Just Pre Ordered

lovejess2

Yep like the title says
Tbh I'm a bit worried though, I didn't like pets in sims 3 at all (I ended up uninstalling the game all together). The big reason I got this game was because of the town and the vet career I actually never liked the pets since they took up alot of time. The objects on offer look really good as well (I didn't like the country backwater vibe from 3's expansion). Oh well the game isn't out for another week so it gives me time to reconsider.

SilentKitty

Hope it will be fun for you this time around

icmnfrsh

Well, value is in the eye of the beholder, so if you think the town and the vet career are worth the money, I hope you get maximum enjoyment out of them.

Personally, I really like the pets, and the town is gorgeous too. The vet career's more of a side dish to me that I'll probably play in one dedicated save file.

Cheekybits

@lovejess2 Pets are a lot of work and to be honest my sims barley have time to do what they need to. But in this EP from what I see you won't have to do much if you don't want too. They have the auto pet feeder, you can encourage the animals to start doing things on there own such as eating and going out. If this pack is anything like parenthood but with cats and dogs, then you won't have to worry. In parenthood you encourage your kids to do things like homework and dishes and after a while they do it automatically. So much better then micro management

gothprincess4ever

I pre-ordered it last week and, like you, there are some aspects of the game that somewhat worry me. However, as another Simmer mentioned here, what you perceive as quality in a game is very much subjective. I've read pretty much every bit of information that has been released and watched most of the videos available (all the streams and the Simmers' videos).

I think it's going to be a solid EP. Not a flawless one, we never get those anymore, do we? But I think it's got the potential to be the best EP for TS4 as of now. If you don't want to micromanage your pets, to the extent that is available of course, considering that they aren't controllable, you can just set the auto feeder to a time stamp you prefer and just go and do other stuff with your Sims. I think the Sims team made it relatively easy this time around to simultaneously have an enjoyable experience with your pets (the Sims of course, you get what I mean) and at the same time continue the game the way you want to. I like how pets seem more like real life animals; their interactions with the world are evidence of this. To be perfectly honest with you, I didn't like TS3 pets at all. They felt like robots most of the time and it didn't seem "natural" to me that I could see their needs, wants, dislikes and so on. I prefer TS2 pets every single day. Thus, I am okay with the fact that the TS4 cats and dogs aren't playable. They are definitely going to be more fleshed out and spontaneous than the TS2 ones were, at least that's quite apparent in all the videos.

Well, I've liked what I've seen so far, even though the lack of pet beds is a concern that I just can't ignore. I don't really care about the dog houses, I never used them in the previous games anyway, I only placed them in the lot when I wanted my pets to mate. Also, the fact that dogs can't sleep on beds is another feature that I'll terribly miss. Let's look at the positive side, though: visible bellies for the pregnant pets (I'd been waiting for such a feature since The Sims: Unleashed), pets with more vivid personalities (fears and so on), a much bigger variety and detailed appearance of numerous dog and cat breeds, the Vet career (I'm a vet in real life, so you can understand how much I love this idea) and the addition of raccoons and foxes (yes, not a very big deal, but it's still going to be a nice addition to some stories).

So, all in all, I'd say that I truly hope it'll be a fun experience for you and you'll find many paths where you can lead your game to. I know I will! Happy Simming!

icmnfrsh

gothprincess4ever wrote: »

I pre-ordered it last week and, like you, there are some aspects of the game that somewhat worry me. However, as another Simmer mentioned here, what you perceive as quality in a game is very much subjective. I've read pretty much every bit of information that has been released and watched most of the videos available (all the streams and the Simmers' videos).

I think it's going to be a solid EP. Not a flawless one, we never get those anymore, do we? But I think it's got the potential to be the best EP for TS4 as of now. If you don't want to micromanage your pets, to the extent that is available of course, considering that they aren't controllable, you can just set the auto feeder to a time stamp you prefer and just go and do other stuff with your Sims. I think the Sims team made it relatively easy this time around to simultaneously have an enjoyable experience with your pets (the Sims of course, you get what I mean) and at the same time continue the game the way you want to. I like how pets seem more like real life animals; their interactions with the world are evidence of this. To be perfectly honest with you, I didn't like TS3 pets at all. They felt like robots most of the time and it didn't seem "natural" to me that I could see their needs, wants, dislikes and so on. I prefer TS2 pets every single day. Thus, I am okay with the fact that the TS4 cats and dogs aren't playable. They are definitely going to be more fleshed out and spontaneous than the TS2 ones were, at least that's quite apparent in all the videos.

Well, I've liked what I've seen so far, even though the lack of pet beds is a concern that I just can't ignore. I don't really care about the dog houses, I never used them in the previous games anyway, I only placed them in the lot when I wanted my pets to mate. Also, the fact that dogs can't sleep on beds is another feature that I'll terribly miss. Let's look at the positive side, though: visible bellies for the pregnant pets (I'd been waiting for such a feature since The Sims: Unleashed), pets with more vivid personalities (fears and so on), a much bigger variety and detailed appearance of numerous dog and cat breeds, the Vet career (I'm a vet in real life, so you can understand how much I love this idea) and the addition of raccoons and foxes (yes, not a very big deal, but it's still going to be a nice addition to some stories).

So, all in all, I'd say that I truly hope it'll be a fun experience for you and you'll find many paths where you can lead your game to. I know I will! Happy Simming!

I'm on the same boat, and you perfectly described how I feel too. I've seen a lot of the gameplay, and the pets look fun and lifelike, barring some issues with clipping and animation. It's not perfect, and I wish they'd patch in the stuff you said too (especially pets on beds, because ours always wants to be beside us), but I like what I've seen enough to get it on launch. I feel like I'm going to have a lot of fun with the pets for a while.

gothprincess4ever

icmnfrsh wrote: »

gothprincess4ever wrote: »

I pre-ordered it last week and, like you, there are some aspects of the game that somewhat worry me. However, as another Simmer mentioned here, what you perceive as quality in a game is very much subjective. I've read pretty much every bit of information that has been released and watched most of the videos available (all the streams and the Simmers' videos).

I think it's going to be a solid EP. Not a flawless one, we never get those anymore, do we? But I think it's got the potential to be the best EP for TS4 as of now. If you don't want to micromanage your pets, to the extent that is available of course, considering that they aren't controllable, you can just set the auto feeder to a time stamp you prefer and just go and do other stuff with your Sims. I think the Sims team made it relatively easy this time around to simultaneously have an enjoyable experience with your pets (the Sims of course, you get what I mean) and at the same time continue the game the way you want to. I like how pets seem more like real life animals; their interactions with the world are evidence of this. To be perfectly honest with you, I didn't like TS3 pets at all. They felt like robots most of the time and it didn't seem "natural" to me that I could see their needs, wants, dislikes and so on. I prefer TS2 pets every single day. Thus, I am okay with the fact that the TS4 cats and dogs aren't playable. They are definitely going to be more fleshed out and spontaneous than the TS2 ones were, at least that's quite apparent in all the videos.

Well, I've liked what I've seen so far, even though the lack of pet beds is a concern that I just can't ignore. I don't really care about the dog houses, I never used them in the previous games anyway, I only placed them in the lot when I wanted my pets to mate. Also, the fact that dogs can't sleep on beds is another feature that I'll terribly miss. Let's look at the positive side, though: visible bellies for the pregnant pets (I'd been waiting for such a feature since The Sims: Unleashed), pets with more vivid personalities (fears and so on), a much bigger variety and detailed appearance of numerous dog and cat breeds, the Vet career (I'm a vet in real life, so you can understand how much I love this idea) and the addition of raccoons and foxes (yes, not a very big deal, but it's still going to be a nice addition to some stories).

So, all in all, I'd say that I truly hope it'll be a fun experience for you and you'll find many paths where you can lead your game to. I know I will! Happy Simming!

I'm on the same boat, and you perfectly described how I feel too. I've seen a lot of the gameplay, and the pets look fun and lifelike, barring some issues with clipping and animation. It's not perfect, and I wish they'd patch in the stuff you said too (especially pets on beds, because ours always wants to be beside us), but I like what I've seen enough to get it on launch. I feel like I'm going to have a lot of fun with the pets for a while.

Thank you for reading my comment and, yes, I wholeheartedly agree! The clipping issues are worrisome and annoying but I truly, passionately, hope that a patch will be able to deal with some of these problems. Of course, routing issues will always exist in TS4, I personally don't know anything about the deep waters of the video games development, but from what I've read on these forums, I think it's the engine that causes the majority (if not all) of the problems. Also, I didn't like the way they moved the camera away, during the stream, when some clipping and routing issues appeared, as if we, the ever loyal Simmers, wouldn't notice them -and the fact that they tried to draw our attention to something else, something more trivial-... However, I think many of the Gurus care about the game. To what extent, no one can really know apart from the ones that are there. But I think they try to create a solid product with the means they've got in hand. Maybe I'm too naive and optimistic, I don't know. But there have been some occasions in the past (like the Vampires and Parenthood GPs), when I went into the game with low expectations and was caught completely by surpise. I've got a feeling I'll feel the same when I've got C&D in my hands. Fingers crossed!

icmnfrsh

Yeah, tbh, the only reason I've given TS4 another shot was because of its improved track record this year. Parenthood was good. Toddlers are better than ever. And I've heard good things about Vampires, even though it's not really my thing. So I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt this time.

And just like you, I hope the clipping issues (if they exist on launch) will be eventually patched. I'm aware that it's kind of naive, but they did fix the ball pit after complaints, and we did get toddlers (even if it's 3 years after). Tiny fixes like that aren't off the table, as long as we give our feedback.

gothprincess4ever

I completely agree with you! Try the pack at least. And if you don't like it, you can skip the next one. At least that's how I work. And, yes, I think they'll definitely address some issues on the upcoming patches.

CK213

icmnfrsh wrote: »

Yeah, tbh, the only reason I've given TS4 another shot was because of its improved track record this year. Parenthood was good. Toddlers are better than ever. And I've heard good things about Vampires, even though it's not really my thing. So I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt this time.

And just like you, I hope the clipping issues (if they exist on launch) will be eventually patched. I'm aware that it's kind of naive, but they did fix the ball pit after complaints, and we did get toddlers (even if it's 3 years after). Tiny fixes like that aren't off the table, as long as we give our feedback.

Same.
Toddlers and Parenthood are keeping me in the game.
Game Packs have a nice amount of depth to them. Seasons, University, Supernatural (or a Witches game pack) plus a few more good game packs could keep me playing.

icmnfrsh

I wouldn't mind a Witches GP. Makin' Magic was fantastic. A Magic Town-like world would be amazing, and maybe living there can give bonuses to magic just like in Magic Town.

I'm really hoping for beaches and a tropical vacation world next, though. Granite Falls is pretty lonely on its own as a destination world.