November. No wonder support for the multitude of problems with the base game was not there, all resources were diverted to get the sequel of the ground.

Checked the beauties out, and I'm afraid they still look like they have the mumps.

EA. needs to resolve several issues with the game before I will consider buying it.

I will need to be able to play more that one family'

The bugs and glitches need to be sorted out as well as the compatibility issues with some hardware.

Those ugly sims.

The rabbit hole buildings.

With the previous games I was more than happy to play the base game until the CC. arrived for the simple reason that the sims themselves were not an eye sore. I read many counter arguments stating that in the previous games the sims were unattractive and bland untill the CC. was available to improve them. Well that's incorrect,the previous sims both 1 and 2 were well proportioned with attractive faces and didn't need to be completely remodeled  to make them even better, which is something that will have to be done with the sims 3.
Looking at their bodies and faces one gets the impression that a 7 year old could have put something more realistic together.
No thanks EA, back to the drawing board and let's have another try, you're not gonna sell me this one.

I have looked at a lot of creations on several sites and the CC, is starting to appear, which is encouraging, but those terrible faces, the males are passable but the females?

The good news is that some sims 3 CC. is already available on the booty. Business as usual one would presume.

I highly doubt if our colleges at TSR. will be making any noise about it. What they have done there is committed an offence and if taken to court can be prosecuted.
This action is no different than that by done EA. with their inclusion of securom in their software for which they were taken to court.
If a person unknowingly  installs that sort of file which is included and hidden in another file on their pc. then if one can trace the thing to its origin one can take them to court.
The people at TSR. must have had a round of dumb sandwiches for breakfast to put their name on the crap.

I do believe that sort of practice is illegal, if so by putting their name on the thing that could be used as evidence in a prosecution.

At the risk of being told to leave sims 3 players enjoy their game again.
EA. appears to be less than comfortable with the success of this game so they are keeping their options open.This has been made obvious by their advertised release of another EP. for sims 2.
The initial release of sims 2 was a logical evolution of the game and as far as I know was wholeheartedly accepted by the sims community and did not polarise the community.
The reason why this game is so radically different is that Rod Humble is trying to make the game his own and as far removed from the original MAXIS idea as possible.
EA. should have bit bullet and taken the extra 12 months to refine the game and release it in its entirety, ie. the ability to interact with more objects and buildings.
They chose instead to release a poor imitation of the game just to allow people to be able to play it on low end pcs and enhance initial sales. These same people will feel ripped off when the EPs. start arriving as well as the CC. because I fear it will take more than extra ram. or graphics card upgrade to make future games playable.
The major gripes with the game at the moment appear to be with the lack of help from AE, random crashes,difficulty in installing CC.the freaky appearance of the sims, rabbit-hole buildings,inability to create community lots, inability to play more than one family,omission of body shop, and some other minor ones.
No doubt most of these issues will be addressed in the near future but at the cost of computing power, Yep, a new pc. not an upgrade.Hence the terms, been had, ripped off, and con, as people who are currently playing it on marginal pcs.will discover by the end of the year.
EA. should have been honest with their minimum requirements,and said, "This is what you can just play the base game on, but this is what we recomend"   

Just checked the polls at MTS2 and approx 65.4% are in favour of the game.
It looks like those of us who can see this scam for what it really is are very much in the minority. Which is sad because EA. will be very aware of these polls and use these results to justify feeding the community more of the same garbage.

I think there are enough dedicated sims players out there who would have done whatever to upgrade their existing pcs. to run the game if it was produced the way it was supposed to be produced. A true upgrade from sims 2, more detailed and realistic figures, ability to fully interact with the environment and buildings, propper story line.
To release something like this in order to make a quick buck leaves no winners in the long run.
The company flogging the crap looses credibility. A lot of the people who purchased said crap will not come back a second time. And so the sims will eventually die out.
They should have delayed the release for another 12 to 18 months and produced something that everyone was expecting, a genuine sims upgrade.

The whole thing was put together in a hell of a hurry to generate some quick cash. The five month delay was to enable a joint release for windows and mac, not to iron out any glitches.
As I said I feel for those that were hanging out for this with high expectations, only to find out after finally installing the crap that they've been well and truly had.

Not over capitalistic, just full of idiots. Rod Humble. "I PLAY THE SIMS" what a load of ----. As if he has the time.
He's trying to copy and cash in what Will Wright started all those years ago and eventually call it his own.
The fool didn't have the vision to improve on the original concept and make something really revolutionary, instead he went for the mass market and to hell with how it's received and plays, just get the sales figures up there.
I don't think the twit realises that people are constantly upgrading their pcs. and if the game requires mid to high specs to run it, then so be it, IT WILL SELL.
I and probably many others like me would have had no hesitation buying the thing if it had been written properly and was a true continuation of the sims 2. not some childish marketing scheme to coincide with their desire to cash in on the after market CC.creation.
As for those who thought that this was a true upgrade of the sims, I feel for them. I can well understand their horror  when they eventually got the thing to run found that they had taken for a ride and what they have is junk and the more CC. one throws into it to improve it the more it crashes.
Those of us that are still sitting on the fence can only hope that EA. comes to its sences and release a true upgrade and discontinues this childish s---.

As for the patch that appears to address very little. That was only written to make it look so that they appear to be doing something.
Rest assured, all their resources and emphasis is now with the release of their first EP. So prepare yourselves for another round sneak previews, screenshots and interviews about what a wonderful simming experience awaits us.
Those of you that got your fingers burned with the base game, prepare yourselves because you're gonna get burned again. Just remember they're s lot smarter than you, they've made an art out selling ice to Eskimos, so the average simmer is child's play.

The omission of the wedding ring and other articles are no oversight.
In order to get the system requirements way below that of what one would expect from a 2009 era game, certain sacrifices had to be made.
Once one installs the game then the omissions and limitations become obvious,eg. rabithole buildings, bland looking sims,and other items that we were used to interacting with in previous games.
In order to sell this thing the majority of the games resource requirements were diverted to making the environment as attractive as possible. What's the point of lovely sunsets, pretty trees and nice looking buildings if the characters are unattractive and most of the buildings can't be interacted with?
As for not listening to the sims community. They know dam well what we want, but to give us what we would expect from a game such as this would blow their minimum system requirements out.This will be made obvious when those with borderline pcs. try to install and play the first EP.

This is Humbles pet project, so far he's had 198 failures out of 200 and is vainly hoping for a success.
You're pretty much on to it MaryH, I like to compare this farce to the story of the Emperors new clothes, it's only a question of time before even the most ardent sims 3 players realise that the game is a crock and all the CC. that the community throws at it will still leave it pig ugly and probably make the ill written tripe crash more frequently.

The sims 3 was supposed to be a progression from the sims 2, unfortunately it's the exact opposite. With the exception of facial expressions and a free ranging environment it's a radical step backwards.
As said, the simming community created almost photo realistic sims and there was nothing stopping EA. from incorporating that technology into their next generation of sims.
However because of some unknown internal stupidity they chose to come up with the childish shite that passes for sims in what's supposed to be progress.
To sacrifice quality just so that a game can be played on some old hand me down Pentium would have to be the dumbest marketing strategy I have ever come across. Sure, initially the sales will be good, that is until the realisation sets in that it's actually junk and no amount of modding is going make it comparable to the sims 2.
I've seen the new skins at MTS 2. but it still doesn't change just how ugly they look. ( it's the body and face shapes)
So here's a challenge for EA. Scrap this garbage, utilise all the good things that the simming community has created,to hell with the sims store and pc. requirements,and reconstruct the game as to the expectations of the sims community. If it requires a larger pc. to run it than so be it.