After reading Pinstar\'s rules on Sunday, I was off to try out a real game. Only problem was I came on the site today to find he had outlawed Life Fruit! He didn\'t mention it his first list of rules and I thought it would be ok as he didn\'t outlaw Elixir in the Sims 2! Silly Me! I thought it was odd he outlawed Ambrosia given how hard it is to get in the game but it\'s his rules and I like to try and stay within them!

I spent nearly all my Sim\'s YA and Adult life getting her gardening skills together and to find the seeds to harvest the life fruit only to find we cannot have our Sims eat the fruit to reduce their aging! Almost 3 days of play down the pan! I like to keep within the rules if I can just for the \"challenge\" of it! I must have the insane trait! I\'m playing in Riverview which in my opinion is a little more difficult to play than Sun Valley.

I know that my YA/Adult Sims can have 5 children in that time without adding to their life, the question is can he live long enough to see it fulfilled! lol! I\'m off to do some more play testing! lol! I wonder if I will ever complete this challenge!

I posted this thread recently and feel quite strongly about how the game \"takes over\" your neighbourhood.

I have been playing a \"legacy\" type of challenge starting out with the same character on 2 different occasions to see how this game will play out!

In my first game I didn\'t know what to expect and had my Young Adult Sim in the neighbourhood start a relationship with this \"non\" playing Sim who already lived in the neighbourhood. He was her boss in her current job. Shortly after she aged up to Adult and she had him join the family as a Spouse, they got married. There was no problem with him moving into the house on this occasion. I noticed he had a romantic relationship with an \"elder\" woman (he was living with) but when he encountered his previous relationship on a community lot I just had him use the \"be just good friends\" interactions which gave a negative relationship on her part and later she died in the game. There was no problem when I played out this game the first time around!

Take Two! In my second game I did a similar kind of thing with my controlled Sim but this time I had my Sim use her time to become more skilled through her YA life. She did the same things but took the offer of a better job, she was already into her Adult life at that stage. She dated the same Sim and when she asked him if he was \"single\" the reply was \"yes\" so I had her make a commitment of go Steady and later Engagement.

Roll on a few more days, when the time came to ask him to get married and move in. The options this time were a lot more different. The options came up to move all his family in, his child and the elder woman he was living with! (that didn\'t happen the first time i played this game! lol!). So I existed the game and played the game over again.

This tims when she invited him over to her house and he made the excuse that he couldn\'t make it, this happened on several occasions, I had her visit his house. When my Sim got there she found out that he was still with the Elder woman but he had a child with her! I didn\'t know \"Elders\" could have children in the game! (I only knew that as I switch households to find out and in the relationship panel it showed they had a baby together!) There were no children living at the house when she first made a commitment with him. He may have had a romantic interest with the Elder he was living with, but why didn\'t the game tell my Sim that!? You don\'t expect an Elder Female to have a child with an Adult in the game!lol!

I was shocked to say the least. How can a relationship be steady or engaged and then when your Sim comes to marry that Sim you find out they have \"baggage\"! lol!

Come on EA, sort out this problem. There are hardly any \"real\" NPC\'s in the game. I have noticed it takes some time to see \"real\" NPC\'s such as Firefighters, Maids etc turn up on Community Lots. If you are going to use most of the population living in the neighbourhood to generate their own families how can \"single\" Sims find a mate! If a Sim is living with another Sim then the answer should be they \"are\" in a relationship! All these \"male\" or \"female\" Sims having babies is just not the ticket and totally unrealistic!

Even poor old Don Lothario in Riverview had a baby on his own in one of my games!

At least we knew in the Sims 2 that \"all\" Townies or non playing Sims were all single! In the Sims 3 this is very much a lottery in the Sims 3 and it\'s quite possible you are onto a loser!

One of the things I really loved about the Sims 2 was being able to make a story, getting it just how I wanted it then uploading it to the exchange.

So I thought I would take the bull by the horns and see if I could make a story with the Sims 3. I was originally put off doing this as I had to learn something new and I didn\'t like how it was web based! This has been nothing but frustration. After reading some information on the EA help page I followed the instructions. I decided to upload only a couple of images just in case things didn\'t go right.

It seems simple enough, drag your image onto the box, write a title, the words below each picture. The only problem is that I can\'t see or find the couple of pictures I uploaded. They showed up on my page (I have since deleted them as I couldn\'t get them to show up to make a story) but while they were on there they didn\'t show up for me to make a story!

There are plenty of images to make a story but who wants to make a story using someone else\'s pictures! No offense to those who made those wonderful pics but I really don\'t see the point in showing other images, I want my images and I don\'t want to share my images with anyone else! lol! 

I can see two tabs \"my images\" and \"image library\", \"my image\" is a blue tab and the other is just white, but the only images I can see are ones in categories that other people have supplied. Clicking on either option does nothing! 

I really miss the Sims 2 Storytelling, it wasn\'t perfect but it was a whole lot better than it is in the Sims 3!

I spent a whole day taking images to make a story and it\'s frustrating that either something is wrong or I\'m not understanding how to do this correctly!

It\'s times like this that make me think we have been spoiled with the Sims 2 and although the Sims 3 has many good features and things about it, it\'s going to be some time, perhaps never, for me to say that the Sims 3 is better.

The ups and downs of playing the Sims 3.

I admit that one minute I\'m having a ball playing this game then I decide to switch to another family and do something else and I feel as though I haven\'t really got anywhere in this game or know anything either!

This is the first time I have played more than 2 Sims in a household. I decided to go over to the Goth house and take a look at their family. I had started a new game played one household before I had a look at the Crumplebottom House. I had probably played a couple of Sim Weeks for both households and then popped over to the Goths. I was playing on the Epic length but I noticed Gunther was not all that long to go before becoming an Elder. This is probably because I choose to leave the Story progression on. I like the idea of how this plays out when not playing with those other households but I feel the reality of how much fun this can be starts to sink in when wanting to try out other households with aging and story progression on. I wanted to play them before the Adults became Elders, so I decided to off the aging so I could see what it was like to play the family.

I think this continual aging has made me feel quite \"frustrated\" with the game. I know I had concerns about it when they first annouced this.

There is plenty to like about the Sims 3 and I\'ve had a lot of fun, but when first starting out with Sims who have little skills and managing their time when Needs deplete so quickly can really make for boring play. You never seem to get anything done or feel that you have achieved anything even though you probably have! I never really had a problem in keeping my Sims happy and getting aspiration points in the Sims 2, so I wonder why this has been made so difficult in the Sims 3.

(continued in blog below)

(Continued from above)

Mortimer rolled a Wish to finish reading a book, it carried a few hundred points. I tried for days but it seems to take him forever to finish that book. I felt it was a complete waste of time trying to fulfil that Wish! I know bookworms can read a book in a matter of hours, but why should non bookworms be penalised so! Poor Morty spent days getting nowhere! I have to wonder is this a glitch or \"real\" gameplay.

I have also noticed that when I played Agnes Crumplebottom she would spend hours on the computer trying to raise her writing skills, the meter rising very slowly. When she stopped writing because her needs were low the game announced she had got a skill point but the meter hadn\'t filled up! 

It is a little disappointing too that when you put a toddler to bed with all their needs high that social and hunger deplete so fast that you have to wake the toddler up before the are fully rested. How can a Sim loose so much social/hunger while they are sleeping! lol! To make matters worse if one of the parents decides to put the toddler to bed autonomously before energy is really low (unlike in the Sims 2 where a toddler will fall asleep when put to bed) the toddler will just sit there until their energy is low enough to sleep which means that all the other needs are going down before they have even started their sleep! Just this one thing was so irritating that I decided to grow up my toddler as soon as she had learned to walk, talk and be potty trained! For me this spoils the pleasure of playing the game.

One of the things I really liked about the Sims 2 was being able to buy rewards to get a Sim\'s Needs up. I know there are rewards to help with this in the Sims 3 but it can take a while to build up those points to be able to get them! I never had this much trouble in the Sims 2. I guess there is a lot to get used to and I can understand why people have quit playing this game already.

I must admit I have had a hard time getting rewards while playing a family of four. My Sims are mostly in very high or even the top portion of the mood meter most of the time, but trying to fulfil wishes when Needs are constantly low is difficult. They never seem to have the time to do anything but the smallest of things and visiting community lots seems a waste of time with Needs so low. Wishes for skill building are taking so long to fulfil. Perhaps I\'m missing a trick here, I don\'t know.

It appears your Sim can only \"buy\" one each of the skills. I have not seen too many skills being picked up through work or pleasure pursuits.  I\'ve had my Sims drinking coffee, a old trick from the previous Sim games, but the \"kick back\" for drinking it in the Sims 3 is not really worth the effort! I know I should be sending my Sims out of the house more but whenever they get home from work or school their needs are so low it\'s hardly worth it!

Mortimer had a chance to pick up some favour and class performance with his teacher from school by doing a bit of after school cleaning up but at the same time he brought a friend home from school and by the time he got home it was hardly worth sending him back there as his Needs were already getting low! He had to do it that day before 7pm and the work had to be completed by the next day! Of course you only know that when you have checked out the blog so no time for coming home and napping!

Why don\'t Sims sleep in bed until \"they\" or \"I\" want then to get up? Sims are getting up one hour before the carpool arrives and that is without an alarm clock. One can no longer take the advantage of a little longer lie in! I used to do that a lot in the Sims 2! On the other hand if you send them to bed early with a house full of ghost, the ghosts will get them up before they are fully rested or they wake up hours before you want them too because they do not stay in bed because they are fully rested! Naturally they are tired when they get home from school as a nap takes 2 hours and quite often not enough time to fid one in before the carpool or bus arrives! (I don\'t mind so much about the ghosts waking up Sims as that goes with the territory, lol)

There is a lot toe tapping in my game with Sims getting in each others way! This used to be a problem in the Sims 2 with the stamping of a foot and waving off a hand. I find this very annoying in the game as it is happening all the time, through doorways, up stairs, just trying to pass another Sim where there not a lot of room. With 6 ghosts on the Goth Lot as well it makes for a crowded room!

Then there\'s all the jostling for position when Sims want to make a phone call or do a particular interaction with another Sim!  They are standing right next to the Sim so why all the movement! lol! Talk about one big yawn.........I know I sound like a real moaning minnie and I don\'t want to be as I do like the Sims 3 and want to like it more.

Just having a bad hair day! lol! Rozee

Be aware that this Blog contains Game Spoilers

This is my findings as I play through my game. I haven\'t got a Prima Guide or read any spoilers so this is my experience first hand as a play.

On this third game I have been playing, it has been so much fun especially over the last couple of days. I guess with accepting that the Lot was Haunted (see a previous blog a few days ago) when I moved in my CAS Young Adult into it was perhaps an omen! lol! I\'ve have so much fun. I decided to keep all the aging on and play an \"Epic\" game with her just to see how much I could achieve in the game and how long it would take. It seems like a long time until you want to explore and achieve everything just for one Sim!

It was funny that one of the 3 ghosts on the lot had the trait of \"lucky\" and I wondered if it was rubbing off on her!

She is now starting the 2 week into her Adult life. She has made $250,000 in money with work and selling items. I want to move her to a bigger house but I\'ve still got to find out how to do this. Using the phone doesn\'t show all the properties only the ones she can afford. After merging two households together in a previous game and my Sim loosing all the items in her personal inventory I\'m not keen on doing this. The items in the house go into a \"household\" inventory and they were still there but a lot of stuff was lost. I\'m still not familiar how this works. This was so easy in the Sims 2!

I\'m sure once I get an understanding of how this exactly works I won\'t think twice about doing it!

Job

She reached the top of the Science career to Mad Scientist. I decided to choose the traits Green Thumb, Handy, Friendly, Perfectionist, Neat! lol! So in that respect the Science career was quite a good choice. It did of course fulfil a Wish at the start of the game too! I resisted all offers that came up in the game for other jobs in other careers.There may be some advantage to this but in the 2 previous games I tried out I found switching jobs was not always a good thing as other skills not know where often needed.It\'s quite hard starting out as a YA in CAS with no skills. Until you have got points to spend on Lifetime Rewards and make life a little easier for your Sim it can be quite tough on Needs and trying to fit everything in in the beginning.

Skills

She has maxed out all the skills in Gardening, Fishing, Cooking, and Handiness. She has also completed all the tasks required for the Gardening, has gained task in the Fishing, and one in the Collecting. She has around 5 skills in Athletic, 3 in Logic, and 1 each in Painting and Writing. Her inventory was full of stuff from gardening, fishing and collecting and selling just the garden produce had made her a ton of money! I love the special plaques to put up on the wall when maxing out skills!

Socializing

This too can be hard in the game at the beginning. I\'m now beginning to enjoy this aspect of the game a little more. I have always thought since the Sims 1 and Sims 2 base games that making friends while trying to get skills and ahead in a career has been one of the harder aspects of the game. This is still so in the Sims 3 but there are rewards that can help with this once your Sim has built up a reasonable amount of points.

Parties

I really enjoy how we can have parties on a Community Lot. I had to edit one of the Lots to include a couple of items I wanted on there, a better stereo and a bar. You can take the small \"boombox\" stereo, guitar and plates of food to a party in your Sims inventory, although some plates of food cannot be placed without a counter top. I had my Sim have her birthday party from YA to Adult on a Community Lot and it was so much fun. Time goes quickly but then so do Needs or Energy! I grew her up the day before and took along a birthday cake in her inventory. It was a surprise to find that you can use the cake to grow up any Sim that is there to age them up! I didn\'t try it but I was surprised to find that option there.

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Be aware that this Blog contains Game Spoilers

(continued from above)

Collecting in the Sims 3

I haven\'t gone out of my way to collect items in the game and tend to look around the area when my Sim is visiting a new area to fish, when a work assignment comes, or when she is just jogging around the neighbourhood (to get her athletic skills up). She has been very lucky in finding gems, insects and rare items! I had a chuckle when sending off the gems to be cut and saw that there was a new \"plumbbob\" shape to cut the gems into once you have \"earned\" it! So now my Sim can have her own \"emerald\" green plumbbob or perhaps she would prefer a red, yellow or even a white (platinum) coloured one! It has been a source of amusement reading the comments when finding things in the game, particularly rocks when having them analysed! My Sim has a ton of Gold, Silver, Iron and another precious metal. I like the way when getting them back from smelting that they stack neatly on top of each other in a pile if you take them out of the inventory and place them one on top of the other! I guess I should have her sell it but it looks pretty stacked up neatly!

I like the option of being able to send fish away to be \"mounted\" on a plaque! Keeping fish in bowls is very hit and miss as I quite often forget to feed them and then poor \"Goldie\" has to be flushed down the WC! Some things have not changed! lol!

Science Career (this contains a major spoiler)

My Sim was sent a challenge message that could be accepted or declined. I accepted. My Sims didn\'t have a loved one that had passed away but there were 3 graves out in the back yard! I followed the instructions by moving the headstone into my Sims inventory and going over to the Science Lab. After the Experiment had finished I noticed the \"ghost\" had been added to my Sim\'s family. His Headstone was in his inventory with an option to \"return\"!  

It was at that same time that my Sim had completed all the Gardening Challenges and had mastered all there was to do. She now had a very special \"Omni\" plant seeds and was growing a plant on her lot. She had also maxed out her Cooking Skills and knew every cooking recipe there was to know. I noticed that the \"Ambrosia\" option was available to make as a single dish. Just before my Sim left for work I had her make this dish and leave it for the \"ghost\" to eat as he was very hungry! The dish had a strange glow about it! After he had eaten it he was transformed back into a \"real\" Sim!

Now I believed there were no options to restore a Sim from death in the Sims 3 but I have been heartened to know that there is! To get this option is probably quite hard as so much needs to be known and I had play this Sim for quite a long time. It was only a one off option that came up with the Science career, but I was pleased and delighted to find something like this in the game! I guess many people will know of this if they have read the Prima Guide or spoilers but this came as a complete surprise to me and I was delighted to find it out through my own gameplay and not a spoiler!

Well that\'s all for now. I will post another blog next time about some of my findings down in the Graveyard.

I have had so much fun playing these past few days! Rozee

I thought I would try out new game, my third one!

I found a place for my Sim to live and as I was about the move her into that property when a message on the screen came up. It appears that this property has been built on an ancient burial ground and the house is haunted, or something along those lines! lol! Did I want take on the challenge and continue. Who could refuse! lol!

There were 3 graves on the Lot with 3 ghost all there in daylight. The garden was a mess covered with weeds and there were puddles all over the floor inside the house.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/TheLotisHaunted.jpg

The ghosts were a mischievous lot jumping in and out of objects on the lot,

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/Haunting1.jpg

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/Haunting2.jpg

using the shower and sleeping on the couch or bed.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/GhostShowing.jpg

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/GhostSleeping.jpg

The upside was that there were some pretty nice rocks to be found which were very valuable and worth hundreds of simoleons.This Gem was worth over 300 Simoleons!

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/ValuableGemsfound.jpg

The first person to arrive on the lot was a female Sim. She said \"I hear you have a problem with ghosts, would you like me to bust them for you!\"

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/Ghostbuster.jpg

I had the song \"Ghostbusters\" running through my head and it made me chuckle. I declined the offer, then two Sims turned up as the welcome wagon, Simis Bachelor and Cyclon3 Sw0rd, they didn\'t seem too impressed with ghosts on the Lot. They arrived in a car and parked it in the lot. When my Sim had chatted to them for a bit she asked everyone to leave and the Female Ghost also said it was time to go home too and left although she hadn\'t really \"left\" as she lived on the lot!   

My Sim chatted a little to them to break the ice! Once she had acquired the Observant reward she was able to find out a bit more about them

I watched as one like to garden and pull up a few of the weeds,

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/GhostGardening.jpg

or do a little cleaning on the cooker when it got dirty.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/GhostCleaning.jpg

I had to make sure that when my Sim got sleepy that she made sure she got in the bed before them, otherwise she would be confined to the couch if it was available.

On the whole, I haven\'t found them to be too much trouble, apart from getting in my Sims way occasionally.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/Youareinmyway.jpg

It was interesting to see the different Headstones and the information on them. It also shows how they died. Do rich Sims get bigger headstones?

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/Grave1.jpg

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/Graves2and3.jpg

Did the presence of the Ghosts stop my Sim from opening the chest to change her clothing?

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/OpenDammit.jpg

She fell back with a bump!

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/OpenDammit2.jpg

I\'m playing my game with aging on with Epic length so there\'s lots of time to go yet and find out more about Ghosts! lol!.

Also on the same lot my Sim got a job in the Science career. While she was at work one day there was and explosion and she came home a little burnt!

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/BurnttoaCrisp.jpg

Some of her needs were low and her mood was extremely low!

My thoughts on the Storytelling aspect in the Sims 3. I would have liked to have made a real story about this but the changes to how the storytelling process has changed with the Sims 3. They are for me disappointing. After reading how someone spent a lot of time composing a story only have exchange problems and loose all their blog to it is something I\'m not really prepared to spend my time doing. I loved how I could write a story as I played my game in the Sims 2. For me this is one of the biggest disappointments in the Sims 3 as someone who liked to write stories. Perhaps I\'m being a little judgemental as I haven\'t taken the time out to check out how to make a story with the Sims 3 and it\'s process. It\'s a bit off putting to have to upload pictures and then write the blog. I know I have done something similar on this blog but then it\'s not a proper story! I liked how I could write a Story in the Sims 2 although uploading separate chapters was a bit of a pain with it. Perhaps when I know how to do this in the Sims 3 I may change my mind. But I do miss the storytelling feature from the Sims 2.

Rozee

After my blog of yesterday and another day of play, the game started to get easier. 

Once my Sims had climbed the ranks in their prospect careers, they had more time to do things in the neighbourhood.  Choosing lifetime rewards such as the Multitasking reward seemed to help a little with getting things done. I think that keeping Sims moodlets meter high seems to slow their needs in general. I have also noticed that when they are doing things they like Needs appear to slow too. I had a lot of trouble when I first played this game as my Sims did nothing but eat, sleep and work and didn\'t seem to have time to learn skills or do things they enjoyed. But things do get better as they progress in their career and get lifetime happiness points to buy rewards. Now I have had a chance to see how things run I will try a game with aging on to see how I get on.

I was intrigued to see Christopher Steel (a premade) in my first game while playing another Sim Household when I had the aging on, that he became quite a large Sim. At the start of the game he was a regular body size. So I decided to play his household in a new second game. I had turned off all the aging so I could explore the neighbourhood and get to know some of the other Sim living there. He started out his career in Law Enforcement (a wish fulfilled) but changed his jobs as he was offered a higher positions in other careers and ended up in Science. As he enjoyed fishing I could take him out the back of the Science Building and have him fish at the end of work.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/FishingatScienceLab.jpg

He made it to the dizzy heights of Mad Scientist. He did not have all the skills required but through hard work, achieving assignments, and keeping his general mood fairly even at work he made it to the top. I\'m still working towards his Lifetime Wish of having 13 Perfect Fish in fishbowls! He has just over half at the moment. I looked for an item in the game to place all these fishbowls on but couldn\'t seem to find one. I was a bit concerned about leaving the fish in his inventory in case they got used for something else. Be aware that fish do eventually die in fishbowls. He has already fished out vampire fish at the back of the Science Lab, but I still have a number of locations to explore and new fish to find. 

I chose a Lifetime Reward to keep his body trim (the one which burns off calories, I can\'t remember what it was called). This helped as he was a \"Daredevil\" and did things to extreme so working out made his body quite muscular looking and boy did he liked to eat! Did that have something to do with him being a Natural Cook! lol! He has about 4 lifetime rewards at the moment. I gave him the Multitasking Reward as soon as he could afford it. I also game him the Green Thumb reward to help him out with his science career.  

I have also had a lot of fun with another Sim and the Gardening side of the game. Finding unknown seeds and growing them is fun. She already has a Money Tree but she has achieved her Lifetime Wish of Growing x amount of Perfect Plants.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/MoneyTree.jpg

I also found a Death Plant but it died. The first time she was able to revive but the second time she tried to do this it disappeared into thin air with a flash. Harvesting the Flame Bush gives Sims a warm glow and a good moodlet.

I have also found a gnome while fishing! It reminded me of the gnomes in the Sims 1. It kept moving around the lot with a different pose, mostly sunbathing on the deck or on the table! lol!

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/Gnome1.jpg

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/Gnome3.jpg

It provided much amusement for me and was worth quite a bit money if I wanted to sell it too!  

And some of my favourite snapshots

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/MoonsettingoverSunsetValley.jpg

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x160/RozeeS_photos/Sims%203/Burglar.jpg

Rozee

Some of you will know that a while back I entered a competition to play the Sims 3 before it came out but the day went horrible wrong and EA promised all of the winners a free Sims 3 game. I received that game a few days ago and I would like to say thank you to EA for letting me get to play the game before it officially came out in the UK which is today.

So I think you can guess how my days and hours have been spent over the past few days. Sleep deprivation and with my hubby away for a few days I have been able to take complete advantage of playing my favourite game almost non-stop! lol!

So what are my first impressions. There are many things I see that have been taken from the Sims 1 and 2. I still do not like the look of the Sims though and think that the Sims in the Sims 2 are much better looking. But I love the way they can be customised. The customisation of this game is it\'s biggest asset. I love having the ability to change the colours of clothing and items and other build items in the game.

I\'m still trying to get to grips with the new style of gameplay. I have actually turned off all the aging so I can play and find out about things in the game. I did start to play with aging on but I found that all my Sims ever did was eat and sleep and needs went down very quickly even though I kept their mood-lets high.The aging process seemed to happen quickly as I struggled to get my CAS skilled, rich, friends and achieving their Wish!  I\'m still exploring how to build Sims skills quickly as I have found this a problem with jobs in general but hasn\'t stopped my Sims getting promotions. It\'s not hard to keep most Sims mood-lets high, at least for the couple of Sims that I have been playing, one CAS and one of the premades. The hardest part is keeping them going for longer and fulfilling Wishes to buy things to help your Sim! I never found aspiration points in the Sims 2 a problem!

I really like the way that our Sims can collect and find things in the game and I have been playing the Law Enforcement career and it has been fun.

I do wonder though how much playability this style of play will have and if I will become bored with it. I still have much to explore so it is early days yet. I don\'t think the Sims 3 has won my heart as the Sims 2 did, not yet anyway. There are too many things that I like with the Sims 2 for me to stop playing that game. I\'m still not sold on this aging thing in the Sims 3 and I do not like the way we add Sims to a neighbourhood or the way the changes take place if you want to play more than one household in that neighbourhood.

There is much to like about in the Sims 3. I like to explore the game myself before getting help or buying a Prima Guide but I can see that getting help tips or having this guide would be a big plus, but for now I\'m happy just to explore the game myself until lack of knowledge leads to frustration! lol! 

Rozee

Just a few more days until the Sims 3 comes out in the UK. I\'m so looking forward to see how the game measures up to the Sims 2 and whether I will like the new style of gameplay. As someone who enjoys keeping their Sims alive and wanting the opportunity to control every aspect of their lives, I\'m wondering how I will like that Sims will live and die without my control.

I\'m also looking forward to trying out some new challenges with the game too. It will be interesting to see if old challenges made for the Sims 2, like the Legacy Challenge and the Apocalypse Challenge will still be fun to play in the Sims 3.

When I get the game it will be hard to know what to do first! lol! Create A Sim or just get down to playing the neighbourhood! I guess I will be all over the place checking things out. Rozee