Game On: The Sims 3 for Mac
I was not terribly impressed with The Sims 3 for iPhone, but as I said in my review, it did whet my appetite for the Mac desktop version of the game. So much so that I went out yesterday afternoon to pick it up. Best Buy was all out of the collector’s edition, but I wasn’t committed to the idea of carrying around a Plumbob USB drive anyway, so I picked up the regular copy for $49.95 and got to playing god.
And play it I did. I played for nine straight hours yesterday, and another few today, eating in a hurried frenzy only when my Sim was sleeping. All for you…a truly selfless act. Here’s what I found as a result of my living-by-proxy marathon.
Graphics
The Sims 3 definitely looks better than its predecessors. Objects and sims are more detailed, textures are smoother, and animations are better looking. The real difference with regards to graphics, however, doesn’t have to do with any landmark improvements in the basics (there aren’t any astounding changes), but rather with the way the world as a whole is set up.
Nice, interactive vistas
The Sims experience has always been primarily compartmentalized, with your house being one location, and social settings and the houses of others being entirely different, closed-off modules. In The Sims 3, the walls between modules are largely taken down. If you zoom out, and pan, you can see and interact with your neighbors’ houses, parks, and community buildings, and even the ocean.
Clicking on objects that you can see results in actions being made available, without ever having to exit out to a town map. The town map is still available, though, in case you want more simple navigation across greater distances.
Visually, the open world makes The Sims 3 look and feel much more like the life simulator it’s meant to be, and it’s one of the biggest reasons to upgrade from The Sims 2, in my opinion.
My test machine was an iMac with 4GBs of RAM running an ATI Radeon 2600HD graphics card. The game should run fine any any computer using the new NVIDIA cards, too.
Sound
Simish is back in full force, and it sounds just as silly as ever. They seem to say “zune” a lot more frequently than most other words, so either that’s the sim version of “the” or Microsoft’s done some very keen product placement.
Sweatin' to the oldies
Music is well done again in The Sims 3, with a decent variety of tracks available for your stereo systems, and some genuinely pleasant sounds coming from your sim’s guitar if you build up their Music ability.
Other ambient sounds are all fine, although it does seem at times like the game is far too quiet considering everything that’s going on. I suppose finding a nice balance between too noisy and too quietly for a life simulator like this would be quite the challenge, and it’s the type of game that you like to have something else on while playing anyway.
Gameplay
Let’s take a look at a few different aspects of gameplay within the new Sims.
Work
As in real life, I generally prefer to keep my options open and succeed as a Sims freelancer by selling paintings, working as a writer, and, new in Sims 3, selling the fish that I catch. The last one is not one that I actually do in real life, in case you were wondering. No good fishing spots in Toronto, is the problem.
For the sake of this review, I decided to pursue a career in rock stardom to see what sticking to the more conventional professional pursuits available in the game was like.
As in previous games, in order to earn promotions in your chosen field, you have to build up your skills and keep your mood elevated. Depending on what you do, you also might have to strive to get along well with your co-workers, and in The Sims 3, you actually know which fellow sim is your boss, and you can butter them up.
I found career building not quite as challenging as in previous versions, which is good because other aspects of the game are now much more rich and deserving of attention. Also, I tend to forget that your sims now have a limited lifespan (since Sims 2), so the pacing is actually entirely appropriate. Currently, I’m a pop star, but I’m approaching retirement age, so I’m not sure I’ll reach the top of my career ladder.
This is where I rock sold out crowds
Work is much more interesting than in past games because you can influence your performance by changing how you are working. A context menu attached to the task in the upper right-hand corner of the screen lets you choose between a variety of different ways of working, including working hard and slacking off, which affect your mood and job performance. This is a huge improvement over the hours of doing nothing in previous versions.
Play
There’s so much for your sims to do in their spare time in this game that it hardly feels like they have any. As mentioned above, you can go fishing, and check out various other activities in town. You can also grow your own food by gardening, and paint as in prior installments.
Frankly, I didn’t find time to do much in town, though the options are numerous. In-town activities also include random events like sales, concerts (both performing and attending), and chess competitions. I actually ended up trying to find mood modifying cheats so that I could enjoy them all, but no such luck.
Life in General
Overall, the experience is just far more rich and detailed than in previous versions. They’ve taken out some things that were annoying, and added some that are much more fun, so it doesn’t feel too cluttered. That said, I think trying to further detail day-to-day affairs would really hamper my enjoyment of the franchise. As it is, it feels like too much to do, too little time, which is exactly the opposite of the iPhone version.
Me playing a computer game in the computer game I'm playing
Verdict
If you like the previous Sims games, you definitely won’t be disappointed with Sims 3. Some things have been taken out, but better things have been added, resulting in a much more enjoyable experience overall. This is a must-have for Mac gamers.
Tweet This (12)
Jeff on June 4th, 2009 at 8:11 am
You can turn off aging in the preferences.
Katu on July 8th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
I just bought the Sims 3 today, and something is going wrong. My people don’t have skin, they look like shadows. I had this same problem when I tried to play Spore, my creatures didn’t show up on the screen. Does anyone know what this is about or how to fix this problem?
MMM on July 9th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Katu, I have the same problem on my MacBook (and the sky is yellow). From what I’ve gathered, it is because the graphics card is out of date.
Anyone have a differed answer to this problem???
Phfatts on September 4th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I was having a similar problem with The Sims 3. It was running super slow, game time was equaling about 1 game minute every real 15 to 20 seconds, even on triple speed. So I looked into it and found out that my os was OS X 10.5.6 and the minimum for the game was 10.5.7. Well I updated it and now it runs beautifully. If that is not the problem then I would guess that it is you graphics card or something similar.
Staff Comment Darrell Etherington, TheAppleBlog on June 4th, 2009 at 8:30 am
@Jeff
Thanks! I just noticed that. Hooray for eternal life!
Mike on June 4th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Any chance you will test it in other Macs? Some of the forums have ongoing posts regarding the requirements and performance on various machines.
Joe on June 4th, 2009 at 10:20 am
My wife has been having a horrible time with this on a 2-week old unibody Macbook. The game crashes randomly to desktop with no error or warning. When it runs, it looks great. It just goes boom. :(
Amber on September 21st, 2009 at 1:15 am
i have the same problem. but mine is weirder. i’m not even on mac. i have microsoft windows xp on my computer. But after 15 of gameplay – including the start up video and loading screen – the game will just close and go back to my desktop. i have tried uninstalling and reinstalling sims 3, but no avail. it is just weird. but this keeps happening, like there is something wrong with the game to keep closing uexpectedly on me. grrr, it makes me so cranky. i havn’t played sims in ages, because i know i will just loose all my progress unless i save every 2 minutes. but even then, i have to start up the game again every 15 minutes.
Mike on June 4th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
I’m scared to experience the same thing as Joe … I have a unibody MacBook purchased in Jan 2009 and I’m hoping the game is playable but have heard stories about the random crashes. I’d like to hear more about your exact machine and experiences Joe … any way to touch base? Do you have a website?
emma on June 5th, 2009 at 12:24 am
yeah i’m getting the same deal as joe too, i got it yesterday, and ive been playing it on my i think 2 or 3 month old unibody MacBook and it just randomly crashes, with no errors or warnings or anything.
Oh and i tried to download something off the exchange, and it said my version wasnt up to date, but i have the right OS and i checked and i have the latest updates for the sims 3.
Its awesome when its working, but i just randomly loose everything, and its really annoying.
Devon on June 5th, 2009 at 2:24 am
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I cant wait to get it it omes out here today !!! im not very well 2daii andd my mum has gone into exeter so im not sure ifshe will getr itt for me por not i hope sooo (yn)
Jennifer on June 5th, 2009 at 10:56 am
I purchased it on release day and have a Jan 09 unibody MBP with upgraded RAM (4gb) and it runs pretty well. Initially, the play was choppy when I was out and about town, but that seemed to resolve itself with a computer reboot.
Since then, I’ve had zero issues. I love this game!!
Deanna Brett on June 5th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Hey I was just wondering if anyone was having problems with the fast forward speed. It doesn’t seem to be working.
Lindsay on June 5th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
I am having the same problem with the fast forward. I can get 1-3 to work, but 4 is the same as 3. I have to sit and wait for my Sim to get out of bed (I think Sim time is 1 hour to our minutes) so I have to twiddle my thumbs for 8 minutes! Auh!
Brian on June 5th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
I’m also having problems with speeds. It’s the same slow speed no matter what I put it on. I sat through one night of sleeping, and I couldn’t play anymore. Frustrating. Anyone know about this?
Fluffycatfan on June 5th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
I wish I had Leapord so I could play it. *sigh*
Maggie on July 14th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
I had the same problem as you, but then I bought leopard and 2 gb of memory and was able to run sims 3 on my imac.
Just a hint:
I raised money for the leopard and memory by having a garage sale and putting some of my unwanted valuables on ebay. The total cost of everything together was about $278 for me.
P.S.
Don’t bother going through all this trouble if you have a macbook! They are very unreliable, even with all the requirements met.
Justin on June 5th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
I have a Mac Book Pro 2.33 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo with 3 gig ram, on OSX 10.5.7 and the game randomly crashes just like Joe stated above. No warning, no error message. It is really discouraging. Obviously this makes the game unplayable, as you lose everything when the crash happens. It plays just fine on my Mac Pro desktop (16 gig ram) but I want to play it on my laptop. I have been trying to contact EA support, but they won’t respond. There isn’t even an option to select mac as your platform. It’s like they forgot they released the game on mac. Is there a forum or official thread for people like us with this problem? If enough of us contact EA they will eventually look into it. I just want a fix.
Ora on July 15th, 2009 at 6:39 am
You’re game is NOT gonna work. I’ve had the same probelum as you when i first got the sims 3, and it kept on crashing. The game doesn’t work on the Mac Book Pro. I dont know why, i guess its just not compatible. It works on desktop but not on theMAc books. Sorry. its really frusturating!!!!!
Trudy on September 2nd, 2009 at 11:49 pm
hi.. i have the same problem as you and joe’s wife with the game crashing without any warning. i have a mac desktop OS X version 10.4.11, so i installed new software, snow leopard, ilife and iwork ‘09 and also installed another Gb of RAM to meet the minimum 2GB RAM requirement. I was impatient to play the game, so only installed snow leopard initially and started playing.. all was sweet! after i’d install ilife and iwork ‘09, the problems with crashing started. But now it doesn’t crash anymore, it just freezes!! I only got the game the other day, and i just want to play!! Did you manage to resolve your game problems?
Justin on June 5th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Oh, ALSO… they tell you to delete your sims 2 folder (found in documents) as well as try the game with all settings on low. I have done both. They do not help. My computer is capable of handling this game. This is some strange glitch, not a graphics overload.
My MBP has the Radeon X1600.
Justin on June 6th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Heads up… EA customer support is the WORST. It is an e-mail based system, and it has become clear that they do not actually read your comments. They simply respond with a canned, pre-written e-mail based off the drop down menu selections you chose (PC> Sims 3> Troubleshooting> Crashes) There is no option in the drop down menu for MAC!!! Their robot responds telling me to run msconfig and gives me other windows XP troubleshooting tasks to try. I made it VERY clear that I am on a mac and after two back and forth exchanges the responses are still directing me to troubleshoot my “PC”
Has anyone else had any luck finding a solution? I guess the problem isn’t big enough for them to care.
Professor on June 6th, 2009 at 12:16 am
I’m running a new MacBook Pro and I’ve suffered no crashes. However, the game stutters many times and I have to quit and restart to remedy the problem. But that’s not all. Even when TS3 isn’t stuttering, it moves abysmally slow. Navigation is seriously hampered, as is the passage of game time. Set the game’s timer to Fast (#3 on the keyboard) and it still crawls along. And all this occurs while using the NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics processor with 512MB of VRAM, not the slower 9400M. I’m sure the problem is with the software, not the hardware. I’ve run more demanding games on the MBP without incident, yet this is the one to which I most looked forward.
Harry on June 6th, 2009 at 3:21 am
I’m planning on getting it today (woop!). But I’m scared because my version of Mac is not the highest, I think its Tiger. Will it work? I have a Macbook (not unibody) V10.4.11 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. Does anyone know if this will be safe. PLEASE REPLY SOON!
Lily on July 9th, 2009 at 6:21 pm
No, it won’t work on anything but Leopard, the latest version. (being 10.5.7, I had to upgrade)
Maggie on July 14th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
I have the same computer as you! I had to upgrade my computer to leopard and then buy 2 more gb of RAM.
Are you having any problems with sims 3 on your computer? Please tell me. I’d like to know for future reference.
Lauren on June 6th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
I have a Dell PC and mine randomly crashed too, I don’t think it’s just with Macs now, I think it’s the game in general.
EA needs to fix this immediatly
emma on June 7th, 2009 at 3:56 am
oh and i forgot to say, if it crashes when you’re saving, you loose all progress with the family, its happened to me twice now and im so fed up with it, it completely makes the game un-playable.
I fixed my issue with the exchange, but i don’t see how EA could overlook such a huge flaw in the game, i mean, aren’t there programmers who should have noticed this or something, its not that complicated.
hattie on June 7th, 2009 at 9:43 am
My speeds all seem to work ok, but the game seems a bit slow but once you get into it you dont mind.
When i go on the create a sim part of the game, my sim appears all black, (as in block colour not skin tone) except for the eyes and hair. Can anybody help? I have tried changing skin tone, clothes and rotating the sim but they still stay black.
hattie on June 7th, 2009 at 9:43 am
My speeds all seem to work ok, but the game seems a bit slow but once you get into it you dont mind.
When i go on the create a sim part of the game, my sim appears all black, (as in block colour not skin tone) except for the eyes and hair. Can anybody help? I have tried changing skin tone, clothes and rotating the sim but they still stay black.
kaitlin on July 14th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
yes! the same thing is happening to me! i don’t know what to do. i tried the game on a pc and it worked perfectly fine and i returned the game thinking it was a glitch so then i re-downloaded it on my mac and then it just did the same thing!!! im so frustrated. did you fix yours?
M... on November 17th, 2009 at 5:36 am
I have the same problem too! Do we need to buy better graphic card or something? Can anybody help?
a15ha on June 7th, 2009 at 11:47 am
For the Dell pc users, maybe this is the problem. the graphic card crashes, it used to happen to me on sims 2 aswell. you have to update the driver for the graphic card, should work better
Serenity on June 7th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
I have the same problem as Hattie. My Sims appear all black, so I don’t even bother trying to continue to play the game. I just got it today, and this problem is kind of annoying.
emma on June 7th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Everyone, i think that mac users should try turning off time machine, if its on.
Apparently its worked with heaps of people, and im about to try it, so it might help you.
chelsea on June 8th, 2009 at 12:59 am
my sims have appeared all black too i cant fix it does anyone know how
Thomas Liokos on June 8th, 2009 at 3:11 am
Same here… I have a MBP bought on April 2009. My sims3 crashes with no warning and no messages at all!! On my iMac runs smoothly but it’s not an option playing at office!!!
My MBP’s specs are:
Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
GRAPHICS (2 Cards)
1)NVIDIA GeForce 9400M:
Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
Type: Display
Bus: PCI
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0×10de)
Device ID: 0×0863
Revision ID: 0×00b1
ROM Revision: 3343
gMux Version: 1.7.3
Displays:
Color LCD:
Resolution: 1440 x 900
Depth: 32-Bit Color
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Built-In: Yes
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected
2)NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT:
Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0×10de)
Device ID: 0×0647
Revision ID: 0×00a1
ROM Revision: 3343
gMux Version: 1.7.3
Displays:
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected
Huge dissapointment from EA!!!!
nickfx on June 8th, 2009 at 6:24 am
Hi, regarding the game crashes on the Mac, we’ve been having the same problem, hardly get an hours game play and lose everything since the last save. Other forums are suggesting a link with Time Machine ending its backups. I’ve turned off Time Machine and so far, no more crashes!!
Worth a try.
Nick
JSDC on June 8th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Another recommendation for turning off Time Machine – I was experiencing the crash to desktop at random intervals and based on my limited experience after shutting off TM, this seems to have resolved the problem.
Elle on June 25th, 2009 at 10:10 am
sorry, what is time – machine??
Anna on July 9th, 2009 at 6:23 pm
I never experienced the crashing problem, but I have Time Machine off and so far it’s doing fine.
Kristin Fiore on June 8th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I’m having, again, the same mac crashing problem… I’ve never even set up time machine on my new mac and I checked again just to make sure it was off and I’m still experiencing the horrible crashes. I am so frustrated and disappointed with EA.
Justin on June 8th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
Have you guys contacted EA? If not, do so here: http://customersupport.ea.com/
ALSO, go to http://www.Joystiq.com and send this in as a news tip. If they get enough, they will post this as a news story and even contact EA for an official response. EA will fix the issue a lot sooner if it becomes a news story.
Rosie on June 8th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
i don’t have a mac, but i’ve been having the speed problem too. i know speed 4 is supposed to be speed 3, it just stops at the end of the action, but its speed 1. all of them are speed 1. i turned all my graphics down (which really sucks) and i zoom in on the grass while im sleeping, but it only goes a little bit faster, and its really annoying. do you think they’ll come out with a patch soon? it takes forever to do anything. in the sims 2 i used to speed through everything, so this is especially annoying to me. i hate being slow. ea’s really getting on my nerves. couldn’t they have tried just a little bit harder. and aren’t they supposed to test these? or is this a problem i can fix on my own? please help! info: windows vista; desktop computer; got it Christmas 2008; sims 2 ran perfectly
David on June 10th, 2009 at 9:14 am
My niece was having the crashing problem on her Mac. I gambled on a solution and it worked..at least for her. I wondered if heat was the problem so I downloaded the fan control program and increased the fan speeds. She plays as long as she wants and has not crashed since. Give it a try…it may or may not fix yours, but it is freeware.
Marissa Chupack on June 10th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Sadly, the whole Sims 3 game was somewhat a disappointment for me. It was basically the Sims 2 but seamless. The qualities hardly effected the every day lives of the Sims. It was just…okay. I hope that it will improve with more expansions.
Nicola on June 10th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
I’ve been experiencing the problem where Sims 3 will just close down with no warnings or errors, usually when i’m in the middle of saving a game which is most annoying. The game will be in the menu, but it won’t let me load it. I don’t use a Mac, i’m with Windows XP. But i’ve been searching the internet for a few days now and no one but Mac users seem to have this problem. Anyone else have this problem? Originally thought it was due to over-heating as it’s been a problem with other games. But after installing a fan moniter, it’s clear that it’s not the problem. Anyone able to help me? Thanks
Elle on June 25th, 2009 at 10:15 am
I also have a windows XP and the game unexpectedly shuts down with no warning and returns to desktop too. Its so annoying. When i first got the game it woudl do it after about an hour but now it closes after a mere 5 minutes every time. ive unistalled and reinstalled it to no avail.
Psychodad on June 10th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I keep listening to the news speak about getting free online grant applications so I have been looking around for the best site to get one.
ineedhelp on June 10th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
I bought the regular game at Target today and it installed fine and everything looked like it was working, but right after everything finished downloading, it said there was a disc authorization failure. I definitely bought the game legally so I don’t understand why this is happening. I’ve looked at other forums, but it seemed like this was only happening to the people that downloaded the game off of the internet. Does anyone know how to fix this problem?
Justin on June 10th, 2009 at 7:31 pm
I want my money back. I wish I could return it and just buy it later in life when it actually works.
DJ on June 20th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
My Sims are black too. It’s very annoying (not skin tone) I even tried bringing down my resolution. No luck there. This game, like Spore and all the other “EA” produced games, is a let down.
Kudos EA.
Lily on July 9th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
I have the “black Sims” too, it’s really obnoxious. This also happens with some of the flooring. :/ My version is up-to-date, and it’s run multiple times.
The hair is also weird, it doesn’t show up properly in the family portrait and when I zoom in too close, it disappears and becomes…like a faint outline of it? I’m not sure, it’s hard to explain.
me on July 23rd, 2009 at 10:43 pm
DEUSCHE BAG
M... on November 17th, 2009 at 5:51 am
i have the same problem :(. Does anyone know how to fix this?
Darren on June 11th, 2009 at 12:12 am
wow I’m having the same crashing problem. I have a new Mac pro and the sims will crash at random points. The Mac version of the game definitely has bugs. I wrote for support and was told to make sure no other processes were running, and none were.
Joe on June 11th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
My wife hasn’t been in the mood to play the game because of the crashing. However, I’ve seen a few people on various forums say that when they disabled Time Machine backups, their Sims stopped crashing. This may be something for everyone to try.
Elle on June 25th, 2009 at 10:17 am
what are time machine back ups??? Thanks
Lily on July 9th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Time Machine is basically just a program that comes with Leopard that automatically backs up all your files when you have it on and set up with a hard drive.
ben on June 11th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
well from my experience this game sucks bad, for the simple reason i can’t fast forward through sleep, oh well 30 quid down the pan
Marissa on June 12th, 2009 at 12:11 am
I’ve been experiencing random crashes, as well. I eventually gave up playing after getting my people far in the game only to watch it all disappear because I didn’t think to save every moment.
Nicola on June 12th, 2009 at 11:25 am
I have also given up. The game seems to close whenever i save. So i see no point in playing until EA fix this problem, which i hope is soon
Sundance :) on June 13th, 2009 at 4:33 am
I pre ordered the sims 3 5 months before it was released and i really looked forward to playing it but when i finally installed it , the game started chrashing and the graphics were not to great , i found a way to make the graphics better but after making them better my computer kept crashing and restarting mid- gameplay .
although the errors in this game are annoying the features of this game are brilliant and i am hooked .
Olls on June 13th, 2009 at 11:45 am
I just bought sims 3 and I’ve played more demanding games then The sims… STill it randomly crashes when i launch a game and select a house.
I’m running windows xp media center edition
Emma on June 13th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I’m having a problem with it on my Mac as well. When I try to save a game it sits at the save screen for an extended period of time. The music is still playing and everything. I’ve restarted and even tried to save a game at various levels of play. I let it sit once for more than an hour with no results.
Nicoleg on June 30th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
mind does the exact same thing…I have been looking for answers for weeks…but nothing
Tracy on June 13th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I bought the collector edition. i had same problems disc not valid. i switch off the internet then it worked i got through. but same pb with the time speed they are all speed 1. the game is extremely slow it’s annoying and frustrating. although i lowered everything. saving takes for ages i couldn’t enjoy the game so i stopped. i was reading in different forums and all mac users and pc users have same problems so i’m really hoping that they will come up with a solution and very fast!!!!!
Sierra on June 14th, 2009 at 10:07 am
I am a huge Sims fan, and when I rushed out and bought the game on the release date I couldn’t wait to get it home to install and play it.
To my disappointment it is EXTREMELY slow and it’s really annoying. I turned all the graphics down to the lowest setting and the graphics now suck and it doesn’t even seem like it helped the game play :( I have a Toshiba laptop, just got it in December. I was wondering if I should purchase a Mac (I thought it might have better graphics and it might be faster). Any advise on if I should buy a Mac, I read everyone elses comments and seems like alot of people experience crashes.
Nicola on June 14th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Personally, i wouldn’t buy a Mac for Sims just yet as this is the first time they’ve made Sims available for Mac users. Maybe wait until they’ve resolved most of the problems people seem to be having. But keep in mind that lots of PC users such as myself are also having problems
MMM on July 9th, 2009 at 8:39 am
I had the Sims 2 for my macbook, and it worked flawlessly
Rachael on June 14th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
so this unibody macbook that everyone is having trouble playing the game on, is it the newest version of the macbook pro (aluminum outside or whatever)? cause that is definately the one i just purchased and i was hoping to get the sims 3 for it…
Natasha on June 15th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
I’m having the same crashing problem but I have a Windows Vista Sony Laptop. Does anyone know what’s causing it to randomly crash with no error signs or anything? It’s really annoying because it crashes within 2-3 min of game play.
Brittany on June 15th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
I installed it onto my Mac laptop and when i tried to make the sim, the game was red and blue with ? marks on the wall and u could barely see the character. I called for technical help and the guy checked everything and said my laptop is working fine 4 the game. He said that I just need to plug it in. I tried it and the game was still doing the same thing. :(
Brittany on June 15th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
I installed it onto my Mac laptop and when i tried to make the sim, the game was red and blue with ? marks on the wall and u could barely see the character. I called for technical help and the guy checked everything and said my laptop is working fine 4 the game. He said that I just need to plug it in. I tried it and the game was still doing the same thing. :(
sry i posted it again because i 4got to check the notify on via email box
bc on June 16th, 2009 at 1:04 am
I have Sims 3 on my 24″ iMac 2.33GHz Core2Duo, nVidia GeForce 7600GT w/ 256MB VRAM, 2GB of RAM, OS 10.5.7, all the latest system updates, plus the latest Sims3 update.
The game crashes regularly, and usually before crashing it starts to run very very slowly. sometimes the the graphics on the whole screen gets garbled. and when it crashes, it goes down HARD, i.e. locks up the whole machine, unable to even force quit – have to power down the machine. I’ve never seen a commercial app crash the Mac this dramatically and so repeatedly. This particular iMac has been very reliable, except when running Sims 3.
a conflict with Time Machine isn’t my problem, since I’ve tested it with TM disabled and Sims 3 still crashes.
very frustrating
Skye on June 16th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
PC’s do not have the speed problem. My BF has it on PC and his speeds through (like sims 2) as opposed to my poor mac which crawls through. Speed 1-3 are all the same (obviously 4 is the same as 3). Really frustrating if you have testingcheatsenabled off and actually have to sleep. Got sick of waiting so now I enabled testingcheats so my sim doesnt have to sleep at all. The speed issue is so annoying!!
GM on June 21st, 2009 at 11:23 am
Hi Can you tell me how to enable testing cheats? I just bought an imac and the old test cheats I knew on a pc do not work on imac. It is so frustrating that I can’t fast forward actions like sleep. I can’t get any cheat code to work except for motherlode. Please advise. Thanks
robyn on June 16th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
When i try to make a sim.. it’s all red or black. I don’t know what to do about that.
CRU#32 on June 17th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
I have the same problem with the everlasting saving, as Emma mentioned. Tried to turn off Timemachine, didn’t work. It’s really anoying and it makes the game unplayable. I spend a lot of time customizing my sims and now it’s all gone, because it keeps saving for hours and eventually I have to shut it down unsaved. Anybody know how to fix this?
Emma on June 18th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I cannot play it as I don’t have the correct graphics card on my mac (I have a GMA 950)??
This is what causes the sims to be black when you are designing them and problems with the whole game.
Does anyone know how much a new graphics card would be and what one i would need?
Nattalie on June 26th, 2009 at 7:26 am
I have the same problem with Emma.
My graphic card is a GMA 950 as well.
My sim is all black and it’s very annoying.
But ,getting a new graphic card just to play The Sims seems like an unreasonable option to me
Really need some advice on this
Adam on July 1st, 2009 at 6:26 pm
The graphics card is integrated into the hardware on the laptop you have. This means to upgrade your graphics card, you will have to replaced the entire machine. All current Apple machines are capable of running the Sims 3 as they all use a dedicated graphics processor provided either by nVidia or ATI (even the Macbook Air).
A lot of this is due to Sims 3 running through the Cider engine. Cider is a type of framework that developers use to build their software for platforms other than the one they are developing on (Windows). You can think of it like virtualization, or developers taking the easy path to producing software for platforms they don’t want to program for directly.
The major drawbacks to using Cider is that it requires that you run Leopard, that you have an Intel based Mac, suffers a huge performance decrease when compared to running the game in Windows on the same Mac (boot camp), much larger memory footprint, and currently pretty buggy.
Battlefield 2 and 2142 both used Cider and are nearly unplayable for that reason.
Lily on July 9th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
So is it the graphics card?
I don’t know what I have, how can I check?
I have a fairly recent Mac Mini that runs Leopard’s most recent update, got it for this Christmas secondhand, but off of a reliable source and it’s always worked perfectly.
I don’t want to update my graphics card. But I don’t know which one I have.
Lily on July 9th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Never mind, I just learned that I have a GMA 950 too. Is that the problem then? Does this mean that I and other GMA 950 graphic card users are stuck with black sims?
Lily on July 9th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/0/52867.page#542338
I found a link to the forums that explains this problem. Unfortunately, it’s unable to be fixed apparently. :/
Nic on June 20th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Would it work fine on an aluminum macbook 13 inch with 2gb ram and integrated geforce 9400m?
Thanks
Alecia on June 21st, 2009 at 5:33 pm
I have a white macbook, not sure of the exact edition, just upgraded the system and sims 3 runs slower than any sims game has ever run. all the characters are completely black except for eyes and hair.
i think we need to do something about it, rather than just complain.
Owen on June 23rd, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Would this run the sims 3 smoothly on high quality??
Processor: Core 2 Duo T6400 2.00GHz
Memory: 4GB
HD Capacity: 320GB
Display: 17″
Graphics Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD3650 Graphics 512MB
Optical Drive: DVD-SM
Operating System: Vista Home Premium
Battery Life: 3 Hours
Main Specification:
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T6400 2.00Ghz, 2mb L2,800MHz FSB)
RAM: 2GB + 2GB
Hard Drive: 320GB
Screen: 17″ TFT WXGA+ TruBrite, 1,440 x 900
Graphics Card: ATI Mobility Radeon HD3650 Graphics 512MB dedicated 2302MB HyperMemory
Optical Drive(s): DVD SuperMulti – Dual Layer
Wireless: Integrated WiFi 802.11a/g/n
Mouse: Touchpad
Keyboard: A4 full size keyboard & numeric keypad
Modem: V.92 56k
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
Additional Software:
Toshiba DVD Player
Ulead DVD MovieFactory for Toshiba
Toshiba Disk Creator
McAfee Internet Security Suite (30 day free trial)
Microsoft Works
Webcam: 1.3 Web Cam with Face Recognition
Other: 5 in 1 Bridge Media Slot
Ports:
3 x USB 2.0 sleep & charge
1x USB Sleep & charge/E-SATA combo port
1x HDMI
1x ilink (IEEE 1394)
1 x external microphone
1 x RJ45
1 x RJ11
1 x external monitor
1 x DC-in
1 x headphone/SP DIF
1 x Express card
Networking Ports: 10/100 wired network
Sound: Integrated Stereo Harman Kardon
Extra Chassis Info: Glossy lid, gloss black/silver interior, gloss black keyboard 6 illuminated touch sensitive media control keys, Illuminated logo, illuminated mouse pad
Warranty: 1 Year
Notebook Battery Life: 3 Hours
Notebook Weight: 3.2Kg
Jesi on June 25th, 2009 at 3:47 am
I’m on a Macbook that’s a year and a half old. I haven’t had the problems with crashing, but I gave up after playing for less than an hour because gameplay was excruciatingly slow. If I can’t figure out how to fix the problem, I’m going to have to consider it as fifty bucks wasted.
Elle on June 25th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Yeah this problem is widespread it is really silly of EA and they appear to be trying to blame the computers not meeting the requirements. Well i bought more ram for my desktop PC windows XP because the game was insanely slow, and now that i have updated my ram the game just randomly closes down without warning, first it was after about an hour, but now about 2 -3 minutes into gameplay without fail. the game is completely unplayable. I definately have every system requirement and it is NOT a problem with my computer. What is EA going to do about it? Its so incredibly frustrating. Also people keep talking about time machine and i dont know what this is. Turning it off appears to help so many people but how can i turn it off when ive never heard of it? if anyone can help . . .? :)
Lily on July 9th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
Time Machine is Mac-only, so it you have a PC, you don’t have it to turn off. (:
Sami on June 29th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
So you can get The Sims 3 in Mac leopard but not the Panther? (old mac lab top)
Lily on July 9th, 2009 at 6:38 pm
No, unfortunately not. It’s Leopard only. (I have another desktop computer running Tiger and a laptop on Panther)
M.Kitsch on July 1st, 2009 at 7:40 pm
I just bought this game for my BRAND NEW macbook, the one problem i have is that it’s not saving. The screen just stays on the ’saving’ & won’t actually save, I know my computer is not the problem. Did anyone else have this problem & figured out how to solve it?
Adam on July 2nd, 2009 at 9:39 am
I have this problem as well, though haven’t found a solution yet.
Sara on July 3rd, 2009 at 9:21 am
Hi, I’m supposed to get the new white macbook for my birthday and I wanted to buy the Sims 3 for it. I’ve heard alot of problems about crashing, black and red sims and not saving and I just wanted to know if it will work on that type of macbook. If anyone could give me some advise on what to do because I’m hooked on Sims please tell me if I should buy it or if its a waste of time. Thank you! ^^
Kaelyn on July 5th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I’m getting a MacBook in August, though I’m not sure yet what kind. After reading some of these comments, I’m anxious about getting Sims 3. I’m a huge Sims fan, and I’ve been waiting for ages to get Sims 3 for my future MacBook, though I REALLY don’t want to experience any of these issues. So I was just wondering, have there been any completely SUCCESSFUL Sims 3 runs on a MacBook?
Adam on July 5th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
If you are getting a new MacBook, you shouldn’t have any of the graphical problems people have been writing about. Those have to do with the integrated video card (Intel GMA950). The current MacBook (both the White and “Pro” one) uses the NVidia 9400M card, which is better than what I have in my iMac. Additionally, you will get better performance if you run the Sims 3 in Windows through Boot Camp because it will be more native, and thus more efficient. However, it runs well enough in OS X on my iMac to not be too much of an issue.
Justin on July 8th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
this is not true. There have been people with BRAND NEW uni-body mac book pros that still have crashing and other problematic issues with the Sims 3. There is something wrong with the game itself, and it needs to be patched. EA is fumbling around like fools.
Kijame on July 8th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Hey fellas, I got and installed the game on my MacBook (White) today…
What can I say… although I am not much on the technological side, I do know I meet all the tech requirements. I even turned all applications off when running the game, but to no avail. The game is slow and stuttering, and whenever I enter CreateASim I end up with a black person/silhouette, with the only colour being eyes, hair, and accessories. (When I finish said sim, at the area where the picture frame comes up and after, this is reversed; I can see all of my sim but hair, the specific eyes I set, and accessories.)
I had a similar disappointment with Spore, however, the first few times I played it, my character did not appear black, (last time I tried it did o.o) and the stuttering stopped when I closed all other applications before running it (makes sense, no?)
I do not have TimeMachine running at all (never set it all up and stuff), and I believe there have been no significant changes to my settings or software updates as of recent. I just updated my main software because the game said it would run smoothly after…
I’m out of ideas on what to do. Even knowing that Macs aren’t particularly gaming computers, I’m still saddened by the way things are going.
(At least Age of Empires II Gold Edition works fine for me ^^; )
Anyone able to give me heads up on what to do next?
Nell on July 14th, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Read the previous thread. I was just like you, even spent $130 to update to Leopard. The problem is our graphics card. Unsupported and unfixable unless you get a new Mac. Desktop.
Juliet on July 9th, 2009 at 9:19 am
Where can I buy the Sims 3 for Mac? I looked on the best buy website, and the only Sims 3 game they showed was for pc. Any ideas?
Lily on July 9th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Sims 3 for Macs and PCs are on the same disk, so buying the PC version is buying the Mac version too.
Sean on July 14th, 2009 at 2:13 am
Is there a difference between Sims 3 for the Mac and Sims 3 for the PC
Maggie on July 14th, 2009 at 5:49 pm
I have been looking around a lot lately at all the reviews people have written about Sims 3 on Mac.
About 98% of the complaints are by people with a macbook. I’m just wondering how it works on an imac. Any complaints, compliments?
sophie on July 15th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
i have a mac book and at the beginning it kept on crashing
but if you go onto system preferences and turn off the time machine it will stop it.
i found that out from the internet
hope that helped people :)
sophie xx
ps. my mac says I need to upgrade the game when I try to get things from the exchange but I can’t? any help would be really good thanks xx
Mark on July 20th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
This game is a POS. It does not work properly with Macs.
If you have a Mac don’t buy it.
Ashley on July 25th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
I disagree Mark I’ve tried the game on both and I would say that TheSims3 works just as well even better on Mac’s then PC’s
Rachel on July 31st, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I have had the same problem with my mac. When I am creating a family they are all blacked out. I don’t understand why this is. But I just went with it and guessed what they looked like. When I was choosing shoes for my Male Adult Sim his shoes and ankles became colour. No black. I could see his skin tone and shocks and shoes. I think it would have worked if my sister hadn’t restarted the computer thinking there was something wrong with it.
Does anyone have any idea on how I can fix this. I have already changed the options but it still doesn’t work.
Kayla on August 21st, 2009 at 2:02 am
I really want to buy this game but my MacBook is a POS so it probably won’t work huh? That makes me so sad
aseret on October 1st, 2009 at 10:33 pm
hi!! i’ve a macbook pro version 10.5.7m with 2GB, 2.4. I also have bootcamp and windows xp instaled on it. The sims 3 works perfectly fine for me in mac! run fast and no crashes, and i also have some patches and stuff like clothes..! if i can help…
Summor on October 11th, 2009 at 4:26 am
I can’t play Sims 3 on my iMac. It loads up to the screen where you select what town you want to play in when you click to go into it, the game just closes back to the desktop. Another problem the game doesn’t fill the screen I have black bars on either side, when I go into game properties the property window flashes on and off and can’t do anything so I uninstalled the game and will have to sell it.
Specs:
Mac OS X 10.6.1
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz
4GB Ram
326GB Hard Drive
256MB ATi Radeon 2600 HD
On my Windows XP machine it doesn’t run very well it is sluggish and just shuts down and goes back to the desktop randomly. Play speed is ok but not one of the faster speeds is any faster, waiting for someone to get out of bed is time consuming so I don’t play it on it anymore either.
PC Specs:
Windows XP Service Pack 3 (32-Bit)
Intel Pentium Dual Core 2.79Ghz
3.25GB Ram
160GB Hard Drive
512 mb ATi Radeon 9800 Pro
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Lexxie on November 7th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
i have a question i have the sims 3 game and i have a macintosh which meets the requirements for the game and i put the disk in and click on the disc icon and click on the installer and the the install thign barely shows up does anyone know what i am to do or whats wrong?
Jacob on November 11th, 2009 at 11:31 pm
So i spent over 300 dollars updating my pc recently.. 2GB or ram, Radeon HD4650, plus a new power source and when i bought the sims3 i thought id have no problems with it.. but after installing it and playing it a bit, the game will randomly shut off without any warning or error messages and totally crash. I have an hp desktop pc. Does anyone know why its doing this or what i could do to fix this?
Tay on November 19th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
I’m on a 20″ imac, I’m running on Snow Leopard, and I haven’t even gotten to play this game yet because it keeps closing to desktop every time I try to enter my house. I can stay in make-a-sim and any other screen for however long I want to, but the game messes up when I get to the house.
I did go into disk utility and repaird disk permissions, and it didn’t help.
I don’t have time machine on.
I made sure to install Sims into applications.
I have installed and uninstalled completely several times.
What do I do now? Haha.
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM41.0055.B08
SMC Version (system): 1.1f5
Serial Number (system): W860367XU2N
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0016CB859D83