What's your favorite part about The Sims 3?
And your least favorite?
Forum Discussion
My favorite features about TS3 are:
Open seamless world
I enjoy the freedom of going anywhere without loading screens. Not only that but having a real-time simulation going on at all times is impressive though some of it is in the background. What I think a mature and realistic life simulator should strive for. The open world has made a huge difference, improvement and advancement from TS and TS2, while making it possible to incorporate new features into the game never done before. Thus making the life simulation aspect more true than false and allowing for more opportunities to showcase what a life simulation can do. The shortcoming is TS3 is not as in-depth as TS/TS2 concerning open dining, open shopping and so on unfortunately. What a trade-off but at least it made leaps of progress despite a well loved feature to me omitted. By that I mean with an EP it would be in-depth but they never and the store just did not deliver the experience as I had hoped and was no where near as in-depth as TS/TS2. Though a feature like that belongs in base game but at least an EP. But no.... :( But at least something is better than nothing so. :)
https://i.postimg.cc/7L6d9H2g/Screenshot-35.jpg
I love the majority of what I see in the neighborhood/world I can take my Sim(s) there without loading screens, like in the real world.
https://i.postimg.cc/6pHW0c1F/Screenshot-57.jpg
Create-a-Style/Create-a-Pattern
This has become another important feature to me because of the freedom of creativity it presents and allows, instead of presets only. I can finally match whatever I want with whatever and no longer confined to what the developers have which sometimes don't always come matching. Or I can mismatch or mix and match without being limited. Also because of this, I am able to recreate what I see from elsewhere which makes the buy/build modes that much more fun.
https://i.postimg.cc/prBB88jd/Screenshot-1917.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/x1w2Ss4J/Screenshot-231.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/B6fzHvT7/Screenshot-2249.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/3rSXczg0/Screenshot-5.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/3xKKb0pH/Screenshot-104.jpg
The A.I. (Artificial Intelligence)
I love how just like in the game where it all starts, The Sims (2000), the A.I. can still be taught and take cues from the player. Meaning that how a player directs their Sim(s) can affect how the Sim(s) behave. The difference between this core concept in The Sims and The Sims 3 is that it's way more improved and advanced upon and with the open seamless world this makes the A.I. extremely engaging than ever before over the largest playing field with real-time simulation continuing the A.I. stories and routines even when Sims are in their homes, rabbitholes, it does not matter. There is always something happening regardless if the camera/player is there or not, just like in real life. Life goes on.
Something else I observe from the A.I. is how human-like it makes the Sims think, process, act and react. I have noted so many A.I. driven stories, thought processes, and so on that the A.I. is what helps the most to add dynamic, interesting, fun and engaging gameplay to TS3 for the purpose of longevity than easily getting bored. I think a lot of players miss out on experiencing what the A.I. can really do, possibly for various reasons such as: Playing with free-will off or low, not attuned to reading people and their possible emotions, their possible motives, basically the lack of understanding the basis of psychology which even The Sims (2000) is based on Maslow's Hierarchy as is TS3 and so on. My favorite analogy I like to use is, some players only swim on the surface in the ocean, while others dive deep and see there's more than meets the eye concerning TS3.
https://i.postimg.cc/nc0tCn1c/Screenshot-963.jpg
Seamless Aging/Generations
TS2 was the first to introduce generations and what attracted me to the game the most. Unfortunately, I quickly gave up on generations after finding out that only the active household ages up while everyone else stayed the same age. Thus having to switch and play all households in order to age everyone one when I didn't want to. Now mind you, at the time I only had the base game and University and did not really get anything after that due to life, so I would not know much of what was possibly added thereafter. However, I do now have a few TS2 EP's and SP's that eventually I plan to reinstall such as Open for Business, Late Night and Unleashed, etc.
With TS3's ability to have seamless aging across the whole neighborhood/world, has made me invested again in generations. Also, because there is no comprehensive family tree in TS3, I create my own to keep track of my Sims' families so I don't get confused who is related to who since it can get overwhelming for me with so many Sims and many different families. I also move my families and/or members around to different neighborhoods so I definitely need to keep track with all the broken family trees.
https://i.postimg.cc/xT6yxnng/Genesis-Family-Tree.png
TS3's Aesthetic
TS3 is the only Sims game with the most mature and subtle animations with more realistic graphics than TS/TS2. I really am fond of this aesthetic and would not mind having more realism as long as it all flows together cohesively and is overall just even more beautiful to look at. But I digress.
https://i.postimg.cc/DfPGN9dq/Screenshot-1924.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/pT0Cb4pp/Screenshot-1936.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/sXFZC2g3/Screenshot-613.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/LX58h0GZ/Screenshot-50.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/1RVc9msK/Screenshot-10.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/bwNYC8Cc/Screenshot-463.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/BQnbMnRg/Screenshot-829.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/HLG4nKHW/Screenshot-105.jpg
However, I do like using cc to get Sims to look even nicer using both a default skin and non-default skins, one default eyes and non-default eyes, cc hair, and so on. But I do tend to mostly use the game's hair because I actually like the game's hair.
https://i.postimg.cc/VsnZ8yTh/Hunter_Selfie_Color3.png
https://i.postimg.cc/4y9thh27/Screenshot-855.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/BvCw8FnD/Screenshot-892.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/g0xdtSNJ/Screenshot-1814.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/VLkW3QKX/Screenshot-60.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/PJVvVSgq/Screenshot-339.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/vBVsDy6X/Screenshot-1427.jpg
Vehicles
I think it's really amazing having bicycles, mo-peds, scooters, hoverboards, jet packs, cars, motocycles and so on seamlessly instead of just drive on or off the lot like in TS2. However, in TS2 there were more in-depth features that came with cars. Again with the trade-off but okay, I get it. Routing can be extremely finicky.
https://i.postimg.cc/63LWwJFp/Screenshot-1191.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/QCrnWJ4C/Screenshot-150.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/2S1f6Z9z/Screenshot-2048.jpg
Gender Roles
It's nice that social interactions aren't locked based on gender. For example:
https://i.postimg.cc/Dz8rrf3W/Screenshot-6293.jpg
Colorable Lights
https://i.postimg.cc/65x6Lf4p/Screenshot-1871.jpg
Tab Mode/360-Height-Tilt Camera Controls
As can be seen in screenshots already posted.
Open seamless world
I enjoy the freedom of going anywhere without loading screens. Not only that but having a real-time simulation going on at all times is impressive though some of it is in the background. What I think a mature and realistic life simulator should strive for. The open world has made a huge difference, improvement and advancement from TS and TS2, while making it possible to incorporate new features into the game never done before. Thus making the life simulation aspect more true than false and allowing for more opportunities to showcase what a life simulation can do. The shortcoming is TS3 is not as in-depth as TS/TS2 concerning open dining, open shopping and so on unfortunately. What a trade-off but at least it made leaps of progress despite a well loved feature to me omitted. By that I mean with an EP it would be in-depth but they never and the store just did not deliver the experience as I had hoped and was no where near as in-depth as TS/TS2. Though a feature like that belongs in base game but at least an EP. But no.... :( But at least something is better than nothing so. :)
https://i.postimg.cc/7L6d9H2g/Screenshot-35.jpg
I love the majority of what I see in the neighborhood/world I can take my Sim(s) there without loading screens, like in the real world.
https://i.postimg.cc/6pHW0c1F/Screenshot-57.jpg
Create-a-Style/Create-a-Pattern
This has become another important feature to me because of the freedom of creativity it presents and allows, instead of presets only. I can finally match whatever I want with whatever and no longer confined to what the developers have which sometimes don't always come matching. Or I can mismatch or mix and match without being limited. Also because of this, I am able to recreate what I see from elsewhere which makes the buy/build modes that much more fun.
https://i.postimg.cc/prBB88jd/Screenshot-1917.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/x1w2Ss4J/Screenshot-231.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/B6fzHvT7/Screenshot-2249.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/3rSXczg0/Screenshot-5.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/3xKKb0pH/Screenshot-104.jpg
The A.I. (Artificial Intelligence)
I love how just like in the game where it all starts, The Sims (2000), the A.I. can still be taught and take cues from the player. Meaning that how a player directs their Sim(s) can affect how the Sim(s) behave. The difference between this core concept in The Sims and The Sims 3 is that it's way more improved and advanced upon and with the open seamless world this makes the A.I. extremely engaging than ever before over the largest playing field with real-time simulation continuing the A.I. stories and routines even when Sims are in their homes, rabbitholes, it does not matter. There is always something happening regardless if the camera/player is there or not, just like in real life. Life goes on.
Something else I observe from the A.I. is how human-like it makes the Sims think, process, act and react. I have noted so many A.I. driven stories, thought processes, and so on that the A.I. is what helps the most to add dynamic, interesting, fun and engaging gameplay to TS3 for the purpose of longevity than easily getting bored. I think a lot of players miss out on experiencing what the A.I. can really do, possibly for various reasons such as: Playing with free-will off or low, not attuned to reading people and their possible emotions, their possible motives, basically the lack of understanding the basis of psychology which even The Sims (2000) is based on Maslow's Hierarchy as is TS3 and so on. My favorite analogy I like to use is, some players only swim on the surface in the ocean, while others dive deep and see there's more than meets the eye concerning TS3.
https://i.postimg.cc/nc0tCn1c/Screenshot-963.jpg
Seamless Aging/Generations
TS2 was the first to introduce generations and what attracted me to the game the most. Unfortunately, I quickly gave up on generations after finding out that only the active household ages up while everyone else stayed the same age. Thus having to switch and play all households in order to age everyone one when I didn't want to. Now mind you, at the time I only had the base game and University and did not really get anything after that due to life, so I would not know much of what was possibly added thereafter. However, I do now have a few TS2 EP's and SP's that eventually I plan to reinstall such as Open for Business, Late Night and Unleashed, etc.
With TS3's ability to have seamless aging across the whole neighborhood/world, has made me invested again in generations. Also, because there is no comprehensive family tree in TS3, I create my own to keep track of my Sims' families so I don't get confused who is related to who since it can get overwhelming for me with so many Sims and many different families. I also move my families and/or members around to different neighborhoods so I definitely need to keep track with all the broken family trees.
https://i.postimg.cc/xT6yxnng/Genesis-Family-Tree.png
TS3's Aesthetic
TS3 is the only Sims game with the most mature and subtle animations with more realistic graphics than TS/TS2. I really am fond of this aesthetic and would not mind having more realism as long as it all flows together cohesively and is overall just even more beautiful to look at. But I digress.
https://i.postimg.cc/DfPGN9dq/Screenshot-1924.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/pT0Cb4pp/Screenshot-1936.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/sXFZC2g3/Screenshot-613.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/LX58h0GZ/Screenshot-50.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/1RVc9msK/Screenshot-10.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/bwNYC8Cc/Screenshot-463.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/BQnbMnRg/Screenshot-829.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/HLG4nKHW/Screenshot-105.jpg
However, I do like using cc to get Sims to look even nicer using both a default skin and non-default skins, one default eyes and non-default eyes, cc hair, and so on. But I do tend to mostly use the game's hair because I actually like the game's hair.
https://i.postimg.cc/VsnZ8yTh/Hunter_Selfie_Color3.png
https://i.postimg.cc/4y9thh27/Screenshot-855.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/BvCw8FnD/Screenshot-892.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/g0xdtSNJ/Screenshot-1814.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/VLkW3QKX/Screenshot-60.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/PJVvVSgq/Screenshot-339.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/vBVsDy6X/Screenshot-1427.jpg
Vehicles
I think it's really amazing having bicycles, mo-peds, scooters, hoverboards, jet packs, cars, motocycles and so on seamlessly instead of just drive on or off the lot like in TS2. However, in TS2 there were more in-depth features that came with cars. Again with the trade-off but okay, I get it. Routing can be extremely finicky.
https://i.postimg.cc/63LWwJFp/Screenshot-1191.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/QCrnWJ4C/Screenshot-150.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/2S1f6Z9z/Screenshot-2048.jpg
Gender Roles
It's nice that social interactions aren't locked based on gender. For example:
https://i.postimg.cc/Dz8rrf3W/Screenshot-6293.jpg
Colorable Lights
https://i.postimg.cc/65x6Lf4p/Screenshot-1871.jpg
Tab Mode/360-Height-Tilt Camera Controls
As can be seen in screenshots already posted.
