FYI, 1.0.631 has leaked and is out there now.

I had something like this, but I just made it trigger anytime an appropriate sim tried to run down spiral stairs, because it's faster. I do not recommend using it on regular "straight" stairs because straight stairs are frequently wedged into stairwells with no side clearance, meaning the sim will clip through the wall doing it.

Many of the previous TS1 and 2 voice actors were fired due to budget cuts. I don't particularly miss them, they had the most grating and annoying voices.

I dunno about that. I think it makes a large difference if you expect to get anywhere. Tab A is designed to go in Slot B. Anything else is Doing It Wrong. On the other hand, I don't care if you want to marry a houseplant, that's not my problem.

That is correct. We have confirmed that this is indeed not the "release" build, which is 1.0.631, but with only two weeks seperating it from the reported Gold date, it's as good as it gets.''

The year is known. The executable was build on 2009-04-22, two weeks before Gold. While it is known that it is not the FINAL version, it is practically certain that it represents a "Feature Complete" executable, meaning that no actual features will be added. Think of the final release as simply a patch...which it essentially is, since there's already a patch for THAT out.

Well, I'm looking into bringing the Babby Roaster to the open neighborhood. Because while in TS2, babby-roasting was mostly a curiosity confined to your lot, in TS3...OM NOM NOM NOM!

The "9 million dollar loss" figure is really spurious. If people are pirating the game at this point, they are doing so because they simply do not have any other choice: No option exists for actually purchasing the game. Those who intended to do so will ultimately do so, because as it turns out, this does appear to be a special review-edition build.

The statement issued by EAxis is utter PR tripe, obviously. This is no surprise: EAxis can no longer simply deny that the version exists, and they CERTAINLY cannot actually admit it is the REAL thing, so they HAVE to say that.

A review of the actual information available to us paints an interesting picture, though.

The build date reported on the executable is 2009-04-22. The date the game was announced "Gold" is 2009-05-08, meaning the actual event occurred an indeterminate amount of time prior. This means that the build date of that executable was a scant 2 weeks before the game was permanently imprinted to DVD. Now, ask yourself: If the game was only built 2 weeks before the date they booted it out the door, how much could they REALLY have changed? More importantly, in software development, every new build must be subjected to testing, especially the final build. Two weeks is not a lot of testing time, and if this is NOT the final build, that means the REAL final build has even *LESS* testing. Regardless, there is no way they could have done very much at this stage in 2 weeks or less. In software development, software is declared "Feature Complete", meaning no new features will be added, far in advance of ship dates.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter. Any gripes we have about the game are based in its design, not in the minutiae. If the game's DESIGN is flawed, two weeks of additional work cannot save it.

The statement issued by EAxis is utter PR tripe, obviously. This is no surprise: EAxis can no longer simply deny that the version exists, and they CERTAINLY cannot actually admit it is the REAL thing, so they HAVE to say that.

A review of the actual information available to us paints an interesting picture, though.

The build date reported on the executable is 2009-04-22. The date the game was announced "Gold" is 2009-05-08, meaning the actual event occurred an indeterminate amount of time prior. This means that the build date of that executable was a scant 2 weeks before the game was permanently imprinted to DVD. Now, ask yourself: If the game was only built 2 weeks before the date they booted it out the door, how much could they REALLY have changed? More importantly, in software development, every new build must be subjected to testing, especially the final build. Two weeks is not a lot of testing time, and if this is NOT the final build, that means the REAL final build has even *LESS* testing. Regardless, there is no way they could have done very much at this stage in 2 weeks or less. In software development, software is declared "Feature Complete", meaning no new features will be added, far in advance of ship dates.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter. Any gripes we have about the game are based in its design, not in the minutiae. If the game's DESIGN is flawed, two weeks of additional work cannot save it.

Some "spokesperson" claimed that. Of course, they claimed that the missing thing was the SECOND NEIGHBORHOOD THEY WERE OFFERING, so obviously, that person is an ignorant buffoon trying to cover EA's ass.

Based on the fact that sims in the neighborhood now BUNNY BREED OUT OF CONTROL EVEN WHEN YOU EXPLICITLY DISABLE IT...something on my to-do list, in light of the open neighborhood, is to bring back the BABBY ROASTER. Because with all those annoying sims bunny-breeding without permission, it's time to hit back with OM NOM NOM NOM.

At the moment an Insim-style mod for TS3 is not looking likely. We're certainly looking into the practice, but seems EAxis has encrypted the files against it.

That's the Pollyannas at work. The fact of the matter is that the game is "Gold", meaning complete. The scene releasers typically do not package prerelease items as the real deal. As for buggy and crashing, I can't say I've encountered this, and there are a few issues with the install: At least one of the available rips contains malware, but it is not known whether this was inserted by third-party repackagers, or EAxis.

Your puny powers are no match for mine! For one, I snort pure caffeine in quantities that are fatal to lesser mortals. Also, it's over 9000!

I'm neither of these: I'm profoundly disturbed.