Absolutely desperate for the game? Want to read some last minute tidbits? Here are the rest of my notes from the hands on. So sorry it took so long. I was trying to organise them into a decent article... instead, I give you.... bullet points!

* If your Sim has twins at the hospital and the father isn't present for the birth she'll take them home in a little baby basket.

* Sims can do some things whilst carrying a baby or toddler, for example, chat on the phone, and watch the TV.

* The Grim Reaper is really scary! Not in his appearance, but the music that plays when he appears. Brace yourselves, Simmers! The ghosts are freaky too!

* If your Sim has a cheap shower it can give them a bad moodlet, an expensive shower can give them a good moodlet. If you can't afford an expensive shower yourself, why not go and use your neighbours' shower? As long as you don't mind them getting annoyed with you that is.

* You can choose the "woohoo" and "try for a baby" actions from the normal interaction queue when interacting with someone not on a bed... you and your chosen partner will then embrace, kiss passionately... and head for the bedroom together.

* One-click to fulfil a moodlet. Lots of people have had concerns after reading that "when your Sim's bladder is full, you'll have something pop up, and you click to get them to empty their bladder". No magic emptying bladders, I promise. Two hours before your Sim's bladder bar hits zero they get a neutral moodlet (ie. it doesn't actually affect their mood) telling you they need to go. You can click it and if there's a toilet nearby it gets added to their action queue to go use it. I noticed sometimes Sims would automatically add the "go to the toilet" action next in their action queue, pushing everything else along, when this moodlet appears.

* This one-click fulfilling also works for the "grungy" and "smelly" (low hygiene) moodlets - adds going for a shower or bath to the queue - for the "strained" (low fun) moodlet, and for the tired/sleepy moodlets. Best thing about the tired one is that if you've been sending them to a specific bed, it's that bed which will get added to their queue. There may be some more like this but those are all the ones I saw.

* You can interact with items straight from the inventory. In live mode, you could click and drag a guitar into your Sim's inventory, then go to the park, and tell them to play the guitar from their inventory. Similarly, you could take a book to read, or some food to eat!

* Kids and teens come home from school with homework in their inventory. Again you can interact straight from the inventory, and they'll find the nearest suitable desk or table to do their homework on (or sit on the floor if there's nowhere else to do it).

* To garden, you can plant almost any vegetables you buy from the store straight into the ground. You can plant them anywhere you like - you don't need a special place to plant them like in TS2.

* Pregnant Sims can be unreasonable and demanding... well in terms of the wishes they roll up. Mine was always wanting to go to the spa! This is in addition to the weird cravings I mentioned in my previous blog.

* Fat Sims can get thin quite quickly, in about a week, if they work out constantly!

* A Sim might get a moodlet when they are around someone they love :) I think this might be to do with the hopeless romantic trait?

And that's all I've got! Enjoy The Sims 3, I hope you will all find it as engaging a game as I did at the hands on. I'm prepared for many late nights of Simming after the game's UK release next Friday :D