EA pushed out a new Sims 3 patch last night, and the difference was immediately apparent to me.  As of version 1.6.6. Sims now dream when they sleep!  I noticed this right away because the first thing one of my Sims did, after I loaded it up when the patch was finished, was fall asleep.  Thought bubbles appeared over their heads. I thought, "Wait - is that new?"  

I have started making it a habit to pore over each line item in the Sims 3 patches, ever since I noticed some fairly dramatic game changes being pushed out.  For example, as we all know, your pregnant Sim should eat apples to have a baby boy, and watermelon to have a baby girl.  However, a patch update changed it so that prepared foods did NOT change your baby's gender.

This is problematic for people who were happy to kill two birds with one stone by having their Sims eat watermelon salads or apple pancakes in order to determine their baby's gender.  But it was very helpful to the (apparently widespread and numerous) legion of players who did not understand why they were only having boy babies, or only having girl babies.  If you have a gardening Sim stocking your fridge with apples or watermelon, then your cooking Sims will be making foods with those items.  And it turns out in my observation that most Sims end up eating apple pancakes and getting all boys without realizing why.

Another patch change happened in the last patch, when suddenly you were no longer able to "try for baby" with the Grim Reaper.  Boo!  

Anyway, looking over the change log for the 1.6.6 Sims 3 patch, the big item that stands out to me is the basement builder!  You can now build a basement with a new tool, which will allow you to simply punch down up to four levels below your home.  This is frankly earthshaking if you'll excuse the pun.  No longer will we need to use complicated maneuvers and cheats in order to make a basement!  You can just… click and drag!  I'm still boggling about this.  I have not had a chance to try it out yet, but I will definitely be giving it a go soon.

Another change is that you can now place decorations on your roof, and there is a separate category for "roof decorations" in Buy Mode.  Another thing I have not checked out, but I look forward to getting some wacky seasonal roof decorations.  And then leaving them up all year long.  HA HA HA!

I'm also glad to see that your fiancée will automatically be invited if you throw a Wedding Party now.  I have had terrible problems with this.  And even more problems with trying to get everyone together in order to throw a Wedding Party on a community lot.  I think I will have to start moving all the Sims to the lot in question, THEN setting up the party.  

The last thing that jumped out at me is "When viewing inside neighbors' windows, their furnishings will be visible."  I don't know if you have ever scrolled the camera around and peered into your neighbors' windows, but you used to see the Sims standing in the middle of an empty house.  Creepy!

You can read over the full list of changes here.