Personally, i'm very much looking forward to the sims 3. While the graphics may not have improved much, the sims do look slightly more real with each game, and the game play, well, i've been waiting for that ever since i started playing multiple families in the sims 2 (Do you realize how ANNOYING it is to make yourself and your Boyfriend as teens, and have them grow up, but have one end up turning into a young adult before the other so they can no longer date? Ugh.).
A LOT of work has gone into this game to get the details of game play
just so. i'm excited to see how it turns out.
Someone mentioned the 60s-80s clothing. What you have to realize is that the sims 3 is set BEFORE the sims 1, so of course it will have "outdated" clothing. You can always mod it to look newer. They give you this option now. And on the question of player created custom content, well, i'm sure Maxis wouldn't make that impossible - they LOVE seeing our new clothing and hair, and they encourage us to make mods. What they are doing by putting customization into the game is making it easier for those who don't know how to mod or don't have the software to do so. You know. People like me, for instance. ^_^
Personally, i'm very much looking forward to this game, as i can FINALLY play how i've wanted to. i'll also be looking forward to custom content by players. And, plus... i'm a 60's child at heart, so i think the clothes are rad.

clarice.