The Sims 3

 PC
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1235 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 841 out of 1235
  2. Mixed: 288 out of 1235
  3. Negative: 106 out of 1235
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  1. XavierJ
    Jun 20, 2009
    0
    You cant kill people, what a waste of time! Sure you can starve them to death, but simulated life isn't the same unless you can plan out a homicide.
  2. Sydek93jm
    Feb 19, 2012
    2
    The Sims 3 introduce some good new improvements to the collection. But there are many reasons for me to think it's just a bad game option: 1. The huge amount of expansion packs with their respective negative points. We're talking about 10 expansion packs that their price varies from 20â
  3. iburnaga
    May 4, 2011
    0
    Selling an incomplete game is a nono. A bigger nono is to sell people the rest of the game for the same price. Were it not for expansionitis The Sims would be a great addiction but EA makes it uneconomical.
  4. ccrogers15
    Nov 17, 2011
    2
    Cant EA just learn? For real? We play the sims 2 so long and they release ALOT of expansions packs, we buy them for 20 dollars a piece, then they release the sims 3 without any content from the last. They need to learn. This game also is a discrase. The graphics are not as good as the sims 2, you cant enter stores (it shows the outside kind of like the urbz with clothing stores), it dontCant EA just learn? For real? We play the sims 2 so long and they release ALOT of expansions packs, we buy them for 20 dollars a piece, then they release the sims 3 without any content from the last. They need to learn. This game also is a discrase. The graphics are not as good as the sims 2, you cant enter stores (it shows the outside kind of like the urbz with clothing stores), it dont have pets (without expansions), you cant make towns, you cant have multiple familys per save, ETC. This sucks. I give it a 2 for effort.… Expand
  5. ZazaTR
    Mar 28, 2012
    2
    Glitches, lags and bugs:
    1. New "stitchless neighborhood" system seems fine at first, but is extremely laggy when used - textures sure like taking their sweet time to load (even on high-end systems)
    2. Bugs: objects from one floor above displaying (mid-air) on floors below, families losing their ID (making entire town unable to progress further) etc. 3. Pricy expansion packs, stuff    Glitches, lags and bugs:
    1. New "stitchless neighborhood" system seems fine at first, but is extremely laggy when used - textures sure like taking their sweet time to load (even on high-end systems)

    2. Bugs: objects from one floor above displaying (mid-air) on floors below, families losing their ID (making entire town unable to progress further) etc.

    3. Pricy expansion packs, stuff packs and Sims Store content, while few of them actually cost as much;

    4. Ridiculous building limitations

    and many other things I don't want to describe (because it will take a couple of hours)

    I rate 2 for the effort.    … Expand
  6. guest91111
    Dec 25, 2013
    0
    This game is one of the, if not the buggiest piece of crap I've ever played; Big rigs over the road racing is less buggy than this. Loading times are extremely long, even Train simulator can't come close to this. There's literally no reason why you should buy this waist of money! Don't buy it.
  7. LaurenG
    Jun 3, 2009
    8
    I like the thought of The Sims 3, I waited and waited and placed mine on reserve. When I installed it, it totally took over my desktop. The EA download manager, wouldn't let my PC do anything. I had to uninstall that part of the game. When I finally got to play the game, the load screens are awesome that their isn't any. I don't like the fact you can't zoom in on the I like the thought of The Sims 3, I waited and waited and placed mine on reserve. When I installed it, it totally took over my desktop. The EA download manager, wouldn't let my PC do anything. I had to uninstall that part of the game. When I finally got to play the game, the load screens are awesome that their isn't any. I don't like the fact you can't zoom in on the town in the first part. Also the controls are crazy, I just liked the mouse in the Sims 2 that worked really well..now going from that to the keyboard, is nerve racking. The grafics are awesome, and the TVs in the houses are like watching your own. The cars have improved alot. No more crazy colors or stripes. The design your own is pretty cool. Besides the some falts that this game may have, i'm sure that their will be an expansion pack that will fix all the bugs and patch.… Expand
  8. ChilliPhilly
    Feb 26, 2011
    8
    I absolutely love this game, my Sims now feel as if they are apart of one large world rather than in some smll contained environment. The only complaint about this game I have is the facial customisation...... As much as I try. My sims all look fat. I hate it. I want The Sims 2 level of creation, not this wierd making your sims havedifferent body shapes all with a fat face...
  9. l0rdm0rd
    Aug 3, 2012
    6
    The Sims 3 is a fine game, which offers fun for a long time. You can customize your character a lot and most settings have a great influence on your charcter's behaviour during gameplay. If you liked sims 1 and 2, you might like this one. The only problem is:
    The game is very buggy. The developers seem to focus mostly on adding new objects that you can buy ingame and then tell everyone on    The Sims 3 is a fine game, which offers fun for a long time. You can customize your character a lot and most settings have a great influence on your charcter's behaviour during gameplay. If you liked sims 1 and 2, you might like this one. The only problem is:
    The game is very buggy. The developers seem to focus mostly on adding new objects that you can buy ingame and then tell everyone on facebook about instead of fixing bugs. Especially since the animal update sims get stuck, become invisible, can't be selected, can't enter or leave areas.... any bug you can think of will probably at one point happen to you. The forums online are full with people complaining about bugs, that exist for a long time with no fix. Also the performance of the game is quite bad, considered its graphics that look only little better than sims 2. On my machine battlefield 3 runs smoothly at high settings and sims 2 on the same machine feels laggy when zooming in an out, the fps drop to about 8 when scrolling and often textures are loaded badly. I already had to delete to families because of unfixable bugs. Another gameplay issue: you can do lots of cool thinks, like exploring caves or going to the movies, but each time your sim just is gone for 2 game hours and the reappears with a pop up bubble saying "that was so much fun!" while you could only stare at your screen and wait for your character to come back. You can not influence anything during this time outs and the get old quickly.
    If you can live with bugs and bad performance and just like to create your sim and then build a fancy house, you will be fine with the game. But if you want both fun and stability, sims 3 isn't the game to go for.    … Expand
  10. MegaR
    May 21, 2012
    10
    I like Sims games Especially This One. Racing Higher Than Sims 2, People Vote High on THIS ONE!! Racing EVEN WAY HIGHER THAN SIMS 1, PEOPLE VOTE WAY HIGHER ON THIS ONE! If Only There Was A PSP version. :(((
  11. Sirlolzalot
    May 25, 2013
    1
    Sims 3? Oh you meant sims 2 with online and micro transactions. I literally can't tell the difference between the two other than maybe the customization screen, the 3 in the title, and the online. Also, this is a PAY TO PLAY GAME with MICRO TRANSACTIONS. How much money do they need to suck out of your pocket? Not to mention how quickly you get bored of the thing. 1/10 for the 5 mins ofSims 3? Oh you meant sims 2 with online and micro transactions. I literally can't tell the difference between the two other than maybe the customization screen, the 3 in the title, and the online. Also, this is a PAY TO PLAY GAME with MICRO TRANSACTIONS. How much money do they need to suck out of your pocket? Not to mention how quickly you get bored of the thing. 1/10 for the 5 mins of mild entertainment.… Expand
  12. N8_2
    Jan 22, 2013
    5
    The game's content is nearly flawless, but it is full of bugs and was VERY poorly optimized. Even with a high-end PC the game requires about 10 minutes to load (launching the game + loading saved games), and about 1-2 minutes to save or quit. After about 20+ hours of play time the game becomes riddled with bizarre lag which renders the game nearly unplayable. This lag problem hasn't beenThe game's content is nearly flawless, but it is full of bugs and was VERY poorly optimized. Even with a high-end PC the game requires about 10 minutes to load (launching the game + loading saved games), and about 1-2 minutes to save or quit. After about 20+ hours of play time the game becomes riddled with bizarre lag which renders the game nearly unplayable. This lag problem hasn't been dealt with by EA at all (despite a 50 page thread about it on their website), but an unofficial mod partially fixes the problem... In addition, my Sims vanish/teleport randomly around the town, and the UI (rarely) becomes invisible.… Expand
  13. philthymcnasty
    Dec 7, 2013
    2
    Its a fun game, but too many bugs. You can have the best computer ever, but thanks to the bugs and lag, this game sucks.

    Then there are the micro transactions. It doesn't matter to EA that you shelled out tons of money for any of the expansions, they still want to charge you more for things that you can not get in the expansions. So unfortunately, this game is pretty unplayable.
  14. Trollosaurus
    May 6, 2017
    4
    Great open world, the only thing that is enjoyable here. But even that falls into crap due to forever loadings and constant lags. Lot's of bugs and glitches even on high end PCs. Not worth the full price at all. Maybe in future there will be a miracle and a PC that makes this game run properly.
  15. gist95966
    Feb 21, 2012
    7
    First off let me state: I never played Sims 2. I've played sims 1 and all the expansions and that's it. I have heard from various people that Sims 2 was better - I can't comment to much on that, but I will state what I like about this game, and others can tell me (or if you already played sims 2 and know) if sims 2 had some of the features I liked or not. I will of course also express someFirst off let me state: I never played Sims 2. I've played sims 1 and all the expansions and that's it. I have heard from various people that Sims 2 was better - I can't comment to much on that, but I will state what I like about this game, and others can tell me (or if you already played sims 2 and know) if sims 2 had some of the features I liked or not. I will of course also express some of my dislikes.

    Sim Personalities: The whole neat, active,nice point system they had before is gone. To give your sims personality in this game you select traits and that drives them. you can select 1-5 traits, and some of them can't be combined because they contradict each other.
    I love this over the previous system. I really feel my sims are getting personality, and in the old system I didn't because I was spending to much time trying to fulfill needs. Which brings me to the second part.

    Sim Looks: Unfortunately there aren't as many choices here as I was hoping. There aren't many hairstyles in the vanilla game, and not many clothes or anything for that matter. HOWEVER the details can be customized to an extent that you have many options. While your limited by your hair style, it can be any color you like, and if you wanted, you could make your sim have steel hair or whatever other material you like. So your limited in your styles, but the materials and colors can be anything. Needs: Your sims aren't as needy in this game as they were previously, the values seem to be slower, and can be somewhat counteracted by your mood, which can have several bonuses, so that even if your hungry and stinky, your still in a good mood because your listening to music and received a promotion... etc. I find this realistic as well, since people in real life can be in a good mood even if they are hungry and need to go to the bathroom. It also allows you to focus on other goals such as skill building or making enough friends, or whatever. In the sims 1, I spent my entire time trying to put my sim in a good mood - even to the point of cheating for money to get better items, and I still didn't have enough time to make any friends to advance my career. Perhaps I was bad at the game... all I know is that the sims 3, allows me to have more fun and focus on several goals.

    The neighborhood: Compared to the sims 1, a definite improvement. There are a lot more pre-made sims to either play as or interact with your creations in the neighborhood and they were very creative with the houses that they all live in. You can also do things like seduce a rich wife, then kill them and their family so that your sim can have a much nicer place to live without having to earn money the "hard way" also better is that you don't feel trapped inside your house with your sim, People are constantly passing by and certain characters that you couldn't interact with in the sims 1, you can in the sims 3, such as the mailman, or repairman. Some of them might even turn out to live right next door! Very fun.
    if you let your sim do so, they will wander around the town as well, which gives a much more lively game than before.

    Aging: This is new, but fortunately customizable. They can't quite live forever, but you could slow down the aging process to a degree that would probably take you a year or two of solid playing to kill them from old age. You can also speed it up to the point where one day your a baby, and the next your young kid. If this weren't customizable I would have hated it. As is, I love it.

    Steam: It requires Steam-play. This a negative to me, because steam requires internet which of course means if your traveling, or have no internet for whatever reason you can't play. The Sims 3 shouldn't NEED internet to play. However... this might be more or a problem with Steam than with The Sims itself. Just mentioning for the sake of those who may have thought it can be played offline.

    another negative is that the graphics from the sims 2 haven't improved much. Personally though I think of it as a positive, since I don't play The Sims for the graphics, and it means comps with lower specs can handle it.

    Camera angles can be horrid at times, and can take quite a while to transfer from one sim to the other - even the sims 1 had better camera angles in my opinion!    … Expand
  16. TheCoolDude
    Mar 5, 2013
    4
    This game is fun for the first few hours. Its great right up until the point when you realize, nothing you do in the game actually matters. I made a city with no police, no fire department, no medical, polluted drinking water, factory's and garbage dumps right next to homes, exc. and my City Was Still Successful. We had 110 crimes committed every day, 23 buildings burning down a day, 213This game is fun for the first few hours. Its great right up until the point when you realize, nothing you do in the game actually matters. I made a city with no police, no fire department, no medical, polluted drinking water, factory's and garbage dumps right next to homes, exc. and my City Was Still Successful. We had 110 crimes committed every day, 23 buildings burning down a day, 213 people dyeing of sickness a day, and the city was making over 12 thousand dollars an hour. You cant lose this game. Its impossible. 4/10 for being unloseable.… Expand
  17. CorixAsk
    Dec 23, 2016
    0
    500 euros for all DLC you must be kidding....I regret I bought this game...It's painful seeing people wasting their money and I feel really bad for you guys...Get your life back
  18. Subterra
    Jul 19, 2013
    0
    sims 3 is the worst performance ive had with a pc game, this is daylight robbery i wil not be buying anything from this franchise ever again i thought they would have updated patched these issues by now......total and utter rip off its unplayable
  19. MrAmazingSocks
    Mar 1, 2014
    0
    You would think a game that primarily focuses on AI would have better AI but no, the AI is as simple as it can be not to mention the fact that the game comes with very little content in the base game with something like 3 hairstyles for each gender unless you're willing to buy from the sim store or buy the overpriced expansion packs which don't add enough content to be worth £30.

    There    You would think a game that primarily focuses on AI would have better AI but no, the AI is as simple as it can be not to mention the fact that the game comes with very little content in the base game with something like 3 hairstyles for each gender unless you're willing to buy from the sim store or buy the overpriced expansion packs which don't add enough content to be worth £30.

    There is really no point in having relationships in this game because in addition to the sims being souless nonhuman robots(like EA's staff it seems) in my experience the option for proposing marriage has ALWAYS came up before 'propose going steady' and I can't play this game for very long before the AI decides to get stuck somewhere and make the game constantly freeze.

    **** EA.    … Expand
  20. MaestroVolpe
    Mar 26, 2014
    0
    Any positive qualities of this game are completely nullified by the sheer layout of the game. The Sims creators have always been a little friendly with putting out "expansions", but with The Sims, your entire experience is modular. When you buy The Sims 3 you're essentially just purchasing the bare-bones engine, and everything else is either an expansion or an in-app purchase featuringAny positive qualities of this game are completely nullified by the sheer layout of the game. The Sims creators have always been a little friendly with putting out "expansions", but with The Sims, your entire experience is modular. When you buy The Sims 3 you're essentially just purchasing the bare-bones engine, and everything else is either an expansion or an in-app purchase featuring in-game currency (Simoleons) which you can purchase using real money and then use to purchase in game items.

    Everything you want to play in The Sims 3 is something you're going to have to buy piecemeal, and we've put up with it for a long time because we wanted the game we loved. Sometimes I feel the game we loved is still in there, but if you want it, you're going to have to pay a much higher price tag than what's actually advertised.    … Expand
  21. thanaton
    May 17, 2014
    0
    It's a good concept but the game felt dated, and most of The Sims 3 content you have to pay extra for so unless your willing to invest at least $60 this game feels very incomplete and lacking on content.

    Although Sims 3 doesn't live up to my expectations I will get The Sims 4 when it comes out later this year that way I can get the expansions as they come out.
  22. DANEger
    Mar 17, 2011
    7
    While I lost interest in this series a long time ago the game is most defiantly improved, as i played this I noticed far more complexity, customization, exploration and in general things to do. For a game that gives you a fake life all of these are good things.

    I was however upset that it had almost no free downloadable content i remember SCORES of free and high quality down lodes on 2    While I lost interest in this series a long time ago the game is most defiantly improved, as i played this I noticed far more complexity, customization, exploration and in general things to do. For a game that gives you a fake life all of these are good things.

    I was however upset that it had almost no free downloadable content i remember SCORES of free and high quality down lodes on 2 all made by the community I belive this game came out some time ago (Though I do not know i was not on my PC like i say i lost interest in the series long ago) but if it has i would think the community is eater unimaginative or the tools are no longer simple enough to use which is a shame because the astounding thing about 2 is you cold have anything you wanted from werewolves to charters from LoTR the only thing that i can find now is custom floor and wall tiles which while nice is just not the same.    … Expand
  23. AdrianoFox
    Sep 4, 2014
    2
    The Sims 3 is awful. It looked very promising, but it failed to deliver. The open world was a great idea, but it failed hard. The world was really dead, there was almost zero Sims in the community lots, doing nothing besides stand there.

    The Sims looked are very robotic, the animations are very repetitive and exaggerated. Sims keep stopping when they're walking, they stop when they walk    The Sims 3 is awful. It looked very promising, but it failed to deliver. The open world was a great idea, but it failed hard. The world was really dead, there was almost zero Sims in the community lots, doing nothing besides stand there.

    The Sims looked are very robotic, the animations are very repetitive and exaggerated. Sims keep stopping when they're walking, they stop when they walk through doors, it's terrible. Routing system was lame. Teleport into the car was ridiculous.

    The Sims 3 lacks life. Everything is so dead and robotic. CAS is ok, Create a Style was great, Build/Buy modes were ok too. But the gameplay wasn't fun at all. The Sims 2 was much more dynamic. The expansion packs helped TS3 a lot, but the base game was just unplayable.    … Expand
  24. PrincessRose
    Sep 20, 2014
    8
    I've been playing sims 3 since 2009. And no matter how many games I play, if I stay away from my sim families too long I miss them. So I generally play for at least1 hour a week, much more in between waiting for other games to be released. Sims 3 is really worth playing especially with all expansions. It's still one of my all time favourite games. A game that has brought me endless fun andI've been playing sims 3 since 2009. And no matter how many games I play, if I stay away from my sim families too long I miss them. So I generally play for at least1 hour a week, much more in between waiting for other games to be released. Sims 3 is really worth playing especially with all expansions. It's still one of my all time favourite games. A game that has brought me endless fun and sometimes frustration, even when I have a lengthy break, it is a game I always return to.

    It is not a game without problems, it suffered from being buggy and sims getting stuck and going missing leaving me with game breaking error codes, my game became unplayable until thankfully player mods fixed the game when EA couldn't or wouldn't.

    Love the open world and that everything is customisable, you can build almost anything you can imagine in endless colours and styles, and make everything however you want, you can have a crazy green faced witch with a massive nose obsessed with making everything covered in a tartan pattern, the stories and scenarios you can have for your family is endless and only limited by your imagination.    … Expand
  25. noobyboymax
    Nov 16, 2014
    8
    A beautiful open-world game that can be replayed over and over again. Create-a-Sim is fun and living out a life as yourself (or someone made up) is totally amazing.

    I never managed to bother with many of the expansion packs simply because they were overpriced and looked dull but the base game was fun enough.
  26. DailyGaming
    Apr 13, 2015
    6
    The Sims 3 is a really fun game, in my opinion its better then the Sims 4. It always had a special place in my heart. The only i really dislike about the game is that you have to buy expansion packs to get more which is annoying
  27. reaper66689
    May 26, 2017
    2
    good game i love the music in similish and there load of mods and cc content

    ok thats the good

    the cons

    ea having it connect to orgin to boot the game up is annoying

    sims 3 is a ram hog

    sims 3 wont run on intell video card
  28. MatikTheSeventh
    Oct 10, 2020
    6
    The Sims 3 is a step in the right direction, and two steps back! The open world is innovative and the only thing that makes people go back to the game. The design creator is also very nice and needed in new entries in the franchise. Meanwhile, everything is broken, the loading times were and still are a nightmare, the NPCs turn into pudding people after a while.

    And everything is just    The Sims 3 is a step in the right direction, and two steps back! The open world is innovative and the only thing that makes people go back to the game. The design creator is also very nice and needed in new entries in the franchise. Meanwhile, everything is broken, the loading times were and still are a nightmare, the NPCs turn into pudding people after a while.

    And everything is just coated in EA's paywall system, where most basic stuff is either added in expansion packs or must be bought through a separate shop for SimPoints.
    It could've been an amazing life simulator if it wasn't for EA.    … Expand
  29. Blackshine
    Nov 17, 2022
    7
    на уровне симсов
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  30. Hyperfailure
    Nov 27, 2022
    6
    
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Awards & Rankings

13
#13 Best PC Game of 2009
13
#13 Most Discussed PC Game of 2009
7
#7 Most Shared PC Game of 2009

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
86

Generally favorable reviews - based on 75 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 74 out of 75
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 75
  3. Negative: 0 out of 75
  1. Thunderbolt
    90
    A gallant return to form and takes a direction that breathes new life into a formula that is fast reaching a decade old.
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  2. CPUGamer
    75
    The Sims 3 has immense potential as upcoming expansions start rolling into high gear. And that’s what you’re really buying: A game of potential.
    Read full review
  3. ZTGD
    78
    The Sims 3 isn't a bad game, not in slightest, and too a different group of gamers this might be all they wanted, but for me this feels like a sequel that Will Wright had nothing to do with. There is no new magic, or amazing new idea that is going to re-imagine the whole series, it's just more and better stuff that we got in Sims 1.
    Read full review
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