Why Do You Like TS3?
#1 13-09-2012 
I have no intention of starting a flame war here. Yes, I know that the internet loving two different (yet similar) games can yield tons of hatred and mud slinging, but I feel that Leefish Network's community is above that. The thing is, I know why I love TS2 and hate TS3, but if you like/love TS3 I really want to know why. I want to know the redeeming features or at least something that it has that makes you come back to it. Perhaps it was your only Sim game you played or maybe you felt that you exhausted TS2 and needed to move on.

Let's get a conversation going. Celebrate

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#2 13-09-2012 
Why do I like TS3? I would like to preface here with that I still love TS1 and TS2. (In fact today I played TS1, and I returned to TS2 to play a long term hood). I see them as separate games, not as the same game.

There was a comment in the Sims1 video I linked to:

"Sims1: Best Gameplay
Sims2: Best Storyline
Sims3: Best Graphics"

And I'd have to agree with that. The eye-candy in Sims3 is spectacular. My favourite is watching the sunset over the beach, and seeing the sparkle in the water and the changing light.

I love that I no longer need to have a million recolours of a favourite object to be able to get a room matching, and that I can load up a game without custom content, and have create a decent look.

The CASt is a tool that is spectacular. The things that you can do with it, to make things look good.

The first thing that particularly wow-ed me was the scenery. The seamless hood with beautiful scenery and lighting - you can end up setting the speed to '1' just to enjoy it. I did that for ages. When the one that came out with Twinbrook - and the swamp. Gorgeous! The fog and mist around the swamps are really great. World Adventures, with the Egyptian, French and Chinese worlds made them so amazing, I loved taking my sims there just to look at the scenery.

The seamless hood is pretty amazing. Not just for the seamlessness of it, but also the way it changes play.

One of my favourite sims to play was one that was 'homeless'. That is, Simon Simple had a block of land with nothing on it - and he lived everywhere else. I don't think his whole life I ever took him back to that block of land. I set his money to zero as soon as he was in the game, and from then on he was never allowed to buy anything. Having him scruff through people's garbage, find places to wash and toilet, still skill up and feed was always a fascinating situation. Even getting him to have a relationship with the mayor and her daughter!

One of the other things I did like very much as well, is the idea of professions. So you no longer have to go to work to earn money and promotions, you can do other things. My favourite was making my introvert an artist, and earning money, getting opportunities and becoming well known for his art.

I love that Sims3 lets me change my play style from one house to a whole hood. Sure you select a family, but there's nothing to stop you watching someone else living their lives without your intervention. Like going with the school kid to their friend's house after school. You see how their family works.

I know this is going to be a little controversial - but I like the bodies in Sims3. Being able to add body hair is all well and good, but seeing the muscle tone with it - especially in the arms... Always thought that was gorgeous!

I like reading Sim Stories. Not just hood documentaries but full on stories that are illustrated by the Sims. Currently my favourites are :

Ruin Hers are illustrated with Sims3 - and you can see what I mean about the arms! Big Grin
Edith Prescott Mysteries - also illustrated with Sims3. And you can see how Sims3 can be used to quite interesting effect in them.
Lakeside Heights - On the Safe Side Part 4 This one is interesting because she uses both Sims2 and Sims3 to great effect, and in some ways it can actually be hard to tell which one is which!
celebkiriedhel, proud to be a member of LeeFish since Dec 2010.
amazon wishlist because Lee said so.

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#3 13-09-2012 
Well, I'm playing The Sims 3 Supernatural..I'm trying to form a group of zombies that roam the city Big Grin

I play the sims since 2000 (Sims 1), then Sims 2 and now Sims 3.

Now I like (not "love") The Sims 3 because maybe Sims 2 had a little bored me. I see new options in the new expansions. Maybe I like news, I don't know.

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#4 13-09-2012 
Fantastic points celebkiriedhel.

I remember on day one I rushed out to buy TS3 when it came out. So much of a rush in fact that I bought the DVD version, brought it home and realized that I don't have a DVD drive on my computer. So I rushed back to the store (30 minutes away) did the exchange, drove back home again and installed the game. After a few issues launching the game I finally got in and proceeded to make my first family.

Pudding faces aside, I really digged the personality traits and the CAS Tool. After that I moved him into one of the 3 houses I could afford and redecorated. The lack of furnishings was a complete disappointment to me and even though I could recolour them, it didn't really help create the variety that I was looking for.

One of my all-time favorite things to do in the game and I know it is going to sound silly; is taking a Sim, telling him/her to go somewhere far away, but set the action to "Jogging" and follow him/her with the follow camera on normal speed. Watching the Sim jog, while gaining body points and seeing the world alive around him/her is a feeling that I enjoyed immensely. It's not enough though I'm afraid.

   

After having tried: World Adventures, Late Night and finally Ambitions (none of which I bought) I decided that nothing changed the game too drastically to keep me coming back and I have since went back to TS2 where I will most likely stay.

Coloured text for emphasis.
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#5 13-09-2012 
XanderGC;16418 Wrote:One of my all-time favorite things to do in the game and I know it is going to sound silly; is taking a Sim, telling him/her to go somewhere far away, but set the action to "Jogging" and follow him/her with the follow camera on normal speed. Watching the Sim jog, while gaining body points and seeing the world alive around him/her is a feeling that I enjoyed immensely.

I liked doing that too Smile When I tried sims3. I was also really looking forward to sims3 too and then was disappointed in it.

I love the CAS tool, wish we had that in Sims2.

I find building in Sims3 quite hard on my eyes, which I think is one of the reasons that I rarely play it. I also don't think my pc would handle many of the expansions.
Karen Lorraine, proud to be a member of LeeFish since Jan 2012.

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#6 13-09-2012 
I'm glad you enjoyed the jogging bit too, I thought I was silly for liking it lol
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#7 13-09-2012 
I think TS3 is a players game. I like to build houses and play with my sim - IF I play. So if I was playing sims (which I don't - I haven't played a sim family since about 2008) then I think TS3 would be the game I played.

So its all buggy and stuff doesn't work as expected - TS2 is like that - look at all the mods to make it "playable".

What kept my interest in TS2 was creating for it - and TS3 creation was just not fun. So, I play neither and make the odd thing every now and again for TS2 if someone asks me.
The site don't jive? PRESS F5 Flower

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#8 14-09-2012 
Well, I saw the pudding faces and went running the other direction in horror. I never actually played, so I can't really comment on TS3 other than how the sims in it look. I will say I was very put off with the direction EA took with the Store and it seemed to only get worse with TS3 (milking the fanbase, unfinished sloppy item by item and not really offering much gameplay value.) I am still really hooked on TS2 and the only thing that deters me from playing is the overwhelming task of having to sort and trim down my mass of custom content built over several years now. While Lee makes a valid point about bugs in the initial game, I'll note that we do have those mods to fix it, and a great community still building for the game (in spite of the shiny new pudding offered us.) I tend to really stick with games that offer modding opportunities and have strong modding communities behind them. Of course, I do have to like the actual gameplay AND graphics.

I also like different things about TS2 and TS1. I have a tough time with isometric perspective and fixed zoom when TS2 is so pretty but TS1 gave a strong sense of specific locations and characters that TS2 kind of lacks without careful modding/pruning of your neighborhoods. With Bon Voyage, for example, it took some time to make islanders look like islanders and easterners look like easterners, and I have still not finished rearranging the tourists into actual families and giving them the proper family ties, something I felt the code should have done in the first place.

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