Here's another slightly nitpicky one: how shiny the clothing is. Whatever they did with light bouncing off clothing, they did it wrong. Regardless of what color/pattern/texture goes on to some items, the game still renders this sort of gleam, as if they weren't wearing (for example) jeans but denim-printed plastic.

YES EXACTLY. It really ruins some perfectly good peices. Do you think this can be changed in a clothing items code? Apperently there is a "refelctivity" code or somthing like that...?

I really just have 3. Only ONE playable family, and the awful, awful faces. Though, the biggest one is that it doesn't play on a LOT of computers.

1. TS3 relies too much on text to relay information rather than cultivati ng more expressive animation.

2. TS3 Sims are not very cognizant of each other or their surroundings. In TS1 and TS2 sims looked at evryone and their surroundings and often reacted to other sims or the objects around them. In TS3 they leave tots on lots, lose kids on vacation, get divorced, and all without any outward reaction. They are onlicvious to the things around them as well. Having played Castaways only a few months ago it reminded me of how responsive TS2 sims were to their environment and each other. Also, there seems to be a greater range of sim body language in TS2 -- in TS3 they are forever tapping their fgingers on their chin while jawing. TS2 sims look at tghings and pick them up for closer examination. Don't see much of this in TS3 which is why I refer to TS3 as the Stepford Sims.

There is no family dynamics in TS3 (in part due to not being cognizant of each other). There are few family interactions and activities. Younger and Older aged sims have been seemingly cast aside.

Not being able to bathe taddlers and babies. And babies being in swaddling rather than having legs to kick around.

Rabbit Hole - I still mantain this was a lazy dumb idea on EA's part.

No full service restaurants, no shopping for clothes,

No diving boards, karaoke, toddler bouncy ride.

Ugly, choppy, dated hairstyles.

I could go on but I'm tired now....

Ediit: Also annoying to read in the sim medieval forum that the sims are much cuter, have more animated features, and more humorous animations.

Ok, just another reason why I can't stand EA.

My biggest problem is definitely the shiny clothing. I wouldn't have a problem with this except that installing custom content seems to slow CAS down like nothing else, and it's already somewhat slow. Now if I could hide all of EAxis's clothing and if it would speed up game performance, that would be fine. For all the progress they made with being able to place patterns and change colors without downloading a new piece of content, they sure forgot a great many details in CAS. Almost all of the faces are very fat and round and, whether it's because all of their skin shines like it's plastic or not, they all do seem to look similar if custom content is not installed.

Also, missing items like the diving board or water slide do kind of suck a little, but it's one item. Think of all the other item's they've added in. We have a hookah bar now and blacklights and incense. Admittedly the base game did not have a whole lot of content and that's cheap on their part because that means they want you to buy stuff packs, etc.

A relatively minor annoyance - but I hate how the "announce pregnancy" animation works with spouses. I mean, it's perfectly reasonable for a friend or acquaintance to do the patting-on-the-arm congrats thing. But her husband, the father of her child - it just looks weird.

Agreed with the shiny clothing! Why are jogging bottoms shiny?!

One thing which partially bugs me is the number of rabbit holes. I say partially because I'm glad they are there for careers - I have no interest in watching my sim work - and some, like the business building, for example, don't really need to be opened up, but then it also means that places like the spa, bistro, diner, and theatre are closed so you lose out on playability.

I'd go with one of the main things, in my opinion, would have been them deciding to make it harder to make custom content, is what bugs me the most.

Also, to be honest, I don't really care about the open neighborhoods, I feel it makes computers lag bad if they're not top notch...and finally, I think the CAS is waaaay too slow, there has to be a way to make it load more hastily?

Have you tried merging your package files, to make one big one? It does work, I merge all of my build mode and buy mode and CAS together, and it doesn't just speed up CAS, it makes the loading screens for towns faster. Mine now loads in about 2 mins. That is a very large improvement to me,
since my computer is verreeyy old. To learn how, type "Sims 3 Merge Packages" into google! Happy simming

As for the rabbitholes, I wouldnt mind them so much if they actually let us have the option to design/build our own restaurants if we wanted to. They just needed to add a podium, few dining tables/chairs and a stove for the restaurant. Heck, a better idea would have been to have the KITCHEN area be the rabbit hole that the sims working in the cullinary career disappear into and have the dining area open for family dinners, date nights, ect.

From a CAW perspective: I would like it if the appearance of rabbit holes could be more easily customised.

I thought of something that was pretty big to me, at least. TS3 gives you the option to change the life span of Sims... but even sims who will only live for 25 days advance their skills, grades, and work level at the same rate of a Sim who lives for 960 days! It's nearly impossible to teach the toddlers all of their skills or have children and teens get an A grade in the shorter lifespan settings, and they always get stuck with random traits. So annoying!

^ Twallan's StoryProgression will ask you if you wish to adjust the speeds accordingly if you alter the lifespan. Pretty good addition IMO because at least it gives you the option!

That's yet another thing fixed with a mod. There's a mod to increase the rate of skill gain, which is kind of like cheating, but I don't think it's cheating if you use very short lifespan settings. Unfortunately, I don't think it fixes work and school. It also won't increase the rate at which Sims can fulfill the other skill challenges. For example, they may reach Piano skill 10 sooner, but it still takes the same amount of time to learn every Piano song.

Thanks lol I just merged them, so I'll test that later today :x

I use that, but I thought that just affected the speed of the goings-on about town (ex. marriages, friendships, enemies, pregnancies, etc.). I didn't really notice any faster school progression or anything... Maybe I'm just stupid.

CAST, it's incredible, but why did EA have to give us the same hair multiple times with only the bow, or hair clip being a different colour? This is something I would have understood and appreciated in TS2, where you could not re-colour in-game, but not in TS3.

I think for a balanced point of view, there should also be a what EA messed up in TS2 thread as well. This thread is starting to become quite long, because that's what EA is like, but EA was like this also in TS2. The things that come fast to my mind is the first born baby syndrome, genetics was the big thing in TS2, yet they failed that just as badly as they did with the hair thing I just talked about. Also, the annoying outfit bug in OFB where your Sim's faced got replaced by default faced, so all your workers looked alike. And lets not forget all the RH adventures our Sims went to when on a vacation. I want to see what they did on their adventure/nature hike, not just read a pop-up telling me they got stung by bees.

So start one...? (And, of course, a "what did EA get right in TS2" thread for even more "balance.")

I thought this was so that Sims in town would wear them with different colors. I'm pretty sure that there's mods hiding this somewhere, though...

Also, on my old computer I could barely use CaSt. It would go so slow! So I didn't mind this at all, or even the same thing with wallpaper/flooring.

The story progression is pretty bad without mods. Although I haven't played in a while, the new updates might have fixed this.

Uhmmm the husband is the main person I use that interaction on. In real life wives announce that they're pregnant to their husbands, for the most part. They don't just not tell them and cary along with their lives...

I think Tzigone meant that the husbands' behaviour when told is really lukewarm. You'd expect a man who has just been told he's going to be a father to be more excited than just a pat on the arm!

I thought Tzigone meant they expected a more intimate/special reaction from the husband instead of a way-to-go-champ slap on the arm. lol

I wish there were different reactions to the "announce pregnant" social. Like if the father hates kids he could face palm himself or faint on the floor.

Tried it on my boyfriend once as a joke cause he always goes on and on about how he doesn't want kids. He got me back later though. Locked me outside in my jamies when I took out the trash .....

No. It needs to be started by somebody who plays the game and is daily reminded of EA's short comings when it comes to game design/coding. If somebody who likes TS3 would start a thread like that people would go into defence mode and suddenly TS2 would appear bug free and perfect.