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Why I Still Play The TS2 After Ten Years. A Wall of Text.
Cinebar
Posts: 33,618 Member
Even though the TS3 has better graphics, almost looking real at times, and a big open worlds the TS2 Sims and the core of the base game is why I still play the TS2 after all this time.
It is the core of the base game that will make a game worth playing over and over no matter what is added later or not.
I want to get this off my chest, but the core base of the TS2 is solid enough it still out lives it's long shelf life. Just like XP did long after MS wished it would die already.
After playing TS3 off and on for years now, adding Store stuff, and EPs do I miss the open world in the TS2 yes, sometimes I do. But we didn't have open world 'before' the TS2 so players got used to the loading screens in TS2. And because time is frozen when we go back and forth is what makes me, at least still enjoy it today.
Some would argue that's not 'reality', I never played them for all that much reality, though some things have to make sense in a game like this franchise even if they do pull things out their hide pockets.
This is just a few reasons why it is better to me. Let's say I want to 'accidentally' meet a particular Sim who is a townie. Because TS2 has actual character files from the base and then each subhood added it's own character files I know for 'sure' I will eventually meet that Sim. It won't be some random generated townie that may be here today and gone tomorrow.
Take the Diva or Mr. Big from the TS2 NL EP. They come in a character file which everyone will get them in their Downtown hood or their own custom downtown hood. But this works for neighborhood main-hood townies as well. If I go to community lots in that game, I know I'm going to 'run into' them. Perfect, I have successfully 'accidentally' met that Sim. Which often falls inline with how a player wanted to meet a Sim instead of just calling them etc.
If they aren't on one lot, I know I can go to another and find them. Same with the Count or Countess in the EP. But this is true whether you want to meet Goopy or Marisa or anyone else in the TS2 townie population. You never have to worry you will never find them.
NPC's who make me laugh even when they annoy. Mrs. Crumplebottom or even the Repo man from the main hood files. Either way, I know if I do something they don't like...not pay my bills, and or kiss in public one is going to show up. That's a risk factor and makes the game fun to me. No risk factors like that or too dumped down and no consequences makes these games rather dull to me. That is one huge reason I still play the TS2 though by now, I really do know how to work it after all these years to avoid Mrs. Crumplebottom from catching my Sims in a hot tub but it's fun to know she may show up any minute.
But in the newer games no such NPCs exist, not even in the base game. I have decided this would not work in the TS4 because the game would just cull the actual NPCs if there were any who are supposed to be NPCs for real..and thus why some are just other Sims without jobs. Because think on that one. If NPCs were added like we had before, then wouldn't that mean the game would cull some of our own Sims or townies to make room in the head count of a mere 180 Sims? Yeah, that would be terrible. The more NPCs I guess, the less townies or households with such a low head count for this base. I think TS2 had around 900+ before they increased it in the NL EP to over 5000.
Rotational play. That is what I have always done in TS1 and TS2. I found it more difficult to do that in the TS3. Unless I turned off Aging for all (only two choices in that game ..all or none). In the TS2 we can turn it off per household. So, when I am playing one household I never have to worry the other is aging without me. And in later EPs I could age up townies when any of my Sims had a birthday. That was great because yes, Goopy, my life time friend should age with my Sim as he/she got older. That was great and I had control who ages and who doesn't. For all of them. 3X townies for every birthday in the game...to me that was plenty control. I aged up their child friends like Marsha ( hard to be friends with that kid) or their teen friends from Bluewater, and sent them all to Uni. But that isn't a base game feature. But a good way for me to enjoy my game much more, later.
Emotions, oh, my, I don't know how anyone who has tried the TS2 didn't see the emotions. Maybe don't just fly through the games, but play on normal speed? I have never played any of these games on fast or ultra so I think some do, and miss a bucket full of stuff enough to go around the world twice.
I enjoyed the connection from my Sim to me. They looked up at the camera. It wasn't weird at all. If I wanted them to do something they didn't want to do they would grimace at me. That was hilarious. Sometimes I didn't care and would tell them...Do it! Now! haha...Dance Puppet, Dance.
Or they would give me a thumbs up and shake their heads in agreement, if they were in the room (at community lots) if they saw I was making two other Sims I was playing at the time have romantic interactions. If you play on ultra speed you never see those things.
Who would have thought they were that much aware? That was some amazing coding there to make the Sim look like it was agreeing with me when I'm not even playing it, and it sees me/my Sim have romantic interactions like flirt or kiss etc. with another Sim on the lot.
Not thumbs up to the Sim I am playing but to the camera. That may be creepy to some, but one reason I still love the TS2 for those details like that.
Sims were more aware of me, and their surroundings.
I know TS3 players got tired of reputations system, but how it worked in TS2 was great to me. It wasn't a 'system' we saw on the panel or a moodlet etc. No, it was if you had one Sim at a community lot or even a home lot with one girlfriend or boyfriend the game would some how, I don't know how, would send the rest of them to your house to visit or to the community lot. It would not be long before you were busted. haha
That was a base game feature. The game would generate those Sims and somehow they would show up to where you are, like now, let's see you deal with these other five honeys you have been cheating with. It was always hilarious.
The great thing is you could continue your romances in another room and the others would not be aware. However, you ran the risk of the others doing autonomous interactions with your Sim if they were all there the same time, or even your Sim going over to them...so you had to walk a fine line or your face would be slapped off. Or a good punch and roll in the dust.
Fights mattered. Everyone would either cheer, or cry. Everyone would be aware a fight had just broken out.
Public woohoo, everyone would run over (even behind closed doors like the phone booth or the dressing room), to cheer.
Babies left on the ground, no worries, someone in the household would pick it up and care for it. Even visiting neighbors would pick up the kid if you made a Sim put the baby down. It was extremely rare a Sim would put a baby on the floor unless there was a fire. Then they may or they may run out of the house with the baby and the game tells you 'saving baby' etc. They will even go back into the kitchen etc. to save the baby if you made them put it on the kitchen floor.
They are coded to look like they actually 'care' about the other Sims in their home.
Death, Marriage, and Babies. Everyone cared. No matter if they knew the Sim or not. If a Sim dies in the TS2 everyone notices and cries or worries.
Weddings, everyone toasts the couple, everyone cheers the couple and the limo shows up to take them on a honeymoon.
Birthdays, everyone (unless you make them skill) celebrates. Sims get out of bed to celebrate the birthday. Unless you don't allow it. They care.
They congratulate each other. On promotions (seen in speech bubbles and thought bubbles), etc., all sorts of stuff. They 'know' what is going on in each others' lives. Or that is some good coding there to sell that fiction. lol It worked on me.
Parents care about their kids. They may have a favorite by the wants they roll, but they do care. A family Sim in that game cares if they kid gets an A, or graduates with honors, or is an over achiever and gets a part time job. Hopes the kid gets scholarships. They care....the TS4 Sim wants to buy a toy (when they don't even have kids...what?).
Family Sims spend time playing with their kids not just a moodlet from being around family. They play red hands, they console, they congratulate, they cheer when their kids make an A on the report card. Are they busy when the kid comes home cheering? No bother, they will still cheer later, they care.
Death, kids cry because grandma died. Everybody cries. No matter their traits/personality points. Death in the TS2 is a huge deal to them. They may cry days later.
Grandma cares if the baby needs changed. Or if the baby needs a bottle. These Sims fear the reaper, and if a Sim they know may die.
They care if they fulfill their LTW or their Aspiration which is two different things. They 'remember' they reached their Aspirations, they remember they actually fulfilled their Life Time Want.
Their Aspirations and Traits are who they are. A serious Sim will never go off and play in the bath tub no matter how playful a mood made them. They may forget themselves if you make them drink a particular juice but recover quickly and stay true to their 'trait'.
They may not get as much fun out of a pillow fight with other Sims than they would reading the paper, or a book, or playing chess. They are serious.
A playful Sim will not get fun out of reading a book or actually it will fill extremely slowly. They get more fun out of hanging off the fridge door than they would reading a book etc.
They talked long before the new, amazing, multitasking in the TS4. Which I am glad they brought that back but the TS2 Sims would seek each other out to talk and play games with one another. Or romance each other, long before the TS4. They also, you or them, sit on the couch and have conversations. Yes, the do that on their own while watching TV. You don't have to interject yourself into their conversations. But I'm glad they thought about this for the TS4.
Building. Basements under foundations. Been doing that since foundations were introduced in the TS2 base game. No black abyss surroundings.
Extending the tile past the wall on the second floor of buildings...put a tile up there and draw with the tiles. So easy, now there isn't even a grid to do that unless you put a room, then use the tile then delete the walls or use a flat box or deck box. What? Why is that so hard to do in the new, better TS4? When I have been doing with tile, viola, once and done, since the TS1.
Terraforming and sculpting land. Didn't like the huge hill beside the road in the TS2? Just put some lots there...flatten all the land. Remove the lots, viola build what you want on what is now a level lot on that high end of the street.
Land sculpting. Want to build the hobbit house which is built into the land in the LOTR movie...no problem....just raise the ground with the provided land sculpting tools. No cheat necessary, only in some cases. Build split levels with a deck and no cheat necessary or use cheats and build something even more amazing.
The things that came in TS3 are wonderful like CASt and open world but I wished they had went on building upon the TS2's core and the TS3's core amazing new features and continued with what would have been a much more amazing base game for the TS4.
ETA: Story Progression. I'm not one to like the town changing while I'm not playing it. However, at least TS3 didn't make my Sims fat while I am playing another house. Not if I turned off SP. The only problems I had with the TS3 SP was sometimes it really wasn't off (which I like it off) but would move out my Sims friends etc. even when off. In the TS4 there isn't supposed to be any at all..then why are all my Sims fat when I go back to them? I would love an open world and CASt and some objects from the TS3 and some of it's furniture etc. And my TS2 Sims and a fully supported rotational game. Somehow. Either off or more options for 'on' to make the game I want to make as I play. But the TS4 isn't it. Not with the way the core base is designed. I don't think that is possible.
It is the core of the base game that will make a game worth playing over and over no matter what is added later or not.
I want to get this off my chest, but the core base of the TS2 is solid enough it still out lives it's long shelf life. Just like XP did long after MS wished it would die already.
After playing TS3 off and on for years now, adding Store stuff, and EPs do I miss the open world in the TS2 yes, sometimes I do. But we didn't have open world 'before' the TS2 so players got used to the loading screens in TS2. And because time is frozen when we go back and forth is what makes me, at least still enjoy it today.
Some would argue that's not 'reality', I never played them for all that much reality, though some things have to make sense in a game like this franchise even if they do pull things out their hide pockets.
This is just a few reasons why it is better to me. Let's say I want to 'accidentally' meet a particular Sim who is a townie. Because TS2 has actual character files from the base and then each subhood added it's own character files I know for 'sure' I will eventually meet that Sim. It won't be some random generated townie that may be here today and gone tomorrow.
Take the Diva or Mr. Big from the TS2 NL EP. They come in a character file which everyone will get them in their Downtown hood or their own custom downtown hood. But this works for neighborhood main-hood townies as well. If I go to community lots in that game, I know I'm going to 'run into' them. Perfect, I have successfully 'accidentally' met that Sim. Which often falls inline with how a player wanted to meet a Sim instead of just calling them etc.
If they aren't on one lot, I know I can go to another and find them. Same with the Count or Countess in the EP. But this is true whether you want to meet Goopy or Marisa or anyone else in the TS2 townie population. You never have to worry you will never find them.
NPC's who make me laugh even when they annoy. Mrs. Crumplebottom or even the Repo man from the main hood files. Either way, I know if I do something they don't like...not pay my bills, and or kiss in public one is going to show up. That's a risk factor and makes the game fun to me. No risk factors like that or too dumped down and no consequences makes these games rather dull to me. That is one huge reason I still play the TS2 though by now, I really do know how to work it after all these years to avoid Mrs. Crumplebottom from catching my Sims in a hot tub but it's fun to know she may show up any minute.
But in the newer games no such NPCs exist, not even in the base game. I have decided this would not work in the TS4 because the game would just cull the actual NPCs if there were any who are supposed to be NPCs for real..and thus why some are just other Sims without jobs. Because think on that one. If NPCs were added like we had before, then wouldn't that mean the game would cull some of our own Sims or townies to make room in the head count of a mere 180 Sims? Yeah, that would be terrible. The more NPCs I guess, the less townies or households with such a low head count for this base. I think TS2 had around 900+ before they increased it in the NL EP to over 5000.
Rotational play. That is what I have always done in TS1 and TS2. I found it more difficult to do that in the TS3. Unless I turned off Aging for all (only two choices in that game ..all or none). In the TS2 we can turn it off per household. So, when I am playing one household I never have to worry the other is aging without me. And in later EPs I could age up townies when any of my Sims had a birthday. That was great because yes, Goopy, my life time friend should age with my Sim as he/she got older. That was great and I had control who ages and who doesn't. For all of them. 3X townies for every birthday in the game...to me that was plenty control. I aged up their child friends like Marsha ( hard to be friends with that kid) or their teen friends from Bluewater, and sent them all to Uni. But that isn't a base game feature. But a good way for me to enjoy my game much more, later.
Emotions, oh, my, I don't know how anyone who has tried the TS2 didn't see the emotions. Maybe don't just fly through the games, but play on normal speed? I have never played any of these games on fast or ultra so I think some do, and miss a bucket full of stuff enough to go around the world twice.
I enjoyed the connection from my Sim to me. They looked up at the camera. It wasn't weird at all. If I wanted them to do something they didn't want to do they would grimace at me. That was hilarious. Sometimes I didn't care and would tell them...Do it! Now! haha...Dance Puppet, Dance.
Or they would give me a thumbs up and shake their heads in agreement, if they were in the room (at community lots) if they saw I was making two other Sims I was playing at the time have romantic interactions. If you play on ultra speed you never see those things.
Who would have thought they were that much aware? That was some amazing coding there to make the Sim look like it was agreeing with me when I'm not even playing it, and it sees me/my Sim have romantic interactions like flirt or kiss etc. with another Sim on the lot.
Not thumbs up to the Sim I am playing but to the camera. That may be creepy to some, but one reason I still love the TS2 for those details like that.
Sims were more aware of me, and their surroundings.
I know TS3 players got tired of reputations system, but how it worked in TS2 was great to me. It wasn't a 'system' we saw on the panel or a moodlet etc. No, it was if you had one Sim at a community lot or even a home lot with one girlfriend or boyfriend the game would some how, I don't know how, would send the rest of them to your house to visit or to the community lot. It would not be long before you were busted. haha
That was a base game feature. The game would generate those Sims and somehow they would show up to where you are, like now, let's see you deal with these other five honeys you have been cheating with. It was always hilarious.
The great thing is you could continue your romances in another room and the others would not be aware. However, you ran the risk of the others doing autonomous interactions with your Sim if they were all there the same time, or even your Sim going over to them...so you had to walk a fine line or your face would be slapped off. Or a good punch and roll in the dust.
Fights mattered. Everyone would either cheer, or cry. Everyone would be aware a fight had just broken out.
Public woohoo, everyone would run over (even behind closed doors like the phone booth or the dressing room), to cheer.
Babies left on the ground, no worries, someone in the household would pick it up and care for it. Even visiting neighbors would pick up the kid if you made a Sim put the baby down. It was extremely rare a Sim would put a baby on the floor unless there was a fire. Then they may or they may run out of the house with the baby and the game tells you 'saving baby' etc. They will even go back into the kitchen etc. to save the baby if you made them put it on the kitchen floor.
They are coded to look like they actually 'care' about the other Sims in their home.
Death, Marriage, and Babies. Everyone cared. No matter if they knew the Sim or not. If a Sim dies in the TS2 everyone notices and cries or worries.
Weddings, everyone toasts the couple, everyone cheers the couple and the limo shows up to take them on a honeymoon.
Birthdays, everyone (unless you make them skill) celebrates. Sims get out of bed to celebrate the birthday. Unless you don't allow it. They care.
They congratulate each other. On promotions (seen in speech bubbles and thought bubbles), etc., all sorts of stuff. They 'know' what is going on in each others' lives. Or that is some good coding there to sell that fiction. lol It worked on me.
Parents care about their kids. They may have a favorite by the wants they roll, but they do care. A family Sim in that game cares if they kid gets an A, or graduates with honors, or is an over achiever and gets a part time job. Hopes the kid gets scholarships. They care....the TS4 Sim wants to buy a toy (when they don't even have kids...what?).
Family Sims spend time playing with their kids not just a moodlet from being around family. They play red hands, they console, they congratulate, they cheer when their kids make an A on the report card. Are they busy when the kid comes home cheering? No bother, they will still cheer later, they care.
Death, kids cry because grandma died. Everybody cries. No matter their traits/personality points. Death in the TS2 is a huge deal to them. They may cry days later.
Grandma cares if the baby needs changed. Or if the baby needs a bottle. These Sims fear the reaper, and if a Sim they know may die.
They care if they fulfill their LTW or their Aspiration which is two different things. They 'remember' they reached their Aspirations, they remember they actually fulfilled their Life Time Want.
Their Aspirations and Traits are who they are. A serious Sim will never go off and play in the bath tub no matter how playful a mood made them. They may forget themselves if you make them drink a particular juice but recover quickly and stay true to their 'trait'.
They may not get as much fun out of a pillow fight with other Sims than they would reading the paper, or a book, or playing chess. They are serious.
A playful Sim will not get fun out of reading a book or actually it will fill extremely slowly. They get more fun out of hanging off the fridge door than they would reading a book etc.
They talked long before the new, amazing, multitasking in the TS4. Which I am glad they brought that back but the TS2 Sims would seek each other out to talk and play games with one another. Or romance each other, long before the TS4. They also, you or them, sit on the couch and have conversations. Yes, the do that on their own while watching TV. You don't have to interject yourself into their conversations. But I'm glad they thought about this for the TS4.
Building. Basements under foundations. Been doing that since foundations were introduced in the TS2 base game. No black abyss surroundings.
Extending the tile past the wall on the second floor of buildings...put a tile up there and draw with the tiles. So easy, now there isn't even a grid to do that unless you put a room, then use the tile then delete the walls or use a flat box or deck box. What? Why is that so hard to do in the new, better TS4? When I have been doing with tile, viola, once and done, since the TS1.
Terraforming and sculpting land. Didn't like the huge hill beside the road in the TS2? Just put some lots there...flatten all the land. Remove the lots, viola build what you want on what is now a level lot on that high end of the street.
Land sculpting. Want to build the hobbit house which is built into the land in the LOTR movie...no problem....just raise the ground with the provided land sculpting tools. No cheat necessary, only in some cases. Build split levels with a deck and no cheat necessary or use cheats and build something even more amazing.
The things that came in TS3 are wonderful like CASt and open world but I wished they had went on building upon the TS2's core and the TS3's core amazing new features and continued with what would have been a much more amazing base game for the TS4.
ETA: Story Progression. I'm not one to like the town changing while I'm not playing it. However, at least TS3 didn't make my Sims fat while I am playing another house. Not if I turned off SP. The only problems I had with the TS3 SP was sometimes it really wasn't off (which I like it off) but would move out my Sims friends etc. even when off. In the TS4 there isn't supposed to be any at all..then why are all my Sims fat when I go back to them? I would love an open world and CASt and some objects from the TS3 and some of it's furniture etc. And my TS2 Sims and a fully supported rotational game. Somehow. Either off or more options for 'on' to make the game I want to make as I play. But the TS4 isn't it. Not with the way the core base is designed. I don't think that is possible.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
Post edited by Cinebar on
17
Comments
Very nice writing- I agree.
Thank you that isn't even a thumbnail of why I still play it.
TS2, however, has been my favorite from the beginning. I still delve into TS1 and TS3 but I always return to 2.
Something you said in the very beginning of your post about how MS may not like how XP keeps hanging on. Do you think it is at all possible that the sims 3 and now 4 were purposefully designed the way they are to avoid the long shelf life? If we keep playing the old game, and not buy the new than we won't be making them any money. Of course the opposite is true too, if they make a really good game, then we will be buying it as soon as it becomes available. *shakes head at 🐸🐸🐸🐸 self, lol*
I like this section of the forum. It's fun to talk about t2 again, after all these years.
Well said Cinebar!
TINY HOUSE CHALLENGE
The May Family
Modeling Career?
No, I'm sorry. I don't. But MTS has the patches or links to all the patches, and I'm not sure if they will work for a MAC but maybe, I'm sure someone over there has asked this question before if they work with MAC and I would think they might. You may want to search over there since they keep all the links to the old patches.
LOL, you may be on to something. Maybe they were never meant to last this long and you are right. Sometimes, I see the TS3 (though it was way advanced) as like Windows Basic which was better than XP I guess but not all the features people would want like in Windows Home Premium or Windows Ultimate. And Right now I am thinking TS4 is more like Vista, nobody really actually loved Vista. lol...but were dreaming of something beyond even Seven Ultimate. Windows 8 doesn't even count unless you just want a tablet in my book and maybe that is closer to how I see the TS4 at the moment and waiting to see if MS puts back in the start button and other old XP features etc. in the Windows 9 lol
I agree with this. When I played sims 3 I just could not get used to sims and "townies" disappearing from the relationship panel IF the relationship was not persued. In sims 2 (and 1) any sim ever greeted Stays in the relationship panel forever.
Maybe I don't want to call that sim up tomorrow but Someday may want to persue a relationship or friendship. I don't even know how sims 4 handles this but I suspect it's similar to sims 3 in that sims disappear from the panel.
For some reason this bothers me. I guess it makes the sims 3 and 4 sims more "dispensible" and unreal, and the sims 2 sims more "real".
Yeah, maybe, lol. It must kill them that people like the old software/games after they invested all that time and money in the new. Oh well, if they can't see how good the old is, it's not my problem.
Do you know what I did today? All day long, except for about 1/2 hour of calls that had to be made, I spent the entire day playing the sims 2. OMG, I had a complete blast! I don't think I've had a marathon like that for a long, long time. It really was so much fun. I played one of the premade hoods that I never really spent much time in, other than to see what was in it. Riverblossom Hills. I am trying one more time to do a legacy, lol. I get so bored with just one family that I never get very far. I think I've made it to gen 4, both in 2 & 3, but never beyond that. Anyway, it's fun to be back on t2 trying something new and different.
Happy Simming everyone!
I copied and pasted an old post of mine regarding someone who asked why people like The Sims 2 more than The Sims 3. I hope you don't mind. I just found it fitting.
As for why TS2 is better than TS3, I think there are many reasons. Firstly, the Sims feel more alive and generally likable. By themselves, they may do small (but "charming") things that range from a kid hugging their parent when they get home from work to a neighbor kicking over your trashcan if they get mad at you. The stories and mysteries in TS2 are also much more interesting than in TS3, and usually include multiple families in each one. In TS3, each story is within one household and it's just "X has a conflicting personality with Y. How will they ever get along?".
What I liked more about the expansions in TS2 are that the features brought in were fully fleshed out and added something new to the game, like Open For Business and Apartment Life. You can't say the same thing for TS3. TS3 may have witch battles, but do they really make the game more fun in general? Do you enjoy quantity over quality (although I believe TS2 did have both)? Expansion packs worked with each other in TS2, not just the base game. They also had features that TS3 doesn't have, like pets having jobs. The features missing from TS3 are generally better than the ones missing from TS2 (at least in my opinion). Also in TS3, things that should be hard, like from going to rags to riches, just aren't. This makes everything boring, there is less spontaneity, and it is less rewarding to accomplish things.
Shopping for clothes, buying your cell phone at a store, open restaurants, open grocery stores, etc. are also all missing and added lots of depth and fun. Not to mention fears, turn-on's and turn-off's, and aspiration failures also kept you on your toes. The overall atmosphere and small things contained a lot of humor.
The Sims 3 is more like playing with dolls. You have to leave more to your imagination and they are soulless. I know their emotions and behavior are generated by a computer, but it shouldn't have to feel that way.
And that's why many people love Sims 2.
P.S. It also contained cut scenes and aliens in its base game. Cut scenes never returned.
I think I like the open world of TS3 and I like/love the CASt, and I really did love a lot of the objects that game offers that we begged for in the TS2 and never did get...
> I think I like the open world of TS3 and I like/love the CASt, and I really did love a lot of the objects that game offers that we begged for in the TS2 and never did get... :'( but I think after reading many opinions here about all of the games, what we are saying is we loved the actual simulation of everything in the TS2. Yes, it was annoying for the Sim to walk all the way to the coffee table or desk to put down a cup but that is life simulator no just disappearing the cup like in the TS3. I eventually added a mod in TS2 to make them set it on the counter..lol since they were sitting in the kitchen drinking their coffee instead of trying to find a desk or other surface. Maybe that is all EA should have done with a mod like that, and no one would have been screaming about some things like that. But I think what we are saying overall is the actual simulation, and no short cuts like we have had the with these last two versions. Simulating cars and real life of entering and exiting, simulation for everything. Dirty diaper lands in the floor, not just disappears. I think what people are saying is the actually still want a life simulator and no more goals, plus moodlets, plus, ribbon. We want to see the simulation and for the simulation to make sense, and for the Sims to evolve and not just be some moodlets with text on them which seems to have been too hard to do with TS3 or the TS4 in the long run.
Thanks for putting into words what I've been feeling but unable to describe! It is the simulation that makes me love TS2 so much more than the later versions. I especially feel like TS4 is lacking in this regard. It almost doesn't feel like a simulation game anymore to me. For now, I'm just going to keep playing TS2 and see what happens in the future with TS4.
Cinebar, do you post in this part of the forum regularly?