The Official Gameplay Feedback Thread

[WheresMyTrousers]

I'm playing it on low settings on my awful laptop and loving it, can't wait for my new beast of a laptop arriving so I can see it in its glory.

[Becky]

I'll try to keep this short:

Create-A-Sim

Pros: The customisation really is brilliant. It's very easy to get started and get stuck into your first Sim, making them truly unique - nothing like what we're used to! My Sims could have crazy combinations for their hair, clothes, whatever. It's easy to add Sims, and to create relationships - and the game prompts you to do it before you save, so it's difficult to forget! Without a doubt, my favourite feature of the game.

Cons: I found it a bit slow to select styles - despite being over the requirements for both RAM and processing speed (admittedly, only just). I managed to persuade my father to order me more RAM later on, so I'll let you know if this improves! Also, I felt the clothing and hairstyles available were quite limited. Although you can customise to your heart's content, it would've been nice to have a few extra styles available.

Create-A-Style

Pros: Again, it's brilliant - you have complete control over what you want to do! It's nice to be able to copy that style onto all the other objects in the room, too.

Cons: It was a bit confusing to work at first! In addition to that, I had some trouble with getting styles to copy - but I think I've got it under control now...

Relationships

Pros: I love the new way to select relationships: when you click on a Sim, you're faced with a pie menu as always - but instead of having "talk", "play", etc - you have "friendly", "romantic", "special" (interactions related to your Sim's traits), "mean", etc. It's a far better way to select an interaction - no more falling in love when you don't want to!

Cons: However, relationship building can be difficult and very time-consuming. After three days, my Sims were "romantically interested", their relationship bar was full, but no matter how many romantic interactions I queued up, the option for "going steady" didn't appear! It popped up briefly, but not for long enough for me to select it! So now, my Sims are stuck.

Buy/Build Mode

Pros: It's laid out in a far better way - each room gives you a layout of that room with all the objects the game thinks belongs there (for example, the bathroom has an image of a toilet, sink, shower, bath, curtains, pictures, etc) and you just select the object to place.

Cons: None as of yet! The only thing I can think of is how the UI actually looks - it reminds me a lot of the interface in The Sims 1, which for me, seems like a step backwards.

Time

Pros: The days seemed quite long to me, so I was able to do everything I wanted in the morning and head out to the park in the afternoon.

Cons: It takes ages to do simple tasks - if you thought it was painful when your Sims took an hour to go to the toilet in The Sims 2, it's even longer in The Sims 3! I got my Sims up at 5am, in time for Travis' carpool at 8am. This was enough time for him to have a bath and go to the toilet. Breakfast was on the table but he ran out of time!

In addition to this, a major downside about having long days means that your Sims are lalalalatered by 7pm! I kept my Sims up until 10pm because 7pm just seemed far too early, and they got negative moodlets due to being tired! All they'd done that day was sit on the sofa talking, watching TV or cooking.

Furthermore, the fastest speed setting seems incredibly slow - as do the others. I was sitting there while my Sims slept at night not knowing what to do! It took ages to reach 6am again - so long that I managed to leave it on Speed 3, go downstairs to get a drink and a snack, and return before it was even 4am. If I had done that with either of the previous games, my Sims would have died by then!


That's really all I can do for now, I'm running on a low-spec computer so it's difficult being able to bear playing when it's slow and the graphics are so bad (possibly an exaggeration: everything is on low or medium, though). Hopefully, I'll enjoy the game a bit more in a couple of weeks when I've got a new video card and an extra GB of RAM!

For those who will be running the game on a PC that is either minimum spec or just over the requirements, don't expect wonders. It can be a little frustrating at times, but the game is enjoyable, which will hopefully make up for it!

For anybody who is on the minimum for RAM, I really advise you to upgrade. I'm on 2GB, which is 0.5GB above the minimum, but I found The Sims 3 using 1GB alone!

Overall - a good game, but it hasn't quite impressed me enough for me to prefer it over TS2 yet.


Edit: ... I realise I failed on the short thing.

[MeteoricVenom]

Played all day yesterday, and this being my first proper Sims I can't really compare it to the previous versions, but I have to say it is really fun. I am playing this on everything maxed and it looks great. I think the reviews that have come out have been right on the mark.

[flid1976]

I will give EA a thumbs up on the careers and skills side. having played sims1 and 2 and even the online version I have never liked the skills and careers..they just bored me to sit and watch, but now i love all the little errands and questions they get

[lovepeacepain]

good summary becky, especially:

Originally Posted by Becky

Cons: It takes ages to do simple tasks - if you thought it was painful when your Sims took an hour to go to the toilet in The Sims 2, it's even longer in The Sims 3! I got my Sims up at 5am, in time for Travis' carpool at 8am. This was enough time for him to have a bath and go to the toilet. Breakfast was on the table but he ran out of time!

In addition to this, a major downside about having long days means that your Sims are lalalalatered by 7pm! I kept my Sims up until 10pm because 7pm just seemed far too early, and they got negative moodlets due to being tired! All they'd done that day was sit on the sofa talking, watching TV or cooking.

Furthermore, the fastest speed setting seems incredibly slow - as do the others. I was sitting there while my Sims slept at night not knowing what to do! It took ages to reach 6am again - so long that I managed to leave it on Speed 3, go downstairs to get a drink and a snack, and return before it was even 4am. If I had done that with either of the previous games, my Sims would have died by then!

i tell my sims to do something and they just stand there for full sim-hours, starving or on the brink of peeing themselves! and what is the point in having different speed settings if there's no difference between them? apart from that i have no complaints, i just wish something could be done, but my laptop is already specced out to da max!

[BrettyUK]

I would say the camera needs a tweek it gets a bit laggy at times say when its following your sim to work in a car etc.

[Ashleighx]

I play on the max settings and have no problems with the preformance, the only thing I would change Is how my sims moods decrease so quickly and how hunger, fun ect go down fast aswell.. then they stand there for ages untill they realise that they need some food or somthing

[Nutter]

Originally Posted by Becky

Time

Pros: The days seemed quite long to me, so I was able to do everything I wanted in the morning and head out to the park in the afternoon.

Cons: It takes ages to do simple tasks - if you thought it was painful when your Sims took an hour to go to the toilet in The Sims 2, it's even longer in The Sims 3! I got my Sims up at 5am, in time for Travis' carpool at 8am. This was enough time for him to have a bath and go to the toilet. Breakfast was on the table but he ran out of time!

...

Edit: ... I realise I failed on the short thing.

Yes you did.

That was my big concern about the Sims 2. Kind of hoped that they would have improved it, but from the sounds of it, they didn't really.

Question about the Build mode (Loved that part) How much of an improvement is the final outcomes of the home? Like all the detail and ways you can build. One thing I found was that certain items never fitted right if you had angled walls or an odd shape.

OMG! First Post in the Sims Section!!!!

[GrinningManiac]

What's the deal with Story Progression, I've heard people cite it as broken,

(I should have got the game today, but silly Mum never thinks of details, and so when she ordered it MONTHS ago, she had it on the super-cheap delivery option, so it could arrive as late as NEXT THURSDAY. What the hell is the point of preordering something that will take me less time to buy in a shop, eh? )

[MeteoricVenom]

I also have a bit of problem with the speeds, not the fast one but the normal one, I think the normal speed is way too quick, they need to slow that down and quicken up the faster speeds.

[revelvia]

I'm not entirely sure how I feel at the moment.

I really like Create a Sim. The Sims are much more attractive and I like that I can tweak every little detail to a ridiculous extent - and do just that I think there is a much bigger variety of clothes, and I like that I can change all of that to be exactly how I want it. Even though I just use defaults, haha. I agree that there are too few hairstyles, but I like the level of customisation I can do on them.

The thing I dislike the most is the speeds. The maximum speed really needs to be faster, it takes SO long for them to sleep!

I find that Sims 3 is actually a lot harder than 2. My Sims don't seem to be bringing much money home from their jobs at all, and even though it's very easy to move from one Sim to another it's quite hard to keep track on who does what.

Overall I'm not sure how I feel at the moment - but I;ve only played it for about two hours

[Tom]

Originally Posted by Nutter

OMG! First Post in the Sims Section!!!!

OMGZ1 You is here.

Welcome to being a god of people who live in a computer game!

[Slamsers]

I only played the game for like an hour...

ITS AMAZING, and im playing on medium settings.. My graphiics card isnt even supported but it runs just fine

I love it and i havent even done much yet! i cant wait to really get into it

Love this game, it stands head and shoulders above the rest of the series and its gonna be so good with expansions! ^^

[BecomingArcher]

I hear ya!

Awesome.
Worth all the walking round ey Slamsers?

x

[alysinn]

I have been playing for a couple of hours today, and so far I actually prefer the Sims 2. Anyway, I suppose the easiest way is to make a list of pros and cons of the Sims 3. However, right now cons are going to completely outweigh the pros. So here we go:
Pros:
-Create-a-sim is pretty good. I like the way you can change tiny little details, but I do find it a lot harder to actually create a face that I like.
-I like the new layout of Buy Mode. The way things are layed out is really good, into rooms and then further categories.
-Traits. They are pretty fun. I still haven't got round to making any completely crazy people but I will I just like the way you can change their personality so much more.

Cons:
-It was probably just the settings of my PC and/or low settings on the actual game, but I really didn't like the graphics. I was kind of like this when I first got the Sims 2, so perhaps I just need to get used to it.
-Despite reading the manual book etc, I still find it confusing. And the seamless neighbourhood didn't really agree with my computer.
-Why do we have to click to move? I spent a while wondering why the view wouldn't move when I was moving my mouse about haha. Its a small stupid thing, but it annoys me.

These are just my first impressions of the game. But they are bound to change when I begin to play it more. I think I maybe just need to get used to the controls the new graphics and gameplay.

[Mongoose09]

Originally Posted by alysinn

Why do we have to click to move? I spent a while wondering why the view wouldn't move when I was moving my mouse about haha. Its a small stupid thing, but it annoys me.

You can change that in the options by the way. You just have to turn "edging" on.

[Mongoose09]

I agree.. mine's amazing and I have mine on low settings. The graphics aren't even that bad!

[limabifrost]

I love it- I'm having a great time. Loads of customisation and I'm enjoying the new style of gameplay. I just wish I could afford a better bed because my sim spends most of her time exhausted.. She's too tired to work well, and because of that she doesn't make the money to afford a new bed, so the cycle continues.. It's been a week and she's still on the first rung of the career ladder, even though she's completely sucking up to the boss!

[lovepeacepain]

Originally Posted by Ashleighx

I play on the max settings and have no problems with the preformance, the only thing I would change Is how my sims moods decrease so quickly and how hunger, fun ect go down fast aswell.. then they stand there for ages untill they realise that they need some food or somthing

Same here! they sleep for 12 hours (which takes a lifetime to wait for with the wacky speed settings) and are tired again within 3 hours of waking up! :S

[Hannahsimsfreak]

I went out and bought the game today, and at first glance into the neighbourhood, i'll grow to love it over time.
The thing thats really getting to me is that there is so many EA families in the neighbourhood it's difficult to try and "get to know" your neighbourhood..
Without the stratagy guide it's also very difficult tryingto remember everything.
But! CAS is amazing, and the gameplay seems a lot more realistic than in TS2, all in all it's a good game, but it'll take me several days worth of play to really get into the neighbourhood.
I shouldn't really have bought this game in the midst of my GCSEs.. i'm going to be playing it 24/7

[Roo]

I'm finding it a bit puzzling to be honest. I wanted to play other families, but I can't find out how to without going back to the main menu

Also, I can only find one lot on Riverview with people in it, all the others just seem to be community lots?

Only been playing for 10 minutes, but there's a lot more to it than TS2 & I'm going to need to figure it out.

[MacSimmer]

I've just stopped playing after about half an hour and found the whole thing really confusing! Everything seems so overly complicated, I hope I get used to it because it looks like it could be good, maybe I'm just getting too old (I am only 20 by the way)

[SBFC-Chris]

I found the same, but keep on playing and it feels good

[groovybluedog]

i guess the game is OK (Its awsome!)

[Lycan]

Good Things.

It's The Sims 3. That pretty much sums everything up doesn't it?

Bad Things.
I haven't come across many bad things at the moment.

The only glitch I have come across is Custom Music not working.
And Speed Mode 4 is the same as Speed Mode 3.