Things you DO like...

[lingeringviolet]

Who the fuck are you again?  And why are you acting like you have the disc inserted in your ass, rather than your computer?

I am simply a random person who asked another random person a couple of questions on an internet forum. Did I somehow offend your sensibilities? Truly, it will keep me up at night.

[magic cookie]

I halfway agree with you there. Kids should be able to read about cooking, do gardening, athletics...I did all those things as a 6.

Sorry, I didn't explain myself well. I agree that kids could learn about cooking, from a special kids book. What wasn't realistic in Sims 2 was how you could make your Sim kids and teens skilling machines, reading and learning everything from a book and having maxed everything before turning into an adult!

Now this isn't possible anymore, and I love it. They have added more skills (writing, fishing, creativity being divided between guitar and painting) and you actually have to practice the skills instead of spending hours reading about them, which I definitely see as more realistic, especially for cooking and mecanics. The fact that you can know only some skills, not all of them also helps individualize the Sims.

Sim kids should definitely be able to gain some music and athletic points though.

[J. M. Pescado]

Sorry, I didn't explain myself well. I agree that kids could learn about cooking, from a special kids book. What wasn't realistic in Sims 2 was how you could make your Sim kids and teens skilling machines, reading and learning everything from a book and having maxed everything before turning into an adult!

Of course, now kids are entirely useless, since it takes all of about 5 minutes to max out the few points they're allowed to earn, and that's it.

Now this isn't possible anymore, and I love it. They have added more skills (writing, fishing, creativity being divided between guitar and painting) and you actually have to practice the skills instead of spending hours reading about them, which I definitely see as more realistic, especially for cooking and mecanics.

I don't follow your logic. You say that having to actually practice the skills instead of speindg hours reading about them is "more realistic", yet these are, in fact, two skills you can learn entirely from reading books about them.

[magic cookie]

Ha Pescado!

That's probably because I love cooking and know that reading about it and actually making a great meal are two entirely different things. Same with mecanics, I don't know anything about them and am sure reading a book about it wouldn't make me able to repair a TV!

I agree that kids are pretty useless, but toddlers are worse . Guess they will fix that in an upcoming EP with new toys and a piano  .

[J. M. Pescado]

That's probably because I love cooking and know that reading about it and actually making a great meal are two entirely different things. Same with mecanics, I don't know anything about them and am sure reading a book about it wouldn't make me able to repair a TV!

Yes, but my point is you use them as an example of it being more realistic, but your premise is faulty and you CAN, in fact, max out the skills entirely by reading from books. As for cooking, well, I don't understand cooking at all. I mean, I understand CHEMISTRY, but the idea that that chemically destroying your food is somehow supposed to make it "better" eludes me.

[magic cookie]

Okay, then I learnt something new today .

I didn't know there were cooking books up to level 10, much less mechanics ones in the game!

But I've been playing only a bit, and have been turned off by some nasty bugs which is something I do NOT like in this game (that weird moustache guy that pops up in Sims portraits, having a mum and toddler indefinitely stuck at the end of "learn to talk" interaction, having a family disappear one day after moving them into a new, bigger house - guess my computer just sucks). 

[Roflganger]

having a mum and toddler indefinitely stuck at the end of "learn to talk" interaction, having a family disappear one day after moving them into a new, bigger house - guess my computer just sucks). 

Sims stuck in an action can be fixed using "resetsim Firstname Lastname".  AwesomeMod, being full of awesome, stops households from randomly vanishing (among a million other must-have fixes). 

[Immortelle]

The interaction of stealing candy from a baby.

[SimDebster]

I like being able to take a baby or toddler with you to town.  I like that you no longer need a baby sitter for kids (only toddlers and babies).

I do not understand why a child cannot learn to cook and actually cook, though.  When I was a 6, I had my own cookbook and used my Mom's stove and oven.  So did my brothers.  To me, my Sims should be able to do the same things that I did as a 6.

[minidoxigirli]

One of my sims started playing the guitar.  Her husband picked up their granddaughter and carried her outside to listen to the music.  I thought it was so incredibly cute.  I also like the parties.  My only complaint is that if you have multiple people sharing a party, everyone takes off after the second cake.  It would be nice if they would stick around for an hour afterwards so that my birthday sims could actually say hi.  I love the aging of the other households.  It's been fun to invite the grandkids over and see what their lives have been like.

[Slymenstra]

I also like all the things everyone listed but wanted to add some other things. 

I do like... the entire landscaping items (trees, shrubs).  I think they are very well done.  I love how they move in the wind.

I love how my sim can go over her boyfriend's house and hang out and sleep over.

I like how elders look, I just think they are so damn adorable.

I like how my sims jump into the water from the side of the pool.

I love the beaches and the oceans.  If they make a BV type expansion it will be awesome to swim in the ocean.  (They should have shark attacks!!)

I like the quests.

I like the paintings my sims do.

I like the whole cooking/gardening.

I guess I could go on and on...

[Soggy Fox]

I love the landscaping, the traits are fun, and the ability to chose when to age a sim is pretty good too.

I think its is far less realistic that a sim child can max out writing and painting, but not learn any real cooking.  When I was 106 I was actually a damn good cook already - not only did I learn from reading [I was reading adult books by then, btw] but I was actually cooking dinner without an adult supervising me, at least after the first few times when it was obvious I had it under control.  Yes, sometimes meals were a little odd, as I experimented with spices, but it was better than some adults manage.

But overall, I think once it is possible to import new objects and fix the few things I think are backwards, that as a game, sims 3 will be an improvement after all.

[lingeringviolet]

I love the beaches and the oceans.  If they make a BV type expansion it will be awesome to swim in the ocean.  (They should have shark attacks!!)

Shark attacks would be fantastic; more ways to die ftw.

I really like the sunrises and sunsets and the way the water reflects the light. I love the wider variety of skills and ways to make money. The variety of LTWs is a big improvement, too.

[Zazazu]

I halfway agree with you there. Kids should be able to read about cooking, do gardening, athletics...I did all those things as a 6.

Sorry, I didn't explain myself well. I agree that kids could learn about cooking, from a special kids book. What wasn't realistic in Sims 2 was how you could make your Sim kids and teens skilling machines, reading and learning everything from a book and having maxed everything before turning into an adult!

I was never a power-skiller. However, children having only four skills they can learn seems to contribute to the prevalence of the Perfect Aquarium, Illustrious Author, and the general Author/Artist LTWs. I want my sims to pop up their own LTW naturally, and I feel like the game predisposes them to the same of four wants. Not always, but often.

Seriously, though? Separate books for kids? Could you not read adult books as a 6? I was reading L.M. Montgomery at 6 (technical age, not Rule of Six). Betty Crocker is hardly James Joyce.

[awrevell]

Seriously, though? Separate books for kids? Could you not read adult books as a 6? I was reading L.M. Montgomery at 6 (technical age, not Rule of Six). Betty Crocker is hardly James Joyce.

I am with you there Zazazu.  I hated school with a passion as a kid.  I was forced to endure reading "See Dick run.  Dick can run fast.  Jane ran after Dick." in shool when I was reading Edgar Allen Poe and Dan Ross (Dark Shadows books written under the pen name Marilyn Ross) at home afterwards.  I once took a Dark Shadows book with me to school and got in trouble for it, till the teacher checked his desk and found his copy was still in his desk.   He was reading the same book and thought I had taken his book from his desk.   

[magic cookie]

Seriously, though? Separate books for kids? Could you not read adult books as a 6? I was reading L.M. Montgomery at 6 (technical age, not Rule of Six). Betty Crocker is hardly James Joyce.

Point taken. But the game does have separate children books. And while I wouldn't blink at seeing a kid bake cookies, I wouldn't envision them making lobster thermidor. So I think it's ok that they have marked differences in the ability to gain skills between kids and teens, though I agree they have probably limited them too much and made that age less interesting, except perhaps for the school opportunities.

[Rockermonkey]

I found a new thing that annoys me...You can't see toddlers skills until they're children. How does this add to gameplay in any way? I like to be able to know everything at a glance. And this just is annoying. But atleast toddlers aren't butt ugly anymore XD.

[kemowery]

I like that teenage relationships stay intact even when one person becomes an adult.

I like that the other families (and other branches of the same family) age without me playing them.

On a related note, I like that in one branch of my family that I moved out, they had a kid (probably a clone, but whatever) and named it "Einstein," which is actually in line with the way I've been naming the sims in my family.

Awesomemod.

That kids can go places by themselves or get left home alone.  It's like growing up in the '70s all over again.

The "creeped out" moodlet when someone tries to get flirty in the bathroom.

The ease of going to multiple other lots.

Load times, or the lack thereof.

Work and school "tones."

Traits, and Create-A-Sim in general.

Create-A-Style, especially the relative ease of dragging and dropping to create matching themes.

Being able to have birthdays at any time, so that once everything that can be learned as a toddler or child has been learned, you can just jump ahead.

I even like the puddings, generally, although every once in a while I find one that looks like a catcher's mitt with eyes, and I have to CAS it.  Still, it's an improvement over the horrific genetic accidents that were EAxis-spawned sims in TS2.

[IgnorantBliss]

In addition to what others have listed already, I like

- That you need specific items to prepare specific kinds of meals (even if it's a bit weird you need only apples to make pancakes, but it's getting there)
- Skill journals, all the details they keep track of
- That your sim can go to a hospital to give birth
- Being able to harvest wild plants
- That kids work on their homework autonomously
- That work places are actual buildings in the town your sim lives in

[simmilk]

I like the:
...randomize button in buy mode. 
...floating staircase effect (even if you can't walk under them).
...bikes.
...green trailing armpit fumes.
...the integration of fishing, gardening, and cooking.
...combining the unlucky, loser and clumsy traits.

[GelatinousSubstance]

And while I wouldn't blink at seeing a kid bake cookies, I wouldn't envision them making lobster thermidor.

I made my first thanksgiving dinner when I was 8. It consisted of maple-glazed yams, basil carrots, homemade cranberry sauce and homemade gravy, and of course, a turkey with stuffing that I made myself - despite that the turkey was a little dry due to it being my first attempt, the meal turned out great.

Of course, it wasn't lobster thermidor, but needless to say, just because I was a kid, it didn't mean that I was incapable of understanding simple instructions from a recipe book, and I still make that dish to this day for my "turkey holidays".

Oh, and as for the cookies, I still can't bake a cookie to save my life.

One more thing, my daughter wanted to make a ham dinner when she was 9, and I let her, seeing as I was able to tackle such tasks at that age, and she's a dang good cook now too. Yet, my son is a terrible cook no matter how hard he tries, and he's well over a dependent age.

This small experiment on my own offspring has led me to believe that just because you wouldn't blink, or would, doesn't necessarily mean that you're entirely correct, or that EA has added more realism to the game.

@Rufio:

I don't know if you know this, but there is a hack at MTS2 that enables the use of corner counters for all EAxis counters.

[chaos]

FYI: Children can learn cooking skill from baking muffins on the toy oven.

Things I like:

* Traits and trait-based LTWs. Yes, we sort of had them in TS2, but in TS3 they actually make sense.
* Branching careers. Genius, though I do wish there was a violin for sims in the Symphony branch of the music career. Violins are just as portable as guitars.
* Graphics. The water and landscaping are amazing. Even the puddings look good close-up, but zoomed out and in their thumbnails they look like TS1 sims, yet I still prefer them to the TS2 sims pre default replacements. I'm sure we can all remember those flat painted-on eyes. *shudders*
* Terrain paints that aren't made of suck, and variable fuzziness of brush edges = awesome.
* Sliders for things like stair width and roof slope.
* Half-square placement and 45-degree rotation that actually works. I love that even my multi-tile objects are usable at a 45-degree angle.
* Moodlets. I thought I'd hate them, but they've turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the game.
* Create-a-Style. This *almost* makes up for lack of content.
* My sims take care of their needs in a fairly intelligent way. No more playing computer games until they die of hunger.
*Goal-oriented play. I actually like this, but unlike your typical RPG, you never quite "beat" everything, and can continue playing until your eyes bleed, if you're so inclined. This means that elderhood and top-of-career isn't nearly as dull as it was in TS2.
* No permaplat. See above.
* Work/School options. I like that my sims can work hard, slack off, socialize, or just put in a normal effort.
* I like the open neighborhood and neighborhood aging a lot more than I thought I would. It seems realistic that sims move in and out of houses, produce spawn, etc, without your control. I mean, can you control everything your RL neighbors do?
* I like the concept of sims riding bicycles, but considering that sims don't earn fitness from them, my sims may as well drive cars. Also, the weird teleportation to the street kind of ruins the effect of all vehicles for me.

Nobody is going to like any game 100%. There will always be gripes and complaints. This doesn't mean that people don't enjoy playing said game, just that certain things could be improved upon.

[awrevell]

Nobody is going to like any game 100%. There will always be gripes and complaints. This doesn't mean that people don't enjoy playing said game, just that certain things could be improved upon.

That was very well said chaos.

I like that you aren't forced to play a certain way.  You aren't tied to a lot and have to live there or nowhere, even if you own it.
In my Legacy Challenge game my founder doesn't have anything on their property other than the trashcan and mailbox.  I use various facilities around town for appropriate purposes.  For example my sim showers at the local pool, buys fruits and veggies from the store that she can eat from inventory and naps on park benches (if you force 4 or 5 naps in a row it is almost as effective as a full nights sleep).  While there are things we will find that we don't like the game is an improvement over previous incarnations, and with J.M.Pescado's AWESOMEMOD it keeps getting better.

 

[VeilSethekk]

The one thing that stands out most for me in TS3 is the smoothness when it comes to the seamless neighborhood, with none of those boring loading screens. TS3 also loads a lot faster for me than TS2, which is also nice.

[chaos]

Heh, that'll change once people figure out how to do CC meshes. TS2 used to load super-fast when people could only do recolors, and that's all I had in my game. 2 GB of CC later, and it takes a few minutes (was longer on my old computer).