It is sad.  It's currently working for me at 55.  Mine is not set to read-only, yrt I've never noticed the file being over-written.  Seems odd.

You can edit Config.log, look for FrameRateLimit around line 63

On Origin, you can redeem product code I-LOVE-THE-SIMS to get The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection for free. 
http://help.ea.com/en/article/how-to-get-the-sims-2-ultimate-collection/

It is the same "quality" resolution, and a smaller file size.  Good Find.

Waah, waaah, I don't know why I have to breathe car exhaust if I want to jog on the sidewalk.

I see it more as succumbing to bullshit civil rights, rather than any complex.  It seems similar to anything else so many other things where someone wants to do something legal, and someone opposes it.  Usually, the opposition just has to STFU.

Like if I have to tolerate that quart of Chanel #5 that broad near me is wearing.  It doesn't matter if I'm getting sick and dizzy and I swear I'm breaking out in hives... she is entitled to wear it.  I doubt she has an "entitlement complex" -- which I don't believe is a correct term.

A more fundamental example would be the freedom of speech.  So, people can say what they want, when they want, keeping in mind certain legal responsibilities, like avoiding harassment and liable, and local provisions such as decibel level and time of day for disturbing the peace.  Most of the time, if someone says something you don't like, you just have to suck it up.  They are entitled to speak -- they don't have a complex.  Unfortunately, we do not have the right to silence.  They are entitled; we have to tolerate.  Being entitled isn't a complex.

I know!  I though about that, honestly.  But, if 98% of the people use it wrong, I feel I must succumb to not being misunderstood by 98%.  (the arbitrary I figure I used is simply reflective of the fact that I have never heard anybody speak it correctly.)

I could care less if you click it, but I will maintain my integrity.  It is the best answer to your question that I know of.  Seems to me it would be more suspicious if I did try to hide it.  Well, first time I've seen someone scared of Youtube.  Consider me informed.

... to start careers at lvl 10;
... to just give you a cool mill everyday at 5 0'clock.

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In case you want more content than complete sarcasm, the indirect friend requirement for politics hardly seems unfair.

EDIT:  Ah, journalism.  Yeah, i can imagine a journalist with no friends, but there's still the argument that they need "contacts".

DANG.  Now I just confused myself.  Even with zero charisma, you can get promoted, just not too quickly, eh?

Clearly the fault of the previous grammar police.  Thanks for highlighting the details; you're invited to my next 16th century party.

I intended to say thank you very much for correcting this common misunderstanding.  But rather than trust you outright, I looked it up.

peruse
1 a: to examine or consider with attention and in detail : study
b: to look over or through in a casual or cursory manner
2: read ; especially : to read over in an attentive or leisurely manner

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EDIT:  I can't get my head out of dictionaries.
dictionary.com suckz.  1.to read through with thoroughness or care.  2.to read.  3.to survey or examine in detail.
dictionary.cambridge.org    -- to read through something, especially in order to find the part you are interested in:

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It seems to be about 50/50 on thoroughness.    What a stupid word.
I now figure I have to poke you for erroneously correcting someone.
So, get poked, tard.

Nice summary.  Maty has a link to it tho.

What do you like about the User Interface, Rockermonkey?

Fine.  I didn't say I dislike it.  If we're going to have a personal discussion then fine, I'll ask you some questions.  What did I post that makes you think I dislike the game?  This doesn't resemble any of my hate posts.  (And I'm not going to turn this into one no matter how much you goad me.)  Probably the main reason I'm playing is that I don't have another game I'm interested in at the moment.  Any suggestions?  I don't want to get to far OT, so I'll just mention I don't care for FPS.

Reminds me of my mother.  I love my mother.  If you ask me about her, I'll probably mention at most 3 good things.  And then I'll spend the next few hours complaining about everything else she does.  I don't hate her.  Most guys do that regarding their wives too -- I don't happen to be married, probably because I forget to wait until after the ceremony to start complaining.  I'm demonstrating Pretty ordinary and boring behavior too me.  And you *act* surprised by this common behavior?

I'm still trying to figure out if TS3 is worse than TS2.  It's a big game / I'm still exploring.  Even if it is worse than TS2, do I have to dislike it?  I think I'd rather play 3 than 2 for close to the first reason I listed.  This is only one disc.  I don't have to load (/have space for) 16 discs.  And to repeat myself, I'm still discovering things in this game.

And I don't buy that you're that stupid.  Yes, people jump off of bridges because everyone else was doing it.  (Honestly now. if you keep entertaining me, I'll probably steal your thread.  I don't want to do that.)  And I'll repeat myself once more since I can see you writhing.  I didn't say I dislike the game.  I personally don't think I even implied it, but that of course is subjective and arguable.

I like that it is current and I'm part of the hip crowd.  (like, DUH, why do you thing 90% of us are playing it?)

I did honestly list as many or more things that I like as everyone else.  I did list more thing that I don't like as everyone else.  I did start my reply with effective "I'd like to cooperate but I know I won't."

Ok?

Edit:  I do think I did NOT mention any part of my "shit that annoys me" list.  (eh, maybe "fat" but that's all, I swear)

Well.  I want to try to answer honestly, but I know that won't happen.  (*Whereas it may be harder to accumulate wealth in 3, it is easier than 2 because the consequences of motive failure are almost negligible in 3.  *The skybox blows, it looks like that one probably 1988(?) "3d" fantasy rpg that I can't remember the name off.  Where's the constellations?  Was everyone sleeping during Oblivion?  That was a decent skybox.  Just cuz 3's is better than 2 doesn't mean it's any good.  *I despise making fat sims without any negative consequences.  It's socially irresponsible.  For the children's sake! I mean, look at the smoking thread, we all seem to -insist- upon negative effects.)  Ahem.

• What I like about The Sims 3 is that I own every expansion pack!  I never did that with The Sims 2.
• I like the bit more variety in the careers.  (And -almost- despise that science is all about the gardening.)
• I do like DnD patterns tyvm
• I like that it is current and I'm part of the hip crowd
• I like the simplification that led to moodlets, even if not a huge fan of moodlets
• I like jogging around town, while I hate the cost of FPS and the fact that running is faster
• I like having more (effective) LTWs
  
• The water is pretty... seems prettier than Oblivions
• I really liked the ceiling... until I moved the camera slightly and saw the skybox at the top of the stairs.  *shrug*
• Um, I like putting the bubblebath and rubber duckie on the tub
• Oh!  My favorite is that sims can usually move between objects when they would have been blocked in TS2.  Related to effectively doubling the resolution of the placement grid, I suppose. (Or, as I like to say: "doubling or quadrupling, depending upon your dimensional perspective.")

/looking at other replies/

• I like bikes alot, but the worse cars more than cancels that out
• 45 degree is hit & miss.  I like that I don't have to use the cheat code, but would rather keep it simple and remove any possibility of 45s (ya know, now I have to keep track of which things are flush at a 45 wall, or which leave a gap), especially since that just clarifies you can't do 1/360ths, which if you consider such free rotation, you might understand why I think I prefer only 4 directional choices.  Just simpler.

Probably most of all I like giving my opinion.  But I don't like to bore or irritate people, so sometimes I wish people wouldn't ask for my opinion.

I not trying to brush you off, I'm just... tactless.

So what do you want?  Your specs are fine, any game version is fine.  Do you want the list of what the probablem might be?  Drivers, check all your drivers.  Anal retentive people like me will tell you to update your bios.  Don't forget the chipset.  Some components may have firmware you can update.  Cautious people will tell you not to update your BIOS, since, hey, if that goes wrong your computer won't start at all.  Of course, some updates can cause problems, so don't update unless you have a problem.  You do have a problem, right?  Have you spent a couple hours at WindowsUpdate recently?  Shut off all those unneeded services.  How's the CPU / GPU / XYZ temperature?  Voltages? Some would tell you to defrag, and I would tell them to shove it.  Scandisk actually fixes things though.  ET CETERA, ET ALIA, and SOWAN.

You probably get my drift; I just wanted to reply to your rather insubstantial last post.

P.S. Try turning each graphic setting to minimum (at the main menu)
P.P.S And most of us would try reinstalling at least once before any hard work as I suggested above.  After uninstalling, dont forget to manually delete the game directories (program files and my documents) for completeness's sake.
P.P.P.S. Just guessing at what you actually want to know.  You asked about your game version, so I'll clarify:  If you went and bought the retail version, I would fully expect that to crash on you too.

That was my first reaction:  I must have got a bad object somewhere. Easy enough to start a new game in TS3 to find out.  For me, starting new game, reinstalling, etc, helped not at all. I am more likely to crash with more sims, but I do not think more sims cause the crash.  Indeed, I have had 20+ sims running around, which just means maybe I'll crash in 20 minutes instead of 30.  Same as detail level.  I like what I said before: " Actually symptom is CTD, usually after long disk access while apparently (un)loading textures.  I don't suspect that's the cause tho, it's just most likely to fart when it's gassy, you know. "

In short, however, I would speculate that it is NOT "simply" an ATI issue -- if it were, their would be thousands of people complaining, not just a handful.  Still... Switching my drivers did help alot.  I have Radeon x1600 PCIx16 1024.   What are you running, Hallie?

I unfortunately had to switch video drivers again.  That NGO ATI Optimized Driver was give me a BAD_POOL_HEADER once a day (one of the BSODs -- I was very lucky to realize the cause and only after I found an app that made it reproducable).  Fixed that, but back to crashing the game every, oh 30 minutes on average.  *shrug*.  I'll try some other drivers, but I've been a bit busy these days.  My mom and my nephew just moved in with me.  There are boxes everywhere.  If you want me to try any other ideas, just speak and I'll get around to it sometime.

Yep, I did an Alice and Kev. As today is the father's birthday, it's a fine time for a report.
 
Rodney Mallard:  Young Adult Male

• Dislikes Children
• Hot Headed
• Loser
• Slob
• No Sense of Humor

• 8 Gardening
• 1 Handiness
• 1 Charisma

Karen Mallard:  Teen Female (started toddler)

• Good
• Slob
• Genius
• Angler

• 3 Fishing

I allowed them to start with only a bench.  The first week's bill was $1.  They took that lone lot near the lake, because it was furthest from town.  But it turned out to be an excellent locale.  I too used one key rule that still made it too easy to be interesting:


Rodney looked up from his bench and saw rocks across the road.  He picked up the kid and then the rocks.  He walked over to the lake to go fishing.  Walking around the lake, he found the apple trees (and lettuce and bell peppers and grapes), so food problem already solved with a practical garden only 100 yards away.  Pretty early he had a 3 apple opportunity, which he was able to fulfill just by harvesting at the lake.  He never got around to fishing; he was too busy gardening.  He also found 3 more rocks near the orchard.   Regarding the rocks, I think he gets 2 gemstones and 3 space rocks every couple days right near his lot.  So he sold them, and had enough for a potty chair and a crib.   Selling rocks and gems and a crop of mediocre produce every few days allowed him to buy a wall and toilet stall. He later got a shower and more walls, and swapped out toilets.  He won the junior olympics with his zero atheletics skill.  The kid did learn to walk, talk and potty and aged up well.  It took a while to get a double bed, and I made a house of a 4x4 bedroom and 3x3 bathroom.It took a few days before I bought the two ceiling lights.   I just noticed I did put in a cheap sink, so they must have had a couple bucks.  ARGH!  They have a foundation!  Now you know they are rich!  When the kid aged into a teen, there was no need to get a part-time job.  The time would be better spent skilling.  

The kid has learning some fishing, but she doesn't get much time for it while running A's in school and visiting classmates as the game proposes.  His gardening is up to level 8 and he is growing all the common (buyable) crops.  He's earned $1168 from gardening.  He's analyzed 9 rocks and had 5 gems cut.  I think he did complete a repair opportunity, and his 1 point charisma was a "meet someone" opportunity reward, iirc.

Storywise, it could have been interesting that he is a Gold Digger, and the kid's first acquaintance was Agnes Crumplebottom, but nothing developed on its own.

And that was enough for me. They'll be NPC's for me now.  It was just too easy walking right into some rocks and apples.  It would have been harder if I at least had to hunt for them, but still not hard enough.  But, what did I learn... What could make it better?

Need a negative "sleeping outdoors" or "need shelter" if outside more than 20 hours or something.  *the only reason to buy walls is for privacy for tub/shower and placement support for things that must be placed along a wall*.  Maybe we need dingos to run off with toddlers.  And pigeons to ensure all your clothing has that undesirable "spattered" look.
I think the "it's dark" should be more severe.
Special case:  Sims that hate children shouldn't be able to sleep in the same bed as a child ... unless they plan to let the kid fall asleep and then physically kick her out of bed for the lawls.
Collectibles kill any semblance of poverty.
Since I started Sims 3  I have wanted to announce the cooking is worthless (except ambrosia, I guess), just based off of buying a $30 pizza every few days if you have a fridge to store leftovers.  Now I see that perhaps you just need one apple tree per sim?  Wow, so challenging when you don't need to buy a fridge or stove.  And obviously I'm already completely disregarding the free meals at the park(s?) and gym.

So, it would be definitely more challenging if you weren't allowed to leave your lot.  But like that's so easy to call stupid.  If you're not leaving your lot, why bother playing TS3 than TS2?  If you're not leave YOUR lot, your not homeless are you!!?!?  Stuff like that  

I mean,  next time I have a broke homeless sim, I have a simple plan of attack, still without power-playing:

Find apple.  Plant apple.  Victory is ours.





P.S.  I see there that they had to splurge on a little table to put a birthday cake on.

I quit 3 weeks ago after 19 years.  Wonder if that's why I finally became confrontational enough to post here.  

There's a fine line connecting the facts that I smoked Camels and that I quit cold-Turkey.

Camels trump ponies.  I want a camel.

Bullshit questions; bullshit answers:  I'm too lazee to get my ass off the computer to get the store.  Doubt I even remember how to open a book, let alone read 50 pages per minute as you recommend.  That's gotta be hazardous, surely approaching maximum paper-cutage.

READ AGANE "Just pointing the fact out so that we can track down a perfect one."  Poor version was linked.  I said so.  Good version is now linked.  Don't argue with success.

DOH!  SHAZBAT!  SHAZAAM!

Guess you do learn something new every... month.   

Faster, I don't know, as you said stage may last longer.
Easier is certainly my wording.  Only my first toddler didn't score all 5 (if I'm correct to count):  walk, talk, potty, pegbox, xylophone
Seems I usually have 2 days after maxing them out to let them hump the wall or camp out in the toy box.
Feels like I'm cheating if I use more than one parent (or trainer).

That is my impression of TS3 base game.  But we don't have to hijack his threat.

Eek!  Some EADYOT put my radio on a Nearly-Perfect Pedestal!  Don't they know you can't play them there?
(ty, i like your hardcore proof vm)


Good tip.

Wow.  What an elegant way to remind me I am nothing of a modern programmer  

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EDIT:  I just happened to notice that it seems you can only have 4 radios going on the same lot... which is probably a good thing since the app locked up for 5 seconds turning on (or changing the channel) of the 4th one.  Piss poor, imo.