A few nice extra's, but same things all over again. Sims 2 with expansions is far superiour
I wasn't expecting the gameplay to change a massive amount, after all, why fix something that's not broken? But the Sims 3 doesn't really bring anything new to the table. Don't get me wrong the extra customisability options are nice(although I don't know about anything else, but all my characters seem to look the same? But that may just be me not really spending long making them).
The "live neighborhood" is nice, 2 less loading screens! The part time jobs, again i like what they've done there. The character traits, well, is it really new? I mean, we had similar in the other sims where you could adjust a Sims personality, true this is easier and more precise but still.
The graphics are very similar to the Sims 2, although slightly smoother and now with shadows(nice, but nearly all games have shadows now. Singles 2 had shadows long before the Sims)
It's a good game, but I wouldn't recommend upgrading from Sims 2 just yet, expecially if you have most or all of the expansion packs.
However, if you are new to the Sims then the Sims 3 is deffiently the best one yet! Although expect about 10 expansion packs priced at £19.99 to be released along with stuff packs and spin offs. Ouch!