Stuff they have added:- The neighbourhoodThe whole neighbourhood is there in real-time. You can go anywhere, visit any house, etc without having to sit through loading screens.- Things to do in the neighbourhoodThere's much more to do than in (vanilla) sims 2. There's the usual suspects - grocery store, park, etc, and a bunch of new additions such as the gym, the art gallery, movie theatre, shark tank, scenic locations, graveyard, etc. Some locations are little more than "click, select activity" and the sim goes into the building only to leave several game hours later. Some buildings though are completely open and you can walk around and interact with anything and anyone in them.Also, every neighbourhood house is complete - with the family inside and all the furnishings. You can visit any house you like, although if no-one's home then you might be standing on the porch for a long time.- New TraitsThe sims are much more individual now. There area ton of personality traits that you can give them or they get given. Traits range from the good (like charismatic, workaholic, athletic, friendly) to the not so good (loner, unlucky, etc) to the fun... er I mean bad (evil, kleptomaniac, insane, neurotic)These traits go along way to giving your sims their own personality beyond the usual job, kids, and bit and on the side of the sims 2. In addition, they have things like favourite meal, favourite color, favourite music, etc. Learning these traits in other sims gives you a fast track to befriending them.- CollectiblesFor the OCD among you - there's stuff ot collect beyond the furniture. There's insects, fish, meteor rocks, and other bits and bobs. You can collect them purely for cash rewards, or you can try and make complete sets. These are scattered around all over the neighbourhood. Now that you have complete freedom to walk to any point in the entire area, there's lots of exploring to do.- gardeningYou can now grow your own! It's a royal pain in the ass to maintain a large garden, but you'll never have to spend $800 on groceries again. There's also a little meta-game in that you can find rare and unusual seeds and see if you can grow them to fruition.- fishingYou can now fish at any water hole, and even the local pool if you want to. Fishing gets you fresh fish to cook with, or you can stick them in goldfish bowls as pets. There's meta-game in trying to find and catch more and more rare and difficult fish types. I think the top-level fish may be a shark, given there's a shark pool in the neighbourhood.- mobile phonesFinally! You don't have to have a land line any more as sims each carry a mobile phone and can answer calls anywhere.- personal vehiclesNo more coughing up taxi fares every time you go somewhere. You can buy your own bike or car to travel with. Also, getting promotions at work often result in a company car. The candy pink limousine definitely turn a few heads. As did the pitch-black schoolbus (rockstar FTW).Stuff they've improved:- workNo longer is work just sitting around waiting for the little shitbags to come home with a paycheck. Now each job has 4 or more options on how you should handle your work day. These usually include things like "goof off", "work hard", "suck up to the boss", and there are special ones for each profession.Also, you don't have to wait ages reading papers and checking computers for your job to become available - you can simply walk up to the door of the place of work and apply. Every profession has it's own related building.- OpportunitiesIn Sims 2, you would occasionally get chances to boost your work performance by staying late or doing other trivial tasks. Now though opportunities expand into all aspects of life. You can get a phone call any time with an opportunity - this might be something simple like tutoring the neighbourhood thick kids, or it might be more complex such as trying to grow- conversation / interaction with simsThe interaction with other sims is more in-depth now. You learn about the sims, and as you learn more you unlock more conversation topics. Or your own sim's actions unlock more options (such as bragging about being toned, or complaining that your room-mate is a messy git)- skillsThese have been majorly improved. Not only is there now the added skills of gardening and fishing, but each skill has incentives to learn it. For example, boost your handiness skill and you can "tinker" with electrical and plumbing devices, which in turn allows you to do things like make the loo self-cleaning, or improve the graphics on the computer, or wire the stereo into the house speakers. Each device usually has two or more options available, and you can only have one upgrade per item, so you have to choose which option will fit best with your family.Most skills have bonuses like these - some allow extra activities like above, and others will open up new opportunities from your neighbours and co-workers.Graphics:The graphics look good. Better than the sims 2, and overall nicer. The animations are smoother and less cartoony, giving a more natural feel to their movements.They seem to have aimed for a less cartoony, more lifelike feel this time around, which in my mind is a good thing. It's easier to grow attachments to sims that don't act like woody woodpecker.Performance:Oh boy - hope you have a good computer. I will say this - turn down texture settings to medium if you don't have a 1GB video card. The visual change is only minor (slightly blurrier ground textures is the only noticeable difference) but man, my rig was chugging at full texture settings (AMD X2 64 6400+, 2G RAM, 512MB HD4850). As soon as I dropped to medium settings it ran much better - still some definite chugging when zooming in and out, or when scrolling quickly, but nothing too severe.Other than the texture thing, the performance is good - especially considering the game is now updating the entire neighbourhood in real-time.Overall:If you liked the sims 1 or 2, then you should love sims 3. There's a massive amount of stuff to do and find and unlock in the game. It should keep sims fans happy for weeks, if not months. Hell, after sims 2 I did not consider myself a fan of the series, but I'm about to kick the missus off for another go myself.
Hmm, lets see;1. Must have a Drug House2. Laventille Gangs doing drive-bys occassionally3. Some dead bodies floating in a river in the neighborhood4. A sign that says PNM Rules5. Trafficetc...
