Like to say although I have not posted before I have been playing since Sims 2. I played Sims 4 for 3 hours this is how I feel about it.
What I like- *Multitasking-It is nice to be able to do multiple things at once and have group conversation. *Emotions-I like how what your Sim is feeling affects what they can do. *New relationship bar-I like how they made friendship and romantic relationships two separate bars. *Social interactions- I like that there are several new social interactions and types of actions. *Search option in edit décor.
What I Dislike- *The world/maps-Seems overly small with limited options to add new lots makes the town feel overly simplified. The world seems incomplete, especially with the lack of color and detail in the area around town.-This is the biggest issue I had with the game. *Travel-The magic poof travel makes it feel incomplete compared to other Sims games. It also adds a disconnect from the roll playing aspect. *User interface- Dislike the search for the small drop down bubble buttons. I also had issue with the décor interface, trouble getting the object to rotate. *NPC services-Had issue with the in game services not sure if it was a bug but the maid I tried to hire never showed up. Fire started wile cooking immediately lost control of sim died to a fire even thou there was a fire alarm and a guest no fire department was called to help. *Exploring-Dislike that you cant walk outside of your current zone to search for things, and that close to home are harvest nodes to get the collectables. Liked the open world Sims 3 feel for that. *These things combined made the game feel incomplete. I was not satisfied and have uninstalled it probably not going to play it would feel more like a complete game.
Recommendations- *Build on success and upgrade what was good. Basically have part of the Sims team or second Sims team adapt stuff packs from earlier games to the currant game. Then if a player has a registered copy of the expansion/stuff pack you automatically get access to compatible stuff. This means you can sell the old stuff packs to new players (probably not sell as well as new.) You can do the same adapting maps from the earlier Sims game allowing people to replay on the maps the loved from earlier games.-This should prevent complaints when you upgrade from editions about lack of content if you start it now and keep going with it when you make Sims 5. *Do not make expiation packs basically require that you have to use the map including with it to fully get access to the new stuff. A good example from Sims 3 was Isle paradise, you had to play on its map to get full resort experience. Instead if it requires such changes as a new map do a travel section like the down town from Sims 2. Doing the same thing for college would allow a Sim to stay at home and commute to college.
lets see.... how can i put a ncie delicate touch on this while being polite and keep it PG... well first of love all the create a sim options. it was an experince im still getting used to. the gameplay was alright but the main feedback i wanted to give.... what the heck where you guys smokeing when you screwed upt he town system?!? thos elittle regions of town instead of a full map town like in sims 3? a rude slap to my face. i cant be anywhere near as creative with the town as in sims 3. i can hope an expansion fixes this, but right know your whole town feature is a joke. and thats putting it nicely. sorry no. i wont be playign anymore of the sims 4 till its fixed. back to the sims 3 where i get real freedom. such a joke.
What I like: 1: CAS is much improved 2: General building / construction tools have improved 3: General gameplay feels smoother / better
What I don't like: 1: No terrain modification tools (apparently the world is now flat) 2: No custom colour / texture tool, only preset choices available 3: Extremely limited "edit town" options 4: Lack of basements (I realise this was NOT a feature of the Sims 3 base game though) 5: Seemingly no height adjustment for sims in CAS so they're either child or adult height 6: So many loading screens (yes it helps performance but it could be handled better) 7: Removal of in-depth Baby / Toddler life stages 8: Art style seems too "cartoony" now, more so than previous games
Overall Thoughts: So far Sims 4 as a whole feels like a "One step forward, two steps back" release, while my above list may not read as such there is a good amount of improvement from Sims 3 in my opinion but for every good change there are more bad changes.
The whole "Building Tools" thing is a great example of this, generally I think there are some huge improvements in that area with things like the modular rooms but while it makes building much easier in general there is a distinct lack of advanced building tools now. The "Create-A-Style" tool from Sims 3 was an invaluable tool for advanced building as you could recolour / retexture almost everything, so for example you could make two identical structures look completely different just by changing the colours and textures and so the whole style / theme. Add to that the lack of terrain modification so every house MUST have flat ground, no longer can we create uneven or elevated areas for that more natural yard look.
General Sim interaction and gameplay is another good example, generally everything has improved and feels more fluid until you come to having children. That element of gameplay has regressed to a Sims 1 level now, the complete removal of the in-depth baby / toddler life stages is a gross error in my opinion.
Suggestions: 1: Add basic terrain modification tools so we can add elevated or uneven areas of ground to lots. 2: Add some kind of "Create-A-Style" tool like Sims 3 had to allow custom texture / colour combinations. 3: Add more "edit town" functionality, the ability to add / move lots around and so on, or release some kind of simple "World Editor" tool that can edit saved game worlds as well as blank / new ones. 4: Instead of only loading just ONE lot at a time add the option to load all lots for the block / section you travel to. I appreciate that restricting the amount of detailed lots that load is a good way to improve performance for those with low spec PCs but there's no excuse for forcing those with better PCs to endure the same and when they should be capable of loading a few more lots at a time without any performance loss, especially given how the game world appears to be broken down into sections now. 5: Release a more realistic / less cartoony texture pack for optional download. 6: Add some kind of optional toddler life stage like Sims 2 and 3 had, so those that want to interact with toddlers can do so and those that don't can have the simple version.
I was really excited for this game to come out, pre-ordered it, pre-downloaded it, and started playing it at exactly 10 pm on September 1st (that's the time it came out for me). I'm not going to lie to you, for me, this game was the biggest waste of $70. This game is more Sims 2.5 than Sims 4. I understand that this is just the base game, and that more items and abilities will be available with upcoming expansion packs, but that will cost me so much more money, money that I'm not willing to pay on prettier looking Sims 2.
OK, this is gonna be a long post lol . I've been playing since sims 1, have bought every EP day of release and this one was no different.
What I like
The new features of buy mode and CAS are incredible! Everything I disliked about Building and creating Sims has been addressed in this aspect. More control over body shapes, easier navigating through options, better filtering options in CAS so you are not scrolling through dozens and dozens of outfits to look for that one item you know is in there somewhere. Hats separated from hairstyles, YES!! The over all clothing options are more extensive and better designed overall from TS3 as well.
Build mode is also amazing, the control and ease of building a house is amazing. I rarely built my own houses in TS3 as I would get frustrated and give up long before my house was done. I had so much fun just building a house, I seriously think that alone will keep me entertained for a while!
The amount and design of the items in Buy mode surprised and pleased me. For a base game I felt there was a lot more included that base game TS2 or TS3. LOVE that you can place multiple things on the wall at whatever height you want. Also love the sizing cheat! It's great you can take a tiny painting that would be awesome on a large wall and make it bigger so it looks right. Also love the options for kitchen counters!
I like the sims AI and their emotions. The game play in that aspect is great. It does add a better sense of realism and depth to the game. It also makes it more challenging to build relationships which I love. Honestly I haven't explored emotions to much yet but what I've seen I like.
What I'm so/so on
Not Open World- I LOVE the fact that we can travel to other towns LOVE IT. Also love the TONS of sims on lots! Awesome to go to a bar that actually is full of sims! If thats the trade off for a non-totally open world I'll take it in a heartbeat. However, I HATE the fact that each lot we go to is a loading screen. I really thought you'd be able to travel freely within lots of the same neighborhood. I was very dissapointed when my sim went next door, and a loading screen popped up.
Jobs- LOVE all the new jobs. I really do. But I really miss some of the old ones too. Especially the Business career. That is such a common, basic career track that I was really shocked it wasn't there.
NO Create-a-Style- I don't mind it so much for clothing. Honestly when most people dress they don't have exactly matching clothing and no CAS there allows me to very quickly dress my sims and not take an hour trying to choose colors for 4 spots in one pattern on one piece of clothing. I just really wish there were about 12+ color options for EACH item. Seeing a great shirt or boots with only like 4 color options really hurts. There are some items that have tons of color choices but others with only a couple. Don't get that.
No CAS in build mode I really dislike. House decor needs to match. I really miss at least the color wheel there. It seem like the color choised for furniture is way less than clothing.
What I dislike
Camera- I choose the SIMS3 style camera from the beginning but I cannot edge scroll down! Very Very frustrating!
Indoor lighting- It is so dark in my houses even with tons of lights that my sims seriously take on a grayblue color and nearly look like zombies! I have to assume this is some sort of glitch or something because it is truly bad.
No carpool/schoolbus/taxi. If we can't have an open world can we at least have that?
The size/look of teenagers. Seriously? They are basically the same size/look as adults! It's almost impossible to tell the difference at a venue when sims are walking around. I really really don't like that. Teens should look like teens. They should at least be about a head shorter than adults.
No toddlers- OK. I don't like, but can live with for now- no pools no open world no cas ect. The game NEEDS toddlers. It is a huge gaping hole in the life of the Sims. Hands down the BIGGEST disappointment of the game hands down.
Filling Sims Needs should not take up 70% of a sims free time. Between Sleeping/Job/Needs I barely have any time to do anything else. I want my sims to socialize and have hobbies, not constantly watch them pee,take a shower, eat and sleep!
The world size is WAY to small. There is no open world there is NO excuse for not having larger worlds. Seriously. IMO there should be at least 30-35 lots per world. And a nice mix of open lots of various sizes. I was upset that there were no large open lots AT ALL and only 3 empty ones per world.
Suggestions
Tempering the transitioning of emotions. I like them but as others have said their emotional states change so rapidly and to such extremes, they do seem a bit bipolar at times.
TODDLERS- nuff said.
Dishwashers and Food processors- why the heck are they not there?
More traditional job options especially a business career.
Better indoor lighting - Hopefully addressed in a patch
Less rapid need decay. - perhaps not letting needs decay when they are at school or work?
More things for them to do. Right now it is very limited, but I do recognize it is a base game.
More color choices for each item in CAS and Built/buy mode. (I'd ask for a color wheel but I know at this point that's not gonna happen)
Add one or two more "neighborhoods" to each town with empty lots. People will not even care if they are all totally empty.
Shorter better recognizable Teens
Bring back TS3 type mariage where you can choose your sims last name and move them in at the time of the marriage if they are not living there already.
Move the camera controls to the bottom where the rest of the controls are. It's really frustrating to have to be moving your mouse all over the screen to access game functions. They should ALL be at the bottom.
Edge Scrolling needs to work when you have your mouse at the bottom of the screen.
Thanks for reading. Over all, I think it's a solid start to a new Sims Game. There just is a lot missing from this base game that I feel should be there, ESPECIALLY pools and toddlers.
I have to say, for the first time since I've played the Sims (I've played since #1), I am extremely disappointed. The price point for this game is outrageous! I bought this game thinking the $70 would give me an experience no other edition of the Sims has before. This edition barely holds my attention for more than an hour or two.
Things I dislike: 1) Seamless neighborhoods. I CAN'T BELIEVE you guys didn't do that. I hate the loading screens and as more expansions come out it will take longer and longer to load different areas. Plus the community lots are so limited! 2) Clothing and hair styling options. Also an extremely limited selection 3) Personalized options of objects, building, clothing and hair. in the sims 3 the creative tool was so versatile! I don't understand why the options are so few. 4) Tattoo creator... Ummm hello? Why can't I pick colors for my tattoos? 5) Career choices. It's too confusing, comedy and music do not go hand in hand. 6) Lifetime wishes and ambition points. When my sim completes a wish and I gain points, the rewards are stupid and incomplete. 7) Personality traits. The options are also so few and I don't think with the advancement of the sims themselves there should be 3 choices. 8) No pools or cars. Two elements that are essential to playing. 9) no toddler stage? no hospital to give birth in? RIDICULOUS
Things I like: 1) the realistic nature of the the sims body and faces 2) the graphics in the lots 3) roofing, wall, window and door options. Thank you for allowing us to make them higher or lower. 4) Advancement in the options for cooking and gardening 5) Shorter time periods to complete art work, etc.
I really hope with new expansions you will go back to seamless neighborhoods and add more creative tools! :|
As a mega-huge-, always and forever fan of the "Sims" series...I'm majorly disappointed in this latest installment. "TS3" was almost limitless compared to any previous installment. Years of great fun and most people were a hundred percent willing to buy any expansion pack. Yes, it was that good. TS4 really is the worst attempt at improving and evolving the series to date. "It feels like a demo-only for a tablet or cell phone". The wide, open, expansive Sim world was really one of the series biggest achievements, now reduced to loading screens and a menu style neighborhood. Game Launch is incredibly fast, and would be heavily praised if what players actually load up was pleasing. Honestly, as a paying customer for years, and satisfied with every purchase to date, I feel insulted and cheated. TS3 was so good compared to this latest game, I'm sure many players here can remember being excited for every silly piece of data you gave us. This latest whack at evolving the series was short sighted, clearly aimed at players pocket books by stripping many basic features out, and too heavily focused on things that only made up about a quarter of the fun players had with the previous titles. CAS has potential to be great, but is highly frustrating (could not reduce my Sims face width, or do much to change him from the basic Asian male he started out as). "The game feels like it was produced by people that never played the Sims series". It feels like a half decent attempt to mimic the Sims 3. It feels like EA is counting on selling us more "add-ons" than ever before by offering such an expensive, stripped down base game.
As insane as this is to say, based on previous experience with Sims products, this may be the first Sims game I could care less if I ever played again.
What I liked: The new Create A Sim is perfect... apart from no longer being able to customize our clothing. And the fact that these over-exagerrated expressions make the nuanced face we can now create into a distorted mask. And the fact that the body shape we can now create is randomly destroyed by weird weight gains and muscle bulking.
What I didn't like: Practically everything else. No more fertilize all with best fertilizer? Could the menuing for bait and fertilizer be handled any worse? I suppose if the menu choices actively avoided the mouse, maybe. Spoiling fish and yet no ability to choose which ingredients we want to use for the fish tacos? Loading screens to literally go three steps across property lines, really, you couldn't see your way clear to loading the whole subgroup of the tiny "world" (calling it a "world" rather than a cul-de-sac doesn't really fool us, you know) at once? Can't even fool with the inventory and queue up actions when at work? No sprinklers? No dishwashers? No trash compacters? Really? We already know you're going to wheedle as much money out of us as you can, there's no need to be grotesque about it. People have proven they will pay you for just about ANY crap you intend to add to the game, there's no need to make the rest of us feel like we paid $60 for a DEMO.
Suggestions: Loosen the purse strings a little. Give us a complete, enjoyable game to start with. Let us walk from lot to lot within a group without waiting for a load screen, or at least give us back the minigame load screens if we're going to encounter them constantly. Give us back our dishwasher, even if it's just the crappy cheap ones we had initially. A sequel shouldn't feel like such a huge step backwards-- we're not all expecting all the expansions and the like but could you at least simulate having put some effort in here?
Overall Thoughts: Emotions are not the new idea we were sold. They're not really far from moodlets, just dumbed down. They're not worth the extremely restricted gameplay, they don't add enough to be worth it. We'll buy expansions, you know that we will, so give us back some of what you're withholding when you patch the bulky body bug.
Seriously. I'd say you phoned this in, but even the phones are dumbed down to nothing in this mess. So disappointing.
What I like: - The "cartoony" aspect of the game makes it somehow even more fun than aiming for realistic (since Sims are by nature, cartoons). - The game is 10x faster than the Sims 3 ever was. This is probably due in part from cutting the neighborhoods down and closing the world drastically (something I'll get to later). - Sims multitasking ... awesome awesome! - The moods have been surprisingly not as annoying as I anticipated. I love the unique social aspects of them. - Build mode ... as an architectural student, I give this build mode an A+. - CAS is great as well. - Simplified customization. Sims 3 seemed to get carried away in how far it would let you customize everything. While that neither here nor there for me, it was nice to open a fresh game with more limited possibilities so that way items match more. - The loading screens are not nearly as bad as I thought they would be. - The music is fantastic! - Great idea splitting romantic and friendship bars ... now all my best friends can't fall in love the second one accidentally flirts with another.
What I dislike: - The map ... to say that I feel like I'm playing Sims 1 again is even an understatement. At least in Sims 1, you had more than 2 lots and you still had some control over customizing your community lots. I feel VERY claustrophobic in The Sims 4. I enjoyed Sims 3 in that I could build anywhere and everywhere and even create my own worlds. My Sims 3 houses ran into the ocean, overlooked the mountains, sat up on cliffs, and the game gave me a lot to play with. Sims 4 neighborhoods have great detail, but the backgrounds don't even match the map itself. I can't be creative at all. Is there a way to improve the feel of the neighborhood without compromising game speed? - No pools ... ? Why? I mean, I know why ... but why? - Doesn't seem to have many clothing options for the male Sims. But I'm sure EPs will fix this. - Toddlers? They were annoying but I miss them ... never thought I'd say that. - Cars? Sims 1 even had cars ... why Sims 4 not have cars?! :)
Suggestions: - Make us an open world concept that makes the town much much MUCH larger and yet maybe only loads a section of it at a time? I'm not a game techie so I can sit here and demand blood from roses all day, but there has to be something that can be done about the neighborhood and how small it is. I'm talking I want the stadium, fire house, town hall, school, the myriads of community lots, etc back. - I said this with Sims 3, but I REALLY miss Sims 2 Open for Business. I'd like an EP similar to that one in the future. - Pets ... ohhh man, I said it.
Overall thoughts: Love the game. Happy I bought it. The lack of neighborhood though makes the game worth about half of what I paid for it. If that can be improved, I'll be very content. :)
My biggest complaint is that there is no color wheel!!!! Not being able to tilt, or edge scroll are biggies as well, but I have never liked Maxis' color options. I normally spend 3+ hours making my Sims a house, where the same loopy design is matched in my Dining room walls, and on the seats of my chairs. Not having a color wheel/being able to make my house MINE is a huge, HUGE set back for me. TS4 feels like a re-hashing of TS1, but with better graphics. Come on Maxis, you had a good thing going with 3, why'd you have to "fix" things that aren't broken!!!
What I like: -You can do so much in build mode and make a sim in so little time. -Emotion-specific interactions. -All the different skills.
What I don't like: So far, my biggest issue is having sims in 2 different places. When I switch to a sim in a different location, the sim I was controlling stops doing the things I told it to do. I tell one sim to sleep at home and then follow another sim to the park. When I come back, the sim that was supposed to be sleeping is standing in the front yard. Once, I told a sim to cook three cakes while I took a different sim to the bar. When we got back, the bowl from the first cake was still sitting out.
One small thing I don't like is that things like cook get charged as soon as you tell the sim to do it, not when the sim is doing it. So, if you tell a sim to bake a cake, and for some reason he doesn't get to it, that money is lost.
imo we should be able to do something about some of the requirements for promotions, aspirations and grades. One of my teenaged sims needs to go to school focused in order to be able to go to the next grade. I've been trying to do this constantly and I just find it impossible to do. I'd love to be able to shuffle the requirements so it could be someone more attainable. The same sim also needs to serenade another sim while flirty. My sim is having enough trouble trying to just go to school focused. Let alone have time to go out and flirt.
That being said. Being able to shuffle our requirements would be awesome
Trees fade several meters away, same for pillars, furniture also fades way too early - which ruins a lot of possible shots. The fading simply seems to be the same as in normal camera mode where it is fine, but for "in world" camera shots it is just rather weird and jarring and it should be WAY CLOSER for EVERYTHING (except for the Sims themselves). Please fix the fading distance for the camera mode, so we can do nice screenshots again!
2. Doors no longer lockable for specific sims:
I liked the personal room of my Sim being locked from guests because they sometimes tend to run in and use like the personal computer etc. at parties of which I don't approve. It should be easy enough to put back in, so please consider it!
3. Unwashable dish cannot be picked up:
My sim ate something in front of the lot (but just short of the actual boundaries), and then couldn't clean it up because obviously there is no kitchen sink out on the street. I could have easily solved this by making her pick up the dish and get it onto my lot where it can be dealt with - but that's not possible. As a result: unwashable dish stuck forever outside on sidewalk!
4. Picking the various work tones is too unobvious:
This is just a minor UI nitpick, but if I didn't know Sims 3 had that and searched it actively in Sims 4, it would have NEVER occured to me that picking the work tone (e.g. "Work hard") is hidden in that tiny icon down there. Same for returning home. The UI is otherwise a large improvement, but the buttons on those tiny character portraits are just way too hidden.
5. The tutorial is VERY obtrusive and way too hard to turn off:
The tutorial with its huge annoying pop ups is horrible, mainly because: 1. You can't skip past much of it easily, 2. You cannot turn it off entirely except for the arcane --no_tutorial command line option 3. For someone who knows Sims 3, it's just waaaaay too much into details. Not useful at all, just plain annoying to have those huge boxes take up screen space all the time with stuff I couldn't care less about. ==> Make an obvious button to skip through whole sections of the tutorial e.g. like "I know how camera handling works, skip!" (and get me to relevant parts of teh tutorial) ==> Allow me to turn off the tutorial entirely in the game options. The command line option is way too arcane, had to google quite a bit to find it and it's not obvious to beginners how to appl it.
6. When sitting on a chair or a couch, there is (for some Sims) gross visible clipping of legs into the furniture:
This one is just a detail, but it bothers me. If you get a chance, do a simple runtime check how deep the legs of the mesh are actually protruding into the furniture, and adjust the vertical Sim position accordingly to fix that. It just looks odd in an otherwise very polished game!
-- Thanks otherwise for an amazing game. Runs much smoother than Sims 3, the way you can easily switch and travel/visit between all worlds with almost no loading time is amazing and I can wait a bit for swimming pools, toddlers and dishwashers (I do expect them to come to the game soon in some way though! Make it happen!).
Like: new emoticons, character creation and interactions Don't like: inability to color things in the environment using a color wheel, patterns, etc, of my choosing. Like: quick loading Don't like: camera positioning, even when options are set to Sims 3, you can no longer zoom in and see things from a 'sims viewpoint' which is a major issue when decorating. It also forces you to play the game with walls down most of the time, whereas I prefer walls up. The way zooming is now restricted to certain angles - makes that almost impossible. Don't like, inability to react with the world like before, instead getting a load screen. In Sims 3 you could stop along the way on your jog, bike ride, car ride, etc, to pick up metals, interact with people or animals, etc. Now you have to just go to where it is you want to go on the map instantly with no interactions. Like: new occupations, and requirements for advancing Don't like: Inability to specify sims life spans, predetermined amount are all that is available instead of a sliding scale. Don't like: loss of toddlers.
What you liked: * Unique promotion requirements (i.e. list of things to do to get promoted). It makes it a lot more interesting! * Overall, the new UI - though its taken awhile to get used to. * Character creation screen * House building tools (especially moving entire rooms) * The speed in which the game loads (On the same PC I would boot the Sims 3 up, and go make breakfast. :wink: This game is loaded within 30 seconds to a minute, max.) * New Career types (Though if a computer geek programs they should find it fun!)
What you didn't like: * The character bar locks when they go to work. I hate as I like to browse how they are doing and plan out what to have them do when they get home. * Toddlers, dishwashers, trash compactors and pools are missing * Small Neighborhoods (I don't mind the loading screen.. not ideal but if that is what it takes to make the game load as fast as it does then I am happy.) * The removal of the achievements for skills * The fact that the job system wasn't more like the professions - I would have expected work to be a lot more interactive by v4.
Suggestions? * Do not give us toddlers, pools, dishwashers or trash compactors in a pack that we have to buy. Own the fact that the fans are upset and give us this in a free patch. These have been core features of all of the other games. * Make pets and weather one of the first expansions. :smiley: * I'd like a sectional couch! * The burglar is missing... I liked having the chance of being robbed. (Though, I did prefer when I got paid to be robbed!)
Overall thoughts? * I'd expected a lot more out of the game, even as the base launch. A lot of great features were added and I do love the new UI and a lot of the functionality behind the characters. If someone asked me which they should buy (#3 or #4) I would point them to the third as this one is overpriced for what you get. (To be clear - I've been playing since the first Sims and even played the Sims Online.)
I have to say I was so disappointed in the Sims 4. It was such a waste of money. The towns are so small they are a joke, we can't blend our own colors, the makeup is terrible, and frankly I think they act stupid. Where are the toddlers? What good is a family without toddlers? There are no babysitters, no stores or theaters. They don't even take taxi's. I'm tossing it on the shelf to collect dust and going back to Sims 3. It was a huge waste of money. I'm sorry, I simply can't find anything good to say about it.
•What you liked
some of the sim creation things were easy enuf, still needs more places to push and pull on though for more variety though.
•What you didn't like
missing the CAS (Create a Style), if EVERYTHING had the same color choices, wouldn't mind SO much. But NOT being able to change textures and colors to make outfits match or look different REALLY slurped. only the 4 to 8 preset choices? no variety. we're talking Eiffel Tower sized slurpage here.
•Suggestions?
remake the CAS tool. it's what made the Sims3 SO awesome. Variety. I could take a simple chair, make it wood of any color, metal or paint, slap cloth, wood, leather, velvet, etc on the seat.. take furniture from different groups and sets and make them all match. same with clothes.. I could make the jacket leather, shirt velvet, denim, whatever.. the possibilities were endless ..
with just a few premade choices.. the creativity of the Sims themselves was lost to just facial features and a little body work.
Houses still got SOME variety, you can BUILD anything you want, but are limited to the few swatches available, and they might not match the handrailing, or the floor, or the doors you choose might HAVE to have the oddball looking white frame, where most everytrhing else has wood, etc..
you dropped the ball, it's the last play, with 2 yards to go.. and the ball rolled down into the volcano and landed 400 feet below next to lava.
how DARE you take that away from us?
I applied for a refund as SOON as I found out.
•Overall thoughts?
some handy features on the create a sim, still needs more places to push and pull or adjust curves. Lats, shoulders up/down, up and back or slouch, upper and lower ribs, belly, hips, change the size of the ends of each limb segment (I had popeye arms when I was young), buttocks up/down, rounder/flatter, in/out, teardrop/pear/apple/orange. ... etc
still missing a lot of careers, need to be able to place more objects inbetween squares, like windows and doors.. need to be able to center them on anything.
need roofs to be able to be on a rounded edge or octagon surface... I made a octagon spot, flowed the house off of it, and only had square roofs, and a rounded porch end.. but ONLY square stuff.. yea.. the roof was hideous... my date would have laughed her way all the way to the cab ride home.. without stepping foot on my property.
town view was horrid, sims 3 town view and editing were fine.
though the sims 3 was still too picky about where you could place new lots.
need lots where you can make walk out basements, shoreline, riverside, etc.
Loving this game so far... I love the maternity make over and how the Sims just flow with the game!!! Each hour I play I love it even more- It took me a year to want to play the Sims 3 when it came out and that is def not the feeling with this game- awesome job!!
What I miss- TODDLERS and the fact that teen, young adult and adult have no real distinguishing features. The height difference is def missed.
It is a new game with a new feel and just need to adjust after playing the Sims 3 for 5 years but overall I am so happy with this game!!
1. Graphics. Like the new look of the game. 2. Clothes. Love that my pregnant sims are able to wear their current clothes and not some fixed maternity clothes. 3. Loading time is great because my SIMS3 used to take longer. 4. Cooking. Funny to see my sim mess up when cooking.
Dislikes
1. Didn't see a color chart, so I'm not able to customize the color of the furniture/clothes. (is there a color chart? i didn't see one..) 2. Travelling. Didn't like that it wasn't seamless like in SIMS3. 3. Gardening. Prefer the SIMS3 gardening method. Used to love gardening in SIMS3, now I loathe it in SIMS4. 4. User interface. It was confusing for me, takes some getting used to.
Suggestions
1. Restaurants in town! My dates can't go anywhere to eat except the park. Worst is I gotta pay for it and cook it. 2. Toddlers. Lots of interactions with the toddlers! 3. Babies not tied to the crib. It was what I hated most in SIMS. 4. Seamless travelling like in SIMS3. 5. Pools
Overall thoughts
1. Love the game. Definitely do not regret purchasing it. Just hope the bugged baby will be fixed ASAP. Lastly I would love to see suggestions by us players to be taken highly into consideration into improving the game.
after finally playing it today wt my best friends place.
love the emotions love multittasking love that we can chose walk style love the cas
thats the good part of it.
it feels like this game was made for online and then quickly changed after simcity went downhill. i feel isolated bound to my house and as i love to design houses and worldmaps, this is not really my game i think. also i cant get over the cartoon look of it and also the neighborhood is terrible. no open world is even worse, no create a style is a step backwards imo.
even when building my house i felt limited.
the emotions and mulitasking is a step forward, but atm i think some of it is a little over the top..also cant believe how long my sim takes to do anything. cooking takes forever and the showers ...even peeing takes long now. i which there was more realistic walking styles and less over the top ones. not everyone wants to play a comedy. multitasking is great. i love i can read in the bathroom and all that, but i dont need to switch the tv on every single time i sit on the couch and talk to someone.
im sure some people will have fun with this game, but people like me that are creative with their environment and love to play the game the way they want and also design it that way, will not be so pleased.
like i said it does feel a little like an online game to me. like the community lots were made for online people to meet and then u go back to your own house where others can visit u. certain missing things kinda display that a little.
Okay, posted earlier about being a little skeptical and really wanting to like this game. I've played pretty much all afternoon and I have to say I am LOVING IT. Sure, there are some things missing...but I didn't really expect it to be exactly like Sims3. The social interactions are hilarious. Crazy Eyes is my fav!
Let's start with the positive: Build mode is SO much better! Seriously, hats off. I also liked that there were requirements for promotion, that speaks to my play style very nicely. I notice people complaining about chasing negative emotions or how hard the emotion system was to work in (some loved the extra challenge, somed hate it) - personally I found that it took some slight getting used to, but once I figured it out, it actually became fairly background to playing, they're fun and not very bothersome really.
I have one giant complaint with many pieces, and I feel this is going to be a bit of a full-on article. PLEASE read!! To entice your actual reading even though it's long, let's get something out of the way first: I do not care one bit about the lack of pools, basements, cars, etc. It doesn't bother me, and while I realize it's apparently a major big deal to some people, I just don't get it, and although I do understand the toddler issue, it just doesn't compare to the lack of an open world (or open anything). Also, in scanning through a lot of the previous posts, I notice that several issues people are complaining about can be resolved with just a few minutes in the Options panels. The vast majority of what I see here I find to be just lists of minor complaints, and I'm worried some major things that are integral to the entire gameplay are going to get lost in the shuffle, but I want to try. I've been a Simmer from Day 1, and I WANT to love TS4 - I'm hoping by reaching out, that might actually happen (some day).
The lack of an open world is AWFUL. TERRIBLE. CATASTROPHICALLY BAD. As in I will no longer be playing this game, that I was excited about, that I was watching every news bit for months, that I read all the articles from the people who went to Creators Camp. Origin shows 16 hours of play (and that's real play because I'd already created sims in the CAS demo, and I moved them into an existing house so I could get in and get going), so it's not that I haven't given it enough of a chance. I am so incredibly disappointed, and if I continue playing The Sims at all, I'll be returning to TS3. Unfortunately seeing what could have been done, had it been added to the good parts of TS3, now also makes 3 less enjoyable. I will very much miss the Build Mode, I will miss the promotion requirements, I did gain some enjoyment from working within the emotion system, and I will miss the increased expressiveness. I'm sorry I spent so much money buying a copy of the game for myself and for my husband (who has the exact same complaint as I, and for the exact same reasons), and I'm SO sorry that TS3 will now be considered done, so it won't be made any better going forward. That's maybe worst of all, because there will be nothing new for years into the future, and I think TS3 will become somewhat stale after I've explored it all in extreme depth, which means I'll likely end up leaving the franchise altogether, and that makes me sad, as it's awfully unique in the gaming world.
You see, The Sims has always been about being able to 'play your way,' and every title in the series has advanced that concept, until this one. Here, we take a massive step backward. The 'builders' I think will have a fantastic time, with more options for creativity coupled with easier functionality - that is an unmitigated win! The 'storytellers' I think will have a great time - it may take them more effort to get what they want out of the Sims, but they'll have a greater range of action and expression to use - so that's a win! The modders have all new toys to play with, and even some real support it seems this time. (Part of the reason why I don't have a list of the really minor issues is because I know there will be mods to take care of most of it pretty quickly, we have fantastic modders.) The 'voyeurs' and the 'demented' will have a great time seeing what their Sims get into with full autonomy or setting up crazy situations in which to torment them. But people who play like me? Bomb.
I have some definite 'builder' in me, I did some script mods in TS2 and some tuning in TS3, but I generally like to PLAY the game. As in, play all the sims in a family, play to 'win' sort of. I play the Legacy Challenge, for example. I enjoy playing huge families with lots of moving parts and everybody going for different goals on different schedules, where I can concentrate on one for several sim hours but still manage the others. But with 4, I couldn't. I know you guys created the game, and you probably can't see past the rainbow colors that paint your vision of it because of that. I've heard/read multiple interviews about how you feel that you've combined the best of both worlds, but you just... haven't. You've created TS2 with faster load screens, but worse than TS2 in actual gameplay!! In 2, when you went off the lot, the rest of your sims stopped. Granted, not particularly realistic, but it was an advancement from TS1, so it worked out. Let me outline the particular difficulties the current design entails, specifically how it's now 100% impossible to really manage my sims effectively, which is a VALID game style in which many many people engage.
1. There is pretty much no part of this that is an open world. You don't even get an open neighborhood! Why even call it a neighborhood, it doesn't actually function like one. You get essentially a lot that includes a street and a water object, and a very pretty painting (or animated gif) to look at that makes it seem like there are other houses and streets. But woe betide you should you want to visit your next-door neighbor - load screen. And then when you're there, you can SEE your house, and you know there are sims in it, but you can't actually do anything with those sims, just the one(s) who went visiting. You've created a static lot that happens to have more people that walk through it. That's an advancement from TS1, sure, but not from 3...
2. In TS3, I can zip around from sim to sim, checking in to see what they're doing, change what I want them to do, queueing up some stuff so they can reach the goals they want. TS4? Nope. Sure, I can switch from a sim in one location to a sim in another location (with yet another load screen naturally). But when I get to that other sim, they're standing out front of the location, doing nothing. That is not remotely helpful to be able to check in and make sure they were taking that bubble bath I had queued for them before I left with a different sim. Which leads me to...
3. The sims do not accomplish their queued actions when you leave them. So they finish using the toilet because they were doing that when you left, but they do not move on to then upgrade the sink like you told them. Also you run into this: It's time for my mom sim to go to work. But I nix that action because there's one more quick thing I want her to do before going, and then I queue up the going to work part. My teen sim meanwhile has asked somebody on a date to the park, and we go. As I'm going through the date, doing pretty well, I look down to find that the mom's briefcase icon is blinking because she didn't do her queued action of going to work. So I switch back to her (load screen) just to send her to work, which I do. I then switch back to my date in progress (load screen), only to find that there's actually no more date happening because I the player went to a different lot, and the date is now leaving.
4. So let's say you don't switch back to a sim, you just stay with the traveling sim, and you leave your other sims back home to do their own thing, then you run into things like this: I'm out at a location with one of my sims until until 2am simtime. She gets home (after still one more load screen of course) to find mom sim has decided to take care of her need for energy by NAPPING on her bed. WHAT?? It's 2am and she has work in 4 hours. If you are going to make it impossible for me to make sure my sims aren't being dumb, then you have to at least make them not be dumb when left on their own.
5. An additional minor impediment: some of the lots are large enough that finding a specific sim just by looking around. If a sim tries to call another, and that sim is already on the lot, you get a message to that effect. But unlike in TS3, clicking that other sim's portrait does not take you to them, you just have to search.
6. And then we come down to the simplest, most basic, in terms of lack of functionality: no UI for non-active-lot sims. This is a step backwards from even TS1 if I'm remembering correctly!! I mean, let's get super basic here: I have 3 sims in the house who have jobs. When they get promoted, they often end up with new work schedules. It is not appropriate for me to be expected to memorize the work schedules of all the working sims in my family. But once dad sim is at work, I have zero options for finding out when the heck he's due home!! This one really rises to the level of absolute ridiculousness, and basically epitomizes the massive glaring issues to be found in this load-screen-heavy game.
Here's where it's that much more disappointing, where it actually hurts that EA/Maxis did not give the least consideration to me as a player and loyal fan: you killed my style of play and called it the best of both worlds. It's not. At all. It's actually the worst of both, for the reasons described above. I've even tried to figure out if I could just modify it enough to make it work, albeit not ideally. I could choose to just be chained to my lot and make sure I have all the objects I need there, but that doesn't work in 4. If I want something like that near-instant boost to Focused, I have to read AT the library. Ok, that I could give up and get it the slower way. But in order to advance in the music career, I have to play for tips, and sims won't tip me in my "neighborhood" (read home lot with sidewalks and fishing). For my romantic sim to achieve his aspiration, he has to GO on dates, and achieve things on them. And I still won't know when dad is coming home from work.
To be fair, I think I understand why it's like this. Having an open world in general is more resource-intensive. Since there's the ability to boost skills at work, if you let us see the skill listing for an at-work sim, the game would actually have to call that process to show it. Same with (and especially with) needs, if they were actively changing in real time (simtime). Having a sim actually engaged in specific activities, so that you could 'check in' on them, would require a process running in the background. Why would EA show us what can be done and how great an open world really is in 3, and then take it away and call that good? Why would you choose to drive over those of us who have been playing for years in favor of people who want to be able to do everything on a tablet? What about those of us who have machines that could handle it all? Where is the middle ground: a slimmed down open world? Really, you had to reduce us from something like 100+ lots to ONE and load after load after load??? You couldn't even give us an open neighborhood, with a real community lot and four houses? Even barring all that, where is my ability to turn on full UIs, turn on active non-lot sims? No amount of pools, weather, pets, and stuff packs will make up for this. Until there's an expansion that fixes the WORLD, I have to bid a heavy-hearted adieu. And yes, I know better than to hold my breath on something that likely amounts to a complete overhaul.
You broke it, perhaps irreparably, and you called it better. :(
I really really really like this game. I really do. However it just isn't fun to me without the "story progression" I like being able to make my town full of wild and interesting characters and let the town live while I play a household for awhile and pop in and out of households to see what they are up to. I don't like that the sims sit and wait for me to come back to live their lives. It's annoying and such a hugh step back from the Sims 3. I'm incredibly disappointed and very upset I spent so much money purchasing the Premium edition. Also, why isn't the world open like it used to be? I feel a lot of the features of this game regressed back to the Sims 2.
Comments
What I like-
*Multitasking-It is nice to be able to do multiple things at once and have group conversation.
*Emotions-I like how what your Sim is feeling affects what they can do.
*New relationship bar-I like how they made friendship and romantic relationships two separate bars.
*Social interactions- I like that there are several new social interactions and types of actions.
*Search option in edit décor.
What I Dislike-
*The world/maps-Seems overly small with limited options to add new lots makes the town feel overly simplified. The world seems incomplete, especially with the lack of color and detail in the area around town.-This is the biggest issue I had with the game.
*Travel-The magic poof travel makes it feel incomplete compared to other Sims games. It also adds a disconnect from the roll playing aspect.
*User interface- Dislike the search for the small drop down bubble buttons. I also had issue with the décor interface, trouble getting the object to rotate.
*NPC services-Had issue with the in game services not sure if it was a bug but the maid I tried to hire never showed up. Fire started wile cooking immediately lost control of sim died to a fire even thou there was a fire alarm and a guest no fire department was called to help.
*Exploring-Dislike that you cant walk outside of your current zone to search for things, and that close to home are harvest nodes to get the collectables. Liked the open world Sims 3 feel for that.
*These things combined made the game feel incomplete. I was not satisfied and have uninstalled it probably not going to play it would feel more like a complete game.
Recommendations-
*Build on success and upgrade what was good. Basically have part of the Sims team or second Sims team adapt stuff packs from earlier games to the currant game. Then if a player has a registered copy of the expansion/stuff pack you automatically get access to compatible stuff. This means you can sell the old stuff packs to new players (probably not sell as well as new.) You can do the same adapting maps from the earlier Sims game allowing people to replay on the maps the loved from earlier games.-This should prevent complaints when you upgrade from editions about lack of content if you start it now and keep going with it when you make Sims 5.
*Do not make expiation packs basically require that you have to use the map including with it to fully get access to the new stuff. A good example from Sims 3 was Isle paradise, you had to play on its map to get full resort experience. Instead if it requires such changes as a new map do a travel section like the down town from Sims 2. Doing the same thing for college would allow a Sim to stay at home and commute to college.
1: CAS is much improved
2: General building / construction tools have improved
3: General gameplay feels smoother / better
What I don't like:
1: No terrain modification tools (apparently the world is now flat)
2: No custom colour / texture tool, only preset choices available
3: Extremely limited "edit town" options
4: Lack of basements (I realise this was NOT a feature of the Sims 3 base game though)
5: Seemingly no height adjustment for sims in CAS so they're either child or adult height
6: So many loading screens (yes it helps performance but it could be handled better)
7: Removal of in-depth Baby / Toddler life stages
8: Art style seems too "cartoony" now, more so than previous games
Overall Thoughts:
So far Sims 4 as a whole feels like a "One step forward, two steps back" release, while my above list may not read as such there is a good amount of improvement from Sims 3 in my opinion but for every good change there are more bad changes.
The whole "Building Tools" thing is a great example of this, generally I think there are some huge improvements in that area with things like the modular rooms but while it makes building much easier in general there is a distinct lack of advanced building tools now. The "Create-A-Style" tool from Sims 3 was an invaluable tool for advanced building as you could recolour / retexture almost everything, so for example you could make two identical structures look completely different just by changing the colours and textures and so the whole style / theme. Add to that the lack of terrain modification so every house MUST have flat ground, no longer can we create uneven or elevated areas for that more natural yard look.
General Sim interaction and gameplay is another good example, generally everything has improved and feels more fluid until you come to having children. That element of gameplay has regressed to a Sims 1 level now, the complete removal of the in-depth baby / toddler life stages is a gross error in my opinion.
Suggestions:
1: Add basic terrain modification tools so we can add elevated or uneven areas of ground to lots.
2: Add some kind of "Create-A-Style" tool like Sims 3 had to allow custom texture / colour combinations.
3: Add more "edit town" functionality, the ability to add / move lots around and so on, or release some kind of simple "World Editor" tool that can edit saved game worlds as well as blank / new ones.
4: Instead of only loading just ONE lot at a time add the option to load all lots for the block / section you travel to. I appreciate that restricting the amount of detailed lots that load is a good way to improve performance for those with low spec PCs but there's no excuse for forcing those with better PCs to endure the same and when they should be capable of loading a few more lots at a time without any performance loss, especially given how the game world appears to be broken down into sections now.
5: Release a more realistic / less cartoony texture pack for optional download.
6: Add some kind of optional toddler life stage like Sims 2 and 3 had, so those that want to interact with toddlers can do so and those that don't can have the simple version.
What I like
The new features of buy mode and CAS are incredible! Everything I disliked about Building and creating Sims has been addressed in this aspect. More control over body shapes, easier navigating through options, better filtering options in CAS so you are not scrolling through dozens and dozens of outfits to look for that one item you know is in there somewhere. Hats separated from hairstyles, YES!! The over all clothing options are more extensive and better designed overall from TS3 as well.
Build mode is also amazing, the control and ease of building a house is amazing. I rarely built my own houses in TS3 as I would get frustrated and give up long before my house was done. I had so much fun just building a house, I seriously think that alone will keep me entertained for a while!
The amount and design of the items in Buy mode surprised and pleased me. For a base game I felt there was a lot more included that base game TS2 or TS3. LOVE that you can place multiple things on the wall at whatever height you want. Also love the sizing cheat! It's great you can take a tiny painting that would be awesome on a large wall and make it bigger so it looks right. Also love the options for kitchen counters!
I like the sims AI and their emotions. The game play in that aspect is great. It does add a better sense of realism and depth to the game. It also makes it more challenging to build relationships which I love. Honestly I haven't explored emotions to much yet but what I've seen I like.
What I'm so/so on
Not Open World- I LOVE the fact that we can travel to other towns LOVE IT. Also love the TONS of sims on lots! Awesome to go to a bar that actually is full of sims! If thats the trade off for a non-totally open world I'll take it in a heartbeat. However, I HATE the fact that each lot we go to is a loading screen. I really thought you'd be able to travel freely within lots of the same neighborhood. I was very dissapointed when my sim went next door, and a loading screen popped up.
Jobs- LOVE all the new jobs. I really do. But I really miss some of the old ones too. Especially the Business career. That is such a common, basic career track that I was really shocked it wasn't there.
NO Create-a-Style- I don't mind it so much for clothing. Honestly when most people dress they don't have exactly matching clothing and no CAS there allows me to very quickly dress my sims and not take an hour trying to choose colors for 4 spots in one pattern on one piece of clothing. I just really wish there were about 12+ color options for EACH item. Seeing a great shirt or boots with only like 4 color options really hurts. There are some items that have tons of color choices but others with only a couple. Don't get that.
No CAS in build mode I really dislike. House decor needs to match. I really miss at least the color wheel there. It seem like the color choised for furniture is way less than clothing.
What I dislike
Camera- I choose the SIMS3 style camera from the beginning but I cannot edge scroll down! Very Very frustrating!
Indoor lighting- It is so dark in my houses even with tons of lights that my sims seriously take on a grayblue color and nearly look like zombies! I have to assume this is some sort of glitch or something because it is truly bad.
No carpool/schoolbus/taxi. If we can't have an open world can we at least have that?
The size/look of teenagers. Seriously? They are basically the same size/look as adults! It's almost impossible to tell the difference at a venue when sims are walking around. I really really don't like that. Teens should look like teens. They should at least be about a head shorter than adults.
No toddlers- OK. I don't like, but can live with for now- no pools no open world no cas ect. The game NEEDS toddlers. It is a huge gaping hole in the life of the Sims. Hands down the BIGGEST disappointment of the game hands down.
Filling Sims Needs should not take up 70% of a sims free time. Between Sleeping/Job/Needs I barely have any time to do anything else. I want my sims to socialize and have hobbies, not constantly watch them pee,take a shower, eat and sleep!
The world size is WAY to small. There is no open world there is NO excuse for not having larger worlds. Seriously. IMO there should be at least 30-35 lots per world. And a nice mix of open lots of various sizes. I was upset that there were no large open lots AT ALL and only 3 empty ones per world.
Suggestions
Tempering the transitioning of emotions. I like them but as others have said their emotional states change so rapidly and to such extremes, they do seem a bit bipolar at times.
TODDLERS- nuff said.
Dishwashers and Food processors- why the heck are they not there?
More traditional job options especially a business career.
Better indoor lighting - Hopefully addressed in a patch
Less rapid need decay. - perhaps not letting needs decay when they are at school or work?
More things for them to do. Right now it is very limited, but I do recognize it is a base game.
More color choices for each item in CAS and Built/buy mode. (I'd ask for a color wheel but I know at this point that's not gonna happen)
Add one or two more "neighborhoods" to each town with empty lots. People will not even care if they are all totally empty.
Shorter better recognizable Teens
Bring back TS3 type mariage where you can choose your sims last name and move them in at the time of the marriage if they are not living there already.
Move the camera controls to the bottom where the rest of the controls are. It's really frustrating to have to be moving your mouse all over the screen to access game functions. They should ALL be at the bottom.
Edge Scrolling needs to work when you have your mouse at the bottom of the screen.
Thanks for reading. Over all, I think it's a solid start to a new Sims Game. There just is a lot missing from this base game that I feel should be there, ESPECIALLY pools and toddlers.
Things I dislike:
1) Seamless neighborhoods. I CAN'T BELIEVE you guys didn't do that. I hate the loading screens and as more expansions come out it will take longer and longer to load different areas. Plus the community lots are so limited!
2) Clothing and hair styling options. Also an extremely limited selection
3) Personalized options of objects, building, clothing and hair. in the sims 3 the creative tool was so versatile! I don't understand why the options are so few.
4) Tattoo creator... Ummm hello? Why can't I pick colors for my tattoos?
5) Career choices. It's too confusing, comedy and music do not go hand in hand.
6) Lifetime wishes and ambition points. When my sim completes a wish and I gain points, the rewards are stupid and incomplete.
7) Personality traits. The options are also so few and I don't think with the advancement of the sims themselves there should be 3 choices.
8) No pools or cars. Two elements that are essential to playing.
9) no toddler stage? no hospital to give birth in? RIDICULOUS
Things I like:
1) the realistic nature of the the sims body and faces
2) the graphics in the lots
3) roofing, wall, window and door options. Thank you for allowing us to make them higher or lower.
4) Advancement in the options for cooking and gardening
5) Shorter time periods to complete art work, etc.
I really hope with new expansions you will go back to seamless neighborhoods and add more creative tools! :|
As insane as this is to say, based on previous experience with Sims products, this may be the first Sims game I could care less if I ever played again.
What I didn't like: Practically everything else. No more fertilize all with best fertilizer? Could the menuing for bait and fertilizer be handled any worse? I suppose if the menu choices actively avoided the mouse, maybe. Spoiling fish and yet no ability to choose which ingredients we want to use for the fish tacos? Loading screens to literally go three steps across property lines, really, you couldn't see your way clear to loading the whole subgroup of the tiny "world" (calling it a "world" rather than a cul-de-sac doesn't really fool us, you know) at once? Can't even fool with the inventory and queue up actions when at work? No sprinklers? No dishwashers? No trash compacters? Really? We already know you're going to wheedle as much money out of us as you can, there's no need to be grotesque about it. People have proven they will pay you for just about ANY crap you intend to add to the game, there's no need to make the rest of us feel like we paid $60 for a DEMO.
Suggestions: Loosen the purse strings a little. Give us a complete, enjoyable game to start with. Let us walk from lot to lot within a group without waiting for a load screen, or at least give us back the minigame load screens if we're going to encounter them constantly. Give us back our dishwasher, even if it's just the crappy cheap ones we had initially. A sequel shouldn't feel like such a huge step backwards-- we're not all expecting all the expansions and the like but could you at least simulate having put some effort in here?
Overall Thoughts: Emotions are not the new idea we were sold. They're not really far from moodlets, just dumbed down. They're not worth the extremely restricted gameplay, they don't add enough to be worth it. We'll buy expansions, you know that we will, so give us back some of what you're withholding when you patch the bulky body bug.
Seriously. I'd say you phoned this in, but even the phones are dumbed down to nothing in this mess. So disappointing.
- The "cartoony" aspect of the game makes it somehow even more fun than aiming for realistic (since Sims are by nature, cartoons).
- The game is 10x faster than the Sims 3 ever was. This is probably due in part from cutting the neighborhoods down and closing the world drastically (something I'll get to later).
- Sims multitasking ... awesome awesome!
- The moods have been surprisingly not as annoying as I anticipated. I love the unique social aspects of them.
- Build mode ... as an architectural student, I give this build mode an A+.
- CAS is great as well.
- Simplified customization. Sims 3 seemed to get carried away in how far it would let you customize everything. While that neither here nor there for me, it was nice to open a fresh game with more limited possibilities so that way items match more.
- The loading screens are not nearly as bad as I thought they would be.
- The music is fantastic!
- Great idea splitting romantic and friendship bars ... now all my best friends can't fall in love the second one accidentally flirts with another.
What I dislike:
- The map ... to say that I feel like I'm playing Sims 1 again is even an understatement. At least in Sims 1, you had more than 2 lots and you still had some control over customizing your community lots. I feel VERY claustrophobic in The Sims 4. I enjoyed Sims 3 in that I could build anywhere and everywhere and even create my own worlds. My Sims 3 houses ran into the ocean, overlooked the mountains, sat up on cliffs, and the game gave me a lot to play with. Sims 4 neighborhoods have great detail, but the backgrounds don't even match the map itself. I can't be creative at all. Is there a way to improve the feel of the neighborhood without compromising game speed?
- No pools ... ? Why? I mean, I know why ... but why?
- Doesn't seem to have many clothing options for the male Sims. But I'm sure EPs will fix this.
- Toddlers? They were annoying but I miss them ... never thought I'd say that.
- Cars? Sims 1 even had cars ... why Sims 4 not have cars?! :)
Suggestions:
- Make us an open world concept that makes the town much much MUCH larger and yet maybe only loads a section of it at a time? I'm not a game techie so I can sit here and demand blood from roses all day, but there has to be something that can be done about the neighborhood and how small it is. I'm talking I want the stadium, fire house, town hall, school, the myriads of community lots, etc back.
- I said this with Sims 3, but I REALLY miss Sims 2 Open for Business. I'd like an EP similar to that one in the future.
- Pets ... ohhh man, I said it.
Overall thoughts:
Love the game. Happy I bought it. The lack of neighborhood though makes the game worth about half of what I paid for it. If that can be improved, I'll be very content. :)
-You can do so much in build mode and make a sim in so little time.
-Emotion-specific interactions.
-All the different skills.
What I don't like:
So far, my biggest issue is having sims in 2 different places. When I switch to a sim in a different location, the sim I was controlling stops doing the things I told it to do. I tell one sim to sleep at home and then follow another sim to the park. When I come back, the sim that was supposed to be sleeping is standing in the front yard. Once, I told a sim to cook three cakes while I took a different sim to the bar. When we got back, the bowl from the first cake was still sitting out.
One small thing I don't like is that things like cook get charged as soon as you tell the sim to do it, not when the sim is doing it. So, if you tell a sim to bake a cake, and for some reason he doesn't get to it, that money is lost.
One of my teenaged sims needs to go to school focused in order to be able to go to the next grade. I've been trying to do this constantly and I just find it impossible to do. I'd love to be able to shuffle the requirements so it could be someone more attainable.
The same sim also needs to serenade another sim while flirty. My sim is having enough trouble trying to just go to school focused. Let alone have time to go out and flirt.
That being said. Being able to shuffle our requirements would be awesome
1. Camera mode fading (TAB mode):
Trees fade several meters away, same for pillars, furniture also fades way too early - which ruins a lot of possible shots. The fading simply seems to be the same as in normal camera mode where it is fine, but for "in world" camera shots it is just rather weird and jarring and it should be WAY CLOSER for EVERYTHING (except for the Sims themselves). Please fix the fading distance for the camera mode, so we can do nice screenshots again!
2. Doors no longer lockable for specific sims:
I liked the personal room of my Sim being locked from guests because they sometimes tend to run in and use like the personal computer etc. at parties of which I don't approve. It should be easy enough to put back in, so please consider it!
3. Unwashable dish cannot be picked up:
My sim ate something in front of the lot (but just short of the actual boundaries), and then couldn't clean it up because obviously there is no kitchen sink out on the street. I could have easily solved this by making her pick up the dish and get it onto my lot where it can be dealt with - but that's not possible. As a result: unwashable dish stuck forever outside on sidewalk!
4. Picking the various work tones is too unobvious:
This is just a minor UI nitpick, but if I didn't know Sims 3 had that and searched it actively in Sims 4, it would have NEVER occured to me that picking the work tone (e.g. "Work hard") is hidden in that tiny icon down there. Same for returning home. The UI is otherwise a large improvement, but the buttons on those tiny character portraits are just way too hidden.
5. The tutorial is VERY obtrusive and way too hard to turn off:
The tutorial with its huge annoying pop ups is horrible, mainly because: 1. You can't skip past much of it easily, 2. You cannot turn it off entirely except for the arcane --no_tutorial command line option 3. For someone who knows Sims 3, it's just waaaaay too much into details. Not useful at all, just plain annoying to have those huge boxes take up screen space all the time with stuff I couldn't care less about.
==> Make an obvious button to skip through whole sections of the tutorial e.g. like "I know how camera handling works, skip!" (and get me to relevant parts of teh tutorial)
==> Allow me to turn off the tutorial entirely in the game options. The command line option is way too arcane, had to google quite a bit to find it and it's not obvious to beginners how to appl it.
6. When sitting on a chair or a couch, there is (for some Sims) gross visible clipping of legs into the furniture:
This one is just a detail, but it bothers me. If you get a chance, do a simple runtime check how deep the legs of the mesh are actually protruding into the furniture, and adjust the vertical Sim position accordingly to fix that. It just looks odd in an otherwise very polished game!
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Thanks otherwise for an amazing game. Runs much smoother than Sims 3, the way you can easily switch and travel/visit between all worlds with almost no loading time is amazing and I can wait a bit for swimming pools, toddlers and dishwashers (I do expect them to come to the game soon in some way though! Make it happen!).
Don't like: inability to color things in the environment using a color wheel, patterns, etc, of my choosing.
Like: quick loading
Don't like: camera positioning, even when options are set to Sims 3, you can no longer zoom in and see things from a 'sims viewpoint' which is a major issue when decorating. It also forces you to play the game with walls down most of the time, whereas I prefer walls up. The way zooming is now restricted to certain angles - makes that almost impossible.
Don't like, inability to react with the world like before, instead getting a load screen. In Sims 3 you could stop along the way on your jog, bike ride, car ride, etc, to pick up metals, interact with people or animals, etc. Now you have to just go to where it is you want to go on the map instantly with no interactions.
Like: new occupations, and requirements for advancing
Don't like: Inability to specify sims life spans, predetermined amount are all that is available instead of a sliding scale.
Don't like: loss of toddlers.
* Unique promotion requirements (i.e. list of things to do to get promoted). It makes it a lot more interesting!
* Overall, the new UI - though its taken awhile to get used to.
* Character creation screen
* House building tools (especially moving entire rooms)
* The speed in which the game loads (On the same PC I would boot the Sims 3 up, and go make breakfast. :wink: This game is loaded within 30 seconds to a minute, max.)
* New Career types (Though if a computer geek programs they should find it fun!)
What you didn't like:
* The character bar locks when they go to work. I hate as I like to browse how they are doing and plan out what to have them do when they get home.
* Toddlers, dishwashers, trash compactors and pools are missing
* Small Neighborhoods (I don't mind the loading screen.. not ideal but if that is what it takes to make the game load as fast as it does then I am happy.)
* The removal of the achievements for skills
* The fact that the job system wasn't more like the professions - I would have expected work to be a lot more interactive by v4.
Suggestions?
* Do not give us toddlers, pools, dishwashers or trash compactors in a pack that we have to buy. Own the fact that the fans are upset and give us this in a free patch. These have been core features of all of the other games.
* Make pets and weather one of the first expansions. :smiley:
* I'd like a sectional couch!
* The burglar is missing... I liked having the chance of being robbed. (Though, I did prefer when I got paid to be robbed!)
Overall thoughts?
* I'd expected a lot more out of the game, even as the base launch. A lot of great features were added and I do love the new UI and a lot of the functionality behind the characters. If someone asked me which they should buy (#3 or #4) I would point them to the third as this one is overpriced for what you get. (To be clear - I've been playing since the first Sims and even played the Sims Online.)
I do sugggest adding the main features like toddlers and pools in a free patch. I like the feel of the game.
YouTube Channel:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwUE8EBk9VunVA_wkDFVRUw
some of the sim creation things were easy enuf, still needs more places to push and pull on though for more variety though.
•What you didn't like
missing the CAS (Create a Style), if EVERYTHING had the same color choices, wouldn't mind SO much. But NOT being able to change textures and colors to make outfits match or look different REALLY slurped. only the 4 to 8 preset choices? no variety. we're talking Eiffel Tower sized slurpage here.
•Suggestions?
remake the CAS tool. it's what made the Sims3 SO awesome. Variety. I could take a simple chair, make it wood of any color, metal or paint, slap cloth, wood, leather, velvet, etc on the seat.. take furniture from different groups and sets and make them all match. same with clothes.. I could make the jacket leather, shirt velvet, denim, whatever.. the possibilities were endless ..
with just a few premade choices.. the creativity of the Sims themselves was lost to just facial features and a little body work.
Houses still got SOME variety, you can BUILD anything you want, but are limited to the few swatches available, and they might not match the handrailing, or the floor, or the doors you choose might HAVE to have the oddball looking white frame, where most everytrhing else has wood, etc..
you dropped the ball, it's the last play, with 2 yards to go.. and the ball rolled down into the volcano and landed 400 feet below next to lava.
how DARE you take that away from us?
I applied for a refund as SOON as I found out.
•Overall thoughts?
some handy features on the create a sim, still needs more places to push and pull or adjust curves. Lats, shoulders up/down, up and back or slouch, upper and lower ribs, belly, hips, change the size of the ends of each limb segment (I had popeye arms when I was young), buttocks up/down, rounder/flatter, in/out, teardrop/pear/apple/orange. ... etc
still missing a lot of careers, need to be able to place more objects inbetween squares, like windows and doors.. need to be able to center them on anything.
need roofs to be able to be on a rounded edge or octagon surface... I made a octagon spot, flowed the house off of it, and only had square roofs, and a rounded porch end.. but ONLY square stuff.. yea.. the roof was hideous... my date would have laughed her way all the way to the cab ride home.. without stepping foot on my property.
town view was horrid, sims 3 town view and editing were fine.
though the sims 3 was still too picky about where you could place new lots.
need lots where you can make walk out basements, shoreline, riverside, etc.
What I miss- TODDLERS and the fact that teen, young adult and adult have no real distinguishing features. The height difference is def missed.
It is a new game with a new feel and just need to adjust after playing the Sims 3 for 5 years but overall I am so happy with this game!!
1. Graphics. Like the new look of the game.
2. Clothes. Love that my pregnant sims are able to wear their current clothes and not some fixed maternity clothes.
3. Loading time is great because my SIMS3 used to take longer.
4. Cooking. Funny to see my sim mess up when cooking.
Dislikes
1. Didn't see a color chart, so I'm not able to customize the color of the furniture/clothes. (is there a color chart? i didn't see one..)
2. Travelling. Didn't like that it wasn't seamless like in SIMS3.
3. Gardening. Prefer the SIMS3 gardening method. Used to love gardening in SIMS3, now I loathe it in SIMS4.
4. User interface. It was confusing for me, takes some getting used to.
Suggestions
1. Restaurants in town! My dates can't go anywhere to eat except the park. Worst is I gotta pay for it and cook it.
2. Toddlers. Lots of interactions with the toddlers!
3. Babies not tied to the crib. It was what I hated most in SIMS.
4. Seamless travelling like in SIMS3.
5. Pools
Overall thoughts
1. Love the game. Definitely do not regret purchasing it. Just hope the bugged baby will be fixed ASAP. Lastly I would love to see suggestions by us players to be taken highly into consideration into improving the game.
love the emotions
love multittasking
love that we can chose walk style
love the cas
thats the good part of it.
it feels like this game was made for online and then quickly changed after simcity went downhill.
i feel isolated bound to my house and as i love to design houses and worldmaps, this is not really my game i think. also i cant get over the cartoon look of it and also the neighborhood is terrible. no open world is even worse, no create a style is a step backwards imo.
even when building my house i felt limited.
the emotions and mulitasking is a step forward, but atm i think some of it is a little over the top..also cant believe how long my sim takes to do anything. cooking takes forever and the showers ...even peeing takes long now. i which there was more realistic walking styles and less over the top ones. not everyone wants to play a comedy. multitasking is great. i love i can read in the bathroom and all that, but i dont need to switch the tv on every single time i sit on the couch and talk to someone.
im sure some people will have fun with this game, but people like me that are creative with their environment and love to play the game the way they want and also design it that way, will not be so pleased.
like i said it does feel a little like an online game to me. like the community lots were made for online people to meet and then u go back to your own house where others can visit u. certain missing things kinda display that a little.
I have one giant complaint with many pieces, and I feel this is going to be a bit of a full-on article. PLEASE read!! To entice your actual reading even though it's long, let's get something out of the way first: I do not care one bit about the lack of pools, basements, cars, etc. It doesn't bother me, and while I realize it's apparently a major big deal to some people, I just don't get it, and although I do understand the toddler issue, it just doesn't compare to the lack of an open world (or open anything). Also, in scanning through a lot of the previous posts, I notice that several issues people are complaining about can be resolved with just a few minutes in the Options panels. The vast majority of what I see here I find to be just lists of minor complaints, and I'm worried some major things that are integral to the entire gameplay are going to get lost in the shuffle, but I want to try. I've been a Simmer from Day 1, and I WANT to love TS4 - I'm hoping by reaching out, that might actually happen (some day).
The lack of an open world is AWFUL. TERRIBLE. CATASTROPHICALLY BAD. As in I will no longer be playing this game, that I was excited about, that I was watching every news bit for months, that I read all the articles from the people who went to Creators Camp. Origin shows 16 hours of play (and that's real play because I'd already created sims in the CAS demo, and I moved them into an existing house so I could get in and get going), so it's not that I haven't given it enough of a chance. I am so incredibly disappointed, and if I continue playing The Sims at all, I'll be returning to TS3. Unfortunately seeing what could have been done, had it been added to the good parts of TS3, now also makes 3 less enjoyable. I will very much miss the Build Mode, I will miss the promotion requirements, I did gain some enjoyment from working within the emotion system, and I will miss the increased expressiveness. I'm sorry I spent so much money buying a copy of the game for myself and for my husband (who has the exact same complaint as I, and for the exact same reasons), and I'm SO sorry that TS3 will now be considered done, so it won't be made any better going forward. That's maybe worst of all, because there will be nothing new for years into the future, and I think TS3 will become somewhat stale after I've explored it all in extreme depth, which means I'll likely end up leaving the franchise altogether, and that makes me sad, as it's awfully unique in the gaming world.
You see, The Sims has always been about being able to 'play your way,' and every title in the series has advanced that concept, until this one. Here, we take a massive step backward. The 'builders' I think will have a fantastic time, with more options for creativity coupled with easier functionality - that is an unmitigated win! The 'storytellers' I think will have a great time - it may take them more effort to get what they want out of the Sims, but they'll have a greater range of action and expression to use - so that's a win! The modders have all new toys to play with, and even some real support it seems this time. (Part of the reason why I don't have a list of the really minor issues is because I know there will be mods to take care of most of it pretty quickly, we have fantastic modders.) The 'voyeurs' and the 'demented' will have a great time seeing what their Sims get into with full autonomy or setting up crazy situations in which to torment them. But people who play like me? Bomb.
I have some definite 'builder' in me, I did some script mods in TS2 and some tuning in TS3, but I generally like to PLAY the game. As in, play all the sims in a family, play to 'win' sort of. I play the Legacy Challenge, for example. I enjoy playing huge families with lots of moving parts and everybody going for different goals on different schedules, where I can concentrate on one for several sim hours but still manage the others. But with 4, I couldn't. I know you guys created the game, and you probably can't see past the rainbow colors that paint your vision of it because of that. I've heard/read multiple interviews about how you feel that you've combined the best of both worlds, but you just... haven't. You've created TS2 with faster load screens, but worse than TS2 in actual gameplay!! In 2, when you went off the lot, the rest of your sims stopped. Granted, not particularly realistic, but it was an advancement from TS1, so it worked out. Let me outline the particular difficulties the current design entails, specifically how it's now 100% impossible to really manage my sims effectively, which is a VALID game style in which many many people engage.
1. There is pretty much no part of this that is an open world. You don't even get an open neighborhood! Why even call it a neighborhood, it doesn't actually function like one. You get essentially a lot that includes a street and a water object, and a very pretty painting (or animated gif) to look at that makes it seem like there are other houses and streets. But woe betide you should you want to visit your next-door neighbor - load screen. And then when you're there, you can SEE your house, and you know there are sims in it, but you can't actually do anything with those sims, just the one(s) who went visiting. You've created a static lot that happens to have more people that walk through it. That's an advancement from TS1, sure, but not from 3...
2. In TS3, I can zip around from sim to sim, checking in to see what they're doing, change what I want them to do, queueing up some stuff so they can reach the goals they want. TS4? Nope. Sure, I can switch from a sim in one location to a sim in another location (with yet another load screen naturally). But when I get to that other sim, they're standing out front of the location, doing nothing. That is not remotely helpful to be able to check in and make sure they were taking that bubble bath I had queued for them before I left with a different sim. Which leads me to...
3. The sims do not accomplish their queued actions when you leave them. So they finish using the toilet because they were doing that when you left, but they do not move on to then upgrade the sink like you told them. Also you run into this: It's time for my mom sim to go to work. But I nix that action because there's one more quick thing I want her to do before going, and then I queue up the going to work part. My teen sim meanwhile has asked somebody on a date to the park, and we go. As I'm going through the date, doing pretty well, I look down to find that the mom's briefcase icon is blinking because she didn't do her queued action of going to work. So I switch back to her (load screen) just to send her to work, which I do. I then switch back to my date in progress (load screen), only to find that there's actually no more date happening because I the player went to a different lot, and the date is now leaving.
4. So let's say you don't switch back to a sim, you just stay with the traveling sim, and you leave your other sims back home to do their own thing, then you run into things like this: I'm out at a location with one of my sims until until 2am simtime. She gets home (after still one more load screen of course) to find mom sim has decided to take care of her need for energy by NAPPING on her bed. WHAT?? It's 2am and she has work in 4 hours. If you are going to make it impossible for me to make sure my sims aren't being dumb, then you have to at least make them not be dumb when left on their own.
5. An additional minor impediment: some of the lots are large enough that finding a specific sim just by looking around. If a sim tries to call another, and that sim is already on the lot, you get a message to that effect. But unlike in TS3, clicking that other sim's portrait does not take you to them, you just have to search.
6. And then we come down to the simplest, most basic, in terms of lack of functionality: no UI for non-active-lot sims. This is a step backwards from even TS1 if I'm remembering correctly!! I mean, let's get super basic here: I have 3 sims in the house who have jobs. When they get promoted, they often end up with new work schedules. It is not appropriate for me to be expected to memorize the work schedules of all the working sims in my family. But once dad sim is at work, I have zero options for finding out when the heck he's due home!! This one really rises to the level of absolute ridiculousness, and basically epitomizes the massive glaring issues to be found in this load-screen-heavy game.
Here's where it's that much more disappointing, where it actually hurts that EA/Maxis did not give the least consideration to me as a player and loyal fan: you killed my style of play and called it the best of both worlds. It's not. At all. It's actually the worst of both, for the reasons described above. I've even tried to figure out if I could just modify it enough to make it work, albeit not ideally. I could choose to just be chained to my lot and make sure I have all the objects I need there, but that doesn't work in 4. If I want something like that near-instant boost to Focused, I have to read AT the library. Ok, that I could give up and get it the slower way. But in order to advance in the music career, I have to play for tips, and sims won't tip me in my "neighborhood" (read home lot with sidewalks and fishing). For my romantic sim to achieve his aspiration, he has to GO on dates, and achieve things on them. And I still won't know when dad is coming home from work.
To be fair, I think I understand why it's like this. Having an open world in general is more resource-intensive. Since there's the ability to boost skills at work, if you let us see the skill listing for an at-work sim, the game would actually have to call that process to show it. Same with (and especially with) needs, if they were actively changing in real time (simtime). Having a sim actually engaged in specific activities, so that you could 'check in' on them, would require a process running in the background. Why would EA show us what can be done and how great an open world really is in 3, and then take it away and call that good? Why would you choose to drive over those of us who have been playing for years in favor of people who want to be able to do everything on a tablet? What about those of us who have machines that could handle it all? Where is the middle ground: a slimmed down open world? Really, you had to reduce us from something like 100+ lots to ONE and load after load after load??? You couldn't even give us an open neighborhood, with a real community lot and four houses? Even barring all that, where is my ability to turn on full UIs, turn on active non-lot sims? No amount of pools, weather, pets, and stuff packs will make up for this. Until there's an expansion that fixes the WORLD, I have to bid a heavy-hearted adieu. And yes, I know better than to hold my breath on something that likely amounts to a complete overhaul.
You broke it, perhaps irreparably, and you called it better. :(