The Sims 4 and The Sims Freeplay...

Cynna

Devs, please hear me out before you exile this post to the ideas or feedback forum. I think that this topic really should be discussed in the general forums because it has everything to do with what the Sims 4 is today, tomorrow, a year from now, and what many of us would like to experience with our game.

Please take a look at the following videos:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Cd94oSxdYEI

and

https://youtube.com/watch?v=4FiQ17nv0ck

I saw those videos completely by accident. They cued up automatically after a video that I'd been watching about the Sims 4. To be honest, the Freeplay videos really took me by surprise. For a mobile game that supposedly requires far less computing overhead, how is it that Freeplay has better offerings in the interactions than both TS3 and especially TS4?

I'm not really discussing the objects; TS4 is slowly getting those. No, I'm speaking about how the Sims themselves behave and how they interact with each other. They seem to have more nuanced and realistic interactions. This is something that I have been begging for in PC versions of the game. Yet, I haven't seen it since way back in The Sims 2. Freeplay also has seems to have venues that I would have loved to see in the full PC/Mac versions of the games.

For those who may not be able to see the videos, here are brief descriptions of what drew my attention:

• Toddlers playing patty cake with each other. They don't seem to have one catchall play action that goes by in the blink of the eye, with teleportation and a shower of sparkles.

• The Sims are able to feed ducks in a pond that doesn't look like a big, unnatural circle.

• The ducks respond and swim toward the Sims.

• There's a shopping mall! That's a venue that should have been a no-brainer for the Fashion District in City Living. Yet, it only appears in a mobile game.

• There's a teenaged Sim that actually lays on her stomach on her bed while writing in her notebook. That's such a typical thing for a teenager or child to do on a bed. That should also include speaking on the phone, watching TV, tussling with, and telling secrets to friends, jumping up and down on the bed when they get an A, or just spending time daydreaming.

• There's a couple at a bar, sitting sideways on the stools. They're actually leaning on the bar in a way that denotes that they're giving their undivided attention while they speak to each other. They also occasionally lean in towards each other. (I wish that TS4 had this level of detail in some of their social interactions. Those Freeplay Sims reminded me of how real people tend to sit -- relaxed, easy. I would love to see more of that.)

• There's a bride who actually walks down the aisle and carries a bouquet.

• Guests sit still to watch a wedding ceremony ( and to watch movies).

• After the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom celebrate then run back up the aisle together, holding hands.

• The Sims play in the water and can flip each other, not just splash.

• The Sims can lay on a lounger and bask in the sun.

• The Sims can actually cuddle and talk to each other, showing genuine affection.

• They can give flowers, hold hands, and kiss at a dining table. (Why wasn't something like this included in Dine Out?)

• The Sims go to a club and actually dance with their partners, face to face. (What a novel idea!)

• The Sims can use an actual animated diving board. (I don't know many people who would have a diving platform at home.)

It's not so much the objects and the activities that got me so excited about Freeplay. It's the attention to detail. It's too late for TS3 since the game has all but been abandoned by EA since the release of a newer version. However, it's not too late for TS4. I really despise the free-to-play model. However, for a game that I could own outright? I would throw money at EA just to have Sims that showed genuine connection, affection, and life the way that I've seen in those small snippets of Freeplay.

Please, Devs, please consider spending more time on more varied, interesting, and natural Sim interactions. Please breathe life into our Sims again. It doesn't have to be exaggerated and OTT, just realistic. Please let parents get their babies out of the bassinet (like they can in Freeplay). Let Sim parents be able to kiss their children's cheeks and read them a bedtime story (not just the toddlers). Let a couple that's supposed to be happily in love, behave like a couple that's in love. By now, those are things that should be in the base game, not parceled out over many paid DLC. Perhaps, never to come, after years of waiting.

Please consider this for players like me who are in love with the life simulation and storytelling part of the series, rather than strictly objects/activities. At this point, we shouldn't have to download of pose player, just to simulate typical, everyday interactions because the game doesn't bother.

Thanks for reading.

Writin_Reg

Sims 2 has all of that stuff.

Cynna

Almost all @Writin_Reg. That's why I said that I haven't seen those things since TS2. With each successive game, more and more interactions are left out. The Sims themselves become more lifeless.

I've tried to go back to TS2 several times. I still have all of my CC from way back when. Yet, I just can't get over how unattractive the Sims are, so I mostly just decorate. If TS2 was made over with updated graphics and an innate ability for Sims to visit each other's homes, not just with a mod, that is the game that I'd be throwing my money at. Even without an open world, I'd throw money at it, no question.

After all these years, TS2 is still the game to beat.

feetinstockings

I loved the play ground for the toddlers, it was all brilliant.
personally I couldn't get into sims free play because it was in real time, their work and gardens were in real time. I cant play while there in work, and I cant play with them when it takes 8 real hours to plant tomatoes. (I may have the times wrong its been a few years since I tried playing it.) and your right I don't understand why the Fashion district didn't come with a fashion shop.

Mendota

Cynna wrote: »

Almost all @Writin_Reg. That's why I said that I haven't seen those things since TS2. With each successive game, more and more interactions are left out. The Sims themselves become more lifeless.

I've tried to go back to TS2 several times. I still have all of my CC from way back when. Yet, I just can't get over how unattractive the Sims are, so I mostly just decorate. If TS2 was made over with updated graphics and an innate ability for Sims to visit each other's homes, not just with a mod, that is the game that I'd be throwing my money at. Even without an open world, I'd throw money at it, no question.

After all these years, TS2 is still the game to beat.

Actually the only issue I had with the look of the Sims 2 was the eyes. I replaced them with default custom content and it was amazing the difference it made. Try replacing the eyes I think you will be surprised. I have no idea why Maxis chose those hideous over done gross eyes that ruined the look of the sims.

Cynna

Mendota wrote: »

Actually the only issue I had with the look of the Sims 2 was the eyes. I replaced them with default custom content and it was amazing the difference it made. Try replacing the eyes I think you will be surprised. I have no idea why Maxis chose those hideous over done gross eyes that ruined the look of the sims.

Oh, I replaced, eyes, skin tones, and hair. As well, I scoured the internet for better clothing and makeup. I've even used template replacements to get rid of some of the blockheaded look of some of the templates. Still, I was never satisfied with how TS2 sims looked. It was really hard to go back to that.

With each iteration, EA/Maxis has consistently improved the look of the Sims. I give them huge kudos for that. If they gave me a version of the Sims 2 that had the qraphical fidelity (not the art style) of TS4, I would run and buy it so fast!