If like me you have followed the sims from the beginning, prepare to once again become glued to the t.v for a while.
just like all the sims games you can create your sim in the likeness of yourself or others, i prefer to make my self.
the sim creator is a lot more advance than the previous versions, you can tweak every bit of your sims face, and can create some weird looking sims!!!

You can give them original personality's with the traits being a lot more varied then the other sims games these include 'evil, genius and loves the outdoors.
The personality effects what your sims wishes are (ill explain them in a minute) and give them extra stuff to do such as a computer wizz has the option to hack a computer, and a handy sim can tinker with things, this is not always a good idea because they can break your lovely expensive cooker or electrocute themselves. personally I like the neat trait so you don't need to hire a maid and they always get wishes to clean stuff, which is a easy way to collect points (again in a minute).

The clothes range is ok, but you now have the option to 'create a style' this is where you can customize absolutely everything, from hair colour to kitchen worktops.
you change the materials of the items that you are customizing, and then you can even customize the material by changing its colour using colour sliders which have the main colour, saturation and brightness.
I have created amongst other things, a purple fridge, a leopard print outfit and some groovy wallpaper.

If you are really proud of your creations you can share them on the sims network (only if you have an internet connection) and you can download other users creations. this can be clothes, furniture sims and full houses, take a look at these some people are very good at building sim houses.

Once you have finished going overboard with the customization there is a lot to do in this game. wishes, exploring the town, getting a massage.....

The sims 3 is different from the other PlayStation sim games, because you don't have so called 'missions' but your sim has single a lifetime wish instead, this can be to become a 5* chef or to have a perfect aquarium which you collect by fishing. these always take a long time to complete so it's always something to aim for, every sim in your household has a different lifetime wish.
Your sim also gets mini wishes all the time such as 'buy an oven' or kiss donny' by completing these you collect lifetime points which you can redeem for cool traits. an example being fertility treatment which makes it more likely to. have triplets.

Sims still have needs as with all the games so you still need to make sure you feed your sims and go to the toilet etc.

Challenges.
So you've made your sim, so what now? Well there is a lot to do around town, you can go to the theatre and even get a massage, for the braver sims out there you can visit the graveyard at night whoooo and even meet a ghost.
by your sim doing activities you earn challenge points.
Challenge points are earned by basically living the sims life there is a list of things you can do and how many points you earn for them, reading a book gives you a small amount of points but doing something more epic like marrying a rich sim gives you more points.
challenge points can buy you new clothes, furniture sets and KARMA!!

Karma???? yes that's right karma! a lot of fun is to be had with karma powers, you do need to recharge your karma powers though, this is done by completing wishes, you also get a little boost each night.
Karma powers include, super satisfy, this makes your sims needs all the way to the top or if your feeling a bit more evil E.P.I.C F.A.I.L This drops all your sims needs to rock bottom then they break stuff can't make friends and be a complete failure for a while.
There are also natural disasters, an earthquake and fire storm, which you can make happen with karma, but these sometimes occur naturally as well. when these happen stuff in the house breaks,There is a benefit of this, you build handiness skill by fixing things, an earthquake will also shake out bugs and a fire storm will drop space rocks which you can then collect and make money from, the insects you can donate to science and the rocks can be analysed then sold or if they are a gemstone, smelted which you can then put on display.

Another new feature are moodlets, these are effected by the sims environment, if there are dirty dishes your sim will get a bad moodlet saying disgusted and -10 mood. if you sim is happy they will get the having a blast moodlet and this boosts the sims mood for a certain amount of time. these all last different amount of time, depending on the moodlet, if a sim cheats the sim feels betrayed for a good few days, but if a sim is listening to music the moodlet disappears as soon as it is turned off along with the mood boost.

And of course mood is very important especially in the world of employment, you will not get a job promotion if you sim is in a bad mood.
When a sim picks a career they don't just have to build skills like in the other versions, they have to make friends with the boss and co-workers and sometimes even have to read something the boss has given them.
Once the sim is at the top of his/her career you can still earn pay rises by being in a good mood.
There are some cool careers such as the political career or the scientific career and of course you still have the usual ones as well, music, athletic and cooking. There are also part time jobs, in the supermarket, the spa and the grave yard, you still get promotions and advance in your career but they are less hours and less money.
Other ways to make money are to write novels, you get weekly payment of royalties, the better the book the better the pay, gardening makes good money if you find special seeds one which is a money tree (how cool) also paintings can be sold or took and put in your sims house.

Opportunities
This is also a new feature a sim can get an opportunity which can boost friendships, help with job promotions and even earn money, these can come up whenever and can be simple such as read a certain book (all the books are individual titled even recipes) or a bit more complicated and such as grow ten perfect apples. sometimes a sim is asked to go to another part of town as part of an opportunity.

Skills.
The skills are; gardening, fishing, writing (which are new) cooking, logic, athletic, guitar and handiness ( replacing mechanical).
You can build your skills by, reading books these are now in stages level 1,2,and 3, watching t.v and of course actually putting your skill to practice such as planting seeds and growing your own fruit and veg or going fishing in one of the many ponds around the town, when you are really good at the guitar you have the option to 'play for tips' this is a cool money earner.

Sim aging.
Sims age differently in sims 3, you can also choose how long they live in options or disable ageing all together, but don't worry you can use a birthday cake to age your kids up, you buy it then they blow out the candles and walah.
The Aging process:

Babies- they cry a lot and that's it really.

Toddlers- this is pretty cool because you have to teach them to walk and talk and even potty train them. They are soo cute as well. if you bring them up well you get to pick a trait

Child- they go to school have to get good grades. if they have good grades you get to pick a trait.
Teenager- they still go to school but can get a part time job now.

Young adult- can now get a job

Adult- same as young adult really

Elder- they get grey hair and can retire ( and be paid a pension), a good thing to do with elders is make them paint, paintings increase in value when the artist dies (he he )

To create life in the sims you of course have to be in love and whoo hoo, then the female sim will start being sick and then she is pregnant, she will want to eat certain foods and go to the spa for a massage, she gets personal leave from her job and gets payment for this. If you keep your sim happy during pregnancy you get to pick you child's first trait.

Socialising.
Sims can socialize differently depending on their traits, a family orientated sim can 'coo over family' a romantic sim can 'leap into arms' an insane sim can talk to themselves (who needs to socialize eh) so you get the idea.
another way to socialize is by watching t.v playing games and playing the guitar with other sims.

The downside to the sims 3 is that your kids can't move house and still visit, once you kick them out they are gone forever. There also isn't any cool butlers (die hard simmers will know what I'm on about) there is no gardener now which is a bit crappy.
They still have the fire bar when building your house so you can only have so much stuff, I find this very annoying.

okay so I think that's it (in a nutshell.. honestly),
So for my rating of the game AMAZING LOVE IT.

It really is worth playing but I am warning you now, you may get infected with the sim mental illness!! the symptoms are:
All you can think about is the sims
you play for hours on end and even dream about it.
The only way to break this is by completing the game (well by getting your sim into a good place and completing there lifetime wish, the game itself is endless).

**This is NOT a guaranteed cure play at your own risk. I have had the sims illness for about 10 years and I'm pretty happy about it, the only time I will worry is if they ever bring out sims 3D, I think I would be lost to the normal world forever and actually believe I am a sim.**

You can get this for under £20 now which is a total bargain i paid £49.99 and still think it was worth it you can buy this from most games retailers such as game-station or Asda.

(sorry if there are any grammar mistakes but I'm not rechecking again lol)