The Sims 3 Facts

The following points have been confirmed by EA games and it can be assumed they will appear in the game:

 
Gameplay 

Motive bars will be replaced by a new system of discreet moods. For example if a sim is hungry the player will select "Feed Him".

There will be no multiplayer or online play feature. Rod Humble has stated that this is because simming is a very "personal" experience.

All Sims in the neighbourhood will age at the same time.

Cars and gardening will be possible from the base game.

There will be dawn and dusk skies. 

There will be expansion packs which could eventually form to create an entire "Sim Country" quoted by Rod Humble".

Bubbles show in the control panel though and not hover over the Sims' head. 

Spore (Will Wrights currrent project) and The Sims 3 will be compatible to give players exclusive features. For example if a Spore player produces a creature they like, a screenshot of the creature can be taken and added to a Sim's t-shirt in The Sims 3. The compatability of the two games has been compared to that of The Sims 2 and Sims City 4 where neighbourhoods could me molded in Sim City and used in The Sims 2.

The environment is more interactive. You can fish in the pond, walk on the beach...but you can't swim in the ocean.

There will be six life stages, one of which is a fully fledged version of Young Adult. Young Adult is actually the default stage in CAS.

Neighbourhood

There is now a universal neigbourhood which Sims can walk/drive through easily without loading times.

Sims will now do long term planning.

Only one neighbourhood will ship with The Sims 3, Pleasantville and it can hold 96 lots.

Leaves can be seen blowing through the neighbourhood.

Sims can enjoy a sunset.

Sims will have to watch out for moving cars when crossing roads

Sims can visit the following confirmed community lots: Bakery, Bookstore, Disco, Clothes Store, Grocery Store and many more are to be expected

Sims

In Create-A-Sim you can choose "traits" for your sims to be more individual and unique.

Sims can be different weights and (posssibly) different heights.

A Sim can spy on his/her neighbours.

If a male sim "Woohoos" with his wife he can be in a good happy mood for up to a week afterwards.

If his wife becomes pregnant and she loves kids it will have the same type of effect on her.

If a sim wants to portray his/her view on the town and paints the town through his/her eyes it will look totally different from the way another sim views the town showing that all sims really are unique.

Careers & Work 

You can follow your Sim in his/her car to work. You won't see your Sim working though; he/she will disapear in the building. Also known s a rabbit hole.

Advancing in career is changed as it depends on skills, personality, relationship with colleagues/boss and even certain goals that has to be fulfilled. For example taking work home.

2 Confirmed careers are Cooking and Science.

Sims can take part-time jobs.

Features from The Sims 2

Sims still talk in Simlish

Sims can still pee their pants, die of hunger, etc.

Confirmed ages: Baby, Children, Adult, Elder.

There are still thought bubbles that tell which needs must be fulfilled like Hunger.            

Sims still have an inventory system to put things in like groceries.

There will be expansions (duh).

There are still same-sex couples and they can still adopt children.

You can still design, build, and furnish a home. 

Sims still spin around to change their clothes.

Curved pavements.

The ability to place objects on an angle without using cheats.

There is a new tool to redesign (recolour) various objects and furniture in the game adding a whole new depth for builders.

For advanced builders a new more advanced software for modding the game will be included.

Create-A-Sim 

Create-A-Sim mode has been "drastically" improved".

Shoes can be chosen seperatly appart from the rest of the clothing. Something which the community has yet to see.

There 2 are new sliders: One to make your sims go from skeleton thin to morbidly obese and another for how muscely you want your sim allowing all sims to look very diffferent if the player chooses.

Adjustable skintones and eye colours. There are presets, of course, but there is are also slidebars, palettes, and spectrums (mainly for the eyes). And you can save any colour you pick as a preset.

Face Lift Tool: When you wanna play with the face of your sims, the 'Facelift' is incredible! Mouths, ears, noses, etc. are very much easy to change and are so much detailed.

Face, Body and Hair are all select through colour pallettes and sliders allowing for more customization.

Traits

 If you are unsure about the meanings of these traits snootysims has a complete table listing the traits and what they mean: Snootysims Traits Meanings

Other 

Sims can cook and fish. Buy groceries or grow the food yourself.

The game has been produced so that will also run smoothly on older PC's. quote "To run on your gran's PC"

Clothes, furniture and homes can be customized.

Players can use their own patterns/colours and then apply it to anything through a drag-and-drop interface.

The game will have modding tools built into it.

There's no online multiplayer

You can pick up items (garbage, books,etc) yourself with a Hand cursor. Wind will move the trees.

Paintings that a Sim makes, will be unique to each Sim. It's based on its personality and mood.

*Garbage bags still appear from the great unknown?!

There is more gameplay cantered around pregnant sims.

Babies will have 2 traits, children 3, teen 4, and all others 5.

Traits effect how well a sim does in certain things...

The ability to select by dragging a square over a whole area and then deleting.

There are waterfront lots, allowing you to build on the waters edge. You can also build on cliffs as well!

Houses are still limited to 8.

No specific info yet, but there will be lots of new NPC's and creatures.

Most of the current Sims 2 cheats will be ported over to TS3, and a few new ones added.

There are now 3 difficulty levels, Easy, Medium and Hard.

Quick click icons on Sims face in UI to go quickly send them to work or home.

Can buy an empty bookcase and buy books in the game. There are lots of books!

New bonus bar, possibly replacement of Aspiration bar?!

New timeline dragbar which is specific to a few interactions. This lets you control how long a Sim spends on certain tasks like sleeping, fishing etc…

High level logic allows a Sim to tutor other Sims - Cooking unlocks recipes (Moodlets like divine food) - Fishing unlocks bigger fish (Caught fish can be put in an aquarium at home, and even given a name)

Brushing of teeth is now back!

Cell phone notification system to noify you of opportunities and can be used for contacts etc

Funds and worth as 2 separate values now (worth includes property and object values)

Athletic skills can help Sims stay fitter and even live longer.

'Auto Roof' now fixes the shape when you add/change walls.

(* Thanks to Infinite Sims for these points).

Links:

 Here are the links from various websites and magazines which back up all of these points. If you have time be sure to read over them, you might find out something you didn't already know!

The Sims 3 Official Website - The website became active on the 5th of March 2008 and sent a shockwave of specualtion through the community. The website Stated: "More information coming March 19th 2008". Simmers waited anxiously for the next to weeks until the website opened. The website was flooded for the whole day with very few players being able to access the full site. The site did not reveal much more info that not already been covered by various online articles in the previous 2 weeks. There were however a few new screenshots which is enough to make any true simmer crazy with excitment.

1Up.com - On the 6th of March 2008 1Up.com released information on a upcoming edition of "Games For Windows" magazine which had a 12 page preview of the sims 3 to be released in the following month. The article included the very first Sims 3 picture and the logo. 

Exclusive Fansite E-Mail - On the 7th of March 2008 all of the players who run a fansite had the chance to add their details and web address to EA. They would then receive a series e-mails giving away information about The Sims 3 from time to time.

Gamesradar.com - On the 8th of March 2008 the very first details on The Sims 3 were released. The article could be found on  gamsradar and was quoted by Rod Humble.

N99 forum - Information on the Games For Windows magazine was posted by people who received it on the 10th March 2008. Kidblink from the N99 forum posted the information first.

Games For Windows Magazine Scans - On the 11th of March 2008 the Games For Windows magazine scans arrived on Snootysoms.

Sims De Toi - On the 15th of March 2008 Sims De Toi posted 10 brand new screenshots including one of the inside of a Sims 3 house.

Sims.dk - Danish webiste Sims.dk was the first to officiall announce The Sims 3 on the morning of the 19th of March 2008.

EuroGamer - On the 19th March 2008 eurogamer.com posted a new preview of The Sims 3 with a lot of new more detailed information.

EuroGamer (History of The Sims) - On the 19th of March 2008 eurogamer.com posted an article rich with information on The history of The Sims franchise and all of it's expansion packs.

Snootysims - This website is usually very fastin getting the latest links and information up.