These features in The Sims 3 base game have not existed in any game in The Sims series before: * Seamless neighborhood * Bicycles * Universal clock synchronized in all lots—in The Sims 2, time was frozen on the home lot as long as Sims visited community lots. To avoid exploitation of this, Sims weren't able to learn skills or sleep on community lots. In The Sims 3, Sims can do almost everything regardless of where they are. * Ability to visit other homes * Story progression - non-active households evolve during gameplay (can be turned on or off) * Create-A-Sim features: * Continuous body shapes (muscular/obese) and skin colors * Enhanced facial customization features * Completely customizable hair color, the possibility to have separate hair root, base,