A note: I am still not quite finished with this review, but I figured I’d post it anyway since I haven’t been on, and to explain the reason why.
As soon as it came out-no, as soon as it was announced-I was hooked. The Sims 3. The newest addition to the long line of Sims products. There was the Sims 2, The Sim City, Sim Animals and more; but nothing could compare to the newest, grandest, Sims 3.
Call me obsessed, but like many other captivated Sims fans, I bought it the week of it’s release and I was not disappointed. As some of you might know, this version of the ever-popular Sims franchise is quite an improvement. I was extremely surprised once I had played it for a week or so. The new additions and improvements are so immense in my opinion that they make it seem more like a Sims 4 or maybe even 5.
New improvements of the Sims 3:

• YOU CAN MAKE YOUR SIM GO ANYWHERE THEY WANT
• Much more detailed sims, houses, surroundings and other objects
• Your sims now have opportunities that they can accomplish for rewards; such as fixing a neighbors shower, tutoring a child in chess, and so on.
• Create a Sim is much more detailed; hair, eyes, and clothes have more customized options. Additionally, your sims now have personalities that affect game play. You can choose from traits like daredevil, Kleptomaniac, Athletic and more.
• Objects as well as clothes can now be applied with any color or pattern you could wish for.
• Your sims now have a lifetime wish such as a rockstar, international spy, having a perfect garden, and more.
• A new feature, story-mode, enables the whole  town to age with your current sim. People will move in, move out, have children and promotions.
• Options to customize your sims’ body shape and skin color

See what I mean? These are great new additions that just leave the Sims 2 behind in the dust. One of the most important new features, as I am sure many of you know of, is the lack of the ubiquitous loading screen when your current sim moves out of it’s lot. The programmers decided to get rid of the annoying nuisance, and I believe they decided well. This and Story-mode makes the game not only about your current sim/household, but focusses the game on the whole town 24/7.
And with all of these new achievements comes, well, more achievements: Now your sims have portable items, such as cars, bikes, laptops and cell phones which help to keep the whole idea of ‘the city is your playground’ alive. Cell phones act just like normal phones with one extra feature, a camera! Your sim can take pictures which will happily find their way into the sim’s inventory. Speaking of inventory, your sim can carry anything from unfinished books, produce, and rare stones, to insects and fish in their inventory. This is extremely useful with the new game play.

But enough about that, let’s start at the beginning. When you first create a sim you are given several thousands of choices. Be it what haistyle to pick, the clothes, eyes, and finally skin tone. Well, that’s a bit too general since many of the Sims 3′s predecessors had the same option, but in Sims 3, you can choose virtually any skin tone you could ever want. Finally, a color wheel has replaced the set choices for an object be it hair, skin or clothes. You can make your sims a sci fi green, creepy blue, extremely pale, dark and tan, or anything in between. As in the Sims 2, you can manipulate your sims’ facial features down to the size of their nostrils or the height of their eyelids. A new wonderful addition was the fact that you could choose most of what your sim’s body shape would look like. There are now two sliding bars that adjust muscle size as well as fat. There is a wide (and ever growing) selection of clothes for your sims to wear and enjoy as well as several fun accessories. One drawback is the sudden lack of hairstyles. I found that the Sims 2 had an ample amount of styles to choose from; dreds, buzzed, ‘fro, balding, short and cropped… but in the Sims 3, the list was sadly very short. In addition, the precious few that they offered wasn’t really that… precious. The styles were a little drab and a little boring, but noting to be too sad about.
After customizing your sim’s body and clothes, you move on to their personality. This is one of my favorite parts where you can choose their traits. Their is a long list ranging from genius to absent-mindend, technophobe to daredevil. You can also choose their favorite color, music and food, as well as the pitch, and, to an extent, the sound of their voice.
Once you have created your sims, you can move them into a house an begin your game. The gameplay is much the same as the previous sims games. You basically control your sims and maneuver them through the hardships and happy times that makes up their lives.
You can also build houses on open lots, creating anything from one-room shacks to breathtaking multi-million dollar mansions. One problem that really irks me, though is the fact that you can’t create new lots. This affects you in the long run when you are forced to either move some people out of their homes, or stop making as many sims due to the increasing lack of open houses/lots. This is one of the times where you stop and say, “Really??” I mean, it might have its purpose, but it is one of the most annoying parts of the game.
Aside from that, this game is GREAT. With immersive, detailed game play, and astounding graphics and features, this is one of the better mac games that I’ve played in my lifetime. (yes, I am a very picky mac snob )

overall: **** ^1/2/*****