So, I'm probably one of the only (if not the only) Sims fan who has yet to buy the sims 3. I've always thought the sims 2 was the best and nothing could make it better. After seeing previews for the sims 3 right before it came out, the graphics looked terrible imo. I'm a girl, majoring in fashion and also going to cosmetology school on the side so, I like my sims to look good lmao! IMO, the sims 3 characters, clothing, hair, etc, looked terrible. It looked more cartoony than anything so I decided against buying it. But now, Christmas has just passed and I got a best buy gift card that I'm considering using to buy the Sims 3 but first, I wanted to get your opinions on it.

1. Has CC improved the look of the sims? Clothing, hair, makeup?
2. What are your biggest complaints with the game?
3. What are you happiest about?
4. What makes it better than the sims 2 (if anything)?

1. Has CC improved the look of the sims? Clothing, hair, makeup? Definitely, but also EA has become better in making clothing, hair and individual looking Sims.
2. What are your biggest complaints with the game? It's not as static as TS2 by default. But for any annoyance there is usually a mod to fix it, and thankfully story progression can be turned off, not everybody is a fan.
3. What are you happiest about? Being able to visit anybody.
4. What makes it better than the sims 2 (if anything)? this is long but to keep it short, here are my top 5.
- individual ingredients when making meals
- individual books
- traits
- CAST
- almost everything is it's own skill. You can't spend your life painting and instantly be a master musician without ever seeing a musical instrument in your life, you actually have learn each skill as it's own, making all Sims much more unique than before.

Create a sim makes it easier to create better looking sims without CC.

Create a sims and create a style are enjoyable game tools.

And I think some of the Ancient Eygypt artifacts are lovely looking in game.

Building houses is easier.

The view from skyscrapers in Bridgeport. Having a city scape when looking out the apt windows is nice.


TS3 Sims are rather dull (having taken a back seat to game tasks) and not as responsive to people, places, and things as TS2 sims are. Toddlers are like deco in TS3.

The neighborhoods are isolated. Can't create a unified sense of ciommunity amongst all player created sims unless they all live in same town.

I find RH's ridiculous.

Ambition profession offers new game play --though its mostly becomes monotonous.

Townies are shoved down our sims' throats every chance the game gets. (Make your sim kid befriend townie kid, befriend your townie boss, etc)

I find most opportunituies pointless and annoying. Would my 5 star celeb like to be a bouncer at the local movie house one night? Uh, that would be a NO. Would my 1 point cooking skill sim like to whip up and run over a platter of burgers for a complete stranger to sample? (WT?!) Uh, again, that would be a NO. And so on....

TS3 is on its 3rd EP -it should be more enjoyable than it is. Too much time and too many EPs for the "it's new" excuse to cover why its so lackluster.

1. YES YES YES!!! There are really lovely skins and eyes out there that kill any pudding fears you may have had. The first pictures of Sims 3 sims scared me too but after getting CC and playing I prefer them 100%
(some examples of purtyness)
Anubis
My favorite skins
Lemon Leaf
My own adorable toddlers
Los Aniegos

2. It's annoying to play multiple families in the same neighborhood.

3. CAS, CASt, Buy mode, Build mode, traveling around town, skills, collecting, ect.

4. Just about everything except for the problem with multiple families. Create a World has given us so many beautiful gorgeous towns to play in.

I would really recommend it, just be sure to research properly like any big decision because there are a lot of people who dislike TS3 for various reasons

1. Very much so - I can not play the game without CC. Though, for me, it was the same in TS2.
2. I found the World Adventures expansion pack boring and useless, but that's pretty much my only complaint.
3. Create A Style - It's the main reason I could never go back to TS2. Everything can actually MATCH now!
4. As above - Create A Style - also,
-Create A Sim is better and there are more customization options
-Traits make Sims more interesting and unique
-There are no 2-hour loading screens if you want to, say, go to the supermarket or the park or someone's house.
There are more, however that's all I can think of at the moment off the top of my head. :]

Sims 3 is definitely more refined in several ways: more skills, Create-A-Style, the traits, more depth in specific areas such as more ingredients to use, plants to grow, fish to catch, and several other collectables. The graphics are a definite improvement over Sims 2, especially with regard to the city/landscapes. The scenery is gorgeous. There is no question, Sims 3 is a clear improvement in this way. Whether the sims themselves are improvement is hotly debated. However, there are more body-types; the Sims do look different and it's a matter of personal preference.

The main problem is that the Sims 3 *gameplay* is not quite as fun for me personally. It's all been a bit dumbed-down/sanitized, and it's less challenging overall. In addition the Sims themselves are much less reactive and charming. Is there really more to do in the Sims 3? I don't really think so. Yes you don't have to worry about needs as much but unless you're into following the game's "opportunity" system, there isn't really that much else to do outside of collecting.

The opportunities are mostly a snooze-fest. Drive here, disappear into a building for a set amount of time, and that's it. Same with a lot of the new professions in Ambitions. I played a stylist through to completion and I was sooo bored by the end... at first it was fun to give the townies makeovers, but after the 50th makeover I just clicked on random changes to get it over with. It's kind of a grind. I started the firefighter/ghost hunter professions and found the same things. Fun the first few times, but gets old quickly.

(I will say I DO like World Adventures. Mainly because I love the atmosphere in the tombs; I used to love playing Tombraider/Lara Croft. However WA is not "traditional" Sims-style gameplay. If you don't send your sims on an adventure/vacation, then WA doesn't add a lot to gameplay.)

The aging of the whole town, while realistic, does change the gameplay quite a bit. If you're into playing one family only, in depth, then Sims 3 will work well. If you like to rotate around and play different families, then you'll need mods to do this. I like to mix things up and play different families, so the Sims 2 model works better for me.

Don't get me wrong, Sims 3 is fun. Just not quite as engaging as Sims 2. And Sims 3 is quite glitchy with the latest EP. I got fed up with Sims 3 when the latest patch of Late Night caused the game to be nearly unplayable and decided to give Sims 2 a try again.

1. Has CC improved the look of the sims? Clothing, hair, makeup?
Absolutely yes. Can't live without custom skins and default replacement eyes. However, EA got really better at making clothes. The ones we got with the base game were already pretty decent, but now we're getting a lot of nice stuff, even when it comes to hair.

2. What are your biggest complaints with the game?
-The fact that I need to install thousands of hacks (slider hacks and custom sliders) to make creating sims an easier task. In TS2, I never installed any hack.
-Limited interactions: TS2 had more variety of interactions between characters, especially when it came to romance and games.

3. What are you happiest about?
-More realistic body shapes (fat/fit/muscle sliders, hand shapes, actual hips and so on) and facial expressions: they totally rock!
-The landscape looks stunning
-Traits!!!
-Create-A-Style

4. What makes it better than the sims 2 (if anything)?
-Once again, traits. They definitely seem to give a real personality to sims: I just love how they act differently depending on their traits.
-The possibility to choose the lifetime wish: finally, no more crossing fingers hoping that the sim I created with so much love and attention will not want to be a criminal mastermind instead of a scientist, yay!
-Better playability: honestly, even if TS2 had way more interactions, I think that TS3 is better organized. I never played more than one family at once, so the whole open neighborhood system totally fits my playing style. Also, need bars are better organized and you do actually allow your sims to do way more stuff than TS2 sims.
-Create-A-Style, once again: if I want the blankets on my bed to be electric blue, I just click and make them blue, no need to download thousands of custom recolors to reach the same result :D

I finially bought it: love the voice/body type options, but the feature modeling is no better than Body Shop, and SOMEHOW all the faces wind up with a similar, rounded look. Love being able to pick colors for clothes, and matching hair to outfit type. HATE that hair is (remarkable!) even worse than Sim2, and amount of stuff available in buy & build is very much less. I expected much more with the personality options, but it has NOT made them more fun/interesting/surprising to work with. But the deciding factor is the game itself; like others say, it has become a "go here/do this" type of game (there is a name for that..whatever). I've played Sim2 since it came out, glued to my PC from a 4 to 20 hours a day, and even with my global mods changing a LOT about how the game works, and my 5,000 mods letting me create many types of Sims and houses (from Victorian to apocalypse to alien) it was so preditable that it was neither fun nor a challenge. SO MY WEEK OLD SIM3 IS FOR SALE, AND MY SIMS 2 IS UNINSTALLED. now-what to DO for fun..

1. My CC is lovely, the Create a Sim is already great, but you can always add some more outfits/hair! ^^

2. Well, I can't compare it with TS2 (because I never played TS2 :C) but, I think EA rushed some of the EP's, and *some* parts of the game. There are some fun glitches, some annoying glitches.

3. I love making generations of sims and watching them grow up to have more sims ^^ Sometimes killing them, having one woohoo with the grim reaper, and having some move away~!

4. Never played sims 2, but, after watching sims 2 videos, I would say that sims can now be more 'unique', they can have traits, and be who you want them to be.

One more thing: I love the Late Night expansion pack :P!

1. Custom content has improved greatly since the initial release of the game. You no longer have to use face masks to achieve that special look you're craving for. Plus there are tons of mods that change the default gameplay. It may not be as expansive as the sims 2, but it's getting there.

2. The lack of actual content. There just doesn't seem to be enough activities for the sims to enjoy that actually seem fun. Jumping on a trampoline or going to China can only be exciting the first few times. The lack of recipes and food items is also kind of a disappointment to me. Where's my delivery chinese food? Having to control multiple families at once is another problem, but there are mods for that

3. No loading screens except for exotic locations

4. What makes it better than the sims 2 (if anything)?
CAST--you can mix, match, and manipulate almost any color scheme without crowding your CC folder with recolors
CAS-- Create a Sim is also another little gem that expands beyond the limitation that the sims 2 had on making sims

1. Custom Content has improved definitely, although their are a few pieces content missing. Even EA content has improved.

2.The sims 2 is more unrealistic, such as Gorilla suits, Mrs Crumple bottom, The vampires etc.

3. Sims 3 is more creative, CAW, CAS,

4,
The graphical enhancements making it a beautiful game
I like the how the game is much smarter from a code perspective and the code referencing
The modern furniture and clothing. Sims 2 seamed from a clothing it seams cheaper, or more common.

I would really love to know how exactly do you play your game because what you just stated, is not how I have experienced the game at all. In the 1.5 years this game has been out, I have still not collected everything. I haven't even had anybody who's main job is collecting. A few times I tried to have a Sim who's main objective was to collect, but I always got side-tracked by everything else that was happening in the game that collecting got ignored. Now again I have one girl who I'm hoping she would get into collecting and fishing, but let's see how far will she get, so far so good but she's still a teen so anything could happen.

This falls into the category of we got what we asked for. People have been asking to follow their sims to work since the dawn of times, always referring to superstar. I'm not surprised many find this part boring, as it was boring in superstar as well. At first doing a runway show/movie was fun, but not when you had to do it day after day after day. Damn you EA for listening to the players.

I currently have one lady in an Ambition job, styling. She just turned into an elder and and is halfway through the eights level of the job. Getting bored with the job is actually a playstyle question, my lady only does 1 make-over a day, sometimes two. Then there are days she doesn't do any make-overs, instead she will go to her café that she runs and work on fashion sketching skills. The best part about these Ambition careers is that you can skip a day or two if you feel like skipping.

Also what comes to opportunities, they aren't so bad. Some make no sense, and in those cases I'll just ignore it, but when the opportunity makes sense, it enriches the gaming experience. Like my fashion lady, she also works as an artist, it's not her passion, but she has a huge debt she needs to pay off so she will grab any opportunity (that makes sense) to work on. Currently she got a commission from the city to paint 15 paintings and is currently working on that, it was a nice little task while she was on maternity leave. She's not yet done with the task as she only has done 7 out of the 15 she needs. She's also had an opportunity to take paintings to foreign countries, so it was fun combining business with pleasure.

But as seen, opportunities is not for all players, just like story progression is not for all, if you get LN, there is an option to turn opportunities off.

Ani, you're confused. Superstar was a visual experience and the acting career in LN is an RH (Invisible) career. The only NON-RH acting career activity seems to be handing out flyers (WTF!?) So EA did not listen to the players this regard--they did the exact opposite. Performing was the sole Sim career I did want to see them do. Other than that I never wanted to go to work with my sim though I did find being a shopkeeper fun in Open for Business.

The Ambitions professions seem better in theory than in actuality. I like building so I found the decorator career fun -- but seeing as the sims is not actually doing the renovation the game play is no different other than if I had given myself parameters before entering edit town and renovating a sim home.

The ghost hunters run around pointing that banisher device at color blobs (spirits) or vibrating furniture (poltergeists) or telling ghosts to move on. Seeing as the sims could talk to ghosts since day one of TS3--there is really not much new there at all. Even the music is rehashed--isn't it from TS1?

And having the stylist do only one makeover a day or each week doesn't make it less monotnous--it just drags it out.

The doctor xray scanning people and prescribing pills the size of an ostrich egg is pretty fuinny.

Fireman are kind of boring--when are they going to get it right so they don't have to repair the fire alarm every day,

These things are all initially mildly amusing but the fun of them wears thin pretty fast. As for collecting--get your sim a collection helper, pick a category and send him/her around town picking those things up (seeds or gems or bugs, etc) at the end of the day you will have a complete collection. Other than the Foriegn country items that came with WA. Still, even then you could add those exotic spawners in your sim town to get a full collection right at home.

1. Has CC improved the look of the sims? Clothing, hair, makeup? - I cant for the life of me make the sims in sims 3 look unique like I did in the sims 2, so no, not really....Maybe that depends on what CC one can find. I guess one also needs custom skintones and perhaps custom sliders to succeed,but I have yet to try that myself. A really good thing is how you can change and match textures in game for the clothes, and the styling-career in "Ambitions" pretty much lets you change the whole neighbourhood as far as clothing and hair goes.

Ive been looking around the community for "the perfect sim", and yes, there are many excellent creators and wonderful CC available. BUT the sims can never be as beautiful as in the sims2 cause the animations are wrong and they have less facial expression . Thats how I feel.

2. What are your biggest complaints with the game? - the sims themselves are boring and ugly. In sims 2 the interactions where much more personal, cute, interesting etc. The cars are running too fast. Im sick of having the "opportunities" interupting the game all the time. (But with the latest patch one can supress them.)

3. What are you happiest about? - I like building gardens and design the interiors, and the level of realism and quality - both for graphics and meshes- are stuning in the sims 3. I love the light, the sunsets and the shiny metals too:D

4. What makes it better than the sims 2 (if anything)? - Its more playable I guess, everything runs smoother with the seamless hood and the storyprogression. But that can also be a bad thing sometimes, a lot of people dont like it at all Its hard to compare the two. Sims 3 is a whole new game.

1. Has CC improved the look of the sims? Clothing, hair, makeup?
I think CC improves the look of everything and the ability to customize gameplay is the best point of the Sims. I have CC that gives Sims wings, horns and turns their skin all different colors (teal, mauve, etc.) Clothing and hair are easier to use because when you want to use CC you don't have to hunt down the mesh on another non-existent site. The mesh is part of the object itself.

2. What are your biggest complaints with the game?
I really want to be able to move between neighborhoods, either to visit, holiday, or relocate. It doesn't let you do that (well, you can holiday in World Adventures, but you cant live there).
My other complaint isn't a big deal but it's been bugging me lately. I wish the hair on the Sims would move instead of being a helment. I've downloaded some beautiful hair, but when I use them in-game they just don't look right because the long styled bits are too solid. I hope that made sense...

3. What are you happiest about?
The open neighborhood.
The beautiful graphics (sunrise and sunset are amazing, sometimes I just move the camera to a certain spot and watch.)
Cars now drive on the roads instead of disappearing like they did in Sims2.
The "Large Address Aware" hack that has virtually stopped all crashing in my game
The method for combining CC into one package that has allowed almost unlimited CC in the game.
Player involvement in the community that allows CC, mods and hacks to be shared (not specifically Sims3 perhaps, but an important enough part that it matters a lot.)

4. What makes it better than the sims 2 (if anything)?
What makes it better? Sims2 is good for it's own reasons. I still go back and play occasionally, so I can visit my old families and houses. And especially when I feel like playing with weather and pets.
As for Sims3, the biggest draw for me was graphics and the open neighborhood. Also, Sims2 takes nearly 30 minutes to load and crashes because I have too much CC.
Also, no longer having to search down meshes for CC is a huge plus.
Custom colors is great too.
The tools, Create a World and Create a Pattern.

1. Has CC improved the look of the sims? Clothing, hair, makeup?
I couldn't play without CC - but I couldn't in Sims 2 as well (which was one of the reasons loading became even more annoying and longer). I love new clothes and new hairstyles (though many of them look great in the picture and then I install them and they look terrible).

2. What are your biggest complaints with the game?
The too many bugs, especially everytime a new expansion is published. I mean, the games cost money - much money - and then there are SO many mistakes, you have to patch the game again and again (and if you don't want to use the launcher, you've got the next problem). Late Night nearly drove me nuts with all the problems - and it took EA ages to fix some of the problems.

Another thing (not really game related): I hate the store thing. Too expensive things and you can only buy them online. I can bear it as long as there's just clothing, hair and furniture - but if they really start to add new game-content online, I'm really disappointed.

3. What are you happiest about?
The neighborhoods are very stunning.
Castable things - finally I don't have to download 1001 recolours of one item just to have it fit everywhere.
I've gotten used to the new look of the sims and now (with CC) I quite like them.
Traits.

4. What makes it better than the sims 2 (if anything)?
No loading screens - they were really annoying.
Patterns.
Story Progression (but I use Twallan's Mod) - the idea is cool, your childhood-friend grows up with you.

1. Has CC improved the look of the sims? Clothing, hair, makeup?
Can't say as I don't use any CC apart from some clothing and some hairs. Overall I'm quite happy with the stuff provided by the game. I used to have some CC skins that removed the barbie look but had to reinstall at some moment and didn't bother reinstalling them afterwards. CAST makes it easy to create interesting looks for the sims, however they don't look as good in game as they do in CAS.

2. What are your biggest complaints with the game?
Rabbit holes take up useful neighbourhood space and don't offer any real playability in return, lightning is too strong, not many diverse activities for sims to do on community lots, they run everywhere by default ( and the walk option isn't really available) and go straight home after work, popping in and out of cars, cars are too fast, sims expressions and interractions are quite limited, the traits could be expanded as to give more distinctly visible personality to the sims, not just descriptive action menus. Too much autonomous reading. Opportunity system, but we can turn it off since LN. Also, wish we could do something useful with the collectibles besides selling them or displaying them. I know there are CC hacks to deal with some of my complaints but wish I didn't have to use them. Also, wish sims could travel between the different neighbourhoods like they did in Sims2 and that meat and eggs didn't grow on plants. Oh, and patching through the launcher has become a pain since at some point it stopped working.

3. What are you happiest about?
Beautifully landscaped neighbourhoods, CAST, the slider system to create different bodyshapes for sims.

4. What makes it better than the sims 2 (if anything)?
Beautifully landscaped neighbourhoods, CAST, the slider system to create different bodyshapes for sims, more growable vegetables and trees, separate skills, the different receipe books.

I think it depends on how you like to play.

As for the look of the sims, I think the Sims 3 sims without custom content look a lot less cartoonish than the Sims 2 sims without custom content. With CC, both look much better than without. I look at sims 2 sims now and I feel as if they are beautiful statues, no expressions, empty eyes, etc. compared to Sims 3 sims.

My biggest complaints are too many bugs, but then while Sims 2 wasn't as bad, it had bugs as well. What I don't like is the lack of fun things in Sims3. There just isn't enough to do, especially for the kids. Kids can't garden or play piano..and the mods only work if the kids are stretched out of proportion in order to fit adult animations. I am also not all that fond of the dependency on the silly cell phone. It makes it difficult to play a game that is not modern.

What I like is the open neighborhood and CAS. I love that the other sims in the town age along with my sims. I don't have to go through and artificially age them or have the kids grow up and play with the same sims the parents played with in the hood. I love CAS and it is probably the number one reason I can't go back to Sims 2, although I am strongly tempted at times. The ability to recolor almost anything and not have to have tons of CC in all different colors is really a benefit. It allows you to have more CC without overloading your computer. All of these make it better than Sims 2, in my opinion. Of course, Sims 2 has some good features as well that are not included in Sims 3, mainly the ability to actually own businesses and play them.

I used to love having kids practice the piano in Sims2. For me at least, it made more sense to have them gain skills from early on. After all how many adults do you know who suddenly decide to take on piano lessons and also manage to become professional piano players in real life?
I also find annoying the silly cellphone. Not only does it make redundant the land phones available in game but also interrupts the game and asks you,the player, if you wish to take the call. It's annoying as hell if you want to have your sim skill on something and meanwhile leave the computer to fix lunch or something. When you come back, not only is the sim not skilled, but the game is also paused.

1. Has CC improved the look of the sims? Clothing, hair, makeup?

CC improves everything, I especially love hair the hair CCs that can be found. I think EA does a horrible job with hair.

2. What are your biggest complaints with the game?

The bugs. I seem to get ht with every one that can possibly happen. Also, for all their traits, the sims themselves seem a lot less interesting. My evil sims were never as rude as my Grouchy sims in Sims2. It is difficult, but possible, to create unique looking sims without CC. You need to really try though. Finally, the special sims (mummies, ghosts) are not fun to play with. I haven't been able to try Vampires yet due to more errors with Late Night

3. What are you happiest about?

The graphics are downright amazing. My computer doesn't even meet the minimum graphic card requirements (only by a very small amount though) and the graphics still look amazing. Also Create-a-Style is awesome.

4. What makes it better than the sims 2 (if anything)?

They are two very different games, so its hard to compare. Overall though, I think I prefer Sims 2. I still play and enjoy Sims 3, but it lacks a certain charm that the Sims 2 had. But then I still prefer my old Game Cube and PS2 games to more modern games

This is so true, I wish they had hair animations, too! Now I'm getting kinda used to the 'helmet-hair', but I still wonder why they didn't put some actual animations for hair like they did in TS2. Maybe it would have been too difficult to handle for the game?

1. Has CC improved the look of the sims? Clothing, hair, makeup? When does CC not improve gameplay is the real question. But I tend to stick to clothing and hair when it comes to modding my sims... Makeup and skins? too much work when I have the slidder option.

2. What are your biggest complaints with the game? Bugs, I don't like them in real like and I don't like them on my computer. I mean some of the issues I was just like, "Did you even give this to a test group?"

3. What are you happiest about? Ohh... I like the recoloring option for everything... The clothes, the furniture, the hair, eyes and skin tone can all be green... Not that I have ever done that or anything... *wink wink*

4. What makes it better than the sims 2 (if anything)? The way the neighborhood ages... And the camera movement, but if I wanted I could have learned to code the sims 2 camera but I am lazy... To be honest I pre-ordered the collector's edition and was so pissed at first because I loathed sims 3. I actually took it off my computer and continued playing sims 2... But I pulled it out a few months later and it grew on me... But when I pulled it out there was a good amount of cc then and that helped... Because when I first played the bugs pissed me off and was the main reason I un-installed it. But little fixes were put out later and it got better...

I still love the open world and story progression. I hated having to catch families up because I hadn't played them in awhile

Catching up families was just for the sake of aging and in TS3 we have separate aging options from the story progression.

1. Has CC improved the look of the sims? Clothing, hair, makeup?
For me free downloads from Dr Pepper, T-mobile and JcPenny did that.

2. What are your biggest complaints with the game?
None that there isnt a cheat or workaround for.

3. What are you happiest about?
I love the houses and my ability to customize the wallpaper. Its a silly little thing but you can really change any color or pattern on anything. I had a great time building a house with an open loft area and a 2- story chimney for the Concept art car that came with the Ford free car download.

4. What makes it better than the sims 2 (if anything)?
T-mobile Downloads I think that its evolving into a very creative game while giving a teaser of other game types and still keeping with the overall Sim style game. The new tunes that came with LN.