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The Sims 3

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From: Electronic Arts
Category: Video Games

List Price: ~~$49.99~~
Buy Used: $23.00
as of 11/21/2009 09:40 CST details
You Save: $26.99 (54%)

New (86) Used (71) from $23.00

Seller: greatstuff53
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

445 reviews

Format: CD-ROM
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X
Genre: life_simulation_strategy_games
ESRB: Teen
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: Standard
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows Vista
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6

MPN: 15390
Model: 15390
UPC: 014633153903
EAN: 0014633153903

Release Date: June 2, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Features:

•	New Seamless, Open NeighborhoodExplore the neighborhood freely.
•	New Create A Sim Create any Sim you can imagine.
•	New Realistic PersonalitiesEvery Sim is a unique person, with a distinct personality.
•	New Unlimited CustomizationEveryone can customize everything!
•	The freedom of The Sims 3 will inspire you with endless possibilities and amuse you with unexpected moments of surprise and mischief.

System Requirements:

	Minimum Specifications:
OS:	Windows Vista (SP1)/Windows XP (SP2)	Mac OS X 10.5.7 Leopard or higher
Processor:	Vista - 2.4 GHz P4 or equivalent/XP - 2.0 GHz P4 or equivalent	Intel Core Duo Processor
RAM:	Vista - 1.5 GB/XP - 1GB	2GB
Disc Drive:	8x DVD ROM or faster	8x DVD ROM or faster
Hard Drive:	Vista & XP - 8 GB or more	At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games.
Video Card:	128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0. Supported video cards include: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900, FX 5950, 6200, 6500, 6600, 6800, 7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950, 8400, 8500, 8600, 8800, 9600, 9800, GTX 260, GTX 280 (GeForce FX unsupported under Vista); ATI Radeon 9500, 9600, 9800, X300, X600, X700, X800, X850, X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950, 2400, 2600, 2900, 3450, 3650, 3850, 3870, 4850, 4870; Intel Extreme Graphics GMA X3x00 series.	ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100.
Other:	Laptop versions of chipsets above may work, but may run comparatively slower.	* This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems, or the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards.

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 1-5 of 445

1 2 3 4 5 6 ...89 Next »

Great improvement on the Sims 2 November 19, 2009
mea23611 (Minneapolis, MN)
I've been playing The Sims 2 for years, and loved it. When The Sims 3 came out, I wasn't planning to buy it. But I'm so glad that I did! So much has been added to the game. The open neighborhood is great -- my Sims actually go places, instead of staying cooped up in their houses because I don't want to wait for community lots to load. They meet Sims outside of school and work. I love the new wants system, which I think is a vast improvement on the old one -- I like that the wants are tailored to the personality of your Sim, and that his/her personality is more than just "family" or "romance." I love that you don't have to buy clothes, even with the hacked coathook for The Sims 2 that was a pain. Overall it's a great game. I'm really enjoying exploring the town, playing the different premade families and a few of my own. It's interesting to check in on various pre-made families after a couple of generations and see what's happened to them.

Two cons: For some reason the game occasionally doesn't work if I have iTunes open. This only happens sometimes -- and not after I've had an iPod or something plugged in, like the FAQ suggests. But it's easy enough to fix. Closing iTunes and rebooting gets rid of the disc error, and then you can just put it into windowed mode quickly and reopen iTunes. Secondly, I'm using a Mac, and installing custom content is quite a production. They made it pretty much impossible (unless of course you buy from their overpriced store, which I'm not inclined to do). I don't use much CC, since I can recolor things on my own, but it would be nice if that were easier.

1 out of 5 stars

Sims 3: A Review November 18, 2009
Dawn S. Wood (Vermont USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Some of you might be wondering why I am giving this game such a bad review. I have been playing the Sims games since the first games in the franchise beginning with games like Sim Tower, Sim Farm and the first The Sims game came out between 1990 and 2000, and to be clear other than in the sheer quality of the game I am not comparing it to any of them.

Initially I liked this game. The traits helped me create quirky Sims and the open neighborhood was great. I was less than impressed with some of the graphics- lets be realistic while the hood may be great even with a great graphics card mine is a top of the line Nvidia G Series - (one of the best listed in the Specs for the G Series, and I have a 500 GB hard drive, and 4 GB RAM and a 17 inch monitor so that is not the issue) and all my settings on high, the Sims themselves are not so great.

Than EA released their first patch 1.27. At this point I was playing without Mods or CC because there wasn't much out there frankly. The patch was supposed to deal with some issues like the Story Progression that was broken in base game and disappearing inventory items. It didn't, I had to reinstall my game. This pattern has continued throughout patches 1.3, 1.4, and 1.5/1.6.

Recently I purchased World Adventures, removed all my CC and Mods (what few I use cause I don't like cheating) deleted cache files, etc Standard Operating Procedure for installing patches and Expansions in games where there are fan created content and game modifications available. I go to start up the game- patched, newly installed EP, and absolutely no CC/Mods whatsoever, and my lots have disappeared and turned blue, all premade Sims are now homeless, and my Sims cannot interact with NPC"s, premades, or each other. They also cannot go to work, and all car pools and taxis have disappeared.

I tried uninstalling both the base game and World Adventures and putting the last patch to remotely work (1.3) in place for my game and started up the game again with no CC/Mods- which resulted in my not being able to save at all or to use CAS to make Sims, or to access premade Sims on their lots in order to play them. These issues were reported to EA customer service who told me that I needed a better computer ( uhmm well there isn't much better I could get unless I went out a bought a $6000 computer with my own server to boot). Sorry EA the problems with this game are your fail - not mine.

I uninstalled. I will not be reinstalling.

Let me put this simply. This game is poor quality. I never had this type of problems with either Sims 1 or Sims 2, with any of the Expansion or Stuff Packs, or with any of the patches. I will not purchase any further expansions or stuff packs for Sims 3. I also will not be buying any of Electronic Arts other games. This game was a waste of money and I feel foolish on wasting my money on something that was poor quality. I would not recommend this game to anyone.

5 out of 5 stars

Excelent work!! The best sims made. But... November 18, 2009
S. Castillo (Costa Rica)
I am a really huge fan of the sims, and the sims 3 is just better in a lot ways than the sims 2, and I dont believe that the people doesnt like it; and my reasons are:

1. The sims 3 is a town, is more big, complex, there a lot more of interactions with the neighbors, co-workers, you can meet anyone, you can go to their houses and have plenty of fun inside (this mode in the sims 2 doesnt exist), you can go to the bookshop, library, groceries store, to see a movie, eat at the Bistro restaurant, to the beach, diferents types of lakes, the graveyard (explore the catacombs is a lot of fun), stonehenge, mine,etc. For this reason I will never play the sims 2 again, is a lot better, thats all. YOU CAN EAT FREE IN THE MAIN STREET, READ BOOKS FOR LEARNING SKILLS FREE IN THE LIBRARY, MAKE A GRILL IN THE MAIN STREET, YOU CAN INVITE ANYONE YOU HAD MEET TO ANY PLACE IN ALL THE TOWN, YOU CAN GO TO THE GYM TO EXCERCISE, SWIM IN THE COMMUNITY POOL, ETC..

2. When you make a sim, I love it; because you can do it the way you like it, there is pleny of tools to make it perfect. The traits (30 or more) you have to choose it carefully, for example i love angler, thumb green, loves outdoors, ambitious, natural cook, etc. That will make you perfect in fishing, gardening and cooking.. And my wife is charismatic that has 70 friendships, and is the governor of the town.. And is more and more; the sims 2 cant never reach it.....

3. The lifetime points is similar to the sims 2, but is better too. You have to make your sims to get all your wishes possible, to reach the highest lifetime wishes.

4. In the sims 3; you can collect gems, rocks, butterflies, space rocks, and it has their proper value, and this is very fun to play.

5. Fishing, gardening, writing are perfect... You write a book and it is a best seller you can see your own novel in the shop book.. Fishing you will see your sim catching a tragic clown fish, swordfish, angelfish; etc.. Gardening you can look for seeds, there is a lot of types of plants, trees, etc to produce..

6. All your family will grow with the members of the town at same time, if you dont want to grow up you have to eat ambrosia, or go to options and dont age, ok.. I accept is more difficult with children because you have to care about them, take care of friendships, the garden, work, etc. I prefer to play with 4 or 5 members at max, because more is very exhausted...

7. There a lot of carreers and each one has its own opportunities, and at the highest position of each job you get a special reward, it is very fun.

8. Ok.. All of this you can play without problems if you have a good video card, memory, proccesor to play; because this game is much, much bigger than the sims 2, so you can imagine, if you have 4 members of your family in different places, the camara switch from one place to another if you want to see whats is going with the other sim, and without a good computer it will take time, and I hate that!! And remember to play in more than 19" LCD monitor, it is better...

9. THE ONLY THING I DONT LIKE IS THAT IF YOU WANT SOMETHING NEW FOR THE GAME (FURNITURE, ETC) YOU HAVE TO BUY IT, AND IT MAKES VERY DISSAPOINTING WHEN YOU KNOW THAT ELECTRONICS ARTS HAS A LOT OF MONEY SELLING ALL THEIR STUFF, SO WHY?????

10. For the new players is better to play sims 2 first to know how to play and later go to the sims 3...

2 out of 5 stars

Sims 3 November 18, 2009
K. Kroslakova (Slovak Republik)
I like Sims 2 better. Sims 3 is nice that you have more control over making your Sims and building. But, I miss having multiple families to work with. To make friends and stories and things like that. I will be taking Sims 3 off my laptop and putting back Sims 2. Sims 3 will be for the pc only.

4 out of 5 stars

Different, and I like that! November 17, 2009
J. Swinghammer
I've been playing the Sims since the first one came out and after all of this I find The Sims 3 to be a refreshing change. I played the first game and most if not all of it's expansion packs constantly, too much really. I had folders of custom downloaded content and spent hours setting up houses and families before moving on to the next. But I must have burnt out on that because once 2 came out I barely played that at all, despite it being bigger and better than 1 in so many ways. If three had just been 2 with better graphics I probably would have been disappointed. But it isn't and I love that! If you want more of the same with updated graphics then this might not be the game for you, but if you want a more complex and game like game (instead of a glorified doll house) then this is the game for you.

My only gripe and the reason I can't give it five stars is the limited amount of objects and clothing in the game. I find them selling them online for ridiculous prices to be obscene! And it has really soured my opinion of EA/ Maxis and I'm hesitating on getting the expansion as a result. Just seems like nothing but greed to me. With 1 and 2 you got way more options for furniture and clothing, but not here. Clothing and hairstyles are lacking the most. So if you don't buy new hairstyles there isn't much variety in the townsfolk. Shame on you EA!

And it is really freaking hard to get somebody to marry you before you turn into an old crone. You can't have it all in The Sims 3, just like real life! If you want to be the top surgeon it is going to be pretty difficult to find the time to get a partner unless you cheat. Which of course I never do...

Showing reviews 1-5 of 445

1 2 3 4 5 6 ...89 Next »