So I've sampled the actually LEGAL game...

[kaoz666]

By way of a friend of mines who's a manager at Gamestop. They received their shipment of the game yesterday, but aren't permitted to sell it until the release date of June 2nd. But that didn't stop him from taking his copy that he had reserved home with him. So he calls me over to his place to check it out, and after about 2 hours on it...I turned it off and went to play me some Left 4 Dead. Needless to say after hands on with the game, I'm not impressed nor amused. Granted, there are some positives about the game. The landscaping and scenery are visually stunning, especially if you have a high end machine. (As he does.) SOME of the gameplay elements are actually well thought out, such as the moodlets. But that's about where my praise for the game ends. The CAS mode is a total nightmare. The sliders work nothing like TS2, and it is virtually impossible to come up with an anatomically accurate face. You can forget about ever having a self sim on The Sims 3, not unless your face looks like the Stay-Puff Marshmallow Man from Ghostbusters. I sat there for a good hour trying to tweak the sliders to the most minute detail, but couldn't come up with anything that even remotely looked like me. (God I wish I would have taken pictures.) Add to that the texturing of the plastic...I mean skin looking down right dreadful, and I simply put can't see myself ever getting into the game. The game is called THE SIMS 3. You'd think they would have put more detail into them and not the neighborhood. And the neighborhood is a farce in and of itself as well. All of the beautiful buildings you see? All PRE-RENDERED buildings that have nothing remotely close to the structuring of the actual lots. And then let's not even go into not being able to see your sim inside of some them, or all of the recycled objects AND interactions from TS2. Oi-FRAKKIN'-vey...

Speaking solely for myself, I'm not liking the game. It offers very little in the vein of new innovations, and what little bits of new things that are good about it get overshadowed by all that makes the game fail by comparison to TS2 like and ant would be by the Empire State Building at high noon. (That's a frakkin' big shadow.) For the casual player, or the person who just wants to try it out for kicks, you'll get a few hours fun out of it. But if you're like me, and don't like to settle for a little White Castle slider when you've been eatin' steak dinners the last few years, do yourself a favor and keep eating your steak. (The steak being TS2.) Because TS3 is just an appetizer, and not a very good one at that. If you want one big neighborhood, moodlets, a color wheel and a few other niceties the game has to offer, by all means...have fun. But if you want a robust experience where you can let loose your creative best (or worse.) stick with The Sims 2. In my own personal, objective opinion, TS3 offers very little to keep me entertained. And that's the whole point of a game right? To keep the user entertained. And that's just after 2 hours of hands on with it. By NO MEANS AM I SAYING IT'S A HORRIBLE GAME. It just ain't The Sims 2. Maybe down the road, a few years from now when there are EPs on the market and HEFTY improvements to the game by and by, I'll give it a 2nd look, but for right now in my opinion, The Sims 3 isn't worth my money.

[Ali]

and it's such a shame when it could have been SO much more, but I guess that's what happens when cash comes before loyal consumers

[Paden]

Is your friend aware that he has committed a crime, though? Legally, paid for or not, those games are NOT to leave the store until their official release dates and high fines and loss of job and freedom can be the consequences if the authorities find out. That game is not street legal in the US until June 2nd, period. It doesn't matter if he's the manager or the owner of said store, he doesn't make the rules and regulations of when the game leaves the store, the company does.

[kaoz666]

Actually, Paden...release dates only really matter for the actual publishers as far as working promotions and syncing up their sales numbers with the major retailers. I worked for Gamestop for 3 years while in college, back in the glory days of the Playstation 2. The very same store my friend is manager of in fact. The street date for games is the designated date set by the publisher distribute the needed amount of games abroad to meet potential demand. While the 2nd is the street date, the game can actually be sold on the 1st if the retailer chooses. Once the game is past the distribution phase and if officially given a SKU, it's on the retailer if they want to do so. They just can't sell it until with 12 hours of the proposed release date. Meaning that stores can actually start selling the game June 1st at around we'll say...noon. When I worked at the store we were good at running store promotions to sell games a day before the release date. And there are smaller mom & pop game stores here in NYC, like Game Box (The best video game store in New York, to the point where I get all of my games from them. I get my consoles sill from Gamestop because they offer warranties.) That's had the game on the shelves since THURSDAY. I don't know about where you're located, but here in New York, games always get hit shelves before the release date. Last year I bought Smackdown Vs. Raw 2009 a week before it was released nationwide from Game Box. Nothing illegal about it at all, not around these parts anyway.

[roerzman]

Thanks, that is indeed enlightening.I may get the thing in 12 months time. That is if the sims community are given the opportunity to clean the thing up and transform those downs syndrome zombies into something resembling humans.
By community I mean all the sites and all legal and above board.

[kaoz666]

Of course. In the end, my overall impression isn't a negative one, it's just not very positive either. There just isn't enough in TS3 that appeals to me. And the lack of a TS3 Bodyshop GREATLY hurts it in my opinion as well. I might even be able to stomach the god awful morphing physics of the CAS sliders if I could do away with the nasty default skins. But the fact that you can't and won't be able to for the foreseeable future pretty much makes me purchasing the game slim to nil myself. When more options are available to us skinners and texture modders...IF such options ever are, I'll revisit the prospect of adding TS3 to my library. But for now, that's not happening.

[Paden]

As to the legalities, check out a certain MATY thread. Also, a friend of mine owned a store that sold games and videos. He told me that if he let the stuff go out the store before the publisher said it could, he could be fined up to $250,000 and lose his business. I believe that pertains nationwide. Also, this is EA and do you really believe they won't bust chops for selling before the moment they dictate that you can? Just asking.

[kaoz666]

Im my experience working in and dealing with Video Game retailers, it's never came up as an issue. The most I can attribute it to is the region. Games always end up on the market before the street date here in New York, and that dates back way into the old Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis days. If they do bust chops, it doesn't happen here in the greater New York area. When the XBox 360 was 1st released, you had stores selling it a week before the release date, and all of said stores that I go to are still open to this day.

[Ali]

Stores may well have always got away with it however perhaps advertising the fact on a public forum might not be the best idea

[SimGirl20]

Well, I didn't expect a good review from you anyway Kaoz666. You and roerzman have been bashing the game since the leak so why should any of this surprise anyone? I am still going to buy the game, because I said I would to add to my collection, whether it be bad or good is not the point. I want it strictly for the novelty and gameplay. I have made bad choices before as far as money goes, so if I make a bust of 50$ then I will oblige that after I get the chance to play it for myself.

[violetlass]

Well, I didn't expect a good review from you anyway Kaoz666. You and roerzman have been bashing the game since the leak so why should any of this surprise anyone? I am still going to buy the game, because I said I would to add to my collection, whether it be bad or good is not the point. I want it strictly for the novelty and gameplay. I have made bad choices before as far as money goes, so if I make a bust of 50$ then I will oblige that after I get the chance to play it for myself.

I hear that Simgirl. I bought mine in January, and they are ready to be shipped out(UPS is doing the shipping). Hopefully it will be delivered by the 2nd of June. I don't care if it is better or "far worse" then TS2, I just want it because it is a Sim game. I have been playing Maxis' Sims since the NES. But with out Maxis the games have been going down hill and taking longer to load. It now takes 10 minutes for my game to compleatly load now. I don't have my Sims leave their property because it takes 5 minutes to load. I only have a max of 4 hours to play, sometimes less. Starting a new sim takes almost an hour for one female and 20 minutes for some males, CCs have alot to do with it, but overall I hope TS3 does play well.

And yet, it doesn't surprise me that one of the same people that was trashing the game gets to play it first and trashes it some more.

[ancienthighway]

Considering the posts kaoz666 has been making, I thought her evaluation of playing the game first hand was fair.  It was even more favorable towards TS3 than I expected.  I hope that one you get your games, that when you post your initial evaluations, that you show the same fairness and report your disappointments in addition to your likes and joys over it.

[Paden]

Well, I'll tell you, I am critical of the game because of what I've seen of the screen shots shown so far and what I've read from people that have played it. You know what? I'm not going to buy it. I go for quality and so far, this isn't showing any.

I don't care if it is a Sims game, I'm not going to get it because I don't want it. I'm more than content with the game I have because it's got the stuff that I want. Maybe, far down the road, if Sims 4 captures my interest, I might buy that. There's going to have to be one hell of a lot of improvements over the game I currently play, though.

That's just my opinion and I'm not putting anyone down for their decision to get and play the one coming out on the second of June, so don't knock me for my decision. Thank you very much.

[roerzman]

The whole purpose of knocking this game had very little to do with the actual game, all us so called negative people were well aware of the limitations of a base game. The point of the exercise was to draw as much attention as possible to the limitations in this game insofar as modding goes. It was the mods and hacks that made the last game last as long and interesting as it did. I don't intend going into a full page explanation about the pros and cons of modding but what I will say is if EA gets away with locking this game up then it will continue with sims 4 and 5 and so on.
As Kaoz said the game is alright, but given the opportunity it can be unreal,and that can only happen if they alter that stupid EULA, and the only way they will back of from that is if the thing flops.
If the modding community is allowed to alter the characters and make them look human then I will consider buying the game,in the mean time I'm not going to shoot myself in the foot by buying the thing next week.

[J. M. Pescado]

As to the legalities, check out a certain MATY thread. Also, a friend of mine owned a store that sold games and videos. He told me that if he let the stuff go out the store before the publisher said it could, he could be fined up to $250,000 and lose his business. I believe that pertains nationwide. Also, this is EA and do you really believe they won't bust chops for selling before the moment they dictate that you can? Just asking.

It's not really selling if the manager is taking the copy home for himself. And whether or not the game is "legal" does not change the content of something. If anything, being legal makes it worse, because everyone knows stolen food tastes the best.