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sims2
Sneaky Sims 3 preview =)
Mmmmk - ask me no questions I tell you no lies - that answers the *where the hell did she get TS3 from already already?* Doesn't matter really just wanted to share the eyecandy, and the good, and bad, of the new game. Not much on the playing but then, who plays like?? ;)
Game Mechanics & what-not
Being a total geek and pcfixer/builder of many years standing my pc while not *up-to-the-minute* (honestly leave that to the silly boys who buy things the moment they come out) it is very beefy. TS2 ran beautifully and TS3 runs just as well with everything turned up to max. And it looks totally glorious:
The great graphics of course extend to the Sims themselves - they look a lot more real and fluid with most animations (clothing,hair etc) definitely improved. The clothing looks fabulous and I can't wait till someone breaks those bones to make new meshes ;)
The World!
I really like the way the new world works, with almost seamless fluidity - hopefully when the xpacs start rolling (and we know they will :P ) there will be no need to switch back and forward to different hoods - please! From the *hood* screen you can change lots from community to residential and vice versa at the click of a button. There are no *lots* per se, they seem to be set from the building of the hood - you just click on the empty lot icon. How we make new hoods I have no idea, there is no hood building section for adding decorations etc. The pre-made hood is enormous and can be copied at a click. You can copy lots to your *Library* or upload them to the Sims 3 page - I couldn't see how to share them directly but no doubt we will figure that out fast. It really is a beautiful looking, much more detailed world then TS2.
Building - the most important part
The first thing I did of course was to have a quick flick through - and while I was disappointed with some elements - the attention to plants & trees made me SO happy. TS2 was awful before player meshes gave us some scope for landscaping - I used to sit there willing that horrible phlox to at least change colour and wish for a shrub that wasn't manicured and well...round! Changes to the terrain paints include round and square shapes each in 3 sizes as well as a slider for hardness/softness - not unlike the spray tool in most graphics apps. The have gone all out with a massive collection of trees the trees in pics 2 & 3 have two sizes each), shrubs and flowers and even some rocks you can SEE on the lot!: Sorry but I couldn't figure out how to turn the grid off!
Add to this some awesome terrains and a lovely water-tool and bingo! - nice landscaping! Building mechanics have also changed a bit. There is now a roofslopeangle slider, autoroofs that automatically adjust as you change the building shape (I turned it off because it annoyed me) and dragable walls. The best for me though are the stairs that can now be covered underneath or totally modular, the swimming pool edges (can't run a fence along it though sadly =/ ) and the attention to the horrible join we have where upper floor & wall meet in TS2:
I am less impressed with windows/doors/columns - there is quite a bit of recycling from TS2 (this is also true of buy mode objects) There are no 2 story columns doors or windows and no *extendable* arch system - which I just adore. There is also no stage style foundation - and I found that immensely useful. Chimneys were not recolourable =( You can now build walls within 1 square of the edge of the lot. Here are some of the new doors/windows/fireplaces:
The best thing about TS3 is without doubt the new Design Tool. It makes it possible to apply both a new texture AND a new colour to elements of an item - eg; you can decide to have your exterior window frames in pink metal or green fading paint or purple plastic & your interior frames in some other combo AND you can save that combo to use on another project. It also extends to objects so base game for TS3 has a lot more scope. Floors and walls seem to be the usual mix of quite nice and downright horrid clown confections - but thats been true of all Sims games! One thing that DID scare me is.... NO COLLECTIONS! Course that only becomes a problem when user-made objects appear - and I have no doubt they WILL - after Mr Pescado fixes all the programming errors ha ha!