My honest opinion about The Sims 3

[TJman94]

I've noticed a lot of people have mixed opinions about this game. I made a thread earlier asking people what they liked most about this game so the game could finally be said in a positive manner. Well, here I am now to tell you my full opinion in this game, and I can't believe I've finally got the nerve to post this.

Warning: This is going to be a bit long.

Compared to the rest of The Sims series of games, The Sims 3 is probably the most revolutionary and interactive. Finally, we could see where our Sims go to work at, and we could even tell them what to do there. I understand that some people see rabbitholes as an inconvenience, I see them as a way of making the game feel more lifelike. Jobs only got better when Ambitions came out. In most of the new careers, you actually can control everything that goes on in the workplace. If you are a firefighter, you actually mingle in the station and put out fires. If you ever wanted to be a ghostbuster, you can join the ghost hunter career and catch ghosts. As a stylist you can change the style of the entire town, which by the way, Stylist is one of my guilty pleasures. Some people say that professions get repetitive, and that may be true, but they are more fun then rabbithole careers by far, and a skilled enough player can have multiple Sims in one household with multiple professions.

Of course, besides careers there are many ways that this game allows for more interaction. Collecting was added, something that was somewhat present in the past Sims games, but not really that important. You can collect rare seeds, minerals, and ingredients to make epic items like Ambrosia, a food that can make ghosts come back to life, and to invent SimBots, admittedly not as cool as Servos, but I'll take it. Collecting only got better in World Adventures, where it is made important to discover the secrets of those huge tombs. Although it doesn't add much for Sims who just want to have a relaxing vacation, the main focus in the expansion was adventuring, and it is made a heck of a lot of fun.

Finally, this games biggest strong point has to be the potential of creativity. You can customize almost everything, clothing, wallpaper, cars, and even pets. In the past, you had to just deal with the color choices that EA/Maxis gave you. But now, it is only limited to your imagination. Sims can also be edited themselves with even more customization, so now no Sim has to look the same, a common problem that I ran into in The Sims 2. This game was probably designed to be a creative outlet to the creative mind, which is shown in personality traits that finally make every Sim feel unique, unlike the personality values in the past that didn't change much.

I could go on for hours, but I wont, because you guys have valuable things to do in your time, and I don't want to waste it. Maybe I'll post a few more things later after some of you guys have your say, but for now let me just close with this. The Sims 3 is a brilliant game, made by an awful company.

[ButchSims]

I have to say I agree, In general terms anyway. I still find new things to mess around with, and I've been playing this since day 1. It's all about going outside your comfort zone. When people say they are bored with the game, I say "How?? There is so much to do!" I think part of the problem is that people pine for the past. They think "Oh, If only it had seasons/pets/purple elephants the game will be soooo much better!" I remember people clamoring for Pets since the days of World Adventures, and then when they finally got them, they immediately started whining about seasons. But if they would just play the game that is in front of then, and really peek into every nook and cranny to see what they can find! Yes, EA has an evil reputation with some people in the community (ok, a LOT of people) and maybe that is deserved. But the Sims, to me anyway, still has at it's heart what made the series great, the ability for all these people to be playing the same game, and yet each game can be tailored to the individual.

[Elphiron]

People probably moaned about the expansion packs for sims 1 back in the day!
I was blown away by the amount of stuff to do on the base game alone. I honestly do think it's more that what we had on the sims 2 and I've only had the game for a week (was still playing the sims 2 all these years) cars, collecting, fishing, young adults, opportunities, hobbies. I mean those things came with expansion packs for the sims 2 or not at all. I'm impressed. Also that's not to say that I haven't had any annoying glitches, freezes or crashes, it was horrible to install, took me all afternoon and I'm dreading buying expansion packs in case it glitches everything up.

[SuicidiaParasidia]

i like both rabbit hole careers and professions, though i prefer rabbit holes, since they allow me to leave my sim(s) unattended and go manage whoever else is in the household. that i dont have to watch them every second of every day is quite nice, really...especially if you've got the pets expansion. :D
sims 3 has turned me into a micro-manager, mostly because of the STUPID autonomous things that sims will do if left unattended.
get the hell out of the sprinklers! youve got studying to do!
stop reading Where Is Bella? ! youre starving...cant you tell?! GO EAT.

for all that it has its huge annoying bits, i always find enjoyment in the open world...and all the delicious mods that have come out for the game. (if im feeling particularly frustrated, i might arm up my nearest evil sim with ani_'s dexter bear and a pistol from desecrate's weapon system and just go out hunting clone-faces.)
and i will never stop appreciating how much i can customize my sim. i miss some sliders (although some of those missing sliders have been re-implicated via slider mods), but the way we can really choose down to the pixel what our sim is to look like..is something that makes it impossible for me to go back to sims 2, where you had to choose an entire whole BODY just to wear clothes you may or may not like (i encountered the issue of liking the top/bottom/top and bottom, but hating the shoes maaany times).

and since i like rpgs, i dont mind the new rpg element. its not a huge...in-your-face type element. you can ignore gardening and world adventures, if youre that big of a sissy. :P
there are just so many ways to play the game, and im always finding new things i want to experiment with. i can only hope that itll improve from here on out.

[DuskTrooper]

One of the problems I think many people have with The Sims 3 is that the game felt like a downgrade to them. Too me, it doesn't feel like a downgrade at all. If you play the two games without any of the Expansions or Stuff Packs, you begin to realize that The Sims 3 is a quite an improvement upon The Sims 2.

[Issie]

I don't dislike the Sims 3. There is lots to do and I wish I could get to play all these scenario's. My biggest problem is actually making it work for longer than a few hours at a time, without it lagging eventually.

Yes, I've tried playing it with no mods at all, with mods (just the ones that are supposed to fix the issue and still no go). Mind you no CC or store content either. I just gave up.

[applefeather2]

I don't dislike the Sims 3. There is lots to do and I wish I could get to play all these scenario's. My biggest problem is actually making it work for longer than a few hours at a time, without it lagging eventually.

That's what I find, too. It takes the fun out of it when I know I'll have to abandon that save to start over again. I would dearly love to know how others play a savegame for years.

[sierrakusterbeck]

I was expecting another EA/Sims 3 bashing thread about the things we DON'T have. It's nice to see there are still some people who appreciate what we do have in the game (I'm not saying you all don't appreciate the game, it's just that people tend to focus more on the bad things than the good).

[TJman94]

I was expecting another EA/Sims 3 bashing thread about the things we DON'T have. It's nice to see there are still some people who appreciate what we do have in the game (I'm not saying you all don't appreciate the game, it's just that people tend to focus more on the bad things than the good).

^This

I do agree that this game's biggest flaw is the poor programming, but being a programmer myself, I understand that The Sims would be a really hard game to program in the first place. After all, there is usually a way to get around those bugs, by downloading mods from smart people or by using testingcheatsenabled.

[zigersimmer]

Well, TJman94, the things you seem to like the best about TS3 are things that I don't find exciting.

I generally prefer rabbithole careers over the interactive careers because the interactive careers: a) take too much attention away from the rest of the household, and b) feel like I'm grinding levels in an MMO. As for "a skilled enough player can have multiple Sims in one household with multiple professions", that's antithetical to the entire concept of The Sims. If I wanted to exercise my video gaming skills, I'd go back to leading raids.

Collecting is another horrible MMO concept that got shoe-horned into TS3. I ignore it completely.

The creativity aspect is quite good, but I've reached the point where I really don't need to add anymore patterns to my game. Also, I only find a few of the traits useful; which is why I keep using the same small pool of traits over and over again.

No two people play TS3 in exactly the same way. Unfortunately for me, EA does not seem to be interested in adding more of what I want in the game: autonomous sim to sim interactions that make sense. EA is doing a great job of adding busy-work tasks for the players to have to constantly manage, but overall, I find TS3 sims to be extremely bland. They are only truly entertaining when they pee their pants.

[fraroc]

I love both TS2 an TS3, but I figure it's all a matter of taste in the grand scheme of things...

[applefeather2]

Well, TJman94, the things you seem to like the best about TS3 are things that I don't find exciting.

I generally prefer rabbithole careers over the interactive careers because the interactive careers: a) take too much attention away from the rest of the household, and b) feel like I'm grinding levels in an MMO. As for "a skilled enough player can have multiple Sims in one household with multiple professions", that's antithetical to the entire concept of The Sims. If I wanted to exercise my video gaming skills, I'd go back to leading raids.

Collecting is another horrible MMO concept that got shoe-horned into TS3. I ignore it completely.

The creativity aspect is quite good, but I've reached the point where I really don't need to add anymore patterns to my game. Also, I only find a few of the traits useful; which is why I keep using the same small pool of traits over and over again.

No two people play TS3 in exactly the same way. Unfortunately for me, EA does not seem to be interested in adding more of what I want in the game: autonomous sim to sim interactions that make sense. EA is doing a great job of adding busy-work tasks for the players to have to constantly manage, but overall, I find TS3 sims to be extremely bland. They are only truly entertaining when they pee their pants.
Ya know, Ziger... sweetums. Sigh. :cry: It isn't that you are wrong. It's that when I see your name, my brain warns me "He's gonna slam yer face into that cold, harsh reality, agin." Other than that, ya, I'm okay with what you said/say. :help:

[~MadameButterfly~]

I'm kind of bored to tears with the game, but I have been playing it almost exclusively since 2009. That's a long time. I just wish that I didn't get bored so quickly with the last EP, because the stretch between now and the next one is going to feel like ages. So lately I've been trying to mix things up by playing both Sims 2 and Sims 3. I'm also trying to find other games that might interest me. (I'm not having much luck with the search, but I've been learning a lot about the gaming industry in the meanwhile.)

[zigersimmer]

Ya know, Ziger... sweetums. Sigh. :cry: It isn't that you are wrong. It's that when I see your name, my brain warns me "He's gonna slam yer face into that cold, harsh reality, agin." Other than that, ya, I'm okay with what you said/say. :help:

My apologies. I don't mean to bring you down.

[applefeather2]

My apologies. I don't mean to bring you down.
Occchhhh, see! Now I knew I should've left it be, but no. S'okay, Ziger. :Pint: