On June 2, 2009 in the United States of America, EA Games released the long-anticipated sequel to The Sims Franchise: The Sims 3. Originally, the game was slated for release in February. Due to EA's desire to maximize (1) profits, (2) exposure, (3) sims fans' distress ... they moved to a summer release. Unfortunately for me, I was going to be out of town ... I was out of town on its release date. When I returned, I was happy to discover that the kind UPS man delivered my game and Prima Guide to the office of my apartment complex - both safely stored there until I was available to pick them up. On the morning of June 6, 2009 ... I picked up both the game and the Prima Guide as the images below will attest to. Because the picture are so HUGE), for my introduction, I will use clickable thumbnails:

I purchased the Collector's Edition of the game which came with a custom content car and some other goodies.

One of the goodies was a 2 GB USB drive shaped like a plumbbob.

Isn't it beautiful?

And it came with a handy-dandy keychain clip. SHINY! :O)

While I was slightly dismayed to see that the cluttered box cover remained ...

Since it was going to hide in its original shiny green box, and the back was nice, I didn't mind too much.

The rest of the goodies included a "hints and tips" guide (very tiny - 6 pages - booklet included in the box) and some stickers. I also got a free custom content car.

The Prima Guide is 256 pages long and included a lovely poster of Sunset Valley (the main Sims 3 neighborhood). It's written by a different author than the Sims 2 Prima Guides ... but ... it's okay. I haven't really read it yet, but others have said while it has organization issues, it's quite helpful.

Installation was quick and relatively painless. :O)
Follow me and the sims that I create for their adventures in this new Sims 3 World.