I've spent some time now just PLAYING TS3 instead of posting. I try to keep track with some of the mods and (free) addendums by the fan community, but compared to TS1&2, I've become more picky.

So, despite the altered gameplay, what I like best so far is the opportunity to recolor/retexture most of the stuff. Where in TS2 I had to use a completely different set of clothes/furniture (or spent considerable time cloning + recoloring it), I now just "drop" a different texture set on a stencil. Colour matching never was that easy. I like the movement concept (cars/bikes/on foot) and honestly don't miss the surplus options what to do with or in the car.

What I miss, well, my personal fave add-ons were AL and Seasons. I miss the weather, as flawed as it was, and I liked the apartment concept, though it was grossly over-expensive. So for now, my 3rdGen-Sims AGAIN have to live in SoCal, so it seems, and they really have to move in for a family-like structure instead of renting a flat.

It's no use cursing EA for its paycrap concept, they don't care an eff anyway. Thankfully, after just two months, we find the first custom(ized) meshes, and Shaklin has anounced decyphering animation code. So there is hope the S3-community will get past the usual starter-pack shortcomings of too few tasteful stuff.

I'd say, give it a go.

Torsten