Released today. Playing around with the iPhone version right now...from the demo videos it looks like it could be pretty entertaining

6/2/2009 4:39:35 PM

I'm super excited about it

It looks great, I'm probably going to pick it up later this week.

6/2/2009 4:44:46 PM

I just picked up my copy for the PC/Mac at lunch so I can't wait to get home and install it I really like how they went the Blizzard route and now have 1 disc that installs on both platforms.

6/2/2009 4:46:46 PM

That's really smart of them!

I just hope this doesn't turn out as poorly as Spore Until I have faith that it's a good game, they aren't getting a penny from me

6/2/2009 7:00:50 PM

I will keep you informed but from what I've seen on the iPhone version its definitely got a lot of new stuff like the ability to roam around town freely and even go fishing. Catching fish on the iphone is entertaining haha.

Installing the Mac version now though...

6/2/2009 7:10:28 PM

Just got my PC version today. I had played the past sims, and sims 2 with some EP so I was so worried when I only got one disk!! haha, anyway, I've been playing on and off all day. The changes are pretty overwhelming if you're used to the original games. So far all the changes are great. I've only played with one character that I created and she is pretty basic. I just wanted to get a feel for the game before I started making my favorites and what not.
^Yeah, it's got fishing and gardening from the sims 2 seasons EP, and the cooking aspect of it is cooler and more in depth with recipes, ingredients and such. I feel like it's a little harder to earn skill points right now because you have to go out and buy new books from the book store to up the points - of course there are multiple ways to up skills too though.
My only thing that I don't like right now is that it takes forever to get through a night while the active sim is sleeping or working. Like I said, I'm playing just one sim right now to get the hang of it, but even on speed 3 I seem to just sit here for a bit to wait for the energy level to get high enough or to wait til they get off work. Hopefully there's something I'm missing about that to make it go faster but I haven't found it yet.

and that's my little review so far. I haven't played it too much today but so far it is super fun and is definitely worth the money

6/2/2009 10:40:22 PM

I've just gotten it installed and played for about an hour.

I think that this is going to be a great game, but there is a lot of new stuff and added features to get use to. Fortunately, it's obviously an incarnation of the previous Sims games and a lot of it is intuitive if you're an old pro. I think that they're going for a bit more depth and involved game play -- it's a lot to take in at once. I think that it'll be for the best, but it's going to take me some time to get into it.

[Edited on June 2, 2009 at 11:46 PM. Reason : lk;4]

6/2/2009 11:45:30 PM

I just got the game and installed it. Haven't got to play it yet, will do that tomorrow morning.

Quote :

"Hopefully there's something I'm missing about that to make it go faster but I haven't found it yet."

Before buying the game, I had been reading on sims sites, and people have said that the fast-forward isn't as fast as sims 2. If its as slow as they say, I'll just do something else while the sim is asleep. Like browse tww.

And I love that the disk is PC/MAC.

6/2/2009 11:56:15 PM

I was reading in the manual that a new option is "life goes on." Apparently, life occurs normally for all of the Sims in your town, even if they are not the active Sim. So, unlike in previous editions, life does not suddenly stop in a household if you jump to another household. I'm guessing that you can go play with other Sims/households while your Sim is asleep.

6/3/2009 12:08:40 AM

ha, my roommate is PISSED that this won't run on her shitty 4 year old laptop.

6/3/2009 2:13:30 AM

^^ oh! of course! That's probably why it does not speed up when one character is sleeping. Because you could always play one who is awake.

6/3/2009 8:32:24 AM

They have added so much new stuff! I love it and I'm glad we have cell phones now haha. 'Working' is also more fun because you have different options of what to do while at work and each has its own consequences. I took a career in Law Enforcement because one of my lifetime goals is to be an international super spy. Another cool aspect of my job is the 'opportunities'. I'm supposed to walk around the neighborhood and greet 3 different neighbors to show that there are police patrolling their neighborhood. So I like that its no longer 'go to work' wait until you get back from work and figure out which skill points u need to be promoted.

6/3/2009 10:30:38 AM

was anyone else having issues of the game crashing? I'm running it on a MBP Unibody (17") and for some reason it would randomly crash to the desktop.

Also I think the 'skip to end of activity' (keyboard shortcut '4') speed setting is also bugged because its no different or faster than fast (keyboard shortcut '3') but its supposed to literally skip to the end of whatever current activity you are doing.

There was a patch available for download immediately after installing the game yesterday so I'm hoping there will be another one soon that will fix this crash issue.

6/3/2009 1:36:55 PM

I've been playing this some today. It's fun, but I don't think it will replace Sims 2 for me just yet. Seems like such a different game.
the skip to the end does not work at all. They need to fix that. Hopefully it will be patched soon.

6/3/2009 5:47:59 PM

MUCH more fun to play than previous sim games.

Sims 1 and 2 I would try to get into and would just get bored playing the actual game, I really only liked building houses.

The new features added by this are awesome, inventory especially. Plus the goals give you more to work toward.

6/3/2009 10:39:02 PM

anyone know where I can buy this for the least amount of money? I saw it for $70 at walmart but really don't want to pay that much

6/4/2009 9:20:34 AM

^$70 you must have been looking at the collectors edition. This game is a brand new title so it is going for the normal $49

6/4/2009 10:31:40 AM

Yeah, the 70 dollar edition is the one with the flash drive. Just the game is 49 bucks.

6/4/2009 10:33:45 AM

added to my topics

Got this on Monday...<3 <3 <3 it

I agree about the time x3 not being as fast as Sims 2. I really love the fact that it doesn't take forever for the game to boot up. Fast load times FTW!

There are so many features that I <3. I like the fact that you can travel to community lots and it doesn't take forever to load.

Saturday is going to be Sims time for me!

6/4/2009 10:44:28 AM

I've been promoted to a lieutenant in the police force so i get my own squad car that I can take home. Its fun driving it around town with the sirens blaring haha

6/4/2009 10:48:03 AM

I went to a hospital to have a baby...nice option that they added...no more labor in kitchens!

6/4/2009 10:50:05 AM

What are the specs for this? i doubt i can play it till i get my new pc

6/4/2009 1:04:30 PM

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=sims+3+specs

6/4/2009 1:42:44 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sims_3
bottom of the page

Windows
Operating System: Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista Service Pack 1
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent
2.0GHz (XP)
2.4GHz (Vista) [If built-in graphics chipsets then 2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent.]
Memory: 1 GB (XP)
1.5GB (Vista)[If built-in graphics then add 0.5 GB additional RAM]
Hard Drive Space: 6.1GB or more for extra content
Graphics Hardware: DirectX 9.0c compliant card with 128 MB RAM (NVIDIA FX 5900/ATI 9500 or better) and support for Pixel Shader 2.0
Sound Hardware: 100% DirectX 9.0c compliant card

6/4/2009 2:05:24 PM

goodness...So I had to stay home from work today and ended up playing the game for hours...haha the sims always sucks me in.

I love that you don't have to make friends to get promotions in jobs. That was always really annoying and time consuming, especially if you needed to have 10+ friends and had to keep up with all of them.
I finally started a family for my sim and I love not having to wait for the days to go by to grow them up because sometimes the newborn/infant stage bores me so it's nice to skip that or at least make it shorter. I also really like the no dirty diapers and spoiled bottles on the floor. The only thing I don't like about the kids so far is that you have to get a bday cake to grow them up everytime.

6/4/2009 9:54:12 PM

i just played for a good part of the night


I really like this 'opportunities' feature...But the time x3 is jsut not fast enough lol

6/4/2009 9:57:31 PM

^Yeah the opportunity option is great. There are plenty throughout the game.

And the speed really bothered me at the beginning. Now that I have more than one sim in my household (and babies and children!) I don't even notice the slow speed which is super nice.

6/4/2009 10:20:24 PM

I'm a triple agent now! Law Enforcement level 9 almost at level 10 before the game crashed...again...Its a serious problem i don't know if anyone else here is having the same issue but it crashes to the desktop all the freakin time and its annoying. I'm literally having to save after each sim day. I searched on google and it appears a ton of people, both windows and mac, have this issue.

6/4/2009 11:52:35 PM

I haven't had any trouble at all with the game. I've maxed out the Writing career with my first Sim and I'm preparing for her to die. I didn't get on making a family or expanding households on this Sim, but it's coming up. So far, I have no complaints. Yes, the x3 is slower than what we're use to, but I've at least been able to explore the city a bit while my Sim is busy.

6/5/2009 12:27:51 AM

i've been poking around with this a little,seems pretty neat. i played the sims 1 for a little bit a long time ago but never really got into it. are you supposed to be able to see into the work place buildings? whenever my guy goes to work, there's a couple of work options, but i can't interact with him. i just have to sit and wait for him to get off work. seems kind of silly that it would make you basically walk away from the game for the couple of minutes while your dude is working.

it did crash on me once, but figured it was because my laptop was overheating cause it was sitting, well, on my lap.

6/16/2009 7:36:08 PM

You can't see into their work place. They only give those interactions to use. It did seem pretty annoying at first, especially if you're only playing one sim. It gets better though.

I just started using a cheat and it got me more into the game. I like making generations of sims and seeing the genetics and what not. So the cheat is helping me do that (using the [testingcheatsenabled true] cheat) It's been more fun lately.

Can't wait for an EP though.

6/16/2009 8:53:33 PM

I've already maxxed out my law enforcement career as an international super spy. I'm making about $600/hr now haha...have 1 baby and I married the maid after I already had a 'romantic interest' But I couldn't help it the maid was hotter.

but what really is pissing me off and has kept me from playing more is that the game does keep crashing and i still don't see a new patch yet. The latest patch wasn't even for the actual game but to fix the launch window for Mac OS X to have the same features as PC.

6/16/2009 9:41:20 PM

Why does this game stutter even on a high end machine....it's the fucking Sims

6/16/2009 9:45:32 PM

Mine has never crashed. But I just bought a new laptop like a month ago...

I put one of my sims on the medical career and then left that active house and went to another, by the time I went back to the first sim he had already made it to the top of the med career and fulfilled his lifetime goal

6/17/2009 9:17:50 AM

I get mine today SOOOO excited!!!

I'm just worried I won't be able to create massive love triangles/squares/octagons with the ease that I did on The Sims 2, since it keeps playing them when you leave that house... : \

6/17/2009 10:17:24 AM

Wait what? How do you leave houses and play other houses? I've only managed to control one sim and now 3 since I got married and had a baby but still the same house.

6/17/2009 10:38:57 AM

You go to Options, click "Edit town" and then you can click "Change active household." You will lose your saved wishes (which I don't think is a big deal) but then you can play pre made homes or if you've moved anyone out of your current house, you can find them and see what they are up to. I like doing that. Moving the young adults I've raised out of the house and then waiting a week to see what they're doing.

6/17/2009 10:50:17 AM

^ Do you mean find them as in just watch what they're up to once they've moved out or find them and actually play them?

Do you think it has less of a "playing God" aspect to it this time?

6/17/2009 11:01:09 AM

^^oh sweet! thanks I will try that next time. Maybe I'll play another family and let this one auto-raise the baby. I hate babies but I don't want my sims to die without leaving kids behind.

6/17/2009 11:04:52 AM

^^No, I meant "find them" as in play them. I move out my sims when they are old enough. There's a new option called "kick out" where you don't have to pick the lot/house to move the sim to. So despite their $$$ the game moves them into whatever lot/house is empty. So you end up with really neat premade houses when you find them!

^Also, I love switching households when there's babies or toddlers in the house but be careful, because with the story progression on (the story keeps going when you're with another household) there might be another baby when you come back! That has been one of the biggest gripes about the new game. There is a way to turn it off but it's complicated and I happen to like being able to leave and coming back to see what's changed.

^^I don't think it has less of the "God playing" aspect than any of the other Sims games. I guess people think that because they do things more on their own than before but you can easily turn that option off as well.

[Edited on June 17, 2009 at 11:10 AM. Reason : g]

6/17/2009 11:08:29 AM

Oh ok, thanks The story progression does sound different and neat, I was just wondering.. It seems like a lot of people on the Amazon reviews weren't happy about it but I mean, it's a new Sims, there's gotta be some new features to spice things up, right?

The kick out feature seems interesting... Ahhh now I'm super excited and can't wait to play it.

6/17/2009 11:17:23 AM

I'm a huge dork but I <3 this website (its one of the links on the launch screen for Sims 3)
http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/2009/06/09/alice-and-kev/

Its about being homeless in Sims 3. Really interesting.


So I decided to get both of my Sims in one household the same lifetime reward using their points...I got them both the "fertile" reward. They had one boy, followed by triplet girls and now she is preggers again.

6/18/2009 3:01:27 PM

quick question (one i need an answer to quickly before i go buy sims 3):
how many times can i install the game? i'm gonna put it on my imac at home, but i'm going to the beach this weekend and my dad will have his macbook...and it'd be cool if i could put it on his too just to play around on while we're down there.

or should i just bring my 24" imac?

6/18/2009 3:35:44 PM

Can't tell you for sure because I haven't tried it yet...but from my experience with EA's sim games (simcity, sims) I have always been able to install it on multiple machines. It doesn't do any visible activation that I can tell. I have an iMac and a MBP that I usually have the games installed on. The only catch is you can't play it without the CD/DVD in the drive

6/18/2009 3:40:34 PM

Yeah, each game has a code it comes with. I've never put it on multiple machines at once but I've defintiely put my old sims2 on my new laptop after using the code and it worked fine.

But ^ is right, you have to have the cd to play it.

6/18/2009 3:47:25 PM

having the disc wouldn't be a problem. all the sims games i've had in the past have worked however many times you install it, i just didn't know if they had some drm type crap going on now.

thanks!

6/18/2009 4:00:48 PM

^5

holy crap that's awesome

I'm going to have to do that sometime. I'll just buy them a small plot of land and spend all of my money on "abandoned lot" stuff.

6/18/2009 4:20:13 PM

I'm so pissed (at myself) I didn't even notice the Mac requirements were OS X 10.5.7 or higher... I have 10.4.11 so my aunt is sending me leopard 10.5 but I have to wait a whole freakin week to play it and I got it yesterday!

It's like hanging food in front of a starving man...

6/18/2009 4:35:38 PM

oh wait. crap. which version do i have??? what's the one before leopard called? is leopard the most recent???


shit


i'm confused...the requirement say 10.5.7 or later, yet they only sell 10.5.6 on the apple website....?? am i missing something??

[Edited on June 18, 2009 at 4:55 PM. Reason : ]

6/18/2009 4:49:33 PM

^leopards been out for a while. Snow Leopard is about to come out so if you bought a mac in the last couple years you'll be fine.

Tiger was before Leopard I believe.

however, 10.5.7 is a new update that just came out (free update on leopard)

[Edited on June 18, 2009 at 4:53 PM. Reason : and by about to come out, i meant in September.]

6/18/2009 4:52:56 PM