My secret shame: I cant wait for Sims 3

[lugaru]

I loved the original sims and also sims 2, but I always gave up on them at some point because simply put they all acted like huge memory hogs, causing problems further down the line. Still I was a huge fan of building entire towns (usually using pre-made houses), not cheating and "playing the ball where it lies", in other words if somebody dies or a relationship falls apart well too bad. Playing a little in each home, some families did well while others imploded (having twins will kill a family that is not wealthy).

Hopefully the Sims 3 will offer the game I've always enjoyed coupled with some decent performance, I mean in general most modern games run better on my computer than older games do, since people have gotten smarter at programing.

So is anybody looking forward to this game? The trait system looks cool, as does the fact that time moves forward for all families at once. Hopefully they will account for multiple users too, I can picture my girlfirend getting into this game. She liked Sims 2 but never played it because it can just be so slow to get anything done.

[Ares_God_of_War]

one thing I am going to miss is the fact that you cant creat those elf like pointed ears on your Sims as of right now. One of the things I enjoyed about 2 was the absurdity of some things. I loved having Werewolves and Vampires and such. I have seen Ghosts in a preview so I know they are there still.

The one dissapointment about The Sims 3 is basically the franchise milks it for all it's worth. I plated the original Sims and basically it took Sims 2 till the last XP to get all the features from the Sims XPs or features similar to what The Sims had. I am sure Sims 3 will be the same. I wonder how long it will take before we can have dogs and cats again.

[Sevenforce]

With the staggered releases of extra content? I'd say...1.2 years

Looking forward to this too, but Sims 2 wasn't a patch on Sims, imo. Lost interest very quickly. Good character creation, but the gameplay seemed lacking.

[lugaru]

one thing I am going to miss is the fact that you cant creat those elf like pointed ears on your Sims as of right now.

I wonder how long it will take before we can have dogs and cats again.

Yeah, my neighborhoods had a lot of "first generation immigrant" families, the parents starting with the standard 20k simileons and no job or education recognized in their new country. They would struggle to get good jobs and put their kids through college, and one family was always inevitably the elf family, since the ears where right there ready to use. Still you might still be able to shrink this and stretch that and get the elf ears again. I also love the supernatural element though, it was hilarious when somebody became a vampire in my games because I kind of play the ball where it lies, so it would be like "dad has been missing work a lot and going out at night" instead of "blah, I am finally a child of the night!".

And yeah, ugh, it will suck waiting for pets and other things I come to expect in every home to be implemented again, but I had just such a hard time playing sims 2 with all the loading and issues.

[daerdevil]

I wasted a good summer with the Sims Deluxe.  Downloaded every Super Hero I could find, before the publishing companies started putting pressure on "fan art".  I had a whole house full of Justice Leaguers and a house full of X-men.  Pretty comedic seeing Colossus go to work everyday (military career), while Nightcrawler lounged all day in the hot tub.  The load time on the first one was unbearable.  I'd go make a sandwich, eat it, and it'd still be loading.  Never bothered with the Sims 2.  Looked liked a watered down version of the first with better graphics. 

[lugaru]

The load time on the first one was unbearable.  I'd go make a sandwich, eat it, and it'd still be loading.  Never bothered with the Sims 2.  Looked liked a watered down version of the first with better graphics. 

Sims 1 was at the height of me smoking, so I would go outside and smoke a cigarrete every time it needed to load something, and that made for very frequent breaks. 2 was a bit better actually, more social interactions, object interactions and "jimmies to juggle" in terms of goals, desires and lifetime achievements. Still at this point I would say skip it and wait a month or two to see if 3 is any good... I'll pick it up day one because I think my G.F. might like it and she needs something to distract her from school and because I like a lot of the technical, spore inspired stuff they are doing.

[Ares_God_of_War]

I never really had issues with the Sims 2 like I did The Sims as far as loading until Apartment Life. And mainly it was just the apartments. The thing I hated about AL is that I couldnt edit the Maxis created apartments at all. Even following Maxis and IGN's cheat code guide to making apartments they would still crash my game if I ever edited them on the lot screen vs just buying furniture etc.

As far as vampires and such no one became one unless I got the ball rolling on one first. I had this great knoledge base sim in college in a dorm who I got high relationship with and became a vampire. Soon he went about turning the college into the undead.

[JeyNyce]

I've heard that the games was delay.  anybody else hear this?

[lugaru]

It was supposed to be out in february I think but it got delayed to 06/04 or something, which is like a week from now. I know it is gold so unless something legal comes up (copyright or offensive) it should hit stores on schedule.

You know I always waited for an apartment sims game but then I never picked up apartment life because Sims 3 was right around the corner. It is a funny thing to want to play, being in an apartment, but I've spent the last 7 years of my life living in 'em and unless I win the lotto I'll be in apartments for another while.

[Ares_God_of_War]

I bought AL for the witches. They actually had a trailer park as an apartment you could set down and I dont remember which XP they came in but that Ottomas family always seemed to fit.

The really cool thing about Sims 3 is making Fat and Body builder types etc. I also like that people can be Evil or Good or neurotic haha

[The Hitman]

Here's a secret- The Sims introduced me to Freedom Force, ala The Skindex.

I still play The Sims 2, and am looking forward with the new game.

[Ares_God_of_War]

So has anyone picked up their copy yet?

[lugaru]

I'm stuck at work until 5, but there is a game stop across the street from the gym I go to so if my girlfriend insists we need to work out I will pick it up. If not then I'll grab it at the store near my home, which is smaller but seems less likely to sell out.

[Tortuga]

Madam T and I were both Sims 1 addicts.  I even got into Sims Online for 9 or so months.  A friend and I started up an improv comedy club, called the Simprov, and then ran the #1 store on our server for quite some time.  The game was lousy but goofing around was fun.

Sims 2 hit right around CoH, so I never really got into it.  The intial game was so limited and we never bought any expansions.

So I'm looking forward to Sims 3 and will be picking it up after work today, but hopefully I'll find time to enjoy it -- I'm back in CoH and got too many good XBOX games to play.

[lugaru]

Quick note, I buy every game digitally these days but there is a reason I'm buying sims 3 on dvd:

Some of EA's other recent PC titles, such as Spore and Dead Space, have used a SecuROM copy restriction scheme that requires online and offline authentication and limits the number of times a user can install the game to five. While it was speculated that The Sims 3 would use the same system, on March 26, executive producer Rod Humble revealed that The Sims 3 uses traditional disk-based copy protection as Sims 2 did, and does not require online authentication to install. A product key is also required. [26] However, SecuROM based restriction is still present within the "Digital Download" version of the title, limiting users to a total of 5 authorizations for 5 different machines via online activation, each of which can be de-authorized online at any time.[27][28].

[Xenolith]

I liked aspects of the original game, but I didn't like having to control the sims as much as I did to make them behave.  Do players have to be as hands on in this version, or is it more of a sit back and watch type of game?

[JeyNyce]

Latest review: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/thesims3/review.html

It got a 9 out of 10.  Must be a good game.

[Tomato]

You know, I almost would have checked this out (if only for nostalgia value, like Hitman I was introduced to this community through the original Sims game) but then I saw the size requirement... over 6.1gb! Gah!

[Ares_God_of_War]

yeah after XPs this is going to be a monster.

An interesting feature I like is that aging is now turned off in the menu instead of through a cheat this time around

[thalaw2]

I only played Sims 1...having to go to work every day without a weekend made it difficult for me to enjoy my Sims without money cheats so I stopped. 

[Ares_God_of_War]

The Sims 2 actually had days off during the week. The better the job the better the hours and the more days off they had. I think the top careers only had 4 dayd working with very few hours.

[Tortuga]

I created a couple Sims tonight and it was kinda fun watching them interact.  I've made housemates that are opposites of each other for maximum tension.  The micromanagement aspect (eat, bathroom, etc) is far better balanced allowing you to do other things.

[lugaru]

Created a sim last night and jumped into the game. Lets see:

PROS
- Moodlets are great, instead of everything being incremental now your mood is has status effects caused by good and bad events, and they are easy to ignore or dispell. Bored? Watch TV for a while and you can get rid of it.
- Interacting with your city is so much easier, I hated going places because of the loading, so I rarely did. Now it is easy to go places and sometimes special events happen at those spots.
- Customizing a sim is flexible and easy, especially chosing clothing patterns and colors.
- Lots of great social interactions.
- I love the attribute system... I felt encouraged to pick a few negative ones to have a rounded out character.
- I like events and life achievements, they are like perks you buy with experience.
- It is cool to be able to show up at somebodies home and hang out... my character often goes over to the neighbors house, the neighbor is a fellow couch potato so they sit, watch TV, eat dinner and he heads home.
- Integrated download and instal function for items you download.
- I'm a foodie, so I like the new food related options, recipes and events.
- Inventory and objects improved.
- Advancing in jobs is now less dependant on arbitrary things.
- Separate sliders for weight and musculature, this makes the in game characters pretty varied.

CONS
- Obviosly I miss all the expansion material.
- Character options seem limited at the start and I hope I wont have to go to the "store" to get more.
- Max speed still feels a little slow, I feel like I waste too much time watching myself go to work.
- Still a tiny bit choppy and long on the loads, which always gets worse with future material.
- Cultivating relationships is still heavily about grinding.

[Ares_God_of_War]

I am liking it so far. It does make me miss the vampires and such

[Tortuga]

Anyone know how you are supposed to have several custom Sims living in the same neighborhood?  There's only one cheap house in Sunset Valley, so my other customs can't afford to move in.

[Ares_God_of_War]

Actually from what I hear you do not want to do that unless you have the Story Progression turned off and the only way to properly do it now is to ammend the shortcut and add a line to it. They will fix that in a patch soon. The reason you dont want to do that is that as the sim you are playing ages and such thee custom families you are not playing will get new kids or "move away" and get deleted

[lugaru]

Well that is kind of what I want anyways... I used to pretty much build my own towns and there was always a lot of boring families I never wanted to play but I did want to have in the neighborhood. A good example of this are the 'roomate' families and the 'singles' families, which added a variety of young eligible sims to the neighborhood but their house was an awful reality show.

My two games right now:

Lance Macho: overall a nice guy but he suffers comitment issues, so it is likely that he will break a few hearts along the way.

Green Family: The mom is a scientist who mods out all the appliances in the house, the dad stays at home and grows the food for the family in the garden. One child turned out shy and logical, the other is a little emo punk who carries a guitar everywhere. At this point the parents are half way through old age so they will be gone soon and the kids will have to figure out who gets the house. I have really enjoyed this family, it is cool to play one that is pretty non traditional (not materialistic, they repair everything, barely shop, dont own a tv).

My Girlfriend:

She spent an hour building accurate depictions of herself and me and then hit the random baby generator button for another half an hour to see what our kids would look like. Finally she moved the couple into a house, got them to woohoo, figured she could be doing that in real life and decided she will pick up the game up again when I'm at work.