25 Mods for The Sims 3 That You Need to Try
Even though we have moved onto The Sims 4 in terms of game releases, there is a huge group of players who are still playing The Sims 3. This is because it is a superior game in almost every way (except maybe aesthetically) and can be played for years on end.
A big part of making The Sims 3 experience better is finding the perfect mods to fix some of the major problems we see in the game, and some small fixes too. These Sims 3 Mods are going to have you loving every second of your experience, and playing this decade old game for hours on end.
1. Canning Station Overhaul
A cool item in The Sims 3 Store is the canning station, but it just isn’t what we’d want it to be. EA really tried with this one but it just missed the mark. This canning station overhaul mod changes things up and lets you have more spreads, better visuals and more.
2. Children Can Care for Their Siblings
One annoying aspect of The Sims 3 is that your children really can’t do a ton, and it would be nice if they could help take care of their younger siblings once in a while. This mod will let your children take care of toddlers by carrying them around, take them out of their cribs and more, making children much more useful if you have a big family.
3. Fill Up Public Lots
One annoying thing about the open world system in The Sims 3 is going to a public lot and having one or two other sims (if you’re lucky) in the lot. This mod will make it so that there are more sims in clubs and bars making them more interesting to spend time in compared to EA defaults.
4. Grow Progressive Aging
Something that is extremely unrealistic in all sims games is when a sim ages from being a small child to a teenager and just pop up in age. The Grow Progressive Aging mod is incredible because it will make it so your sims grow slowly and will just get a bit bigger over time, starting smaller and eventually growing to their next stage in small steps instead of all at once.
5. Like for Like Build & Buy
As a sims game gets more DLC and is around for years, there is so much in the build/buy catalog and most of the time it ends up exceptionally unorganized. The like for like build & buy mod is great because it goes in and changes prices and categories for a ton of items in the build catalog making it easier to organize everything so you can actually find it.
6. Loading Screen Replacement
The loading screen replacement mod was created as an ode to the game right before The Sims 4 came out. It will have a loading screen that makes you feel super nostalgic about the game and brings back some really great jokes.
7. Master Controller
If you download any of the mods on this list, this should be the one. The Master Controller mod lets you go in and change just about everything in the game. This means that you can switch skill levels, increase the number of sliders, and change a bunch of other small things, it’s just great.
8. More Traits for All Ages
Having a whole bunch of traits in the sims can really change how your sims feel and how you feel about them. The more traits for all ages mod will add the ability for your sims to have more than 5 traits, making their personalities more diverse and interesting and giving them more of a real life personality instead of only being interested in a few small things.
9. Mover
The mover mod is another one that is a must have for The Sims 3. This mod will remove some restrictions on the game like greater than 8 and requires adult making the game better in simple ways. It makes super small changes to the game in some of the best ways.
10. No Intro Mod
Something that can be very annoying to frequent players of The Sims is how long the intro scenes are. If you’ve played a ton you’ve probably watched hours of silly sims intros and sometimes you just get sick of them. The No Intro Mod will allow you to just completely eliminate the intro and not force you to watch them.
11. No Stretch Children Can
It always seems like EA completely ignores children when they create sims games. This is true in The Sims 4 as well as The Sims 3. There are so many things that children are not able to do when playing The Sims 3, and it just isn’t’ realistic. This No Stretch Children Can mod will allow your sims kids to do things like pay bills, garden, laundry, play music, use the hot tub and so much more.
12. Overwatch
The Sims 3 is a huge game with an open world and a ton of moving pieces, since it is so huge it can often have small issues that appear out of nowhere that you aren’t able to fix normally. The Overwatch mod will go in and fix up some of these small errors that can cause lag and big issues in your gameplay.
13. Quicker Cooking & Eating
One thing in The Sims that you’d never expect to take up all of your time is eating and cooking. Your sims will spend hours in the kitchen and it just eats up productive fun time. The quicker cooking and eating mod will allow you to improve the time that it takes so you can focus on better things.
14. Retuned Attraction Mod
Something that feels like its lacking in The Sims 3 compared to The Sims 2 is that attraction system. The retuned attraction mod is awesome because it does an overhaul of this system making it more in-depth and more realistic which just makes the game way more fun and makes having sims fall in love a lot more entertaining.
15. Saver
You aren’t a real sims player until the time that you play for hours and the game crashes without you saving. We all forget to save when playing from time to time so this mod is a necessity. The saver mod will prompt you to save your game, making you remember that this is something you need to do every few minutes, especially with The Sims 3.
16. Sims 1 Music
Any player who has been playing since The Sims 1 feels extremely nostalgic about this time and thinks that The Sims 1 is an incredible game with awesome music. The Sims 1 Music Mod actually takes away all of The Sims 3 music and replaces it with the music from The Sims 1.
17. Story Progression
If you really want to have a realistic and immersive experience in The Sims, story progression is key. You want to see other characters moving on with their lives, getting married, having babies, and more. The Story Progression Mod overhauls the way that this works created by EA and makes it a more streamlined and interesting experience for your sims and the sims in the world around them.
18. Study Skills Online
Sometimes the simplest mods for The Sims are the best mods, and this Study Skills Online fits that category. A lot of the time when playing you are living in a pretty small home and aren’t able to have a lot of skill-building equipment in your home. A great solution to this is the Study Skills Online Mod because it allows you to learn any skills on your sims computer!
19. Tagger Mod
Since The Sims 3 is an open world game, it can be so hard to find some of your favourite townies in the game. The tagger mod is game changing because it will show the current location of any sims in the world that are tagged, so you can easily see where they are by their small icon above whatever lot they are currently inside. This is game changing because if you need to find Holly Alto, you can without stress!
20. Third Person Mod
If you’re a fan of getting more immersed in The Sims experience, you may want to try out The Third Person Mod where you can actually follow your sims around in third person watching them from behind and going wherever they go. Obviously, this wouldn’t be super effective if you have a large family, but is great for creating fun videos with you characters in The Sims 3 and can really make you feel like your sims are real.
21. Traveler Mod
One thing that The Sims 4 has over The Sims 3 is the ability to move to any world you’d like without losing any relationships. In The Sims 3, you only got to choose one world and live there for your entire legacy. The traveler mod allows you to move around to other worlds that you have in your game and you won’t lose your relationships with people in past worlds.
22. Ultimate Career Mod
A really wonderful creator of Sims 4 Mods, Zerbu, also created mods for The Sims 3! The Ultimate Careers Mod changes the way that rabbit hole careers work in the game. You’ll find that your sim will no longer just be in a rabbit hole, they will instead be at a community lot where you can click to change the tasks they are doing which can increase or decrease their work performance.
23. Ultra Plain Eyes
Something that has always freaked me out in The Sims 3 is the look of the sims eyes, and this mod will add a default replacement for all eyes in the game making them a lot easier on the eyes. If you add Ultra-Plain Eyes with the next mod, ultra plain faces, you’ll have a great looking sim without a doubt.
24. Ultra Plain Faces
One of the biggest complaints about The Sims 4 is the visuals of the characters and this Ultra Plain Faces mod can change up the looks of your sims to make it just a little bit better. This mod will override the EA defaults making your sims look more chill.
25. Woohooer Mod
The woohooer mod is a good option if you think that EA goes too strict on romantic relationships. This mod allows for you to have teen pregnancy which is a feature that many players want to have because it is a very common occurrence in the real world. You’ll be able to have your male sims get pregnant with this mod too, which wasn’t available in settings in The Sims 3 like it is in The Sims 4 allowing you to have your trans sims have babies too, or just have a wacky situation where a male sim gets pregnant.
Final Thoughts
This list of mods were must haves for me anytime I played The Sims 3 and I stand by them. They can change up your gameplay in a way you’d never know without trying them. Hopefully this list has shown you something you didn’t know you’d needed. Happy playing!