This will be brief because it’s late as heck, but I wanted to at least post a few pics of my experiences with The Sims 3 so far.
After downloading Riverview, I created Rosalia Curran, who ended up with the following traits: Angler, Green Thumb, Loves the Outdoors, Excitable, Friendly. Basically, someone who would enjoy exploring the town, making friends, gardening, and fishing. Her favorite food is a Fruit Parfait, her favorite music is Pop (where’s the Rawk, EA??), and her favorite color is Red.
She’s also apparently a closet bookworm, but more on that later.
Here’s the “Family” screen showing Rosalia in one of those awkward “I never stand like this unless I’m getting my picture taken” poses.
I spent oodles of time on a nice little house for Rosy, but you wouldn’t know it from this pic:
I have no idea WTF happened. Either TS3 hates me, my video card hates me, or Snag-It hates TS3 (and me). Not only is the picture dark dark DARK, but it’s missing all of the landscaping, windows, and doors. Oh, and the roof. And the sky. And all the houses/trees in the background. Talk about FUBAR!
Yeah, I’m a little apprehensive, too, chickie.
I let Rosy do her own thing at first, but it’s hard not to micromanage when you’ve been doing it for years. I mean, she’s a Green Thumb and Angler who Loves the Outdoors…but the first thing she does to relax/have fun is read a book? Come on, girl! Go OUTSIDE! You’re supposed to be the next step on the Sims evolutionary ladder. Do something intelligent!
Ah well. The welcome wagon rang at the doorbell and interrupted Rosy’s book-a-thon. I directed her to do a “Friendly Introduction” interaction with Nellie Spenster, who, if EA’s on-the-nose naming habits are any indication, is a single old biddy. Rosy chatted with her for awhile and found out she’s Rich and has a Good Sense of Humor. Sounds like a good person to know!
After her new acquaintance disappeared into a taxicab (there’s a lot of that going on in TS3 — no need to open car doors anymore, folks! You can just teleport right into the backseat! UGH.), Rosy ventured out to the grocery store. She had a hankering to buy some seeds and start planting a garden. (I chose “The Perfect Garden” for her lifetime wish). The pic below was supposed to be Rosy leaving the rabbit hole supermarket, but it didn’t turn out. I have no idea why. All I know is that this does not bode well for my TS3 storytelling hopes.
With tomatoes and lettuce tucked away in her invisible backpack, Rosy meandered across the street to a juice bar. She made her own juice and sipped it alone. A few other Riverviewians wandered through but none of them stayed for long. Left to her own devices, Rosy challenged herself to a game of foosball.
And wow, they make some scary faces sometimes! *shudder* I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually, but…brrrrrr.
Ah, what a lovely evening for fishing! Too bad she only caught a minnow. And she’s an Angler! Non-anglers must catch seaweed at first. Or maybe boots like in TS2.
At least the background showed up in that pic. Oh, and you can see how Rosy is a bit disproportionate. I don’t know if I just fail at making TS3 Sims or what, but her head looks too big for her body. Like a Bratz doll or something.
I’m sorry, Rosy. I know I’m being a little harsh. TS2 is a magnificent game; it’s hard to live up to those kinds of expectations. I’m sure I’ll get used to your oddities. By the way, aren’t you supposed to look HAPPY when you’re fishing? You’re an angler! You love the outdoors! You’re EXCITABLE! You look about as excited as that minnow you just caught.
Riverview seems like a neat town. I like the layout, with the downtown in the middle of the river, and the rolling hills beyond. This pic was so darned dark I had to lighten it, though. Not sure what’s going on there. I’ll have to try in-game pics next time and see if that’s any better.
I forgot to snap a pic of the sweet garden Rosy planted next to her house (tomatoes, lettuce, grapes, and apples!), but here she is harvesting stuff at the community garden down the road. Nice that you can just wander in and grab tomatoes off the vine. Who needs money, anyway? Oh right. Someone has to pay those bills that keep showing up in the mailbox.
So, Rosy got a job as a Coffee Courier for a local business. I have no idea what that entails since she hasn’t gone to work yet. But it did give her something to talk about with one Don Lothario…
They have a LOT in common, these two. They’re both Coffee Couriers, both appreciate a funny story or a silly face, and both just have a way with people (he’s Charismatic; she’s Friendly). I have a feeling they’ll be great friends. (Or will Rosy end up being the mother of Don Lothario II? Hmmmm…)
Anyway, I have barely scratched the surface of this game, so I definitely need to play it some more before I proclaim its awesomeness or horribleness, but I have to say I’m dismayed by the graphics issues (I didn’t even go into how my Nvidia card was acting up and giving people unicorn horns) and by the very TS2-like gameplay. It doesn’t feel like a big leap forward from TS2. It’s like a step backwards and forwards at the same time. Which leaves us where we started. Which makes me wonder, what’s the point?
Yey Riverview! I hadn’t seen any pics of the new hood yet so it’s AWESOME you took pics of it Jen! It will probably be the first thing I download when my ‘official’ copy arrives tomorrow. (because darn I really want a community garden! No more stealing off the neighbours for my sims :P) Rosy looks great, and lol I think she explored the game more than my sims have already! (I’m very slow). As insane as this sounds, definetly try the ingame camera. It gives me bright, true to game shots and I could not tell the diference in quality between it and fraps. Wish I could be more helpful on the graphics front but all I can say is just make sure you don’t have adaptive Antialiasing on as it’s know to muck with graphics. I REALLY hope EA offers a patch soon.
Thanks, Linda! I will definitely look at the Antialiasing. My Sims don’t need to be running around with lasers shooting out of their bodies. :-p And I will try the in-game camera. I’m glad to hear it takes bright, true-to-game shots! I can’t wait to try it out now. Too bad I’m at work! ;-)
Thank you very much for this! I’m waiting for my game and I’m so anxious to try it out myself. Rosy is so cute! I have a feeling that Sims in TS3 look much more human-like, am I right? I mean the face expressions look much better. Oh and sorry for how the game treats you with the “super dark effect”. Hope you’ll solve it soon.
Oh my gosh, it’s Hannah! I’m a big fan of your site! :-D Thanks so much for stopping by. And as for the Sims 3 facial expressions, they do look a bit more human, which can sometimes lend a creepy effect. So far they don’t seem as expressive overall as Sims 2 Sims. When Rosy was reading her book, her eyeballs just moved back and forth. She had no other expression. I guess that’s realistic, since I don’t make funny faces when I read, but at least the Sims 2 Sims looked interested in what they were reading! Hah. I can’t wait to hear your impressions of the game!
Haha, it’s fun founding fans around the Sims sites, thank you! :D Honestly, I wouldn’t mind they don’t look too excited when reading books because I think Sims in The Sims 2 looked a little strange when reading books… a bit too much excited, especially when gaining new skill points. ;)
I’ve heard talk that the in game camera is actually pretty good in the Sims 3. So I’d give it a shot if I were you. Also, did you explore the video setting options? I’m wondering if there’s an option (like the “Hide Objects” thing in Sims 2) that you need to disable/enable to see buildings/roofs/decor. Even with those crazy glitches, your pictures are pretty. I’m dying to try it for myself! It looks like you were able to have some fun with Rosie.
Oh and Nellie Spenster (sp?) totally reminds me of Maude! When you talked about her being a “single old biddy” I totally thought about your old Maude.
Keep fiddlin’ with the game and settings and show us some more pics! I really hope you enjoy it!
Thanks for the suggestions, Mandie. I did check the “Hide Objects” thing, but it looks like that just enables furniture to show on the 2nd story or something like that. All of my other options looked right. Tonight I used the in-game camera, which was MUCH better, so I think Snag-It just doesn’t like TS3. Ah well, I’m fine with it as long as I can take decent pics! and LOL about Maude! You just gave me an interesting idea… BTW, how is installation going on your end? Making any progress?
Thanks for your impressions, Jen.
Thanks for stopping by, Lisa!
Yes, screencaptures come out dark for some reason. In-game photos tend to come out pretty good. This is one of my pictures of Riverview from the in-game camera:
I’m sort of in love with scenery shots
Also, like, Mandie said, somewhere in the options is a ‘Show/Hide’ option.. or maybe it’s a ‘Fade’ option, I forget. But that should help, I’d think?
And be prepared. Sims read a lot of books. A looooot of books. Even if they’re not bookworms! And sometimes they’ll grab one off the bookshelf and then stick it in their inventory when they’re done instead of returning it to the shelf, so no one else can read it until you put it back. Gah! And yes, even anglers start out catching small fish just like everyone else. I think their fishing skill just goes up faster. Oh. And yes, you’d think an angler WOULD look happy while fishing, wouldn’t you? That’s another of my complaints about the game. While the moodlets are nice (and some are amusing) they seem to have replaced the sims’ ability to express emotions themselves. So now we get sims who we are TOLD are happy to be with their lover or are entertained by the tv or sore from exercising, but they don’t really ACT like it.
Anyway! Hope you get more of a chance to delve into the game, Jen. And definitely try the in-game camera, as those pictures aren’t dark from my experience!
That is a gorgeous scenery shot, Audrey! I’m in love with scenery shots, too. Sooo purdy. You are so right about Sims reading books. That seems to be the activity of choice whenever they are left to their own devices. And it’s so much fun to watch! (NOT!) You are also completely right about the moodlets replacing Sim expressiveness. I miss all the little faces the TS2 Sims make when they’re just going about their day. Aside from the trait system, which makes Sims a bit more unique, at least, it seems like they’ve gone backwards intelligence/expressiveness-wise. Kind of a bummer.
The pics aren’t too bad, Jen, and, no matter which way you do it, they always look bad when you’re still finding your way around a game. I went from not giving a fig for Sims 3 to wondering if my mother will let me use her laptop for it, just to see what it’s like, but I don’t know yet if I’ll get it or not. By the way, what’s FUBAR? And Bratz dolls?
I am enjoying the game for the moment, though my expectations were pretty low coming into it. I think of it like Sims 2.5 or even Sims 1.5 rather than Sims 3. ;-) FUBAR stands for “eFFed Up Beyond All Repair” and just means something that is massively broken. I think it started as military slang, but I’m not sure. And Bratz dolls are like Barbie dolls with heads that are big and out of proportion with their bodies. Here’s a link to a pic of them: http://www.intuitive.com/blog/images/bratz.jpg
Rosy is so adorable! Of course, I can already tell that things are going to get annoying with everyone having the same hair. :Op Heh.
EEEEK!!! O__o Sorry about your graphics issues. Have you fixed it yet? Did those other people’s ideas/suggestions help?
Using the in-game camera fixed the dark pics/missing graphic elements issue, but I still have spiking issues. Despite some good suggestions from people (and from browsing the forum) I haven’t been able to fix that yet. I’ll just have to keep looking! And LOL about the hair…yes, we need more hair!
Weird that your pictures are dark! I’m using FRAPS (since Snag-It hates 64bit Vista and fullscreen games) and mine turn out fine. I’m a bit wary of in-game cameras, LOL.
Also, missing graphics, WHOA! That is nuts!
I’m running two Nvidia cards and my fiance has a 1gig UBER card… and we have no graphical issues. Though our cards run too hot trying to slow down for it, LOL. The graphics in the game are seriously depressing.