Favorite thing about The Sims 3?

[TJman94]

I've seen a lot of lack of optimism for this game, and I've been working up the nerve to post this for days. Yes, I finally did. I know this game has its flaws, and believe me, I could rant about it for a couple of hours. But there has to be something about the game you enjoy, otherwise you wouldn't keep on playing it :P.

Well, looking from a Sims 2 standpoint, I kind of like the increased amount of interactions. You can enthuse Sims about their career, ask them about their day, ask if they slept well, comfort them, etc. In The Sims 2, I always had to settle for Chat. Also, I like that the whole neighborhood is loaded, meaning you can go anywhere in the neighborhood, and when you went back home, the same amount of time would have passed instead of the home lot just being frozen in time (meaning I'm ready to go to bed at 11 a.m.).

[efolger997]

As a builder, my favorite thing is the ability to rotate objects so easily (including trees & plants) and the 1/4 grid. And CAST, of course...darn, that's 3! I like a lot of things about the game though :)

[hipster90]

Maybe I'm the only one, but to me the graphics are my favorite part of the game. They just look better to me than they do in TS2

[PunkyBreester]

Story progression and universal aging/passage of time, hands down. Looking back, I don't understand how I even played the game without those things in TS2. As I mentioned in another thread, its supposed to be a life-simulation game, but it doesn't even make any SENSE if only your active sims are aging or making relationships or doing anything at all, and going between lots is the same thing as time-travelling. That isn't a very accurate life-simulation o__O

[SimmingSince7]

It's easier to make faces now.

[jenieusa]

For me its got to be the open nighborhood.....
I really like sending my sim for a walk through town....

[kewpie]

I've liked everything mentioned PLUS traits. The sims have more personality with the traits than they did with the point system.

[lisfyre]

They had me at Open Neighbourhood and universal aging. Also I can't live without CASt, better graphics, ability to rotate objects easily and objects set at an angle is functional to my sims unlike in TS2 where you got the hand waving, foot stomping reaction to an item set at an angle.

[ani_]

Basically everything mentioned, except the universal ageing. I actually like the TS2 version of ageing.

My favourite thing(s) (because I can't stop at one) is gardening, cooking, sims ability to talk and do other things at the same time. Like I had one woman cooking dinner and her daughter making homework and they were chatting to each other at the same time, or I had 1 woman sitting on the swing and there were three guys around her and she was talking to all of them.

CAST is a blessing, specially the button to randomize, traits are so much better than points and I really like the careers. In TS2 careers were all the same in reality, a title and a description, I really like that people can ask about the career, and careers have more depth (like writing articles if you are a reporter) and you can have distinquish pickup lines for some of the careers. I also like having celebrities, so my Sims have different social status. Oh, and as mentioned, having a lot of options to talk about. Like gossip, or celebrity gossip, or being able to thank somebody for cleaning and cooking. There is more, but these are just a few.

[sierrakusterbeck]

I like the opportunities, they're a lot better than chance cards cause you actually have to do something. I just don't like that they don't have a bad side to them like the chance cards did.

[SpookyOkyBatGirl]

Customizing my Sims are easier. Plus I love the traits. I have to say I am also in love with the open world, watching my Sims wander around. I love how young adult is now a life stage and how I can control how long my sims are in what age stage.

[Miuki]

Hmm...I really cannot count a hundred "Talk/Enthuse/Bla-bla about..." as different interactions and an improvement because animations are the same, so thats basically a disadvantage for me.
As favourite things from these series I can name easier recolouring, universal aging and smaller grid/better rotation. I love these, a lot!)

[Ive]

Open world
CAST
Graphics (remember when I first got the game I thought the Sims looked freakish as they had more animations in the face especially)
Story progression despite its faults.

Edit: also I love traits. I even wish there was more that directly affects sims like shy and social butterfly.

[hjym2_]

CASt. That was the reason I switched from Sims 2 to Sims 3, and couldn't go back :)
I also like that it's easy to make every sim a bit different, more unique, without them being so ugly. In Sims 2 I always had nearly the same face for every sim because most faces just looked hideous and unrealistically deformed to me...
Also, I love that any sim can get baby with any other sim; the simmies getting babies together doesn't have to have the same face in order for the baby to look "normal"... In Sims 2 if parents had some different face proportions the children ended up really really ugly imho.
So I think the genes blends a lot nicer now.

And I love object rotation too.

Also plants. In Sims 2 I felt most plants were too small, like, more suited for flowerbeds (even the bushes)...
And we'll be getting huge lots of moar plants with seasons, won't we ? :)
Hopefully also plant-based stuffpack one day, that would be the kind of stuffpack I'd buy for sure.

And not my favs exactly but things I like are... lot of different skills! And tombs. Open neighborhoods of course (let's not count all the bugs coming with it, like stuck sims and such :P ) ...

Also I like the graphics, things are a bit like made from a wax but I think that's okay... Simmies looks like dolls but nice dolls. Personally I don't wish them to look so completely human.

[hannahmh87]

With me it was story progression and universal aging that won me over. It is something I've wanted since Sims 1. I hated having to try and keep all my families in sync in the Sims 1 & 2 but I am too much of a perfectionist just to let some families slide, it just became a pain to keep order.

I don't have that trouble in the Sims 3, and I quite enjoy now creating a family and just seeing what happens when I let them loose. My Sim 3 game has become some weird 'sims reality' experiment for me, and they don't always go in the paths I thought they would. I quite like the fact that the game takes some of the control away from me.

I have now started again with the Sims 1 & 2 with just a couple of families and any sim that I can't be bothered with just dies or becomes an townie using the sims blender (in the sims 2 anyway).

[PunkyBreester]

Oh yeah, tombs! I've heard a lot of nay-saying about WA, but its probably my favorite EP. I *LOVE* the tombs, I just wish they had even more possibilities/functionality than they already do (which is a lot, compared to other aspects of the game that are so limited and basic).

[Periandre]

CAST
Sims, maybe pudding faced, but don't look as cartoony
Open hood
Graphics
The sheer silliness of what sims do with an open neighborhood and free will.
Collecting
Buy Debug
Fog Emitter

[itsamariokart]

The graphics and Create a Style :D

[zigersimmer]

Full marriage equality. May seem like a minor detail to some, but not to me.

[fraroc]

The thing I really like the most about TS3 other than pets is definetly the traits, I also find there to be a lot more other interactions with objects like with the coffee machine you can make different types of coffee with different effects on your sim instead of just one button that says "Make Coffee". You know? Cute little things like that. I know that people hate pudding faced sims but it dosen't have to be that way, if you know what you're doing in CAS, there's a nigh-unlimited amount of things you can do to make your sim look better!

[olomaya]

My Sim walking up and leaving the house to go for a morning jog around town and then running into a love interest or a neighbor or a burglar playing chess at the park. I thought by now I would take the open world for granted but I really appreciate it every time my Sims leave the house and go somewhere.

I also love skill challenges.

[fraavio]

Graphics, the Sims themselves, Skills and everything related to them, Careers, Jobs, smaller grid, well, everything. I'm a big Sims 3 fan.

[zigersimmer]

I also like how my stalker is back. /wavetostalker hi hi

[sunfromhere]

Create a Style definitely. Just yesterday I spent hours and hours decorating 2-3 rooms and 2 Sims.
Gardening and nectar making.
Self employed Sims.
Open neighborhood.

[r_deNoube]

Open neighborhood.

And all the things that help building. I love building, and very seldom feel impeded by the tools. (I do have trouble painting ceilings. But that doesn't ruin my life.)

[itsamariokart]

Full marriage equality. May seem like a minor detail to some, but not to me.
Same. It's a nice relief that EA supports same-sex marriage.

[Simsdestroyer]

The graphics are really nice, and customization. I like building in Sims 3 too. I like how the sims look in sims 3 better than two, and I like the majority of the careers.

[Wyctorya]

I like the wish system, too - to be more specific, the absence of fears. Sometimes all you could do in Sims 2 was watch some inevitable fear come true and furthermore, the game punished you for it. I do miss the risky chances you could take at work though, just for the thrill of risk. Traits I like a lot, too. Also the other stuff people posted above - CAST, neighborhood, aging... I also like how they kept the aspiration/lifetime rewards and extended them beyond objects. Though the reward objects of Sims 2 were IMHO far cooler, but being able to get more from opportunities or other events is a nice thing to have.

[TJman94]

I do miss the risky chances you could take at work though, just for the thrill of risk.

Really? I hated chance cards in Sims 2. Albeit they were an interesting spin on careers and you could just quit without saving if you didn't get a good result, some of them were just stupid. An example is one in the Show Business career, where you have to act a script but you don't like it at all. You have to chance to tell the director it sucks or just go with it. Being nice, I go with it. But what's this? Because of my lack in enthusiasm I act on it poorly, and get FIRED?

Sorry, looks like your dream of directing movies that depict your traumatizing childhood will never come true :( .