Likes: After a few hours I was struggling to find something good about this game.
Dislikes:
- Camera moving is terrible - Building mode is to clunky and no edge scrolling when I try to go down in it that I can figure out - Load screen whenever my sim goes anywhere - My sim had the master chef wish or whatever it's called now but to get some new things for his cooking he had to be a higher level in totally unrelated skills - Not many job choices - Limited options for all buy items
I realise that some of the stuff I've listed is (job choices, lack of items) is probably going to be added to expansions... but you know what, I paid enough money for this one and overall it feels like a game still in the very early beta stages, I have played many games in early beta and most of them had more content and were easier to use than sims 4. It leaves the impression that the creators of this game just took the bad things from the first and second sims and threw them together and called it 'Sims 4'.
Wow! I was going to put down a whole list of things but that's all been taken care of. LOL What I miss and/or dislike in Sims 4... aside from pools, hot tubs, cars and toddlers cause that horse has been kicked beyond death:
Crossing legs when sitting. Laying in bed to read.
What I dislike:
I dislike that sims gain weight too quickly and there's no indication as to what foods do what. I dislike that exercising to help lose weight gains butt-ugly muscle instead of a lean figure. I dislike that my sim's walk changes with her mood. Just because she's confident, or whatever, doesn't mean she needs to walk like a man with swollen danglies until the mood times out or changes when I had set her to feminine (for example). And, in addition to everything just about everyone else has mention... that CAMERA! More than once it's caused me to shut down and go play BEJEWELED! :P
Eu queria que os fantasmas pudessem ter filhos entre sim ou com algum sim vivo. Não gostei muito dos fantasmas por conta disso. No The sims 3 meu sim humano se casou com uma sim fantasma, e eles tiveram vários bebês fantasmas. Os fantasmas ficaram sem graça.
The lack of story progression for NPC(this is serverly limited my freewill gameplay style).
The color wheel in CAS for hair and highlights.
Why will sims only woohoo in a first floor bedroom? At first I thought my sim liked the pink room, but have found the same problem in a different household.
At the library they also only use the first floor bookshelf, even if you do instruct them to take a book from 2nd floor. A second floor bookshelf only works if there are none on the first floor.
I dislike that my sim's walk changes with her mood. Just because she's confident, or whatever, doesn't mean she needs to walk like a man with swollen danglies until the mood times out or changes when I had set her to feminine (for example).
I agree with this, i though my fabulous guy Jason was glitched when he suddenly lost his feminine walk, but realised later it was mood affected. My flirty ghost sims, float/walk as if they are tired or sad when very flirty.
Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying the game alot. I just expected alot of what we miss to have been a default standard in the new game.
- Make a Young adult again potion. The young again potion will not reverse past the age transition you already are. Example if you are an elder and drink the potion it will not make you an adult again. - Make a Bank, where we can make wills, life insurance, investments, savings that increase with interest. Or at least an online bank. -Be able to buy Lottery tickets to win money - Need family tree - When you blow out candles on cake, put a caution box up asking "Are you sure you want to age up to ____?" I was going to have a party then my sim apparently already aged up to an adult then I made her blow out the candles and now she is an elder.. Its my fault but would be a nice to have a second chance. - Ability to make our own or add neighborhoods, that we can just add to current world. BIGGER LOTS PLEASE. - Maternity leave option, Retire option, sick day option - Am I the only one who finds it weird that a child can stay home alone. Please bring back the nanny, that you can schedule. - So my sims Girlfriend died but she did not live with us and my Sim did not receive a negative moodlet, - Why cant we paint real life portraits? If I cant have a family tree, can I be able to make one on my sim wall?
I think Sims4 is what happens when the industry is inundated by mobile gaming hype. Yes, we all play them, but only to kill time while away from home when the only thing in hand is a smartphone or even a small tablet. We want our PCs. For no other reason than they provide more depth, more comfortable controls, and (most of all) a nicely massive screen. Only the depth is gone. It's mobile gaming on the PC and vapid lack just isn't cool, not with the pricetag on it. This is a $10 game, pure and simple.
I'm also certain that microtransactions fits with the Sims business model. While that's all fine and good, PC > mobile device EVERY time.
I cannot get past the lack of choices. And yes, I'm going to beat the dead horse here and say you lost most of those choices with create a style. Character creation alone becomes repetitive at character #2 and character #1 doesn't look how I want her to look anyway because I can't tweak what I want to tweak. 1 pair of pants with 5 set colors doesn't cut it. If I can't like my sims because of those lacking choices, how will I ever enjoy the game?
I feel like I'm on a mobile game with the sticker price of a PC game. Oh, and no, I didn't waste my money. My buddy practically threw her laptop at me in disgust and allowed me to play on her machine. So I'm not out anything, thankfully.
RECOMMENDATION: ask a friend for a look at theirs before buying. If they're unhappy with it they will have no problem with allowing you a much-needed preview.
I absolutely love the tongue and cheek of the "troll teh forum" mischief option when socialising on the computer. Is it possible for the spelling to be corrected though????
I absolutely love the tongue and cheek of the "troll teh forum" mischief option when socialising on the computer. Is it possible for the spelling to be corrected though????
LOL, sorry, it irritates my OCD.
This is the sort of thing I could see a CC mod fixing. Trolls might deliberately misspell a word to get a rise out of someone with OCD.
I have been playing The Sims since 2001, when Livin Large came out. My avatar deliberately looks like Chris Roomies from TS1.
I think Sims4 is what happens when the industry is inundated by mobile gaming hype. Yes, we all play them, but only to kill time while away from home when the only thing in hand is a smartphone or even a small tablet. We want our PCs. For no other reason than they provide more depth, more comfortable controls, and (most of all) a nicely massive screen. Only the depth is gone. It's mobile gaming on the PC and vapid lack just isn't cool, not with the pricetag on it. This is a $10 game, pure and simple.<br />
<br />
I'm also certain that microtransactions fits with the Sims business model. While that's all fine and good, PC > mobile device EVERY time.<br />
<br />
I cannot get past the lack of choices. And yes, I'm going to beat the dead horse here and say you lost most of those choices with create a style. Character creation alone becomes repetitive at character #2 and character #1 doesn't look how I want her to look anyway because I can't tweak what I want to tweak. 1 pair of pants with 5 set colors doesn't cut it. If I can't like my sims because of those lacking choices, how will I ever enjoy the game?<br />
<br />
I feel like I'm on a mobile game with the sticker price of a PC game. Oh, and no, I didn't waste my money. My buddy practically threw her laptop at me in disgust and allowed me to play on her machine. So I'm not out anything, thankfully.<br />
<br />
RECOMMENDATION: ask a friend for a look at theirs before buying. If they're unhappy with it they will have no problem with allowing you a much-needed preview.
I find the style of heads created quite limited. When you randomize a sim in CAS, you get one of several options, but after about 6 or 8 they start looking the same. There really isn't much new in CAS in-game as compared to the free CAS demo. The clothing options are also quite limited, a choice of about 8 different full-body outfits for female sims, for instance. Modders will add new outfits eventually, but it would be nice to see more official options.
But I disagree that this looks like a mobile game. Too many mobile games are set up like social networking games, with the expectation and almost requirement that the player play each and every single day without fail, and requirement of friends/neighbors to succeed in the game. Moreover, those type of games are often set up so that the difficulty on higher levels/the longer you play that the harder it is to advance without paying money and more money. For instance, I have the Sims Freeplay, but I have spent money for more simoleons in that game so that I could build new venues for Sims in that game, since otherwise it takes weeks and weeks of playing everyday to save up enough for just one venue. Another example is the life points used in Sims Freeplay which require weeks of accumulating to get to a goal like buying a pet or a mansion that was purchasable only with life points, only to lose your progress by paying life points if you want to skip one of your two or three set goals.
I have been playing The Sims since 2001, when Livin Large came out. My avatar deliberately looks like Chris Roomies from TS1.
the sims 4 is a fun game but they took all the fun out of it, no pools no cars no watching your sims as they travel no hospitals or other type of service places just so much token away its fun for a while but then gets boring what are we supposed to do with all our hard worked sim cash would be nice to buy an expesive care our maybe a few to look good in front of a mansion.
One thing that I REALLY don't like is the lack of step-siblings, step-parents, half-siblings mother- and father-in-laws, and brother- and sister-in-laws. That's honestly my biggest issue right now.
Love so very much about the game, but at the same time there is a lot of room for improvement. The things I've been bothered by lately:
We need a tool to rotate the lot when we're placing it, like in Sim 3. I've downloaded many great lots that are unusable because they simply face the wrong way no matter where I try to put them. The rotate building doesn't help when there is a lot of landscaping or decor around the building.
We desperately need the "Say Goodbye" kick a sim out of the conversation interaction to be more easily accessible. I use it all the time, and it takes about 5-6 clicks right now; it should be on the first menu when we click on a sim, or even something clickable on the conversation indicator up in the middle top.
More variety on visitors to your home would be nice; like right now, my sim has only made one friend but knows about ten others. But the same sim shows up three times a day; he leaves, then comes right back. Maybe a limit of one visit a day for any one sim.
The game should really stop choosing sims I've made that live in homes as maids and park people. It manufactures forty townies not in world, but needs mine? I don't make my friends so they can wander around in maid outfits.
The "Miss Work" warning option needs work, or needs to be gone entirely. It's fine that go to work pops up when the time comes, but just because I don't want to send them right AT the designated time doesn't mean I don't want them to work at all. What's happening now is I click it off, it gives me the warning, and I say yes to missing work, planning to send them an hour later. But instead, they go to work anyway, for about two hours, THEN leave and come home, working an incomplete day. There's no way to send them back. I don't need a warning; I can send them myself if I click it off.
The edge scrolling on the bottom of the screen is just plain awful. I like to play mostly with the mouse, but while you can easily scroll on the top and two sides, it has to be just right on the bottom, and I mean just right. It should be on the very edge of the screen like the other three sides; I don't care if going to click a menu sometimes scrolls it. You managed to make it dead up in the right hand corner where that menu is, simply do the same thing where any menu options are on the bottom. If the bars running across the bottom between the menus are in the way, lose them; they serve no purpose, and it would look better without them anyway.
On the subject of using the mouse, there should be a rotate screen up in the right corner where the walls up and down are. It would make placing objects a lot easier as well, besides making it easier to play with the mouse. If you've picked up an object it's just easier to get a good view with one, and I'm pretty sure the sims 3 had one.
Bad enough we don't have dishwashers, but why aren't the sims more efficient about washing the dishes they have? If my sim leaves a plate and then eats again at a later time, and gets up to wash the new plate, he never grabs the old one as well, so I have to send them twice. Any time they choose on their own to wash dishes they should grab any others.
Something should be tweaked with books. If there is a chair anywhere they can use, they should go sit down and read. I constantly have sims grab a book out of the bookcase and just stand in front of it and read like idiots. Or next to the coffee table where they picked it up.
The same sort of thing with eating, except it's more about interruptions. Just because a sim suddenly wants to hug my sim while he's eating doesn't mean he should then stand up, get hugged, and stand there the rest of the time eating his food. While reading and eating there should be a push to always sit down and back down. And how about putting a little more preference ON the eating while they are talking? It makes them take way too long to eat. It needs to be like eat a bite, talk, eat a bit, talk, instead of don't take a bite until everyone stops saying something to you. I let a sim just babble at a picnic table once, and it took him four hours to eat a hot dog. Four. Hours.
Door locks, PLEASE! You've made things like computers such a magnet for sims that's it's almost all they want to do. I don't know why visitors can use them in the first place. I usually won't have them on my lot unless I have to for a career or something, but I'd like to be able to put them and a few other objects in a locked room. You did it in sims 3, you can do it here. They are more useful than you can know.
You evidently made hamburgers and hot dogs more fattening than anything else? All well and good, except for the fact that you also seem to have made the game choose a select number of sims who always show up in the picnic areas and scarf them down. So some of the sims I made but don't play end up blowing up like blimps. It would be nice if the game would stop shoving story elements like this and the npc thing down my hand made sim's throats.
Just found one more thing; if you put an easel in a park, there is no way to use it after another sim paints a painting. There should be an option to scrap it, or else the game should reset them to empty when you leave the lot.
Also (just keep finding them) it should be set so that if you take a musical instrument out of your inventory and play it, you put it back in afterwards and not in some random spot like the middle of the kitchen floor. Same in reverse; if you take it from the floor to play it, put it back there when done. This would also help I think with disappearing instruments on community lots.
That's enough for now (too much probably, lol). I tend to complain about the game quite a bit, but it's because I enjoy it so much and hate the fact that there are still SO many things that annoy the heck out of me while playing it. In a way it's a testament though to how good it is, and could be; most games I would have quit by now, but the irritations are balanced out by a fun gaming experience that should grow and get better.
I'd heard a lot of bad things about it that dissuaded me from buying it but I finally relented and I love it. It's lacking in objects and content at the moment (and I know it's buggy but that's being fixed in real time as players test it out) but I'm really glad that what there is seems like a complete package. The Sims 3 had a ton of content extremely quickly but nothing felt quite finished to me, it was like a bunch of frayed ends where things were almost cool but not really developed enough to hold my interest. This is more like a return to the Sims 1 where it feels really cohesive and whole, and I know more stuff will be added later on. I hope the expansion packs continue this way.
I do miss toddlers and I hope they're added later. My mob queen needs her obnoxious illegitimate baby to round things out.
Basically I miss a lot of the details that previous installments had. Yes, you know what I'm talking about. Family trees, NPCs, cars (something to show them actually travelling, I hate the convenience of just teleporting your Sims. Sure you can pretend they drove, but that's kind of dull and it kills detail for immersion.) Another thing about that convenience.. It seems to be a reoccurring thing since Sims 3, to take out any work or extra effort that made the Sims feel like a life simulation and replace it with quick and easy little fixes. (Buying books at the bookcase, finding a job on your phone, changing your WHOLE appearance by looking in the mirror and not having to buy anything outside of your home lot) I think a little less catering to children and a little more detail for the players who enjoy their immersion. That is all.
Pretty sure no one actually reads these forum postings anyway, a lot of TLDR... but at least I guess it makes you feel better putting it all out there in the world and hoping, amirite?
Most of my annoyances can be really easily rectified. And Im sure most of them will be with time, by modders if nothing else, but theres a limit on what they can do - so here's hoping ...in time these will be patched in!
1) Relationships are broken - Theres been a whole lot of yammering on about family trees, some incestuous behavior, and overall lack of depth. I cant agree more. To me, this game is creating a character, and steering him/her through their virtual life and eventual death. Completely removing any real family dynamic is just ... odd. Sure when you hover over the relations panel you can see FATHER/MOTHER etc, but really, thats basically where it ends. If a sim doesnt live with his/her partner, they wont even know/care that they had a kid (in some cases). They wont miss them, they wont care at all, and it makes no difference to them, since kids are treated more like objects anyway. That also ties in with the last name on marriage bug (YES ITS A BUG - there's no way that could have been intentional? Who in their right mind would want to code something that limited into a life simulation game??) If you're saying "its liberating to women!" great. But most women I know appreciate the choice to change or keep their names, along with everything else about themselves. Being forced to never change is just as bad as being forced to. Make it an option, like when a new doll is born?
2) Babies are dolls - Just way less interesting. Really? whats up with that? Liberate them from the crib, people! Babies arent objects. sheesh. You pride yourselves on sim customisation, yet you dont give the option to even change a baby's outfit?
3) That relationship panel is busted - Ties in with point 1. Where's the categories? Keep it simple. FAMILY/HOUSEHOLD. FRIENDS, RANDOMS, DEAD PEOPLE. So since the whole neighbourhood except for the active families are doomed to just age and die with absolutely no contribution to the little society apart from random push-ups in the street, why do their ghosts stay in the relationship panel for eternity? They don't have graves, you cant move them on... in death they are just more useless clutter items. Even if you could... why do dearly departed sims that have moved on to the ether (after destroying their graves) stay there? You cant summon them... just more clutter to scroll through trying to reach your wife at the bottom of the list, since you cant sort the panels.
4) The really bizarre island of neighbourhood - Take a wild guess what I mean. I tried showing it in a picture, Im not allowed. What you see there (would have seen if i was allowed to post it) is a park on the left, built by yours truly. To the right, generic neighborhood space. In the middle down by the river is my sim fishing. So the question is.. why, for all that is good and holy, do I need to go through a loading screen to visit the park I made? Its RIGHT THERE. The friggen fountains even animate! Its not like its in a different neighbourhood, or even another part of the same neighborhood, its across the road from her house. Why put a load on it? Why can't you just walk over to your neighbour next door for a cup of coffee without a whole blinding white loading screen? Im not talking about a full on open world ala TS3, just the closest areas next to your house. Its so isolated, it makes me sad. It makes my sim sad. And it makes all the ghosts in her relationship panel sad.
5) Losing your credit to "_____" - So a sim catches all the fish. He wants to show off, and puts them all into 22 fishbowls. Lo and behold, you hover over the bowl, and it only displays... "CAUGHT BY: _____". no.. im sure it wasnt "_____" who caught that batfish. DId "_____" stand for hours at the pond to get that elusive anglerfish? nope. It gets even worse.. whoever this "_____" is takes credit for just about everything. Paintings, spaceprints.. anything really. We demand justice.
6) 'They're so dense its scary' - This is a VERY typical situation in my households. Bare with me: Youre trying to get your sim (lets call him Bob) to feed your hungry cowplant outside. Bob's watching TV and isnt having any of it. Another sim comes over, and Bob's distracted by a very unwelcome group chat interaction...which, of course elevates itself just above cowplant's needs in the queue. After another random decides to join the conversation uninvited, Bob needs to pee. So he rushes past the closest toilet, to the bathroom on the other side of the house to do his business. The chatty random isnt happy with this disrespect and runs after. And VERY creepily watches as Bob voids his bladder. Okay, I guess voyeurism is a thing in some places, but its frowned upon where I live. There doesnt seem to be any kind of privay filter here.... anyways.. So in the meantime Bob dropped the feeding of his starving cowplant completely from his to-do list. And he wants to go examine some microscope slides on the 3rd floor of his house. You see this. You're angry at Bob for not listening to you. That poor cowplant isnt gonna feed itself... ( >:) ) so you cancel his microscope interaction and angrily instruct him to FEED THE COWPLANT. So Bob runs off and does that.. oh wait. NO HE DOESNT. He runs all the way to the top floor, next to the telescope to show you he will do what HE wants, and then only makes his way all the way down again to the same spot he was at a minute or 2 ago.. and then attempts to feed the cowplant. Which he cant. Because its dead. Its DEAD, BOB. YOU KILLED IT WITH 🐸🐸🐸🐸-ITY.
EDIT: adding more:
7) Saving a HOUSEhold/New games - Its quite painful how the current system doesn't allow you to save a family with their precious posessions. I tend to change worlds now and then to get rid of any lag (and the bazillion dead townies that clog up everything). A case of manage households, edit house, save a new copy, manage household, edit family in cas, save a new copy, delete the old copies of everything (rinse and repeat 4-5 times for the families I want to move, and yes, its quite time consuming!) START A NEW GAME - not that simple, since you're forced into CAS first to create a random sim since you can't just play the 'hood.. you HAVE to create someone first AND move them in. AND load the new sim. And only then can you manage household, delete everything you were just forced to spent the last 5 minutes doing, delete the base game families one-by-one...and THEN load each house one-by-one to bulldoze it... SUCH a drama JUST to start a clean new game? really? All so extremely unnecessary and time consuming! ... AFTER ALL THAT... finally plonk down the houses you saved from your library... load each one individually AGAIN and rename them to whatever the names were before, since when you place a saved lot from the library it reverts the name to the default name.
AND FINALLY the fun bit.. moving the families in... just to realize.. hang on... their funds have all evaporated and their inventories have been destroyed? Great. Fricken amazeballs. By this time being so frustrated with it all you wonder why you even bother... and then frustratedly save this new game for another whirl later.
If you got really tired reading all that... then do yourself a favor. Its much more painful to actually DO in-game than reading about it. Gone is the convenient "save to library" button that saved ALL the above, and gone is the bulldozer to bulldoze a lot without entering it first. Seriously.. thats a mind-bogglingly bizarre design decision. WHY would you put that there, of all places? Surely once youre ready to bulldoze a lot the LAST thing you want to do is load it up for one last look? ITS WEIRD, PEOPLE.
8) Disappearing ghost people - Nope, I dont have it in for ghosts...it might seem that way reading all the above, but I really dont. In fact, I find them mildly entertaining. The problem though is that sometimes the ones that I DO want disappear forever, for no reason. Their Urns just say "_________ R.I.P". Again, who is this "_____" who takes over everything? even stealing a poor defenceless ghost's urn? After the urn gets reposessed (see what I did there) the unfortunate homeless ghost disappears forever. Even from the relationship panel... where everyone EVERYONE YOUR SIM EVER KNEW resides for ETERNITY. So thats the only way to clear the dead bodies... hmmm... wait until "_____" steals their urns?
Easier said than done since...
When a sim dies, and youre not around to see it - where do they go? where do they end up? Sure they become ghosts... hell you can even more them in if you want... but how to send them off when you've had enough and its time for grandma to REALLY go into the sunset? They have no urns/graves. They really do become untethered beings! There's absolutely no way to rid your world of them... unless you delete them all manually from manage households. And there WILL be a lot, since the townies all die of old age... hundreds of townies. All dead with age... and nowhere to go. They'll linger around the relationship panel for the rest of ever, but at least they wont haunt you.
And of course... you might even notice that some empty houses will be filled with a random ghost instead of a family. Am I to assume this means the house is now haunted? Why do I have to kick that ghost out then, and delete him from manage households to manually move a fresh family in? Geez.. so much morbidity.. poor townies.. doomed to live a meaningless empty life just to expire alone... and become a ghost... doomed to live a meaningless empty and unendable unlife just to NEVER let go of the mortal coil since they have no graves... Seriously.. Im thinking game designers must be REALLY morbid people.
To solve ALL of this, again, is quite doable, and can all be solved with one or 2 extra buttons by the talented folk at EA, if they choose to.
____
SO thats it for now.. my major issues which dont exactly pertain to the rather obvious flogging of dead-horsey type posts before. Solve these, and Id be happy.
Honest review of the Sims 4 after having played it extensively over the last month. It's a different animal than sims 3. If you're expecting sims 3, then just play sims 3. This game is actually pretty cool - that coming from a person who initially refused to buy it. Then bought it, played it once for 2 hours, closed my TABLET.. yeah.. that's right.. I closed my tablet, and cried because I was so angry at how TERRIBLE the game seemed.
Then I played it again. And again.. because I didn't want to waste my $60. Then I found myself actually enjoying it, so much in fact that I started exploring the building options, décor options. Etc. The gallery is WAY better than the old form in Sims 3. Loading times are incredibly short, the entire game experience is THAT much better.. and that's coming from an extremely experienced Sims 3 player. I had ALL of the expansion packs, and downloads available for purchase. I also used CC from other sites, as well as Mods, etc. There are some major setbacks in the game. 1 being that many people want toddlers and pools. However, from what we've been told by EA, those will be released as part of a patch. The biggest thing for me, is the lack of décor. I love playing the Sims quite honestly because I love to decorate with extremely expensive high end furniture and paintings, statues, etc. I am extremely disappointed in the lack of options, however, that was the same case in Sims 3.. why? BECAUSE IT'S A BASE GAME. There was an enormous amount of "stuff" and "abilities" added to the game with each expansion. I preferred the open world of Sims 3, however this is a different animal, and I've come to respect that.
I would ask that the designers for The Sims 4, please add more wall options. I like to have the inside of my house decorated with half stone walls, and half paint. I really loved the stone wall options in the Sims 3, and would really like to have that now. Other than adding the basics to this base game, it's actually quite fun. I've learned a ton, added mods, added CC.. with each new content bringing something great to the gameplay. EA- Remove the white line around the selected character during game play. Add pools, add toddlers, and with each expansion pack, give us what we already had in sims 3, and add to it. I don't feel like this is too much to ask for, considering the price tag of each expansion, and the base game, as well as years of dedication to your brand.
So in summery, all of this to say that despite my previous "anger issues" towards EA and the Sims 4 creators..
I've actually found myself saying out loud during game play : "wow, I can't believe I'm starting to actually prefer this over Sims 3." There you have it.
There are many issues that will be worked out over time, and once this is accomplished, this will be the best work they've come up with.
I just now started playing with ghosts, so I have a new dislike.
Dislike: I hate how my sims will stop what their doing to go mourn at a grave.My sim keeps mourning every 5 minutes.For example, she's cooking dinner, she will stop and leave the food on the stove to go mourn.Its really annoying.I really want to keep the graves because I want ghosts.
Dislike: I dislike how I can't cancel my sims action to use the baking machine.Even if she is nowhere near the machine, if she decides she's going to use it, you can't cancel it.
What would I ask for? Please bring back a grocery store- actually I'd like to see one work similiar to the Sims 2.Where our sims could go inside, and we click on a rack to buy groceries.Then check out at a register, and when they got home, they carried a basket to the fridge.Or at least add an order groceries.It just seems weird that there isn't anyway to buy ingredients.
In my opinion I think the Sims 4 needs some more control options. I like it alot but it still feels funny to me compared to the other sim games but on my computer the sims 4 runs the best of out of the entire sims series it seems.
*No toddlers- in fact, you want to remove the child life stage too, I'd be ok. Other than being able to fulfill a few whims, I can't really accomplish anything else unless I play on a long lifespan or cheat needs.
*Breastfeeding- its about time. Why wasn't it on the last two?
*Body and face sculptor
*Comedian career
*Pregnancy test
*Bladder, hunger, and energy deterioration during pregnancy- can be a hassle, but its cool and realistic
*Multi-tasking and chat feature
*Reduced wait time for loading screens
What I don't like:
*Weight gain with food- if your sim eats a piece of cake, they gain weight. I know this is realistic, but it means that unless my sim has time work out every time they eat a piece a cake, they gain weight, and its little annoying
*No story progression
*No mausoleum- if a sim that's not in my current household dies, there's no way to get their urn/tombstone. I haven't tried switching households to do it, but that still doesn't help me with my Legacies
*No color wheel or pattern options- I really miss being able to completely customize hair and clothing
*No restaurants- there's no public place to eat, except for chips at the bar
*Not enough traits, lifetime wishes, or careers- if I didn't already know that there are going to be EP's, I'd be disappointed in lack of options
*The bill are WAY too high
*No automatic placing of roofing
*No way to change a sim's last name without cheating
Overall, it's a great game, and I'm totally addicted. After a few EP's, it's going to be even better.
I thought of some more suggestions so I thought I'd comment again! :)
Allow Sims to inherit money from deceased relatives/parents. Sims should be able to specifically choose who to will their fortune to, or should have the option to split it between numerous Sims.
Toddler and preteen life stages.
Allow the ability to adjust the height of Sims in CAS. Teens should also be slightly shorter than adults.
There are many, many larger things that I feel are missing, that make this game less enjoyable for me (toddlers, family trees, open world, CASt), however, there are also many small fixes/tweaks I would like to see patched in, as some of these issues can be quite frustrating:
-Edge-scrolling needs to be fixed ASAP. The UI border on the bottom of the screen and upper right, is blocking any camera scrolling in that direction.
-Selecting/Clicking on objects seems to only work about 60% of the time. For example, if I click on a garden plant, sometimes I get the option menu, but other times I hear the sound, but no option menu pulls up. TS2 and TS3 just seemed so effortless in this aspect, that I didn't even appreciate the simplicity of it until TS4 came along. It just feels so bogged down and glitchy in comparison.
-When we click on a dish and select "clean", the action will queue up, but will only result in hand waving and a look of utter confusion if we do this when our sim is still eating. I liked in TS3, that we could queue up the "clean" dish action as soon as our sim grabbed a plate of food to eat, because I could continue to add things to their queue and then move on to another household member without babysitting them to make sure they do their dishes. As it is in TS4, I have to not only wait until they've finished their food, but also have set the plate down, before I can tell them to clean up without getting a glitch.
-Why is it that the fertilize action brings up an unsorted, headache-inducing list of harvestables/fish? If the sim has a lot of harvestables in their inventory (which mine usually do if they're going to be gardeners), then this list is horribly long and not in any kind of order or grouping that makes any sense. Each item can be listed several times over for the same quality level. For example, it doesn't group all apples as one line item, nor does it group all apples of perfect quality as one line item. Also, it does not list items from high to low quality, which makes it even worse to find your highest quality item to fertilize with. Please, please, for the love of gardening, fix this! Please go back to the TS3 way of sorting these.
-When skill bars above a sim's head reach the max level, they are sometimes getting permanently stuck that way, and I have to reset sim to remove it.
-Why is it that sometimes when my sim collects an object (from digging, collecting frogs, fishing, etc.), it is placed randomly somewhere in their inventory list, and not at the end (even when they don't have an older duplicate of the item)?
-Please allow sims to eat fruits/veggies out of their inventory. This is one thing I really miss from TS3. I enjoyed being able to fill their hunger bar if they were away from home, or didn't have time for a full meal. It doesn't have to fill their hunger completely, but partially would be nice.
-I realize more careers are being patched in, but please also tie in these new careers to new aspirations. I enjoy having one sim have a career aspiration, while their spouse has a more hands on aspiration.
-A TS3 version of the "make friends for me" cheat would be really appreciated.
-Please reduce the rate at which objects break/need repair.
-It would be fun if the garbage plant produced upgrade parts (like you find when sorting through trash piles).
-My sim ate a few pieces of cake (each time when her hunger was in the red), and became obese...seems a bit drastic!
Last but not least, I have to give a shout out to whoever writes the patch notes- you are hilarious and awesome:) Keep up the great work, "irregardless" of what anyone thinks!
My overall opinion of TS4 is that it's great - I can definitely see the hard work it took to improve this game and I really appreciate everyone who contributed to it. It's a beautifiul game but there's still SO MUCH you can do with it! (which is actually a good thing - lots of expansion ideas!)
Things I like:
- PERSONALITIES: My Sims' personalities ...well, I guess the perfect way to describe them is, in fact, vivid. They're much more unique and complex My Sims are replicas of my friends and family and it's funny because TS4 Sims will do things that my actual friends would do in real life, and that's really cool to see in the game. HOWEVER. I would like to see MORE! Only 3 personality traits? That's crazy! The shenanigans that would commence with more personality traits! - GRAPHICS: The overall design is beautiful, in my opinion. - GAMEPLAY: I have a really great time playing TS4 in close-up/zoomed in mode with the speed set to regular time - I've have a lot of fun being up close and personal with my Sim in this game, whereas in TS3 - the speed was always on triple-time and I always played from a really zoomed out camera - it was more similar to playing Sim City. TS4 is actually all about the Sims - which makes it so much more fun playing as an actual Sim (which is why Story Progression should be added ASAP - THE SIMS: We spend all day complaining about why the game sucks, but at the end of the day - it's The Sims, and you guys do a good job of DELIVERING - even if what we want delivered is sometimes lost in translation. TS4 is a great update from TS3. - NO LAGGING - to be honest, I don't mind losing the open world if that gets rid of all the lagging from the actual game.
Things I don't like: - STORY PROGRESSION STORY PROGRESSION STORY PROGRESSION. I got bored of this game really quick because of the lack of story progression. I tried playing as each individual family but it got exhausting. I want to be able to play as my main character and allow the rest of the Sims in my neighborhood carry on with their daily life as (date, have babies, get married, get divorced, get new jobs, switch house, etc.) And when my Sim dies, I want to play as my Sims' kids and they date my friend's kids and so on and so on. I don't ever want to play as the other Sims unless there's something specific I need them to do - they're just there to be characters in my main Sim's life. - SKINTONES: The skin tones are all white-washed. There's only like 3 skin tones that aren't white or Asian. And even then, they're still really light. 80% of my town is POC but they all look white. - NOWHERE TO GO: I don't think we need 2 museums and the lounge, or even 2 gyms for that matter, we could manage with 1. There's other places that could be put in lieu of them. - RELATIONSHIPS: I kinda wish there were more factors in our Sims' personalities to determine where the relationship is going to go, eg whether someone is gay, straight, bi, their zodiac sign, if they hate arrogant people, etc, if two families don't get along with eachother. Similar to how two Sims with the same favorite food in TS3 would get a relationship bonus. With how it is now, everyone will talk to everyone all the time once they've me unless they have the gloomy or hot-headed or loner trait and that's really the only thing that prevents 2 people from being friends. - TEEN PERSONALITIES - Maybe I haven't played enough with a teen, but there's really nothing different than playing as an adult. They don't make friends at school, don't get invited to people's houses... I would like for it tou show more that when you're a teen, your entire life revolves around SOMETHING...whether it be sports, or school, or your friends, or a crush...it's always something and teens always have a lot on their plate. Plus, the media and what other people are doing affects them more than it affects the adult. - BABY BIRTHDAY PARTIES - Why can't you throw a birthday party for babies? Is that a glitch - NO CULTURE?!?! I would like Ts4 to allow more room for a cultural lifestlye. I loved the TS3 Worlds expansion pack - where your Sims could go somewhere else/buy a house in another country. I've always wanted to move to Egypt so it's cool for your Sim to have that opportunity - SHE'S PREGNANT FOR GOODNESS SAKES - My Sim's pregnancy had absolutely no affect on her other than a happy moodlet here and there. What happened to the nausea? The maternity leave? The pregnancy books? Pregnancy craving? The crazy pregnant emotions? Why is my Sim acting like having a baby is no big?
Things I would like to add/add on to - CALENDER - maybe a Sims calender? Not with the traditional month, but with Simlish months - and the length of the months depend on the lifespan length you choose. And Sims have their birthdays in that month or a certain holiday is celebrated that month. AND ZODIAC SIGNS - A BEACH - WHY IS THERE NO BEACH???? - PRECHOOSE STARTING CASH: Give the players more room to diversify their town - I want to create some of my Sims and have them start the game rich without needing cheat codes. Some Sims don't need to work extra hard because they've already established themselves professionally or financially and can afford the nice houses and stuff. - PREGNANCY STUFF
To me it seems that EA's intention was to make Sims 4 as a new game where mainly two things should convince people to buy the game and it's expansions:
1. Emotions.
2. Multitasking.
Those things should replace the open world and make up for the removal of toddlers and the simplifications about babies.
I understand the ideas behind this. But I don't understand that a game about emotions shouldn't have jealousy and that romance in such a game should be simplified too so the sims can woohoo a few minutes after they have met and without anybody caring about it. This makes emotions not important in the game.
So the only important thing left is actually multitasking. This is a nice feature. But it just can't replace all the things which have been removed or simplified compared to the Sims 3 basegame. Therefore EA will in my opinion have a very hard time attempting to convince people to buy many expansions for this game.
It seems to me that EA instead wanted us to use most of our time making sims and building housing and not play the game very much. But I am not a builder and the simmers who I know don't want to use their time for making sims and building houses without playing them either.
An annoying thing is that we have to make a new sim before we are allowed to play a new game even if we don't want to play the sim because we just want to play an existing sim instead. I usually just move the made sim into an empty lot and kick it out again so I can play without it in my neighborhood when I want to play an existing family. But it is still annoying to be forced to do such things. Anyway there is so little gameplay in the Sims 4 that I understand EA's attempt to force us to make sims instead of actually playing the game. But I won't buy expansions to this game unless it adds much more gameplay and not just new thing to people who only want to make sims and build houses instead of playing.
I have been a fan of the Sims ever since the first game came out. I have always been impressed with the way the game has developed and been improved upon, not just between each game, but with the add ons and downloads etc. too. The Sims 4 was such a huge disappointment for me.
I'll start with the good points (as this will take the least time):
Multi Tasking: The multi tasking is a nice function. It's not a massive benefit to the game and is rarely used but it’s still a nice addition to the Sims play style. I do like the way you can have 3 or more Sims talking in a single conversation too.
Emotions: The emotions, again, is a nice feature. Similar to what was already in the Sims 3 but slightly more explored but again a nice addition. However similar things were in place in the Sims 3 and so is not really a big step forward. More a slightly different way of doing what had already been done.
Better Sims creator: Yes, slightly. The way you can change the features of your Sim is more fun and a bit more creative but; again, it’s not a huge step up from the Sims 3. It’s slightly easier. But I will admit it is quite fun.
Now to move onto the problems (get ready for the big list):
The map (in my view the biggest problem): What the hell is with the map? Seriously! The Sims 3 gave you a huge map that you could mod and change. Add houses, shops, venues etc. You could make your Sims walk, taxi or bike from one side to the other. Where is this in the new one? Why has the map been split into small sections with very limited houses? The motto is "play it your way" but this is so restrictive that I feel I have to play it how the game wants not how I want. Why the map has been split into sections I have no idea? The Sims 2 was similar. Play with your Sim confined to one house but they eliminated this in the Sims 3. Why go back to it? Why make the world smaller?
Loading Screens: Really? Loading screens!! Its 2014 why are there loading screens? I can walk across the fictional world of Skyrim (2011) or Los Santos (GTA5), which is based on LA, and not encounter a single loading screen. Why can't my Sim walk next door without a loading screen? This wasn't even in Sims 3 with its bigger map. What the hell?
Better graphics???: Yes, slightly. Not a lot. When you look at FIFA 15 (made by EA) the footballers have creases in the t-shirts, the shorts blow in the wind and move with the movement of the footballer. Why do my Sims look like they have Lego hair and are walking in cardboard clothes? It’s pathetic. Especially if you look at the graphics and interactions of games such as Watch Dogs and even Skyrim which is 3 years older. The details on the items are appalling too. The cheap TV is literally a black cube. No detail, nothing to make it look like a TV, just a black box. Where is the passion from your designers? Get Skyrim, walk up to a tree and see the detail of the trunks. They have gone out and scanned tree bark to create the texture of the tree trunks. You have a cube for a TV. Pathetic! And with the technology that’s out now (which you are using on other games).
Limited choices: Why are there so many limitations on designs? You can’t change fabric, clothes colours, styles etc. like you could in Sims 3. Why are you limiting us? If I want my Sim to look like he is wearing a tie made of wood and a shirt made of metal I should have this option. I did in the Sims 3. I may find a style I like (although there really aren’t a lot to choose from) and I only seem to have a choice of a couple of colours. Why is this? If I want a red and white striped tie with a blue floral shirt and a brown and grey checked blazer I should be able to change each individual colour and pattern. The Sims 3 gave me this option yet I have to choose from the frankly limited standard colour options available. And it’s the same for items and wallpaper and so on too.
Interaction: Why are the interactions between Sims and objects and other Sims so rigid? In FIFA 15 if a footballer runs into another he pushes him over or out the way. Sims walk around each other like there is a 2 foot box around them. I had 2 Sims sitting next to each other on the sofa talking and their arms kept going through each other. Why? I haven't seen such bad interaction since the mid 2000s. The way they move is almost like it's been choreographed, badly, and not a nice free flowing action.
Sudden disappearances of conversation options: I’ve noticed that during a conversation some of the topics will appear and disappear. I got my Sim to talk to another and I saw two conversation options I wanted to use. I clicked on the first and got that in my actions queue. I then looked for the second option and it had disappeared. Why? Surely if a dialogue option has appeared it should always be there, not come and go as it pleases. I understand there are a lot of dialogues and so on and some are situation related but why is one there one minute and gone the next?
Ways to really make Sims individual: There are so many different people in the world and not just their style. My best friend is 6’1” meanwhile I’m only 5’6” yet if I create us on the Sims we’re the same height. Yes I can make them look fat or muscular but why are all Sims still the same height? Surely this was the next logical step. Ok you can now create a different walking style for each Sim, which I’ll admit isn’t too bad and it does give slightly more individuality to a Sim, but there is so much more they could have done. If you look at games such as Skyrim, Star Trek Online, FIFA 15 and so on there are so many more options for character creation than in a game that is designed for creating characters. I can create a 5’6” footballer in FIFA and put him on a team with another created player whose 6’6” and so on. You are the same companies why has height not even crossed your minds? And there is so much more to have been explored both physically and personality. How about fears and loves? The Sims 2 allowed your Sims to have one thing they hated (beards, blonde hair etc.) and two things they liked. I always thought this was a nice concept that the Sims 3 missed out on and again the Sims 4 has done nothing around. Also why only 3 traits? In the Sims 3 you could choose 5. This gave your Sims a much larger and varied personality. Again surely reducing things like this is a step back? I would say that I, along with all my friends, have many traits, habits, quirks and so on. Why don’t your Sims have things like this? Perhaps allow Sims to have pet hates, likes, quirks, habits etc. all kinds of ways to improve the way Sims interact and behave. Yes well done you have created 6 different walking styles and removed some personality traits, great development there.
Options you have and didn't use: I have FIFA 15. I also had 14 & 13. I went onto the EA site and used the website to take a picture of my face and the side of my head. I then mapped this out on the site and it generated a fairly accurate 3D, CGI representation of my face. I have now put this face on a created character on FIFA and it looks like I am in the game. Why have you not added this feature to the Sims? You have had this technology since FIFA 13, if not before. This is the perfect tool for the Sims. Why is this not used?
Money Grabbing: Since the Sims 1, swimming pools have been an option on all the base games. Why no pools? You have the option and ability to do it. They’re in the other games and all Sims fans are used to them. Why no pools? My guess is you know people like them and will want them. My guess is that these will be added in a download or expansion pack that people will pay for. And you know people will pay because they were a prominent feature in the other games and were popular. Very clever I'll admit but exploitative.
Game Play: Honestly I played the game for around 2-3 hours and I think I had done everything you could do. It became so boring so quickly. The Sims 3 I am playing all these years later yet this new one lasted me a few hours before I was bored. There is nothing to do. No stories to develop. It feels like your creativity has been removed and you are stuck with a linear game instead of something that I can "play my way" to quote your own slogan.
All in all I think this is a terrible game. It's such a huge step back from the Sims 3 it’s not even something you can joke about or brush aside. It's like going back in time and playing the Sims 1 or 2, but with less to do in it and more restrictions. I just want to know what EA and Maxis were thinking of when they decided to release this. Go online and just read the reviews by fans. Most say the same as me.
You need to make some drastic changes to this game as people are simply not playing it and will refuse to buy the add ons and extras. Fans of the Sims are leaving the franchise and many will never buy the extras and if there is ever a Sims 5 people will probably not bother. This game is almost single handedly destroying the Sims franchise.
Such a shame as there was so much potential with this game.
Comments
Likes: After a few hours I was struggling to find something good about this game.
Dislikes:
- Camera moving is terrible
- Building mode is to clunky and no edge scrolling when I try to go down in it that I can figure out
- Load screen whenever my sim goes anywhere
- My sim had the master chef wish or whatever it's called now but to get some new things for his cooking he had to be a higher level in totally unrelated skills
- Not many job choices
- Limited options for all buy items
I realise that some of the stuff I've listed is (job choices, lack of items) is probably going to be added to expansions... but you know what, I paid enough money for this one and overall it feels like a game still in the very early beta stages, I have played many games in early beta and most of them had more content and were easier to use than sims 4. It leaves the impression that the creators of this game just took the bad things from the first and second sims and threw them together and called it 'Sims 4'.
Crossing legs when sitting.
Laying in bed to read.
What I dislike:
I dislike that sims gain weight too quickly and there's no indication as to what foods do what.
I dislike that exercising to help lose weight gains butt-ugly muscle instead of a lean figure.
I dislike that my sim's walk changes with her mood. Just because she's confident, or whatever, doesn't mean she needs to walk like a man with swollen danglies until the mood times out or changes when I had set her to feminine (for example).
And, in addition to everything just about everyone else has mention... that CAMERA! More than once it's caused me to shut down and go play BEJEWELED! :P
Não gostei muito dos fantasmas por conta disso. No The sims 3 meu sim humano se casou com uma sim fantasma, e eles tiveram vários bebês fantasmas. Os fantasmas ficaram sem graça.
I miss laying on the bed daydreaming.
The lack of story progression for NPC(this is serverly limited my freewill gameplay style).
The color wheel in CAS for hair and highlights.
Why will sims only woohoo in a first floor bedroom? At first I thought my sim liked the pink room, but have found the same problem in a different household.
At the library they also only use the first floor bookshelf, even if you do instruct them to take a book from 2nd floor. A second floor bookshelf only works if there are none on the first floor.
I agree with this, i though my fabulous guy Jason was glitched when he suddenly lost his feminine walk, but realised later it was mood affected. My flirty ghost sims, float/walk as if they are tired or sad when very flirty.
Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying the game alot. I just expected alot of what we miss to have been a default standard in the new game.
- Make a Young adult again potion. The young again potion will not reverse past the age transition you already are. Example if you are an elder and drink the potion it will not make you an adult again.
- Make a Bank, where we can make wills, life insurance, investments, savings that increase with interest. Or at least an online bank.
-Be able to buy Lottery tickets to win money
- Need family tree
- When you blow out candles on cake, put a caution box up asking "Are you sure you want to age up to ____?" I was going to have a party then my sim apparently already aged up to an adult then I made her blow out the candles and now she is an elder.. Its my fault but would be a nice to have a second chance.
- Ability to make our own or add neighborhoods, that we can just add to current world. BIGGER LOTS PLEASE.
- Maternity leave option, Retire option, sick day option
- Am I the only one who finds it weird that a child can stay home alone. Please bring back the nanny, that you can schedule.
- So my sims Girlfriend died but she did not live with us and my Sim did not receive a negative moodlet,
- Why cant we paint real life portraits? If I cant have a family tree, can I be able to make one on my sim wall?
I'm also certain that microtransactions fits with the Sims business model. While that's all fine and good, PC > mobile device EVERY time.
I cannot get past the lack of choices. And yes, I'm going to beat the dead horse here and say you lost most of those choices with create a style. Character creation alone becomes repetitive at character #2 and character #1 doesn't look how I want her to look anyway because I can't tweak what I want to tweak. 1 pair of pants with 5 set colors doesn't cut it. If I can't like my sims because of those lacking choices, how will I ever enjoy the game?
I feel like I'm on a mobile game with the sticker price of a PC game. Oh, and no, I didn't waste my money. My buddy practically threw her laptop at me in disgust and allowed me to play on her machine. So I'm not out anything, thankfully.
RECOMMENDATION: ask a friend for a look at theirs before buying. If they're unhappy with it they will have no problem with allowing you a much-needed preview.
LOL, sorry, it irritates my OCD.
This is the sort of thing I could see a CC mod fixing. Trolls might deliberately misspell a word to get a rise out of someone with OCD.
I find the style of heads created quite limited. When you randomize a sim in CAS, you get one of several options, but after about 6 or 8 they start looking the same. There really isn't much new in CAS in-game as compared to the free CAS demo. The clothing options are also quite limited, a choice of about 8 different full-body outfits for female sims, for instance. Modders will add new outfits eventually, but it would be nice to see more official options.
But I disagree that this looks like a mobile game. Too many mobile games are set up like social networking games, with the expectation and almost requirement that the player play each and every single day without fail, and requirement of friends/neighbors to succeed in the game. Moreover, those type of games are often set up so that the difficulty on higher levels/the longer you play that the harder it is to advance without paying money and more money. For instance, I have the Sims Freeplay, but I have spent money for more simoleons in that game so that I could build new venues for Sims in that game, since otherwise it takes weeks and weeks of playing everyday to save up enough for just one venue. Another example is the life points used in Sims Freeplay which require weeks of accumulating to get to a goal like buying a pet or a mansion that was purchasable only with life points, only to lose your progress by paying life points if you want to skip one of your two or three set goals.
We need a tool to rotate the lot when we're placing it, like in Sim 3. I've downloaded many great lots that are unusable because they simply face the wrong way no matter where I try to put them. The rotate building doesn't help when there is a lot of landscaping or decor around the building.
We desperately need the "Say Goodbye" kick a sim out of the conversation interaction to be more easily accessible. I use it all the time, and it takes about 5-6 clicks right now; it should be on the first menu when we click on a sim, or even something clickable on the conversation indicator up in the middle top.
More variety on visitors to your home would be nice; like right now, my sim has only made one friend but knows about ten others. But the same sim shows up three times a day; he leaves, then comes right back. Maybe a limit of one visit a day for any one sim.
The game should really stop choosing sims I've made that live in homes as maids and park people. It manufactures forty townies not in world, but needs mine? I don't make my friends so they can wander around in maid outfits.
The "Miss Work" warning option needs work, or needs to be gone entirely. It's fine that go to work pops up when the time comes, but just because I don't want to send them right AT the designated time doesn't mean I don't want them to work at all. What's happening now is I click it off, it gives me the warning, and I say yes to missing work, planning to send them an hour later. But instead, they go to work anyway, for about two hours, THEN leave and come home, working an incomplete day. There's no way to send them back. I don't need a warning; I can send them myself if I click it off.
The edge scrolling on the bottom of the screen is just plain awful. I like to play mostly with the mouse, but while you can easily scroll on the top and two sides, it has to be just right on the bottom, and I mean just right. It should be on the very edge of the screen like the other three sides; I don't care if going to click a menu sometimes scrolls it. You managed to make it dead up in the right hand corner where that menu is, simply do the same thing where any menu options are on the bottom. If the bars running across the bottom between the menus are in the way, lose them; they serve no purpose, and it would look better without them anyway.
On the subject of using the mouse, there should be a rotate screen up in the right corner where the walls up and down are. It would make placing objects a lot easier as well, besides making it easier to play with the mouse. If you've picked up an object it's just easier to get a good view with one, and I'm pretty sure the sims 3 had one.
Bad enough we don't have dishwashers, but why aren't the sims more efficient about washing the dishes they have? If my sim leaves a plate and then eats again at a later time, and gets up to wash the new plate, he never grabs the old one as well, so I have to send them twice. Any time they choose on their own to wash dishes they should grab any others.
Something should be tweaked with books. If there is a chair anywhere they can use, they should go sit down and read. I constantly have sims grab a book out of the bookcase and just stand in front of it and read like idiots. Or next to the coffee table where they picked it up.
The same sort of thing with eating, except it's more about interruptions. Just because a sim suddenly wants to hug my sim while he's eating doesn't mean he should then stand up, get hugged, and stand there the rest of the time eating his food. While reading and eating there should be a push to always sit down and back down. And how about putting a little more preference ON the eating while they are talking? It makes them take way too long to eat. It needs to be like eat a bite, talk, eat a bit, talk, instead of don't take a bite until everyone stops saying something to you. I let a sim just babble at a picnic table once, and it took him four hours to eat a hot dog. Four. Hours.
Door locks, PLEASE! You've made things like computers such a magnet for sims that's it's almost all they want to do. I don't know why visitors can use them in the first place. I usually won't have them on my lot unless I have to for a career or something, but I'd like to be able to put them and a few other objects in a locked room. You did it in sims 3, you can do it here. They are more useful than you can know.
You evidently made hamburgers and hot dogs more fattening than anything else? All well and good, except for the fact that you also seem to have made the game choose a select number of sims who always show up in the picnic areas and scarf them down. So some of the sims I made but don't play end up blowing up like blimps. It would be nice if the game would stop shoving story elements like this and the npc thing down my hand made sim's throats.
Just found one more thing; if you put an easel in a park, there is no way to use it after another sim paints a painting. There should be an option to scrap it, or else the game should reset them to empty when you leave the lot.
Also (just keep finding them) it should be set so that if you take a musical instrument out of your inventory and play it, you put it back in afterwards and not in some random spot like the middle of the kitchen floor. Same in reverse; if you take it from the floor to play it, put it back there when done. This would also help I think with disappearing instruments on community lots.
That's enough for now (too much probably, lol). I tend to complain about the game quite a bit, but it's because I enjoy it so much and hate the fact that there are still SO many things that annoy the heck out of me while playing it. In a way it's a testament though to how good it is, and could be; most games I would have quit by now, but the irritations are balanced out by a fun gaming experience that should grow and get better.
I do miss toddlers and I hope they're added later. My mob queen needs her obnoxious illegitimate baby to round things out.
Most of my annoyances can be really easily rectified. And Im sure most of them will be with time, by modders if nothing else, but theres a limit on what they can do - so here's hoping ...in time these will be patched in!
1) Relationships are broken -
Theres been a whole lot of yammering on about family trees, some incestuous behavior, and overall lack of depth. I cant agree more. To me, this game is creating a character, and steering him/her through their virtual life and eventual death. Completely removing any real family dynamic is just ... odd. Sure when you hover over the relations panel you can see FATHER/MOTHER etc, but really, thats basically where it ends. If a sim doesnt live with his/her partner, they wont even know/care that they had a kid (in some cases). They wont miss them, they wont care at all, and it makes no difference to them, since kids are treated more like objects anyway. That also ties in with the last name on marriage bug (YES ITS A BUG - there's no way that could have been intentional? Who in their right mind would want to code something that limited into a life simulation game??) If you're saying "its liberating to women!" great. But most women I know appreciate the choice to change or keep their names, along with everything else about themselves. Being forced to never change is just as bad as being forced to. Make it an option, like when a new doll is born?
2) Babies are dolls -
Just way less interesting. Really? whats up with that? Liberate them from the crib, people! Babies arent objects. sheesh. You pride yourselves on sim customisation, yet you dont give the option to even change a baby's outfit?
3) That relationship panel is busted -
Ties in with point 1. Where's the categories? Keep it simple. FAMILY/HOUSEHOLD. FRIENDS, RANDOMS, DEAD PEOPLE.
So since the whole neighbourhood except for the active families are doomed to just age and die with absolutely no contribution to the little society apart from random push-ups in the street, why do their ghosts stay in the relationship panel for eternity? They don't have graves, you cant move them on... in death they are just more useless clutter items. Even if you could... why do dearly departed sims that have moved on to the ether (after destroying their graves) stay there? You cant summon them... just more clutter to scroll through trying to reach your wife at the bottom of the list, since you cant sort the panels.
4) The really bizarre island of neighbourhood -
Take a wild guess what I mean. I tried showing it in a picture, Im not allowed.
What you see there (would have seen if i was allowed to post it) is a park on the left, built by yours truly. To the right, generic neighborhood space. In the middle down by the river is my sim fishing. So the question is.. why, for all that is good and holy, do I need to go through a loading screen to visit the park I made? Its RIGHT THERE. The friggen fountains even animate! Its not like its in a different neighbourhood, or even another part of the same neighborhood, its across the road from her house. Why put a load on it? Why can't you just walk over to your neighbour next door for a cup of coffee without a whole blinding white loading screen? Im not talking about a full on open world ala TS3, just the closest areas next to your house. Its so isolated, it makes me sad. It makes my sim sad. And it makes all the ghosts in her relationship panel sad.
5) Losing your credit to "_____" -
So a sim catches all the fish. He wants to show off, and puts them all into 22 fishbowls. Lo and behold, you hover over the bowl, and it only displays... "CAUGHT BY: _____".
no.. im sure it wasnt "_____" who caught that batfish. DId "_____" stand for hours at the pond to get that elusive anglerfish? nope. It gets even worse.. whoever this "_____" is takes credit for just about everything. Paintings, spaceprints.. anything really. We demand justice.
6) 'They're so dense its scary' -
This is a VERY typical situation in my households. Bare with me:
Youre trying to get your sim (lets call him Bob) to feed your hungry cowplant outside. Bob's watching TV and isnt having any of it. Another sim comes over, and Bob's distracted by a very unwelcome group chat interaction...which, of course elevates itself just above cowplant's needs in the queue. After another random decides to join the conversation uninvited, Bob needs to pee. So he rushes past the closest toilet, to the bathroom on the other side of the house to do his business. The chatty random isnt happy with this disrespect and runs after. And VERY creepily watches as Bob voids his bladder. Okay, I guess voyeurism is a thing in some places, but its frowned upon where I live. There doesnt seem to be any kind of privay filter here.... anyways.. So in the meantime Bob dropped the feeding of his starving cowplant completely from his to-do list. And he wants to go examine some microscope slides on the 3rd floor of his house. You see this. You're angry at Bob for not listening to you. That poor cowplant isnt gonna feed itself... ( >:) ) so you cancel his microscope interaction and angrily instruct him to FEED THE COWPLANT. So Bob runs off and does that.. oh wait. NO HE DOESNT. He runs all the way to the top floor, next to the telescope to show you he will do what HE wants, and then only makes his way all the way down again to the same spot he was at a minute or 2 ago.. and then attempts to feed the cowplant. Which he cant. Because its dead. Its DEAD, BOB. YOU KILLED IT WITH 🐸🐸🐸🐸-ITY.
EDIT: adding more:
7) Saving a HOUSEhold/New games -
Its quite painful how the current system doesn't allow you to save a family with their precious posessions. I tend to change worlds now and then to get rid of any lag (and the bazillion dead townies that clog up everything). A case of manage households, edit house, save a new copy, manage household, edit family in cas, save a new copy, delete the old copies of everything (rinse and repeat 4-5 times for the families I want to move, and yes, its quite time consuming!)
START A NEW GAME - not that simple, since you're forced into CAS first to create a random sim since you can't just play the 'hood.. you HAVE to create someone first AND move them in. AND load the new sim. And only then can you manage household, delete everything you were just forced to spent the last 5 minutes doing, delete the base game families one-by-one...and THEN load each house one-by-one to bulldoze it... SUCH a drama JUST to start a clean new game? really? All so extremely unnecessary and time consuming!
...
AFTER ALL THAT... finally plonk down the houses you saved from your library... load each one individually AGAIN and rename them to whatever the names were before, since when you place a saved lot from the library it reverts the name to the default name.
AND FINALLY the fun bit.. moving the families in... just to realize.. hang on... their funds have all evaporated and their inventories have been destroyed? Great. Fricken amazeballs.
By this time being so frustrated with it all you wonder why you even bother... and then frustratedly save this new game for another whirl later.
If you got really tired reading all that... then do yourself a favor. Its much more painful to actually DO in-game than reading about it. Gone is the convenient "save to library" button that saved ALL the above, and gone is the bulldozer to bulldoze a lot without entering it first. Seriously.. thats a mind-bogglingly bizarre design decision. WHY would you put that there, of all places? Surely once youre ready to bulldoze a lot the LAST thing you want to do is load it up for one last look? ITS WEIRD, PEOPLE.
8) Disappearing ghost people -
Nope, I dont have it in for ghosts...it might seem that way reading all the above, but I really dont. In fact, I find them mildly entertaining. The problem though is that sometimes the ones that I DO want disappear forever, for no reason. Their Urns just say "_________ R.I.P". Again, who is this "_____" who takes over everything? even stealing a poor defenceless ghost's urn? After the urn gets reposessed (see what I did there) the unfortunate homeless ghost disappears forever. Even from the relationship panel... where everyone EVERYONE YOUR SIM EVER KNEW resides for ETERNITY. So thats the only way to clear the dead bodies... hmmm... wait until "_____" steals their urns?
Easier said than done since...
When a sim dies, and youre not around to see it - where do they go? where do they end up? Sure they become ghosts... hell you can even more them in if you want... but how to send them off when you've had enough and its time for grandma to REALLY go into the sunset? They have no urns/graves. They really do become untethered beings! There's absolutely no way to rid your world of them... unless you delete them all manually from manage households. And there WILL be a lot, since the townies all die of old age... hundreds of townies. All dead with age... and nowhere to go. They'll linger around the relationship panel for the rest of ever, but at least they wont haunt you.
And of course... you might even notice that some empty houses will be filled with a random ghost instead of a family. Am I to assume this means the house is now haunted? Why do I have to kick that ghost out then, and delete him from manage households to manually move a fresh family in?
Geez.. so much morbidity.. poor townies.. doomed to live a meaningless empty life just to expire alone... and become a ghost... doomed to live a meaningless empty and unendable unlife just to NEVER let go of the mortal coil since they have no graves... Seriously.. Im thinking game designers must be REALLY morbid people.
To solve ALL of this, again, is quite doable, and can all be solved with one or 2 extra buttons by the talented folk at EA, if they choose to.
____
SO thats it for now.. my major issues which dont exactly pertain to the rather obvious flogging of dead-horsey type posts before. Solve these, and Id be happy.
Cheers for now..
It's a different animal than sims 3. If you're expecting sims 3, then just play sims 3. This game is actually pretty cool - that coming from a person who initially refused to buy it. Then bought it, played it once for 2 hours, closed my TABLET.. yeah.. that's right.. I closed my tablet, and cried because I was so angry at how TERRIBLE the game seemed.
Then I played it again. And again.. because I didn't want to waste my $60. Then I found myself actually enjoying it, so much in fact that I started exploring the building options, décor options. Etc. The gallery is WAY better than the old form in Sims 3. Loading times are incredibly short, the entire game experience is THAT much better.. and that's coming from an extremely experienced Sims 3 player. I had ALL of the expansion packs, and downloads available for purchase. I also used CC from other sites, as well as Mods, etc.
There are some major setbacks in the game. 1 being that many people want toddlers and pools. However, from what we've been told by EA, those will be released as part of a patch.
The biggest thing for me, is the lack of décor. I love playing the Sims quite honestly because I love to decorate with extremely expensive high end furniture and paintings, statues, etc. I am extremely disappointed in the lack of options, however, that was the same case in Sims 3.. why? BECAUSE IT'S A BASE GAME. There was an enormous amount of "stuff" and "abilities" added to the game with each expansion. I preferred the open world of Sims 3, however this is a different animal, and I've come to respect that.
I would ask that the designers for The Sims 4, please add more wall options. I like to have the inside of my house decorated with half stone walls, and half paint. I really loved the stone wall options in the Sims 3, and would really like to have that now. Other than adding the basics to this base game, it's actually quite fun. I've learned a ton, added mods, added CC.. with each new content bringing something great to the gameplay.
EA- Remove the white line around the selected character during game play. Add pools, add toddlers, and with each expansion pack, give us what we already had in sims 3, and add to it.
I don't feel like this is too much to ask for, considering the price tag of each expansion, and the base game, as well as years of dedication to your brand.
So in summery, all of this to say that despite my previous "anger issues" towards EA and the Sims 4 creators..
I've actually found myself saying out loud during game play : "wow, I can't believe I'm starting to actually prefer this over Sims 3." There you have it.
There are many issues that will be worked out over time, and once this is accomplished, this will be the best work they've come up with.
Dislike: I hate how my sims will stop what their doing to go mourn at a grave.My sim keeps mourning every 5 minutes.For example, she's cooking dinner, she will stop and leave the food on the stove to go mourn.Its really annoying.I really want to keep the graves because I want ghosts.
Dislike: I dislike how I can't cancel my sims action to use the baking machine.Even if she is nowhere near the machine, if she decides she's going to use it, you can't cancel it.
What would I ask for? Please bring back a grocery store- actually I'd like to see one work similiar to the Sims 2.Where our sims could go inside, and we click on a rack to buy groceries.Then check out at a register, and when they got home, they carried a basket to the fridge.Or at least add an order groceries.It just seems weird that there isn't anyway to buy ingredients.
https://graceymanorsims3.tumblr.com/
Sims Fanboy
Play with Life
*No toddlers- in fact, you want to remove the child life stage too, I'd be ok. Other than being able to fulfill a few whims, I can't really accomplish anything else unless I play on a long lifespan or cheat needs.
*Breastfeeding- its about time. Why wasn't it on the last two?
*Body and face sculptor
*Comedian career
*Pregnancy test
*Bladder, hunger, and energy deterioration during pregnancy- can be a hassle, but its cool and realistic
*Multi-tasking and chat feature
*Reduced wait time for loading screens
What I don't like:
*Weight gain with food- if your sim eats a piece of cake, they gain weight. I know this is realistic, but it means that unless my sim has time work out every time they eat a piece a cake, they gain weight, and its little annoying
*No story progression
*No mausoleum- if a sim that's not in my current household dies, there's no way to get their urn/tombstone. I haven't tried switching households to do it, but that still doesn't help me with my Legacies
*No color wheel or pattern options- I really miss being able to completely customize hair and clothing
*No restaurants- there's no public place to eat, except for chips at the bar
*Not enough traits, lifetime wishes, or careers- if I didn't already know that there are going to be EP's, I'd be disappointed in lack of options
*The bill are WAY too high
*No automatic placing of roofing
*No way to change a sim's last name without cheating
Overall, it's a great game, and I'm totally addicted. After a few EP's, it's going to be even better.
Allow Sims to inherit money from deceased relatives/parents. Sims should be able to specifically choose who to will their fortune to, or should have the option to split it between numerous Sims.
Toddler and preteen life stages.
Allow the ability to adjust the height of Sims in CAS. Teens should also be slightly shorter than adults.
-Edge-scrolling needs to be fixed ASAP. The UI border on the bottom of the screen and upper right, is blocking any camera scrolling in that direction.
-Selecting/Clicking on objects seems to only work about 60% of the time. For example, if I click on a garden plant, sometimes I get the option menu, but other times I hear the sound, but no option menu pulls up. TS2 and TS3 just seemed so effortless in this aspect, that I didn't even appreciate the simplicity of it until TS4 came along. It just feels so bogged down and glitchy in comparison.
-When we click on a dish and select "clean", the action will queue up, but will only result in hand waving and a look of utter confusion if we do this when our sim is still eating. I liked in TS3, that we could queue up the "clean" dish action as soon as our sim grabbed a plate of food to eat, because I could continue to add things to their queue and then move on to another household member without babysitting them to make sure they do their dishes. As it is in TS4, I have to not only wait until they've finished their food, but also have set the plate down, before I can tell them to clean up without getting a glitch.
-Why is it that the fertilize action brings up an unsorted, headache-inducing list of harvestables/fish? If the sim has a lot of harvestables in their inventory (which mine usually do if they're going to be gardeners), then this list is horribly long and not in any kind of order or grouping that makes any sense. Each item can be listed several times over for the same quality level. For example, it doesn't group all apples as one line item, nor does it group all apples of perfect quality as one line item. Also, it does not list items from high to low quality, which makes it even worse to find your highest quality item to fertilize with. Please, please, for the love of gardening, fix this! Please go back to the TS3 way of sorting these.
-When skill bars above a sim's head reach the max level, they are sometimes getting permanently stuck that way, and I have to reset sim to remove it.
-Why is it that sometimes when my sim collects an object (from digging, collecting frogs, fishing, etc.), it is placed randomly somewhere in their inventory list, and not at the end (even when they don't have an older duplicate of the item)?
-Please allow sims to eat fruits/veggies out of their inventory. This is one thing I really miss from TS3. I enjoyed being able to fill their hunger bar if they were away from home, or didn't have time for a full meal. It doesn't have to fill their hunger completely, but partially would be nice.
-I realize more careers are being patched in, but please also tie in these new careers to new aspirations. I enjoy having one sim have a career aspiration, while their spouse has a more hands on aspiration.
-A TS3 version of the "make friends for me" cheat would be really appreciated.
-Please reduce the rate at which objects break/need repair.
-It would be fun if the garbage plant produced upgrade parts (like you find when sorting through trash piles).
-My sim ate a few pieces of cake (each time when her hunger was in the red), and became obese...seems a bit drastic!
Last but not least, I have to give a shout out to whoever writes the patch notes- you are hilarious and awesome:) Keep up the great work, "irregardless" of what anyone thinks!
Things I like:
- PERSONALITIES: My Sims' personalities ...well, I guess the perfect way to describe them is, in fact, vivid. They're much more unique and complex My Sims are replicas of my friends and family and it's funny because TS4 Sims will do things that my actual friends would do in real life, and that's really cool to see in the game. HOWEVER. I would like to see MORE! Only 3 personality traits? That's crazy! The shenanigans that would commence with more personality traits!
- GRAPHICS: The overall design is beautiful, in my opinion.
- GAMEPLAY: I have a really great time playing TS4 in close-up/zoomed in mode with the speed set to regular time - I've have a lot of fun being up close and personal with my Sim in this game, whereas in TS3 - the speed was always on triple-time and I always played from a really zoomed out camera - it was more similar to playing Sim City. TS4 is actually all about the Sims - which makes it so much more fun playing as an actual Sim (which is why Story Progression should be added ASAP
- THE SIMS: We spend all day complaining about why the game sucks, but at the end of the day - it's The Sims, and you guys do a good job of DELIVERING - even if what we want delivered is sometimes lost in translation. TS4 is a great update from TS3.
- NO LAGGING - to be honest, I don't mind losing the open world if that gets rid of all the lagging from the actual game.
Things I don't like:
- STORY PROGRESSION STORY PROGRESSION STORY PROGRESSION.
I got bored of this game really quick because of the lack of story progression. I tried playing as each individual family but it got exhausting.
I want to be able to play as my main character and allow the rest of the Sims in my neighborhood carry on with their daily life as (date, have babies, get married, get divorced, get new jobs, switch house, etc.) And when my Sim dies, I want to play as my Sims' kids and they date my friend's kids and so on and so on. I don't ever want to play as the other Sims unless there's something specific I need them to do - they're just there to be characters in my main Sim's life.
- SKINTONES: The skin tones are all white-washed. There's only like 3 skin tones that aren't white or Asian. And even then, they're still really light. 80% of my town is POC but they all look white.
- NOWHERE TO GO: I don't think we need 2 museums and the lounge, or even 2 gyms for that matter, we could manage with 1. There's other places that could be put in lieu of them.
- RELATIONSHIPS: I kinda wish there were more factors in our Sims' personalities to determine where the relationship is going to go, eg whether someone is gay, straight, bi, their zodiac sign, if they hate arrogant people, etc, if two families don't get along with eachother. Similar to how two Sims with the same favorite food in TS3 would get a relationship bonus. With how it is now, everyone will talk to everyone all the time once they've me unless they have the gloomy or hot-headed or loner trait and that's really the only thing that prevents 2 people from being friends.
- TEEN PERSONALITIES - Maybe I haven't played enough with a teen, but there's really nothing different than playing as an adult. They don't make friends at school, don't get invited to people's houses... I would like for it tou show more that when you're a teen, your entire life revolves around SOMETHING...whether it be sports, or school, or your friends, or a crush...it's always something and teens always have a lot on their plate. Plus, the media and what other people are doing affects them more than it affects the adult.
- BABY BIRTHDAY PARTIES - Why can't you throw a birthday party for babies? Is that a glitch
- NO CULTURE?!?! I would like Ts4 to allow more room for a cultural lifestlye. I loved the TS3 Worlds expansion pack - where your Sims could go somewhere else/buy a house in another country. I've always wanted to move to Egypt so it's cool for your Sim to have that opportunity
- SHE'S PREGNANT FOR GOODNESS SAKES - My Sim's pregnancy had absolutely no affect on her other than a happy moodlet here and there. What happened to the nausea? The maternity leave? The pregnancy books? Pregnancy craving? The crazy pregnant emotions? Why is my Sim acting like having a baby is no big?
Things I would like to add/add on to
- CALENDER - maybe a Sims calender? Not with the traditional month, but with Simlish months - and the length of the months depend on the lifespan length you choose. And Sims have their birthdays in that month or a certain holiday is celebrated that month. AND ZODIAC SIGNS
- A BEACH - WHY IS THERE NO BEACH????
- PRECHOOSE STARTING CASH: Give the players more room to diversify their town - I want to create some of my Sims and have them start the game rich without needing cheat codes. Some Sims don't need to work extra hard because they've already established themselves professionally or financially and can afford the nice houses and stuff.
- PREGNANCY STUFF
1. Emotions.
2. Multitasking.
Those things should replace the open world and make up for the removal of toddlers and the simplifications about babies.
I understand the ideas behind this. But I don't understand that a game about emotions shouldn't have jealousy and that romance in such a game should be simplified too so the sims can woohoo a few minutes after they have met and without anybody caring about it. This makes emotions not important in the game.
So the only important thing left is actually multitasking. This is a nice feature. But it just can't replace all the things which have been removed or simplified compared to the Sims 3 basegame. Therefore EA will in my opinion have a very hard time attempting to convince people to buy many expansions for this game.
It seems to me that EA instead wanted us to use most of our time making sims and building housing and not play the game very much. But I am not a builder and the simmers who I know don't want to use their time for making sims and building houses without playing them either.
An annoying thing is that we have to make a new sim before we are allowed to play a new game even if we don't want to play the sim because we just want to play an existing sim instead. I usually just move the made sim into an empty lot and kick it out again so I can play without it in my neighborhood when I want to play an existing family. But it is still annoying to be forced to do such things. Anyway there is so little gameplay in the Sims 4 that I understand EA's attempt to force us to make sims instead of actually playing the game. But I won't buy expansions to this game unless it adds much more gameplay and not just new thing to people who only want to make sims and build houses instead of playing.
I'll start with the good points (as this will take the least time):
Multi Tasking:
The multi tasking is a nice function. It's not a massive benefit to the game and is rarely used but it’s still a nice addition to the Sims play style. I do like the way you can have 3 or more Sims talking in a single conversation too.
Emotions:
The emotions, again, is a nice feature. Similar to what was already in the Sims 3 but slightly more explored but again a nice addition. However similar things were in place in the Sims 3 and so is not really a big step forward. More a slightly different way of doing what had already been done.
Better Sims creator:
Yes, slightly. The way you can change the features of your Sim is more fun and a bit more creative but; again, it’s not a huge step up from the Sims 3. It’s slightly easier. But I will admit it is quite fun.
Now to move onto the problems (get ready for the big list):
The map (in my view the biggest problem):
What the hell is with the map? Seriously! The Sims 3 gave you a huge map that you could mod and change. Add houses, shops, venues etc. You could make your Sims walk, taxi or bike from one side to the other. Where is this in the new one? Why has the map been split into small sections with very limited houses? The motto is "play it your way" but this is so restrictive that I feel I have to play it how the game wants not how I want. Why the map has been split into sections I have no idea? The Sims 2 was similar. Play with your Sim confined to one house but they eliminated this in the Sims 3. Why go back to it? Why make the world smaller?
Loading Screens:
Really? Loading screens!! Its 2014 why are there loading screens? I can walk across the fictional world of Skyrim (2011) or Los Santos (GTA5), which is based on LA, and not encounter a single loading screen. Why can't my Sim walk next door without a loading screen? This wasn't even in Sims 3 with its bigger map. What the hell?
Better graphics???:
Yes, slightly. Not a lot. When you look at FIFA 15 (made by EA) the footballers have creases in the t-shirts, the shorts blow in the wind and move with the movement of the footballer. Why do my Sims look like they have Lego hair and are walking in cardboard clothes? It’s pathetic. Especially if you look at the graphics and interactions of games such as Watch Dogs and even Skyrim which is 3 years older. The details on the items are appalling too. The cheap TV is literally a black cube. No detail, nothing to make it look like a TV, just a black box. Where is the passion from your designers? Get Skyrim, walk up to a tree and see the detail of the trunks. They have gone out and scanned tree bark to create the texture of the tree trunks. You have a cube for a TV. Pathetic! And with the technology that’s out now (which you are using on other games).
Limited choices:
Why are there so many limitations on designs? You can’t change fabric, clothes colours, styles etc. like you could in Sims 3. Why are you limiting us? If I want my Sim to look like he is wearing a tie made of wood and a shirt made of metal I should have this option. I did in the Sims 3. I may find a style I like (although there really aren’t a lot to choose from) and I only seem to have a choice of a couple of colours. Why is this? If I want a red and white striped tie with a blue floral shirt and a brown and grey checked blazer I should be able to change each individual colour and pattern. The Sims 3 gave me this option yet I have to choose from the frankly limited standard colour options available. And it’s the same for items and wallpaper and so on too.
Interaction:
Why are the interactions between Sims and objects and other Sims so rigid? In FIFA 15 if a footballer runs into another he pushes him over or out the way. Sims walk around each other like there is a 2 foot box around them. I had 2 Sims sitting next to each other on the sofa talking and their arms kept going through each other. Why? I haven't seen such bad interaction since the mid 2000s. The way they move is almost like it's been choreographed, badly, and not a nice free flowing action.
Sudden disappearances of conversation options:
I’ve noticed that during a conversation some of the topics will appear and disappear. I got my Sim to talk to another and I saw two conversation options I wanted to use. I clicked on the first and got that in my actions queue. I then looked for the second option and it had disappeared. Why? Surely if a dialogue option has appeared it should always be there, not come and go as it pleases. I understand there are a lot of dialogues and so on and some are situation related but why is one there one minute and gone the next?
Ways to really make Sims individual:
There are so many different people in the world and not just their style. My best friend is 6’1” meanwhile I’m only 5’6” yet if I create us on the Sims we’re the same height. Yes I can make them look fat or muscular but why are all Sims still the same height? Surely this was the next logical step. Ok you can now create a different walking style for each Sim, which I’ll admit isn’t too bad and it does give slightly more individuality to a Sim, but there is so much more they could have done. If you look at games such as Skyrim, Star Trek Online, FIFA 15 and so on there are so many more options for character creation than in a game that is designed for creating characters. I can create a 5’6” footballer in FIFA and put him on a team with another created player whose 6’6” and so on. You are the same companies why has height not even crossed your minds? And there is so much more to have been explored both physically and personality. How about fears and loves? The Sims 2 allowed your Sims to have one thing they hated (beards, blonde hair etc.) and two things they liked. I always thought this was a nice concept that the Sims 3 missed out on and again the Sims 4 has done nothing around. Also why only 3 traits? In the Sims 3 you could choose 5. This gave your Sims a much larger and varied personality. Again surely reducing things like this is a step back? I would say that I, along with all my friends, have many traits, habits, quirks and so on. Why don’t your Sims have things like this? Perhaps allow Sims to have pet hates, likes, quirks, habits etc. all kinds of ways to improve the way Sims interact and behave. Yes well done you have created 6 different walking styles and removed some personality traits, great development there.
Options you have and didn't use:
I have FIFA 15. I also had 14 & 13. I went onto the EA site and used the website to take a picture of my face and the side of my head. I then mapped this out on the site and it generated a fairly accurate 3D, CGI representation of my face. I have now put this face on a created character on FIFA and it looks like I am in the game. Why have you not added this feature to the Sims? You have had this technology since FIFA 13, if not before. This is the perfect tool for the Sims. Why is this not used?
Money Grabbing:
Since the Sims 1, swimming pools have been an option on all the base games. Why no pools? You have the option and ability to do it. They’re in the other games and all Sims fans are used to them. Why no pools? My guess is you know people like them and will want them. My guess is that these will be added in a download or expansion pack that people will pay for. And you know people will pay because they were a prominent feature in the other games and were popular. Very clever I'll admit but exploitative.
Game Play:
Honestly I played the game for around 2-3 hours and I think I had done everything you could do. It became so boring so quickly. The Sims 3 I am playing all these years later yet this new one lasted me a few hours before I was bored. There is nothing to do. No stories to develop. It feels like your creativity has been removed and you are stuck with a linear game instead of something that I can "play my way" to quote your own slogan.
All in all I think this is a terrible game. It's such a huge step back from the Sims 3 it’s not even something you can joke about or brush aside. It's like going back in time and playing the Sims 1 or 2, but with less to do in it and more restrictions. I just want to know what EA and Maxis were thinking of when they decided to release this. Go online and just read the reviews by fans. Most say the same as me.
You need to make some drastic changes to this game as people are simply not playing it and will refuse to buy the add ons and extras. Fans of the Sims are leaving the franchise and many will never buy the extras and if there is ever a Sims 5 people will probably not bother. This game is almost single handedly destroying the Sims franchise.
Such a shame as there was so much potential with this game.