The Sims 3 is surely my favorite in the entire series, bringing exciting features like an open world concept, cars, Create a Style (you have the freedom to choose textures and colors instead of relying on premade recolors that sometimes don't match between different objects) and the ability of using Create a World to build entire neighborhoods from scratch, provided you have enough patience for it.
It's also very entertaining to have the ability to freely roam around your neighborhood collecting objects, interacting and without any concern around facing a

