More Awesome Than You!

What is the current verdict about which game is better, after TS3 has finally amassed several expansion packs?

I currently need to reinstall, and would like to know whether going for TS2 and all its expansions (never played Apartment Life) or TS3 and all its expansions, would be the best choice.

if you are saying that youll try it for the first time, then i suggest that you do because it adds alot of different aspects to the game. even you dont have it, then id still recommend sims 2  :P ;D

Oh FFS, it depends on what sort of game you like to play.


Which tells the OP precisely nothing except your own preference. You write worse than an ESL. I hope like fuck English is not your first language, because if it is, you are a moron.

Sims 3 is better as a "game", Sims 2 remains better as a story tool. If you tend to play one fambly in a quasi-Legacy manner, and pay little attention to the "outside world", then Sims 3 is more tailored for this out of the box. If you want to control a small number of famblies on a somewhat more macro-level than worrying about the tiny minutiae, and would like the rest of the neighborhood to do its thing, Sims3 + AwesomeMod works well for this. If you are an absolute fascist and want absolutely nothing to even so much as move without your approval, though, stick with TS2. While AwesomeMod makes it practical to play multiple famblies simultaneously without completely losing control of the entire system, they won't completely freeze in place and do absolutely nothing while you're elsewhere, either. As a player, you can be a lot more fascist about stuff in TS2.

I actually have all 3 Sims games on my computer and takes turns at playing them.  My favourite game of all time is Sims 1 Makin' Magic.  I love the weather in Sims 2 but at the moment in Sims 3 have no particular favourite.

Gracias mi Presidente, what I do is shuffle-rotating all the families in the game (with a hack so that, say, people in Veronaville can interact with people in Pleasant View, or elsewhere), while I insert new families now and then, so it's evident to the fascist in me that The Sims 2 is the only option for this (I play it because it's a toy and not a game, anyway).

----
End post.

PS - That makes me happy since I already have all the ISOs ready with the exception of AL while I have nothing TS3 related, and I won't have to worry about the puddings' look.

TBH, puddings now look substantially better than TS2 sims.

Hmmm... *goes to check at Google Images*

(http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/8083/pud03.png) (http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/3186/pud02.png) (http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/1758/pud01.png) (http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/1329/pud00.png)
(http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/3180/pud04.png)

I still like TS2 sims better (after applying mesh replacements, eye replacements, etc., of course.) What's up with that expression on their face? It's as if they ate spoiled food but don't want to hurt the cook's feelings so they fake a smile.

Google images shows stock Pudding with stock content. When CC is applied, the distinction sort of vanishes. And it's not as if TS2 sims didn't make their own share of really stupid expressions.

I have to agree with the FOJ. I like the Sims 3 better. It is the future IMHO.

Sims 3 is animated much more fluidly.  Whenever Sims 2 sims make faces, it looks like someone working the parts on a ventriloquist's dummy, and they mug and grimace ALL.  THE.  TIME.  The "first woohoo" cutscene is enough to give you nightmares for life.  Go over to MTS and look at the custom sims people have uploaded.  TS3 Sims look so much better now than TS2.

I have to disagree with "animated fluidly". In TS2, sims running from point A to point B smoothly ran from point A to point B, up the stairs, down the stairs, through doors, around corners, etc. In TS3, they run with this kind of odd waddle like they've just shit their pants and are trying not to smear it around too much, and they pass through stairs and doorways often in this kind of odd stop-start jerkiness. Social animations are decidely standoffish and stiff, with noticeable pauses for no apparent reason, as if they were the acting version of William Shatner's speaking. All in all, animation is not one of the improvements TS3 exhibits over TS2. They LOOK better, yes. But they do not move better.

Sims in TS3 handle like large battlecruisers.

I meant facial animations, Pescado.  TS2 sims' faces have much more visible distortion of the features.

If you enjoy games that crash a lot for no apparent reason then TS3 is for you.  Playing this game is like holding a bottle of nitroglycerine while in the middle of a large crowd.  Eventually someone is going to bump into you.  And no one will be happy with the results.

Also, TS2 runs about a million times better and faster.

I can't help but notice the crashing is a problem which primarily afflicts people who are not me.

TS3 runs OK if you have a good computer and plenty of RAM.

I've not had TS3 crash in a very, very long time.

Does "Yew need moar RAMZ" apply when you already have seven gigs of it?  How much more do I need?

If you've already got 7 GB, you don't need any more.

I was playing Sims 3 on a laptop. I had slow game play and random crashes. Now that I have a shiny new computer, the game runs beautifully (I didn't know the water actually MOVED!) without a single crash.

The crashing happens on x64 machines with lots of RAM. It's easily solved by making an exception for the game in the DEP. I play on a laptop and haven't had any problem with TS3. Though TS2 has never crashed, it does make my fan run constantly. And the differences are subjective. I don't like TS3 very much. I prefer the quirkiness of TS2, but the lack of open neighborhood sucks. I tend to switch back and forth often.

Do you think that in the future someone will do something so that TS3 allows players to have the same level of control on families that TS2 has? (So that, say, I can rotate all the families in the game and introduce a new family per week without the game deciding I can't haz my fascism.)

Because otherwise it seems I'll be stuck with TS2 for a long while or forever (if TS4 and others just go downhill in this regard).

(Not that it's a big issue, considering sticking with old versions of software because the new versions don't satisfy my needs is more the norm than the exception around here.)

I don't think it's possible to have both the open neighbourhood of TS3 with the control of TS2. It is somewhat doable to cycle through a few famblies, but while you're watching one, all the others are doing their own thing in real time. Awesomemod allows more control, but does not replicate the isolation of one family at a time that TS2 has. You should try it out at least, though, and see if you can manage. If it's not good enough, don't play it.

I'm a Sims 3 girl all the way. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy playing Sims 3, but for me the all around game play of Sims 2 is much better. I'm able to truly play the way I want to play with my many families. Is there a way that you can install both games on your computer? Then you'll be able to play in rotation of both games.

Wait, what?

I am still playing TS2. I have both installed, but I never get any farther than designing houses on TS3.

There is indeed. You install one, and then the other.

Yeah, but the problem is that it's very important (to me) that all families are able to interact with all other families (like in the real world, well, at least I can interact with pretty much anyone in the world if they have Internet), which is doable in TS2, and probably doable in TS3, but it's impossible to have families of TS2 interacting with families of TS3.

Besides, if I want to insert a new family that is, say, based on the Becker TV Show's characters, where do I insert it? Suppose I insert it in both games, which one is going to provide the best experience? Whichever it is, the other one isn't needed.

I do plan to try TS3 in the far away future, to give it a chance and see if I like it (and probably to make copycat families in TS2 based on TS3 families (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GottaCatchThemAll)), but based on what I've read in this thread and the Internet, the main reason to go for TS3 is the open neighborhood and traits, but TS2 has places to go more interesting than rabbit holes in TS3, which are worth the loading times, and the traits are just a couple of extra animations or underwhelming features (like evil Sims getting "take evil nap" option that looks identical to normal nap) anyway (correct me if I'm wrong.)

No, computers can only have one game installed at a time. You have to uninstall the first game to install a new one. That's why people only play one game.

There are some traits that significantly distinguish sims from each other in more than just random cosmetic animations and insignificant rate boosts, certainly more so than in TS2, where sims had approximately the equivalent of 3 binary traits that mattered based on their personalities, and everything else about them was basically identical in every way. TS3 sims definitely are distinguished more by their traits than TS2 sims were. However, there are, obviously, a lot of traits that have no significant effect and many that just have random cosmetic effects that don't really change anything, like the "Evil" interactions. Evil actually does affect a sim, though, in ways that are not purely cosmetic: They can see in the dark, and are not affected by certain things.

Doesn't evil affect criminal/evil branch career performances?

Yes, but that's what we file under the category of "minor irrelevant effect", since the evil trait does not actually ENABLE that, as anyone can do it. It has to actually produce a real change. Like Green Thumb improves gardening, but this is an irrelevant minor effect because it is not required for gardening: However, it ALSO allows the ability to resurrect a plant, which means Deathflowers can actually be farmed. That *IS* a relevant effect, because it enables something that was not previously possible.

You should read The Sims Wiki's list of traits (http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_Traits) and see if it changes your mind. I find they are more varied than the personalities of TS2 were. Plus, with Awesomemod, you can have as many (or as few) of them as you want on a sim.

Nobody corrected me about the rabbit holes, which means the open neighborhood is just a gimmick :( (if I send my Sims to the discotheque, I want to see them eat and have a dance, not a "Your Sims Are Having Fun" Load bar filling, or w/e.)

So, if one gives up control and allows families to do their stuff while one isn't playing them, it all comes down to this:


How small is "small"? And what bad stuff would happen if I attempted to rotate a couple hundred families in TS3 this way? (Say, in the time other players play a week in some family, I'd just rotate 7 families and play a day in each).

You haven't really looked that far into TS3, have you? The majority of rabbit holes are just the workplaces of the Sims. Late Night added a number of different (though not drastically) venues that a sim can go to and socialize however they want to. A Discotheque is one of those venues. And before you jump to conclusions again, there are also professions which allow you to control your sim while they work.

Rabbitholes are basically just the equivalent of TS2's workplaces. You know how your sims in TS2 go off the world someplace to work? TS3 adds those as actual locations, albeit in simplified form, as rabbitholes. The ability to do other-things in condensed form is sort of just an extension of the workplace. The ability to do your shopping in a rabbithole, despite its complaints, isn't really a real complaint: They've added actual shops with people manning them...and just like in TS2, they are NOT really an improvement, since they introduce all the associated headaches of dealing with an unnecessary sim. Frankly, a lot of us in TS2 just used those "shop at home" hacks anyway.

Small is "no more than maybe a handful, tops". What BAD stuff would happen if you attempted to drop a COUPLE HUNDRED famblies in TS3? Your game would combust, since it'd be the equivalent of a TS2 apartment with 300 inhabitants. Don't do that. As for "rotating in 7 famblies", 7 is certainly a doable number, but probably not a sane number. In TS3, one does not rotate between famblies like TS2, because the entire world shares a single clock. When you stop playing one fambly, it doesn't just freeze in place like in TS2. It keeps doing its thing, either executing the last orders you gave it, running a macromanagement directive under Supreme Commander (with AwesomeMod), or just going into a kind of low-rent parking mode similar to sims in a dorm or apartment (and hopefully not standing around in puddles of their own piss). To intensely manage all 7 or so famblies at the same level as you would in TS2 would not be very practical in TS3, because TS3 is not really so much about the entire eat/sleep/pee thing.

I would go with The Sims 3, just my opinion. I've tried going back to TS2 certain things you can't do just sort of start ruining it.

But you also have to consider, How much CC do you want?

TS3 has a good amount of CC by now, but TS2 has that metric shit ton of CC that has built up over time.

With Awesomeware (particularly AwesomeMod) TS3 fails way less, and I've had less of those WTF moments. I don't really care what Awesome Story decides to do to my Sims while I'm away, since my main objective is to get everyone having babies. As long as I have pudding spawn running around my world, I don't care. Then again, I also like playing heartbreakers. Particularly male heartbreakers, since I can use them as sperm donors and leave the spawn with the women. As for aesthetics, I just got a new graphics card, and with the fair amount of CC I have installed, my sims are gorgeous.

And The Sims 2 wins! The deciding factor was the number of families that can be played at some point. In TS2, you can, instead of adding new neighborhoods, adding new Shopping Districts, so that all new families become connected to previous families. You can even do that with the default neighborhoods so that Strangehood and Verona are Shopping Districts of Pleasant View (or rather, download content from someone that did it.)

This gives the player about 60 playable families (including dorms) from the get go with freedom to add more families, which makes TS3's "a handful of families" seem very poor (if even as few as 7 seem unpractical to play.)

With so many possible families, TS3's very limited number seems like a waste, for someone that wants to play all families in the game.

Most people don't have the time or inclination to play sixty families at once, but then most people aren't insane. 

Looks like Oona has an apprentice now.  It's like the Saw movies, only creepy and horrific.

The key difference between the fambly-counts in TS2 vs. TS3 is that in TS2, every fambly you add, you MUST play, or they will lose sync...even if they become really boring. This has resulted in the creation of a clocky-thingy just to rush them through the process of being uninteresting.

In TS3, the number of maximum famblies you can expect to manage is lower, but you are always free to turn them loose without having to manually manage this.

That is of course assuming you mind the sync issues. In my opinion, TS2 and TS3 are not really replacements for each other with their vastly different gameplay (TS3 feeling more like an adventure than a toy box), but I have pretty much given up on TS3 due to the chore to keep up with the patches. Then again, my TS2 gameplay consists of setting up testbeds, experimenting with a few things, then abandoning them again. Have not played properly for ages.

Tried both, still prefer TS2. It's more customizable, and it presents more of a challenge. When I first tried TS3, my initial thoughts were along the lines of, "Huh, this is like playing Sims 2 on Easy mode." I still think that. TS3 is a decent game, but TS2 has much more replay value.

I like how easy TS2 was to create with. With TS3, I can't be bothered to make CC. With TS2, I hated that it took forever to load each family. With TS3, it's much faster to load, and the open neighborhood is something I wish TS2 had.

I still hate the look of TS3 sims (especially the black eyes in the mirror--*shiver*), but I hated the look of TS2 sims too, until default skins and eyes came to be.

I still play TS2 from time to time, but I'm used to the gameplay of TS3 now that my TS2 playing is only on an occasional basis now.

The Sims2 became my favorit over Sims1 by Night-Life.

I guess, Sims 3 will oust sims 2 for me after the next Add-On.

Game?  It is a TOY, not a game.  That said, the experience of loading 24 TS2 discs at least once should be entertaining for you.


Future? It is EXPANDED, therefore it is history.  That said, the experience of loading 24 TS2 discs at least once should make you ask yourself how many times you intend to repeat history.

Dude, seriously, don't post unless you can make some kind of sense.  It's less fun for us to call someone a tard when we suspect he or she might actually be retarded.

Time Cube Guy? (http://www.timecube.com/) Is that you?

Tarlia gets an internet as well as a pie baked in the shape of an enormous pie.

I've not played TS3 since it first came out.

Are the babies still obnoxious nightmares from hell?

Well, yeah, but that kind of mirrors real life.  "Generations" added a bit more for toddlers, children, and teens to do.

As someone who's been INCREDIBLY patient with TS3, even with all its bugs and crashes, I can say I like it better than TS2. After playing TS3 and then taking the time to go back and reinstall TS2, I found it.... lacking. I think it's that mantra of "A luxury sampled becomes a necessity." I'm too spoiled by Create a Style and the Open Neighborhood. I couldn't go back to loading screens between lots. Not to mention TS2's EPs just seemed a lot more watered down and family friendly in comparison.

This is why I refuse to spawn in real life, let alone put up with it in a video game.

I have Sims 2 and all EPs and SPs...from what I've seen of Sims 3 (I've watched gameplay videos on YouTube and asked around), I think I will stick with 2, being the fascist that I am.  ;D

As far as boring families in Sims 2...well, that's why I have Theo's plug-in.  8)

Not only that, but the Sims 3 base game is $50 in my area.  I got Sims 2 Double Deluxe and the other combo packs (and the remaining EPs) for $20 apiece.  Maybe by the time Sims 4 or 5 comes out Sims 3 might be cheap enough for me to give it a shot.

What are the requirements for Sims 3 anyway?  I'm running Windows 7 64 bit, 3 GB of RAM (it was 2 GB until I swiped a memory stick out of my old computer).

Be careful with possible mismatched RAM, it can cause system issues.

3GB just seems low to run Windows 7 & Sims3 with any EP. But then I have 8GB on a 3.2 GHz quad-core and am contemplating upgrading to 16GB (MOAR power) on Win7 x64.

Check http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/ (http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/) . Don't trust the minimum requirement. You want to be well over that.

WTG Fuzzy Pumpkin for giving us a dead link.

I aim to please. Fixed now. Apparently it is not a fan of being truncated.

My new computer is a Presario, so was the old one (but different models) and they use the same type of memory stick.  In fact if I remember right the stick I got out of the old computer was one I'd bought at Best Buy.

Thanks for the head's-up, though.  I do plan on getting a 2-GB stick as soon as I can afford it.

That's not what she meant. It's recommended that all RAM sticks be of the same size (as in, all 1 GB or all 2 GB, not a 1 GB stick and a 2 GB stick).

Partly, although I was also thinking about different makes and how latency can vary and so on. I prefer to buy RAM in a batch, I've had problems before. There are apps to check your RAM if you want to be sure.

I didn't know that about the RAM sticks, thanks Zazazu!  

Basically what I have is the 2-GB stick my computer came with, and the one I salvaged from my old one.  I've been wanting to get another 2-GB.

Isn't that the point? Otherwise, why would I add it, or how would the members of that family be different from townies? (in a meaningful way.)


I'm not a perfectionist regarding syncing of time scales, and don't mind if one teen is 6 days older than another one the same age after several cycles, after all, with so many families it's hard to spot the difference (but I MUST play all my families anyway.)


Boring families can die in a fire. Though, switching to speed 3 thorough the day may make things interesting again, with Sims  having to rescue their jobs for missing the carpool or several needs dropping lethally.


I could live with that, if it wasn't DRAMATICALLY lower, like, Elephant-to-Ant-ratio lower.


I said "sixty" only as a starting point, in a different post I mean to add a couple hundreds. And I don't see this being different from adding thousands of characters to a MUGEN roster, so this is just like an Ultimate Showdown Of Ultimate Destiny (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny) but with famblies. So, if I can add all the Marvel, DC Comics, Webcomics, Comic Strips, Ánimanga, TV Shows, Cartoons, Films, VideoGames, Celebrities, Sports, Tabletop Games*, Media, Fan Fics, Fictional, Historic and Literature (and whatever I'm missing... **) Characters, what is going to stop me, that the game would just combust? No.

The Sims 2 is the ultimate crossover tool (at least until they make one in where I can add the 648 Pokémon and such in there as pets, a cat that looks like Mewtwo just doesn't cut it...)

* I hadn't thought of it until now, but yeah, I have to plan to make families based on Chess sets, with two enemy families being White and Black, though I think the pawns would need to be born in-game so it doesn't become idiotic.

** Oh, heck, just imagine The Sims 2 Meets The Akinator (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Akinator), I don't think I'll put really obscure chars in the game, so no Alfredo Cristiani or Mettannamuwa in there, I'm not THAT insane, that's why I'm saying a couple hundreds and not a couple thousands.

We really don't need to hear about all the furry/comic book/fan fiction/faffy elf shit you want to put in your game.  We already knew you were insane from the "SIXTY FAMBLIES AT ONCE!!!!!1!" post; you don't have to go into all the sad, lame details.

This is insane. You actually want to play 200 odd families at once? WTF. Apart from the fact that this is beyond cray-cray, isn't there a limit to the number of characters TS2 can handle, befoe the game asplodes?

I like the fact I can send my spares and various extraneous family members off into the big wide world in TS3 and let them get on with it. I do have a hood where I flip around the families, but I still let Twallan's SP do its thang. Sure, sometimes Sims deviate from my vague plans for them, but meh. I tend to take the view that the game is just following the messiness of life.

It's not really elephant-to-ant lower. It may not even be lower at all, depending on how much you value actually making progress. If you're playing 30 famblies in TS2, your progress is effectively close to zero. I know this, I've tried. I had to stop doing that. In TS3, it is entirely more feasible to manage 30 famblies, albeit on a more macro level than before, whereas in TS2, such an attempt was pretty much doomed by the fact that you had to actively play a fambly even when nothing was happening.

In TS3, the Supreme Commander autopilot handles that just fine.

TS3 families might be more self-sufficient but Sims' interactions are boring, they lack sense of humour and behave somewhat coldly. I can't imagine my father saying "It's a bit late, you should leave now."
Only "Generations" provided a few things for kids and teens to do, nothing for adults though.
Anyway, I'm an insane Simmer who very much likes having the first and last word in what Sims are and/or are not allowed to do. So, TS2 suits my philosophy better.

It's a bit late, you should leave now.

Indeed, the progress is virtually 0. But that's not a bug, it's a feature as that's just the progress of the source material. I'm a fan of Comic Strips, and I'm stealing this from Robot Hobo of somethingawful:

- Charlie Brown has always been in elementary school.
- Swee'Pea has been a baby for 78 years.
- Marvin's been a baby for 29 years.
- Luann is on her 26th year of high school.
- Little Orphan Annie did seem to age by a couple of years... over the course of 87 real years.

I wouldn't see a problem with their Sims counterparts doing the same, so NO PROGRESS FOR YOU is fine with me.

I'm more worried about soozelwoozel's question of the game asploding once the number of characters get too high, though.

@Nalia: Thanks, that's what I've noticed on videos, so it's not just a quantity problem, but a quality problem (as I consider how they animate a big part of the Sims, I still find some new funny animations I hadn't seen before, or forgot about them, now and then. I play The Sims 2 because they are charming.)