The Sims 3 (PC/Mac DVD)

I have played on the Sims 2 for many years and own all the expansion packs and most of the stuff packs. However, a few months before The Sims 3 came out, I began to feel bored of the Sims 2 as I eagerly awaited the Sims 3. I constantly read information about the upcoming game, so much that my expectations were extremely high! I was concerned as my computer did not meet the minimum requirements, but there was no need for me to worry.
The game works perfectly and is giving me hours of enjoyment. The game automatically chose low graphics settings, although if I had not checked the options tab, I would have assumed they were on high. The graphics are incredible and 100 times better than they were on The Sims 2.
The features are also amazing. The create-a-style tool means that you can literally create any colour on any design for any object. If you wanted, you could have a pink heart bath tub and matching toilet. You can literally make any object look exactly how you want it and make any other object match it percectly.
Create-a-sim has also been improved. You can use create-a-style on clothes which means you could make your sims slippers match their pyjamas! You now choose the shoes separately for each outfit and you can easily adjust each body feature to create a really lifelike self sim.
You can also now select traits for your sim. These have replaced personality points and have a big effect on the life on your sim. If you choose to make your sim a 'kleptomaniac' for example, your sim would 'accidently' take another sims objects.
Another great improvement is the fact that your sim can now have their baby at the hospital. This is a great addition to the game and makes pregnancy much more exciting.
Overall, this is an amazing game and I would recommend it to anyone, even if you haven't enjoyed the sims in the past.

Before I bought the Sims 3, i was scared by all the "my pc is top of the range specs and the Sims3 crashed it, its laggy, crap graphics, didnt install etc. etc." stories, as I has an extremely average laptop, and a 7 year old pc, and i was almost sure there was no way it was going to work. I bought it anyway, because one reviewer sparked the hope that it might work on a laptop...

Now Im so glad I got it! For those who are reading this and also have the same worries about getting it as me, my laptop is not a well known brand, its windows vista, it has only 2GB of ram (min specs states 1.5GB), 1.9 Ghz processor NOT core2duo (min specs said it had to be core2duo and at least a huge 2.4Ghz!!), my graphics card wasnt one of the supported ones - nvidia geforce 9100mg. So it looked like all odds were against me. When i got it, it installed right away, really quickly as well, wasnt waiting for hours like i thought i would, and to my complete amazement it started up and it was actually working! Quite quickly i may add. The graphics do look a bit weird and everything looks plastic (if you get what i mean?), but they are bearable. Within minutes of installing i was already creating a sim and my mouse and movements of the game werent even lagging!

At first the Sims faces looked really fat (as everyone suggested) but then i set the screen to the highest resultution and it was fine! You could get their face quite thin actually, so problem solved.

SOME BAD POINTS:
-Active Households
Bye Bye the old days when you used to make several families and then play each one when you felt like it. You can only play ONE family at a time. If you leave the others, they live thieir lives without you :( It gets really annoying because you dont get to play god anymore and they marry whoever they want and get babies when ever they want and get to call the babies whatever they want - you get the idea!
-Glitch? Or something I dont know about?
Everytime I make a family and move them into a house which I built/furnished myself, WITHOUT switching the active households, that family moves out - on thier own. HUH? wth?
-"Cheeta" speed
More like snail speed. You seem to spend half your life watching your sim sleep or watch a building while they are at work. Why they made cheeta speed slower than Rhino speed in the sims 2 is beyond me. But believe me you will get VERY annoyed at this. Also the lifetime rewards, how come there is never hungry, steel bladder, but no never tired? Are they trying to annoy us?
-Its very easy for friends to become distant friends... but thats not much of an issue as you can purchase a lifetime reward to stop this from happening!
-Its addictive and after about 8 hours you've finally noticed that youve just wasted a few hours of your life! And that you have an important exam tomorrow.
-Collecting - what is up with that?

SOME GOOD POINTS:
-Moodlets
great idea and more realistic than fears and wants. Actually its such a complete makeover in the right direction! The wishes thing is still quite annoying though. I constantly get the wish "Brush teeth three times". Who on earth thought of that?
-Traits
great great great! Though wish they added more. In real life people are more diverse than that
-Relationship descriptions
instead of "relative" in the sims 2, you get "dad" "nephew" "spouse" or even "ex". Friends become distant friends if arn't talked to in a long time (instead of them becoming acquantacies in the sims 2) or good friends and best friends. What really annoys me is that its really hard to get your sim married. The closest I got a was a boyfriend for my hopeless romantic teenager. But my adult sims just dont want to get married. (Their relationship is full what else do you want me to do??)
-Jobs
Much better. Its actually a challenge to get promoted now, instead of painting or reading a book for a few hours in the sims 2. I havn't tried most of the other careers, but I loved getting my sim to the top of the journalisim career, where she had to rummage in bins at night to get stories about people she hated. :D. Or maybe Im just easily amused? :L Also I found it cool that if you write a negative review about the football stadium or a retaurant then you get banned for a few days. hahaha.
-Opportunities
They give variety to the game and break the routine a bit. My sim had to teach an art lesson for an oppurtunity and she made 30 friends :L.
-Create a Sim
This part of a game is very important to me, because I just love creating sims. Giving them a style, different clothes, hair, makeup... and this time the choices are MUCH better than sims 2. Before the clothes were kinda like... ew..... and they all looked like something your gran would wear, but thankfully the clothes on the sims 3 are a bit more fashionable and are more RELAVENT. Now it takes me an hour to creat like one sim. its just too fun. And im too picky. Though the hair styles have gotton better, there isn't that big of range :(. Especially guys hair.
-More skills
I always used to ask myself "just because you can paint doesnt mean you can play the piano!" I know so because I can paint but I cant play the piano. But now thats different, there is a painting skill, and a guitar skill. I have no idea why they chose guitar and not included any other instument. Thats instrumentism that is. Also there is now a gardening and fishing skill. Haha i find that quite cool.

In the long run: GET THIS GAME

I bought the game on Friday and have been really impressed since. It took about 30 minutes to install which is a lot less than sims 2 did. I was a bit worried about whether it would play but it loaded up without any trouble and has worked since!
It is very different to 1 and 2 and It does take a bit to get used to. I really enjoyed making the sims though and there are endless jobs and houses to choose from. I loved the idea of no loading screens. It feels more real life than sims 2 with more realistic jobs and pregnancy and marriage is much more realistic.
I think it's a shame its getting bad reviews as people were warned about the minimum requirements. Dont buy this game if you cant use it on your computer.
Love this game- not a let down.