It\'s been nearly 2 months since I started playing the Sims 3 and I still have very mixed feelings about the game. I want to like the Sims 3 but I often find that bugs/glitches and the way the game plays is often out of my control in many cases. It spoils my enjoyment of playing the game. I have turned off all the aging and story progression so I can see how all the families can interact with one another as I play through those families in the neighbourhood. It does make for a more interesting neighbourhood when Sims know each other instead of playing just the one family which I feel is unbalanced.

I often find I get involved when just playing the one family and switching to another family with the loss of inventory items, wishes and gains in some things like gardening skills can be very off putting to change to another family. When playing with aging on I miss seeing those familiar faces that used to appear around the neighbourhood time after time. Sims get old and died or just disappeared from the game and I feel that even when playing for more than 10 Sim weeks the game changes so much that I no longer recognise the families that are living in the neighbourhood especially if playing on a normal time frame! 

I feel that I am not able to play the game I want because of this aging factor and the spawning of new Sims, especially babies is totally unacceptable in the game even though I can understand why this is done! I can no longer manipulate the game as I did with the Sims 2 and for me this is one of the biggest disappointments of the Sims 3. Even when playing with aging and story progression off I am unable to control certain events due to gameplay problems.

I know there are many people who will enjoy how the Sims will grow old in the Sims 3 and eventually disappear. But for me to see regular \"townies\" or \"unplayable\" Sims on community lots, knowing who they were and that things with them would not change was reassuring in the Sims 2 game. It did for me provide a familiarity that I feel is lacking in the Sims 3. This was one of the things I had concerns about before the game came out.

I know that I will eventually go back to playing the Sims 2 as I often feel that the game is more suited to my style of play and I do have more fun playing the Sims 2!.

I also miss listening to the music in the Sims 3. One of the things I liked in the Sims 2 was listening to the music when screens were loading or when \"building\" lots, which is very lacking in the Sims 3! Listening to music in the Sims 3 is glitched and rarely works properly and having to get up and personal to actually hear a Sim play the guitar or be right up to Hi-Fi unit playing the music is no fun in my opinion, when it is working! This means you cannot do other things in the game with your Sims while listening to that music! This is something I miss a lot from the Sims 2. There are many awesome sound effects in the Sims 3 but for me this doesn\'t make up for not being able to listen to music being played in the game  

The Sims 3 has many good things and perhaps in time when bugs and glitches have been sorted or EP\'s have been added to make the gaming experience more fun it may well be a different matter. For me though I still think that the Sims 3 with all it\'s better graphics, the opportunity to customise items in the game and Sims be able to zoom in around the neighbourhood (which is totally awesome), has still much to live up to it\'s predecessor in terms of playability for the way I like to play and \"control\" my game.

I like the Sims 3 but I still have many disappointments with the game. The sound in my game is one of the biggest. There is such good music in the game only I wish I could hear it! There seems to be no reason why the music on the stereos work when playing one game and when I load the game up the next day it doesn\'t work. I do the same thing everytime so why is this happening? I notice that music is okay when starting out a new game but as time goes along it no longer works. Also there are times when I can no longer hear the music in create a Sim or during the build mode. It such great music to listen to so it\'s disappointing that this aspect of the game is not working well. It spoils the enjoyment of the game in my opinion.

The other music I like is when my Sim is learning or playing the guitar but to hear it in my game you have to be up so close to the Sim which means you can\'t take advantage of listening to the music playing while doing other things on the lot. 

I have also found problems in Riverview. I like this neighbourhood as it does offer a slightly harder challenge than Sunset Valley but it hasn\'t taken into account some of the Wishes that Sims roll and some of them cannot be fulfilled. For example the Wish to harvest a \"wild\" plant. There are only 2 plants in the wild in Riverview that I know of, the Death Flower and the Omni Plant. There were lots of plants to harvest in the wild in Sunset Valley so why didn\'t they put a few around Riverview being a farming community?

Other things that annoy me are the Hopeless Romantic trait. Those Sims go and flirt with every Sim and are even more Flirty than those with the Flirty trait! lol! The desciption for the Hopeless Romantic (looking for a soul mate)does not match what they get up too! lol! They use flirtation greetings and other flirty gestures with every Sim they meet and cause relationship drops with their spouse/partner!

The wish to make a recipe with a certain fruit or fish! In order to do that you have to sell or remove every other fruit/fish etc in the fridge or Sims inventory to fulfil it! It\'s really not worth the effort for the few points to earn!

I dislike how long it takes a married couple to throw up the interaction to \"massage\"! Even with a really high relationship this can take quite a few other interactions for this to show! Surely married Sims should be able to do this without having to pander to the Sim first! lol!

Opportunities. I had one opportunity for a music Sim to teach music at the school but on the same day was promoted to Rock Star and this opportunity could no longer be fulfilled as he couldn\'t \"go to work\" and only perform concerts!

I had a Sim who was asked by another household to move in. After playing that household for a while I saved and switched to playing another family in the hood. Going back to play the first household again meant all the items in the inventory were lost for all Sims and my Green Thumb Sim could no longer plant cheese and eggs. It took a very long time for the game to offer another opportunity to get this again. I have had this happen in the game before and is very disappointing after working so hard for my Sim to get those rewards. I have noticed that Opportunities do not come up as much in Riverview as they did in Sunset Valley. It\'s taking a very long time for Green Thumb Sims to get the \"Opportunities\" to plant all the items in the game. I didn\'t have a problem with this in SV.

I\'ve had a bit of a break from playing the Sims as Real Life has been kicking in and taking up most of my time but I have just got back to playing the Sims 3 and I\'m still trying to come to terms with this continual aging in the game. I want to play all the families in the neighbourhood but in order to do so I have to turn aging off or start a new game every time, for me that is not fun! I hate how the game spawns babies all over the Hood and leaves no single Sims who are living alone without becoming single parents! Some families appear to age quicker than other for some reason and it all seems very inconsistent.

I liked the challenge of the Sims 2 to earn LTW and point to buy rewards to boost their needs with the Energizer or hold back the aging process with Elixir, I feel the Sims 3 is lacking much in that direction.

I find skill building and making friends is slow and with aging on it becomes frustrating as it appears you have to make only the one decision of how to play your Sim. Do you go for the career and LTW or forget one of those and have a family. To achieve all 3 on a Normal lifespan is very intense and for me not much fun to play. It would be better if there were some rewards to boost needs instead of mood! My Sims at the start of a game have little time to do anything but eat, sleep and go to work! Of course it get better as time goes along but if you are playing in a Normal lifespan your Sim could be into Elder stage by then and I feel as though I have hardly played my Sim at all!

I found rewards in the game are not up to much. Some Lifetime rewards are good and help, but those that are family based cannot be taken with the Sim (that earned it) if they decide to move out of the household on their own.

I have only played a couple of careers to the top but rewards are in no way as special as they were in the Sims 2 and it makes you feel as though you have not really achieved much in the game! You can still make it too the top without the necessary skills and through hard work and completing challenges but I feel as though I have not really achieved!

I\'m still desperately trying to find the gameplay of the Sims 3 fun and I want to like it as there are many things in the game to like but I often feel I should just go back to playing the Sims 2. Rozee