I have never played Sims 3, only Sims 2, and I am a complete fan of it, I doubt I will ever give it up for Sims 3, even if I do purchase it.

Personally, I think the part about Sims that I love so much is being able to control your sims' lives and make up stories for them. But if the sims in Sims 3 go and "move away" or have random babies when you don't play them constantly, it would kind of ruin the point of running their lives.
Plus, I would absolutely die without memories.

You can turn that off in TS3

I've been irresistibly drawn to Sims 3 these last coupla days - still have only played my self-sim (who now has twin daughters fathered by Hank Goddard - supposedly the Sims 3 equivalent of Don Lothario although she didn't know that at the time what a commitment-phobe he is... grrr), but boy is it interesting now I've installed Twallan's Story progression mod. As one who has resisted fast aging of any kind in Sims 2, I'm quite enjoying playing one family while getting snippets of info about what's going on in the rest of the hood. Plus I really do like the open neighborhood and various other details like being able to have shares in businesses. Although Sims 3 has been heavily criticised by some who think it's a backward step from Sims 2, I tend to disagree. It's true in some ways it's lacking the quirky and sweet details of Sims 2, especially when it comes to the toddlers and kids (I just cannot get used to the perma-frown of Sims 3 characters despite their moodlets showing they're totally "elated"). I miss the boundless enthusiasm bordering on craziness of my Sims 2 people. I miss the nuttiness of ACR and the farting at the dinner table! lol

Sims 3 characters are quite serious by comparison. As I've said before it would be so great if they combined what's good about how Sims 2 ended up with the new "world" view of Sims3. Maybe it will come with Sims 3. I only have the base game so far so will probably acquire the EPs as and when they come out.

I will be playing both now, and I like both, for different reasons.

I reinstalled Sims 2 and all my expansions.......and wow, I had no idea how much I missed it. I have never laughed out loud playing TS3. I laughed several times while playing TS2 last night(moved one of my sims into an apartment and two of the residents were dancing the smustle in the rain at 3 A.M.). I'd forgotten about so many of the things that made TS2 wonderful.........
1. They kiss each other like they really mean it. In TS3 they don't seem to be getting into it.
2. All the fabulous CC. There is some nice stuff for TS3 but there isn't quite the volume of stuff I now have for TS2.
3. It's hilarious. TS3 is amusing at times, but TS2 is laugh out loud funny.
4. Weather. God I missed weather.
There are many others, but these were the ones that sprang immediately to mind.

I won't stop playing TS3 though. Both TS2 and TS3 satisfy different needs for me. TS2 for stories, silliness and weather. TS3 for building houses(I find house building in TS3 much easier and enjoyable), my buff and beautiful sim guys,the gorgeous graphics(although, to be fair, I did get a new video card and TS2 is lovely now) and the seamless neighborhoods.

Before I started playing Sims 3 I was reading up on other forums about what people thought of the building aspects of Sims 3 - some people didn't like it so it's partly what put me off playing the game for so long.

But actually I agree with you Kindergoat, despite having no custom content in my Sims 3 game whatsoever I managed to produce a pretty decent first build and think the grid is much finer tuned than in Sims 2 so you can place things centrally, diagonally without cheats and all in all it's quicker to make everything more aesthetically pleasing. Actually I felt not having any CC made the building process more liberating, but now I want to replicate what I built in Sims 3 in Sims 2.

I don't own TS3, but from what I've seen in pics and on youtube, the characters all seem to have the same look, and they aren't very good-looking! I like the way the characters on TS2 look a whole lot better!

I love some of the new features in TS3 like the interactive world, no loading screens, and the ability to customize EVERYTHING (I really love that feature), but I just find the actual gameplay of TS3 quite boring. I find The Sims 2 to be better.

Call me daft, but what the heck is Caca Land?

I've played TS3 for almost a year. I love the graphics. I love the seamless neighborhood. Some of the new features are wonderful and CAST is simply COOL. But I am back to playing TS2. Although, TS3 is lovely eye candy, down to the pretty sim fingers, it's really only that. With the advent of Ambitions and beautiful rustic Twinbook, I thought for sure that I would love the game. But I got bored with it. Seriously bored.
I decided to reinstall TS2 and see why.

One thing that I noticed more than anything else is that TS2 has more style, more heart. Sims could engage in fun activities with each other and fulfill their social, fun, and increase there relationship. Almost everything that your sim could do, another sim could join in. Despite loading screeens, when your sim went to a community lot, their time was not wasted. There was always something to do.

I have a particularly fond memory of a lazy Saturday morning where the household of 5 after having ate breakfast, continued to sit at the table and just talk. Simple pleasures. I also remember playing a popularity sim. He had a nice loft apartment (not a really one) where he'd constantly throw parties for the new sims he'd meet. They'd play pool or soak in the hottub. There was always one sim who couldn't dance while the rest would have a good laugh.

TS3, sadly, seems to be focused on the individual sim. There is really no group activities. Looking at just the base game, there was hot tub, dart board, pinball, sitting on the coach, laying in bed . . . Nothing of the sort inTS3 to do with other sims. You can't increase friendship by simply having your sim sit and talk or while watching TV. Sure there is a seamless hood and you can collect and fish, but my sims aren't happy. Their idle expressions are painful. They stand around and seem to not know what to do with themselves. The toddlers can't whine properly and even dredge up in me sympathy from them. I don't love my sims in TS3. I wish I could kill them like we're able to in TS2. And the only sims I've ever killed in TS2 were the fugly townies.

So do I prefer TS3 over TS2? No. Not even with 6 more EP.

Sims 2 for a million reasons

The Sims 2 for me. I've tried many times to get into TS3 and it'll hold my interest briefly and then it'll either (A) stop running for some reason - like crashing to the desktop or (B) the save and/or neighborhood will corrupt - which has happened to me 6 times! I even put a separate drive just for TS3 in my computer thinking if nothing else was installed maybe it'd be better. Nope. Now "The Witcher" gets to have that drive all to itself. No seamless neighborhood is worth all the hassle this game has given me. Ultimately, it's just not worth the effort. Even if it worked like a charm for me, I doubt I'd like it much longer than a few days. I don't get attached to any of the sims in that game. Ever. Even the ones I create myself. They all end up looking exactly the same! The last family I created, I made the parents look as unique as possible and both their kids ended up being identical clones of the mother. WTF?! And I loathe how the hairstyle and the bizarro hair colors are genetic.

About a year after its release and a few expansion packs for sims 3, I still like the sims 2 better. I'm relieved that there are still people around that play the sims 2 and still make custom content for it unlike when ts2 first hit the scene and majority players abandoned ts1 and ts1 content sites shut down. Only thing I can say TS3 has over TS2 imo is the fact that you don't have to download a bunch of custom content just for an object color change and you can really customize your sims body and personality down to the voice. Because of my custom content folder it takes TS2 about an hour to load. I know I have to delete some stuff but I have so many downloads that I like that I don't wanna

... after playing TS3 for the past year, TS2 has terribad graphics. Of course, a year ago I thought they were the most beautiful Sims I've ever seen, and with all the expansions and 4gb of custom content, it's safe to say I experienced a lot of different types of things in TS2 itself. I've rendered TS2 more unplayable than I can remember ever doing so to TS1 (when TS2 came out).

It's funny how people can outgrow things so fast what was amazing one day could totally be replaced by another thing the next.

That's funny, because I see it in the exact opposite way.

The GoS general thread about TS3 is called "Uncanny Valley."

Our friends at Wikipedia say, "The uncanny valley is a hypothesis regarding the field of robotics. The theory holds that when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers."

The Sims in TS3 look creepy to me. At first I thought they were oh-so-perty...but over time, they started making me feel kind of queasy. Yes. I know my avatar is a TS3 Sim, but I can't play her for too long before she starts to annoy me. I find their actions to be unnatural. They lack the character and quirkiness of my TS2 Sims. The building tools are amazing, but I'm not the sort that can just build houses all day. I think the achievement system is boring. It's almost impossible for me to get through generation 3 of a Legacy family. Blah Blah Blah.

I suppose that's why the Sims 2 community is still out there creating and talking about TS2. Some of us haven't been tempted away yet as you have.

(For the record, I still play TS1 on my laptop. The graphics are a little blocky, but the game itself is hilarious.)

I'm with the OP in this, but for me the graphics are not the issue, but the content.

Just two days ago I was playing one of my ladies who has a daughter, and she is best friends with her cousin who is also a single parent. During the weekend she was visiting her cousin with her daughter, they had dinner together, then she hugged her daughter and went home, while the daughter stayed for a sleepover at the cousin's place, and played tag with him and his daughter. The mom then got a nice relaxing day at home while her daughter was taken care of at the cousin's place. The next day she invited her cousin and his daughter over, and the cousin's daughter stayed over the night so the cousin could in turn get a night off from child-caring. It is this type of in-depth game-play that I enjoy playing, and that you couldn't do in TS2. You could of course have people over, but you couldn't have your people over at somebody's else house. I did play AL, but I never knew my neighbours well enough to see can I give them my children over night.

I really enjoy the community feeling you get when playing TS3, visiting neighbours, having community events and so on. Even the ever so hated opportunities, they are wonderful if the opportunity fits the sim you are playing, for example have a house wife make cookies for school. If the opportunity makes no sense, then I just ignore it, instead of hating the whole opportunity system.

Now the above example is from the open neighbourhood, and If that is taken away, would I still enjoy the game more than TS2? well the answer is yes. I really don't miss the cartoony aspects of TS2 Sims, or the inevitable birthday smustle in the toilet (which was fun but most times annoying), I don't miss giving birth at home, or having sims disappear into oblivion when they went to work, yes TS3 jobs are in rabbit holes, but they are actual buildings, in your hood that sims go to, and that if you remove, the jobs associated with them will be removed also. I know the internet is full of (stop doing autonomous interaction) mods, but I never downloaded them, because I like seeing what my Sim's do. I'm not the type of player who turns off free will and then schedules every single interaction for them. I'm more of a max free will and then I let my sim's show me the direction their life will go in, and this means doing autonomous interactions, no matter how trivial or annoying they might be.

I love how many skills we have in TS3, instead of one generic creativity, we now have a separate skill for guitar and painting, and now with LN coming up, the new instruments will have their separate skill as well. You can no longer spend your days painting and then be able to play perfect guitar the first time you touch the instrument. What I also like are some other tiny details in the Sim's understanding of the world. Simple things like the concept of being wet, and actually having water drop from your clothes when in such a state. I had one guy work in his garden and by the time he was done he was dripping because I had left the sprinkles on.

I guess when it comes to game features, they all pretty much fall into the one man's trash is another man's treasure category. If you look at the mods out there, there are a lot of TS2 mods that mimic TS3 behaviour. Like the mod that makes sims autonomously put dirty diapers and bottles to the trash, so they don't fill up the room. In TS3 where this is basically a feature, because diapers and bottles don't exist, people want these options back. The same with fridges, there are TS2 mods that make fridges more like TS3, while in TS3 people want mods to make the fridges more like TS2. I actually fall into the category that want these features (among other TS2 features) back, but they are not deal breakers. If you have laundry for example, there is enough cleaning up to do, considering Sims drop their clothes all over the house.

I have mentioned it before, but you can't really miss things you don't know exists. A lot of the things I now love about TS3 are things that sometimes I might have wished for when playing TS2, but never really missed them because they didn't exist for that game. But now that I have gotten used to them, I don't wan to live without them.

I play both 2 and 3 and they both appeal to me, but for different reasons.

TS3 is my game for building, and I love to build. I can do almost anything in TS3 without complications or cheats. It's also really pretty to look at with the graphics cranked up. I have a pretty decent machine and TS3 runs like a dream with graphics on high, so I definitely enjoy that. I like the way the sims look in TS3. I think they are just lovely and with custom skins and sliders, I can make them look just about any way I want. I have a lot more freedom to do things with my sims in TS3. Self employment is a really nice feature and I love the new stuff that came with Ambitions. The seamless neighborhoods are probably my favorite thing about TS3.

TS2 is my game for fun. I never had any expansions past Seasons for years but now I have them all and I absolutely love Free Time. It's added a whole new dimension to my game and TS2 is fun all over again. My sims in TS2 are funny, adorable and just plain entertaining, more so than my sims in TS3. Since I just started playing with custom skintones, my sims sure do look good as well. I've also got much more CC to choose from in TS2,

I like both games equally. Sims 2 is my funny escape and Sims 3 is my building and eye candy escape. I guess it just depends on what you're into.

[QUOTE=Falendriel]... after playing TS3 for the past year, TS2 has terribad graphics. Of course, a year ago I thought they were the most beautiful Sims I've ever seen, and with all the expansions and 4gb of custom content, it's safe to say I experienced a lot of different types of things in TS2 itself. I've rendered TS2 more unplayable than I can remember ever doing so to TS1 (when TS2 came out).QUOTE=]


I can not go along with what you are saying ( Sorry ) Sims 2 Do not have bad graphics, and the Sims 2 are by far still better looking sims. And to say Sims 2 is "Unplayable is not so. When Sims 1 came out it was not in 3D nor did the sims ever age. Sims 2 gave us simmers lots of excellent changes and expansions packs.

Let get real here "Falendriel" if Sims 3 was not out you would "still be playing Sims 2" and not putting down Sims 2. Game critics as of this late date is still saying Sims 2 is by far one of EA or Maxis best game, and best seller even now.

You do have a right to say what you feel, but there are lots of Simmers who do not feel that way about Sims 2. Some people are still buying expansions of Sims 2 and adding to their game.

Actually, I moved from TS3 to TS2 for the content, this includes mods, fixes, unofficial patches, and hacks. To say that TS2 has terribad graphics is wrong. It has decent graphics for the type of game it is. Sometimes I will open TS3 to build something, but when I want to play a sims game I open TS2 for the fun and amusement.

TS3 pros and cons:

+ Create-a-style and better building options is a gift from the heavens. TS3 is best for building and laboring to make good looking sims.
+ Open neighborhood is also a gift from the heavens
+ Awesomemod is available ( but is it compatible with Twallan's Story Progression? )

- Pudding Faces. What happened? Why did you... ugh...
- Story Mode is terribroken and needs a specific mod to handle it ( Twallan's )
- Same company that made TS2 made TS3, which means an army of bugs and patches that fix some things but break others
- Needs more content to properly replace TS2. Also lacks murder weapons with proper animations.
- Fatty population combined with dough faces justifies the realistic vomit mod
- CAW, does it work or not?
- TS3 expansions, with the exception of Ambitions, seem very similar to TS2 expansions

TS2 pros and cons

+ More content means more play means moar fun. TS2 with expansions is better for actually playing the game. Best gift from the heavens
+ Easier facial sliders, no pudding faces, and available arsenal of skin replacements, eyes, etc, to make better custom sims
+ More time existing means more major and minor mods, fixes and hacks to tailor your game to be the way you want it
+ Has some, but not many, murder weapons mods. Also, has more adult mods. But should have more adult and more murder.
+ Inteenimator, Sim Blender, Paladin's Crate of Axes and Guns and killer robot toys and Mrs. Crumplebottom's Purse, MATY, Zombie Apacolypse mod

- Old game
- Not as good graphics as TS3, but not terribad
- Same company that made TS3 made TS2. This means bugs that need third party fixes.
- Murder weapons mods reuse old animations.

TS3 has better graphics and an open neighbourhood. That's all.

Sims in TS2 are by far the best looking Sims, and they do look more real when compared to their TS3 counterparts. When Sims in TS3 laugh or celebrate they look like being afflicted by Down's syndrome, if you ask me.

Sims in TS2 are more passionate in the way they express themselves and their feelings to other Sims. In TS3 they behave as if they couldn't care less.

TS2 is all about the SIMS, while TS3 is all about anything but the Sims. In my eyes, TS3 is hybrid game. EAtards, in their effort to address and attract a number of different players, they stripped the game of all of its good elements.

Really, a game that makes you running up the hills and down the valleys, going through fire and stupid, bad-executed mini-games a la Tomb Raider, for buying a vacation house is a pain in the ass; a game that requires of your Sims to reach high levels in gardening, fishing and cooking so as to get the Ambrosia, the new Elixir of Life, is boooooooring more than words can possibly convey. There are times it reminds me of MMOGs, where you need to kill 200 monsters of the same kind to get just two or three components. I mean, it is *that* boring. Everything in this game looks like a chore than fun.

I love the graphics, I love how the wind looks to rustle the leaves in the trees, and the sparkling ocean and all, but honestly: how long can I sit on my desk watching and admiring this image before I die of boredom? I like how well-designed China and Egypt are, but you can't live forever there. You might have a wonderful house in the Forbitten City, but after a while it gets boring. There is nothing you can do apart from finishing a few, additional mini-quests for extra gold coins, which, at this point, you don't need anyway.

When something bad happens to one of my Sims in TS2 I get anxious to see what will happen; in TS3 I can't get this feeling. I can't relate and sympathise with them.

Sims in TS2 have great sense of humour, but not in TS3. Even my significant other who is not into the games and has never played Sims in his entire life noticed it. One day he said that I never laugh with TS3 although I used to laugh every five seconds when playing TS2. He was right. I gave up.

I don't find the meaning of a game in its graphic grandiose. I'm not this kind of player. I don't know how TS3 will envolve with the future EPs but, contrary to many TS3 fans, I don't hold my breath.

And because I want to be fair, I chose two photos of normal looking Sims from my games.

Nobuo ==> Sims 2


Dai ==> Sims 3

Who is better looking and more "alive"? Of course, as far as it concerns me, the question is purely rhetorical.

I'm not sure about people or buildings, but objects in TS3 are actually of lower quality than those in TS2. The lighting is better, which hides that, but I just can't agree that TS3 looks better than TS2.
The pudding faces have always creeped me out, and as CleoTheMuse pointed out, it could be that they look TOO real. I like my perfect-faced, unrealistically beautiful TS2 sims better.
I would still be playing TS1 if looking at it didn't make me feel depressed, ha ha. I never have any of my sims be social butterflies (or social at all unless they need a friend for their job/aspiration points/avoiding the social bunny) so seamless 'hood does nothing for me. I'm also a control freak who must control EVERY moment of EVERYTHING.I dislike that the game only lets you play one family and plays the rest for you.
Still, to each their own. TS2 fits me better, TS3 might fit you better.

Yeah, everyone has their preferences, but it's true if TS3 hadn't come out, I'd still adore TS2. Now that I've seen TS3 with better features and graphics, and I know the expansions to-come will feature pretty much everything TS2 had (and most likely more, for the most part), I can't imagine going back to TS2 (I've tried). There's too much in TS3 already that isn't in TS2 (better graphics, better job functionality, the personality system (Ambitious, Creative, etc.), the open-neighbourhood, CAW, etc.) that I'd miss. Within the next year, there'll be enough expansions and stuff packs that TS3 will finally have enough base content (without CC) to rule out the idea of TS2. Right now, TS2 is still interesting because of all the expansions that are already made for it, but once those expansions hit TS3 and are built upon and improved to-the-max with new features, traits, destinations, towns, objects, etc. there'll be no reason to go back to TS2 since TS3 would have everything in TS2 other than the nostalgic gameplay (for some).

I absolutely adored TS2, as I have every expansion and a ton of custom stuff to go along with it. I took one look at the loading screen earlier, though, and the main menu, the towns - even ventured in-game and played a bit - but I didn't survive more than 15min. I've personally become too adjusted to TS3 gameplay and even with all the expansions TS2 has, I know TS3 is going to get 90% (or even everything) in TS2 at some point. The gameplay is a lot different, as are the graphics, and how much you can personalize your gaming experience in TS3. TS2 either lacks it completely or is inferior / comes up short. TS2 is still an awesome game. I just can't play it anymore since I've grown accustomed to something superior to it (imo - this'll differ for everyone).

@ Nalia

As you can expect, I prefer the TS3 pic you put up. It's more realistic, meanwhile the other one is empty-eyed and more polygonal.

I also never use hacks or cheats (other than in TS2 with the Aging Off cheat) in TS2 or TS3. Perhaps TS2 would have had a greater impact with hacks, but I prefer comparing original gameplay.

I can't play TS3 because of how the sims look; the pudding faces, and especially the ugly creapy eyes... they all look the same. The sims look moon faced and retarded. They don't look realistic at all.

Nalias picture was actually quite nice, but overall the sims in TS3 are too ugly and unrealistic for my taste. The most important thing to keep me interested and excited is to be able to relate to my sims; I can't relate to the TS3 ogres at all.

Another total no-no for me is the "rabbit hole" thing.

Without all EPs, SPs and gazillions of hacks and mods TS2 would not be the same though, they are essential... but the sims would still look better and the play style suits me more, so even if it would be plainer and might get a bit boring eventually without all the extras, I'd still prefer TS2.

The EPs are not remakes, they combine something old and something new just like TS2 did. BV was more of a copy from vacation than WA was a copy of BV. Ambition is not a copy of anything really, maybe a hint of OFB but not a copy considering OFB was all about running a business, while Ambiton is more about the careers, the only almost full copy paste thing is the inventor career because you have the bench and in the end you can make a servo so it's kind of like the toy bench.

LN will have something from night-life + apartments + Superstar, without actually being a full copy of any of those. Just like NL was a partial copy of hot date. The same with season/unleashed, Pets/unleashed and AL/MM.

The only fully new EP's in TS2 were uni, ofb and free time.

Nalia: EA's version of WA might have forced you to run up and down hills to buy a vacation home, but the modded versions doesn't. The same way EA's version made UNI a tedious task for most players, the different mods have made it more playable for many others.

Unfortunately there seems to be a trend among a lot of these TS2/TS3 comparison threads that many people (not all) seem compare a heavily modded TS2 game to un-modded TS3 game, and then try to prove how TS3 fails in comparison. I had a heavily modded TS2 game because the game EA gave us, was not that great actually. It had a great base that you could build on and make the game what you wanted, but this required mods. Just like TS3 has a great base to build on, but it needs the mods to make it a great game.

I am one of those who actually like University and never ever rush my Sim students to finish their semesters ASAP. There is a lot of fun to see it through since *all* the students are actually my Sims' children and grand-children. However, University is University, and it makes sense to have to work to get your degree. But vacation houses? Tomb raiding for buying a vacation house? This is a ridiculous concept.

I don't know whom are you talking about, but I have Pescado's AM, I have some of Twallan's mods, I have tons of custom content and sliders for every little thing, and I play TS3 as heavy-modded and customised as it gets for my taste. On another thread I had posted that if it wasn't for Pescado and Twallan I wouldn't had bothered to buy the game at all.

Last, but not least, I do not try to prove anything. This is my opinion. It needs no justification, no acceptance from the crowd, no endless arguments.

@Falendriel:

Yes, I did expect you to say so, no worries.
What you call "empty-eyed" I call it "dreamy" as in it being part of a fantasy world. As I am surrounded by reality all the time, this is not what I strive for in my games. There lies the difference.

I see your point. So be it, I exaggerated on that point and missed the mark with Ambitions. I'm just frustrated about no witches and warlocks yet that I took it out on that bullet. Actually, Nalia has a good point with showing comparison shots. So let's have a look at what TS3 and TS2 have. Mainly, I post this because I think the praise on TS3 graphics and criticism on TS2 graphics has warmed some debate.

TS3 pics:


Betty Simovitch, a designer made, playable household sim


Shirley Lin, another designer made, playable household sim

Okay, it could have done real damage to TS3 to show Yvette Grisby or some of the sims that relied on the randomator system. But there are no townies, so here are the prettiest women from Riverview. Frankly, I think one of them is patriotic and the other has beautiful writing.


The hills of Riverview. TS3 can do landscapes and scenery better

TS2 pics:


Andrea Ku, a generated TS2 townie


Marylena Hamilton, a generated TS2 townie

See a little more definition and form? Notice that they do not look like doughy shapelessness like MadTV Bobby Lee's pasty belly.


A scene at P.U.R.E. A warlock has just cast Spiritus Poultrious at two of the dancers.

So there is material to judge. IMO, TS2 graphics are not terrible.