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Expansion Pack Comparison, Reflection and Feedback
POLLYANNA2
Posts: 172 Member
So the other day, my friend was playing The Sims 3 Ambitions and I, Sims 4 Get To Work and we were comparing our gameplay. His experience seemed so much richer and his Sims personalities more unique. I decided for kicks and because I love charts and tables to compare the two expansion packs to see where the Sims 3 outperformed the Sims 4 and vise-versa and to try and nail down why I was feeling a touch dissatisfied with The Sims 4 and completely underwhelmed by the expansion packs. This is my analysis.
Now, I didn't look at BB stuff or CAS stuff but just the gameplay and one thing became apparent. The things added in the Sims 3 expansion pack made for richer sims with diverse lives, whether you were playing the careers or not. The addition of more traits, rewards and LTW meant that there was more to do before you even got to the careers. The gameplay objects were useful to you, no matter how you played and nothing needed to be unlocked by playing the game in a certain way and you didn't need to be a certain Sim to use them. Children were not ignored and there was just a lot more on offer around the town. I had real estate moguls, tattoo artists, junkyard bandit and crazy inventors and they didn't need to go to work to be those things. Their job was another facet of them, not the only facet.
My Sims all look different thanks to the amazing new CAS, but they act the same because they have limited LTW that I have played multiple times and the same traits.
Sims 4 team - please develop more traits and more LTW and don't give us on per expansion - I want six per expansion like we used to get.
Now, I didn't look at BB stuff or CAS stuff but just the gameplay and one thing became apparent. The things added in the Sims 3 expansion pack made for richer sims with diverse lives, whether you were playing the careers or not. The addition of more traits, rewards and LTW meant that there was more to do before you even got to the careers. The gameplay objects were useful to you, no matter how you played and nothing needed to be unlocked by playing the game in a certain way and you didn't need to be a certain Sim to use them. Children were not ignored and there was just a lot more on offer around the town. I had real estate moguls, tattoo artists, junkyard bandit and crazy inventors and they didn't need to go to work to be those things. Their job was another facet of them, not the only facet.
My Sims all look different thanks to the amazing new CAS, but they act the same because they have limited LTW that I have played multiple times and the same traits.
Sims 4 team - please develop more traits and more LTW and don't give us on per expansion - I want six per expansion like we used to get.
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source: http://www.thetoptens.com/best-sims-3-expansion-packs/
And this says it all.
Let's give it a try: Late Night's best feature was Bridgeport (in fact, it was my second favorite world, so they did a pretty good job with it). The problem: If you don't use a fan-made patch the map suffers of significant routing errors that eventually can corrupt your save file if you don't use mods such as errortrap etc.
Then we had apartments (camera-movement of doom, rabbithole neighbors, NO (!) new gameplay at all, ZERO control over neighbors etc.) and with them came elevators --> always leading to a traffic jam inside the building + more routing errors + sims getting stuck).
In addition we got pubs, night-clubs and vip-lounges - everything neat in theory, but since they were almost always empty it seemed like a useless (because dysfunctional) addition to me.
Also a very poorly designed celebrity system that made everybody become famous only because they talked several times to a VIP sim (resulting in a town full of VIPs), paparazzis that always leave as soon as you start interacting with them (which is so dumb) etc.
And - of course - vampires, however, they got reworked later anyway. Nuff said.
The only addition I truly enjoyed were butlers. They were alcoholics (drinking at the bar all day long) and it was great (but for real the AI was just terribe --> you can google it yourself "Sims 3 + butler + alcoholic)!
And those were the *Special* fetures of Late Night (don't forget, every Sims 3 ep is packed with set dressing --> rabbithole interactions). I am sorry, I just don't see any more depth or better gameplay features in those eps in comparison to TS4. On the contrary.
Almost everything in TS3 was half-baked at best.
Conclusion: If you love the numbers game (meaning: quantitiy over quality) stick with TS3.
By the way: Let's better not start a discussion about the glorified stuff pack (called Generations)...
--> http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-sims-3-generations
I played Late Night for years when it came out without mods just fine honey.
All hotspots in town were always full of celebrities and norms, and only once I had my sim get stuck on an elevator due to a ton of sims having to go home because the club closed. You seem to be also forgetting that the Late Night patch introduced breast augmentation, moving pictures etc on walls, half walls, platforms and zodiacs. We also got bands and group outings on that same pack along with mixology, bartenders, and extra traits and lifetime wishes. A new semi active career as well, dancing on tables and extra dancing animations, skinny dipping, bouncers and more than 4 skills some hidden. Drums, piano, bass, elevators, bubble blower, hot tubs, darts, full bars, shuffleboard, arcade machines, electric gates and fx machines were also included.
And vampires didn't get reworked, they only patched a few features extra on them they didn't remove or directly alter anything.
But just because people say it's best doesn't mean it is, how biased of you.
But if TS3 is soooo half baked then where are these in TS4?
Nuff said.
And btw honey, if you care so much for those metacritic scores, be sure to know that the glorified trash that you call TS4 Base Game has a 3.9. user score--> http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-sims-4
-2 New Traits
- 9 New Reward Perks
- New Party types - including Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties and Teen Parties
- Pranks
- Boarding School (God I loved boarding school for annoying children)
- Two new WooHoo locations
- The Chemistry Table
- A New Lifestate
- Midlife Crisis
- Teaching teens to drive (My sims would spend Sunday Family Funday teaching their kids to drive and then they'd hang out at a park or the beach...
- Cloning
- Bunkbeds & Spiral stairs (please can we have these back they were such good space savers)
- And more...dates, memory system, body hair, dreams for kids, bedtime stories etc.
All worked almost perfectly. There was as much in that "Glorified Stuff Pack" than any Sims 4 EP. I am not saying Sims 3 is perfect - obviously, if it was I would only play it and not care about the future of the Sims 4. It did glitch and crashed.
But my reflection was to look at why I am dissatisfied with the Sims 4 and the lack of variety in everyday sim life is a big part of that. A variety of goals, traits, activities, and rewards. And an expansion pack is meant to counter that and it's not yet. I hope that voicing a desire for more traits and goals will help guide the game to that point.
ou can read my Sim-Lit here:
https://pollyannasims.wordpress.com/
You do realize, it's something different when the angry (internet) mob decides to vote (impulsivly) against a game for whatever reason (look at Fallout 4) during a very short amount of time compared to reacting to an EP (longer reaction span implied) that builds on the foundation of said videogame. Sims 3 --> good score, but Generations still sucked (probably beause of the theme ;-) ).
BTW: What I described with TS4 (today it's a very modern thing to mobilize internet mobs and take part in them --> the term 'p-lumstorm' was born) was also the reason why Steam changed their rating system: You now see how people rate a particular game AFTERWARDS --> after the release (sometimes games get better with time, this especially applies to TS4 (remember http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/893117/live-service-explained/p1, Sims 3, however, only released very few patches in comparison ) ).
What I mean by that? opinions change with time. Here is a very good example: http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/die-sims-4/test/die_sims_4,49502,3235018.html (Gamestar gave TS4 another chance because they realized their concept of providing content was different from what people were used from previous iterations, an angry internet mob, however, will never revalue its score).
The link works fine for me, it shows a test where the reviewer decided to give TS4 a better score because of certain improvements they made with the game (written: 14.08.2015)
Edit: BTW: the point i am trying to prove? Never trust your (hardcore-) community. Since World of Warcraft Burning Crusade it became evident that view of hardcore gamers =/= view of casuals (and here is the money~).
The site also have a link to http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/die-sims-4/artikel/die_sims_4,49502,3080827.html which in German describes TS4 as a half game to a full price. Didn't you think that any of us could read German?
Released: Datum: 17.12.2014 .
Anyway: Showtime? Anybody? Wow, it was indeed an EP literally packed with features... . Wasn't it? Guys? Come on...
I mean:
This literally made me laugh out loud and I needed it today, thanks
But I'm genuinely wondering how come you love TS4's packs which are obviously the half baked ones and don't like TS3's?
TS3's packs were full of content, I don't remember ever being disappointed. There was always so much to do and I never got bored after playing those for a week which is the case for TS4. I just don't understand anyone saying they rather have quality over quantity with TS4's packs cause honestly, those packs have neither of those.
What you quote says: We don't change the score because of eps. That's all. Just please, Stop lying (again)!
Here is the proof:
(the score in brakets was the previous score btw)
source: http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/die-sims-4/wertung/49502.html
Yeah, they won the numbers game - gz!
Okay.
Did you even play TS3 from start to finish or just checked it out later and said nah TS4 is the best? I'm just trying to understand your reasoning here.
TS3 was my favorite videogame for 5 years.
I think, for me though, it far surpasses the quantity and even quality of what's added to any EP (whether TS3 or TS4) -- because I don't find traits mean much in TS4 and all of my sims tend to act the exact same as one another -- whether through the emotion system or because they literally all roll the same whims or whatever they are called.
I'm not enjoying the game because I don't want to have to force personality on them. I don't want to have to make them grieve their dead family member constantly just to notice it (if they weren't in the room), I don't want to have to keep the angry spouse angry at their significant other who they caught cheating because after a quick argument they're fine once more.. For *me*, having to make my sims react/act in a certain why just doesn't make me become attached to them.
They've improved some reactions in the past.. I'm holding on to hope that they'll fix it a bit more. But that's purely from my perspective of the game.
Don't forget: Even a (profesional) reviewer can only provide a single opinion about the game. The general reception is what determines success. It's not him or her.
It true - the whim aren't as diverse as Sims 3 and that does impact the sameness of gameplay and the emotions ofter override the reaction of Sims.
ou can read my Sim-Lit here:
https://pollyannasims.wordpress.com/
Gamespot gave the Sims 3 basegame 9 stars out of 10 and only 6 out of 10 to the Sims 4.
Metacritic gave the Sims 3 86 points out of 100 and only 70 points out of 100 to the Sims 4.
So TS4 is rated much lower than TS3 everywhere.
I, myself would have rated TS3 basegame higher than TS4 basegame. Even today (because potential is not always a criteria).
As I have written earlier we now know the content of the first 3 EPs and the first 3 GPs. It also seems that there are more and more months between such expansions. So maybe we only will get 2 EPs and 2 EPs more before TS4's era will end even though it maybe is more likely that we still will get 3 more of each type. But will any of them be better than the previous ones? Will any of them be new versions of Pets, Seasons or similar popular expansions for the earlier games when EA has avoided them until now and seems to only want completely new types of expansions released for TS4?
@HalloMolli Since we're using anecdotal evidence I want to add that I've never had an issue with Butlers. Mine never drank on the job. They cooked/cleaned/looked after babies until they went to bed exhausted. Never once saw mine drinking and there were 2 bars in the house. So <shrugs> your personal experience isn't a global experience by any means. I had a maid once that just sat around eating and drinking all day, but she entertained me with her incompetence so I left it. Seems realistic.
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