I can't get over just how much I'm enjoying The Sims 3. And not just the building and creating, which ironcally, I've actually done less than, and tend to skip right over it which is a complete opposite of previous Sims games. But the actual playing of the Sims I am enjoying, and really, for the first time. Ever!

I originally got into the Sims a little backwards - I played The Sims Online before I played the normal Sims games. I've always been an online game fan. Hubby introduced me to it back in the days of EQ, and during one of my breaks from it, I found TSO. After enjoying that, but wanting to move on, I gave the offline version a go.

I never played for long though. A week or two of building houses, seeing just how many motherloads you could do before the game broke, and building the best first portions of a house you could find. See, I would start off the with a grand design and a story plot to match. I would motherload myself into oblivious using the background story that:

• they'd won the lottery and decided to move to a new town at the same time
• the single female sim had just divorced her horrible husband and taken all the cash
• they had some big settlement...
• they found a bag of cash...
• it was inheritance from a family member...
• etc, etc, etc.

There was always a reason for the money which made it ok to cheat. It was part of the story line. It was also a necesity as I found it impossible to play without at least a basic start to life.

The reason for the first part of the house being so grand, was because I usually got so bored of builing everything that I would start off with a great idea, and an hour later just want to bloody play! The second half of the house was always fairly slapped together. About an hour or two after it was complete, after fast-forwarding through work, sleep and any queue'd up tasks, I would log off bored.

Now though, with TS3, it's so different. I've yet to use a single cheat which I am very proud of! That's right, not a motherload, not a skills cheat, nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. And yet, I'm enjoying the game SO much more.

And while each family has a storyline and goal - be it master theif, surrounded by family, etc. And they are all working towards said goals. But they're all doing it at their own pace, with what ever house they can afford in the beginning. And for the first time ever, I am actually PLAYING my sims after creating them. Of course, I'm playing five different families and as such haven't really advanced with any of them, but I'm playing them, which is nice.

I've had this game for what, nearly 2 months now? And the only nights I've not played it are when I am having to work on my latest project, have been cleaning up my last project to hand over to it's new owner, or have been distracted with our latest purchase, Mario Kart. Outside of that though, I've played and played a lot!

This is so different to previous Sims where I would buy the latest expansion, think it was going to be the best thing since slice bread and solve all my Sim problems, which of course I had forgotten since the last time, and begin playing again. The playing would last usually no more than a night or two per family, and over all, it would be less than two weeks later it was all forgotten. Rinse and repeat for each expansion.

Each time I do something with one family, it gives me an idea for a few family. My first family had three members, one of which I started cooking with - that gave me an idea to make a master chef Sim. I had also been watching The Gilmore Girls and really liked Sookie lol. But it seems the ideas are endless, and my biggest hurdle at the moment is which of my Sims do I play?

So thankyou Sims creators, you've finally given me a Sims game which makes me want to keep playing. Now just fix all the other little annoyances and I'll be a very happy customer.