Features:

  • New Seamless, Open Neighborhood—Explore the neighborhood freely
  • New Create A Sim—Create any Sim you can imagine
  • New Realistic Personalities—Every Sim is a unique person, with a distinct personality
  • New Unlimited Customization—Everyone 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
******WARNING******

Although I would recommend this game, it's way over priced and a hassle when it comes to the downloading process. I would recommend downloading the free gaming system Origin; witch you will need anyway if you're using a PC with Windows 7 or later. The game is only $19.99 on there and comes with a lot more features than this disc. I bought this and The Sims 3 University Life. I haven't attempted to download the add on features yet, but when I tried downloading the original Sims 3, it took me over an hour to figure out how. I had to download Origin and create a new user account, only to discover that I also had to visit the EA website and create another account there to "activate" my game. After switching back the the Origin page and finally starting the download, it took a little over two hours to completely finish downloading. All in all, I'm just trying to save some people a bit of trouble by sharing my experiences with this product. If you're planing on downloading the game onto multiple devises then I'd say get this, but just be warned.

As fun as I remember

I truly consider the Sims 3 to be better than Sims 4, though I know some people prefer Sims 4. I think it depends on what age you are, as I have had the benefit of having Sims from the beginning 1-3. I just like Sims 3 better. Works better on my old computer also. I like the Sims creator and the ability to change textures and patterns of objects in-game. Something you can't do with Sims 4

Just what I needed!

I already have the Sims 3 for myself, but I wanted to order another one for a friend of mine. The game runs beautifully on his laptop and the package was in perfect condition. It was a perfect copy of the game and we've had no issues running it on his laptop. The game is loads of fun! Unfortunately, if you're running it on a laptop or any type of computer that's not equipped to run a game like this, you're going to want to make sure that you do NOT update the game. The game updates are very advanced and are almost impossible to run on a laptop or an older computer. But, if you stick to the original game you can still have a great time and it runs fine.

Great Priced High Quality Game

If You or someone you love is into strategy games that are more on a social scale then the Sims is the game for you. This version has amazing graphics and game play, it even works on my Old High Performance Windows XP Computer, which is fine. Just need a few minor tweaks to get the game running but it's a good buy for a good price.

great game but is better with expansions

I was hooked on the sims since i was little. I loved controlling a family and making it my own and making their lives better or worse. I loved the original sims but I never knew what I was missing until I got the sims 3 (yes I made the jump from sims 1 to 3, so what? :). The graphics were amazing and the open neighborhood was a definite plus. I never had any problems installing the game and I loved it from the start. I made a family and played with it for probably a year. And in that time, my original female sim had had a husband die, three kids (two adopted), and had moved into a cottage to be alone until she passed away. I had become so emotionally attached to this family that I cried when the husband died and when the wife died. The sims 3 gives you that push to branch out and make your own family without the restrictions of never seeing them once they move out (if you stay with the parents point of view). I've heard people say that they are dissapointed with how long it takes to do stuff (sleeping, eating, bathing, etc.) and that if you have a family it is even harder. But while this is true, it is overly exaggerated. If you really care about making a family that loves and supports each other, you will make time to get off work and go to the park or make time with your spouse to have a romantic diner at the bistro. It's just like real life, you have to make time to do things with your family. My first family on sims 3 made time to eat at the table together and to go to the pool and have fun every weekend. And for all those people who say they will no longer play this game because it has lost some of the classic elements of the sims, I'm telling you just wait. Right now there are 6 (the 7th will be released soon) expansion packs. And with these expansion packs have come the elements of the sims that people love. For example, I have been wanting to get a new expansion pack and so I decided to get Generations. This ep comes with all kinds of stuff from the sims 2 and much more! They've just made better what has already been made. Things like memories have made a comeback and they are better than ever. And with Pets, they've added horses and places to train your animals like parks and such. But what makes me so upset with sims players who complain about the sims 3 is they're always complaining "we want seasons and university!" and while yes these ep's would be nice on the sims 3, there are still more ep's to come. Seeing as seasons and university were popular, they will probably come back. I mean, the new Supernatural ep that is coming out soon has most of the creatures from the sims 2 and more in one ep. I have noticed that the sims 3 games like to bundle many different features from former sims games so it's just a matter of time before they incorporate seasons and university. For example, in Generations, teens coming out of high school have a sort of graduating ceremony. Maybe they'll add on to that and make sort of an expanded University? But aside from all of that, here are some pros and cons about the game: Pros: -Beautiful graphics -Open neighborhood -More customization -The town can grow and change even if you aren't playing different families (this may be a con to some people that like to control the game but I like it because I can worry about just one family and not a lot at once. You can also turn off this feature if you don't like it) -New traits that expand personalities -and these are just some of the pros Cons: -Slower time, making things like sleeping and eating take longer -Loading the game (when you first start up a loaded family) -Rabbit holes (places where you can control your sims but you cannot see inside of them) -Restrictions with personalizing the town -Having only one town (but you can create more than one saved game) But all of those cons don't even matter when you think of all of the new ep's and stuff packs that are out there. I guess all I'm saying is wait for it. The sims 3 will gradually get better and soon it will be so much better than other sims games that all you non believers will be stunned at what this game has amounted to. I'd recommend this game to anyone who loves the sims or would like to get this as their first sims game. It is amazing.

She loved it and still plays it almost daily when she ...

I purchased this game for my grand daughter as she stayed on her mother's so when I would go to pick her up could not get her to leave the computer, so I shopped on Amazon and found it for a very low price. She loved it and still plays it almost daily when she is at my house. Don't know what we did when I was growing up without computers, cell phones, ipads, and Ipods. The children start out early now my seven year wants a cell phone. This cd came fast, and I received excellent service.

Lots of fun!

My 14 year old daughter has been wanting this for a long time and absolutely LOVES this game. I remember playing older Sims games and the fun part with this one is the customization. My daughter will spend hours creating her perfect-looking sim character. I, on the other hand, enjoy decorating and this game makes that fun as well.

Terrific!

Absolutely amazing, couldn't be happier. Great graphics, outstanding options for sim appearance. This game is one I haven't gotten bored of, and probably won't xD Now I just have to find a good expansion pack to use....

Buggy but I have clocked over 1000 hours on PC and uncountable hours on 360

A'ight, first off... buy this on Steam. Seriously. You can and should register the codes for the base game and any expansions over on Origin (which is smart since if Steam every goes belly-up, you still have access to the game on Origin, but honestly Origin will probably tank first). Steam itself doesn't really care about the codes. It will tell you they're important and then just let you play the game without doing anything, although you will need an origin account to log into the Sims 3 launcher (and that is the account where you should be registering the codes, obviously). Also Steam sales can cut the price of every piece of software including the base game dramatically, often by half if not more. I'd recommend researching which expansions look most interesting to you, then wishlisting them and the base game (or the base game + Pets expansion bundle if pets interest you) and waiting for a sale. Secondly, you absolutely must install the Nraas Overwatch mod. This is non-negotiable, unless you really like watching saved games corrupt after all the work you've put into them. There's a bug that EA never fixed and at this rate never will fix, which spawns ridiculous amounts of cars in NPC Sim inventories. This will lag out the game on even the best gaming computers, and yes, eventually corrupt the save files. Other useful Nraas mods are Register (gives better control over lag-creating populations like animals and tourists), and MasterController with Integration (technically a cheats mod but has saved my bacon plenty of times by giving me work-arounds for game-breaking bugs and restoring Sims who somehow wound up on the Dead list for no reason). Thirdly, if you pick up the Island Paradise expansion, DO NOT play with the version of the Isla Paradiso world that shipped with the game. It's broken. The world has seriously bad pathing issues due to many buildings being badly-designed, and this will cause your game to lag and freeze almost constantly. Google search for the fan-fixed version and follow the install instructions carefully. Then use Edit Town to evict families from boathouses and move them into any other type of house (boathouses under the control of NPC families create a ton of lag and pathing issues). Even with these fixes, the map can still lag a bit, so Nraas Overwatch really comes in handy, with everything set to zero that you possibly can, and make sure no new random NPC families can move into houses (can't remember if that's a Register option or MasterController or Overwatch... best to have all three installed anyways). Yes, this review sounds like a troubleshooting document. Welcome to the Sims 3! It's still infinitely better than Sims 4. I highly recommend Sims 3, I really do. Just be prepared to do a lot of troubleshooting yourself, and thank the stars for the Sims 3 forums (both old archives and new version) and Carl's Sims 3 guides and forums.

The game is wonderful, my daughter absolutely loves it

The game is wonderful, my daughter absolutely loves it. She knows that if she doesn't keep her grades up in school that she will not be allowed to play the Sims, so it is a great motivator.

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