Sims 3 - Yay or Nay?

Since Sims 3 has pretty much taken over two threads by now, let's move our bitching discussion here, shall we?

I hate that story progression is a take-it-or-leave-it-thing. I rarely play NPCs, so as far as I am concerned, they can do whatever they want, I don't mind if they age and reproduce. I kind of like it, even. But my own sims are off limits, they are mine, and I want to decide how to play them, if they have children and how many, which job they should take etc. I play story lines until I am bored and move on to the next family with a different story line. So having that control taken away when I switch households is incredibly annoying. I don't get why EA didn't think of having options for story progression so people could pick and choose which aspects they want to use. If that is too complicated they should have programmed the game differently.

On the other hand, traits... They are the only thing that I really, truly love (well, those and the revamped gardening/gathering), and what keeps me away from Sims 2. It's so nice to actually have sims with personalities and that some of those traits really force you to play each sims at least a little bit differently. Then again, maybe that could have been implemented in an expansion pack...

People bitched about Sims 2 when it came out because it was buggy and it got old after a while. Then they patched it and released expansion packs and custom content and it was the best thing ever. This was not that long ago, for God's sake.

I like it. I like the story progression stuff, especially with the Awesomemod fix. I tend to play huge extended families, and keeping everyone relatively up to date was a bitch and a half with the Sims 2.

I also enjoy the collection aspects, and find the customization options far more indepth than ever would have been possible with the Sims 2.

I must say that I've had a quite a bit of fun playing the Sims 3. The only things that are making me rage is the fact that CC is harder to make and everyone knows why that's the case. Oh, and the fact that toddlers will scream and scream AND SCREAM if they're tired; even when they're in their fucking crib (toddlers in the Sims 2 would at least just fall asleep in their crib when they're out of energy). Speaking of toddlers, has anyone gotten the TV glitch yet, or did EA patch that only to brick something else?

Oh, and my all-time peeve is of this game is that the scifi aspects have been sucked dry leaving only the ghosts. Woo, ghost babies and ghosts that are practically see-through sims (THEY CAN'T EVEN GO THROUGH WALLS FOR FUCK'S SAKE). Ghosts dying of old age? Wat

I'm really intrigued how they're going to handle the Pets expansion for the Sims 3. I really hope that they give parrots and hamsters more playable options other than being a biting shoulder ornament.

I think the toddler thing might have to do with their personalities, actually. I had some scheduling issues this morning and ended up putting the kid in his crib three hours before he got Sleepy. He sat and giggled to himself until he did, at which point he promptly passed out.

As a side note, I'm honestly puzzled by people saying the Sims look like Play-doh or pudding or cartoony or whatever. They just look like Sims 2 Sims to me, but with a slight graphical update. Sure, you can MAKE them look like pudding if you play Mad Doctor with the slider bars, but that's always been the case. I took great pleasure in making abortions of nature in Sims 2. My favorite trick was making their teeth permanently chip through their lips. Can we get some screenshots of what's so awful, maybe? I'm just not getting it.

The most tedious thing about Sims 3, besides the criminal lack of aliens, is what happens when they go to work. That is, they go into their rabbit holes and I'm left to twiddle my fingers until they come out. Sure, I fast-forward it, but even then, it feels too long. And maybe it's my play style, but working takes most of their time if I don't want to use a money cheat. I shouldn't have to crack open Pokemon while they work for more amusement.

I used to like traits, and I still do, but most of them don't add much to each personality. Then again, I never gave a fuck about zodiac signs and whatever on Sims 2, so if there is some true quirkiness going on, I haven't paid attention. I like it, sure, but I'm not shocked and awed.

I like gardening, but have learned to keep the gardens small, because, again, it can take a hell of a long time to keep it in shape. Also, skilling takes too long.

Hell, might as well just sum it up: my main problem with Sims 3 is that all activities seem to take too long. I miss Sims 2 already, but I can't play because I ran out of disk space!

I've found that if you have a large garden, installing sprinklers is a godsend. Now the only thing you'll have to worry about are weeds and your sims suddenly wanting to play in the sprinklers to the point of killing themselves. Thanks to the sprinklers I'm harvesting 2,000 simoleons daily from the Money Tree's money bags, and that's without fertilizer!

The testing cheats this time around aren't too interestingly game-breaking (debug cheats aside), but they're awesome nonetheless. I find it convenient that you can slide their needs bars to whatever you want.

Ceres wrote:

Hell, might as well just sum it up: my main problem with Sims 3 is that all activities seem to take too long. I miss Sims 2 already, but I can't play because I ran out of disk space!

I am not sure of this is your problem, but if you have no more space on your C: drive but other free drives, move the My Documents folder somewhere else. I always do this because C: tends to fill up so fast, especially with all the Sims downloads. I had Sims 2 running on Bootcamp!XP with the My Documents folder on an external HD. It worked pretty well, actually.

As for the rabbit holes, I guess that's our future expansion packs. I also presume that there will be a university, since the young adult age is already in-built but not really used as such.

I hope I can afford a new graphic card until then, because I am not very happy about the Mac emulation and the speed. Speaking of speed - does anyone else have problems with the different speeds, meaning there is no speeding up?

Quote :

I am not sure of this is your problem, but if
you have no more space on your C: drive but other free drives, move the
My Documents folder somewhere else. I always do this because C: tends
to fill up so fast, especially with all the Sims downloads.

Really!? I did not know that! So, I can just click and drag and that's it? The computer doesn't explode? Do I have to update the links on icons or something?

Ceres wrote:

Quote :

I am not sure of this is your problem, but if
you have no more space on your C: drive but other free drives, move the
My Documents folder somewhere else. I always do this because C: tends
to fill up so fast, especially with all the Sims downloads.

Really!? I did not know that! So, I can just click and drag and that's it? The computer doesn't explode? Do I have to update the links on icons or something?

Pretty much. Open the Properties for My Documents and enter the new location in the text box labeled "Target," then press Apply.

I've barely played it. My computer chokes on it most of the time. I don't like the revamped Sim creation. You have a lot less control over how your Sims look. I do, however, absolutely adore the ability to select personality traits. It is a beautiful addition to the game.

Ceres wrote:

The most tedious thing about Sims 3, besides the criminal lack of aliens, is what happens when they go to work. That is, they go into their rabbit holes and I'm left to twiddle my fingers until they come out. Sure, I fast-forward it, but even then, it feels too long.

The trick here is to have an unemployed Sim.

Yay. I like the attribute system, how it opens up new dialogue and action options, and best of all, it's very simple to understand how all the pieces interact with each other. With the old point-distribution system, I never knew what I was getting- does using "Neatness" as a dump stat make a slob, or just someone less neat?

Ceres wrote:

The most tedious thing about Sims 3, besides the criminal lack of aliens, is what happens when they go to work. That is, they go into their rabbit holes and I'm left to twiddle my fingers until they come out. Sure, I fast-forward it, but even then, it feels too long. And maybe it's my play style, but working takes most of their time if I don't want to use a money cheat. I shouldn't have to crack open Pokemon while they work for more amusement.

Does this differ from Sims 2 at all? Because I've gotten used to fast-forwarding in that.

gaijinguy wrote:

Yay. I like the attribute system, how it opens up new dialogue and action options, and best of all, it's very simple to understand how all the pieces interact with each other. With the old point-distribution system, I never knew what I was getting- does using "Neatness" as a dump stat make a slob, or just someone less neat?

If they were less neat, they got unhappier when you told them to clean something and generally wouldn't clean anything on their own.

<--- Still playing The Sims Mega Deluxe.

gaijinguy wrote:

Yay. I like the attribute system, how it opens up new dialogue and action options, and best of all, it's very simple to understand how all the pieces interact with each other. With the old point-distribution system, I never knew what I was getting- does using "Neatness" as a dump stat make a slob, or just someone less neat?

It's subtle, but personality types react to certain commands differently, and they have unique animations for it. For example, when practicing Speech, a Sim with High Playful points will crack jokes, a Sim with low Niceness will make very aggressive speeches. A sim with 0 Niceness will cheat at chess, Sims with 0 Cleanliness will make the beds differently and make a mess while cooking.

You have to watch them carefully to really know the difference.

I didn't like house-building or simmaking, which is... mostly what I play the sims for. Maybe it's just that it doesn't run very well on the computer I'm on, though I really, really didn't like furniture/fixture placements.

Nay, for the moment. I have far more fun with Sims 2 and all my custom content-- and I only have base game for that, too.

The Sims in general would've been more fun if I didn't have to babysit them so much after creating them and building them houses. I suppose I'm missing the point of the game entirely, but I think I would've been happier about telling them where to go and when to eat if they were dogs or something.

Snake Bandage wrote:

The Sims in general would've been more fun if I didn't have to babysit them so much after creating them and building them houses.

I thought that was supposed to be one of the more appreciated improvements in The Sims 3 -- less gauge-watching gameplay.

Miss Prince wrote:

Snake Bandage wrote:

The Sims in general would've been more fun if I didn't have to babysit them so much after creating them and building them houses.

I thought that was supposed to be one of the more appreciated improvements in The Sims 3 -- less gauge-watching gameplay.

Well, to be honest, I don't have Sims 3 and I doubt I will since my sister "grew out of playing stupid computer games". *rolls eyes* Either way, from what I've seen through other people playing the game, it still looks like you have to act as your Sim's common sense. I don't know, when I need to go, I go, I don't just wait for my parents' permission to use the bathroom or something. I really don't have the patience to tell a little computerized person that it's okay to go to the bathroom.

tl;dr, long story short: less reminding your Sims that they need to eat and sleep to live well, more having them interact with other Sims and develop important skills plz.

On the one hand, I like in Sims 2 that the sims are good at taking care of their own needs. On the other hand, I hate having to keep an eye on them to make sure they do it right ("No! Don't make a single serving of spaghetti! You have to feed your kids, too!")

I never had a problem with my Sims remembering to eat and sleep. But I did have a problem with them only making dinner for themselves instead of the whole family. :|

Funny. Mine didn't do that. My Sims would usually decide to serve a meal...that no one in the family would come eat unless I forced them to.

Kitbug wrote:

I never had a problem with my Sims remembering to eat and sleep. But I did have a problem with them only making dinner for themselves instead of the whole family. :|

This is why my Sims have no free will.