To save up some space on my HDD, I decided to get rid of The Sims 3. I haven't really played it in over 3 years after all...
I'd like to say a few words about the game before I delete it, though.
The open neighbourhood was a great new feature compared to the older games, but I think it had its drawbacks too. My game was only a "beta" game with only 1 neighbourhood (Sunset Valley) and no expansion packs, so this might have been the cause but if I played the same game for too long, all the cool premade families died out (often without a "heir") and got replaced by dumb computer-generated randomized sims who always had "male voice 1" and "female voice 1". Literally everybody sounded the same after playing for a while plus they were super random sims. They often seemed to reproduce by mitosis since single sims had babies more often than couples left alone. I once moved in a single woman for my male sim to meet with and possibly marry and then she had a baby within 24 sim hours after I moved her in the neighbourhood. :| Tbh I didn't really wanna start my sim's married life by having to raise a goddamn clone baby... Also, I once played with a family for quite a long time. When the 4th generation grew up, I continued the game with the younger girl (out of 3 siblings). The rest of the family ended up quitting their jobs, breaking up with their spouses, etc. The kids they had all had the same hairstyles and voices.
In the end I was like "NAH, GIMME BACK THE SIMS 2 where I can control the entire neighbourhood!"
These were the drawbacks. I liked the new personality trait selection thingy where you could pick from a much wider variety of traits than before for your sims. Though some of them really don't do much. The moodlets were fun too. The texture selection was an amazing thing too. You could buy anything in any colour and/or texture, it certainly gave a unique feel to the outfits and household objects. Certain challenges like making Ambrosia were really fun for avid players like me. The toddler life stage was too long in The Sims 3, though. Raising toddlers and having to tend to their needs is a time-consuming task for your sims, 4 days were enough for that in The Sims 2.
The graphics are definitely a lot nicer than in The Sims 2, but you don't get to appreciate your sims' beauty or their unique accessories because you play zoomed out most of the time (at least I did) because of the open neighbourhood.
So yeah, maybe I'm just getting old, but I didn't like this game as much as its predecessors.
Anyway, let me post a few screenshots here of my favourite families:
His first child and it's a girl! It's really hard getting a girl as your first child in The Sims 3 for some reason.
Same family. Daddy playing videogames with daughter and her friend watching.
The siblings I mentioned. I really liked this family while I was controlling them all. Then I chose the younger girl (in red) when she got married.
She was a scientist and knowledge-loving sim. I had her master gardening and fishing and had her make Ambrosia. She also had several children with her family-loving husband. I'd wanted to continue the game by keeping her young, breaking up with her old husband, moving her out and starting her life anew, but I kinda liked her only daughter as well, so I never did it in the end. I started new games instead.
So these were my adventures with The Sims 3. I shall continue Dragon Age once I get a new computer or new graphics card. I may try The Sims 4 as well, but I'm afraid I'm not all that interested in Sims games anymore.