tinyE: Oh waaaaay off topic, and with my new pc coming in a week or so get used to these type posts from me. :P Anyone here play Sims 3? Comparisons to others?
I play it. It's still The Sims, if you know what I mean, but with added features that really flesh it out.
One fun thing is being able to look around the entire town rather than being stuck on your own lot. So while your sim is at work or sleeping you can watch other sims interact with each other or go about their lives (as long as they're in public). You can explore around the town, visit other homes, go shopping and eat out, visit the library and read books there, visit the local art gallery and even go adventuring in the graveyard's mausoleum. All in real time with no loading screens.
You can also buy businesses (can't remember if that was in The Sims 2) and earn money every Monday from those businesses. So you might be able to buy into a diner for say...5,000 Simoleons and every Monday you'll earn 750 Simoleons, and you can eventually buy the diner for 7,500 Simoleons and every money you'll earn 1,250 Simoleons. You can also rename businesses that you own. Beyond restaurants/theatres/arenas you can also buy parks and earn money, not sure about other public places like the graveyard though.
If your sims have a baby it now goes through a baby stage, a toddler stage, a child age and a teen age before hitting young adulthood. This can be a bit annoying as the first two stages basically have you taking care of a potato sack that needs attention at least seemingly constantly, and the the child and teen phases you have to worry about school stuff.
There are also some more ways to earn steady money with a job, maybe they were in the second Sims but I can't remember. Ways include playing guitar for tips (you can earn 500 Simoleons a day or more at upper levels), writing books, painting. If you have Showtime and have gone into one of its art careers you can use those skills to perform for tips (again you can 500 Simoleons a day or more) or get booked at venues.
Overall I really like it.