Hi ALL!  I'm new here and thrilled about it...I think...maybe...maybe not...will wait and see how y'all treat me.     Besides what I've read here tonight, I've been viewing a lot of TS3 videos (some with voice-overs) made by simmers who got the game one way or another...don't care.  Many of them (the videos) have been "taken down" since, but between this site and those videos...what an education!  I want to thank ALL of you here and would like to participate.

MY very first and BIGGEST disappointment was learning that the animation of getting on/off the school bus and in/out of taxicabs & cars is GONE.  Sims simply poof in/out of them.  Then I saw a video of 2 Sims going to the waterfall for a picnic/fishing via a car as transportation.  When they got there...poof...out of the car and then the CAR poofed away!      I adored this animation and used it an a TS2 story and plan on using it again in other TS2 stories.  Obviously, it won't be used in any TS3 stories, should I decide to even venture there.  I did reserve the Collector's Edition but may be regretting it now.

The ONLY thing that comforts me is that the base game appears to be on 1 DISK!  Well, that's the size of the box.  Didn't TS2 require 4?  Don't really know what that means, but 1 disk vs 4 is better.  As for my PC handling it AND TS2, it should.  If not, I'll just dump/sell TS3.  Apparently, no biggy.  I've still got lots to do in TS2 anyway and thankful for that.

Hats off to the OP for this thread and the rest of you for your contributions.  Excellent!  THANK YOU!

   Cameo