Yeah I agree with DM - definitely a major improvement as far as creating sims in my view. I like the looks of the house and bus/trolley thing or what ever it is called. The house to me looks realistic. That street could be a street in Saco, Maine as it actually looks like an area where there are a lot of Federal and turn of the century homes and they actually have a shuttle trolley that takes folks to Old Orchard Beach, Maine like that in the picture - but red. But that is me. I am happy that all aspects of the sims can be tampered with on the body pretty much. I read today that some one said there was height controllers as well and some new age stages - one says there is one between newborn and toddler - another said it was between toddler and child, and yet another heard there is one between child and teen. I have no clue though how they "know" this or where they got the info. But I like very much what I am seeing as there is a picture of Sims 2, sims 3, and then the new sims 4 sims - and to me they are looking more humanized - but to each their own. As I saw some people posting that sounded like you - Tangie - and others like me - so I guess it depends on how we each look at these things. What I can't believe is the one who liked Sims 2 sims better - which in my view were as bad as sims 1 sims unless you used CC to make them look realistic. I could not have played the sims 2 with out skins and eyes and hair defaults as nothing in my view was uglier than the sims 2 sims without CC. At least I can make the Sims 3 sims better without CC just with the sliders we have now - yes skins do make them even better - but I do okay without skins also. There was no fixing sims 2 sims - not without CC. So having all the control over all the areas like that I can work with, as they seem to be adding in areas we are having problems with in Sims 3.
But that much control on the sims plus all the better sims personalities and reactions with one another - they have my vote. I would love all the reactions the sims 2 had added to my sims 3 sims - so yeah - I plan on pre- ordering. Granted in my case it is if my health holds out is my only barrier. I don't think I can afford to wait and see how everyone says they are - but God willing I will definitely be one of the ones getting it the day it comes out. No question about it.