There are a lot of aspects about The Sims 3 that sound interesting as far as gameplay goes. I wish there was a trial version so I could test out the open neighborhood and see what that's like, because that sounds kind of cool. Even though it does make me worry about missing out on too many important moments in the lives of the sims that you care about it.

I won't be getting it though and here are my reasons why:
1. I'm still enjoying playing and creating (particularly stories) with TS2
2. I barely have the free time to play TS2, let alone a new game
3. I don't have the space to add another game (or even another EP) on my harddrive and see #1
4. From the pictures I've seen the TS3 sims look really ugly. (when TS2 came out I downloaded the pre-release version of bodyshop and started recreating my story characters who I was playing in TS and I was so happy with how they turned out. Their looks were so improved and looked more like I pictured them in my mind. Recreating them in TS3 would feel like going backwards.)

Unless the reviews after the game come out are so good that I can't resist, I'll probably pass on TS3. Maybe by the time TS4 or TS5 comes out I'll be ready for a new game and have more time to play it.

I hear ya Em.

I agree with you totally about it feeling like moving backwards. I'm also not fond of how they look. They look FREAKY. And I know there will be mods - but the point has been made that there will be all the waiting to have the number of downloads that are already available to Sims 2.

I actually have an external harddrive. I moved all of my nongame files to make room on my laptop for a couple more eps. I tried putting the game itself on my external drive, but I didn't think it ran as well (I'd read that it probably wouldn't.) Do you notice any lagging or any problems?

I started playing the Sims 2 as soon as it came out and it took awhile for any cc tools to come out (besides bodyshop which was released before the game was.) From what I read it sounds like the makers of the game aren't planning on developing any tools like that, they're leaving it up to the players. They had so many official tools for customizing the original sims games, with each new game it seems like they do less and less in that area.

It's weird. In Hobbes' pictures the sims looked so flat, 2 dimensional. I thought that was odd.