I know this topic will probably go down in flames, but before it does I'd be interested to know how some of you are weighing Sims 3 and 4 up against each other. Personally I have no plans to buy Sims 4 on release day, but will wait and see what content is released in the following months. Currently, there are certain aspects of Sims 3 that I dislike and are pushing me towards 4, but there are also many many things about 4 that are pushing me to stick with 3.
For me it's like this:
For The Sims 4:
- Sims 3 has unbearably long loading times > Sims 4 is much better optimised
- Sims 3 generates many ugly NPCs with stupid clothing combinations which fill my town and I have to make-over > Sims 4 matches clothes in a much better way
- Sims 3 lots are often empty or lacking in visitors unless I throw a party > Sims 4 lots are much busier
- Sims 3 social interactions are often bland > Sims 4 has multitasking and more expressive Sims
- Sims 4 Sims look much better > but there's bloom, dark interior lighting, flat textures and clay hair
Against The Sims 4:
- Sims 3 has tons of content including toddlers, family trees, basic careers like business, cars > Sims 4 has many many missing base game features
- Sims 3 babies, while far from perfect, can be taken to community lots, can be used with rocking chairs, baby mats, swings and strollers > Sims 4 babies are forever confined to their bassinet
- Sims 3 has Create a Style which offers infinite customisation > Sims 4 loads faster but has presets only, many of which do not match each other
- Sims 3 has a vast open world > Sims 4 has a tiny closed world with loading screens and decor houses
- Sims 4 lets me populate the town with my own townies > but the world is tiny and I can't make my own neighbourhoods
I'm not entirely happy with The Sims 3, I find the things that annoy me most have been remedied in Sims 4. However, to get those it seems I would have to sacrifice a lot of other features I love, so at the moment I don't think it would be worth it. I might be tempted after some CC and EPs come out though...
Balanced and respectful arguments only please.
And the can of worms has just been opened...
Comments
Sims 4 - Appears entertaining
That's all I got.
LuchADORE
Dat routing fix ((Ahhh mmm))
More life to Sims
Much better Animation
NO SEAMLESS OPEN WORLD
Better family interactions
More content ever shipped with any base game
More advanced CAS and Build Mode
Better graphics
Emotions as part of gameplay
Friendlier to Mod and CC
DETAILS which are too many to name! ((Like showers doing things besides raising hygiene, the whole "unsatisfying woohoo", etc.))
For TS3-
A color wheel
((I can't think of anything else))
Now the TS2 to TS4 will be lots harder to choose between. Right now sliding more towards TS4 but will have to play it before I make the final call.
I gave up singing. Sorry.
Here have my luchADORE to cheer you up.
Sims 2 is also appears to be way better than Sims 4 except the Sims look better in 4
But we need to keep in mind that in Sims 3 EA at least tried to introduce new things to the game be it the open world or CASt, I'm not sure Sims 4 is offering anything revolutionary
My Mood:
Right now TS4 offers some gameplay plus the hope for more. By now we've seen everything that TS3 will provide (which is quite a bit). I plan to switch over to TS4, but to keep TS3 on my computer for when I feel the urge to play World Adventures or explore Into the Future some more. And if I want toddlers, I have 3 families on TS2.
Maybe in the future it will actually require a degree to be a Doctor. Shocking.
Another thing I love in TS4 is the gallery. You want to buy a new house or even a room to your sim? just open the gallery, choose one and replace your previous house. In TS3, we have to close the game, open the launcher (which is sooooo slow), open the exchange, download the house, check for CC, if there was any CC deleting it using a custom program, then install the house, return to the game, delete the old house and replace it on the lot. You want new sims in your neighborood as well? Just open the gallery, select them and they'll be in your game walking around as if they really live in your town. It's pretty easy and faster for players who don't like to spend too much time on a game, like me.
The build mode is nice too. I' have never been a builder in the sims serie. I don't like to build houses and I'm lost when i've to use cheats or terrain tools. I know most players are unhappy because the terrain tools are basics and all lots are flat in TS4.. But I'm happy of it because it'll be easier to build houses. And no more issues caused by "dangerous" cheats like constrainfloorelevationtrue or else..
Another thing I find really crappy in TS3 are the sims themselves. I enjoyed TS3 when I played it. But I have never been fond of the sims. They're too "robotic", doing actions like robots with only idles behaviours to make them alive. I'm waiting a lot of the new emotions system. Finally, we'll have sims who behave like humans, being sad, happy, depressed...
The things I'll regret in TS3 are more linked to the EPs: seasons, horses, swimming in the sea and other interesting features. But it's more likely that we'll have it in TS4 too in the next few years.
So, even without SP or family tree or CASt, TS4 seems very promising to me.
Forgot to say, that I do have a favorite Sim game though...
I totally agree with your comment regarding the fact that many of my complaints about TS3 appear to have been addressed by TS4 but that it is disappointing that we have to sacrifice so many good things in the process.
The things from TS3 that I will actually miss is a pretty short list though:
Pretty much for me, that's it....and I have absolutely no doubt that 2 of those 3 will come down the road (possibly all 3, but I'm not as certain about CaST as the other two).
In the process it looks like I will get sims that are actually interesting and will interact with each other and neighborhoods that feel more alive when I go to public locations and worlds that are interconnected so that every time new worlds are added with EP's I can just keep playing the same family in the same game that I had been (the lack of this feature being the thing I most hated about TS3).
I'm also expecting that when the EP that adds dating features and what not comes out (ala Hot Date/Late Night) it will actually be GOOD, unlike the lame version of dating that is in TS3. And the same for vacations, and celebrities, and entertainers, and hobbies, etc.
For so many of the expansions, they were just so...blah...in TS3 compared to previous sims games. The way TS4 goes back to being more about the Sims than the World the sims are in gives me very high hopes for how these features will be handled in this new game once they are added.
Regardless, I have no intentions of uninstalling TS3 when TS4 is released. I don't need to compare them to each other, I will play whichever takes my fancy each time I sit down and play.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
Except that loading screens between active lots, neigbhboroods and worlds will allow players to use their old computers for a long time again, even if they play on very low technical requirements. The fact that EA choose to put so many loading screens in TS4 (while we were used to play in open worlds without any restrictions) means that they want the game to run on a very large computers specifications.. It doesn't mean that we won't have issues or lags, just that we will likely have more flexibility than in TS3..
With the Sims 4 I was hoping it would be like the Sims 3 on steroids. I am very disappointed that it isn't. Sims 3 offers much including multitasking, I've seen it. Sims 4 offers new emotional sims which intrigues me. The beauty of Willow Springs is very nice but there are loading screens. With everything that has been taken out of Sims 4 and everything I still have with Sims 3, I have little reason to switch. Once mods that suit my needs come out and I have cc to choose from I will try Sims 4.
Sims 3 gets boring sometimes, and it's those times I'd love a new simming game, but TS4 just isn't for me.
I don't think it's Gurus but EA's policy. If you have a job and want to keep it, you've to follow certain rules. Of course it's irritating to customers who don't have full informations on products they are going to pay. But Gurus cannot say more than what they're allowed to.
Yes I understand what you mean, and I understand that they cannot tell the simmers everything, however SimGuruGrant once said that EA didn't "tamper" with Maxis, or something to that effect, apparently meaning the devs/gurus are left to their own devices. Well, that's what Grant implied.
Regardless, it's not right to be disingenuous to your fans. JMO.
Grant's exact statement: "Maxis has been a part of EA for 10 years. They don't tamper with us" Source: http://simsvip.com/2014/06/27/the-sims-4-another-post-with-guru-tweets/
Again, at best, the gurus/devs are disingenuous.
Edited to fix an error
I guess...we'll see. The world looks WAAAAY smaller though, so why even bother with loading screens -- what is there to load? *scratches head, baffled*