It seems like I need to add that I didn't only meant their facial expressions when I said "emotionless robots" @JoAnne65 and @lisasc360 , but also the animations like @dorcsyful already suggested. I can't really describe why, but the animations in TS4 look much more "real" than in TS3 to me.
I like both styles for different reasons, but lean more strongly to liking The Sims 3 because it is more versatile. I have spent literally dozens of hours in CAS in The Sims 4 creating Sims in minute detail. As soon as they are in-game, they all look the same only with (limited) differences of hair/eye/skin color. In the Sims 3 I could have many, many variations of hair/eyes/skin - and it showed up in my game the same way.
My biggest thing is the expressions. All Sims in The Sims 4 express in an exactly identical way regardless of the shape of their eyes, location of eyebrows, their mouths, and so forth. I can't get past the Howdy-Doody smiles where the bottom lip comes up like a puppet's but the top lip doesn't budge. It was even more noticeable with my poor, adorable little toddlers.
In 17 years of Simming I have never had such a tug-of-war, love/hate relationship with a Sims game like The Sims 4. It's frustrating at times.
Yes, this is exactly my issue I have a mod now by the way, that suppresses the smiling. Haven't tested it yet.
@JoAnne65 - let me know how it goes! I think they are smiling a little less now on their own, but when they do smile, it is that wooden puppet thing that makes me cringe. And their eyebrows hitting their hairlines (well, not quite but . . .) - don't get me started - lol
It seems like I need to add that I didn't only meant their facial expressions when I said "emotionless robots" @JoAnne65 and @lisasc360 , but also the animations like @dorcsyful already suggested. I can't really describe why, but the animations in TS4 look much more "real" than in TS3 to me.
I like both styles for different reasons, but lean more strongly to liking The Sims 3 because it is more versatile. I have spent literally dozens of hours in CAS in The Sims 4 creating Sims in minute detail. As soon as they are in-game, they all look the same only with (limited) differences of hair/eye/skin color. In the Sims 3 I could have many, many variations of hair/eyes/skin - and it showed up in my game the same way.
My biggest thing is the expressions. All Sims in The Sims 4 express in an exactly identical way regardless of the shape of their eyes, location of eyebrows, their mouths, and so forth. I can't get past the Howdy-Doody smiles where the bottom lip comes up like a puppet's but the top lip doesn't budge. It was even more noticeable with my poor, adorable little toddlers.
In 17 years of Simming I have never had such a tug-of-war, love/hate relationship with a Sims game like The Sims 4. It's frustrating at times.
Yes, this is exactly my issue I have a mod now by the way, that suppresses the smiling. Haven't tested it yet.
@JoAnne65 - let me know how it goes! I think they are smiling a little less now on their own, but when they do smile, it is that wooden puppet thing that makes me cringe. And their eyebrows hitting their hairlines (well, not quite but . . .) - don't get me started - lol
Yes, exactly that. I really like my Sims 4 guy for instance, when he looks like this.
A bit grumpy. But his looks are gone as soon as the smiling and eyebrow thing starts. It's just not him anymore. So I really hope that mod will make sure this is how he will look from now on.
It seems like I need to add that I didn't only meant their facial expressions when I said "emotionless robots" @JoAnne65 and @lisasc360 , but also the animations like @dorcsyful already suggested. I can't really describe why, but the animations in TS4 look much more "real" than in TS3 to me.
I like both styles for different reasons, but lean more strongly to liking The Sims 3 because it is more versatile. I have spent literally dozens of hours in CAS in The Sims 4 creating Sims in minute detail. As soon as they are in-game, they all look the same only with (limited) differences of hair/eye/skin color. In the Sims 3 I could have many, many variations of hair/eyes/skin - and it showed up in my game the same way.
My biggest thing is the expressions. All Sims in The Sims 4 express in an exactly identical way regardless of the shape of their eyes, location of eyebrows, their mouths, and so forth. I can't get past the Howdy-Doody smiles where the bottom lip comes up like a puppet's but the top lip doesn't budge. It was even more noticeable with my poor, adorable little toddlers.
In 17 years of Simming I have never had such a tug-of-war, love/hate relationship with a Sims game like The Sims 4. It's frustrating at times.
Yes, this is exactly my issue I have a mod now by the way, that suppresses the smiling. Haven't tested it yet.
@JoAnne65 - let me know how it goes! I think they are smiling a little less now on their own, but when they do smile, it is that wooden puppet thing that makes me cringe. And their eyebrows hitting their hairlines (well, not quite but . . .) - don't get me started - lol
Yes, exactly that. I really like my Sims 4 guy for instance, when he looks like this.
A bit grumpy. But his looks are gone as soon as the smiling and eyebrow thing starts. It's just not him anymore. So I really hope that mod will make sure this is how he will look from now on.
Great pictures! I agree - he is an awesome looking guy. I have one Sim who looks a lot like Yanni in his younger days (he is a Level 10 Musician, too) and he is just gorgeous. However, the mouth and eyebrow thing make me want to swat him - lol - I even gave him the Gloomy trait to try and tone it down. However, as we know, the Sims 4 traits are easily over-ridden. Doggone game.
It seems like I need to add that I didn't only meant their facial expressions when I said "emotionless robots" @JoAnne65 and @lisasc360 , but also the animations like @dorcsyful already suggested. I can't really describe why, but the animations in TS4 look much more "real" than in TS3 to me.
I think you misunderstood my point. (or I wasn't clear). I just wanted to say that in TS4, your sims' animations are based on their current mood. Which means, that even if their spouse died minutes ago and they are supposed to be super-sad, the second they walk into nicely decorated the room or take a "mood shower" they are all happy. And the animations that are associated with the happy emotion are player. In TS3, if something bad happens, there's nothing you can do about it until the moodlets are gone (which often take days).
Yes, I agree, the "small detail" animations are good, but the walks, for example, are horrible.
In my opinion- yes. TS3 is Better to play and create in than TS4.
Over saturated, over goofy, over limited in graphic detail to the world, over emotional, over blurry, over controlled by EA, over monitored by Origin, just.... not a good game no matter how much those Sims crazily smile at me. :blah:
It seems like I need to add that I didn't only meant their facial expressions when I said "emotionless robots" @JoAnne65 and @lisasc360 , but also the animations like @dorcsyful already suggested. I can't really describe why, but the animations in TS4 look much more "real" than in TS3 to me.
I think you misunderstood my point. (or I wasn't clear). I just wanted to say that in TS4, your sims' animations are based on their current mood. Which means, that even if their spouse died minutes ago and they are supposed to be super-sad, the second they walk into nicely decorated the room or take a "mood shower" they are all happy. And the animations that are associated with the happy emotion are player. In TS3, if something bad happens, there's nothing you can do about it until the moodlets are gone (which often take days).
Yes, I agree, the "small detail" animations are good, but the walks, for example, are horrible.
I agree. So to sum it up, even if you think the individual animations seem 'more real' (which in itself is an opinion I don't completely share), they are 'put together' in gameplay in an extremely unrealistic way that is quite annoying and immersion-breaking to some players.
Yes, overly everything. DNW.
The Sims
Where are we going, and why am I in this hand basket?!
@Odonata68, Oh I just love your emotionless robotic with a lack of detail Sims... This is the reason why I love everything about TS3. We can see their emotions in their looks and body movements...
I think people mean that sims 4 animations are smoother. The performance and movement is less stiff "robotic" and I agree with this. But if we are talking about emotions, I definitely prefer sims 3. Sims 4 emotions are over the top and are all over the place. Its so hard to get pictures right with that constant silly smile on their faces. Who smiles like that all the time? I really dislike that smile and yes I know there are mods for it.
I think people mean that sims 4 animations are smoother. The performance and movement is less stiff "robotic" and I agree with this. But if we are talking about emotions, I definitely prefer sims 3. Sims 4 emotions are over the top and are all over the place. Its so hard to get pictures right with that constant silly smile on their faces. Who smiles like that all the time? I really dislike that smile and yes I know there are mods for it.
Sims 4 emotions states make me want to sing Hot N cold. I feel that Sims 4 sims were to happy for their own good.
I feel like I might be hated for saying this... Sims 3 is considered better by a lot because of all the content, but honestly, TS4 isn't even finished. It has a long way to go and I'm in the belief that it will be worked on for a couple more years at least. I am under the impression that TS3 has a lot of content because it was easy to develop. TS4 is higher in quality and detail thus it takes more time to get content out. I'm being patient with it IMO.
In my opinion I think that these sorts of comparisons often miss the mark. In the Sims 3, you have a wide array of textures to work with. The person who made this sims 3 comparison photo was trying to make it as close to the Sims 4 as possible. As a result it looks as if the sims are working out in a dark bathroom, where as in the Sims 4 pic they are clearly working out in a dark modern style gym. There are a large variety of other wallpapers and CAStyling they could have done to make a more accurate comparison. The Sims 3 and the Sims 4 have completely different art styles. The sims 4 has a hand painted look to the textures, the Sims 3 doesn't. The person who made the Sims 3 comp. pic is trying to fit it the Sims 3 into the Sims 4 look and it doesn't work.
Without a doubt though, the Sims 3 does contain higher quality and often more detailed object meshes.
edit:
Just for fun I did up another interpretation of the Sims 3 comparison pic. for illustration. Fair or not, I don't know.
I prefer TS3 but TS4 is not finish so we will see in 2019 or more later... But at the moment TS4 is so unpleasant for gameplay, i think TS4 with generations, pets and seasons will be good. But with 1 Ep per year, it will be difficult, i don't like the rhythm of TS4... Always stuff pack and not many EP's...
I feel like I might be hated for saying this... Sims 3 is considered better by a lot because of all the content, but honestly, TS4 isn't even finished. It has a long way to go and I'm in the belief that it will be worked on for a couple more years at least. I am under the impression that TS3 has a lot of content because it was easy to develop. TS4 is higher in quality and detail thus it takes more time to get content out. I'm being patient with it IMO.
In my opinion I think that these sorts of comparisons often miss the mark. In the Sims 3, you have a wide array of textures to work with. The person who made this sims 3 comparison photo was trying to make it as close to the Sims 4 as possible. As a result it looks as if the sims are working out in a dark bathroom, where as in the Sims 4 pic they are clearly working out in a dark modern style gym. There are a large variety of other wallpapers and CAStyling they could have done to make a more accurate comparison. The Sims 3 and the Sims 4 have completely different art styles. The sims 4 has a hand painted look to the textures, the Sims 3 doesn't. The person who made the Sims 3 comp. pic is trying to fit it the Sims 3 into the Sims 4 look and it doesn't work.
Without a doubt though, the Sims 3 does contain higher quality and often more detailed object meshes.
edit:
Just for fun I did up another interpretation of the Sims 3 comparison pic. for illustration. Fair or not, I don't know.
I did a similar comparison using the same wallpaper as in the original Sims 3 pic. Using a few lights was enough
The funny thing is, that this kind of comparisons were made in the beginning, when the lighting in Sims 4 indoors was terrible. I don't know where the Sims 4 picture used here came from, but I doubt it was an actual sceenshot by a fan. There are also comparison pictures comparing render sims to very bad Sims 3 sims with poor lighting. For some reason people felt the need to do that back then.
I feel like I might be hated for saying this... Sims 3 is considered better by a lot because of all the content, but honestly, TS4 isn't even finished. It has a long way to go and I'm in the belief that it will be worked on for a couple more years at least. I am under the impression that TS3 has a lot of content because it was easy to develop. TS4 is higher in quality and detail thus it takes more time to get content out. I'm being patient with it IMO.
In my opinion I think that these sorts of comparisons often miss the mark. In the Sims 3, you have a wide array of textures to work with. The person who made this sims 3 comparison photo was trying to make it as close to the Sims 4 as possible. As a result it looks as if the sims are working out in a dark bathroom, where as in the Sims 4 pic they are clearly working out in a dark modern style gym. There are a large variety of other wallpapers and CAStyling they could have done to make a more accurate comparison. The Sims 3 and the Sims 4 have completely different art styles. The sims 4 has a hand painted look to the textures, the Sims 3 doesn't. The person who made the Sims 3 comp. pic is trying to fit it the Sims 3 into the Sims 4 look and it doesn't work.
Without a doubt though, the Sims 3 does contain higher quality and often more detailed object meshes.
edit:
Just for fun I did up another interpretation of the Sims 3 comparison pic. for illustration. Fair or not, I don't know.
I did a similar comparison using the same wallpaper as in the original Sims 3 pic. Using a few lights was enough
The funny thing is, that this kind of comparisons were made in the beginning, when the lighting in Sims 4 indoors was terrible. I don't know where the Sims 4 picture used here came from, but I doubt it was an actual sceenshot by a fan. There are also comparison pictures comparing render sims to very bad Sims 3 sims with poor lighting. For some reason people felt the need to do that back then.
I don't think the Sims 4 was from a fan either. I think it's an EA one. I sort of remember a gym picture floating around before the game was released. I think this was it. Although, this is the first time I've seen it compared with Sims 3 or rather trying to make the Sims 3 look like the Sims 4.
It's also kind of like building comparisons. They show a decent looking house from the Sims 4 and the show a box that looks like it's been in a train wreck from sims 3 and say "see, S4 building is way better."
It's fine with me if one prefers one game over the other. They should just have fun.
I don't know why everything in sims 4 has to be so oversized. What does everything need to be so gigantic for? Is it trying to compensate for something?
I don't know why everything in sims 4 has to be so oversized. What does everything need to be so gigantic for? Is it trying to compensate for something?
"Grandma, what big treadmills you have!"
"Look kid, we both know I'm a wolf in a nightgown and not your grandma. Can't we just fast forward through this part?"
@petalbot Indeed. And I'm more interested in the way the game plays than how it looks anyway. When I see old pictures of my game I can't imagine I wasn't bothered by the low quality (I played medium settings back then). And yet, I wasn't. And still, there are details in Sims 3 that bother me, but there are also aesthetic details in 4 that bother me. Don't really care when I play though, there's also a lot of beauty in there.
@JoAnne65
Right now, I care a lot about how my game looks - with a bunch of gorgeous, high-quality pics from other people around. But I played the game on low settings for quite a while, 2010 to 2012, and I really didn't care. I was just playing my own little game. Only when I discovered the whole community behind it and saw people with gorgeous pictures I felt somehow weird for playing with crap and started giving a look at the settings. I think it's for a big part the pressure to have a good-looking game, while in fact, it doesn't really matter. My old pictures may make me nauseous but I had fun back then at least, with for a big part only the base game, pets and world adventures. The gameplay was already enough.
@GITTE2001 I couldn't go back either But I must admit I sometimes miss it, the totally unbiased, wildly enthusiastic way I used to play the game during the first two years. In the beginning I hardly took any screenshots, I just played played played (as you may know I wrote the first four generations of my legacy months after playing them, going back into old saves to take some 'missing' screenshots). Couldn't believe someone had actually created a game so uttlerly perfectly suiting me.
I like making (and watching) the beautiful screenshots (and I love the looks of the game on highest settings, I love how it sometimes literally takes my breath away), but at the end of the day it is not why I play it. Which is probably why I get more tickled when I see someone posting somewhat regular pictures that expose enjoying the gameplay than when I see an amazing photoshopped screenshot with a lot of CC, or why I can't really get into stories that use a lot of poseplayer. I enjoy it most when I can feel the game behind it.
While TS4 has its flaws, I think I am enjoying playing it it more than I did TS3. I liked TS3, sure, but the whole experience was a bit frustrating for me, I remember I was always fiddling with the game, trying different things in order to make it "work", to make it fun for me. There was also the lag, I always had lots of lag no matter what I did.
I did enjoy downloading and exploring custom worlds (I really miss that), and did have my share of fun with TS3 (and some things from it I still miss), but I think TS4 has been easier for me to get into.
My favourite of the saga would be TS2 though, and I will always love TS1.
@GITTE2001 I couldn't go back either But I must admit I sometimes miss it, the totally unbiased, wildly enthusiastic way I used to play the game during the first two years. In the beginning I hardly took any screenshots, I just played played played (as you may know I wrote the first four generations of my legacy months after playing them, going back into old saves to take some 'missing' screenshots). Couldn't believe someone had actually created a game so uttlerly perfectly suiting me.
I like making (and watching) the beautiful screenshots (and I love the looks of the game on highest settings, I love how it sometimes literally takes my breath away), but at the end of the day it is not why I play it. Which is probably why I get more tickled when I see someone posting somewhat regular pictures that expose enjoying the gameplay than when I see an amazing photoshopped screenshot with a lot of CC, or why I can't really get into stories that use a lot of poseplayer. I enjoy it most when I can feel the game behind it.
@JoAnne65 - I feel exactly the same way.
I played Sims 4 the whole weekend (I talked myself into buying Get to work, because I wanted the aliens ), and I had fun. I think, if you don´t see Sims 4 as the successor of Sims 3, but rather as a totally different Sim game, it works.
Anyway, the same discussion had had in the past when TS3 first released. But EA has not released any game which could create that long discussions yet because while TS4 was bringing new qualities, it has also drew the line back in some ways such as disabling the open world qualities and many cas qualities. I can not even create a sim who has pink hair with blue highlights. TS3 was not like that. After TS2 players were fed up with the game, they added many features which encourage players to create new things. But after all, they have just realised the fact that they developed game that much, thus many computers could not even run them at all, so they could not sell as much as they thought. Anyway, what I see is TS3 encourages me to create more, rather than just playing with cartoonic characters and restrictive build mode which does not let me create the things as I have always used to do. And I hate the Plumbob which does not allow me to cross the street while the other buildings were faking themselves looking like they were actually there. It's not a world, it is not how TS4 should be like.
Anyway, the same discussion had had in the past when TS3 first released. But EA has not released any game which could create that long discussions yet because while TS4 was bringing new qualities, it has also drew the line back in some ways such as disabling the open world qualities and many cas qualities. I can not even create a sim who has pink hair with blue highlights. TS3 was not like that. After TS2 players were fed up with the game, they added many features which encourage players to create new things. But after all, they have just realised the fact that they developed game that much, thus many computers could not even run them at all, so they could not sell as much as they thought. Anyway, what I see is TS3 encourages me to create more, rather than just playing with cartoonic characters and restrictive build mode which does not let me create the things as I have always used to do. And I hate the Plumbob which does not allow me to cross the street while the other buildings were faking themselves looking like they were actually there. It's not a world, it is not how TS4 should be like.
I feel much the same way. I thought the Sims 4 create a sim demo was fun at first. It was cool to be able to have more control over body shape. After making a few sims though, I got board. I have the Sims 4, but I have not created or desired to create another sim since the demo. I just play with the Sims I made in the demo whenever I load up the Sims 4. Putting in hair highlights, adjusting the make up how I wanted it and having total creative control over the wardrobe with create a style is more important to me than being able to create a sim with a giant butt. A sim is more than their body parts after all.
Anyway after 7 years, the Sims 3 has never ceased to inspire me. It feels so free compared to the Sims 4.
It's funny as when the screenshots for Sims 3 were going around, pre-release, I admittedly was not a big fan of what I was seeing at the time. When it finally came out, my computer that I was mostly using at the time did have some issues with it due to the amount of rendering involved (error code 12s were very common along with just having the menu disappear if I did too much alt-tab back and forth between the desktop and game or went into CAS too much or for too long). The lack of items at the time of launch along with that I think sent me back to Sims2 for a while until the expansion packs started getting released, as I remember getting more and more excited about this game.
However, now I'm still in love with Sims 3, especially the customization options and everything it's had to offer, especially with gameplay. As someone who also loves to build/decorate, one of the things I was admittedly disappointed with Sims 4 has been what feels like a move back to Sims 2 in the area of customization and preset options as well as the reintroduction of loading screens when we had this wonderful open world to play in with Sims 3. I admittedly hate all the rendering and length of time it can take per object/lot in Sims3, however, and am wondering if that was the reason behind the shift back to how things were before?
With Sims 4, I admittedly had a similar view of my initial response to Sims 3, yet unlike 3 I'm finding that I'm still having a harder time warming up as much to it as I did with Sims 3 even after all this time (in comparison, I remember fully getting onboard with Sims 3 probably around the release of the first expansion pack).
I do like the way Sims 4 handles toddlers and the ability to alter the height of the room/wall height, but also feel that toddlers and even swimming pools should have been part of the game when it shipped--not things we've had to wait for patches for well-after-the-fact (as prior to the inclusion of toddlers, I felt like the game had actually reverted to Sims 1 in going from baby straight to kid).
However, I'm still on the fence about the game visually to be honest and while I like the variety of plants we have in Sims 4 and how they actually will appear differently in some cases (banana trees versus say pear trees), the gardening skill and some other aspects of the game seem almost overwhelming to me at times or have me preferring the simplicity of Sims3 on that front (especially the issue of grafting plant A onto plant B to form plant C or various combinations, etc. to where I'm frequently having to alt-tab to look for a guide to figure things out). I also still play Sims 4, but admittedly tend to find myself playing Sims 3 more or just preferring it more.
Comments
@JoAnne65 - let me know how it goes! I think they are smiling a little less now on their own, but when they do smile, it is that wooden puppet thing that makes me cringe. And their eyebrows hitting their hairlines (well, not quite but . . .) - don't get me started - lol
A bit grumpy. But his looks are gone as soon as the smiling and eyebrow thing starts. It's just not him anymore. So I really hope that mod will make sure this is how he will look from now on.
Great pictures! I agree - he is an awesome looking guy. I have one Sim who looks a lot like Yanni in his younger days (he is a Level 10 Musician, too) and he is just gorgeous. However, the mouth and eyebrow thing make me want to swat him - lol - I even gave him the Gloomy trait to try and tone it down. However, as we know, the Sims 4 traits are easily over-ridden. Doggone game.
I think you misunderstood my point. (or I wasn't clear). I just wanted to say that in TS4, your sims' animations are based on their current mood. Which means, that even if their spouse died minutes ago and they are supposed to be super-sad, the second they walk into nicely decorated the room or take a "mood shower" they are all happy. And the animations that are associated with the happy emotion are player. In TS3, if something bad happens, there's nothing you can do about it until the moodlets are gone (which often take days).
Yes, I agree, the "small detail" animations are good, but the walks, for example, are horrible.
Over saturated, over goofy, over limited in graphic detail to the world, over emotional, over blurry, over controlled by EA, over monitored by Origin, just.... not a good game no matter how much those Sims crazily smile at me. :blah:
I agree. So to sum it up, even if you think the individual animations seem 'more real' (which in itself is an opinion I don't completely share), they are 'put together' in gameplay in an extremely unrealistic way that is quite annoying and immersion-breaking to some players.
Yes, overly everything. DNW.
Where are we going, and why am I in this hand basket?!
Sorry! I just wanted to post some pics!
http://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=lisasc360
My stories on this site:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/991317/my-sims-stories/p1?new=1
Sims 4 emotions states make me want to sing Hot N cold. I feel that Sims 4 sims were to happy for their own good.
In my opinion I think that these sorts of comparisons often miss the mark. In the Sims 3, you have a wide array of textures to work with. The person who made this sims 3 comparison photo was trying to make it as close to the Sims 4 as possible. As a result it looks as if the sims are working out in a dark bathroom, where as in the Sims 4 pic they are clearly working out in a dark modern style gym. There are a large variety of other wallpapers and CAStyling they could have done to make a more accurate comparison. The Sims 3 and the Sims 4 have completely different art styles. The sims 4 has a hand painted look to the textures, the Sims 3 doesn't. The person who made the Sims 3 comp. pic is trying to fit it the Sims 3 into the Sims 4 look and it doesn't work.
Without a doubt though, the Sims 3 does contain higher quality and often more detailed object meshes.
edit:
Just for fun I did up another interpretation of the Sims 3 comparison pic. for illustration. Fair or not, I don't know.
The funny thing is, that this kind of comparisons were made in the beginning, when the lighting in Sims 4 indoors was terrible. I don't know where the Sims 4 picture used here came from, but I doubt it was an actual sceenshot by a fan. There are also comparison pictures comparing render sims to very bad Sims 3 sims with poor lighting. For some reason people felt the need to do that back then.
I don't think the Sims 4 was from a fan either. I think it's an EA one. I sort of remember a gym picture floating around before the game was released. I think this was it. Although, this is the first time I've seen it compared with Sims 3 or rather trying to make the Sims 3 look like the Sims 4.
It's also kind of like building comparisons. They show a decent looking house from the Sims 4 and the show a box that looks like it's been in a train wreck from sims 3 and say "see, S4 building is way better."
It's fine with me if one prefers one game over the other. They should just have fun.
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"Look kid, we both know I'm a wolf in a nightgown and not your grandma. Can't we just fast forward through this part?"
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@petalbot Indeed. And I'm more interested in the way the game plays than how it looks anyway. When I see old pictures of my game I can't imagine I wasn't bothered by the low quality (I played medium settings back then). And yet, I wasn't. And still, there are details in Sims 3 that bother me, but there are also aesthetic details in 4 that bother me. Don't really care when I play though, there's also a lot of beauty in there.
Right now, I care a lot about how my game looks - with a bunch of gorgeous, high-quality pics from other people around. But I played the game on low settings for quite a while, 2010 to 2012, and I really didn't care. I was just playing my own little game. Only when I discovered the whole community behind it and saw people with gorgeous pictures I felt somehow weird for playing with crap and started giving a look at the settings. I think it's for a big part the pressure to have a good-looking game, while in fact, it doesn't really matter. My old pictures may make me nauseous but I had fun back then at least, with for a big part only the base game, pets and world adventures. The gameplay was already enough.
Ultimate cc-list
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I like making (and watching) the beautiful screenshots (and I love the looks of the game on highest settings, I love how it sometimes literally takes my breath away), but at the end of the day it is not why I play it. Which is probably why I get more tickled when I see someone posting somewhat regular pictures that expose enjoying the gameplay than when I see an amazing photoshopped screenshot with a lot of CC, or why I can't really get into stories that use a lot of poseplayer. I enjoy it most when I can feel the game behind it.
I did enjoy downloading and exploring custom worlds (I really miss that), and did have my share of fun with TS3 (and some things from it I still miss), but I think TS4 has been easier for me to get into.
My favourite of the saga would be TS2 though, and I will always love TS1.
@JoAnne65 - I feel exactly the same way.
I played Sims 4 the whole weekend (I talked myself into buying Get to work, because I wanted the aliens
My studio: http://www.thesims3.com/mypage/WatrDragon/mystudio
Just assume that every edit I make is because of typos.
I feel much the same way. I thought the Sims 4 create a sim demo was fun at first. It was cool to be able to have more control over body shape. After making a few sims though, I got board. I have the Sims 4, but I have not created or desired to create another sim since the demo. I just play with the Sims I made in the demo whenever I load up the Sims 4. Putting in hair highlights, adjusting the make up how I wanted it and having total creative control over the wardrobe with create a style is more important to me than being able to create a sim with a giant butt. A sim is more than their body parts after all.
Anyway after 7 years, the Sims 3 has never ceased to inspire me. It feels so free compared to the Sims 4.
However, now I'm still in love with Sims 3, especially the customization options and everything it's had to offer, especially with gameplay. As someone who also loves to build/decorate, one of the things I was admittedly disappointed with Sims 4 has been what feels like a move back to Sims 2 in the area of customization and preset options as well as the reintroduction of loading screens when we had this wonderful open world to play in with Sims 3. I admittedly hate all the rendering and length of time it can take per object/lot in Sims3, however, and am wondering if that was the reason behind the shift back to how things were before?
With Sims 4, I admittedly had a similar view of my initial response to Sims 3, yet unlike 3 I'm finding that I'm still having a harder time warming up as much to it as I did with Sims 3 even after all this time (in comparison, I remember fully getting onboard with Sims 3 probably around the release of the first expansion pack).
I do like the way Sims 4 handles toddlers and the ability to alter the height of the room/wall height, but also feel that toddlers and even swimming pools should have been part of the game when it shipped--not things we've had to wait for patches for well-after-the-fact (as prior to the inclusion of toddlers, I felt like the game had actually reverted to Sims 1 in going from baby straight to kid).
However, I'm still on the fence about the game visually to be honest and while I like the variety of plants we have in Sims 4 and how they actually will appear differently in some cases (banana trees versus say pear trees), the gardening skill and some other aspects of the game seem almost overwhelming to me at times or have me preferring the simplicity of Sims3 on that front (especially the issue of grafting plant A onto plant B to form plant C or various combinations, etc. to where I'm frequently having to alt-tab to look for a guide to figure things out). I also still play Sims 4, but admittedly tend to find myself playing Sims 3 more or just preferring it more.