THE HORROR: The REAL TS3 Scoop As It Unfolds

[DrNerd]

Zazazu, those are some fugly ass sims.

The skin tones are flat and react oddly to lighting. Also, you have no sliders for facial features. You can only choose from a limited number of noses, eyes, etc, though things like hair color and eye color give endless possibilities. All the sims are fugly. In her defense, she was making a face in the second picture.

...So they've basically given us Mr. Potatohead, with customizable hair and eye color?  That turns out looking doughy?  Ugh, uber-fail.

[Zazazu]

Pulling food out of their ass is no surprise, since they have a tendency to put everything and anything in inventory. Any time they read a book, they put it in inventory. Papers? Inventory. Freaking guitars get popped into inventory by default.

I'll go through CAS again and see if I can't spy the sliders. Kind of bit more off than I should have starting with a two-sim household.

Can't hold off any more.
Likes:

• Load times are great! 22 seconds game load, 18 seconds to 'hood view.
• Saved camera points still work, though the numbers available are 5-9 now. 4 is locked by a new speed type.
• There's no What's This? on move-in. You do get the occasional Check Out New Object for new purchases, but not as frequently.
• More friend type variety...Friends, Good Friends, Best Friends. It's possible there are more, I just haven't seen them yet.
• Collectibles! One of my sims is focusing on finding seeds. She has apple, lettuce, tomato, and several unknown seeds. I haven't had her plant them because she hates the outdoors. You can also collect bugs and butterflies. Maybe more.
• Texture customization is pretty intuitive.
• Love the bikes.
• Build/buy object image quality is great. Imposters are high-quality.

Dislikes:

• No options to determine how a sim gets around on a case-by-case basis. I'd like it if they biked one day, took a cab to somewhere far off, and maybe just hoofed it to the neighbors'.
• The buy display interface is odd. Room sort is all jumbled up. Type sort has some odd categories.
• Edge scrolling is hella oversensitive.
• Even minor wish fulfillment gets a choir of angels? All you did was buy a $100 object. Sound effects well done, but too frequent.
• Some of the side effects you get from traits don't seem to match. An excitable vegetarian friendly schmoozer slob chose to go to a community lot in formal wear. Why? If anything, she should have worn pjs.
• Sim and clothing textures are of poor quality. Light reflection on sims is often done in jagged lines and somehow just doesn't look right. Edges on clothes are also kind of jagged/fuzzy, as is hair.This is with all options maxxed.
• Want divving uneven. One of my sims always had tons of wants thrown at her. Another went two days without popping up a want.
• On making a meal, even when near-death hungry, sim will cook it and then walk off to another activity instead of sitting down to eat.
• No numerical value for relationship score.
• Energy seems to drain incredibly fast. Sims need almost eight hours of sleep, and sometimes even a nap.
• Pathfinding. Sims will stand there staring at the air, waiting for a sim about 10 feet away to pass them.

All-in-all, I can see some definite potential, but it feels very unfinished in a typical EAxian way.

[ShortyBoo]

I wonder what's up with taking screenshots. I've taken some print screens of the game and they all look very dark and I've noticed this for all the screenshots from the leaked game. The game itself isn't that dark, but I've had to adjust the brightness and contrast for all the screens I get.

[Lum]

Awesomesauce! One of the comments at the arr site mentions that 'it runs even better than ts2' in his 4 year-old-machine. I'm going to take his word on that, cuz I really don't want to get a new video card.

[J. M. Pescado]

Considering that it accomplishes this by essentially stripping most of the game, that doesn't mean much.

[Pinstar]

Enforced Legacy Play? Bleh.

I'm all for playing my own challenge and intend on making a TS3 version of it, but I do hope the game doesn't make you play like that constantly.

Is there no "time freeze" option for families not being played to prevent aging, births, deaths and the like?

[Zazazu]

Enforced Legacy Play? Bleh.

I'm all for playing my own challenge and intend on making a TS3 version of it, but I do hope the game doesn't make you play like that constantly.

Is there no "time freeze" option for families not being played to prevent aging, births, deaths and the like?

You know this comment is amusing coming from you.  There is, in options, game options tab, the option to uncheck "Enable Story Progression". This is specifically suppose to block things like marriages and spawning. Right now, I'm playing a single sim household across the street from my initial roommate setup. I can see the roommates going off to work and to community lots. It also looks like they bought a crappy car for their empty carport. After a week, I'm planning on checking in on them.

Interestingly, I stopped the first house at 2:00 AM Thursday. When I added the new house, she opened up at 2:00 AM Thursday. That was messy.

Well it appears your houses can be subject to random acts on move in. My house was on an indian burial ground, meaning 3 ghost sims where on the lot. You can interact with ghosts as normal sims it seems, but what annoys me is that they use the house appliances. The fire death ghost made dinner and burnt it. I forsee fire!

Was this the kind of cruddy 1 bed/bath with a row of flamingos outside? I had the same thing. A ghost buster showed right up and I asked him to get rid of them. There were some nice gemstones in the back yard amongst the weeds.

I wonder what's up with taking screenshots. I've taken some print screens of the game and they all look very dark and I've noticed this for all the screenshots from the leaked game. The game itself isn't that dark, but I've had to adjust the brightness and contrast for all the screens I get.

On tabbing back from desktop view to the game, things go very bright. I suspect it's done some odd changes to the brightness and contrast to give it the next-gen look. Screen captures are awful here. Anyone tried Fraps?

[Pinstar]

Enforced Legacy Play? Bleh.

I'm all for playing my own challenge and intend on making a TS3 version of it, but I do hope the game doesn't make you play like that constantly.

Is there no "time freeze" option for families not being played to prevent aging, births, deaths and the like?

You know this comment is amusing coming from you.  There is, in options, game options tab, the option to uncheck "Enable Story Progression". This is specifically suppose to block things like marriages and spawning. Right now, I'm playing a single sim household across the street from my initial roommate setup. I can see the roommates going off to work and to community lots. It also looks like they bought a crappy car for their empty carport. After a week, I'm planning on checking in on them.

Interestingly, I stopped the first house at 2:00 AM Thursday. When I added the new house, she opened up at 2:00 AM Thursday. That was messy.

Well it appears your houses can be subject to random acts on move in. My house was on an indian burial ground, meaning 3 ghost sims where on the lot. You can interact with ghosts as normal sims it seems, but what annoys me is that they use the house appliances. The fire death ghost made dinner and burnt it. I forsee fire!

Was this the kind of cruddy 1 bed/bath with a row of flamingos outside? I had the same thing. A ghost buster showed right up and I asked him to get rid of them. There were some nice gemstones in the back yard amongst the weeds.

I wonder what's up with taking screenshots. I've taken some print screens of the game and they all look very dark and I've noticed this for all the screenshots from the leaked game. The game itself isn't that dark, but I've had to adjust the brightness and contrast for all the screens I get.

On tabbing back from desktop view to the game, things go very bright. I suspect it's done some odd changes to the brightness and contrast to give it the next-gen look. Screen captures are awful here. Anyone tried Fraps?

What is surprising? I like the asylum challenge, for example, but would hate it if the general gameplay forced that style of play on me.


On the upside, it sounds like spares won't be quite so annoying anymore. It sounds like you can just keep your heir home and send the spares off into the world to be eaten by the time stream. No more of this 6th generation heir is best friends with a the 2nd generation aunt malarkey.

I wonder if you still get life insurance money from dead relatives that die of old age on another lot...

[Sparks]

Enforced Legacy Play? Bleh.

I'm all for playing my own challenge and intend on making a TS3 version of it, but I do hope the game doesn't make you play like that constantly.

Is there no "time freeze" option for families not being played to prevent aging, births, deaths and the like?

Seems like neighborhoods would full of death; killing Sims for doing things you don't want them to. If your Sims are 'posed to be poor as fuck but have a job they go to every day while you're not playing their particular house, now will me buying shit while you're not looking?

And for those of us few who have never played a challenge and know nothing of Legacy play, would essentially need, oh, I dunno, 50 - 100 different neighborhoods so that the one family that you're actually playing, won't have any cross play with any other families that have their own goings on? Does that make sense? Basically I'm a nutso micro-manager and I don't want anyone doing anything without my control.

Also, do you have the choice to not follow your Sim to work if you don't want? Boring work is boring.

[cwieberdink]

Enforced Legacy Play? Bleh.

I'm all for playing my own challenge and intend on making a TS3 version of it, but I do hope the game doesn't make you play like that constantly.

Is there no "time freeze" option for families not being played to prevent aging, births, deaths and the like?

Seems like neighborhoods would full of death; killing Sims for doing things you don't want them to. If your Sims are 'posed to be poor as fuck but have a job they go to every day while you're not playing their particular house, now will me buying shit while you're not looking?

??


It learns to speak English or it gets the hose again.

[J. M. Pescado]

Interestingly, I stopped the first house at 2:00 AM Thursday. When I added the new house, she opened up at 2:00 AM Thursday. That was messy.

Yes, the entire world has a single timeclock for everything, which means it is pretty much IMPOSSIBLE for anything to occur simultaneously in two houses. If you want to coordinate two famblys having kids at the same age, it's a nearly impossible juggling exercise, and you probably won't be able to properly name them, either

[rufio]

That reminds me - do the sims name their own spawn based on the locale, or are you forced to name unapproved babies born to sims you aren't playing?  I'm actually not sure which would be worse.

Does anyone know if there are any videos of actual (non-shill) people playing TS3 that have not been removed by EA for "copyright violations"?

[Skadi]

How can gaming videos be a copyright violation?

[seanachai]

Interestingly, I stopped the first house at 2:00 AM Thursday. When I added the new house, she opened up at 2:00 AM Thursday. That was messy.

Yes, the entire world has a single timeclock for everything, which means it is pretty much IMPOSSIBLE for anything to occur simultaneously in two houses. If you want to coordinate two famblys having kids at the same age, it's a nearly impossible juggling exercise, and you probably won't be able to properly name them, either

Really? Can't you just play one house, get the spouse pregnant, then skip over to the other house, do the same thing, and then let time take its course? I realize that it might be difficult to get the timing exactly right, but it seems to me like you should be able to get it within a day or so. There's nothing keeping you from playing one household for a few Sim hours and then switching to another, is there? I got the impression that you were supposed to be able to peek in and out.

Also, re: the name thing -- I remember reading something about notices popping up when important things like births happen, and possibly something about you having control over the names. Have you guys experienced any births in your neighborhoods yet and can confirm that? (If you're playing with story progression on low, maybe not).

[rufio]

How can gaming videos be a copyright violation?

I was wondering that myself.

[J. M. Pescado]

How can gaming videos be a copyright violation?

You forget that it's not about whether something *IS* a copyright violation, but merely about whether various weak-nerved individuals can be bludgeoned with legalese.

This is why I refuse to use third-party hosting services, preferring to rely on networked resources and domains I control. No youtube, no Botophucket for me.

[literatebse]

Does anyone know if there are any videos of actual (non-shill) people playing TS3 that have not been removed by EA for "copyright violations"?

A few that are working as of now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT1K1qzYK5g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxNHGOIEjeQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljGFFoaaoJE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHH_oET2C1U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0iTMZLyT64

Nothing too fascinating...the really decent ones have been removed.  The third one is of woohoo w/ craptacular hearts/rose petals.  I recommend going to Google Video, searching for sims 3 gameplay and sorting by date.

[DrNerd]

Enforced Legacy Play? Bleh.

I'm all for playing my own challenge and intend on making a TS3 version of it, but I do hope the game doesn't make you play like that constantly.

Is there no "time freeze" option for families not being played to prevent aging, births, deaths and the like?

If your Sims are 'posed to be poor as fuck but have a job they go to every day while you're not playing their particular house, now will me buying shit while you're not looking?

??


It learns to speak English or it gets the hose again.

I believe it's "If your Sims are supposed to be poor as fuck but have a job they go to every day while you're not playing their particular house, now will be buying shit while you're not looking?" meaning, "You make a family that's dirt poor, and get them jobs, and they go to work while you're playing another house, increasing their net worth, will now be buying (potentially expensive) stuff without my OK?"

[rufio]

A few that are working as of now:

Ah, thanks, I guess.  I was searching google video, but didn't realize you could sort by date.  I guess I'll just have to wait for the torrent to finish tomorrow.  Or the next day. 

[Skadi]

Video snip - http://tinypic.com/r/5ug23a/5

[Exiled]

The YouTube videos are not impressing me that much.  The WooHoo, in particular, looks like it's been ripped frame for frame from TS2 with some cheesy-looking petals falling down.  The fireworks from TS2 were better.

Just out of curiosity, how long did it take for some hacks to come in TS2?

[Zazazu]

Also, re: the name thing -- I remember reading something about notices popping up when important things like births happen, and possibly something about you having control over the names. Have you guys experienced any births in your neighborhoods yet and can confirm that? (If you're playing with story progression on low, maybe not).

Yeah no... I'm just trying to figure out how to marry off a sim. Pamela Snoot (CAS) is perpetual best friends with this guy, who is still showing as just a best friend despite the fact that she has the option to woohoo and try for a baby in bed. Under romantic options, I have all flirt options and the amorous hug option, but no kiss option. Kiss is only available in bed or under her special trait options...Great Kisser. In TS2, they'd be potty training a toddler by now.

FYI, you can totally live off the land. My one girl is making about $115/day from harvesting on community lot trees. There are picnic baskets with free meals in the town square. They can also nap on lounge chairs, or ask to sleep over at a friend's. In fact, her unemployed boyfriend who admits to having no money sleeps at her house every night.

[jolrei]

Bloody hells!  I go away for one weekend and there's a "horror pre-release".  I guess I'll be firing up uTorrent so as to be able to annoy myself.  Six pages of this so far has not made me optimistic (especially Zaza's screenshots).

[Solowren]

Oh hey, I just remembered:

Did the "choose the Sim's voice" feature make it to the release, or was that all L&P?

[Rhayden]

Oh hey, I just remembered:

Did the "choose the Sim's voice" feature make it to the release, or was that all L&P?

When I created my sim, there were three voices I could select from and then a pitch shifter which apparently did nothing.