There were several aspects of the demo that stood out to me more than anything else. The first was that going between houses, neighborhoods, and stores would not require any loading screens. Anyone who devoted as much time as I did to The Sims 2 knows that going to the market would always take a five plus minute load time. Now that traveling between locations is seamless there will be no reason to stay in your house all day.

Customization is definitely going to be a staple of The Sims 3. During the “Create a Sim” demo we saw that there was no limit to the amount of customization allowed. One coat could be split up into numerous parts, all of which can be individually patterned and colored. Tweaking the details of your Sims body has never been easier either. My favorite option was the addition of long hair. When I make a Sim, or a Mii/XBL avatar even, I look for any way I can make the avatar look like me, so the abundance of options is certainly appreciated. Also, all of your creations can be uploaded to the internet and be shared with TheSims3.com community.

GamePro – Sims 3 CES2009 preview