Hey, I have been playing The Sims 1 and 2 over 10 years now, but have not played The Sims 3 yet! From what I see, the Sims 3 follows the same game-play as 2, but with better graphics, some new and improved interactions & features, and a higher price tag. I would like to try the Sims 3, but I am very happy with 2, and not sure if I should spend the money? I'm wanting to know what makes "you" enjoy The Sims 3. Do you prefer 3 or 2? What do you love & hate about 3? And what makes 3 "better" than 2?
Thanks to All!

If you like the genetics aspect of Sims 2 and storytelling, then stick with Sims 2. Those aspects are lacking in Sims 3. I've played both and returned to Sims 2. I still have Sims 3 on my computer but it seems shallow to me. I stopped buying EPs after WA and returned to Sims 2...found it more personally satisfying.

I love Sims 2, but I hate Sims 3. It's boring and I can't bring myself to play it for any length of time. The problem is that you can really only control one sim at a time and while you're playing one family, EA's story progression destroys all of the other families.

Where is Jarsie9 when yah need her!

I think I prefer Sims 2. I enjoy both games, but I can spend much more time with 2 before getting bored, and I feel more attached to my Sims in that game.

For 3, I love the open hood.. but the rabbit holes are a disappointment. I understand why they need to be there, but I don't think the open hood is worth losing the open community lots. I also like the idea of story progression, but I think it actually takes away something I liked a lot: knowing all of the world's Sims and guiding all of their lives, not just one family. Having to play in rotation seemed annoying before 3 came out, but I've noticed that I really just don't care about the rest of the neighborhood Sims without that play style. Not to mention that EA's SP is such a half-ass system... if you do get 3, the first thing on your list of mods and such to get should be a story progression replacement (I like Twallan's). Other than that.. I love Create-a-Style, the growing number of skills, and the traits system (though I find that my Sims don't quite act on their personalities as much as I'd like them to).

Nothing makes 3 better than 2 (except for graphics, I guess), not even the open hood or story progression. It isn't better, just different. It's really up to what you prefer in your gameplay.

I honestly prefer TS3. I loved 2 from the day it came out and I still love it now, but I play S3 a lot more these days and I feel that it's a bit more interesting than S2.

I do legacies, and in S2 I would pretty much play one family and rotate which households I would play so they'd all progress together. Story progression (as bugged as it is) really helps, and adds a little bit of surprise to the neighborhood. Just as long as you use an SP replacement that is.
And as for sims, the game makes it easier for sims to actually have personalties with traits. I found back in TS2, that unless you were on either end of the personality bars, sims wouldn't really act any different from any other sim.

Admittedly the game has a lot wrong about it, Story Progression being the most glaring (and genetics, they're just... ew), but it has so much potential too.

I would choose the Sims 2 in a heartbeat but I have to admit that I wish it had design tools like TS3. I want to be able to recolor everything with a click instead of having to cram everything into my Downloads folder. I also think that sky, water and neighborhood graphics look better in TS3. Even with GunMod Lighting the Sims 2 neighborhood doesn't look that good.

People seriously, ever thought of ticking that little box in the settings menu that turns story progression off? TS3 can be played in many ways, with or without story progression, with or without town ageing, you can even play it with TS2 style ageing. TS2 style ageing can be most easily obtained with mods like twallan's story progression, awesome or Buzzler's ageing mod. You can even play so that some people are effected with ageing and story progression, while other's stay static. What makes TS3 so great is that it's so versitile. Even will all the mods in the world TS2 can never achieve the same level of flexibility in ageing as you can achieve with TS3.

Playing stories is not not something exclusive for TS2. Even thou many TS2 players love to state it as so. If you want TS2 style stories, where everybody ages when you play them, where people don't get married and have babies when you are not playing them then you are welcome to check out my blog.

If you want to read a BACC story, with story progression and very interesting way of playing then check out lion's blog. If you want to see a very realistic game, not exactly like apple valley in the sense of hood control, but in the sense of being as real as it's Simsly possible, then check out Sandy's blog. If you want to see a gorgeous hood in the building then check out Creating Charleston. There are many other very good blogs with many different styles of game-play. So story progression on, town ageing on is just one way, not the only way.

Other things I like about TS3 is the hoods, they are not just a blank piece of land your Sim lives in. The hood, can also be a character in your game. Playing a new hood is fun because there is so much to do there, so much to discover. I just had one girl move from my main hood into Twinbrooks, and for the first time I decided to switch from TS2 style ageing to TS3 style ageing + story progression on, because I wanted to experience the "official" TS3 style of game-play. In that hood I only play this one girl, so it was the perfect place to play in a way where the town also moves along with you. Another great improvement in TS3 compared to TS2 is that moving people around is so easy. Sure my girl lost all her connections/family tree/friendships to the old hood, but moving her to a new hood doesn't break the game. If she ever return to the main hood after living abroad, I can easily just use a mod to link her back to her family line.

RH - curse or blessing? curse if you ask TS2 players even thou TS2 is full of RH as well (work/jogging/outings/tourist rounds/walking your dog) You can play and build your hood without RH's. You can shop without RH, you can eat dinner in a diner that's not a RH. But, if you want you can also put down a RH restaurant and use that instead. The only thing you need RH is jobs. You can put down the EA made huge RH buildings, or build your own using RH rugs. To build none RH grocery store/bookshop/diner you will need WA, because the registers came with that. My hood is build without the EA RH buildings. I've built my own city hall/hospital/police station/jail/school and used the RH doors so I can play the lot as an open lot, but still be able to utilize the RH so my people can work in those careers. My hoods book-store, diner, grocery store, are open thanks to the registers. I've also expanded those registers via mods, so currently my movie theatre is open, my Sims can gain profit from sales done on lots they own, and even have a clothing store.

Another false statement that TS2 players like to spread around is the forced RGB style of playing. All the features that you can say are RGB style, are optional. Nothing is forced on you. Opportunities can be turned off if you so feel like. You can visit vacation hood and have a plain vacation or explore a tomb. I've not turned off opportunities because I actually like them. My writer lady just went to France to deliver a book she wrote. Which brings me to another thing I like about TS3, the fact that people will actually acknowledge your Sims existence and doings even when you are not controlling them. Like when a husband will walk to his wife and thank her for cleaning, or cooking. Or when my writer woman was chatting with the postman and he praised a book she had written. That was such a good ice-breaker that they ended up dating for years. Just before the wedding she found out he was gay, but that's another story.

I've been playing TS2 again, started a few weeks back, and one of the things that is bringing my interest level down in the game is the fact that nobody acknowledges my Sims doings. Nobody will notice I'm a rock star, or writer, or a great cook. A child can skip school, or set the whole house on fire and nobody (except the social worker) will notice or care. The last house I plaid in TS2 was the Goths, Cassandra got dumped in the isle by Don, she got a nervous breakdown, the shrink came, and when she was cured, she went to pillow fight with Darren. In TS2 Sims actions are things that happen now, at this very moment,but there is never any long lasting effects. In TS3 when somebody dies you will be down for a few days, if it's the love of your life you will be heart broken. The same thing if you break up with somebody, your Sim will be depressed and sad, they can't just shrug it off without having a second thought about it like they did in TS2.

CamiiMania had a good point. TS3 Sims with traits are so much more interesting than TS2 Sims. Only when TS2 sims are in extreme personality levels do they feel different from their fellow Sims, but Sims are seldom born with 0 points or max points. I'm actually having a very hard time with TS2 because I feel like I'm playing with paper dolls. I don't care who they are, or what they do, I don't care what they like or what they don't. After playing TS3 for over two years, TS2 feels so blunt and dull. I was actually hoping to like them more because I still enjoy reading TS2 blogs, and the Sims there feel so alive and fun and many people who prefer TS2 say Sims feel more alive there, but that's not been my experience.

If you really enjoy TS2 and feel you have still much to discover, then play TS2 until you have done everything. Because if you end up liking TS3, you might find it hard to go back to TS2 to play the things you didn't get to experience. If you decide to try TS3, then I recommend getting Generations with it, it brings so much to the basic game-play.

Create A Style Tool

Is the best thing ever. With the sims2, you can't have matching furniture sets unless it's CC. Even then, you're limited to a small selection of colors.

I hate The Sims 3's rabbit holes. Gimme loading screens any day! I prefer real community lots I could enter, customize and own.

I recently caved and bought The Sims 3, I think the building capabilities tugged at me more than the simulation, though.
I love building realistic houses and The Sims 2 can certainly lack realism that The Sims 3 has.

Now if they could just combine the two...

I spend more time playing with the Create a Style tool than I do playing TS3.

I like the sims2 more and spend more time playing it. The key reasons are University, OFB, career rewards, and humor in TS2.
If it wasn't for wanting to do collections every blue moon I would uninstall TS3 completely.

In TS3 it seems like you need an awful lot of mods to achieve a style of gameplay that came with basegame and EPs of TS2. For me personally, TS3 with all it's current EPs and SPs still feels like TS2 basegame with a lot of CC. They are totally different games, it's like comparing apples and oranges, so I don't see how one can be better than the other.

I wanted to think a while before posting here, but I agree with Crocobaura. I can not compare the two games as which is best, that is something the simmer would have to figure out. Personally, I love Sims 3, especially now with the EPs and new interactions, the game has become more interesting. Like when I played Sims 2, Sims 3 have some irritating and annoying parts of the game, then that is when I depend on the game modders to make my game more entertaining.

I have said it before and will state the same thing here, the open neighborhood has sold Sims 3 for me. I love it and can't let it go, so I don't play Sims 2 anymore. With all the EPs, my imagination has become alive while building new venues for my sims to visit. Rabbitholes can be a bore, but for dining and the bookstore, I have made a little venue that works the same and my sims go there for their purchases. My sim will be buying this lot, so she will collect monies from it.



Add some hot tubs in the gym, it works a bit like the spa, especially when the sim is fatigued. Also add the new store foot massage chairs. It's adorable. Funny things happen in that area too.

There are so many things that can liven up the world, just use your imagination. Yeah, there are things I miss, like University and the restaurant dining from Sims 1 (loved those interactions the most), but until EA add more to the game with EPs, I have to think up stuff that will entertain me and make use of the mods to give me the functions I want. Did the same in Sims 2.

If the carpet doesn't match the drapes hire a gardener.

TS3 is a much more flexible game. It is better in many many ways, and worse in only a few ways.
I don't see how one game has better graphics than the other. Both games appear to be stuck in 2003.

TS3 wins, even at this early stage. Come October, it will be easily better.

They both have their pros and cons.

Sims 2 has more to do, more to create, but lacks the open-world like in the Sims 3. Sims 3 has it's open world, a fantastic add to the game; my Sims feel connected now.
But the Sims in the Sims 2 felt more 'human'. They would interact with each other automatically and hug a family member or talk. They do this in the Sims 3, but if feels forced and programmed. Maybe the extra realism with the Sims in the Sims 3 makes us expect them to be a lot more realistic, or maybe their actions just look forced, I'm not really sure. I think they just look like they're in their own little world where interaction is just an option (then again they do need to get their social bars up).

The Rabbit Holes in Sims 3 suck. I know the Sims 2 had RH's as ani_ has stated, but community lots like restaurants are gone, and I really miss designing them. I know custom RH's are possible, but they feel half-assed to me. It's like with Lego when you are making a cafe or something and you have no refrigerator for the kitchen, so you use a white block instead. It's like you fake-make it. It just feels lousy because you want the real thing but have to go for the alternative. Does that make sense?
Luckily in Ambitions you can have jobs you are much more immersed in. I really need to buy that game

The Sims 3 gives us a fresh look and much nicer graphics. The world is explorable now, and with the better graphics it's a lot more interesting to explore now too. We can see the sun setting in the distance, the sun sparkle on the ocean and watch people go about their daily lives as we look from our Sim's window. I've looked at buildings and they've looked incredibly realistic, which is an excellent touch. The Sims 2's graphics were... Not amazing to be honest. Of course it was created back in 2004, so it's natural for the graphics to not look incredible, but if you compare both games together by graphics, the Sims 3 definitely wins.

TL;DR: They both have their positives and negatives, and one has something the other lacks. I think with the Sims 2 though it's nostalgic for me and a lot of people, looking back I had a lot of fun as a kid with my creativity and such, therefore Nostalgia may win over the vote. I can't decide which is the best though, so I'll just say I love them both.

I have to admit I've never tried this; I didn't even know the option was available. I already use Twallan's SP, so I'm definitely going to have to try this out. I'm glad you mentioned it. TS3 hadn't been opened on my computer for a while.

No you don't. You don't need a single mod to open up your RH buildings. Like you don't need a single mod to build a library, clubs, bars, cinema, game arcades, internet cafe, gym, pool... You don't even need mods to play with TS2 style ageing. It will of course not be exactly TS2 style ageing but TS3 was not build with TS2 style ageing, so being able to get this functionality without mods is pretty flexible.

You don't even have a to have mods to play an integrated hood, you can easily use the same ideas to play an integrated hood in TS3 that TS2 players used before OFB.

Mods just make life more easy, and give more control and flexibility to the game. Just like mods make TS2 more interesting by making it possible to run schools, jails or have mortgages, or a lot of other things that make it possible to play beyond the boundaries that EA provided.

When I was building up my download folder for TS2 some weeks back, there were a lot items/fixes that I had forgotten you needed to play the game. For example, all the fixes to enable EP functionality in SP items. Sure you don't need these community fixes to play the game, but they are important fixes made by the community to patch up what EA didn't bother doing.

It's always easy to pinpoint how TS3 doesn't have restaurants or it doesn't have OFB. But the same way it's possible to pin point how in TS2 you can't ride a bike, or push a stroller, or drink or make nectar, or have a bar brawl, a martial arts tournament, build a time machine, mine in the park, or blow up your bosses car. TS3 might or might not get restaurants and an OFB type of ep, and these can be better or worst than they are in TS2, but until they come out, or TS4 is released and we still don't have them, being able to still play in this style with or without mods is not a bad thing.

What comes to which game is better, as it was mentioned before, that depends on who's playing.

Funny you mentioned this as I just have this type of spa in testing in France. My woman was scheduled for a foot message before I had to quit.

It's up to the player what game they like better.
Personally, I prefer The Sims 3, but I still love The Sims 2. Story Progression and the open neighborhood won me over. Yeah, a lot of stuff from The Sims 2 I'd like in The Sims 3, but The Sims 3 is still a baby and can grow. That's also a plus. The Sims 3 can be nurtured into an amazing game. The Sims 2 has already completed its growing, and can just sit back, relax and bask in the glory of an amazing run in its day. I looooove the trait system! Much better than the personality points. If only aspirations and fears came back! I also adore favorites! I seriously love that, as well! There are pros and cons of both games, but ultimately, as I've said before, it's up to the individual player's gaming type!
No matter what, both games are awesome, in my opinion.

WAIT! before you buy it or do anything, play a free one hour trial of it here! but you probably want to hurry when in CAS so you can experience everything.

http://www.thesims3.com/trial

now, personally, heres my story:

I have been playing Sims 2 since I was 12. I was extremely hyper on getting it since I tried it out at my friends house on his ps2. So I got it and finally got it all up and running (I wasnt very good with computers at the time) and at first i was annoyed since i didnt know how to work it. But i gradually got hooked on it. Basically I ended up freaking loving the game. I was ALWAYS thinking about it and comparing it to real life and how it could be improved and what i could download from MTS and much more..lol. Then Sims 3 came out. At first, well, i realized EA went hard at advertising and felt it was over saturated. So i assumed it was just another game or whatever. But finally after a few months i decided to give it a try. At first i sorta hated the game, but then i played and played and played and got better at it, and with every EP and SP coming out the game just got bigger better and more fun! I think you just have to play and play and get better at the game whether its TS2 or TS3 so dont just throw away sims 3 after 5 min of playing. And theres also supposed to be 5 more EPs and SPs coming out in the future so it'll get even better than what it is! Anyway, now i love Sims 3 and if it never came out i would be playing Sims 2. I honestly went back to playing Sims 2 for a day just to see and everything just seemed weird. I wasnt used to it i guess. I think I sort of forced myself to...actually nevermind. its hard to explain: ok so you know how if you ride a rollercoaster and its fun? well then they come out with a new better rollercoaster and you ride it and its REALLY fun. And then you go back to the original coaster and it just isnt fun. So yeah..just as evryone else said, I love TS3 for its amazing CAST, CAS, open neighborhood, and the graphics, and I love TS2 for it not having community lot rabbit holes and having the more social realism to it, i guess. And TS2 runs better/faster on my computer, lol. But honestly I love both games. If i had to choose it would be TS3 but only by a slim hair. The way I see it is, TS2 was more of a computer program to be used and modified as a tool, and TS3 is more of a computer game meant to, well, be played. lol. Its all just up to the person, so in this case one is not better than the other. So yeah hope that helps??

BUT dont take our word for it! try the 1 hour trial from the link above!

I agree with most people here. TS2 and TS3 are completely different games and are hard to compare. Also, it is really difficult for me to actually compare the two story-wise since TS2 has all of it's EP's out already and TS3 still has many more to come (hopefully). So it seems an unfair comparison regarding that area. I still absolutely love TS2, but TS3 has certainly grown on me. And as another poster stated, TS3 is still a "baby" with much more content to be released in the future. If anything, that makes the game more promising. : )

I do agree with that. TS3 is still in it's early stages despite it being almost two years. Who knows what we will get in the future? We may get an EP that will revolutionise the game completely, maybe changing a lot of it, but that's only a possibility. I would just like to make restaurants and business again, I really loved doing that.

Hotels would be nice too... Just saying...

:D

As far as I know you cannot open up RH buildings. Sure, you can use CC rugs or doors to make buildings with similar functionality and some extra perks, but you can not open them fully. Anyway, that is not exactly necessary. I am more upset with things like clubs having no DJ. I sure didn't need an EP to be able to put a stereo on a community lot and call it a club. And the "restaurant" functioning like a fridge. And the stylist podium functioning like a dresser. We could do all that with basegame. And then sims will also not behave appropiately in such places. I made a restaurant and half of the sims were dancing to the speaker music, a quarter of them were reading or doing homework and the other quarter were either eating or speaking or having a fight. Totally takes the fun out of creating community places. Sure TS2 did not have a time machine and you couldn't blow up your boss' car, but its features were definitely better suited to sandbox gameplay.

Sims in TS2 don't behave appropriately either. I'd have my florist Sim go to work in her OFB shop, only to have all her 'customers' gathered outside having snowball/waterballoon fights, depending on the season. Sims would play kicky bag inside nightclubs. Of course, I ended up getting mods to squash pretty much all autonomous behaviors in TS2, but without mods, if seeing Sims engaged in inappropriate behaviors spoils the fun of creating community lots, then creating community lots in TS2 must be no fun at all.
Any shop with a stereo on it would have Sims dancing to it in TS2, too.