacement, the techs at EA said that installing in order is the best way to do it. More than likely someone here will have something else to say. Just saying what I was told. Backing up your game would obviously be advisable and removing your mod, as it probably isn't compatible. And even if compatiblity isn't an issue, it's best to remove mods prior to any installations to avoid issues.

Good idea, I already installed WA but haven't gotten into the game. Was going to install Ambitions but some patch is installing. Has the first numbers 6267. Something tells me this isn't the patch for WA, and since the last time I played the Sims 3 was when my internet was down (And before that was long before Generations). Is this patch for Generations? Doesn't that mean I need Generations though?

You might go to the "Generations" section and read through the "Nust and Bolts..." thread regarding the patch. I have "Generations", but have not downloaded and installed the patch.

With the latest patch (BASE GAME - 1.22 and EP2) all the custom contents have to be moved to the My documents/mods folder. I had approximately 28 game-play mods working + a core mod not to mention the dozens of clothes etc.

I do not have the space to move all these custom contents to my documents folder, nor do i have the satisfaction of placing them there (it feels weird to do it and it cuts horribly into the game performance)

I am contemplating unrolling to a pervious patch version. God this sucks!!!!!

Can't you just copy paste it?

I can and i did (after painstakingly tracking down and downloading the updates for those that were available) but the "pain point" is that i don't have much space, and the performance lag that comes with putting the custom content in the my documents folder.....

I don't think switching the folder your CC should cause any lag.

Its not in-game performance lag entirely, it extends from the fact that the OS partition is behind on disc space, a stupid move on the part of EA, instead of managing and compartmenting space use to one partition (what with the EP and SP they release), they thought fit to spread it around (now customs content ruin OS space).

*facepalm*

quick question though is there any CORE mods that work with the latest patch if so where do we put them?