Ever since I stumbled upon The Sims (the first one) I fell madly in love with the series. I would save up my allowance to get every expansion pack and pay for hours and hours and hours on our Compaq computer. Then came The Sims 2 which made the game even more engaging and I did the same for all the expansion packs and on top of that the introduced The Stuff Packs. The Sims 2 was a little more demanding on our family computer but it was worth it. Then came The Sims 3 and I was so impressed with the base game alone. When all of the expansion packs and stuff packs came out I decided to buy a custom computer with specs that would allow me to play the game at all ultra settings. I still love The Sims 3 and I still play it on my 3rd computer that was custom built, but this one was for The Sims 4. When The Sims 4 was released I took a vacation day because I was so excited and I planned on playing it all day. However, I was so disappointed. Then I thought to myself; I'm sure it will get better with expansion and stuff packs. But I was wrong. I don't get as excited about them as I have with the previous games. Sure The Sims 4 is beautiful the graphics are amazing I give it that. But the game play just doesn't seem to be as enchanting as the others. When playing I find myself in CAS just going over clothing and hairstyles etc.. over and over because I can't seem to find any that I like. Then with the expansion and stuff packs it just feels like a money grab from faithful players. I still find that I play the sims 3 way more than The Sims 4. The Sims 4 feels like I've lost a best friend and that once close friend is someone that I don't even know any more.
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Optimism is a choice. The way I see it, the things that are difficult to patch in and change (build mode, CAS, AI) are good! Build mode is the best I've ever seen it. Same with CAS. The fluidity of the game, how fast it is, are wonderful places to start a game. Just think how incredible seasons are going to look!!!!
The things they need to change (more indepth game play, more choice to allow for creativity) are things they can implement easily! They can add new animations (and life stages, fingers crossed!) and drastically change the game play.
But I have to say, each iteration forced me to fall in love with the game all over again. Going from S2 to S3 and coming to terms with everything that had changed was difficult, but now S3 is my favourite series of this game.
Be patient and be hopeful. All I can say
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The Sims 3, it is happening now!
I keep forcing myself to play TS4, hoping I find that spark others have found. But changing my play style and trying new things only lasts such a short time before I am bored again.
TS4 is the opposite the game is beautiful, sims are beautiful and if they were more creative we could see amazing worlds too. The problem is the horrible game play its so dull and every SP gets boring within hours and expansion packs within a couple of days.
Now I'm having fun with S3 and since last week with S2 again. I've also started playing Medieval again, just for the rpg aspect.
www.nicolesimsstories.weebly.com
1. Acceptance. This game is not Sims 3, so I gave up trying to compare them. It's an exercise in frustration for a Sims 3 lover, it's like comparing a Timex to a Rolex. They both tell time, but one is superior to the other, lol. I still have Sims 3 installed on my computer so whenever I get bored of the Sims 4, I just fire up the Sims 3. Sometimes when I'm feeling really nostalgic, I play Sims 2. But yeah, I accepted that this version of the series cannot compete with its predecessors, and I work from there.
2. Appreciate the good things Sims 4 has to offer. The graphics are BEAUTIFUL. The game runs smoothly even on ultra high settings. The Sims are really good-looking...I don't need tons of CC to stop them from looking like the pudding faces of Sims 3. There is no open world, but the neighborhoods are really charming so even if you feel the Truman Show effect, just enjoy the cardboard mountains in the distance. Just don't zoom in too close, lol.
3. Take pics of my game. The scenery is pretty, the Sims are nice looking, so I take lots and lots of pics and this creates an immersion for me. I have folders labelled "Scenery" "Random Gameplay" "Favorite Sim" "Favorite Room" "Selfies". The in game camera works really well in the Sims 4, and even print screen transfers into an editing program very well.
4. Play challenges. I never really played legacy/history/100 baby/etc challenges in the Sims 3. There was so much to do that I never felt the need, plus I don't like too much structure in my game, lol. But since it is very hard to play the Sims 4 in a casual "free play" style due to lack of activities, I do the challenges. And I have a lot of fun doing them, something I never really thought would happen. Post pics of your Challenges on Tumblr or here on this forum. I'm doing a Historical Challenge on Tumblr and it is a lot of fun.
5. Speaking of Tumblr, I engaged a lot more now with the community. I engage with other players, share pics, share Sims, share custom content. I have always found that the Sims community is just as much a part of enjoying the game as actually playing the game itself. I have found that the Sims 4 community is really fractured at the moment, but you will find lots of Sims 4 players wanting to help you enjoy this game.
6. I don't create families beyond young couples because I am a family/generation player ( unless I'm participating in a challenge). I don't care what the Sims 4 die hards say, this game is NOT for family style players unless you really really really lower the bar. Anytime I create a family, the missing toddlers, the lack of activities, the emptiness of it all just frustrates me, and I end up hating the game all over again, lol. So I envision the Sims 4 world as it is now as an extended college town with young people hanging out, enjoying the scenery, out and about. And it's actually been fun. I don't think the game will be so lacking in family style play in the future, I am confident future EP's will center around family play. But for now, nope. All my Sims are twenty-somethings, lol.
7. I buy all of the stuff packs and EP's. I have done this for every series, but you really need to move beyond the base game with the Sims 4. I know it feels silly to keep buying stuff for a game that you're not crazy about, but I let the game collect dust in my computer until I got Get to Work and Get Together, and now the game has improved a bit more for me. Base game Sims 4 is boring.
And that's what works for me. I do see potential, especially after Get Together. I think the Sims 4 team is moving in the right direction. Either way, Sims 3 is still there for you to play and enjoy until things get better, right? That's what I keep telling myself, lol.
This is exactly how I am with TS4. I keep trying. I buy the packs, but it's just not keeping my interest. With TS2 and 3, from the day I started playing their base games, I could play vanilla for hours. TS3 gave me a lot more playability problems than 2 did, but there were features in both that I miss very much. Such as....toddlers, even though I don't like them, it feels emptier without them.
Are there some features that I like in TS4? Yes, there are. But overall, even with every pack, I feel like there's just too much missing at this point in the game. It's over a year and I feel like it's too empty.
I wish you all the best, and I hope you can find fun and enjoyment in TS4 (I was able to make the best of TS3 eventually), and every other version of the game is always there for you.
Best of luck and happy Simming!
I agree that the Sims 3 Sims are very ugly. I hate the pudding faces. Never liked the Sims 3 gameplay. Sims 2 Sims were smarter. Lack of retail (TS4 retail is bad too), apartments were a joke, controllable pets was a wrong decision. I can go on about the things I really dislike in that game. They were so many. So many that I lost hope that game will become better.
Yes Sims 3 introduced some new things like open world and CASt but none of these were without problems. Rotational play was a nightmare in that game.
To me personally Sims 3 is the weakest game in the franchise in terms of both Sims looks and gameplay.
I manage to get afew hours in now though I still get irritated with small things like teen and adults being the same size. (Current family has 2 teen sons and both look like the father, it's a bother telling them apart, and I hate loading between every lot).
In an ideal world I would have loved this game to:
*Have the charm of Ts2
*The freedom of Ts3 (I'm talking open world or a semi open district with no loading screens between the lots of that district)
Personally, I love the graphics, and the way the sims look. (Hated the pudding face Ts3 sims).
I will admit though, it's not been an easy transgression.
I agree with most of what you said, especially the look of the sims themselves. I thought they were pretty ugly, even with a boatload of CC. I didn't even like the way the furniture was designed. And TS3 performed so horribly on my machine. It was always lagging, freezing and crashing. I liked TS3 but it was virtually unplayable for me.
I do like TS4, but I admit it has a lot of problems. The bugs and glitches are very annoying and there always seems to be new ones that pop up with every patch. I'm also pretty bummed about the exclusion of the-life-state-that-must-not-be-named. I do think the environment and the sims themselves look a lot better, at least for me anyway. But that is entirely subjective. As much as I did really like TS3, I can actually play TS4 even though it does honk me off at times.
I too hated the look of S3 and much appreciate S4.
Also.. "honk me off"
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Nope not just you, although I enjoyed the Sims 2, it's probably my least favourite game in what's otherwise a great series
In Sims 2, you remember Create a Pattern and Color Wheel didn't exist. I made up for it then by downloading recolors from fan sites, and they were abundant. The same thing can be done now with Sims 4, but the fan sites are harder to find.
Also, base game Sims 4 does get old after awhile because the options are so limited. It doesn't seem so novel like Sims 1 and Sims 2, because Sims 1 was something nobody had seen before, and Sims 2 added new features that hadn't been in any other game. Still, people DID complain when Sims 2 came out, because it didn't include all the expansion pack features of Sims 1.
People who played in rotation complained when Sims 3 came out, because played households were moving out (of the game - in other words, culled) when they weren't the active household. Even after this was fixed, Sims 3 would delete the wishes of Sims when they were not the active household, and story progression wasn't controllable by the player. And once again, people complained that this time around, EA really should have been able to include all the expansion pack features of the previous game in the base game.
If Sims 4 had come out when Sims 2 did, and Sims 2 had come out when Sims 4 did, players would've been wowed by Sims 4, because they would not have experienced toddlers or open world or color wheel, or any of the new features of Sims 2 or Sims 3. But they still would've been disappointed with Sims 2 because it does not have story progression, or open world, and has sliders for everything, and the graphics are outdated. Also, some players did not like the Fears aspect of the Sims 2 Wants and Fears aspiration system.
So the real problem is, to add new features into the core game, given short development time frames (which I wish EA would change), they can no longer add every feature from every previous core game. So the trade off is, what will more people buy - something new and different, or something old and tested?
You summed up all of my feeling and frustration with this series so eloquently. Thank you.
So after a year of not playing, I jumped back on it. Mentality set to "This is TS2.5, this is not the game that came after TS3". I'm enjoying it to be honest, I'm learning to appreciate the improvements and the innovations. I love the concept of Game Packs, if Get Together is any indication of EP quality to come, that's also good. It'll likely never beat TS3 for me because it goes as far as base game mechanics, but it could potentially become something I quite enjoy. And I still have The Sims Complete Collection, The Sims 2 Ultimate and The Sims 3 with every EP, SP and most of the store content on my PC.
Yeah I would have to agree with that comment to. While I still play Ts4, I play on/off most of the time cause I get bored with the shallow gameplay. I have spent more hours playing Witcher 3 since May last year than Ts4, but since I'm waiting for the next exp for Witcher, I have been filling the gap by playing abit by trying to play Ts4.