The ultimate life-sim to date. Time to hit up the computer and live another life!
+ First off, I would like to comment about the stylish graphics present in TS3. It is unique and suited for a game like the Sims. It also, in my opinion, makes it a more immersive world and gives it a comical edge. It can run on a typical computer at medium setting with next to no lag at all. If you are suffering from frequent crashes it is most likely due to your computer restricting memory access from TS3 to 1GB. To fix this I recommend searching crash solutions for TS3 on the internet as there is a cure on TS3's official support site (which I unfortunately forgot where).
++ The freedom to do whatever you want is usually not exercised in real life. Which is why there is a game like TS3 to let you fulfill every desire... However vile it may be. To prove this, in one game I once held a party at my property, and invited many people over. While they enjoyed their martini and Spanish guitar, I entered build mode and walled them off with no doors out. I imagine in real life in a situation like this the people would panic and eat each other, so I pretended to be a scientist observing specimens in a social experiment (in the end they all died of starvation).
+ While the original soundtrack was not spectacular, the variety of it (you can edit this in options) made up for it. You can decide to listen to some death metal rock, or a soothing symphony. The music you can play from the guitar is also of note, as I found it surprisingly beautiful.
+ The ability to roam the town without additional load times really made me feel immersed. This is the most substantial change from the great TS2; if nothing else in this game made you think it different than TS2, you can always cite this new spectacular feature. Truly, you would not know the joy of riding a free cab back and forth through the main street and loitering in the park all day until you've done it yourself.
- Nothing else substantial apart from the feature mentioned above was changed from TS2. Although this was disappointing, there is not much else TS could offer in terms of life simulation with our current technology (except maybe a first person attempt at life simulation, now that would be something!).
- The after taste is also rather bland. After playing through one lifetime of a character, you no longer want to play on (of course your mileage may vary) as you have done all there is in the game. Such as fishing, playing the guitar, drawing, writing, gardening, reading books, playing chess, swimming, running, working out, sleeping, brushing teeth, taking a shower, taking a bath, doing laundry, getting laundry, making the bed, cooking, (I could go on but I do not want to bore the reader).
All in all, this is a great game that appeals to hardcore gamers and casual gamers alike. It is a great way to pass the time, and you may fondly remember moments from it when inspired by such moments in real life.