I'm playing pretty slow through the seasons so I'm just transitioning from Spring to Summer, but right now I'd say Sims 4. Haven't really done much yet with the custom holidays (I want to get a feel for the seasons first) but I haven't felt the need to add in a bunch of extra holidays. My Sims have been making more friends so they'll have people to invite over for the Grand Feasts later in the year. Sims 3 in general was more focused on community activities, while Sims 4 feels more focused on the home. I really love the seasonal crafts for the kids -- gives more purpose to the craft tables, and gift giving is really cute. When my kids get older and move out I'm looking forward to my Sims visiting them to give Simoleons and help them out as they get started.
This is me as well. I think rushing through you miss too much. I rushed through the last two season eps and when I go back and play them I notice the things I missed. Retirement is such a good thing when you love to sim. Not the budget so much lol but at least I now have time to play them all.
Great idea on the moving out. I have a young adult sim son that should be leaving and I never thought of "mom & dad" helping out that way.
"Every child matters. If we fail our children, we are bound to fail our present, our future, faith, cultures, and civilizations as well."
Summer:
- Face Painting
- Tanning Booth
- Sunburns/Tans
- Swimming in Oceans
- Diving boards
- Hot dog eating contest
- Waterballoon fight
- Soccer shootouts
- Pool Floats
Fall:
- Leaf raking
- Trick or Treat
- Pumpkin Carving
- Bobbing for apples
- Pie eating Contest
- Haunted House
Winter:
- Snowdepth
- Snowball Fights
- Iglo Building
- Snow'pal' building
- Snow angels
- The ability to ice skate on frozen lakes
- Snowboarding
-Aliens (imo much better ones than we have atm in TS4)
- Online Dating
- Attraction System
- Rain dripping off the roofs
- Rain dripping off umbrellas
- Icicles hanging on the roofs in winter
- Rain effects hitting the puddles
- Puddles don't disappear the moment it stops raining
Ok, did I forgot something?
Now please tell me how Seasons in TS4 offers more content in the EP than the Sims 3 Seasons did.
We have a nice calendar feature, sure, but as you can see; when it comes to content it's nothing compared to the Sims 3.
And before people start about things such as Horseshoes throwing and Pumpkin carving and all that stuff that IS already in The Sims 4; Remember this all came with ONE expansion pack. Not with 10 different packs.
Feel free to add stuff to this list if I forgot something.
To me it seems very obvious that the budget of Sims 4 packs is much less compared to The Sims 3 Budget.
And that is the problem with this game.
Sims 3 Seasons for sure did a better job at adding a whole bunch of seasonal activities, but scale is a subjective thing, especially in a Sims game. It's clear the focus of each pack from 3 and 4 are completely different. Sims 3 focused on the activities while 4 focused on providing new tools and depth among all the new features. Compare Sims 3 Seasons main new features, the seasons/weather, the festivals, the aliens, as well as the other features, to the Sims 4 main features, the seasons/weather, the calendar, the holidays and the gardening career. Which pack has more depth among its features? Sims 4 Seasons for sure, all the features are tied together in one way or another, specifically the calendar, weather, and holidays, those three features rely on each other to deliver the full experience in this pack, even the gardening has very deep ties to the weather and seasons. Then take a look at Sims 3 and its features, the only two features that go hand in hand with one another are the seasons and festivals, everything else is just kind of there. And even then the festivals are only dependent on the seasons because they are themed around the seasons. So back to the whole scale thing, it's clear you prefer and value the activities in Sims 3 Seasons over the tools in Sims 4 Seasons. I prefer and value the tools in Sims 4 Seasons over the activities in Sims 3 seasons because I already know that I will get an immense amount of use out of the new Calendar and Holiday features compared to the festivals in 3. So to me, Sims 4 Seasons is bigger in scale than the Sims 3 Seasons because it offers me game play tools that I can use in whatever way I want, unlike the festivals in Sims 3 Seasons which I can only enjoy in a limited amount of ways compared to the calendar. You clearly find the Sims 3 Seasons to be bigger because it offers more activities. Each pack delivers more of one thing, Sims 3 Seasons delivers more activities, while Sims 4 Seasons delivers more versatility.
Sims 3 seasons brought dynamic weather to the game, it vastly improved the sims 2 weather and it allows the player to customise their worlds further by setting their own seasons. Seasons impact on the sims in every way in that sims will react negatively to extreme temperatures at either end of the scale and they react positively to more pleasant effects like sun tan for example. Playing a homeless challenge in sims 3 with seasons made it a heck of a lot more of a challenge. The new game play objects, holidays (love day, spooky day, leisure day and the winter one) and parties and festivals are great additions too but to me they were never the main feature.
The sims 4 calender is a significant feature by EAs own admission. But the trouble I have with that is, many of what it offers is already possible in game. Want to throw a party in five days? You can already. Just wait the appropriate days and bingo! Now it’s a case of mark it in the calendar, let the game take the funds for the party off you and wait the required number of days.
Why is that such a big feature? I refuse to believe I’m the only one that has been doing that all this time? It’s not innovative or a mind blowing feature. It’s just a case of now having it marked in a calender. We all know where our sims are all the time so it’s not like they are going to cancel it or forget and not turn up. What would have been significant to me was if they added in the ability to creat our own events. What if I want a teen party? Can’t happen. What if I want to schedule a date with Albert on Thursday and another with Bridget on Friday? What if I want to throw a hen or bachelorette party?
Can’t, cant, can’t.
I can pretend my teen party is a teen party where the parents are away for the weekend and the teens are getting up to no good, I can manually ask all those sims for dates on that date and I can pretend my dance party at a club is a hen night but it’s not.
The blog talked about Vlad coming to stay for a few days and being able to schedule a dinner date If I recall right, none of that is possible.
Holidays are useful and I like them but again very very limiting. We can’t select many specific things, I can’t make a snow day holidays and have my sims build snowmen, make snow angels and drink hot chocolate round the table. I know I can give them a holiday and not set any checklists but isn’t that the same thing as what I’ve been doing since the sims 1? (In many cases) only now it’s called a holiday.
I really like the holidays we have but I want more customisation. Holiday socials are limited to:
Share holiday spirit, talk about holiday, sing about holiday and complain about holiday. Some traditions offer some more socials like share holiday spirit but after you have done them a few times you have done them a million times, it’s the same social just different holiday. I think the sims 3 focuses on very different things to sims 4 seasons, some will like it some won’t.
Holidays are useful and I like them but again very very limiting. We can’t select many specific things, I can’t make a snow day holidays and have my sims build snowmen, make snow angels ...
I think a good reason they don't include any weather-specific holiday traits are because you are not guaranteed to have that weather on any given day. I know it sounds silly coming from The Sims 3 which snowed out every single world for the whole winter. However, in my first winter in The Sims 4, it didn't snow until the day after Winterfest. It would have been awkward if Winterfest had celebrations that required snow.
Does the stuff from the spooky stuff pack come with seasons or should i buy that for costumes, carving etc? I wanted to know before I bought seasons cause i was just going to do the bundle for $50 since I get a stuff, game, and expansion pack, which is just 10 more than buying just the expansion
Does the stuff from the spooky stuff pack come with seasons or should i buy that for costumes, carving etc? I wanted to know before I bought seasons cause i was just going to do the bundle for $50 since I get a stuff, game, and expansion pack, which is just 10 more than buying just the expansion
While some Spooky Stuff items come with Seasons, most of it does not, and among that which is not included is pumpkin carving. I was very disappointed to see it wasn't in Seasons, because it was in TS3 Seasons, and I love it there. =(
Holidays are useful and I like them but again very very limiting. We can’t select many specific things, I can’t make a snow day holidays and have my sims build snowmen, make snow angels ...
I think a good reason they don't include any weather-specific holiday traits are because you are not guaranteed to have that weather on any given day. I know it sounds silly coming from The Sims 3 which snowed out every single world for the whole winter. However, in my first winter in The Sims 4, it didn't snow until the day after Winterfest. It would have been awkward if Winterfest had celebrations that required snow.
True, but I can plan a snow day holiday when the calendar says the game will have heavy snow or snow. Well in theory I would like too. In my game my sim lives in Newcrest and they had snow for 6 days out of 7. San Myshuno had snow for some of those days and Windenburg had snow for the majority of the season. If snow activities or winter activities as I think they are labelled for clubs couldn't happen because you didn't have snow, you could cancel that tradition or not plan a holiday involving snow if there was none forecast.
The sims 4 calender is a significant feature by EAs own admission. But the trouble I have with that is, many of what it offers is already possible in game. Want to throw a party in five days? You can already. Just wait the appropriate days and bingo! Now it’s a case of mark it in the calendar, let the game take the funds for the party off you and wait the required number of days.
Why is that such a big feature? I refuse to believe I’m the only one that has been doing that all this time? It’s not innovative or a mind blowing feature. It’s just a case of now having it marked in a calender. We all know where our sims are all the time so it’s not like they are going to cancel it or forget and not turn up. What would have been significant to me was if they added in the ability to creat our own events. What if I want a teen party? Can’t happen. What if I want to schedule a date with Albert on Thursday and another with Bridget on Friday? What if I want to throw a hen or bachelorette party?
For me the act of scheduling an event, looking forward to it, and planning just adds more realism and immersion to my game. I don't get up one morning in real life and decide I'm going to throw a bridal or baby shower. I plan it months in advance. I can now get rid of one of my to do lists because the game keeps track of some events for me. Another feature is that scheduled events have goals, which has always been a favorite feature for me. And I know as more packs are released there will be more activities to add to scheduled events. At the end of the day, you either see value in the calendar system or you don't. For me it makes the game less frantic and more organized.
The sims 4 calender is a significant feature by EAs own admission. But the trouble I have with that is, many of what it offers is already possible in game. Want to throw a party in five days? You can already. Just wait the appropriate days and bingo! Now it’s a case of mark it in the calendar, let the game take the funds for the party off you and wait the required number of days.
Why is that such a big feature? I refuse to believe I’m the only one that has been doing that all this time? It’s not innovative or a mind blowing feature. It’s just a case of now having it marked in a calender. We all know where our sims are all the time so it’s not like they are going to cancel it or forget and not turn up. What would have been significant to me was if they added in the ability to creat our own events. What if I want a teen party? Can’t happen. What if I want to schedule a date with Albert on Thursday and another with Bridget on Friday? What if I want to throw a hen or bachelorette party?
For me the act of scheduling an event, looking forward to it, and planning just adds more realism and immersion to my game. I don't get up one morning in real life and decide I'm going to throw a bridal or baby shower. I plan it months in advance. I can now get rid of one of my to do lists because the game keeps track of some events for me. Another feature is that scheduled events have goals, which has always been a favorite feature for me. And I know as more packs are released there will be more activities to add to scheduled events. At the end of the day, you either see value in the calendar system or you don't. For me it makes the game less frantic and more organized.
The sims 4 calender is a significant feature by EAs own admission. But the trouble I have with that is, many of what it offers is already possible in game. Want to throw a party in five days? You can already. Just wait the appropriate days and bingo! Now it’s a case of mark it in the calendar, let the game take the funds for the party off you and wait the required number of days.
Why is that such a big feature? I refuse to believe I’m the only one that has been doing that all this time? It’s not innovative or a mind blowing feature. It’s just a case of now having it marked in a calender. We all know where our sims are all the time so it’s not like they are going to cancel it or forget and not turn up. What would have been significant to me was if they added in the ability to creat our own events. What if I want a teen party? Can’t happen. What if I want to schedule a date with Albert on Thursday and another with Bridget on Friday? What if I want to throw a hen or bachelorette party?
For me the act of scheduling an event, looking forward to it, and planning just adds more realism and immersion to my game. I don't get up one morning in real life and decide I'm going to throw a bridal or baby shower. I plan it months in advance. I can now get rid of one of my to do lists because the game keeps track of some events for me. Another feature is that scheduled events have goals, which has always been a favorite feature for me. And I know as more packs are released there will be more activities to add to scheduled events. At the end of the day, you either see value in the calendar system or you don't. For me it makes the game less frantic and more organized.
Except we cannot plan bridal or baby showers, thats my point. The events haven't changed, just when we can schedule them has.
I'm genuinely glad you are enjoying it. But can I ask? minus the act of typing in an event to the calendar, isn't the looking forward to it and planning it the exact same process as it was without the calendar? Not trying to be goady. I'm just curious. I can totally see that if you enjoy goals then the sims 4 is good, because it does goals very well. A little too well.
For example, for me in my game right now my toddler will age in 5 sim days. Pre seasons I would maybe give him a birthday party, at the very least bake a cake to avoid the sad moodlet. The game reminds me the day before and on the day its his birthday. Depending on family members schedules I do it after work and school, usually take the family to the park and they have a bbq or at the least just stay home and do the cake.
Now with seasons I can schedule the party for five days and place it in the calendar. The game will take the funds from me but for the next five days for me personally its the same process as without seasons except now I have a blip in the calendar telling me there is a party that day. Which admittedly is very organised but its not like my sims will go off and organise their own lives or I won't know where they are . For that five days I don't feel any different nor do I play any differently- I'm just down the simoleans for the party. The only thing I do is check the weather if I'm holding the party outdoors. If I'm looking forward to them aging up then I will still feel that way without the calendar. The first scenario is how I more or less always approach birthdays or weddings or special celebrations, inputting it into a calendar doesn't change the celebration or the lead up to it. What would be my ideal would be like for example if you have a wedding coming up allowing you to make events relating to that wedding like dress shopping, cake tasting, bridal shower and let me invite people and have the calendar tell me if those people will make it in advance so if they don't I can reschedule. I would see the value in it a whole lot more if it allowed me to customise it more, let me create my own events, let my townies ask my sims out at a certain date and time and the calendar tell me if I have a conflict in the schedule.
I'm genuinely glad you are enjoying it. But can I ask? minus the act of typing in an event to the calendar, isn't the looking forward to it and planning it the exact same process as it was without the calendar? Not trying to be goady. I'm just curious. I can totally see that if you enjoy goals then the sims 4 is good, because it does goals very well. A little too well.
For example, for me in my game right now my toddler will age in 5 sim days. Pre seasons I would maybe give him a birthday party, at the very least bake a cake to avoid the sad moodlet. The game reminds me the day before and on the day its his birthday. Depending on family members schedules I do it after work and school, usually take the family to the park and they have a bbq or at the least just stay home and do the cake.
Now with seasons I can schedule the party for five days and place it in the calendar. The game will take the funds from me but for the next five days for me personally its the same process as without seasons except now I have a blip in the calendar telling me there is a party that day. Which admittedly is very organised but its not like my sims will go off and organise their own lives or I won't know where they are . For that five days I don't feel any different nor do I play any differently- I'm just down the simoleans for the party. The only thing I do is check the weather if I'm holding the party outdoors. If I'm looking forward to them aging up then I will still feel that way without the calendar. The first scenario is how I more or less always approach birthdays or weddings or special celebrations, inputting it into a calendar doesn't change the celebration or the lead up to it. What would be my ideal would be like for example if you have a wedding coming up allowing you to make events relating to that wedding like dress shopping, cake tasting, bridal shower and let me invite people and have the calendar tell me if those people will make it in advance so if they don't I can reschedule. I would see the value in it a whole lot more if it allowed me to customise it more, let me create my own events, let my townies ask my sims out at a certain date and time and the calendar tell me if I have a conflict in the schedule.
For me it just provides a reminder at a glance that an event is going to take place and I have a certain number of days to make preparations for that event without it just sneaking up on me the day before or the day of. I can pull up my calendar at any given time and see in an instant what my family members have planned without having to click on each sim to see if they're going to be at work or have another event scheduled. I have two working adults, a teen, a child, a toddler, and a dog and that is overwhelming in and of itself. The calendar just makes the game less stressful, and more organized for me.
I'm genuinely glad you are enjoying it. But can I ask? minus the act of typing in an event to the calendar, isn't the looking forward to it and planning it the exact same process as it was without the calendar? Not trying to be goady. I'm just curious. I can totally see that if you enjoy goals then the sims 4 is good, because it does goals very well. A little too well.
For example, for me in my game right now my toddler will age in 5 sim days. Pre seasons I would maybe give him a birthday party, at the very least bake a cake to avoid the sad moodlet. The game reminds me the day before and on the day its his birthday. Depending on family members schedules I do it after work and school, usually take the family to the park and they have a bbq or at the least just stay home and do the cake.
Now with seasons I can schedule the party for five days and place it in the calendar. The game will take the funds from me but for the next five days for me personally its the same process as without seasons except now I have a blip in the calendar telling me there is a party that day. Which admittedly is very organised but its not like my sims will go off and organise their own lives or I won't know where they are . For that five days I don't feel any different nor do I play any differently- I'm just down the simoleans for the party. The only thing I do is check the weather if I'm holding the party outdoors. If I'm looking forward to them aging up then I will still feel that way without the calendar. The first scenario is how I more or less always approach birthdays or weddings or special celebrations, inputting it into a calendar doesn't change the celebration or the lead up to it. What would be my ideal would be like for example if you have a wedding coming up allowing you to make events relating to that wedding like dress shopping, cake tasting, bridal shower and let me invite people and have the calendar tell me if those people will make it in advance so if they don't I can reschedule. I would see the value in it a whole lot more if it allowed me to customise it more, let me create my own events, let my townies ask my sims out at a certain date and time and the calendar tell me if I have a conflict in the schedule.
For me it just provides a reminder at a glance that an event is going to take place and I have a certain number of days to make preparations for that event without it just sneaking up on me the day before or the day of. I can pull up my calendar at any given time and see in an instant what my family members have planned without having to click on each sim to see if they're going to be at work or have another event scheduled. I have two working adults, a teen, a child, a toddler, and a dog and that is overwhelming in and of itself. The calendar just makes the game less stressful, and more organized for me.
Wow I love your point it is less stressful knowing when your sims work and when to plan stuff. Awesome idea @simgirl1010
Summer:
- Face Painting
- Tanning Booth
- Sunburns/Tans
- Swimming in Oceans
- Diving boards
- Hot dog eating contest
- Waterballoon fight
- Soccer shootouts
- Pool Floats
Fall:
- Leaf raking
- Trick or Treat
- Pumpkin Carving
- Bobbing for apples
- Pie eating Contest
- Haunted House
Winter:
- Snowdepth
- Snowball Fights
- Iglo Building
- Snow'pal' building
- Snow angels
- The ability to ice skate on frozen lakes
- Snowboarding
-Aliens (imo much better ones than we have atm in TS4)
- Online Dating
- Attraction System
- Rain dripping off the roofs
- Rain dripping off umbrellas
- Icicles hanging on the roofs in winter
- Rain effects hitting the puddles
- Puddles don't disappear the moment it stops raining
Ok, did I forgot something?
Now please tell me how Seasons in TS4 offers more content in the EP than the Sims 3 Seasons did.
We have a nice calendar feature, sure, but as you can see; when it comes to content it's nothing compared to the Sims 3.
And before people start about things such as Horseshoes throwing and Pumpkin carving and all that stuff that IS already in The Sims 4; Remember this all came with ONE expansion pack. Not with 10 different packs.
Feel free to add stuff to this list if I forgot something.
To me it seems very obvious that the budget of Sims 4 packs is much less compared to The Sims 3 Budget.
And that is the problem with this game.
Sims 3 Seasons for sure did a better job at adding a whole bunch of seasonal activities, but scale is a subjective thing, especially in a Sims game. It's clear the focus of each pack from 3 and 4 are completely different. Sims 3 focused on the activities while 4 focused on providing new tools and depth among all the new features. Compare Sims 3 Seasons main new features, the seasons/weather, the festivals, the aliens, as well as the other features, to the Sims 4 main features, the seasons/weather, the calendar, the holidays and the gardening career. Which pack has more depth among its features? Sims 4 Seasons for sure, all the features are tied together in one way or another, specifically the calendar, weather, and holidays, those three features rely on each other to deliver the full experience in this pack, even the gardening has very deep ties to the weather and seasons. Then take a look at Sims 3 and its features, the only two features that go hand in hand with one another are the seasons and festivals, everything else is just kind of there. And even then the festivals are only dependent on the seasons because they are themed around the seasons. So back to the whole scale thing, it's clear you prefer and value the activities in Sims 3 Seasons over the tools in Sims 4 Seasons. I prefer and value the tools in Sims 4 Seasons over the activities in Sims 3 seasons because I already know that I will get an immense amount of use out of the new Calendar and Holiday features compared to the festivals in 3. So to me, Sims 4 Seasons is bigger in scale than the Sims 3 Seasons because it offers me game play tools that I can use in whatever way I want, unlike the festivals in Sims 3 Seasons which I can only enjoy in a limited amount of ways compared to the calendar. You clearly find the Sims 3 Seasons to be bigger because it offers more activities. Each pack delivers more of one thing, Sims 3 Seasons delivers more activities, while Sims 4 Seasons delivers more versatility.
THIS! Wow! I could never have said it better myself. You hit the nail on the head over why I tend to prefer the Sims 4 version of stuff to Sims 3. They always seem more thoughtfully planned and tied into each other as systems. I am loving Sims 4's thought to detail that is most apparent in Seasons. I would love to see continued tools such as the calendar and clubs because those are very sandboxy and thought out elements that a Sims game thrives on! Sims 3 just had tons of objects and honestly most of them are forgettable because they don't do much.
I'm genuinely glad you are enjoying it. But can I ask? minus the act of typing in an event to the calendar, isn't the looking forward to it and planning it the exact same process as it was without the calendar? Not trying to be goady. I'm just curious. I can totally see that if you enjoy goals then the sims 4 is good, because it does goals very well. A little too well.
For example, for me in my game right now my toddler will age in 5 sim days. Pre seasons I would maybe give him a birthday party, at the very least bake a cake to avoid the sad moodlet. The game reminds me the day before and on the day its his birthday. Depending on family members schedules I do it after work and school, usually take the family to the park and they have a bbq or at the least just stay home and do the cake.
Now with seasons I can schedule the party for five days and place it in the calendar. The game will take the funds from me but for the next five days for me personally its the same process as without seasons except now I have a blip in the calendar telling me there is a party that day. Which admittedly is very organised but its not like my sims will go off and organise their own lives or I won't know where they are . For that five days I don't feel any different nor do I play any differently- I'm just down the simoleans for the party. The only thing I do is check the weather if I'm holding the party outdoors. If I'm looking forward to them aging up then I will still feel that way without the calendar. The first scenario is how I more or less always approach birthdays or weddings or special celebrations, inputting it into a calendar doesn't change the celebration or the lead up to it. What would be my ideal would be like for example if you have a wedding coming up allowing you to make events relating to that wedding like dress shopping, cake tasting, bridal shower and let me invite people and have the calendar tell me if those people will make it in advance so if they don't I can reschedule. I would see the value in it a whole lot more if it allowed me to customise it more, let me create my own events, let my townies ask my sims out at a certain date and time and the calendar tell me if I have a conflict in the schedule.
For me it just provides a reminder at a glance that an event is going to take place and I have a certain number of days to make preparations for that event without it just sneaking up on me the day before or the day of. I can pull up my calendar at any given time and see in an instant what my family members have planned without having to click on each sim to see if they're going to be at work or have another event scheduled. I have two working adults, a teen, a child, a toddler, and a dog and that is overwhelming in and of itself. The calendar just makes the game less stressful, and more organized for me.
This is one of the biggest advantages. Switching back and forth between different sims work and school schedules to find the best time to throw a party was a bit tedious. Now it's available to view at one time; in addition I can figure out what type of party/where to hold it based on the forecasted weather (if it's in the same world).
I also like marking down on the calendar because sometimes I would actually forget that I was planning to throw a party on a certain day. Yeah, the calendar is for me as much as my sims
You want the best for your hobby then it's going to cost money. A professional artist is not going to buy cheap supplies and expect quality as a result so why would a Sims enthusiast not care to have a proper setup for the best gaming experience? Can't afford one, nothing wrong with that but it is not the game's fault it cannot run the way it is meant to be played.
A professional artist spends more money on their art supplies because it is their profession. The Sims is a video game. I don't even have any interest in any PC games outside of The Sims franchise, so putting in the investment to get a PC that can properly play The Sims 3 plus all Expansion Packs is not a simple decision. I have a feeling I'm far from alone here, I bet there are a lot of simmers who don't play any other PC games, or games at all. The Sims is a unique franchise that brings in a lot of otherwise non-gamers. For The Sims 3 to run with minimal lag and everything you really have to have a decent gaming PC. Just four years ago I invested in a PC for that purpose, I had help from simmers more knowledgeable in PCs, but also researched myself. We came up with a custom built PC from a PC building service, the parts were on sale, but the PC still cost just over $1000. For ONE game. The only part that someone could argue was unnecessary would be the SSD, but even without that it would still have been at least $900 IIRC.
Even after spending all of that money, the graphics card we chose was "too new" for The Sims 3 which gave me a migraine. I tried to figure out how to get the game to read it, but I still don't know if it's working the way it is supposed to be. PC gaming is a headache. I'd love a The Sims game with better graphical effects than The Sims 3, but boy do I not want to have to go through all of this trouble ever again. I'm not a big fan of The Sims 4's aesthetics as a whole, but the game does run like a charm on my PC, whereas The Sims 3 has issues even after all of the money I spent to make sure it didn't.
The point of the analogy is that if someone wants the best outcome for TS3, then they are going to make sure all the requirements for the best gaming experience is met. Why complain about not getting the best results when one did not put in the requirements to have come to that conclusion? I'm stating how illogical it is.
And I don't consider myself a PC gamer though I do play some to put what I built in more use than just TS/TS2/TS3. Or so what it can handle because I never did go beyond the budget I set or hardware since it was primarily for TS3. I built my own gaming desktop for just under $1,000 back in 2014. I did my research and came across how there are issues with newer hardware so I was aware of the hardware I picked concerning release dates. Truth is, not all old games will play as expected on newer hardware or newer operating systems which is why I paid close attention to the minimal system requirements as a start but also relied on hopefully an accurate list of hardware performance. http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:TS3_System_Requirements
Though, someone told me they didn't trust it as there's no information where the information came from or even if it's accurate. This was way after I built my computer so that comment came late but even then I have a mind of own to decide for myself. Back then I took a chance and figured it had to be created based on actual testing of computers or something concrete. Possibly volunteers who had certain graphics cards that participated in providing the data.
I also researched the NVidia Geforce GTX 660 to find any that play tested TS3 so I could determine the performance for myself. And there was also my gaming laptop that played TS3 with all EP's/SP's/Store Content and settings maxed out fine with minimal to no lag without mods/cc or very little. So I mostly used that as a starting point as well. While I took a risk it did pay off. But I'm primarily a critical thinker so I argued it should be fine since doing other research on the graphic card of choice to see others performance. Plus, there was another site I would frequent often that compares and rates the performance of each GPU, etc and obviously what I chose was way more powerful than my laptop but still within the 2009 to 2013 range of TS3's life span. https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
Which I deemed very important to be aware of and use that to my advantage. And sure again someone claimed this site most likely wasn't accurate but again that is way after I built my gaming desktop. Though I've already researched these sites are either hit or miss I took a chance. But I also asked others from Tom's Hardware forum (https://www.tomshardware.com/) who are way more adept with computers than I am and said the performance for GTX 660 should be fine for TS3. Plus, there are quite a few topics on the subject so there was a lot of useful information.
And everything I researched paid off quite well. I would hope so as that being my first time and a lot of money being put up for it I better get this right the first time. No time for a oopsie. No offense, but some people can give you the wrong advice/suggestions/recommendations/etc even though they are trying to be helpful. While I do consider others advice, ultimately I call the shots and will not be entirely influenced by others. I'm quite the thinker so I'm used to honing in on my own thoughts and knowledge bank but when there's no help there...to research so there is not any blind mistakes and just taking a leap of faith without some kind concrete information.
The Sims Studio never released recommended system requirements and because of that some end up getting hardware that is not necessarily compatible with TS3. However, that is no excuse that it can't be researched what works and what doesn't based on others knowledge and experiences.
Point of it all is, one doesn't have to know much about computers because I sure enough didn't but I still managed to get exactly what I wanted because that is how determined I was to succeed in this endeavor. Probably helped that I got inspired by my late mother who also built her own computer. I definitely should learn more like I took apart the PlayStation 2/N64 and PlayStation 2 controllers to clean it or how I installed 8 GB RAM into my gaming laptop. Moving along, TS3 is worth me learning something new and because I never gave up on a game I absolutely love it paid off as I have spent 9+ years enjoying every moment.
I can understand the appeal of TS4's simplicity compared to TS3's complexity. But effort pays off so I'm not worried about TS3's complexity and actually admire that aspect because I was encouraged to have learned new things and enjoyed it. So, I'm happy.
“What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter”
I love how each one of you have different opinions. It shows that we are can love different aspects of sims 3 & sims 4 and still be civil. I appreciate all of your comments
So are you considering which version of Seasons to purchase?
I actually wanted to read other’s opinions about the game. I have all the packs for sims 3 & 4, & also Sims 2.
You want the best for your hobby then it's going to cost money. A professional artist is not going to buy cheap supplies and expect quality as a result so why would a Sims enthusiast not care to have a proper setup for the best gaming experience? Can't afford one, nothing wrong with that but it is not the game's fault it cannot run the way it is meant to be played.
A professional artist spends more money on their art supplies because it is their profession. The Sims is a video game. I don't even have any interest in any PC games outside of The Sims franchise, so putting in the investment to get a PC that can properly play The Sims 3 plus all Expansion Packs is not a simple decision. I have a feeling I'm far from alone here, I bet there are a lot of simmers who don't play any other PC games, or games at all. The Sims is a unique franchise that brings in a lot of otherwise non-gamers. For The Sims 3 to run with minimal lag and everything you really have to have a decent gaming PC. Just four years ago I invested in a PC for that purpose, I had help from simmers more knowledgeable in PCs, but also researched myself. We came up with a custom built PC from a PC building service, the parts were on sale, but the PC still cost just over $1000. For ONE game. The only part that someone could argue was unnecessary would be the SSD, but even without that it would still have been at least $900 IIRC.
Even after spending all of that money, the graphics card we chose was "too new" for The Sims 3 which gave me a migraine. I tried to figure out how to get the game to read it, but I still don't know if it's working the way it is supposed to be. PC gaming is a headache. I'd love a The Sims game with better graphical effects than The Sims 3, but boy do I not want to have to go through all of this trouble ever again. I'm not a big fan of The Sims 4's aesthetics as a whole, but the game does run like a charm on my PC, whereas The Sims 3 has issues even after all of the money I spent to make sure it didn't.
The point of the analogy is that if someone wants the best outcome for TS3, then they are going to make sure all the requirements for the best gaming experience is met. Why complain about not getting the best results when one did not put in the requirements to have come to that conclusion? I'm stating how illogical it is.
And I don't consider myself a PC gamer though I do play some to put what I built in more use than just TS/TS2/TS3. Or so what it can handle because I never did go beyond the budget I set or hardware since it was primarily for TS3. I built my own gaming desktop for just under $1,000 back in 2014. I did my research and came across how there are issues with newer hardware so I was aware of the hardware I picked concerning release dates. Truth is, not all old games will play as expected on newer hardware or newer operating systems which is why I paid close attention to the minimal system requirements as a start but also relied on hopefully an accurate list of hardware performance. http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:TS3_System_Requirements
Though, someone told me they didn't trust it as there's no information where the information came from or even if it's accurate. This was way after I built my computer so that comment came late but even then I have a mind of own to decide for myself. Back then I took a chance and figured it had to be created based on actual testing of computers or something concrete. Possibly volunteers who had certain graphics cards that participated in providing the data.
I also researched the NVidia Geforce GTX 660 to find any that play tested TS3 so I could determine the performance for myself. And there was also my gaming laptop that played TS3 with all EP's/SP's/Store Content and settings maxed out fine with minimal to no lag without mods/cc or very little. So I mostly used that as a starting point as well. While I took a risk it did pay off. But I'm primarily a critical thinker so I argued it should be fine since doing other research on the graphic card of choice to see others performance. Plus, there was another site I would frequent often that compares and rates the performance of each GPU, etc and obviously what I chose was way more powerful than my laptop but still within the 2009 to 2013 range of TS3's life span. https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
Which I deemed very important to be aware of and use that to my advantage. And sure again someone claimed this site most likely wasn't accurate but again that is way after I built my gaming desktop. Though I've already researched these sites are either hit or miss I took a chance. But I also asked others from Tom's Hardware forum (https://www.tomshardware.com/) who are way more adept with computers than I am and said the performance for GTX 660 should be fine for TS3. Plus, there are quite a few topics on the subject so there was a lot of useful information.
And everything I researched paid off quite well. I would hope so as that being my first time and a lot of money being put up for it I better get this right the first time. No time for a oopsie. No offense, but some people can give you the wrong advice/suggestions/recommendations/etc even though they are trying to be helpful. While I do consider others advice, ultimately I call the shots and will not be entirely influenced by others. I'm quite the thinker so I'm used to honing in on my own thoughts and knowledge bank but when there's no help there...to research so there is not any blind mistakes and just taking a leap of faith without some kind concrete information.
The Sims Studio never released recommended system requirements and because of that some end up getting hardware that is not necessarily compatible with TS3. However, that is no excuse that it can't be researched what works and what doesn't based on others knowledge and experiences.
Point of it all is, one doesn't have to know much about computers because I sure enough didn't but I still managed to get exactly what I wanted because that is how determined I was to succeed in this endeavor. Probably helped that I got inspired by my late mother who also built her own computer. I definitely should learn more like I took apart the PlayStation 2/N64 and PlayStation 2 controllers to clean it or how I installed 8 GB RAM into my gaming laptop. Moving along, TS3 is worth me learning something new and because I never gave up on a game I absolutely love it paid off as I have spent 9+ years enjoying every moment.
I can understand the appeal of TS4's simplicity compared to TS3's complexity. But effort pays off so I'm not worried about TS3's complexity and actually admire that aspect because I was encouraged to have learned new things and enjoyed it. So, I'm happy.
I also learned more about computers bee cause of Sims 3 XD.
Truth is, not all old games will play as expected on newer hardware or newer operating systems which is why I paid close attention to the minimal system requirements as a start but also relied on hopefully an accurate list of hardware performance. http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:TS3_System_Requirements
It's funny because I used that exact same page when determining that the Radeon R9 270X was the best choice for a video card. People were recommending the GeForce 750 Ti, but as you can see from that site, it was reported to not be perfect for the last two Expansion Packs. So I actually went with the R9 270X instead from looking at that. The problem was there was nowhere and no one to tell me that the R9 270X can not be read by The Sims 3. Funny how something that major was left out of that guide and also wasn't in the knowledge base of anyone helping me.
I mean, I really shouldn't have to have gone any further than that to be able to find/build a PC perfect for The Sims 3. To be honest, because it was 2014 (The Sims 3 had finished by that point) and because The Sims is a more casual series I really expected that I'd actually be able to find a prebuilt PC anywhere that could run the game. That's the way it had worked with The Sims 2. A laptop I got in 2007 (actually before The Sims 2 was over) ran the game like a charm, while my desktop from 2004 could not run it barely at all. So it came as a shock to me when the prebuilt PCs in the market were still far too weak to properly play The Sims 3. It was a blow to me, because I just expected and wanted something simple. I'm not buying a PC to run those latest-tech hyper-realistic games or anything, I'm just wanting to play The Sims!
I do not look forward to going through this whole process all over again when it's time to buy a new PC.
It's good that some of you have the wherewithall to build the best possible systems for playing Sims games. Not everyone has that option though, and my experience with the Sims 3, even running it on a decent computer, well above specs, was that it was the buggiest game I have ever played. This was true with mods and without mods, although I will say that some brilliant modders saved the game for me and made it at least playable, although not without glitches still. Without mods, the bugs ranged from stuck sims, error 12s, routing problems (worse in some worlds than in others), massive lag, problems with parties, problems with wedding guests, glitched inventories, invisible sims, opportunity phone calls that don't work, an adventure board in WA that ceases giving adventures, problems with excavating, etc. These were just some of the problems that I encountered while playing the Sims 3, a couple of which completely ruined certain favourite saves. As far as I know, some of these bugs have never been fixed. In comparison, in my experience, both Sims 2 and Sims 4 are far more stable games than TS3. I never experienced any game-breaking glitches or problems in Sims 2, and Sims 4's bugs, for me, have been relatively minor, and never game-breaking. Its been ages since I've even had a game crash.
I've gotten to where I don't like to compare the different Sims games - as I have fun in all of them - so no point. Each has their good points and I am satisfied with that - but right this minute I am loving Sims 4.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
First of all, I want to start off by saying the open seamless world without loading screens makes gameplay, to me, so much more alive like a life simulation should be. And because of that phenomenal gameplay mechanic, everything is better on a large scale compared to any Sims game to date. I knew TS3 is a game worth all the trouble which is why I'm still playing 9+ years later and on a much better and suitable computer.
TS3 Seasons
-Swimming in oceans, lakes, and rivers. Even able to swim in WA locations such as China, Egypt and France. Any body of water is swimmable as long as it not created on a lot using the pond tool. (I wish ponds were swimmable but it also depends on the technology then and/or restraints of the base game engine, time limits, etc. Regardless, being able to swim in most bodies of water is a huge improvement for gameplay.)
(I also love how Sims get a moodlet for joining the polar bear club for swimming in the cold of winter.)
-Slow dancing re-introduced to the series.
-Love letters, online dating, attraction system that may or may not be accurate according to the AI.
-Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and all the weather effects looks beautiful in the open world. Plus, the festivals and other activities really helps to enrich the gaming experience.
-Shower and play in the rain (Cool but nothing big like swimmable bodies of water.)
-Mud puddles (Cute but those flat textures looks bad and so game breaking for immersion but then again I feel that way about the whole of TS4.)
-The only new interaction I see concerning snow is to shovel snow. (That's nice.)
-New interactions with snowpals. (I'm not fond of talking to snowpals and find it overly silly but that's just me. As some find the imaginary doll/friend to be ridiculous but I like it. )
-Weather/Season options. (I find it odd one has to buy an object in order to change the weather effects/season while it's already in progress. In TS3, one can change whatever element whenever they wanted in the options menu. Though, it would take a little time to gradually change. There is also a weather machine in TS3 Seasons. (Anyway, TS4 Seasons options are horrible for players who love to be in the most control over their games without hurdles to jump over or events/holidays to lose or get moved.)
-Pile of gifts with some new interactions.
-Decoration box is new and has new features added. (Not being able to customize decor choices whereas I'm guessing it's already just picked for you is limiting though. Is TS4 not supposed to be better than TS3 in every way or at the very least for the most part?)
-The thermostat sounds useful and a good idea. Not sure if it's implemented decently though but like how it's one of those "optional" things like TS3 laundry.
To be honest, there isn't anything about TS4 Seasons that makes me want to play over TS3 Seasons. TS4 is overall extremely underwhelming to me in art style, gameplay and overall immature tone and I couldn't take anything seriously nor even care about the Sims like I had and have with TS/TS2/TS3. I'm an artistic person so I'm quite visually enamored by what I see and have my own preference about what looks good to me or not. So yes, graphics and art style do matter to me and TS4 Seasons takes so many shortcuts in that department that I find it so uninspiring and cheap compared to what The Sims as a whole up until The Sims 3 have strove for both graphically and gameplay wise.
Each iteration wowed me when moving on to the next generation except TS4. Never bothered as I already knew what The Sims was capable of but that's the future now it seems. Oh well, at least I have TS/TS2/TS3.
less is more with the sims 4 it seems.
yeah 3 made a bigger and better pack.
I like seasons for 4 because I feel most packs for 4 are terrible compared to 3.the sims 4 seasons compared to the sims 3 seasons. well of course 3 is better
I loved The Sims 4 Seasons because there's more inside things to do. My simmies are kinda busy and they don't have the ability to go out all the time to do festivals and activities like that. But having a "holiday" that reminds them of a TV premiering or having Father Winter come visit is a nice touch.
My computer is capable of playing TS3 I just sometimes want things that aren't in TS3 to be in it like multitasking I am so use to it that its hard not having it. So that is why I like Seasons on TS4 because that is what I have wanted and it makes me feel like I don't have to go back to TS3 just to get weather now.
Yes Sims 4 may be more stable than Sims 3, the reason it is more stable it is not feature rich as Sims 3. I do not look at an program that is just stable especially if it has no challenging features for me to look at. If EA/Maxis incorporated some of the features into Sims 4 and somehow tweaked them to run real good regardless of what system you are running then there would be no controversy and most would be happy. Sims 4 has very few noteworthy features and it fun for a little while and you rule some but not an lot. If you had to buy an very nice machine to play Sims 3 blame that on EA/Maxis for they are the one who developed and not some other company. Heck Sims 4 is not even perfect even if it stripped of most features for some are still using mods as it was done in Sims 3. I like Seasons for Sims 4 but it will be fun for a little while.
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Even before the calendar feature, i was able to plan a party or a meeting beforehand. It just did not have an in-game tool for it.
I was fully able to draw out a baseline of the event i wanted to the notepad or on paper or even to my head. I would plan and place the required decorations, think of who i will invite, bake and cook the food for the party beforehand and put in on fridge.
There are many neat looking features in the calendar, but its just a glorified que feature to plan more than just 6 actions at a time. It feels so underwhelming somehow, that i refuse to believe it took so much effort and people to implement, that we needed to sacrifice some basic weather effects for it.
I would also question, why did they dont give the same control over length of seasons we had in Sims 3. I admit, i assume that this has to do with the different climates for different worlds feature, but i would have gladly traded that off for control over season legths, water dripping off roofs and umbrellas and most importantly, snow depth. Then again the setting could have affected just the active households world.
Performance issues was also a reason they gave to sacrifice snow depth, but the performance excuse for me is always a very lame thing to do, as a good developer does consider many factors and gives options for each player to customize graphics to fit the performance of each PC. These things could have easily been implemented as a togöleable option for those,that want to use them and have powerful gaming rigs or want to sacrifice performance for more visuals.
All in all, if this really is new engine, it seems like it is too limiting in someways, or then again the engines capabilities might be sacrificed for more profit from each pack.
Comments
This is me as well. I think rushing through you miss too much. I rushed through the last two season eps and when I go back and play them I notice the things I missed. Retirement is such a good thing when you love to sim. Not the budget so much lol but at least I now have time to play them all.
Great idea on the moving out. I have a young adult sim son that should be leaving and I never thought of "mom & dad" helping out that way.
AHQ Champion
Sims 3 Seasons for sure did a better job at adding a whole bunch of seasonal activities, but scale is a subjective thing, especially in a Sims game. It's clear the focus of each pack from 3 and 4 are completely different. Sims 3 focused on the activities while 4 focused on providing new tools and depth among all the new features. Compare Sims 3 Seasons main new features, the seasons/weather, the festivals, the aliens, as well as the other features, to the Sims 4 main features, the seasons/weather, the calendar, the holidays and the gardening career. Which pack has more depth among its features? Sims 4 Seasons for sure, all the features are tied together in one way or another, specifically the calendar, weather, and holidays, those three features rely on each other to deliver the full experience in this pack, even the gardening has very deep ties to the weather and seasons. Then take a look at Sims 3 and its features, the only two features that go hand in hand with one another are the seasons and festivals, everything else is just kind of there. And even then the festivals are only dependent on the seasons because they are themed around the seasons. So back to the whole scale thing, it's clear you prefer and value the activities in Sims 3 Seasons over the tools in Sims 4 Seasons. I prefer and value the tools in Sims 4 Seasons over the activities in Sims 3 seasons because I already know that I will get an immense amount of use out of the new Calendar and Holiday features compared to the festivals in 3. So to me, Sims 4 Seasons is bigger in scale than the Sims 3 Seasons because it offers me game play tools that I can use in whatever way I want, unlike the festivals in Sims 3 Seasons which I can only enjoy in a limited amount of ways compared to the calendar. You clearly find the Sims 3 Seasons to be bigger because it offers more activities. Each pack delivers more of one thing, Sims 3 Seasons delivers more activities, while Sims 4 Seasons delivers more versatility.
The sims 4 calender is a significant feature by EAs own admission. But the trouble I have with that is, many of what it offers is already possible in game. Want to throw a party in five days? You can already. Just wait the appropriate days and bingo! Now it’s a case of mark it in the calendar, let the game take the funds for the party off you and wait the required number of days.
Why is that such a big feature? I refuse to believe I’m the only one that has been doing that all this time? It’s not innovative or a mind blowing feature. It’s just a case of now having it marked in a calender. We all know where our sims are all the time so it’s not like they are going to cancel it or forget and not turn up. What would have been significant to me was if they added in the ability to creat our own events. What if I want a teen party? Can’t happen. What if I want to schedule a date with Albert on Thursday and another with Bridget on Friday? What if I want to throw a hen or bachelorette party?
Can’t, cant, can’t.
I can pretend my teen party is a teen party where the parents are away for the weekend and the teens are getting up to no good, I can manually ask all those sims for dates on that date and I can pretend my dance party at a club is a hen night but it’s not.
The blog talked about Vlad coming to stay for a few days and being able to schedule a dinner date If I recall right, none of that is possible.
Holidays are useful and I like them but again very very limiting. We can’t select many specific things, I can’t make a snow day holidays and have my sims build snowmen, make snow angels and drink hot chocolate round the table. I know I can give them a holiday and not set any checklists but isn’t that the same thing as what I’ve been doing since the sims 1? (In many cases) only now it’s called a holiday.
I really like the holidays we have but I want more customisation. Holiday socials are limited to:
Share holiday spirit, talk about holiday, sing about holiday and complain about holiday. Some traditions offer some more socials like share holiday spirit but after you have done them a few times you have done them a million times, it’s the same social just different holiday. I think the sims 3 focuses on very different things to sims 4 seasons, some will like it some won’t.
I think a good reason they don't include any weather-specific holiday traits are because you are not guaranteed to have that weather on any given day. I know it sounds silly coming from The Sims 3 which snowed out every single world for the whole winter. However, in my first winter in The Sims 4, it didn't snow until the day after Winterfest. It would have been awkward if Winterfest had celebrations that required snow.
While some Spooky Stuff items come with Seasons, most of it does not, and among that which is not included is pumpkin carving. I was very disappointed to see it wasn't in Seasons, because it was in TS3 Seasons, and I love it there. =(
True, but I can plan a snow day holiday when the calendar says the game will have heavy snow or snow. Well in theory I would like too. In my game my sim lives in Newcrest and they had snow for 6 days out of 7. San Myshuno had snow for some of those days and Windenburg had snow for the majority of the season. If snow activities or winter activities as I think they are labelled for clubs couldn't happen because you didn't have snow, you could cancel that tradition or not plan a holiday involving snow if there was none forecast.
For me the act of scheduling an event, looking forward to it, and planning just adds more realism and immersion to my game. I don't get up one morning in real life and decide I'm going to throw a bridal or baby shower. I plan it months in advance. I can now get rid of one of my to do lists because the game keeps track of some events for me. Another feature is that scheduled events have goals, which has always been a favorite feature for me. And I know as more packs are released there will be more activities to add to scheduled events. At the end of the day, you either see value in the calendar system or you don't. For me it makes the game less frantic and more organized.
Blessed
Except we cannot plan bridal or baby showers, thats my point. The events haven't changed, just when we can schedule them has.
I'm genuinely glad you are enjoying it. But can I ask? minus the act of typing in an event to the calendar, isn't the looking forward to it and planning it the exact same process as it was without the calendar? Not trying to be goady. I'm just curious. I can totally see that if you enjoy goals then the sims 4 is good, because it does goals very well. A little too well.
For example, for me in my game right now my toddler will age in 5 sim days. Pre seasons I would maybe give him a birthday party, at the very least bake a cake to avoid the sad moodlet. The game reminds me the day before and on the day its his birthday. Depending on family members schedules I do it after work and school, usually take the family to the park and they have a bbq or at the least just stay home and do the cake.
Now with seasons I can schedule the party for five days and place it in the calendar. The game will take the funds from me but for the next five days for me personally its the same process as without seasons except now I have a blip in the calendar telling me there is a party that day. Which admittedly is very organised but its not like my sims will go off and organise their own lives or I won't know where they are . For that five days I don't feel any different nor do I play any differently- I'm just down the simoleans for the party. The only thing I do is check the weather if I'm holding the party outdoors. If I'm looking forward to them aging up then I will still feel that way without the calendar. The first scenario is how I more or less always approach birthdays or weddings or special celebrations, inputting it into a calendar doesn't change the celebration or the lead up to it. What would be my ideal would be like for example if you have a wedding coming up allowing you to make events relating to that wedding like dress shopping, cake tasting, bridal shower and let me invite people and have the calendar tell me if those people will make it in advance so if they don't I can reschedule. I would see the value in it a whole lot more if it allowed me to customise it more, let me create my own events, let my townies ask my sims out at a certain date and time and the calendar tell me if I have a conflict in the schedule.
For me it just provides a reminder at a glance that an event is going to take place and I have a certain number of days to make preparations for that event without it just sneaking up on me the day before or the day of. I can pull up my calendar at any given time and see in an instant what my family members have planned without having to click on each sim to see if they're going to be at work or have another event scheduled. I have two working adults, a teen, a child, a toddler, and a dog and that is overwhelming in and of itself. The calendar just makes the game less stressful, and more organized for me.
THIS! Wow! I could never have said it better myself. You hit the nail on the head over why I tend to prefer the Sims 4 version of stuff to Sims 3. They always seem more thoughtfully planned and tied into each other as systems. I am loving Sims 4's thought to detail that is most apparent in Seasons. I would love to see continued tools such as the calendar and clubs because those are very sandboxy and thought out elements that a Sims game thrives on! Sims 3 just had tons of objects and honestly most of them are forgettable because they don't do much.
This is one of the biggest advantages. Switching back and forth between different sims work and school schedules to find the best time to throw a party was a bit tedious. Now it's available to view at one time; in addition I can figure out what type of party/where to hold it based on the forecasted weather (if it's in the same world).
I also like marking down on the calendar because sometimes I would actually forget that I was planning to throw a party on a certain day. Yeah, the calendar is for me as much as my sims
Sim Stuff by Pegasys
The point of the analogy is that if someone wants the best outcome for TS3, then they are going to make sure all the requirements for the best gaming experience is met. Why complain about not getting the best results when one did not put in the requirements to have come to that conclusion? I'm stating how illogical it is.
And I don't consider myself a PC gamer though I do play some to put what I built in more use than just TS/TS2/TS3. Or so what it can handle because I never did go beyond the budget I set or hardware since it was primarily for TS3. I built my own gaming desktop for just under $1,000 back in 2014. I did my research and came across how there are issues with newer hardware so I was aware of the hardware I picked concerning release dates. Truth is, not all old games will play as expected on newer hardware or newer operating systems which is why I paid close attention to the minimal system requirements as a start but also relied on hopefully an accurate list of hardware performance. http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:TS3_System_Requirements
Though, someone told me they didn't trust it as there's no information where the information came from or even if it's accurate. This was way after I built my computer so that comment came late but even then I have a mind of own to decide for myself. Back then I took a chance and figured it had to be created based on actual testing of computers or something concrete. Possibly volunteers who had certain graphics cards that participated in providing the data.
I also researched the NVidia Geforce GTX 660 to find any that play tested TS3 so I could determine the performance for myself. And there was also my gaming laptop that played TS3 with all EP's/SP's/Store Content and settings maxed out fine with minimal to no lag without mods/cc or very little. So I mostly used that as a starting point as well. While I took a risk it did pay off. But I'm primarily a critical thinker so I argued it should be fine since doing other research on the graphic card of choice to see others performance. Plus, there was another site I would frequent often that compares and rates the performance of each GPU, etc and obviously what I chose was way more powerful than my laptop but still within the 2009 to 2013 range of TS3's life span. https://www.videocardbenchmark.net/high_end_gpus.html
Which I deemed very important to be aware of and use that to my advantage. And sure again someone claimed this site most likely wasn't accurate but again that is way after I built my gaming desktop. Though I've already researched these sites are either hit or miss I took a chance. But I also asked others from Tom's Hardware forum (https://www.tomshardware.com/) who are way more adept with computers than I am and said the performance for GTX 660 should be fine for TS3. Plus, there are quite a few topics on the subject so there was a lot of useful information.
And everything I researched paid off quite well. I would hope so as that being my first time and a lot of money being put up for it I better get this right the first time. No time for a oopsie. No offense, but some people can give you the wrong advice/suggestions/recommendations/etc even though they are trying to be helpful. While I do consider others advice, ultimately I call the shots and will not be entirely influenced by others. I'm quite the thinker so I'm used to honing in on my own thoughts and knowledge bank but when there's no help there...to research so there is not any blind mistakes and just taking a leap of faith without some kind concrete information.
The Sims Studio never released recommended system requirements and because of that some end up getting hardware that is not necessarily compatible with TS3. However, that is no excuse that it can't be researched what works and what doesn't based on others knowledge and experiences.
Point of it all is, one doesn't have to know much about computers because I sure enough didn't but I still managed to get exactly what I wanted because that is how determined I was to succeed in this endeavor. Probably helped that I got inspired by my late mother who also built her own computer. I definitely should learn more like I took apart the PlayStation 2/N64 and PlayStation 2 controllers to clean it or how I installed 8 GB RAM into my gaming laptop. Moving along, TS3 is worth me learning something new and because I never gave up on a game I absolutely love it paid off as I have spent 9+ years enjoying every moment.
I can understand the appeal of TS4's simplicity compared to TS3's complexity. But effort pays off so I'm not worried about TS3's complexity and actually admire that aspect because I was encouraged to have learned new things and enjoyed it. So, I'm happy.
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter”
I actually wanted to read other’s opinions about the game. I have all the packs for sims 3 & 4, & also Sims 2.
I also learned more about computers bee cause of Sims 3 XD.
complete forum tutorial
Thank you @MDianaSanders for halloween-fying Golluma
It's funny because I used that exact same page when determining that the Radeon R9 270X was the best choice for a video card. People were recommending the GeForce 750 Ti, but as you can see from that site, it was reported to not be perfect for the last two Expansion Packs. So I actually went with the R9 270X instead from looking at that. The problem was there was nowhere and no one to tell me that the R9 270X can not be read by The Sims 3. Funny how something that major was left out of that guide and also wasn't in the knowledge base of anyone helping me.
I mean, I really shouldn't have to have gone any further than that to be able to find/build a PC perfect for The Sims 3. To be honest, because it was 2014 (The Sims 3 had finished by that point) and because The Sims is a more casual series I really expected that I'd actually be able to find a prebuilt PC anywhere that could run the game. That's the way it had worked with The Sims 2. A laptop I got in 2007 (actually before The Sims 2 was over) ran the game like a charm, while my desktop from 2004 could not run it barely at all. So it came as a shock to me when the prebuilt PCs in the market were still far too weak to properly play The Sims 3. It was a blow to me, because I just expected and wanted something simple. I'm not buying a PC to run those latest-tech hyper-realistic games or anything, I'm just wanting to play The Sims!
I do not look forward to going through this whole process all over again when it's time to buy a new PC.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
less is more with the sims 4 it seems.
yeah 3 made a bigger and better pack.
I like seasons for 4 because I feel most packs for 4 are terrible compared to 3.the sims 4 seasons compared to the sims 3 seasons. well of course 3 is better
I was fully able to draw out a baseline of the event i wanted to the notepad or on paper or even to my head. I would plan and place the required decorations, think of who i will invite, bake and cook the food for the party beforehand and put in on fridge.
There are many neat looking features in the calendar, but its just a glorified que feature to plan more than just 6 actions at a time. It feels so underwhelming somehow, that i refuse to believe it took so much effort and people to implement, that we needed to sacrifice some basic weather effects for it.
I would also question, why did they dont give the same control over length of seasons we had in Sims 3. I admit, i assume that this has to do with the different climates for different worlds feature, but i would have gladly traded that off for control over season legths, water dripping off roofs and umbrellas and most importantly, snow depth. Then again the setting could have affected just the active households world.
Performance issues was also a reason they gave to sacrifice snow depth, but the performance excuse for me is always a very lame thing to do, as a good developer does consider many factors and gives options for each player to customize graphics to fit the performance of each PC. These things could have easily been implemented as a togöleable option for those,that want to use them and have powerful gaming rigs or want to sacrifice performance for more visuals.
All in all, if this really is new engine, it seems like it is too limiting in someways, or then again the engines capabilities might be sacrificed for more profit from each pack.