Better than Sims 4
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews
“sims 3 is leaps and bounds better than sims 4. map is better and smoother, bulding is better”
Steam review · 291.1 h played ↗
The Sims™ 3
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 86%Very Positive · 86%The Sims Studio, Maxis2011Life Sim · Sandbox · Simulation
The verdict
A deep, living open-world life sim many call the best in the series, but it needs community patches to run on modern PCs and its expansions cost a lot. Skip it if you want plug-and-play or cheap DLC.
Great for
Fans of open-world life sims and storytelling who don't mind modding and waiting for sales
Main risk
Game may not launch or may crash on modern hardware without unofficial fixes
What players love
Seamless open world
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“the open world is the big spell. watching your sim actually travel across town, seeing other sims live out their own little lives and routines in real time”
Steam review · 306.9 h played ↗
Deep customization and building
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 positive reviews
“Create-a-Style lets you tweak almost anything, which is something I still miss in newer Sims games.”
Steam review · 119 h played ↗
Huge replayability and addictive
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“Even without DLC, the base game is so fun and packed with things to do!”
Steam review · 248.3 h played ↗
Expansions add real content
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“each expansion changes the game”
Steam review · 10.6 h played ↗
Traits, wishes and emergent stories
Mentioned in ~1 in 14 positive reviews
“it’s not a scripted story, it’s a story machine, and sims 3 is one of the strongest versions of that machine.”
Steam review · 851.1 h played ↗
What players complain about
DLC priced like the base game
Mentioned in ~3 in 5 negative reviews
“20$ for base + 19 x 10$ DLCs. 210$ for the full game.”
Steam review · 14.5 h played ↗
Won't launch on modern PCs
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 negative reviews
“I shouldn't have to perform black magic to get a product I purchased to function properly.”
Steam review · 521.2 h played ↗
Crashes, lag and poor optimization
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“EA has never updated this game to include a 64 bit executable, which means the game is restricted to 2GB of ram.”
Steam review · 124.3 h played ↗
Base game feels bland without DLC
Mentioned in ~1 in 11 negative reviews
“The base game is awfully bland and really needs dlc to give it that spark”
Steam review · 1.2 h played ↗
In-game store upsells and SimPoints
Mentioned in ~1 in 15 negative reviews
“the base game is genuinely just showing you all this stuff you should buy”
Steam review · 0.8 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Unsupported6.5 GB
Minimum
OSWindows XP (Service Pack 2) or Windows Vista (Service Pack 1)
Processor(XP) 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent; (Vista) 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
Memory(XP) 1 GB; (Vista) 1.5 GB
Graphics128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
StorageAt least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content
OSWindows XP (Service Pack 2) or Windows Vista (Service Pack 1)
Processor(XP) 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent; (Vista) 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
Memory(XP) 1 GB; (Vista) 1.5 GB
Graphics128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
StorageAt least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content
More games to check
Other games we’ve read the reviews for
Stardew Valley
Overwhelmingly Positive+ Relaxing, cozy and comforting
− Slow, repetitive, boring grind
analyzed 2 d ago
Disney Dreamlight Valley
Very Positive · 92%+ Cozy, relaxing, low-pressure play
− Predatory monetization and FOMO
analyzed 1 d ago
Paralives
Very Positive · 90%+ Excellent, flexible build mode
− Shallow, empty live mode
analyzed 1 d ago
The Sims™ 4
Very Positive · 85%+ Mods and custom content improve it a lot
− Extremely expensive DLC
analyzed 1 d ago
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