This YMMV page is for the third game in the series.
- For the series as a whole, click here.
- For the first game, click here.
- For the second game, click here.
- For the fourth game, click here.
- Contested Sequel: On paper, this installment is far and away the strongest in the series, as it allows for a greater degree of customization, control, and freedom than any other installment. However, it was also rife with bugs and other problems that alienated players, leaving them to prefer The Sims 2. The graphic style also split the playerbase somewhat, with quite a few fans preferring The Sims 2's slightly more cartoonish and stylised Sims to The Sims 3's attempts at having them look more realistic. On top of that, The Sims 3 also had a lot of downloadable content that cost money, and was the first to push its microtransactions.
- Ensemble Dark Horse:
- The Altos, introduced in the base game, are one of the few new families to gain popularity to the point that many simmers wish they would've been included in the Sims 4. Largely because they enjoy how unambiguously evil Nick and Vita are.
- Many players seem to enjoy developing Bailey Swain (a Moonlight Falls teen sim) to be a better character than the character that she's the Expy of, Bella Swan.
- Fan-Preferred Couple: There's a sizable minority of players who prefer to marry Mortimer to Kaylynn instead of his canonical wife, Bella, in The Sims 3, especially given a throwaway comment in the PSP spin-off suggesting that Bella only married Mortimer for his money.
- Franchise Original Sin: While the Sims always had a rather comedic and "silly" tone to it, this game in particular started bringing in all sorts of cartoonish and supernatural things and made them more difficult to ignore.
- Fridge Brilliance: Vita Alto of Sunset Valley has an alto voice, while her daughter (and polar opposite) Holly Alto has a higher-pitched voice.
- Fridge Horror
- In "Into The Future", you can imbue a Plumbot with Sentience, which gives it the ability to have a lifetime wish, and opens social and fun needs. At this point, the Plumbot is the equivalent of a person with hopes, wishes, dreams, and free will. You can then sell this sentient being at the Plumbot Emporium.
- On that note, if you befriend a Plumbot, you can ask to adjust their trait chips. You can use this interaction and then only remove trait chips, effectively stealing them, and as you might have guessed, this means you can steal sentience from them.
- Funny Moments: Has a section to itself.
- Game-Breaker: So many they now have their own page.
- Genius Bonus:
- James Hoppcraft from Moonlight Falls is named after (and looks like) H. P. Lovecraft. Him having the "Supernatural Skeptic" trait looks at first like some intentional irony from the developers, referring to his model being a horror writer, and to James' son being a fairy, but it also reflects something more obscure: despite being a horror writer, the real Lovecraft has been reported to be a very rational and skeptic person.note
- One of the things pregnant Sims are unable to do is cleaning litter boxes. In real life, manipulating cat feces is a way to catch toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease which can have very severe consequences on the foetus if transmitted from their mother during pregnancy.
- Good Bad Bugs:
- Since the main neighborhood and the sub-worlds (Sims University, all three destinations from World Adventures, and Oasis Landing) are instanced, the Genie wishes' counter resets each time you move to a sub-world or go back to the main world. You're supposed to have three wishes, but with the proper DLCs you have an infinite number of them as long as you don't use three wishes at once in the same world. It also replaces the Genie by another one.
- Graduating in the university if you already had a job replaces a Sim's normal career outfit by the graduation dress.
- Sims can only die if they are on a lot. Letting lethal timed conditions based on moodlets expire while in an area outside an actual lot, like the Time Anomaly from Into the Future or the Mummy's Curse from World Adventures, results in the condition being lifted without killing the Sim.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: The flavor text of the "Music Moves" Arcade Machine. Combining your favorite pop songs with the limitless fun of pushing flashing lights around on a video screen, Music Moves takes musical gaming to the next level. Sega eventually released a game like that, Mai Mai.
- It's Easy, So It Sucks!: Due to the amount of Game Breakers listed above, it's much easier for "puddings" in to achieve their goals in life here than they would in The Sims 2.
- Nightmare Fuel: Again, has a section to itself.
- Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: Miss Crumplebottom used to be one of the most reviled character in The Sims, until The Sims 3 gave her a very sympathetic backstory that makes her prudish actions in the former much more understandable.
- Scrappy Mechanic: See here.
- Spiritual Successor: Late Night is this for The Urbz, as it reintroduced celebrities, city neighborhoods, and exclusive lounges into the series.
- Several Expansion Packs were actualizations of those from past games, though they (mostly) had a new spin:
- Ambitions is an Expansion Pack centered on sims' professional lives, just like Open for Business from 2. It also reintroduces active professions to the series, an element last seen 7 years prior on Superstar.
- Not only did Late Night take a few pages from The Urbz, it also was something of an update of Hot Date, Superstar, Nightlife and Apartment Life, centering thus on urban and celebrity life and the satire of star culture. Its spin on those themes could qualify it as another beast, though.
- Just as in 2, Ecpansion Packs centered around the passing of the four seasons and owning pets were made, originally called... ''Pets'' and ''Seasons''. The former made good use of the open world by introducing lots of wild animals and horses as ownable pets, and the latter introduced festivals to the series.
- Infamously, Showtime was one to Superstar... though it reused the Fame mechanics that already appeared on Late Night,(so it was a Spiritual Sucessor of another Spiritual Successor!)
- University Life is one to 2's University. It included Social Groups (cliques), a feature similar to the main one from The Urbz.
- Finally, the penultimate EP, Island Living, centered around visiting a tropical island with several resorts, just like in Vacation. Just as in the Late Night example above, it expanded upon the theme greatly to the point it was its own beast.
- Interestingly enough, Supernatural was promoted originally as somewhat of a Successor to Makin' Magic (and part of the team present for the EP from 1 returned) although it's the only pack in the series so far centered around different supernatural creatures.
- Several Expansion Packs were actualizations of those from past games, though they (mostly) had a new spin:
- Sweetness Aversion: The "Katy Perry's Sweet Treats" Stuff Pack is full of pink-colored, glittery candy/cake/ice-cream themed objects and clothing.
- Tear Jerker: Agnes Crumplebottom, the woman who grows into the prudish Miss Crumplebottom from Hot Date that we hate so much, has one as her back story - Her husband drowned on their honeymoon, leaving her alone and mourning in their mansion built for three, too grief stricken by his memory to try looking for a new suitor. In the upstairs of her house, she still has a nursery room that is only half finished. Because of the tragic nature of her back story, it's popular amongst players to revive her husband with the use of ambrosia and give her the happy ending she deserves.
- Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Skin textures are very realistic, and not nearly as stylized as they were in the previous and succeeding game. If the features are messed around enough to make a Gonk-ish character, the realism, combined with the Sim's cartoony personalities, can create some freakish results when Sims start moving around and interacting a bit more.
- Vindicated by History:
- History Repeats - The Sims 3 was, very early in its life, seen as a downgrade from the previous game in 2009. The Sims 3 had much more actions being handled by the computer in the background, which unfortunately worked against it. The amount of customization made the game very prone to bugs - some of which may be amusing
, but some of which were annoying. Over ten years after its release, some people reflect on it a bit more fondly and appreciate how it set out to be complex, with a few people even forgiving the smaller Expansion Packs due to how much of a nightmare it allegedly was to code. It also helps that newer computers can process the game faster now, as well as mods that fix the game's quirks. - Speaking of Expansion Packs, The Sims 3 continued the Franchise Original Sin of "Reselling" stuff from past games and expansions to players. During the first part of The New '10s, this was seen as some of the worst DLC practices of all time and EA being lazy. However, players looked back and found that this simply wasn't true - the expansions may have on paper "Sold back" content that was present in The Sims 2, but the Sims 3 version either packaged it with other focal points or expanded upon it so that it did feel like more was genuinely added (such as how the Sims 3 version of University includes far more activities and events than it was in Sims 2).
- History Repeats - The Sims 3 was, very early in its life, seen as a downgrade from the previous game in 2009. The Sims 3 had much more actions being handled by the computer in the background, which unfortunately worked against it. The amount of customization made the game very prone to bugs - some of which may be amusing
