Good, but not great.
Positive:
The new seamless neighbourhood cuts down loading times lots.
Newly improved creation tools and furniture.
Lots of ways to play.
The ability to share content with other players.
Choosing what your Sim does at work.
Being able to visit friends houses.
Negative:
Graphics appear to have gone backwards (on my computer).
Additional content costs real money.
Full of weird glitches and problems.
Lets start with the negatives. Back to the graphics, as a said earlier, the graphics in The Sims 3 seem to have gone back towards the original Sims series. The faces look squashed up unless you zoom right up close. The only good thing on this front is in Create-A-Sim where the graphics are fine, if not in fact, better than The Sims 2.
Unfortunately, the additional content costs money, this is slightly frustrating as there is not really a huge amount of furniture in the original game. This means that EA want you to pay extra cash for furniture and clothing on top of the already expensive £30.00 they are charging for the game alone.
Slightly strange glitches also occur during gameplay. For instance, often, when toddlers have been taught how to talk and they are watching TV, they start a conversation with other Sims and their necks stretch randomly. Also on some computers the Sims cannot gain weight, instead their torso disconnects from their legs and their head from their torso, making gameplay unusual to say the least. For further information on The Sims 3 glitches google "The Sims 3 glitches" or something similar and you'll find lots more people with these problems.
One a more positive note, the seamless neighbourhood. I for one am greatly impressed with this feature as it enables easier gameplay as there are less loading times. It does take longer to load when you first start up the game but I think this is a fair sacrifice.
The new creation tools are also a nice feature. Mostly, they are the same as The Sims 2 but one of my personal favourites it the ability to drag a wall around. This is particularly useful if you have misplaced a wall, so you can merely drag it back into position.
The fact you can now share your own designed content with other players is a great feature. You can get new hairstyles, lots and Sims from other people and unlike EA's content, it's free!!!
Now you can choose what your Sim does at work. For example, you can select for your Sim to put in an average amount of effort - this is useful for keeping stress down. For them to work hard - which is the quickest way of earning promotions but stress builds up easily. Or, if this stress does develop too much they can do things such as talking to their workmates, or even watching TV.
This is the first time in a Sims game that players have been given the freedom to move around the town seamlessly, working out at the gym, shopping and my favourite, the ability for Sims to visit their friends houses. I also like the fact that when you are controlling others Sims, ones that you have previously made continue to make friends, have kids and live their lives.
I believe that this game is most certainly worth a purchase as long as you ensure that you have the right RAM, video and sound card and all the other minimum specifications. If you don't though, prepare to be disappointed.