It's on the internet????

For cracks, I usually go to isohunt. thepiratebay has some, too.

But yeah, it's basically just download game, install game, replace .exe, and enjoy. And remember not to run the launcher with your internet connected.

Edit: Oh yes! And the game! It's pretty fun: traits are awesome, I really like what they did in terms of expanding the neighborhood, and it runs remarkably fast. Create a Style is ridiculously awesome and basically means that you can come up with any color combination on an existing outfit/object/whatever. I like how sims looked better in The Sims 2, but they're not horrifically ugly here. Disable Story Progression is broken from the outset, but I think MATY fixed it. Wishes are mostly just easier than wants, fears are gone entirely. Careers are easier. Social interactions are more annoying, because you have to build up relationship level and chain interactions of a certain type to get high level interactions.

...And, that's all I can think of.

Cassie:
My bf says go to www.demonoid.com for the download but that it might be complicated if you've never used torrents. He also says that if you need an invite, he can get you one.

Amusing Sims 3 screens to come.

I Want Maire Dead before 1086 fund - Please kindly support

My step-brother has the game. I like it but as Meryt said the sims don't look as good as they do in the sims 2. I do like some aspects of the game but I remember playing this sim by brother created and it took him forever to ask Cornelia Crumplebottom's sister to marry him. I had to perform all of the romantic actions to get the propose engagement action.
I'm sticking with sims 2.

Because my no-CD crack won't help you much on a Mac.

How do I run the installer with my internet disconnected, exactly?

Once it's done downloading you can just temporarily disconnect your computer from the Internet. If you have a wired connection, all you have to do is unplug your network cable. If you have wireless, then uh... I don't know how that works exactly. Is there some kind of network connection icon in your taskbar you can right-click on and do "DIsconnect"?

The site from which I'm downloading the game itself tells me that I need: a no-CD crack (some kind of exe file?)

A no-CD crack is a replacement .exe file for the Sims3.exe or whatever it's called. If your download didn't come with one already, you have do a separate search for "Sims 3 no-cd" or whatever.

Once you get that, you can rename the real .exe to "Sims3.exe.bak" or something, then copy the no-cd cracked .exe to the game directory. (Make sure it has the same name the original file had.) Then when you want to run the game, run that file instead, and it should skip checking for the CD.

I need to download Daemon Tools Lite for this to work, although when I downloaded that, it didn't actually download an application, just a blank file.

I haven't used Daemon Tools in a while... I heard they were putting adware on people's computers. I use Virtual CloneDrive now instead. You might try that if you can't get Daemon Tools to work.

Either way, these programs create a "virtual CD ROM drive" on your computer that can load the .ISO file you downloaded (i.e. the copy of the Sims 3 DVD) as if it were a real CD, and normally Windows can't tell that it's not a real CD in a real drive. The point of these programs is to trick the game into believing you own the CD and it's in your drive.

With VCD, as I recall, all you have to do is double-click on the .ISO file you downloaded, and it will automatically load it up into a new drive letter that pretends to a be a CD drive. It will act just like you just inserted a real CD into the drive, and it will open the autostart installation menu and all that. (If it doesn't, you can also use Windows explorer to go to that new drive and browse the files on it to find the installer.)

I reckon there are people on this forum who know more about this sort of thing than I do. These days I only ever boot Windows to run The Sims 2, and I actually paid for the last EPs, so I'm stuck with a real CD in my drive.

Yes that should work... or disconnecting your cable or DSL cable from the wireless base station should work too.

You aren't installing this on a Mac are you?

In that case Daemon Tools & Co. aren't going to help... AFAIK they're Windows only.

I believe the Sims 3 DVD is the same for both Mac and Windows, though I haven't installed it on my Mac to be sure. So I think the download would be the same. But I wouldn't know what to do next. I would assume the installation instructions would be different for a Mac installation, since the way they handle DVDs, executable files, and all the rest is quite different.

Pen will surely know! *waves wand of Pen-summoning*

I don't suppose you know of any analogous Mac-compatible programs, then? Since I can't seem to find any.
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I'm romantic, literary, cynical, and a diehard Alred Sebright groupie.

*POOF!*

Your combined summoning has resulted in my late-as-crap arrival.

Here is what you need:

1) Little Snitch (link is to the Pirate Bay). This tells you which programs are trying to access the internet. If you find that the game is trying to access the internet, you can choose to deny access.

2) You will need game registration codes, which I can email to you. (draggingbluelake@gmail.com)

3)The crack is here, chicka!

4)Do you use a bittorrent program? If you use a bittorrent program like Transmission, you won't have to download the entire torrent. You can specify which files to download when you load the torrent.

5) Just follow the instructions in the crack file. Daemon Tools is totally barking up the wrong tree. All you need is the game, the crack, a code and (ideally) Little Snitch.

Heh, you guys might have already figured all of this out in the chat but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in just in case!

This isn't exactly on topic, but I thought I'd better ask here where we are already talking about getting games without buying them. Could anyone tell me where I could get the FreeTime EP?

Just to play devil's advocate, I absolutely LOVE Sims 3. I don't even boot up Sims 2 anymore.

The skintones in Sims 3 are on customizable sliders, so if they look dead and pasty that seems to be more a matter of which shade you pick rather than any fault of the game itself. I find the darker browns and yellow toned fair colors are better than the really pinkish fair color.

The sliders for body type are great too. You can have an obscenely fat person, a heavily built and muscular body builder type, super skinny flat chested gals...

I downloaded other sliders from modthesims that also allow you create elf ears, adjust breast size, butt size, hip size, and waist size. I downloaded replacement eyes that are also still fully recolorable, so the eyes don't look quite so flat. There's plenty of hair out there now too, which helps.

I think with the Sims 3 its just a matter of waiting for the custom content. I doubt it will ever replace Sims 2 for versatility in story telling because of the cool new seamless neighborhoods feature, because time never stops anywhere. So, while you're working on one of the families in your storyline, all the others are doing things and advancing as well, without your input or control. I'm not sure if there are options you can set to prevent this in game... if there isn't, I'm sure some enterprising individual will eventually create a mod for it... so perhaps there's hope for it after all.

Either way, I don't have the talent to shoot pictures and videos, so I just create characters in CAS as a model for the characters in my written stories. Sadly, that's pretty much all I'm using the game for though....

You make a good point, Mohavi... the original, Maxis-content-only Sims 2 Sims were quite flat and cartoonish-looking too, before the CC creators stepped in. Even then, Sims 2 still has an almost too-perfect, too-shiny, airbrushed-supermodel aesthetic, but I like it. The Sims 3 Sims look cartoonish, but with the animated tongues and all that, it seems unlikely they will ever be able to escape cartoonishness. I think they are too heavily modeled to be the kind of blank slate that Sims 2 Sims can be in the hands of the right creators.

I am looking forward to seeing how things progress as more CC gets created, though. I will gladly eat my bowlful of crow! The idea that you can actually ADD SLIDERS is really exciting, especially if it can help make the faces less bloated-looking. I would love to have elf ear sliders in Sims 2 already!!

As to Ann's question, there's a whole giant thread on MATY about "How to get rid of SecuROM, NOW" (and how to avoid getting it in the first place)

However, it seems that the nasty version of SecuROM -- the version that actually gets installed on your computer -- is not used in Sims 3 unless you got the digital download version from the EA store. Sims 3 uses an ordinary CD check. So the removing SecuROM instructions actually apply to some of the Sims 2 EPs, not Sims 3. That's my understanding, anyway.

NOW YOU'RE TALKING!! *wants to Sims-3-ify the entire cast of Lothere*