The sandbox is just raised terrain. I can see the fence,
The wall is just a pattern. The stencil is from the near the end of the trailer, the birthday scene.

A new bulding tool I think would be some sort of margin for second floors .

This



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that's part of the wall stencil/pattern.

yeah you're right . Sorry

Sims 2 and Sims 3 both have goals but Sims 2 stayed a little closer to the simulation concept and strayed less toward the rpg concept. In Sims 2, I could create my own goals, such as running a restaurant successfully and owning multiple business venues around town in order to 'own' the town. These took time, effort and could fail. Now you just buy up all the properties, sit back and the money rolls in. Yes, you can add some furniture to get more money, but its effortless. I guess EA was making it easier for us but they took away the challenge! A goal is only good if its worth attaining and it is that struggle to attain that makes reaching a goal worthwhile. I love my Sims game and I really like the looks and feel of Sims 3. But it feels wasted, like they made it prettier, gave us very cool personality features, some great careers, but just made it all too easy..or too repetitive. Its fun to be a fireman..for a short time. Its enjoyable to be a stylist...for a short time. Sims 2 salons were much more fun because you had to be successful or the salon went out of business! I remember having my salon owner hire folks and try to make a living and pay the wages of her staff. It was a fun challenge! Dating was even fun in Sims 2 and its a pain in Sims 3. You can't really go on dates, just outings. You can't snuggle in a booth or or ask your date what they would like to do. You just talk and tell jokes over and over until you get the ability to flirt, hug, kiss, etc. And unless the target of your affection as a couple of special traits, you can pretty much get any Sim into the woohoo sack if you try long enough. I really miss the thrill of finding that one true love (max lightning bolts) among a crowd...and having to decide between the wife and the one true love.

Anyway, I do like Sims 3, I just am not very motivated to play it these days. I am not into the celebrity thing or the adventuring in tombs thing so it pretty much leaves me dry. I do enjoy building but it takes a lot of time that I don't have right now so I tend to not turn on the game at all. Generations actually sounds fun to me as at least it will give my sims something to do. But I still think it seems to be missing the challenge. I am not holding my breath for a real Nightlife with dating or an Open for Business EP because I don't think we are going to get those unfortunately. And I don't want to go back to Sims 2 because I find the sims stiff and lifeless (sorry, my opinion) and I don't like the closed hood where you have to play every family in rotation to get them to age. Oh well, it was good while it lasted! Who knows, both of the new EPs look a little better and maybe the 6th one will add some challenge back into the game.

Maybe I'm not playing the game "right", but I love Sims3. There's plenty to do and it still feels sandboxy, and not RPGish to me. I do an opportunity or a want if it appeals to me, ignore it if it doesn't. My sim gets up in the morning, putters in the garden, has breakfast, maybe paints, maybe practices with the board breaker, showers, wanders off to the park, chats up a few folks, plays gnubb with someone she met, moseys over to the consignment shop and puts a couple paintings up for sale, plays foosball with the clerk for a bit, jams for a while with another customer, jogs to the theater, catches a movie, has dinner at the bistro, flirts with another of the customers for a bit, heads home, sleeps.

Next day, up, putter in the garden, shower, go busk in the subway for a while, join some other sims in the little park by the diner for a picnic, plays football with the guy she flirted with the night before, jog up to the waterfall and fish for piranhas, breaks out her mobile easel (I downloaded that somewhere and totally love it) and paint a couple pictures there by the waterfall, eats a couple apples for dinner, pitches her tent and camps for the evening.

Next day, up and pack up the tent and the easel, take off for the neighborhood nectary and make a few bottles of nectar from the fruit she grows, chat up the nectary clerk, have breakfast at the snack food truck I have parked at the nectary, pick some of the grapes that are growing there, head home, weed my own garden, break some boards on the board breaker, shower, pay the bills, read the book I just got from the book club, play some chess on the computer, fix supper, clean the house a bit, head for bed.

The best thing about the Sims, 1, 2, or 3, is that you play it the way you play it. If you let the opportunities and wants turn you into Pavlov's dog, then it becomes goal driven. I love that Nightlife let us pick our own LTW, my sims are mostly 20 friends or max 3 skills folks.... means they don't HAVE to do much of anything. And they don't.

A game shelve would be fun, like the book shelve but with puzzels and board games like checkers and chess. It would be fun to get exotic puzzels and games like the one world adventure sends you to learn in Egypt. Kids puzzles would be fun too.

I already posted my opinion about this EP in the topic for it, but I was hoping for so much more from it.

We could have finally got a brass/woodwind instrument, and kids would be able to play it as well (it would have shut me up, and it would have shut up all of the people saying "kids should be able to play instruments" all at the same time!).

I know I overhyped it hoping for that, but this EP would have also been the perfect chance to add University back. It fit perfectly with the theme, but it isn't there.

Where is the substance to this EP? Don't tell me "We've only seen the trailer", the trailers advertise the main features for EPs. Always have, always will. What's added looks nice, but it does not constitute an EP.

Yeah..but I can't play it the way I want to play it. I want the strategy back in the simulation game and they took it out. When I buy a game that is in the simulation genre, I expect certain things. This actually reminds me of what they did to Sim City.

Its great that you get to play like you want but for those of us who did enjoy some features (and I mean that in a broad term, not specific) of Sims 1 and Sims 2, we lost out.

Hmm, I don't see the fence (except the fence around the yard), but I'll take your word for it. Sandboxes would be great for kids and toddlers though.

The pattern on the wall is new though isn't it? I know we have a star pattern currently but I thought it had a different look to it. Maybe I've just been on the forums too much and not playing the game enough

I've seen a bagillion star patterns (being honest, a lot of the patterns look similar, like the million and one Victorian patterns we have), and I THINK it's not new.

The first expansion pack in a post-Rodiek period. Let's see if they can get away from the goal-driven gameplay and back into a more simulation-based one

If they don't bring slow-dancing with generations, I'm going to go over to EA and smack them. This "prom night" and focus on parties is just too big an opportunity to miss in that regard. They could add a whole slew of new dances.

Totally agree about that There was a chessboard mod for Sims 2 you could put on any table... using moveobjects on... but sims didn't know it was there, and tended to server dinner on top of it ><

Yes, I miss slow dancing too! Especially with the improved weddings, slow dancing is a no-brainer. It would also be nice if there was an option on the stereos to make all guests dance and then the player can pick the style. The dance floor in Late Night helps get a bunch of Sims to dance at once, but I'd also like to have the option to force guests to couple off and slow dance for formal affairs.

I also miss the Smustle! Would love different choreographed dances Sims can all do together. Line dancing would be cute

I would love to know how the stroller works. Like, if you put the kid into the stroller at home, can you walk all the way to another lot with it, or will your Sim switch to the car, and you can stroll around only inside lots.

There are 2 separate models for them, and there's a shot of a mother and toddler. I'm not sure how it will work exactly, but I can only assume it does.

Well, maybe this or the slight chance that pets really are returning to the series will allow me to fall in love with the sims again, but i'm very doubtful. I feel like EA has just been beating around the bush for the last year. Late Night really fell flat and just slowed my whole game down because the new town was too damn big. And i'm well over the minimum specs, so don't even get me started on that. Everyone wants pets and weather, so where the F*CK is it EA?!

Pets is coming out in October. I think that they just needed to get this general pack out of the way first

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4Fx...player_embedded

Updating as I watch it, which I haven't :P

EDIT: Not much new stuff. Ah well, at least we got something.

Its a bit far fetched, but I would love for the bride and groom to have their first dance together with all their guests circled around them

Just like swimming in the ocean should have been in WA, DJ booths should have been in LN, and diving boards should have been in OLS. Logic is not EA's best friend.

Diving boards should have been in the base game. Otherwise, I agree with what you just said. What's a night club without a DJ? That could have even been another skill for Sims to build.

As for swimming in oceans, I'd have to agree with you there as well. It kind of defeats the purpose of having beachfront property, unless your Sims love to fish.

I want garage sales :p

seems simple enough, and VERY pointless, but its something people do, and it effects the neighborhood as a whole, so why not. :p

Those are saved for another EP. Hey, further the sales.