I only bought TS4 in early 2017 when TS2 randomly decided to no longer work on my computer. By then, updates had been made and several packs were already out, so I never got to experience the empty base game in its original form. Still, I know there used to be no pools, no ghosts, no toddlers, not much of anything we take for granted these ways, so it's safe to say that the base game is much better now than it was in 2014. But I have other gripes with the game that have actually gotten worse over time.
1. Bugs, bugs, bugs!
This is the most important one, and it's not an opinion or a matter of personal preference, but a simple fact: The game is broken. Even though I play it a lot, I'd never recommend it to others for this very reason. I used to look forward to the monthly patches and the free new content they would sometimes bring, now I dread them because of how they might ruin my game again, often in ways I would never have anticipated. It's the same with packs, I bought High School Years in the current sale and I'm actually enjoying it, but hardly a day goes by without me discovering another thing that doesn't work. I mean, being the only participant in a chess tournament can be great, because without competition, my sim should automatically win, right? Not so much when there isn't even a judge around to declare the winner. And this is just one of the less serious problems.
2. Quantity over quality / All show, no substance
TS4 has been running for much longer and produced many more expansions than any previous iterations of the game. Even back when I bought it in 2017, there was already so much content that I didn't even know where to start, but at the same time, all that content is extremely restrictive and shallow. Everything looks nice, but leaves a lot to be desired in the gameplay department. Why give us 500 different cat breeds to mix and match as we please when cats do so little in the game that there's no point in owning one? There was a time when they were able to learn tricks (now only dogs can) and even go to work (TS2), now they're just animated decor objects. Then there's the worlds, so beautifully designed, but empty and boring. The creepy alley leading up to the hill with the overturned streetlamp in Forgotten Hollow is a great example, it looks cool and mysterious, but there's nothing going on there, nothing to do other than sit on a bench, so why even bother going all the way up there? Sometimes less is more. I think it's not an unpopular opinion that I would prefer having less content that is, however, more fleshed out and not just pretty to look at.
3. Good ideas, poor execution / No sense of scale
Somewhat related to the above, many cool features have been added over time, both as free base game updates and in packs. But more often than not, they end up being more trouble than they're worth. I think the wants and fears system works fine nowadays, but it was terribly intrusive at first, and not fixed for a very long time. My sims kept getting the same fears over and over again, as if the game was criticising my play style (yeah, sorry for not fulfilling their every whim, but you know, some of those whims are utterly nonsensical). Then there's Bust the Dust, which plays on our desire to have more normal, everyday chores in our sims' lives, but dust used to come back so often and so quickly that any sim with a house bigger than a shoe box had to spend their entire free time vacuuming! I don't know if that has been fixed yet because I don't own the kit, but I wanted it and decided not to get it after hearing about other players' complaints. It's like every time there's a new feature, it gets rubbed in our faces at any given opportunity, and once enough players complain about that, it gets disabled completely, like that's the only alternative (looking at you, vampire break-ins).
So yeah, TLDR: Base game is better now, but I still have my fair share of gripes with TS4, even now in 2023.
Then there's Bust the Dust, which plays on our desire to have more normal, everyday chores in our sims' lives, but dust used to come back so often and so quickly that any sim with a house bigger than a shoe box had to spend their entire free time vacuuming! I don't know if that has been fixed yet because I don't own the kit, but I wanted it and decided not to get it after hearing about other players' complaints.
If you buy the roomba vacuum cleaner and upgrade it so you don't need to clean it, you practically get rid of the dust situation. Just set it on automatic and it will completely take care of the dust for you. You'll need one on each floor of the house.
I feel like the game is a lot better than before, in large part thanks to various free updates, but I also have a lot of DLC, so it's a little difficult for me to judge the quality of the base game. The checklists for everything from events to aspirations to careers still bore me, but the game manages to be fun still, at least in small doses. And I can spend hours building and decorating lots. That's the part I enjoy most about this game.
I look at each one as its own separate entity. I've played, S1, S2, Castaway, Pets, and Sims Medieval. S2 was my favorite, with Castaway a close second. Gosh I loved that game!
I miss the romantic interactions we had with S2 (all the cuddling and stuff) the most. I lost interest in Medieval because there was so much repetition and, worst of all, we couldn't build. Also, it took forever to walk your sim from one place to another.
That said, I love the look of the Sims4 sims the most, and the worlds are breathtaking. I love love love how much easier it is to build anything in Sims 4! Even the roofs are so much easier.
Beg to differ on roofs. Unless the structure is a basic rectangle roofing is a pain in the... TS2's auto roof isn't perfect, but it does the job without endless fussing, aggravation, and often failure. Not fond of the loss of yard area thanks to the lot limit being one square inboard of the actual boundary. Example, for a 30 x 20 lot, 96 squares are not available for anything other than some plants. That's out of a total of 600 squares. The bigger the lot, the bigger the loss.
The loss of yard area was the same in TS2, was it not?
For other build-stuff than fencing, yes. Fences could be placed on edge, but thats it without cheats or LotAdjuster.
My love, my love, my fearless love, I will not say goodbye..
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
I feel like the game is a lot better than before, in large part thanks to various free updates, but I also have a lot of DLC, so it's a little difficult for me to judge the quality of the base game. The checklists for everything from events to aspirations to careers still bore me, but the game manages to be fun still, at least in small doses. And I can spend hours building and decorating lots. That's the part I enjoy most about this game.
Same for myself! I mostly build, and can do that for hours, and then close the game and not play for days or weeks lol. Then Sometime, I will do a bit a gameplay with a household for a few days and then get bored and tire of it so I go back to TS3 haha.
Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly from my point of view:
The Good:
With improvements to the UI, game settings, and optional DLC's, Sims 4 has a much improved gameplay experience. We've also been getting nice little surprises along the way via updates/patches and SDX drops. Additional swatches of base game items, CAS improvements, etc. These things have helped to keep the game feeling refreshed and interesting. I hope they will continue to surprise us with old gamepack refreshes too.
The Bad:
With so much still missing from the game (cars, multi-purpose venues, multi-family households, key customization features, less choices for occult players, etc etc), the Sims 4 is still feeling a bit empty compared to previous versions. And of course, bugs. The neverending bugs and glitches that seem to take forever to get fixed. Not to mention the introduction of new bugs piling up on top of the older bugs. I'm one of the lucky few that doesn't suffer from a huge array of bugs in my game, but it certainly sounds like many other do and that's a shame.
The Ugly:
In 2014, we were able to play our game without an internet connection. We had the choice to play the game as an offline standalone or with online connectivity. This choice was a part of the original selling point of the game for most of us. The beauty of having a choice, the best of both worlds. That option was a major deciding factor for me when it came time to analyze whether or not I wanted to invest a ton of money into another new Sims game (knowing full well how much this game would end up costing me by the time all was said and done).
Fast forward to 10 years later and roughly $1200 invested into this game..... and EA just up and unilaterally decided to take that option away from us. Forcibly, by way of the EA App. We no longer have our original standalone game.
This is bad customer service, very bad. You don't sell a refrigerator/freezer to your customer, then show up to their house 10 years later and force them to change it over to a freezer only, thus taking away their ability to use their product in the way that was originally intended.
I can't help but feel hoodwinked and I'm very very salty about it.
I will continue to complete my Sims 4 collection until this iteration is at the end of its life, so that I can at least maximize my investment to its full potential. BUT.... this will be the end of the road for me and EA. I will not be investing my money into a Sims 5 or any other future EA products/games for fear of the same thing happening again. I no longer trust the product, nor the brand.
My Gallery ID: AncientMuse2
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." ~ Mark Twain
With you on this with one exception. I gave up on completing the collection years ago. I trust EA about as far as I can throw a fully loaded 1962 Buick Electra sedan.
Comments
1. Bugs, bugs, bugs!
This is the most important one, and it's not an opinion or a matter of personal preference, but a simple fact: The game is broken. Even though I play it a lot, I'd never recommend it to others for this very reason. I used to look forward to the monthly patches and the free new content they would sometimes bring, now I dread them because of how they might ruin my game again, often in ways I would never have anticipated. It's the same with packs, I bought High School Years in the current sale and I'm actually enjoying it, but hardly a day goes by without me discovering another thing that doesn't work. I mean, being the only participant in a chess tournament can be great, because without competition, my sim should automatically win, right? Not so much when there isn't even a judge around to declare the winner. And this is just one of the less serious problems.
2. Quantity over quality / All show, no substance
TS4 has been running for much longer and produced many more expansions than any previous iterations of the game. Even back when I bought it in 2017, there was already so much content that I didn't even know where to start, but at the same time, all that content is extremely restrictive and shallow. Everything looks nice, but leaves a lot to be desired in the gameplay department. Why give us 500 different cat breeds to mix and match as we please when cats do so little in the game that there's no point in owning one? There was a time when they were able to learn tricks (now only dogs can) and even go to work (TS2), now they're just animated decor objects. Then there's the worlds, so beautifully designed, but empty and boring. The creepy alley leading up to the hill with the overturned streetlamp in Forgotten Hollow is a great example, it looks cool and mysterious, but there's nothing going on there, nothing to do other than sit on a bench, so why even bother going all the way up there? Sometimes less is more. I think it's not an unpopular opinion that I would prefer having less content that is, however, more fleshed out and not just pretty to look at.
3. Good ideas, poor execution / No sense of scale
Somewhat related to the above, many cool features have been added over time, both as free base game updates and in packs. But more often than not, they end up being more trouble than they're worth. I think the wants and fears system works fine nowadays, but it was terribly intrusive at first, and not fixed for a very long time. My sims kept getting the same fears over and over again, as if the game was criticising my play style (yeah, sorry for not fulfilling their every whim, but you know, some of those whims are utterly nonsensical). Then there's Bust the Dust, which plays on our desire to have more normal, everyday chores in our sims' lives, but dust used to come back so often and so quickly that any sim with a house bigger than a shoe box had to spend their entire free time vacuuming! I don't know if that has been fixed yet because I don't own the kit, but I wanted it and decided not to get it after hearing about other players' complaints. It's like every time there's a new feature, it gets rubbed in our faces at any given opportunity, and once enough players complain about that, it gets disabled completely, like that's the only alternative (looking at you, vampire break-ins).
So yeah, TLDR: Base game is better now, but I still have my fair share of gripes with TS4, even now in 2023.
Something wicked this way comes!
I don't use MCCC.
If you buy the roomba vacuum cleaner and upgrade it so you don't need to clean it, you practically get rid of the dust situation. Just set it on automatic and it will completely take care of the dust for you. You'll need one on each floor of the house.
I miss the romantic interactions we had with S2 (all the cuddling and stuff) the most. I lost interest in Medieval because there was so much repetition and, worst of all, we couldn't build. Also, it took forever to walk your sim from one place to another.
That said, I love the look of the Sims4 sims the most, and the worlds are breathtaking. I love love love how much easier it is to build anything in Sims 4! Even the roofs are so much easier.
For other build-stuff than fencing, yes. Fences could be placed on edge, but thats it without cheats or LotAdjuster.
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
Same for myself! I mostly build, and can do that for hours, and then close the game and not play for days or weeks lol. Then Sometime, I will do a bit a gameplay with a household for a few days and then get bored and tire of it so I go back to TS3 haha.
Here's the good, the bad, and the ugly from my point of view:
The Good:
With improvements to the UI, game settings, and optional DLC's, Sims 4 has a much improved gameplay experience. We've also been getting nice little surprises along the way via updates/patches and SDX drops. Additional swatches of base game items, CAS improvements, etc. These things have helped to keep the game feeling refreshed and interesting. I hope they will continue to surprise us with old gamepack refreshes too.
The Bad:
With so much still missing from the game (cars, multi-purpose venues, multi-family households, key customization features, less choices for occult players, etc etc), the Sims 4 is still feeling a bit empty compared to previous versions. And of course, bugs. The neverending bugs and glitches that seem to take forever to get fixed. Not to mention the introduction of new bugs piling up on top of the older bugs. I'm one of the lucky few that doesn't suffer from a huge array of bugs in my game, but it certainly sounds like many other do and that's a shame.
The Ugly:
In 2014, we were able to play our game without an internet connection. We had the choice to play the game as an offline standalone or with online connectivity. This choice was a part of the original selling point of the game for most of us. The beauty of having a choice, the best of both worlds. That option was a major deciding factor for me when it came time to analyze whether or not I wanted to invest a ton of money into another new Sims game (knowing full well how much this game would end up costing me by the time all was said and done).
Fast forward to 10 years later and roughly $1200 invested into this game..... and EA just up and unilaterally decided to take that option away from us. Forcibly, by way of the EA App. We no longer have our original standalone game.
This is bad customer service, very bad. You don't sell a refrigerator/freezer to your customer, then show up to their house 10 years later and force them to change it over to a freezer only, thus taking away their ability to use their product in the way that was originally intended.
I can't help but feel hoodwinked and I'm very very salty about it.
I will continue to complete my Sims 4 collection until this iteration is at the end of its life, so that I can at least maximize my investment to its full potential. BUT.... this will be the end of the road for me and EA. I will not be investing my money into a Sims 5 or any other future EA products/games for fear of the same thing happening again. I no longer trust the product, nor the brand.
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." ~ Mark Twain