The Sims 3 - PC

I was hooked on the sims since i was little. I loved controlling a family and making it my own and making their lives better or worse. I loved the original sims but I never knew what I was missing until I got the sims 3 (yes I made the jump from sims 1 to 3, so what? :). The graphics were amazing and the open neighborhood was a definite plus. I never had any problems installing the game and I loved it from the start. I made a family and played with it for probably a year. And in that time, my original female sim had had a husband die, three kids (two adopted), and had moved into a cottage to be alone until she passed away. I had become so emotionally attached to this family that I cried when the husband died and when the wife died. The sims 3 gives you that push to branch out and make your own family without the restrictions of never seeing them once they move out (if you stay with the parents point of view). I've heard people say that they are dissapointed with how long it takes to do stuff (sleeping, eating, bathing, etc.) and that if you have a family it is even harder. But while this is true, it is overly exaggerated. If you really care about making a family that loves and supports each other, you will make time to get off work and go to the park or make time with your spouse to have a romantic diner at the bistro. It's just like real life, you have to make time to do things with your family. My first family on sims 3 made time to eat at the table together and to go to the pool and have fun every weekend. And for all those people who say they will no longer play this game because it has lost some of the classic elements of the sims, I'm telling you just wait. Right now there are 6 (the 7th will be released soon) expansion packs. And with these expansion packs have come the elements of the sims that people love. For example, I have been wanting to get a new expansion pack and so I decided to get Generations. This ep comes with all kinds of stuff from the sims 2 and much more! They've just made better what has already been made. Things like memories have made a comeback and they are better than ever. And with Pets, they've added horses and places to train your animals like parks and such. But what makes me so upset with sims players who complain about the sims 3 is they're always complaining "we want seasons and university!" and while yes these ep's would be nice on the sims 3, there are still more ep's to come. Seeing as seasons and university were popular, they will probably come back. I mean, the new Supernatural ep that is coming out soon has most of the creatures from the sims 2 and more in one ep. I have noticed that the sims 3 games like to bundle many different features from former sims games so it's just a matter of time before they incorporate seasons and university. For example, in Generations, teens coming out of high school have a sort of graduating ceremony. Maybe they'll add on to that and make sort of an expanded University? But aside from all of that, here are some pros and cons about the game: Pros: -Beautiful graphics -Open neighborhood -More customization -The town can grow and change even if you aren't playing different families (this may be a con to some people that like to control the game but I like it because I can worry about just one family and not a lot at once. You can also turn off this feature if you don't like it) -New traits that expand personalities -and these are just some of the pros Cons: -Slower time, making things like sleeping and eating take longer -Loading the game (when you first start up a loaded family) -Rabbit holes (places where you can control your sims but you cannot see inside of them) -Restrictions with personalizing the town -Having only one town (but you can create more than one saved game) But all of those cons don't even matter when you think of all of the new ep's and stuff packs that are out there. I guess all I'm saying is wait for it. The sims 3 will gradually get better and soon it will be so much better than other sims games that all you non believers will be stunned at what this game has amounted to. I'd recommend this game to anyone who loves the sims or would like to get this as their first sims game. It is amazing.

I am a really huge fan of the sims, and the sims 3 is just better in a lot ways than the sims 2, and I dont believe that the people doesnt like it; and my reasons are: 1. The sims 3 is a town, is more big, complex, there a lot more of interactions with the neighbors, co-workers, you can meet anyone, you can go to their houses and have plenty of fun inside (this mode in the sims 2 doesnt exist), you can go to the bookshop, library, groceries store, to see a movie, eat at the Bistro restaurant, to the beach, diferents types of lakes, the graveyard (explore the catacombs is a lot of fun), stonehenge, mine,etc. For this reason I will never play the sims 2 again, is a lot better, thats all. YOU CAN EAT FREE IN THE MAIN STREET, READ BOOKS FOR LEARNING SKILLS FREE IN THE LIBRARY, MAKE A GRILL IN THE MAIN STREET, YOU CAN INVITE ANYONE YOU HAD MEET TO ANY PLACE IN ALL THE TOWN, YOU CAN GO TO THE GYM TO EXCERCISE, SWIM IN THE COMMUNITY POOL, ETC.. 2. When you make a sim, I love it; because you can do it the way you like it, there is pleny of tools to make it perfect. The traits (30 or more) you have to choose it carefully, for example i love angler, thumb green, loves outdoors, ambitious, natural cook, etc. That will make you perfect in fishing, gardening and cooking.. And my wife is charismatic that has 70 friendships, and is the governor of the town.. And is more and more; the sims 2 cant never reach it..... 3. The lifetime points is similar to the sims 2, but is better too. You have to make your sims to get all your wishes possible, to reach the highest lifetime wishes. 4. In the sims 3; you can collect gems, rocks, butterflies, space rocks, and it has their proper value, and this is very fun to play. 5. Fishing, gardening, writing are perfect... You write a book and it is a best seller you can see your own novel in the shop book.. Fishing you will see your sim catching a tragic clown fish, swordfish, angelfish; etc.. Gardening you can look for seeds, there is a lot of types of plants, trees, etc to produce.. 6. All your family will grow with the members of the town at same time, if you dont want to grow up you have to eat ambrosia, or go to options and dont age, ok.. I accept is more difficult with children because you have to care about them, take care of friendships, the garden, work, etc. I prefer to play with 4 or 5 members at max, because more is very exhausted... 7. There a lot of carreers and each one has its own opportunities, and at the highest position of each job you get a special reward, it is very fun. 8. Ok.. All of this you can play without problems if you have a good video card, memory, proccesor to play; because this game is much, much bigger than the sims 2, so you can imagine, if you have 4 members of your family in different places, the camara switch from one place to another if you want to see whats is going with the other sim, and without a good computer it will take time, and I hate that!! And remember to play in more than 19" LCD monitor, it is better... 9. THE ONLY THING I DONT LIKE IS THAT IF YOU WANT SOMETHING NEW FOR THE GAME (FURNITURE, ETC) YOU HAVE TO BUY IT, AND IT MAKES VERY DISSAPOINTING WHEN YOU KNOW THAT ELECTRONICS ARTS HAS A LOT OF MONEY SELLING ALL THEIR STUFF, SO WHY????? 10. For the new players is better to play sims 2 first to know how to play and later go to the sims 3...

I have been a very faithful Sims player since the very first Sims game came out so many years back and got even more addicted after playing Sims 2...but now EA has completely ruined the Sims experience for me with Sims 3!, and even though I think that Sims 2 is a much better game I am now bored with both Sims 2 and 3 and not sure if I will ever play any of them. This game was a complete waste of my money and I feel very angry. I have a feeling that at least half of the 5 star reviews on here are fake and where written by people who got paid buy EA-games, since now the word is out that this game stinks to high heaven. if you look at all the 5 star reviews you can see that it usually says above something like "0 of 5 people found the following review helpful!" which means people don't agree whit this review! but then when you look at the 1 or 2 star reviews it usually says "6 of 7 people found the following review helpful" ....hummmm I wonder why... there are so many flaws in this game I don't even know where to begin! It is more difficult to navigate and the whole game is just poor quality. I despise the idea of not being able to make my own made town. its so hard to build relationships now, it will take so long for them to be willing to reproduce or to get married...It's annoying! If you have never played Sims before, you might like it anyway, but only because you don't know how cool and much better Sims 2 is... I really hate that there are a much less clothing and hair styles choices (plus most of them are so ugly), even though you can customize all of it, with more color/pattern choices....and I really hate that you much less control in this game and that family member just disappear like some dogs that run away on Sims 2! I really miss the cool green Alien's and alien abductions where men had alien babies. I especially hate that EA has turned into a even bigger greed consumed company than before and they don't seem to care at all what the Sims fans really wanted form the new game..all they want now from us is to keep spending money on there stupid Sims 3 online-store for every little tinni thing you might wand for your game..alone that you actually have to "buy" additional items for the game online, versus it just coming with the original game, is such a rip off and it pisses me off so very much, I mean what is next, do we have to sell our soul to them just to get a few more furniture's? .. so unless they make expansion packs with double amount of content of the old Sims 2 expansion packs that cost no more than 10$ each, EA games will not see 1 more Cent from me...and that's a promise, no kidding! I know you can't give zero star on here...( even though we should be able to do so) but I give this game 1 star anyway because it does have some new features that are good, like that you can change the colors and designs of furniture's exactly the way you want. you Sims have more body types and voices but even that feature still needs more options, and your Sims spend less time taking on eating and peeing but for some reason now need to sleep longer??.. I can't mention it enough but, EA has definitely become the greediest company on earth, this game is sooo cheap, you don't even get a hot tub with the start up game. I was able to create way more interesting looking faces with Sims 2...but not in this new game, The Sims themselves are either super boring or just ugly looking. Everybody kind of looks the same unless you give them purple hair and neon green eyes... PS.: since I am playing this game on a brand new very fast 5000.- alienware PC (specialized gaming computer) with the best most expensive graphics card you can buy, I at least was able to play this game without any crashes. But I have 2 Friends of mine who did have the crashing and freezing problem with this game like so many other people who left a review on here..those 2 friends by the way are quiet disappointed by Sims 3 also, and 1 of the 2 has stopped playing it after only 2 weeks and the other after playing it on and off for 3 months. the are both angry as me about wasting our money!

*The Sims 3*, released in 2009, was a pivotal entry in the life simulation franchise, celebrated for its ambitious scope and revolutionary design features. The PC/DVD version provides the core foundation of a game that allows for endless creative storytelling and is often considered a high point in the series. --- ### **Overview: A Seamless Evolution** *The Sims 3* fundamentally shifted the game's focus by introducing a **seamless, open neighborhood**. Unlike previous titles where travel between lots required a loading screen, your Sim could now walk, jog, or drive across the entire town without interruption. This singular change brought a massive feeling of realism and dynamism to the world, as you could follow your Sim to work, visit neighbors instantly, and watch the entire town operate around you. ### **Key Features** * **🗺️ Seamless Open World:** This is the game's greatest strength. The continuous neighborhood allows you to explore parks, libraries, and businesses without loading screens. Furthermore, the **Story Progression** system allows unplayed Sims to marry, have children, and advance in their careers, making the town feel truly alive and constantly changing. * **🎨 Create-a-Style Tool:** A massive leap forward in customization, this tool allows players to select and change the color and pattern of almost any object, piece of clothing, or floor/wall covering in the game. This gives players **unlimited creative control** over their Sim's wardrobe and home decor. * **🧠 Deep Personality Traits:** Replacing the simple personality sliders of the previous game, *The Sims 3* introduces a **Trait system**. Adult Sims can have up to five distinct traits (like *Kleptomaniac*, *Sloppy*, *Ambitious*, or *Loves the Outdoors*), which genuinely impact their behavior, autonomous actions, and the unique Wants and Wishes they develop. * **🎯 Lifetime Wishes and Wishes:** Sims now have a single, major **Lifetime Wish** they strive for, paired with constantly shifting short-term **Wishes** (Wants). Fulfilling these drives their happiness and provides points to unlock powerful Lifetime Rewards. ### **Graphics and Performance (PC/DVD)** * **Aesthetic:** *The Sims 3* adopted a slightly more realistic, doll-like aesthetic than its cartoonier predecessor. The graphics are a notable improvement, featuring a day-night cycle with moving shadows and better lighting effects. * **Performance Note:** Due to the complexity of loading an entire open world and continuously running the Story Progression for dozens of non-active families, *The Sims 3* can be **demanding on PC hardware**, especially when installing multiple expansion packs. Players may need a relatively robust system and may benefit from community-made mods to manage lag and pathfinding issues. ### **Verdict** *The Sims 3* on PC is a masterpiece of ambition and creative freedom. While the game's performance can be a challenge on older or under-optimized systems, the core gameplay experience remains unmatched for many players in the franchise. The freedom to roam, the depth of customization, and the feeling of a truly dynamic, living world make it a fantastic simulation experience. | **The Best Bits** | **Things to Consider** | | **Open-World Gameplay:** Seamless exploration and a world that lives independently of your active family. | **Performance Issues:** Can be quite laggy, especially with a high number of expansion packs installed. | | **Create-A-Style:** Unprecedented customization for patterns, colors, and textures on almost everything. | **High System Requirements:** Needs a decent PC to run smoothly, particularly compared to older titles. | | **Trait System:** Adds fantastic depth, humor, and unpredictable personality to your Sims. | **Visuals:** Some players find the Sims' appearance or the *clay-like* textures less appealing than in other entries. | **Final Recommendation:** **Essential for creative simmers.** If you value uninhibited creativity and a genuine sense of community life over pure performance optimization, *The Sims 3* is a rich, rewarding, and truly expansive life simulator.

No one can deny how hyped up this game was. After all, it was moved back from a February launch to a June launch for more marketing. Maybe it was just a ploy to get us riled up and to make us want it more, but I'm sure it worked. I've noticed from trolling the forums for the last hour or so that a lot of people are simply complaining about the game. I don't think there's enough to really complain about and I think that there should be more praise for EA for coming out with a dang good game. I've compiled a list of the good things and the bad things that I've noticed in a day's worth of playing. Here's a few highlights and lowlights: Cons: 1. Timing is off. This seems like more of an overlook to me - the 2nd and 3rd fast forward buttons don't really make it jump forward very fast. It takes about 3 to 5 real minutes to make a Sim sleep through the night. This is easily fixable with a patch. 2. Small object variety. EA seems to be trying to market the Sims3 Store more than ever. In reality, the game probably has close to the equivalent of objects that the Sims2 base game shipped with. We're just used to a ton more thanks to custom content, expansion packs, and stuff packs. There are lots of customizable options which are nice, but the game could definitely handle more objects. 3. High Spec Requirements. This limits playing on even slightly older machines in a huge way. My laptop, which easily ran The Sims 2, is only 3 years old and was top-of-the-line when I purchased it, cannot run the game. My brother's $500 laptop purchased ready-made from Best Buy can, however, which is how I'm playing it now. Until I can get a new one, I'm out of luck. Pros: 1. Moodlets. These are fabulous additions to the game. They remind me heavily of the Sims 2 Vacation perks, but more common and more easily achieved. 2. Wishes. These are a big easier to manage than Wants and seem to fit more with a Sim's personality. If my Sim is big into gardening, she'll get wishes to plant or find a seed or learn more about gardening. It makes much more sense now. 3. Clothing options. I've heard people complaining about this, but I found myself quite happy with the options that were there. There were plenty of choices and unlimited design options. 4. The world itself. I love being able to just walk around the neighborhood, searching for rocks and bugs and seeds. I like walking to the bookstore and buying something new. I like taking cooking classes at the diner. It brings a whole new level to the gaming. 5. Traits. Sims seem so much more customizable. Traits allow us to make them into their own people. The optinos are excellent and give us far more options than before. Choosing favorites is fun, but essentially unimportant. 6. Interactions. Traits deal heavily into the interactions that are available between Sims. If your Sim is a Hopeless Romantic, you'll have more options in the Romance category. If your Sim is a Natural Cook, you'll have the option to talk about cooking, enthuse about cooking, etc. Overall, I'm pleased with the game. I was looking forward to it and I'm not let down whatsoever. There are things that could be made better and it is sad that EA is so determined to make us spend money, but the core game is pretty dang good. Thanks, EA, for making a great game!

I've been playing Sims3 for a weekend, and so far I'm pretty happy. My first impression was that the male sims are less attractive, with chubby faces and goofy haircuts, but that's only in the creation page. They look a bit more normal in the game. *Sigh* I guess nobody looks their best in a dressing-room. These Sims require far less micromanangement than the previous Sims, which is great. No more having to help your adult Sims to the toilet so they don't make a puddle on the carpet. No more throwing out a full platter of food because your Sims spent too much time cooking and don't have time to eat. (Leftovers can be stored in the frig for days.) Also, the AI and game logic is better. You pick five adjectives to define your character and they behave accordingly. My "absentminded" "loner" criminal-track sim gets arrested and has to spend a lot of time in the pokie. His wife is "flirty" so her default work behavior involves a lot of kissing up. Right now I'm having fun discovering all of the cool little things that the new Sims can do, such as write the great American novel on their laptop, give it a title, collect royalties, then go to the library and see it on the stacks. (It's pretty exciting if you're a budding novelist.) So far my biggest letdown is that there seems to be less surprise and screwball comedy than the previous versions. I have fond memories of one of my Sims getting booted out of a photobooth by a friend who wanted to keep the friendship platonic. Another tried to seduce her husband in the hottub, only to have him slap her away and crawl into bed with their male roommate. (The roommate awoke, screamed, and fled the room.) But I'm still new to the game, and have yet to see a sim abducted by aliens, so I'm sure that there are ways to mix things up a little. I may try creating some randomized sims, so that they're a bit more unpredicatable in their patterns.

A'ight, first off... buy this on Steam. Seriously. You can and should register the codes for the base game and any expansions over on Origin (which is smart since if Steam every goes belly-up, you still have access to the game on Origin, but honestly Origin will probably tank first). Steam itself doesn't really care about the codes. It will tell you they're important and then just let you play the game without doing anything, although you will need an origin account to log into the Sims 3 launcher (and that is the account where you should be registering the codes, obviously). Also Steam sales can cut the price of every piece of software including the base game dramatically, often by half if not more. I'd recommend researching which expansions look most interesting to you, then wishlisting them and the base game (or the base game + Pets expansion bundle if pets interest you) and waiting for a sale. Secondly, you absolutely must install the Nraas Overwatch mod. This is non-negotiable, unless you really like watching saved games corrupt after all the work you've put into them. There's a bug that EA never fixed and at this rate never will fix, which spawns ridiculous amounts of cars in NPC Sim inventories. This will lag out the game on even the best gaming computers, and yes, eventually corrupt the save files. Other useful Nraas mods are Register (gives better control over lag-creating populations like animals and tourists), and MasterController with Integration (technically a cheats mod but has saved my bacon plenty of times by giving me work-arounds for game-breaking bugs and restoring Sims who somehow wound up on the Dead list for no reason). Thirdly, if you pick up the Island Paradise expansion, DO NOT play with the version of the Isla Paradiso world that shipped with the game. It's broken. The world has seriously bad pathing issues due to many buildings being badly-designed, and this will cause your game to lag and freeze almost constantly. Google search for the fan-fixed version and follow the install instructions carefully. Then use Edit Town to evict families from boathouses and move them into any other type of house (boathouses under the control of NPC families create a ton of lag and pathing issues). Even with these fixes, the map can still lag a bit, so Nraas Overwatch really comes in handy, with everything set to zero that you possibly can, and make sure no new random NPC families can move into houses (can't remember if that's a Register option or MasterController or Overwatch... best to have all three installed anyways). Yes, this review sounds like a troubleshooting document. Welcome to the Sims 3! It's still infinitely better than Sims 4. I highly recommend Sims 3, I really do. Just be prepared to do a lot of troubleshooting yourself, and thank the stars for the Sims 3 forums (both old archives and new version) and Carl's Sims 3 guides and forums.

Some of you might be wondering why I am giving this game such a bad review. I have been playing the Sims games since the first games in the franchise beginning with games like Sim Tower, Sim Farm and the first The Sims game came out between 1990 and 2000, and to be clear other than in the sheer quality of the game I am not comparing it to any of them. Initially I liked this game. The traits helped me create quirky Sims and the open neighborhood was great. I was less than impressed with some of the graphics- lets be realistic while the hood may be great even with a great graphics card mine is a top of the line Nvidia G Series - (one of the best listed in the Specs for the G Series, and I have a 500 GB hard drive, and 4 GB RAM and a 17 inch monitor so that is not the issue) and all my settings on high, the Sims themselves are not so great. Than EA released their first patch 1.27. At this point I was playing without Mods or CC because there wasn't much out there frankly. The patch was supposed to deal with some issues like the Story Progression that was broken in base game and disappearing inventory items. It didn't, I had to reinstall my game. This pattern has continued throughout patches 1.3, 1.4, and 1.5/1.6. Recently I purchased World Adventures, removed all my CC and Mods (what few I use cause I don't like cheating) deleted cache files, etc Standard Operating Procedure for installing patches and Expansions in games where there are fan created content and game modifications available. I go to start up the game- patched, newly installed EP, and absolutely no CC/Mods whatsoever, and my lots have disappeared and turned blue, all premade Sims are now homeless, and my Sims cannot interact with NPC"s, premades, or each other. They also cannot go to work, and all car pools and taxis have disappeared. I tried uninstalling both the base game and World Adventures and putting the last patch to remotely work (1.3) in place for my game and started up the game again with no CC/Mods- which resulted in my not being able to save at all or to use CAS to make Sims, or to access premade Sims on their lots in order to play them. These issues were reported to EA customer service who told me that I needed a better computer ( uhmm well there isn't much better I could get unless I went out a bought a $6000 computer with my own server to boot). Sorry EA the problems with this game are your fail - not mine. I uninstalled. I will not be reinstalling. Let me put this simply. This game is poor quality. I never had this type of problems with either Sims 1 or Sims 2, with any of the Expansion or Stuff Packs, or with any of the patches. I will not purchase any further expansions or stuff packs for Sims 3. I also will not be buying any of Electronic Arts other games. This game was a waste of money and I feel foolish on wasting my money on something that was poor quality. I would not recommend this game to anyone.