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Expansion Packs
Horrorgirl6
Posts: 3,192 Member
What do you think of the expansion packs in the game? Do you like them or dislike them. This the thread to discuss.
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Horrorgirl6
Posts: 3,192 Member
Comments
The other two I find lacking for their own reasons. GTW is okay, but the retail system is too limiting. It's hard to make money owning a store unless you sell expensive objects and dealing with the customers is annoying. The active careers are okay for what they are, I just never found myself wanting to play them more than one time. Detective was probably the most fun one for me, but apparently it's broken now so...
In terms of the world it added, it was pretty disappointing. I don't know why they couldn't have added more lots to it. If you look on the map in magnolia promenade, there's SO much empty space. In terms of CAS, though, GTW does have a lot of very nice items and hairs for both genders. I thought the build mode for this pack was decent. Most of it was just stuff related to either the careers or retail, but it did add some interesting stuff.
City Living I like quite a bit more than GTW, but for me, it introduced way too many bugs to the game. San Myshuno is a beautifully done world, but even the gurus have already acknowledged that issues like time distortion and simulation lag are made worse by playing in San Myshuno, which is very unfortunate. Speed 3 is hardly usable there. The festivals were fun at first but they lost their charm for me quite early on. I was never one of the people who was upset by the fact that you can't build your own apartments, because I'm not a builder, didn't care about it. However I wish we could at least customize the front door of an apartment, or the little areas outside the elevator. It feels very limiting sometimes. The key sharing feature, which I thought would be cute, ended up just being a huge nuisance. One thing I did enjoy about city living, though, was the careers that came with it. I like those style of careers even more than the GTW ones, to be honest. The option to have my sim work from home on days where I don't want to send her off to the rabbithole is nice. The cas items in the pack are generally a little too vibrant for my tastes. So much color, so many patterns, it just didn't look nice to me. I will say there are a lot of neat build objects in this pack, though.
> Are we ever going to get seasons back?! Or pets even they have always been packs in previous games
probably not like we did in sims 4 i think seasons won' even be a ting anymore but pets should still be a thing that is planned
> > @muse3834 said:
> > Are we ever going to get seasons back?! Or pets even they have always been packs in previous games
>
> probably not like we did in sims 4 i think seasons won' even be a ting anymore but pets should still be a thing that is planned
i meant sims 3 sorry
They are going to release Pets next... it's not one of my favs, but I hope it adds new things. I'm tired of the same old pet interactions, I want something new!
> I think some GPs are better than the EPs... And that is not a good thing to me. :neutral: City living had so much potential, I can't believe it took them an entire year to release it, but it turned out to be meh. GT is my favorite because it added a lot of new things and features and GTW has no replay value IMO.
>
> They are going to release Pets next... it's not one of my favs, but I hope it adds new things. I'm tired of the same old pet interactions, I want something new! :expressionless:
its very likely but i think its time for a new EP
Yah City living to me was disappointing. Not that I don't like, or regret buying it.It seems like they pendthemost time designing the world . Then the features in the world. I also didn't like how the careers political, social media, and critic were mostly tied to the city .
I'd prefer it if they just combined the GP/EP team. It's just not worth having bite sized content that's done right alongside these expansion packs, the way they are.
I need the EP's for the broader theme and gameplay elements added in. Like the club system added in GT and active career system added in GTW. Both can be modded and used in different ways. I'm still figuring out how to use City Living. I won't have my sims live in those areas because it's the only place I get noticeable lag and more time rebound when they are sleeping, but I do appreciate the festivals when I chose to send my sims to them and most of the stuff/activities that came in that pack... especially singing.
What would've been smarter would have been to merge City Living and Get Together into one expansion, and add more content that actually falls within the theme of a city. Sims 2-like apartments would've been absolutely amazing, too.. I just simply cannot wrap my mind around how TS2 would actually give us a complete experience with ONE expansion pack offering city life, clubbing, dining, group functionality, cars, karaoke, and SO much more. Why does it have to be so difficult, convoluted, and ineffective in TS4?
Also, I just hate the whole concept of splitting up content into expansions/game packs/stuff packs to "ensure quality." To me, that has done absolutely nothing in terms of the quality of gameplay. Furthermore, I strongly dislike how object-centric The Sims has gotten. It's no longer about making breakthroughs in life simulation as a whole, instead, they're really focused on specific objects which have new animations tied to them and zero depth.
Dine Out + Get Together + Bowling Night = Sims 2 Nightlife
City Living + Get Together + Vampires = Sims 3 Late Night
And so it goes... Everything is being divided, this makes the expansions become boring much faster. They are not bad, but they are not perfect either.
I hope the next expansions will have more content and that they will be back as before in Sims 2 and Sims 3, bigger and better.
Hm. So
$20 + $40 + $20 = $80 for what 1 EP in the past could get you.
$40 + $40 + $20 = $100 if you want the other one.
And there are still no working elevators. Cars will be a GP. Making both equivalent EPs $100 each. $200 if you want both. And still not half the functionality or playability as Late Night or Nightlife alone.
Cool. Sign me up!
I only have the ts4 base game. That experience cured me of ever wanting to purchase any further ts4 expansions. I've noticed on the forums that there is rampant disappointment with the expansions... they seem to be emptier and the outrage comes more quickly for each successive one.
I hope the franchise does better in the future, and I can only hope that I can nudge EA/Maxis along to that hopeful future with my gentle complaints.
I was the same. I didn't sit back researching packs and waiting to see the public response and comments with 1, 2, or 3. I just threw my money at them. Every pack had a little something for everyone and I never felt like I wasted my money. I don't even care about how much I spent. I was a happy customer.
Not so much any more. Thing is, I'd like to be a happy customer again.
Anyway Get Together is probably the best of the lot, as it had a reasonably good world and the club system was new. Even then I got bored fairly quickly and the club system wasn't fleshed out nearly enough. Get to Work had a great idea (going to work with your sims) but poorly realised. The careers were fairly monotonous after a while and seemed broken and unpolished, though the science one was quite fun overall. I'm also very disappointed there were only three. Pretty lazy if you ask me, it felt half done. EPs for previous sims games would have concentrated on many more live careers and ditched the retail bit. That afterall did have its own pack in the Sims 2 and it needed to in order to be fully developed. That actually brings me to the retail. Compared to the Sims 2 it was atrocious. Stripped of everything that made it good in S2, it was buggy, tedious and really difficult to make any money. Was not fun in the slightest, hence I've only tried doing retail once or twice. I think they were trying to put too many different ideas into GTW and they all suffered being too shallow and unfinished as a result.
City Living I really really was not impressed with. I was sort of excited when it was announced (along with feeling perplexed at why they'd gone for another nightlife-esque pack when I thought GT was the city pack and people clearly want things like Pets and Seasons), but pretty horrified as the announcements came about limitations and the endless excuses. I was so horrified decided I would not buy it unless it was at least half price in a sale. Eventually got it at half price but it was such a disappointment. They seem to have spent all their time and money on making the city look good and neglected everything else. Yes it might look impressive, but there's barely any lots, none of which come free to build on, it feels very empty, each district feels and looks the same and you can't go to many areas that look city-like (eg the bustling shopping areas in the distance, the subways etc). The city is extremely lacking. The apartments were awful, playing them felt no different to playing a normal house lot. No landlord to casually chat to, no NPC roommates, no communal areas, a loading screen to see your neighbour, only two or three other apartments in the block, elevators aren't proper elevators, and most importantly not being able to build any, or even move them or place them in different worlds. I mean what the heck! The S2 Apartment Life had all of those things, plus a hugs huge world with absolutely loads of pre built apartments to choose from, and it's nearly 10 years old! And they managed to fit in magic as well. As I said there's no reason why they couldn't have put these in a much newer game, so I do not buy any of the excuses. No matter how hard I tried I could not put the fact that the Sims 2 did it so much better out of my head, and I really did not enjoy CL. I even feel paying £15 for it was too much. It's one of the reasons I've given up playing S4 unless they bring out a good EP. The game packs have started getting better and toddlers are back, but I feel it's too little too late. Whether I continue playing or not rests on how good the new EP is. However judging from their current record on EPs, I'm not holding my breath (If it IS pets, then I fully expect it to have less in it than S2 pets). For now I'm back to S2 playing AL and loving it.