Well as I like to say: townies in Sims 3 are ugly and pudding face, but if you're good at the game, you can make people really good looking, even more than Sims 2. If your Sims are pudding face, that's because you're not good. :D

I agree. Seeing what her screen looks like I can see what she's complaining about, but my screen doesn't look at all like that. My pop ups(except the opportunities of course) pop up in the right top corner of my screen, are there for about a minute and then stacks. Most times I barely notice them

Not true. CC rabbitholes is perfectly doable with the existing technolergy. The problem is, meshers are damn lazy people who never do anything you tell them to.

Maybe yours doesn't. MINE has a button that you can push which causes it to EXPLODE. In fact, that's the only button that still works.

Agreed. I have made some really nice looking sims just by playing with the sliders. Of course, CC hair helps.

How are CC RHs going to help the nothing-to-do problem for the player? You don't see anything in RHs. If it was so interesting people would be sending their sims to the sports games and movies all the time--but they don't often do so because, well...it's just a bobble head in an empty space. Yawn. CC objects and better thought out community lots can help the tedium but not RHs.

I think RHs could be opened up at some point because of how some interiors suddenly materialize in WA and Amb.

Sorry, but if we want to see more activities for our Sims we really have to stop advocating RHs other than in the context of (some) work locales.

JMP - the only lazy meshers I see are the ones at EA. If they'd stop making menus/pop/ups/info boxes and start making objects and visible/active community lots there wouldn't be a need for the simmer community to try and pick up their slack.

suzetter, I'm sorry if I cross a line here. I really don't mean to be rude. Reading through your posts (and yes I have read the entire thread) it seems clear to me that you have a deep dislike for TS3... so why on earth are you still playing it?

Then why are they created by the same companies and still called the Sims? It's a modernization of the original game, not a new game.

They're created by the same company because of copyrights, and also why they're called the Sims.

They're sequels: hence the numbers, which I'm sure you know. They're continuations of the game. It's not just about better graphics and animations. It's about doing different things from what you can do in the Sims 2.

If I wanted everything from the Sims 2, I'd just play the Sims 2. I don't want to buy all of this stuff for the Sims 3 if I can just get it in the Sims 2, which I've already bought.

The Sims 3 is meant to be different: otherwise, no one would buy it because they'd just be buying what they already have. Hence the same with Sims 2. It had to be different from the Sims 1, or no one would have bought it.

And yeah, there seems to be a lot of text, but I don't notice it, and I like the dashboard configuration so much more with the Sims 3 than I did in the Sims 2.

I like being able to get rid of wishes that I don't want to fulfill and promise wishes that I do want to fulfill. I like that I can do up to 4, instead of the one with the Sims 2, unless I had the University pack and was able to experience enough life to have two. I don't know if you got more with with the other EPs, because I never played them for long.

true enough ..however to me...

Sims 2 ain't nothing like Sims 1

and Sim 3 ain't nothing like Sims 2

they look different...they play different....

They did that stuff in TS2, too. Some sims would pull out mirrors and preen themselves. Some sims could play in the bathtub.

I have no idea how you can say that sims have a wider range of social interactions. Because they don't. Want to know something I discovered just yesterday, that was really, really disappointing?

Green thumb sims can talk to plants. And do you know what the animation is for talking to a plant? The same animation and sounds that it is for talking to a sim (or a ghost or a simbot). Vocal patterns, hand gestures, everything. That is not how people talk to their plants in real life. They do it while tending to the garden or watering the plants.

Talking to self for insane sims is also the same. That could have and should have had a unique interaction. . . or at least the option should have been changed to "Talk to Imaginary Friend" because that's what it really looks like.

"Admire," "Applaud hard work" and "praise" have the same interactions, so if I do all three in a row, I'll see the same three actions, all in a row.

I honestly think they've taken out more social interactions than they've put new ones in.

Personally I don't think Sims 2 base game was anywhere NEAR as good as Sims 1 Complete Collection.
They took out tons of content and it took forever before they put some of it back. Some of it never did return. But other things were added that were better than in Sims 1, so you gain some, you lose some.
I think the same will happen with Sims 3.

Um, I think both you and the person you quoted are reading this wrong.

The OP and others are saying that the base game for TS3 is worse than the base game for TS2.

Why would you compare the TS1 base game plus all of its expansions to the base game of TS2? o_O;

A good 80% of items and interactions in The Sims 3 basegame are exactly the same as the items from The Sims 2 basegame. In fact, they removed a lot of key items, such as wedding items, which were in the TS2 basegame. The removed a lot of interactions, such as the "squeeze" hug, Miss Mary Mack, and cops and robbers from this game, which did not require any expansion packs in The Sims 2. While there are new tools for changing clothes, the diversity is also smaller in this game. In TS3, men only have three unique full outfits. Three.

Because they do. Maybe not if you want to stack up TS2 and ALL its EPs against base TS3, but put the two base games against one another and TS3 wins hands down. I think people forget how small Sims' interaction menus were pre-NightLife. Even if you put TS2 and its first two EPs against TS3 and its first two, the only area TS2 has an edge would be with the romantic interactions (TS3 definitely needs a dating EP).

While a lot of the Sims conversational interactions use the same animations, that's somewhat missing the point of the expanded social menus in TS3, which is to provide more context and personality specific interactions and responses for the Sims. Also, TS3 adds some more nuanced facial features and poses that remain in effect. Sims now don't just have a spaz when they get angry or bored with a conversation. Their facial expression and stance will tell you what their current social commodity is. TS2 did this a little bit, but it was nowhere as nuanced.

I find Sims 3 to be more fun because of the living neighborhood. I enjoy planting in a replica of my own family and seeing how my wife and I live.

I just like that it's not so isolated like Sims 2 was. When I visit a Sims house, I actually visit that house. I like that my sim actually goes to work and doesn't just vanish off the lot. I like visiting parks, the little events that go on, etc.

Don't get me wrong... Sims 2 was fantastic. I enjoyed it. But got bored after there was really nowhere to go and that my sim really didn't make much of an impact.

I like the direction Sims 3 is taking. Where your Sims can actually affect the town in noticeable ways. Putting more playability in.

It seems to me that they're letting the players take more control of outfits and content. Which we all know was going to happen since Sims 2 spawned a monstrous modding communities.

No, I'm talking about the base game, no EPs. That's what I've always been talking about in this thread.

Sure, there are more options you can choose from. But talking about books, computers, enthusing about sports, chatting, and asking how a person's day was all have the same animations. That's not unique, it's just lazy. I'm guessing that modders here could script in a different worded option that does the exact same thing.

When it comes to physical stances, that's not new to this game (by the way, a sim that feels its partner is being flirty, alluring, and irresistable all look the same) is sloppy. If two sims are looking at eachother lovingly, then half of the further interactions cause them to reset themselves by stepping back and straightening up. If I want to hug someone, I don't step backwards and then take a step forward.

Stances aren't new to this game, either. When sims that hated eachother greeted eachother, they stood apart and looked away. In the Sims 2. Base game.

There are more options to choose from, but less animations to see. If you have two or three sim children running around, playing together, they get to choose from tag and. . . tag. Woo.

Don't get me wrong, I love that we have more options to choose from instead of just "Chat" over and over and over, but EA seriously should have at least included two or three new talking animations into the mix for some visual diversity.

I want to believe Fernweather, but sadly I agree with CleoSombra. I am just not seeing the nuances yet. But I will keep playing, hopeful.

I understand your point of view, and I do agree to an extent. But I miss so many things from the other games, but love the new things as well. There are a lot of new things too you have to remember, so either way they will be different because they're progressing. I only wish I didn't have to miss the other things I fell in love with in the franchise.



You're right, they're different but I just don't consider them different games really. It's technically a different game, but the fact that it's the same basic idea and made as a modernization to the original game by the original creators, it's not a totally different game.

Lol, my only point was I hate having to miss features I liked from 1 and 2. But since they don't make expansions and stuff for 1 and 2, we're stuck with 3 if we want anything new for the game.

They probably will bring back things that was in the Sims 2. They already have, if in their own way to make it different. But we can be pretty much sure that we'll have things that the Sims 2 had, if only because they're so popular.

And yeah, there are things that I wish I had in the Sims 3 that I have in the Sims 2, like the memories and the different instruments. I don't know about anyone else, but I've never played the guitar, but I have played the piano, flute, and violin. I'd like the different instruments back, and possibly separate skills for all of them and I'd like it in the Sims 3.

But I like the Sims 3 because it is so different from the Sims 2.

Sure you do, and let me return the favor--this thread is called "Is it just me or does TS3 suck compared to TS2?" not "Justify why you're playing to severedsolo."

And your quite wrong I actually love the sims, else I wouldn't bother voicing my concerns.

Hope that answers your question.

It almost seems wrong that there aren't any other instruments in the Sims 3. I miss the piano too.

And the ability to organize a concert : [

So far what worries me is we have a "Sort of Bon Voyage" and "Sort of Open For Business" expansion packs, does this mean I'll never be building a hotel on sims 3 or running a home business?

You do know you are asking a question nobody here can answer? all our answer attempts will be guessing.

It's more of a rhetorical question. Hotel building was one of my favourite things in sims 2, and running a business was also pretty fun, I'm afraid Those features might never be available in sims 3

According to the game guides, there are 356 social interactions in TS3 vs. 108 in TS2. Even taking into account similar interactions that could be counted as variations on a single interaction (which both games have plenty of), TS3 still stomps TS2 in this department.


Except that it's not. Take a look at the XML resources for these interactions. Many of them have differing effects on the Sims involved in the conversations. Not every conversational path will work equally well with every Sim. It is a much more complex and nuanced system than in TS2 even if you don't see every single little difference in the conversational animations, the in-game effects are still there.


Yes, and I specifically noted that TS2 had this as well. It's just better done (more subtle and less binary/cartoony) in TS3.


Yeah, I'll give you that. Children get stiffed in base TS3 when it comes to social interactions (but they aren't just stuck with tag - buy them some stuff to play with ).


I wouldn't mind seeing more diversity of animations in the conversational interactions as well. But the idea that TS3 tells more/shows less than TS2 (the point I was originally responding to) just doesn't hold water. TS3 has more animations than TS2 did. TS3 has way more options with real in-game effects than TS2 did. Now, not every one of these options carries a unique animation, but not all of them need unique animations (I don't really feel ripped off because a Sim doing a cardio workout at the TV is running the same animation loop as a Sim doing a strength workout, particularly since the game also allows me to send my Sim for a moonlight jog, a very kick-ass feature that has no comparison in TS2).