The Sims 3

[Chiron Jackal]

Anyone else here gotten the new Sims game? I've really been enjoying the new personality trait system. My favorites are Evil, Neurotic, and Insane. The combination made my sim "wash hands with evil soap," then he had to check twice to see that he had indeed turned off the water, and then he promptly went to sleep dressed in his formal wear.

Utter silliness aside, it really makes for much more entertaining interactions, more reasonable desires, and the fact that sims develop negative traits (such as the three I listed above) if they spend a stage of their life miserable.

And now, for no real reason, I'm switching more into review mode.

Designing Your House
You now have the ability to actually control the color and pattern on just about everything (the only non-designable thing I've found thus far has been a scented candle) so you're no longer stuck with handful of usually ugly designs or having to download custom mods. It costs no money to re-color items or your house (though it costs money to give floors and walls their initial colors), and there's a new feature I LOVE, which is that you can adjust to brightness and the color of the lights in your house.

The Library Isn't Pointless
Those of you who have played before know that if you buy the cheapest bookshelf, all of your cooking, mechanical, and possibly cleaning needs are instantly met - read everything that exists on the topics right there in your own home. No longer is this the case! There are books for beginners, books that are more advanced, expert books, and even recipes now. All these books can be kinda pricey so it now makes sense to visit your local library.

You Are Not A Rich-Ass Fucker
Remember when you could spend a day at work and then buy a car with your pay? No longer! It's now actually challenging to be rich and have a giant house full of everything.

Crappy Things Suck In A Way That Makes Sense
Remember how the crappy stove somehow made your food less filling or, even stranger, the crappy shower made you take extra time to wash? This too now makes more sense. The crappy stove is more prone to burning food, but we also now have varying qualities of food which will influence how happy your sim is and crappy stove is less likely to produce amazingly delicious pancakes. And I love the crappy shower; sometimes the hot water will screw up and your sim will be blasted with icey water, making him or her severely grumpy for a good 10 to 20 minutes after the shower.

And finally, my favorite of the sims:

Brand New Weird Shit
Admit it - people who play the sims love the weird stuff that happens. We love the sim who, for some reason, keeps getting naked. We love the penguin that talks to the snowman, and we love the strange and often conflicting desires our sims have (I once saw one that wanted to sell the cat but feared not owning the cat). In the maybe 3 or 4 hours I've played the new sims I've had a mailman fart into the mailbox and then run away, a sim who wanted to kiss someone he's never seen before, watched a woman refuse to sleep anywhere except the living room, and had a woman talk to herself in the graveyard while being unhappy because she had a pocket full of spoiled waffles.

[Tempest]

I'm loving the Sims 3. One of my Sims is a kleptomaniac whose life goal is to be a gold-digger. One of his first wishes was to join the law enforcement career, which I granted. After his first day of work, I opened his inventory and saw a stolen rug from the police department! I also created an inappropriate Sim, who has the option of insulting his wife's family, taking a sponge bath in front of the sink, and making inappropriate forum posts.

I'm also enjoying how the Sims aren't so needy anymore. In the last 2 Sims games, it was so hard to keep them happy and also advance in your career. I remember having to take entire days off work just to keep my Sim's social up. And thankfully, they only have to pee once or twice a day now!

[Binkx]

Sims 3 has claimed my soul. I love being able to tell them how to act at work/school. No more A's just for going and doing the homework. Yay slacking off! And all the oppertunities pretty much force your sims out of the house (not that mine are rarely home unless there are newborns).

My favorite feature is under the options. The Age slider. You can have your sims live only 25 sim days or 960 sim days. Makes it easier or harder without having to use the Elixer of Life.

Oh and I also like how you can actually see infants (new borns) needs. Makes being ready to change/feed/snuggle them so much easier. And giving birth at a hospital is awesome.

I miss the good for nothing Nannies though. Calling a baby sitter everyday before my sim goes to work is a hassle and they still take forever to do simple task like walk through a room.

[Alleycat]

I haven't gotten the sims 3 yet but I'm hoping to get it sometime this summer. One of the things I always wanted in the sims was for them to contract illnesses. Like an expansion pack almost where spending too much time outside without sunblock will give your sim skin cancer, or a sim can be born blind or deaf. Instead of teaching your toddler to speak you teach it sign language. Or have them need a wheelchair. It's evil, yes, but it would certaintly make htings interesting and challenging. Do they have anything like that in the sims 3?

[Chiron Jackal]

After his first day of work, I opened his inventory and saw a stolen rug from the police department! I also created an inappropriate Sim, who has the option of insulting his wife's family, taking a sponge bath in front of the sink, and making inappropriate forum posts.
:love:

If you're enjoying those I really suggest the insanity trait. My friend Tristan was really enjoying his insanity sim - she always wears a swimsuit after bathing, compulsively wears her work clothes, yelled at her breakfast, and took a taxi to the public school and then immediately ran home carrying her baby which she had taken with her. They can be a little frustrating from time to time since they'll sometimes do things related to your command, but not quite on the mark (instead of feeding the baby, she grabbed it and put it back in the crib).

In the last 2 Sims games, it was so hard to keep them happy and also advance in your career. I remember having to take entire days off work just to keep my Sim's social up. And thankfully, they only have to pee once or twice a day now!
God, I know. I'm also pleased that the friend requirement for jobs has been replaced with how well you get along with your co-workers or partner or what have you. In some of the friend-heavy jobs I'd need the sim to be married just so the spouse could stay home calling everyone so the other sim would have enough friends to get promoted.

And not only do sims now need less care, each bit of care is less cumbersome and time-consuming. You have no idea how many times my sims had to drive the kids to school after they missed the bus because they were too busy crapping for more than an hour.

And giving birth at a hospital is awesome.
It's awesome, but it confused the heck out of me at first. The wife was just doing a cardio exercise and then suddenly started wailing for about an hour, at which point her husband stopped working out and danced around like an idiot. This continued for about three more hours and then, with no warning, they rushed off to the hospital - since I had the speed on 3, this was VERY disorienting.

I miss the good for nothing Nannies though.
You clearly had very different nanny experiences than me. I had my baby taken away because my nanny showed up, took the baby outside, set it down in a puddle of dog pee, and then left the lot with almost 8 more hours to go before anyone would be home.

I haven't gotten the sims 3 yet but I'm hoping to get it sometime this summer. One of the things I always wanted in the sims was for them to contract illnesses. Like an expansion pack almost where spending too much time outside without sunblock will give your sim skin cancer, or a sim can be born blind or deaf. Instead of teaching your toddler to speak you teach it sign language. Or have them need a wheelchair. It's evil, yes, but it would certaintly make htings interesting and challenging. Do they have anything like that in the sims 3?
Thus far I've only experienced food poisoning, feeling sore from working out, and morning sickness. On the plus side, the food poisoning and the morning sickness are MUCH better done than they had been previously.

As for actual illness, I can see it existing in the future. When Sims2 Seasons came out we had illness from too much time in the cold, heat stroke, and I think sunburn or something similar from too much heat but not enough for stroke.

Everything else has gotten a huge boost so I imagine we'll get more interesting illnesses too.

[MorganaFang]

I hate you people. I want this game soooooo bad.

[Chiron Jackal]

I hate you people. I want this game soooooo bad.

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y19/ThrasherCub/sims.png

[Binkx]

You clearly had very different nanny experiences than me. I had my baby taken away because my nanny showed up, took the baby outside, set it down in a puddle of dog pee, and then left the lot with almost 8 more hours to go before anyone would be home.

Apparently so. While the nannies can be neglectful and use EVERYTHING in your house from your TV to your shower and make half prepared foods that they leave sit in random places (I hate that no one ever picked them up when cleaning unless directly ordered to. WHAT DID I PAY THE MAID FOR ANYWAY!?) But it was less stressful knowing that you didn't have to stop in the middle of what you were doing to call a babysitter really quick.

They need to make a day care....hmmm....I wonder if you can build a daycare that your sim can drop their kid off to on the way to work.

[Tempest]

But it was less stressful knowing that you didn't have to stop in the middle of what you were doing to call a babysitter really quick.

You don't have to order your sim to call the babysitter, though. When both your sims are about to get into their cars, a popup will appear and give you the option of calling the babysitter. Your sims will go off to work without having to stand there and take 30 minutes to call for childcare, and the babysitter will arrive about 15-30 minutes later. So, yeah your kid is alone for 15-30 minutes, but I've never had anything bad happen because of it.

[McKitty]

I had twins, and the social worker took them away because the damned nanny went and got herself eaten by the cow-plant.

*mutters*

Overall I like the Sims 3. I wish switching between families was easier and more fluid-like (and the folks would stop having virgin births!) but other than that, no big complaints here.

I don't like the auto-rooft feature though, and I can't figure out -why-.

[Chiron Jackal]

and the folks would stop having virgin births!

:eek:

I was strangely unaware of this occurrence!

[Binkx]

I just had my first glitch of the game.

I was playing one of my families. A mom, a dad, and one infant. The mom was pregnant. While the dad was working out and the mom was tending to her garden, mom went into labor. So I sent her to the hospital.

First pop up, I got to name and choose the second trait. Then 15 pop ups follow, all saying to name the girl, and that she already had her two traits (artistic and brave). I am sure there were more pop ups but I just turned my computer off cause I knew it was a glitch. It freaked me out!

[MetaKittie]

I want this game so bad now its not even funny. T_____T

[GhostBat]

I've discovered a glitch that was amusing at first, but now just a little bit annoying.

I made sims versions of Chriz and I, and in some strange mishap while eating a salad, the bowl became Chriz's hand. Now even after taking a shower, switching clothes, etc., the bowl has yet to go away.

The whole idea of bowlhand was funny at first, but it's getting to the point where I want my man back to normal. :p

[Chriz]

The whole idea of bowlhand was funny at first, but it's getting to the point where I want my man back to normal. :p

It just knows I like to eat on the go.

[Tempest]

I've had a couple of glitches so far. I was playing a married couple with a kid who were living in one of those tiny houses, so there wasn't much walking space. I had the man emptying the training potty and made the mistake of telling the woman to take a shower. There was only one door to the bathroom, and the two ended up crossing paths in the doorway. The man just stopped, standing there with shit in a bag, and would NOT move no matter what I did. The woman, meanwhile, got really angry and smelly as the man stood there for something like 6 hours.

The other glitch happened in the same house, after the kid was a teenager. The woman was taking a shower when the teenager decided to walk right through the bathroom. The woman got embarrassed and somehow ended up floating outside of the house, naked, by the shower. She also got very angry because I couldn't figure out how to get her down. Finally, I went into build mode and built her some stairs so she could climb down and back into the house.

[GhostBat]

I made sims versions of Chriz and I, and in some strange mishap while eating a salad, the bowl became Chriz's hand. Now even after taking a shower, switching clothes, etc., the bowl has yet to go away.

I have a fix to this glitch if anyone else encounters it:

1. Press control+shift+c.
2. Type "moveobjects on".
3. Go into buy mode and grab the bowl.
4. Move it to your kitchen or anywhere away from the sim to clean up later.
5. Type "moveobjects off".

Chriz is no longer bowlhand. Yay!

[Chriz]

Chriz is no longer bowlhand. Yay!

Now I'm strangely hungry...

[Chiron Jackal]

Chriz is no longer bowlhand. Yay!
Best victory ever...

Now I'm strangely hungry...
Best side effect ever!


I hope Jared took pictures. I went into his save and filled every surface in his house (along with random spots on the floor) with uncooked chickens.

[Tempest]

I found this blog (http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/alice-and-kev/) that follows the story of a Sims homeless man and his daughter. The author of the blog provides many great screenshots to go along with her storytelling skills. I'm amazed at the depth of this game and how each Sim's personality really shows through. I actually find myself sympathizing with pixelated characters.

[Chiron Jackal]

I actually find myself sympathizing with pixelated characters.

I think the entry, Selflessness (http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/2009/06/16/selflessness/) made me cry...

[Binkx]

I'm really becoming partial to clumsy sims when it comes to proposals. I had 2 clumsy sims (two different files) and they both dropped the ring while proposing. It was so cute. I wish I had gotten a picture.

[Ves]

I finally got this last week. My first sim died yesterday and I was all upset (honest guv).
Truly this is one of those games that really shouldn't be nearly as addictive as it actually is, after all they wake up, go to work, come home and watch TV, go to bed, rinse, repeat, and die which is in essence what I do for real so why the hell am I playing a game that simulates that?!
S'crazy I tells ya.

Still now my sim is dead, and she died without issue, my game is over and I can leave it alone for the missus to play - for some reason I have a desire to go fishing before 6am, visit the bookstore, and then make a new friend instead. Wierd.

[Revan]

I JUST GOT IT!!! :D

Installing as I type this.
I loved the first fe games so this one should be even better :D.