A few new renders of Sims. I liked them, so I posted them. Take a look after jump!

Via

This cute mouse has been around for a while, yet I’ve had no time to write about it. If you haven’t seen it and you’re not sure what it is, it’s basically this: a basic computer mouse with a special diode that changes color according to your Sims’ mood. To change its color from green-yellow-red, you need to play the Sims 3. And that’s pretty much all, but it’s actually very cool. The only drag is that it doesn’t glow at all outside the game.

I think this mouse is a total must for every die-hard Sim-fan. No, I don’t have it yet, but hopefully I will get it this summer. I’m crossing my fingers it won’t go sold-out by the time my pockets get a little more full… It is now available at Amazon US, Game Shark or Bol.com.

See the rest of this post to get more info and watch an unboxing video.

Product Features

• Officially Licensed for The Sims 3
• Plumbob-Shaped Backlighting
• USB 2.0 Connectivity
• Optical Sensor
• Scroll Wheel
• Left and Right Mouse Buttons

System Requirements

• Connectivity: USB 2.0
• Windows 7
• Windows Vista
• Windows XP

Via Facebook

As soon as you register your game, you get the two tops and a fancy old-school telephone.

Download link

If you’re a fan of TS3 on Facebook, you’ve probably seen this… if not: TRON inspired kitchen, anyone?

My favorite is definitely Glitter and Glam Bedroom. Perfect for my rich Sims interested in arts and luxury stuff.

Transport to the Future
Front Row Center Bedroom + Wretched Threads
Glitter and Glam Bedroom

• Read TS3 Fast Lane Stuff review
• Read Barnacle Bay review

This might’ve been up for a few days, I’m not really sure now because I haven’t checked the official site for a while, but I think I may give the new tool a try. It seems very easy, but I think superior designers will like to stick Delphy’s Pattern Packager. (If you’re looking for tutorials for Delphy’s tool, take a look here.)

Click here to take a look at Create a Pattern tool!

The tutorial will teach you this:

If you primarily use package files for your custom content and have noticed increased load times and/or lag in your game, follow this tutorial to combine your CC into fewer, larger packages to fix the problem.

Read the tutorial now!

• 1.12 – The Sims 3,
• 2.7 – World Adventures,
• 3.3 – High-End Loft Stuff.

Installed them and everything looks fine so far. I noticed some differences in windows and how they reflect lights, the reflextions now look much stronger now. And I’m not sure if this bug is really fixed, but my Sims had a tendecy to ‘Wait outside’ when they had nothing in their to-do queue (it was listed just like any other activity). It seems to be gone now. *crosses her fingers*

Some new changes I appreciate:

• Sims may now walk and stand on bridges. Yay! I really missed that.
• Sims can unlock outfit choices and share them with household members when using the “Plan Outfit” interaction on the Dresser.
• Players may now use Create a Style on Ceilings or add and delete them when in Build Mode. I’m sure many of you’ll love this, although I think it’s just okay.
• Players may now manipulate the roof pitch for individual roof sections when in Build Mode. FINALLY!
• Sculptures can be found in a new Sculpture sorting category when in Buy Mode.
• Players may now use the Tattoo feature to customize Sims when in Create a Sim.
• Players may now select the Fiancé, Girlfriend, and Boyfriend relationship settings when in Create a Sim.
• Certain Adventures and Opportunities will properly display in the Opportunities Panel when traveling between worlds. This is helpful. For example, I always forget when my Sims should learn the martial arts to get a raise, now I see this all the time, so it works as a reminder.
• The Opportunity interface has been improved to clearly outline the fiction, gameplay objectives, rewards, and Opportunity location for all Opportunities and Adventures. This is really helpful, I’ve already seen the change.

And the not so nice change?

• This game update enables dynamic ad serving capabilities in The Sims 3. However, there are no immediate plans to activate any content of this kind. The Sims 3 EULA has further details. See http://www.ea.com/1/product-eulas.

If there will be ads in the game, I hope they will be decent. I don’t mind ads as long as they’re in form of new objects — like Renault Twizy or clothes from H&M or furniture from IKEA. I mean, these were objects people actually paid for and what they paid for was in fact advertisment. Yes, it’s super crazy when you think about it. We play the game and pay money for objects that is actually advertisement. But like I said, I don’t mind as long as it’s decent. H&M and IKEA objects were. Let’s hope it won’t be too different.

The list of all changes can be found here.

It’s a paradox that I don’t like the Sims parody for a movie that happens to be my favorite. I mean, I liked the SATC series a lot, the first movie was okay and I haven’t seen the new one, but you get the point. This parody is a little lame. Nothing beats the Twilight, Star Trek or Iron Man parodies, right? They were really funny! My opinion? People doing these parodies are geeks and they should stay true to sci-fi movies etc. Too much romance doesn’t do them good.

I was just playing The Sims 3 yesterday and started thinking about where has the good ol’ Collection Folders gone. Well, they didn’t excatly go anywhere since they’ve never been introduced in TS3, right? But there we go, Mackat has made her own way and created an online petition that everyone can sign. Easy like that. Now I’m crossing my fingers for EA Games to see this and take this seriously.

If you want Collection Folders in TS3, sign the petition now!

I found this set at the official Czech Store (just switch the language at the bottom of the official store site or follow this link) and I had to instantly download and install it! The set includes the new Renault Z.E. car which looks totally fun and a set of new eco-objects. Everything is for free.

I wasn’t able to find this set at the official US site, I wonder if it’s just a local product placement advertisement. Perhaps it is. You can download the set if you’re logged in via this page. Just click the STÁHNĚTE NYNÍ! button (right next to the car) and the download manager will open. That’s all, I’m sure you’ll enjoy!

I know I’m lame because I haven’t seen Iron Man but it seems like I’ll have to do some catching up because this parody is really awesome. Oh and once again, I love the new Servos!

As much as I don’t want to spread panic between Simmers, I thought this information might be useful for others. You may want to consider the SimPoint cards (you can buy them at BestBuy, Amazon.co.uk or Play.com–it also never hurts to check out eBay), since you don’t need to share your credit card information with EA Games this way.

Let’s hope I won’t regret this. Well, I’m dying to know whether all Sims that lost their traits will have new ones. I doubt it, though… we’ll see.

Eye of the Bolder ‘10 — Free
In the Dawn of Sims — Free
Gothique Living + Sleeping Rooms (950 SimPoints)
Old Town: Starter Kit (450 SimPoints) — totally love this one
Fanciful Fashion & Hairstyles (850 SimPoints)
Year of the Tiger (only 100 SimPoints)

I’m a little happy that there’s something free finally, like the two paintings of which I love the Gustav Klimt-ish one.

Fanciful fashion? You must be joking me, EA Games, right? Okay, okay, I like the hairs and I love the high-waist skirt, but I wish it was not an outfit, but a separate part. *sigh* Apart from that, nothing either fanciful or fashionable.

Year of the Tiger is super-cute, for that price it’s a must-have. Luckily, I have a few SimPoints, so I’m definitely going to spend some now.

So anyways, I’ve been thinking about custom content for TS3. As funny as it seems, I still feel very new to it because just like I said I don’t have too much time to download and read news about custom content. But today I got a lot of nice clutter, body shop stuff and some build mode essentials. With some little custom content the game starts making so much sense to me.

One of the things I truly love about CC for TS3 is that you don’t really need any recolors for the new meshes to make them show up. That’s so great! My game used to be cluttered with so many recolors I didn’t like, now I can just chose my own pattern on the go. And it makes the objects much more pretty, because they look more Maxis-like. No way-too realistic textures. I love that.

The drags: It’s such shame that you can’t delete anything from the game. Everything must be made manually. I also don’t like that some creators make their sets in .sims3pack files. I decided to donate to Around the Sims 3 today to finally get an easier access to her files (you can download all sets in one package), but also because Sandy has been doing a wonderful job all these years and I hadn’t had PayPal until recently so it was about the time to say thankyou even this way. But like I said above, all her files are in .sims3pack.

Luckily Delphy made this cool extractor that converts everything to .package file. It’s so useful! But still I wish creators didn’t use that format. It’s such a drag!

In the next few days, I’ll keep on de-cluttering my bookmarks with some older finds for TS2 so these will come first and then I’ll start looking for something fresher. Hope you have a wonderful weekend! :love:

Oh and: Sims 3 Sells 4.5 Million Units while 3.2 million units were illegally downloaded.

Now I only have The Sims 3 and also TS3 World Adventures, and I’m starting to feel the same. Sims can now gain new skills and it takes much more time, but every skill has also different challenges (like when you write you can be a best-selling author after publishing 50 novels–I made that up, but there’s something similar). Sims can collect stuff, which is really awesome, but one thing that intrigues me the most is that you always get the best results if you combine a few types of skills/career together.

The problem? It’s so specific with so many options that I can barely try everything in the game.

For example, I’d love to have a Sim that would be a great gardener and would produce his own nectar. Then I’d love to have a Sim, who could cook and grow his own veggies and/or fish, so he could make more types of recipes. Then there are the artsy Sims who might be great at painting/photographing, and others good at athletics/martial arts… the list goes on and on. Of course, they need to have friends, family, career…

At one point, I’m so happy that there are all those options. I remember The Sims 1 in all its simplicity and I loved it so much. When I tried it the last time, I found it boring. So I uninstalled the game and decided to keep the memories which remain absolutely amazing (and so nostalgic at the same time). On the other hand, sometimes I feel so overwhelmed with so many options. Do you know what I mean? Once you can do so much, it brings you to the point where you want to make the most out of the perfection.

So what do you think: the more options the better, or the worse?

Read the small note by SimGuru_BGY_11 here.

So, why is The Sims 3 animal friendly? Because Sims can choose to have a vegetarian-oriented lifestyle. Wow.

The animal-rights group praises The Sims 3 for its option to let players “choose a vegetarian lifestyle,” making Sims, “like their real-life counterparts, live longer, age more slowly, and feast on cruelty-free delights-from tofu dogs to ratatouille.”

Enough of joking, read the whole story at Kotaku.

Game speed will automatically increase when a Sim is in jail.

In jail? Since when do Sims go to jail? What do I have to do to make my Sims go to jail? I want to try that! Any ideas?

And last but not least, it is recommended to update your game before installing the tool! It must be at least version 1.8 or higher. However, one of the comments here at S4S says that the game didn’t work even after patching. I’m not installing it just yet, especially because I’m exploring World Adventures now (I might release some pictures even today or this weekend), so let me know in the comments how the installation worked for you.

BTW nice Christmas present from EA Games, don’t you think?

Click the pictures to enlare.

Via: SimTimes.de

Grab the set to decorate your houses, I think the objects are really nice!

• I love Jingle Bells in Simlish!
• Why are there so many death scenes?
• I’m very surprised how much liberal EA Games is. Last time, it was Edward Cullen and his ‘friend’ kissing, now another kissing scene between girls. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against homosexuals, it’s just come to my mind.
• I like the first three scenes the most. Which are your favorite?

I haven’t taken a look at the official TS3 Store for a while and now I see there are a few new sets. Unfortunatelly, I’ve ran out of SimPoints, so I’m not buying anything.

Damn, those SimPoints are pretty expensive. I wonder if the exchange rate will drop by any chance. Well, probably not.

Anyway, one of the new sets is Modern Minimalist, Asian Fusion, Castle Exterior Set and there might be some more, I’m not really sure now.

I think Animals Abound has a few more sets, too. And they’re so lovely! Stuff for kids is always appreciated, you know.

Have you been waiting for some more objects by EA Games? Well, personally, I’m not sure. But maybe some geeky stuff will make me desire them, who knows.

The new stuff pack is called Design & High-Tech Stuff and it seems like a must for all people in the world who are turned on by industrial design, modern things and stuff that beeps and has some small flashing lights. Yay, me is included!

When should we expect it? In early February 2010 (probably on 5th February). Seems like EA Games will keep feeding us with new EPs and SPs every three months. Hopefully something worth buying.

P.S.: I ordered World Adventures from Amazon today. It will take a long time till it gets to me (I might get it a few days before Christmas, so yes, it’s a Christmas present from me–to me), because I’m waiting for some other stuff to be shipped with it and I’m choosing the cheapest shipping… but since I’m having a few tests ahead of me, I think it’s for the best. Then I can play it a little and then study for final exams of my first UNI semester. Hurray!

Via: SimTimes.de

Oh wait, it’s the crisis! I almost forgot. Or maybe not. (Today I bought a bag for my brother’s money and there’s no way I’m giving them back soon. Foolish me, I’ll have to figure out something… So, what’s your opinion on paysites?) Erm, I’m joking! Joking! Yes, my sarcasm somewhat comes up when I least expect it, but I think it’s just because I’m tired and this has been a hell of a bad day.

But tomorrow’s always better. Why? At least because you can start over again and make the first step with your right foot. And there’s a chance you’re going to play The Sims. And maybe even chance that you’re not as penniless as I am, so you can actually afford this awesome set.

Oh my, I love to ramble. But you’ve already noticed that, haven’t you?

The Sims 3 Store brings some really nice sets for our Sims. The first one is Harvest Bounty, which is for free and then there are Wordly Goodies (5 objects for 100 Simpoints), Steampunk Saavy–set of 19 items/clothes for 1,000 Simpoints, and last but not least  Steampunk: The Return, which is a set of 6 objects for 325 Simpoints.

I think that the Wordly Goodies and Steampunk: The Return are must-haves. I’m so happy I saved some free Simpoints, I’m going to do some Sims shopping now.

But even in China there’s nothing we haven’t seen so far. Oh c’mon EA Games, I’m sure you’re much better than this!

Or maybe the small river (or whatever it is) is new. And it looks pretty good. I’m really looking forward to see the tombs. Speaking of which, there are some tips about building them at Infinite Sims.

And last but not least, there’s a new rustic floor lamp for everyone to download for free.

All previous game characters (in The Sims 1 and The Sims 2) were aging on one single lot that you were playing at. It had some advantages, but some disadvantages, too. The good thing was that if you wanted to age certain Sims, it was pretty easy. You could take care of them as much as you wanted, or just leave the Sims alone and not care about them at all. You knew your Sims would wait for you and basically never die (if you used some cheats or the life elixir).

The bad thing about the old games was that there were many Sims you might want to get rid of, but they would chase the new generations of your Sims all the time. And I remember many ugly NPCs in The Sims 2…

In The Sims 3, you can set the aging on three levels. Depending on which you choose, you Sims will live from 30 to 970 Sim days (I’m not really sure about the numbers at the moment, though, sorry). This gives you a pretty big range to choose from. Personally, I found it very difficult to play for my Sims with the new system of aging since all your Sims now age the same way. But I think I’m finally getting used to it.

The trick is to rotate your lots/active Sims from time to time and change the life span. If you feel like playing a little longer for one household and don’t want your other Sims to grow up, just choose the longest aging or just turn it off. And when you feel like you’ve had enough of one family, then you can just choose another one. I usually do this when I happen to have too many small kids in the family.

Another new and BIG step forward in The Sims 3 is the game progression. When turned on, Sims you don’t play with actually act as regular NPCs, but will continue to have their regular lives. That means they will find friends, get a new job or they might even get unemployed and have new children. Not everyone might like this, but you can always turn this option off. (In my game, for example, Mortimer Goth had a new brother.)

I usually keep it turned off and when I feel like I need a little twist in my game, I turn it on for a while. This option also takes care of how your town runs, so you won’t end up with 20 rock stars and no policemen.

All in all, I’m not saying the new system of aging and game progression is really super-awesome, but it’s really nice if you find the right pace you want to play your game with. When you find your pace, the game has a gives you a whole new experience and makes the lives of our Sims more real. And honestly, I really like that. As long as I can control my Sims, everything is okey.

The Sims 3 Store brings some new goodies, but before you scream with happiness, I’d like to tell you that some of the sets are rather costy. SimTimes.de made some small counting and the Regal Set will cost almost 29 €/ 41,28 USD. Ouch. However, there are some really nice pieces that look worth it.

But the good new is that at least the Halloween set is for free! And the Steampunk set, which contains only 5 new items, will cost you only 325 SimPoints. I already bought it for my SimPoints which I got with my game. I’m really into Steampunk these days, so I couldn’t miss it.

There are also two new clothes sets. They look very plain and simple, but don’t underestimate them. I think Maxis should’ve made some better recolors, but the meshes look really neat. Especially the Victorian set looks great and I wouldn’t use it only for my old-fashioned Sims…

I still haven’t got to installing TS3 downloads too much. In fact, I installed my first sets only yesterday, mainly because I didn’t feel like messing with all of it. At this point, I kind of missed my good old TS2 where I knew everything about custom content. Now everything feels so new.

Except some Pegy’s and Rose’s hairs who don’t look good in blond colors, everything works really great. I also installed some Mango Sims’ objects, which look really perfect. It’s really funny to notice that Rose’s hairs don’t look as good in TS3 as they looked in TS2. However, I changed my opinion about Pegy’s meshes now, but I think they look much better due to the recoloring system in TS3. Finally I can have the perfect shades of brown or blond.

One thing that bothered me were recolors that were included in the .rar files with Rose’s hairs and Mango Sims’ objects. Luckily, you don’t need to install them to make the meshes work. It seems like the game assigns some default textures for new content. Yay! It saves me a lot of time, because installing .Sims3Pack files takes the whole eternity (anyone knows why?). And I like to choose my own paterns, too.

Now I’m heading to download some custom content by Fresh-Prince (he released an awesome Bugatti Veyron car, did you see it?) and some new paintings by Sims Art Gallery. I really need some, because the game is very limited in art. I really love their food paintings, especially these hot chocolate cups paintings (ok, I know the title says coffee, but since I prefer hot chocolate, I see it everywhere).

Oh, and if you asked me, Sims Arts Gallery is a prototype of site with easy navigation, perfect looks and good access to everything. My new favorite.

And that completely doesn’t make sense. I’m sure the Christmas pack for TS2 included more new objects (well, I had it and it did), so I really hope it’s just an unlucky rumor. But if Maxis released some Christmas objects at Sims 3 Store, I really wouldn’t complain. After all, what’s the point of Christmas with no Christmas tree in the game? And don’t tell me you don’t play Sims at Christmas, that would be a big lie.

Babies are something I totally love in the new game. But let’s start with the pregnacy. There are no real changes with and during the pregnancy in The Sims 3. The belly grows every day, but the game camera won’t move to the pregnant Sim when the size of the belly changes. Sims can now read books about pregnacy, which is quite nice.

When the baby arrives, you can either stay home or go to the hospital — in case your partner’s home, he can take you there and then take a taxi back home.

The biggest difference are the babies themselves. They’re so friggin cute! I know some people call them “larves” now, but please, don’t spoil the fun to me. In fact, I found it very silly in TS2 to leave the babies wrapped in simple diaper. I’m not a mother, but my brain tells me they could get cold. Now when they’re wrapped, I really stopped worrying about them.

Also, the sheats they’re wrapped in are now blue or pink, depending on whether you’re having a babyboy or a babygirl. I love this, because when I have big families, it’s easier for me to recognize those babies.

One of the things I’ve noticed is that they’re actually much more quiet. Toddlers won’t scream when they’re locked in their cribs. I also know that some people didn’t that the changing tables were gone. I think they could keep them in the game, but I don’t mind that much since changing the diapers is now much easier. They’re changed right in the arms of babies’ parents and they are no longer all over the floor. The same goes for the bottles, which is really neat. I hated this a lot in TS2. Maid was my best friend by that time…

And one another thing — you can carry babies and toddlers around the house, talk on the phone or to other Sims while still holding them, go with them to community lots. It’s awesome. Leaving babies on the floor seemed very unpretty to me. The new game fixes this problem.

Opportunities

The new opportunities system is one of my favorite new additions to TS3. They make your Sims more alive, give them more activities to attend and change their plans pretty quickly, too.

I pretty much prefer the opportunities at work, because they can give your Sims a payrise (which is nice — I have a surgeon Sim who now earns 900 per hour), win you new friends, get your boss know better or your Sims can earn some new skillpoints. They’re usually easy to follow and get done.

In case your Sims are low on money, they can be a big help. Earning 500 Simoleons just for gaining a new skillpoint or repairing your neighbor’s TV is really awesome.

However, sometimes I get a bit irritated by the sports opportunities. I think there are too many of them — I get opportunities for swimming or earning athletics skillpoint all the time. But maybe it’s also because I’m not too much of a sports type person in real life, which might mean I perceive these opportunities more sensitively.

Careers

Building a career in The Sims 3 is — at some point — a bit more difficult than in TS2. It takes some more time to get to the top of the career, but I think it’s much more fun.

First of all, you don’t need to be totally perfect in everything in order to get promoted. For example, if you don’t get on well with your boss but your skills and mood are high, you will get promoted either way.

Another thing is that now you don’t need 1,000 friends to be promoted. I really hated having so many friends in The Sims 2, because the relationships are so hard to maintian (especially when you have a family and a bunch of kids)!

One of the things that come in handy for archieving your career goals are the traits. If your Sims are sociable/friendly and want to be a journalist, earning charisma skillpoint will be easier, so they will get the promotion sooner.

I also really like that all careers have certain demands. If you’re a surgeon, you’ll need to study specific books. If you’re a journalist, you should interview people. If you’re in politics, you might need to ask your friends for donating to your campaign. It makes much more sense!

Create-a-Style Tool

Perfect and delicious, that’s all I can say about the new create-a-style tool. It’s never been easier to create the perfect pattern, choose the color you want or match all wooden furniture in your house. I really hated when things didn’t match in my houses, it drove me nuts.

I really dreamed of this tool ever since I got the first The Sims game and now my dreams came true. Sometimes I get a little stuck just recoloring everything in my game, but when I don’t have time for that, I just skip this part and ignore the furniture/textures.

All in all, this tool is perfect. It really does what it should and it gives even the base game many more options. And most importantly, a personal touch to every house you create.

Build Mode

There have not been very big changes in the build mode. However, some things got nicely improved. Small imperfections in previous games are now fixed and build mode has changed into a more wide and flexible tool.

But first off, Mandy asked me in the comments whether the houses looked somehow more ‘puddingish’ (like the Sims do). No, not at all! The build mode lets you create the most perfect houses you could ever imagine. The graphics are really good, or more like brilliant and I’m sure there’s not a single person who doesn’t like how the houses look. Show me one and I’ll buy you a chocolate!

One of the things I really love about the Build Mode is the new system how content is categorized. It’s shown in a picture that looks like an unfurnished house with some landscaping (buy mode has something similar), so it’s visually easier to find what you’re looking for.

I also like that the trees come in various sizes so it seems like all trees are differnt; they also move in the breeze, which is really nice!

Tiles can now be divided into triangles after you press CTRL+F. I love this, because before you had to split them with walls (and now you can actually have 4 triangles, before you had only 2).

Speaking of floors, with the new terrains, you’ll never use them outdoors again. The terrain tool is a huge step forwards. I rarely used it before, now I use it a lot. You can change the shape, density, or intensity of the edges. Really, I think it’s a blast. Finally somebody turned it into something useful.

What else do we have here? Now you can change the angle of the roof without using cheats. The Sledgehammer tool is now how it should’ve always been — you can drag it along the floor and everything in this range will be deleted/sold. It’s very useful.

There is one drag, though. I hate that you can’t use the create-a-style tool for things like fences, roofs, flowers and stairs. What the hell is wrong with you, Maxis? You can recolor almost the bootlaces on the shoes, but not a single fence. This is really annoying. But I have to admit, no matter how much I don’t like it, build mode is perfect. Maxis did a great job on it.

Oh and some people really complain about no pool-jump, but I don’t mind that much. Yes, it’s stupid they left it out, but it’s nothing that important. It might even come with the next EP, who knows.

First Impressions

When I first ran the game, I was pretty confused. Too many buttons, new menu, new town. Somehow I managed to enter one of the houses and then I got stuck with it for a while just to learn the basics. However, I got used to new things pretty soon. I fell in love with the Crate a Style tool instantly, and so I did with the new environment of the game. The new town looks wonderful! But it’s not only the town, it’s also how Sims live in it. It doesn’t seem empty, nor crowded. There’s always something to do. Whether you want to go to cinema, see a symphony, a rock concert or just go fishing, you can find it outside. Endless possibilities — but with no loading screens, which is awesome.

The Sims

One of the things I really needed to get used to (and I think I’m still just getting used to it) are the Sims and how they actually look. They’re different, I think everyone noticed that. But are they really ugly? Uhm, no, I think not. But whoever started the whole “pudding” comparasion, he got it totally right. They do look puddingy a lot. But it doesn’t mean they’re ugly. In fact, I find them cuter in many ways now. Their faces look much smoother and detailed now. There are no wierd polygons that look sharp — it can be seen very well on their noses, for example. They just look smooth.

I also noticed that the animations are mostly used from the old game. At first, it was very noticeable, but then you really just stop perceiving it. Some animations are different, though, which is better. When Sims read books now, they no longer make that silly smiling face they used to. They just move their eyes, which looks more natural. I could give you many examples, but it’s really not worth mentioning.

Inventories

One of the cool things about The Sims 3 are the inventories. Sims can store in them nearly anything, which means that you can carry your notebook around the town and surf the simternet (yeah, I think they needed a new name for that) anytime. They can carry around their books and then read them in the park. The same thing goes with fruits you buy in the shop (or you grow them in your garden if you want) — some of them like apples or watermeloon can be eaten anywhere, which is perfect for Sims who like to stay away from the house.

If you play with more than just one Sim, you can also easily share the stuff between them. Unfortunatelly, there’s no special interaction for giving gifts, so you can’t share anything between a Sim you play with and a Sim you don’t. I’m sure this will come sooner or later, though.

Cars and Car Pool

Cars are one of the things that are slightly improved but also look like a one step backward. One of the good things is that there’s a much bigger variety. The other good things is that you can also “carry” them around the town and go anywhere with them. Even better, if you have a bicycle, it’s great for losing some weight.

The weird thing I still can’t get used to is how they disappear on the road and suddenly appear nicely parked near the buildings. I believe it’s due to how cars actually work in the game now. I mentioned the first thing — they are now stored in inventories with other things. The other thing is that the driveroad can be placed anywhere on the lot, which means there are many possibilities for placing a car, but it’s made the whole thing much more difficult with animations. I think the animations would be much more complicated (and might cause bugs) if Sims drove their cars around the lot just to park them in the parking lot. That’s why they dissapear and suddenly appear on the drive lot.

I have to admit I still don’t really like it very much. This looked much nicer in The Sims 2 and I’m sure that moviemakers had much more fun with this. On the other hand, when I don’t think about it too much, I think I don’t care while I play the game.

One thing that bugs me and I still haven’t figured it out is the carpool. Maybe it’s a bug, but if you know anything, please let me know. The thing is that when my Sims own a car and I set the owner, the car pool still arrives. The car pool also arrives when Sims are not at home. I find it a little irritating, especially the thing that Sims prefer going to work with the car pool rather then with their own cars.

The Almighty Hand

I think I wasn’t the only Simmer who didn’t like that your Sims had to do all the boring stuff all the time. The newspapers were always piled up in front of my houses, the Repo Man sometimes appeared because I couldn’t find the bills (this stopped happening after I had Seasons, where “Pay All Bills” option was introduced), there was always some food in the kitchen that would soon got spoilt, because my Sims forgot to put it in the fridge before they left the house.

In the Sims 3, now you can use the “almighty” hand (as I call it) and simply move some of the things around the house. The newspapers go to trash and bills get paid while my Sims are still doing their own stuff. Some of the decoration objects can also be moved and rotated, which saves you some time to load the Build Mode. All in all, it’s a great addition I can’t imagine the game without.

• PC Only: Addressed an issue where a user was unable to uninstall The Sims™ 3 if the 1.3 update was interrupted.
• Mac Only: Fixed a problem that prevented players from installing custom content after installing the 1.3 update.

Also, the Store is now updated with new goodies for your Sims. The Ultra Lounge Youth objects are a real must-have. Something our teens need so much! The clothes are quite fine, nothing extraordinary, but the castle theme is a bit of out of the place. But maybe some of the objects will work nicely for you.

Now this one is the funniest one:

• Sims can no longer “Try for Baby” with the Grim Reaper.

Lol, I wish I had tried that before installing the patch!

Rose also offers a unisex hair, nice and messy.

I’m still waiting for objects, though. I especially wait for XM Sims objects, because I used to love them in the game and of course, Holy Simoly!. I’m first in line to get them when available.

• Truly Bald Hair (Both Genders, Almost All Ages!)
• Short Mop Hair (All Ages, Both genders!)

Don’t ask me why there’s no Wee Barnoid #04. It wasn’t in my RSS reader.

There are also some exciting new sneakers! Make sure to check them out.

Also, it seems that Destination Adventure might really be the next The Sims 3 expansion pack — it’s now mentioned on the French Amazon. If that was true, vacationing would make me happy.

And last but not least, The Sims 3 Store has some nice free clothes for you. And I wasn’t lying when I said nice.

Story progression has two main goals in The Sims 3.

• Maintain town stability. (primary goal)
• Make the neighboring Sims feel as if they have their own stories and are growing in the your world. (secondary goal)