and in sims 3 you are also limited to where your sims can go, in every game there are limits as to where you can go lol, it isnt like the world is unlimited and you can go in everything forever and ever and ever
True but it is a fact that TS3 has the largest play area of any Sims game to date since 2000. It is a fact that TS4 restricted that play area to a small section constantly breaking the immersion by going back to 2000 and 2004 with loading screens (old technology). That's odd to me for a game that was released in 2014 that is supposed to be the sequel of TS3 hence the number FOUR. But it seems someone lost count and decided it was best to take all the undesirable parts of TS1/TS2 and tried to incorporate TSO but had a change of plan and mash that all together into what I view as a monstrosity.
“What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter”
and in sims 3 you are also limited to where your sims can go, in every game there are limits as to where you can go lol, it isnt like the world is unlimited and you can go in everything forever and ever and ever
True but it is a fact that TS3 has the largest play area of any Sims game to date since 2000. It is a fact that TS4 restricted that play area to a small section constantly breaking the immersion by going back to 2000 and 2004 with loading screens (old technology). That's odd to me for a game that was released in 2014 that is supposed to be the sequel of TS3 hence the number FOUR. But it seems someone lost count and decided it was best to take all the undesirable parts of TS1/TS2 and tried to incorporate TSO but had a change of plan and mash that all together into what I view as a monstrosity.
But apparently TS4 is in an "alternate universe" despite the sequential number. Personally, that always seemed like a bit of a cop out to me. I don't mind loading screens, I still play TS2 and love it, as well as thinking that it has the best sims out of all of the games.They are a lot more intuitive than TS3 and any TS4 sims footage that I've seen.
I think another thing that bugs me about TS4 besides its hideous art style and dopey toilet humour, is the fact that everything is so oversized. WHY ? It isn't "cute" or "funny" to make everything so huge. It isn't whimsical. It's just ridiculous. And also the fact that the whole game seems virtually textureless. Everything looks so flat and dull.
@FloppyFish No. Because TS2 you can only play one lot at a time before hitting a loading screen. The same with TS1 and the same with TS4 except it seems ever so slightly expanded but nonetheless a tremendous downgrade from its predecessor. I'm not sure what you are referring to with creating worlds with unlimited lots when the topic at hand has to do with the play area. TS3 has literally the whole neighborhood as gameplay all at once. Like GTA and other open world games that do not use loading screens during gameplay but on a much smaller scale.
It would be so amazing to see what The Sims could be capable of but unfortunately, that doesn't seem likely. Oh well.
“What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter”
But apparently TS4 is in an "alternate universe" despite the sequential number. Personally, that always seemed like a bit of a cop out to me. I don't mind loading screens, I still play TS2 and love it, as well as thinking that it has the best sims out of all of the games.They are a lot more intuitive than TS3 and any TS4 sims footage that I've seen.
I think another thing that bugs me about TS4 besides its hideous art style and dopey toilet humour, is the fact that everything is so oversized. WHY ? It isn't "cute" or "funny" to make everything so huge. It isn't whimsical. It's just ridiculous. And also the fact that the whole game seems virtually textureless. Everything looks so flat and dull.
Edit - Fixed typos.
Alternate universe or not. What EA did is just plain wrong and it should have been a spin-off.
TS1/TS2 are both predecessors so I expect the latest installment to be even more impressive than the last. For me, TS3 is impressive though I wish it could have been better. TS4 clearly failed as it wasn't even trying in the first place which is obvious to continue the growing foundation and innovate the franchise.
It's been a long time since I've played TS2 and I don't remember much about their AI. However, I have spent a lot of time getting to know TS3 AI and there are many things undiscovered and unknown but most never dive that deep and just swim on the surface. It's why I'm so attached and fascinated with my Sims and their lives. The AI isn't perfect but most certainly does imitate human behavior than I ever was aware of initially.
Graphics...even Disney/Pixar movies have more textures and depth. The minimalist style for a 2014 expensive yet cheap game that will not add up for the asking price doesn't interest me. I'm still confused how the game looks less detailed than TS1/TS2/TS3 to me.
“What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter”
If you see this island in TS4, can you go right over to that island and explore the island? Probably not as it's just a fake backdrop.
This island has no lots to it. It's an island that the TS3 creators created so that we can take our Sims over to it to explore around on it and collect bugs, flowers or whatever spawners that the creators had placed over there and not just look at a backdrop wondering what could be over on that island. In TS3, we can travel over land that doesn't have lots on them unlike TS4 where the players Sims teleport from one lot to another lot in a blink of the eye.
Or if I was standing on the far bank of this lake and saw this abandoned house from over there, I can either swim across or run around the lake and stand right next to this house and walk around the outside of it. Can you do that in TS4?
Every game has backdrops. And now, you are no longer talking about the graphic style of the game. You are talking about worlds.
You clearly didn't read what I said about backdrops. EVERY GAME HAS THEM. Sims 3 has them. Sims 4 has them. Sims 2 has them. Sims 1 has them. Let me make this clear: There is nothing wrong with having backdrops in a game because every game has them. And I don't get the problem with "fake" backdrops. All backdrops are fake.
What people are getting at by saying "fake backdrops" is that TS3 featured scenery that was far more accessible as opposed to TS4.
Best example is Sunlit Tides.
A Sim in TS3 can go absolutely anywhere in that picture. In TS4, the volcano, and the majority of the land itself, would be nothing more than a 2D, hand-drawn backdrop.
This doesn't have much to do with graphics styles directly, perhaps indirectly when discussing the effects of backdrops and the equivalent, but I'd like to point out that there is another historical perspective not being mentioned here. In a former life, I was an avid SimCity player. Loved that game up through version 4 (let's not talk about the more recent iteration). In SC4, you could design your city, then drive through it as a sim, the entire thing, and inspect what you have done from the street level complete with traffic jams for which you the player were responsible by not having designed the road/transportation system better, the freedom of the open highway (if there was one), happy or unhappy sims all around you, etc. Didn't really have much to do with the evolution of the city overall, it was an offshoot from the real game engine, but I loved that feature and wasted all kinds of hours admiring (or frowning and pouting at) the places I or others created for our civilizations to live and how they changed over time.
TS3 followed along in that theme by allowing us to experience and to an extent control the entire world and its destiny, with all of it being simulated or at least the parts we can see into at once, from the vantage point of a sim. Many of us with mods are forever fussing over our worlds' economies and plans for future demographics, are the kids getting the training they need in the right kinds of schools for the next generation to take over, are there enough jobs of the right kinds to attract newcomers and keep native residents interested in staying around, etc. It's all make believe, The Sims (any version) isn't really a world economics game at all, inactive sims are so flexible and easygoing that they really don't care what kinds of jobs they have or don't have access to beyond maybe the occasional LTW, but there's just enough of that kind of thing to keep us amused and engaged in these worlds for years while we play and manage our own sims' lives.
Don't mind being corrected if I've got this wrong, but this kind of sims' eye view of a world feature and the illusion that we are guiding our worlds into whatever they become are just not there in TS4 and can't really be there because of the way its worlds are segmented. That kind of "loss" really hurts to those of us who appreciate and have been already spoiled by such features.
Graphics and art style are often confused. One thing's for sure: Sims 4 is not an advanced game in comparison to Sims 3 and even 2 when you put graphics aside. I haven't seen anyone yet who doesn't acknowledge Sims 2 in many ways has the superior animations in the franchise. The different route in many respects has been removing things and taking short cuts. The lighting indoors in the beginning was drama by the way. They fortunately improved that (and shadows falling through windows is beautiful) but it took them quite some time. Lighting outside is good, but why do shadows move in little shocks during the day when they had that totally under control in Sims 3?
This has nothing to do with art style though. That indeed is a different subject. But I think one can objectively point out issues with the art style as well. The way they have made features and characteristics of faces inferior to facial expressions is very poorly done and it's got nothing to do with cartoony. And someone mentioned the slouching postures. I have no idea why they did that, it's highly unattractive. It only suits Gaston Lagaffe.
And then there's this.
That's incomprehensible for a 2014 game.
Oh my god I died at that fruit bowl xD No way, I had never seen that.
I agree Sims 2 had the best animations. Sims 3 was lack luster in that department so Sims 4 improved in that department.
I don't know, I don't minde the slouching? And the gimmicky wacky faces and expressions. And the plastic hair. I like them, I know it was made on purpose and not for lack of ressources or skill. I know they meant for it to look a certain way and it works for me. Maybe because I was not expecting Sims 4 to look exactly like Sims 3. I was happy with the stylistic change.
And the game runs better and has a smoother look for sure.
Now that doesn't mean I think it's a better game. It's not (in my very objective opinion) and I think that almost a lot agree with me. Sims 3 is superior in a lot of ways, but I don't know if graphic style is one of them. I personally prefer it though.
But we should do like, a comparison post of pictures from TS3 and TS4; of the same objects or the same sims (as much as possible) in the same angle and similar lighting? And pics in both max settings and lowest settings on both games to really see the differences.
As for the fruit bowl, in one of them you can see the hand of a sim in the background. The difference in quality is strange to say the least.
The animations in Sims 4 are smoother than in the predecessors, in that respect the game has 2014 at its side, but very lack luster when you look closely. Many interactions have the very same animations and there is very little variety. Sims 3 animations basegame animations were lack luster (because there was so much copying from the predecessor and also that game suffered from shortcuts), but they ambundantly made up for that over the years when EP's were added. And of course Sims 4's 'suffer' from the same cartoony approach, that for me don't reflect real human nature. And the short cuts are even bigger than in Sims 3.
And topics like that have been made many many times already, in the TS 4 section A few pages back I compared sims.
(all three vanilla sims without any photoshopping)
I also did an animation comparison once, of making a phonecall (basegame by the way).
@FloppyFish the issue isn't wether there is a backdrop or not. Of course every game has a backdrops unless you are on an island like many of the TS3 where literally the only backdrop is ocean. The point is that in TS4 there is more backdrop than actual accessable area. On top of that areas that are accessable need a loading screen which is ridiculous. Even if you want to visit your neighbour's house that you can just walk to you still need a loading screen to load their house. My mobile phone (Samsung S5) can handle more open-worldish games than the Sims 4 currently is.
I get that they wanted to create a game that isn't as buggy as TS3 and make sure that everyone can play it especially casual gamers since those are most plenty, but they overdid it. There was no need to have so many loading screens or so many inaccessable areas. They wanted smaller worlds? Sure, no problem. I could understand that. But why a loading screen between every house and every part of the neighborhood? The worlds in TS4 are already a fraction of most TS3 worlds so they already toned down the risk of perfomance issues with that. I do think this is part of the graphics discussion btw because it's a matter of graphical quality wether you are able to have a fully open world without loading screens or a world with a loadingscreen behind every corner. I'm pretty sure that with the current technology it would have been more than possible to keep the Sims 4 neighbourhoods completely open with the current graphical quality of the game. Heck they probably could've even made the neighbourhoods twice as big. But I strongly suspect EA of the fact that they simply did not want to give the developers the budget to make this a reality.
I wish that one day there will be a brilliant modder who will create a 'no loading screens' mod just like the Open Cities mod in Skyrim.
Also since we kind of drifted into a more general 'what do you prefer TS4 or TS3' I want to point out the following (I said this before in a PM to someone):
Sims 3 was released in 2009 (july) and by the end of 2012 we had World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural and Seasons. We also had High-End Loft Stuff, Fast Lane Stuff, Outdoor Living Stuff, Town Life Stuff, Master Suite Stuff, Katy Perry's Sweet Treats and Diesel Stuff. Sims 4 (3 years old now) only has a fraction of all of this content by now. The expansions that they do have that correspond with a Sims 3 expansion are also way smaller than the Sims 3 version (for example ambitions). It's quite sad.
@Sk8rblaze I love Sunlit Tides and that is a great picture ,they will never understand.Anyone that ever owned or seen a fish aquarium can sum up sims 4.You are in a box and that sprawling neighborhood is just a decal on your eternal cage.In sims 3 all barriers are down the sticker is what is really there you can interact with that beautiful forest or run to that building,swim to that island way off in the distance.
I guess some people never tire of illusions.Ever see movies or cartoons where a guy gets stranded in a desert and after days without water starts to hallucinate AKA see mirages like a big oasis with water and palm trees.Then when he goes to drink he is eating sand.
@FloppyFishthe issue isn't wether there is a backdrop or not. Of course every game has a backdrops unless you are on an island like many of the TS3 where literally the only backdrop is ocean. The point is that in TS4 there is more backdrop than actual accessable area. On top of that areas that are accessable need a loading screen which is ridiculous. Even if you want to visit your neighbour's house that you can just walk to you still need a loading screen to load their house. My mobile phone (Samsung S5) can handle more open-worldish games than the Sims 4 currently is.
I get that they wanted to create a game that isn't as buggy as TS3 and make sure that everyone can play it especially casual gamers since those are most plenty, but they overdid it. There was no need to have so many loading screens or so many inaccessable areas. They wanted smaller worlds? Sure, no problem. I could understand that. But why a loading screen between every house and every part of the neighborhood? The worlds in TS4 are already a fraction of most TS3 worlds so they already toned down the risk of perfomance issues with that. I do think this is part of the graphics discussion btw because it's a matter of graphical quality wether you are able to have a fully open world without loading screens or a world with a loadingscreen behind every corner. I'm pretty sure that with the current technology it would have been more than possible to keep the Sims 4 neighbourhoods completely open with the current graphical quality of the game. Heck they probably could've even made the neighbourhoods twice as big. But I strongly suspect EA of the fact that they simply did not want to give the developers the budget to make this a reality.
I wish that one day there will be a brilliant modder who will create a 'no loading screens' mod just like the Open Cities mod in Skyrim.
Also since we kind of drifted into a more general 'what do you prefer TS4 or TS3' I want to point out the following (I said this before in a PM to someone):
Sims 3 was released in 2009 (july) and by the end of 2012 we had World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural and Seasons. We also had High-End Loft Stuff, Fast Lane Stuff, Outdoor Living Stuff, Town Life Stuff, Master Suite Stuff, Katy Perry's Sweet Treats and Diesel Stuff. Sims 4 (3 years old now) only has a fraction of all of this content by now. The expansions that they do have that correspond with a Sims 3 expansion are also way smaller than the Sims 3 version (for example ambitions). It's quite sad.
Top part? There are always more backdrops than playable areas. Maybe you mean there are more places to explore in Sims 3? But I don't even know for sure if that is true, because since you can't travel between worlds (and if you do you have risk of losing data), you are confined to the 90 or so Sunset Valley lots. I think if you buy TS4 EPS and GPS, you get over 90 lots to play with (including BG worlds).
But if you mean BACKDROPS: there are always more backdrops, at least in Sims games. I don't think the end of the world is just plain cardboard setting with houses and a sky. There are houses in backdrops, then house backdrops behind those, and it keeps going for a while. Same for in Sims 4.
And for the loading screen part? Well, that would slow down the game and add many issues. I don't think you still know how many issues there would be if there was just a SEMI-OPEN world. It isn't like there isn't extra lag and bugs because of even THAT. Just not as much as Open World. I guess right NOW, I want a closed world, but towards the end of the summer, I'm gonna want a nice, open one, because then I'll have a better computer
Bottom part? I honestly don't care about what Sims 3 had released. Sims 4 has different teams, and if 2 GPS = 1 EP, then Sims 4 is doing fine. I have never played ambitions, but I have seen a review for it; the careers don't seem as involved. I think there are 7, but some seem a bit repetitive and, again, not very involved, like the architect career. I would've liked if there were things like, for example, creating houses with blueprints with a whole team of people, etc. (Keep in mind, never played ambitions).
Graphics and art style are often confused. One thing's for sure: Sims 4 is not an advanced game in comparison to Sims 3 and even 2 when you put graphics aside. I haven't seen anyone yet who doesn't acknowledge Sims 2 in many ways has the superior animations in the franchise. The different route in many respects has been removing things and taking short cuts. The lighting indoors in the beginning was drama by the way. They fortunately improved that (and shadows falling through windows is beautiful) but it took them quite some time. Lighting outside is good, but why do shadows move in little shocks during the day when they had that totally under control in Sims 3?
This has nothing to do with art style though. That indeed is a different subject. But I think one can objectively point out issues with the art style as well. The way they have made features and characteristics of faces inferior to facial expressions is very poorly done and it's got nothing to do with cartoony. And someone mentioned the slouching postures. I have no idea why they did that, it's highly unattractive. It only suits Gaston Lagaffe.
And then there's this.
That's incomprehensible for a 2014 game.
Oh my god I died at that fruit bowl xD No way, I had never seen that.
I agree Sims 2 had the best animations. Sims 3 was lack luster in that department so Sims 4 improved in that department.
I don't know, I don't minde the slouching? And the gimmicky wacky faces and expressions. And the plastic hair. I like them, I know it was made on purpose and not for lack of ressources or skill. I know they meant for it to look a certain way and it works for me. Maybe because I was not expecting Sims 4 to look exactly like Sims 3. I was happy with the stylistic change.
And the game runs better and has a smoother look for sure.
Now that doesn't mean I think it's a better game. It's not (in my very objective opinion) and I think that almost a lot agree with me. Sims 3 is superior in a lot of ways, but I don't know if graphic style is one of them. I personally prefer it though.
But we should do like, a comparison post of pictures from TS3 and TS4; of the same objects or the same sims (as much as possible) in the same angle and similar lighting? And pics in both max settings and lowest settings on both games to really see the differences.
Sims 4:
Oh my god. That same horrendous smile in every single photo. I hate it so much, I still don't understand the reasoning behind the perma-smile. Ugh. Not to mention he doesn't even look like the same sim you created in CAS!
@46982459843 Trees move in 3 as well so....and the lighting in 4 may be "pretty" but it doesn't matter when you watch your sim walk through a patch of light and the light doesn't touch the sim AT ALL. Even 3 had this, come on....the only thing more advanced about the lighting is that it casts actual shapes and shadows through windows. That's it.
...you also have trees moving as if there's a wind blowing past them.
The Sims 3 has that, too. Is it more pronounced in The Sims 4 or something? I was always disappointed in TS3 how they advertised the wind dramatically making the trees blow around in storms, but the already present animation just sped up as opposed to actually becoming more pronounced like it should. =/
Regardless, it is was most certainly there in TS3. What I'd complain about in terms of plants in TS3 is the fact that they weren't rendered in 3D and the textures on them were really abysmal (don't get too close to the textures on those flowers! Yikes). I like TS4's plants better than TS3's, but I still think they could have made them a lot more detailed while keeping them as proper 3D models. TS4 is so lacking in detail. TS2's trees and plants have more detail.
I prefer TS3's more detailed meshes. TS4's objects are too blocky.
I wish TS4 had more realistic skies and clouds and grass and tree bark textures. I mainly like TS4's sims.
That was more than a year ago, but it's still mostly true.
I still mainly like TS4 sims. I have come to like the game graphics, but only because of modding out the things I don't like.
TS4's art style crossed over into My Sims territory for me with it's minimal detail meshes and textures and clay hair. EA bumped up the color saturation lighting effects, and tree and plant density to make it look pretty.
I guess it looks fine if you play at a distance from above and don't get to close to the objects, but I often play at sim level and I get up close to the objects.
Those were pictures from when I first got the game.
Since then I have replaced or added eyes, hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, grass, trees, Textures (especially TS2 textures), and objects with more detailed meshes and textures.
So I now have the game to a visual style I can enjoy.
I love putting TS2 textures into TS4.
And OMG!
This converted TS2 window in TS4 looks fantastic. I wish more TS4 objects matched this style--the right balance of thick and thin and not so blocky.
So my game is a hybrid of TS2, TS3, and TS4 textures and objects, along with custom content.
That's what it takes for me to like how TS4 looks.
However, how the game looks does not keep me playing.
I was very happy to finally receive toddlers in this game along with more family play with parenthood.
But even with that, I have set the game aside to play Cities: Skylines and the Final Fantasy XII remaster. I will probably pick up TS3 again.
I am now waiting for University and Seasons because I don't want to play without them.
@Sk8rblaze As you mentioned with TS3, Sims can go anywhere. I did see a few players moaning about 'distant terrain' but this merely shows a continuation of the grass and trees in worlds such as Sunset Valley,
The sad thing is it is not jut that there are loading screens between lots but I have heard of Sims teleporting around as well. Sims teleporting between lots, into elevators and just teleporting to work. So much for trying to get a Sim up early so they can get to school or work on time!
Thanks to the modders, we can travel between worlds using the Traveler Mod. You can also move to another world without losing relationships in the previous world. It's a shame that EA didn't allow proper travelling in TS3 to other worlds as they only allowed travelling to the World Adventure worlds and the University Life world. I know when Island Paradise came out, a lot of players had wished that they had enabled proper travelling between any worlds so that we could visit the IP world and then go back to the home world. And when Into the Future came out, not only can we visit Oasis Landings, we can also buy a house there and live and still travel back to the home world. It is a shame that EA didn't do what some other games have done when it comes to mods by adding the concept of those mods to their games so that the people who don't use mods can still get pretty much the same benefits. Take for an example, World of Warcraft had done just that with some of the mods that people use in the game such as the Mailbox mod that allows the player to take all of the mail at once and not piece by piece.
When I play TS3, I feel like I'm playing with a table top diorama where I can move the people to any part of the map and have them explore that area. When I see scenery screenshots from TS4, I feel like the Sims are in a shoe box, you know the ones where someone has either printed off nice scenery shots or cut out scenery shots and pasted to the back of the box and then added the little trees, rocks, cars, etc to try to give it a 3D effect.
And yes, TS3 may have their boundaries as well but at least if my Sim is at home in the backyard and looking out over the lay of the land and spots a nice mountain top in the background and rolls a wish to go climb that mountain top, then I can send my Sim to go climb that mountain and then turn around a take pictures of the town below without running into a wall. And even if after my sim has climbed that mountain top and does hit a wall once up top, at least my sim was able to get that far to climb up there. Plus I didn't have to teleport my sim to the mountain as she would be able to stop at the fields that isn't classified as a residential or community lot to literally smell the flowers...
I play World of Warcraft which came out in 2004 and it has an open world to it. And yes, we do have boundaries to the game but for the most part, but you can travel all over the world and explore it properly without having loading screens to get from one section of the map to another. The only loading screens that WoW has is when a player enters into a dungeon/instance/battlegrounds or when players hearth back to an inn in the game.
Those look pretty neat. I wish someone would mod them for The Sims 3 as well. I looked around for the creator and they have made a lot of these sorts of plants that have detail similar to TS3, but they're actually rendered in 3D. I want them in TS3 (and honestly, they look like they'd fit much better with TS3's style than TS4's):
I will never not be bothered by the non-3D plants in TS3.
Oh my god. That same horrendous smile in every single photo. I hate it so much, I still don't understand the reasoning behind the perma-smile. Ugh. Not to mention he doesn't even look like the same sim you created in CAS!
@46982459843 Trees move in 3 as well so....and the lighting in 4 may be "pretty" but it doesn't matter when you watch your sim walk through a patch of light and the light doesn't touch the sim AT ALL. Even 3 had this, come on....the only thing more advanced about the lighting is that it casts actual shapes and shadows through windows. That's it.
@xitneverendss your comment of "same horrendous smile" jogged my memory. I think I've seen that "horrendous smile" before and it only looks good on one character...
Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~
@Namaya92 One of the most surprising things is that Sims 4 absolutely doesn't have less bugs than Sims 3. And where in Sims 3 they are pretty beatable, in Sims 4 they hit every player and there are no solutions or work arounds. One thing's for sure: EA is more active in fixing them in patches than they were for TS3.
@FloppyFish Did you ever play Sims 3? There are no houses in the backdrops, just empty mountains. And as for the careers, I have played both Ambitions and GTW. I like how there are colleagues around in Sims 4, but as for gameplay and being repetative they are completely comparable (lineair). And many of the actions in Ambitions are more spectaculair (ghosthunters and firefighters).
@xitneverendss The phonecall in Sims 4 is emotion based, this guy is happy. When they have a different emotion, the phonecall looks different, but with as little variety in their facial expression as here. The sims look lively and so do the animations because they jump around, but that's really an illusion. And indeed, it's the same guy and he doesn't look anything like the way I created him, which irritates me to no end in the game. People can cheer CAS all they like (and CAS does come with improvements), I don't play the game in CAS.
@JoAnne65 I'd let floppyfish be, I read his reply to my post and he's just trolling us because it's pretty clear he doesn't know anything about TS3 lol. If you base your opinion on reviews instead of actually having played the game then I won't take you seriously. Saying Ambitions is less involved than Get to Work is just hilarious. Get To Work added 3 careers. Play them one each and you're done with them. it's not even 10 hours of gameplay.
@JoAnne65 I'd let floppyfish be, I read his reply to my post and he's just trolling us because it's pretty clear he doesn't know anything about TS3 lol. If you base your opinion on reviews instead of actually having played the game then I won't take you seriously. Saying Ambitions is less involved than Get to Work is just hilarious. Get To Work added 3 careers. Play them one each and you're done with them. it's not even 10 hours of gameplay.
I don't have an opinion on Ambitions. I never said if I thought it was good or bad or whatever. I just said what I noticed based off of the review. I personally don't care if Ambitions was "better" or whatever than Get to Work, I just care if Get to Work is good, and I think it is pretty good.
@JoAnne65 I have played Sims 3 but it was a very long time ago, sorry I didn't know it was just mountains xD As for Get to Work I thought the careers were fun, so it didn't matter to me that they were "repetitive". And personally I don't think the firefighter or ghosthunter look that fun but I have never tried them so I don't know. Lots of people say they were good thing so I guess they probably are. I wish I could play ambitions but Sims 3 stopped working on my computer so...
EDIT: I didn't even wanna discuss things like Ambitions because I don't have much of an opinion on it, and have not played it, but it seems like Sims 3 vs. Sims 4 is now the topic of the thread... that is disappointing.
Comments
True but it is a fact that TS3 has the largest play area of any Sims game to date since 2000. It is a fact that TS4 restricted that play area to a small section constantly breaking the immersion by going back to 2000 and 2004 with loading screens (old technology). That's odd to me for a game that was released in 2014 that is supposed to be the sequel of TS3 hence the number FOUR. But it seems someone lost count and decided it was best to take all the undesirable parts of TS1/TS2 and tried to incorporate TSO but had a change of plan and mash that all together into what I view as a monstrosity.
TS3 Open Seamless World
TS4 World littered with loading screens constantly interrupting gameplay
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter”
Technically don't Sims 3 and Sims 2 tie with that? You can create your own worlds with unlimited lots, right?
I think another thing that bugs me about TS4 besides its hideous art style and dopey toilet humour, is the fact that everything is so oversized. WHY ? It isn't "cute" or "funny" to make everything so huge. It isn't whimsical. It's just ridiculous. And also the fact that the whole game seems virtually textureless. Everything looks so flat and dull.
Edit - Fixed typos.
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It would be so amazing to see what The Sims could be capable of but unfortunately, that doesn't seem likely. Oh well.
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter”
Alternate universe or not. What EA did is just plain wrong and it should have been a spin-off.
TS1/TS2 are both predecessors so I expect the latest installment to be even more impressive than the last. For me, TS3 is impressive though I wish it could have been better. TS4 clearly failed as it wasn't even trying in the first place which is obvious to continue the growing foundation and innovate the franchise.
It's been a long time since I've played TS2 and I don't remember much about their AI. However, I have spent a lot of time getting to know TS3 AI and there are many things undiscovered and unknown but most never dive that deep and just swim on the surface. It's why I'm so attached and fascinated with my Sims and their lives. The AI isn't perfect but most certainly does imitate human behavior than I ever was aware of initially.
Well, I think why everything is so big in TS4 is to compensate for everything it lacks. I seem to get reminded of this joke.
Graphics...even Disney/Pixar movies have more textures and depth. The minimalist style for a 2014 expensive yet cheap game that will not add up for the asking price doesn't interest me. I'm still confused how the game looks less detailed than TS1/TS2/TS3 to me.
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter”
What people are getting at by saying "fake backdrops" is that TS3 featured scenery that was far more accessible as opposed to TS4.
Best example is Sunlit Tides.
A Sim in TS3 can go absolutely anywhere in that picture. In TS4, the volcano, and the majority of the land itself, would be nothing more than a 2D, hand-drawn backdrop.
TS3 followed along in that theme by allowing us to experience and to an extent control the entire world and its destiny, with all of it being simulated or at least the parts we can see into at once, from the vantage point of a sim. Many of us with mods are forever fussing over our worlds' economies and plans for future demographics, are the kids getting the training they need in the right kinds of schools for the next generation to take over, are there enough jobs of the right kinds to attract newcomers and keep native residents interested in staying around, etc. It's all make believe, The Sims (any version) isn't really a world economics game at all, inactive sims are so flexible and easygoing that they really don't care what kinds of jobs they have or don't have access to beyond maybe the occasional LTW, but there's just enough of that kind of thing to keep us amused and engaged in these worlds for years while we play and manage our own sims' lives.
Don't mind being corrected if I've got this wrong, but this kind of sims' eye view of a world feature and the illusion that we are guiding our worlds into whatever they become are just not there in TS4 and can't really be there because of the way its worlds are segmented. That kind of "loss" really hurts to those of us who appreciate and have been already spoiled by such features.
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The animations in Sims 4 are smoother than in the predecessors, in that respect the game has 2014 at its side, but very lack luster when you look closely. Many interactions have the very same animations and there is very little variety. Sims 3 animations basegame animations were lack luster (because there was so much copying from the predecessor and also that game suffered from shortcuts), but they ambundantly made up for that over the years when EP's were added. And of course Sims 4's 'suffer' from the same cartoony approach, that for me don't reflect real human nature. And the short cuts are even bigger than in Sims 3.
And topics like that have been made many many times already, in the TS 4 section
(all three vanilla sims without any photoshopping)
I also did an animation comparison once, of making a phonecall (basegame by the way).
Sims 3:
Sims 4:
I get that they wanted to create a game that isn't as buggy as TS3 and make sure that everyone can play it especially casual gamers since those are most plenty, but they overdid it. There was no need to have so many loading screens or so many inaccessable areas. They wanted smaller worlds? Sure, no problem. I could understand that. But why a loading screen between every house and every part of the neighborhood? The worlds in TS4 are already a fraction of most TS3 worlds so they already toned down the risk of perfomance issues with that. I do think this is part of the graphics discussion btw because it's a matter of graphical quality wether you are able to have a fully open world without loading screens or a world with a loadingscreen behind every corner. I'm pretty sure that with the current technology it would have been more than possible to keep the Sims 4 neighbourhoods completely open with the current graphical quality of the game. Heck they probably could've even made the neighbourhoods twice as big. But I strongly suspect EA of the fact that they simply did not want to give the developers the budget to make this a reality.
I wish that one day there will be a brilliant modder who will create a 'no loading screens' mod just like the Open Cities mod in Skyrim.
Also since we kind of drifted into a more general 'what do you prefer TS4 or TS3' I want to point out the following (I said this before in a PM to someone):
Sims 3 was released in 2009 (july) and by the end of 2012 we had World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural and Seasons. We also had High-End Loft Stuff, Fast Lane Stuff, Outdoor Living Stuff, Town Life Stuff, Master Suite Stuff, Katy Perry's Sweet Treats and Diesel Stuff. Sims 4 (3 years old now) only has a fraction of all of this content by now. The expansions that they do have that correspond with a Sims 3 expansion are also way smaller than the Sims 3 version (for example ambitions). It's quite sad.
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I guess some people never tire of illusions.Ever see movies or cartoons where a guy gets stranded in a desert and after days without water starts to hallucinate AKA see mirages like a big oasis with water and palm trees.Then when he goes to drink he is eating sand.
Enjoy your sand Sims 4 players.
That's probably pretty much it.
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Top part? There are always more backdrops than playable areas. Maybe you mean there are more places to explore in Sims 3? But I don't even know for sure if that is true, because since you can't travel between worlds (and if you do you have risk of losing data), you are confined to the 90 or so Sunset Valley lots. I think if you buy TS4 EPS and GPS, you get over 90 lots to play with (including BG worlds).
But if you mean BACKDROPS: there are always more backdrops, at least in Sims games. I don't think the end of the world is just plain cardboard setting with houses and a sky. There are houses in backdrops, then house backdrops behind those, and it keeps going for a while. Same for in Sims 4.
And for the loading screen part? Well, that would slow down the game and add many issues. I don't think you still know how many issues there would be if there was just a SEMI-OPEN world. It isn't like there isn't extra lag and bugs because of even THAT. Just not as much as Open World. I guess right NOW, I want a closed world, but towards the end of the summer, I'm gonna want a nice, open one, because then I'll have a better computer
Bottom part? I honestly don't care about what Sims 3 had released. Sims 4 has different teams, and if 2 GPS = 1 EP, then Sims 4 is doing fine. I have never played ambitions, but I have seen a review for it; the careers don't seem as involved. I think there are 7, but some seem a bit repetitive and, again, not very involved, like the architect career. I would've liked if there were things like, for example, creating houses with blueprints with a whole team of people, etc. (Keep in mind, never played ambitions).
Oh my god. That same horrendous smile in every single photo. I hate it so much, I still don't understand the reasoning behind the perma-smile. Ugh. Not to mention he doesn't even look like the same sim you created in CAS!
@46982459843 Trees move in 3 as well so....and the lighting in 4 may be "pretty" but it doesn't matter when you watch your sim walk through a patch of light and the light doesn't touch the sim AT ALL. Even 3 had this, come on....the only thing more advanced about the lighting is that it casts actual shapes and shadows through windows. That's it.
The Sims 3 has that, too. Is it more pronounced in The Sims 4 or something? I was always disappointed in TS3 how they advertised the wind dramatically making the trees blow around in storms, but the already present animation just sped up as opposed to actually becoming more pronounced like it should. =/
Regardless, it is was most certainly there in TS3. What I'd complain about in terms of plants in TS3 is the fact that they weren't rendered in 3D and the textures on them were really abysmal (don't get too close to the textures on those flowers! Yikes). I like TS4's plants better than TS3's, but I still think they could have made them a lot more detailed while keeping them as proper 3D models. TS4 is so lacking in detail. TS2's trees and plants have more detail.
That was more than a year ago, but it's still mostly true.
I still mainly like TS4 sims. I have come to like the game graphics, but only because of modding out the things I don't like.
TS4's art style crossed over into My Sims territory for me with it's minimal detail meshes and textures and clay hair. EA bumped up the color saturation lighting effects, and tree and plant density to make it look pretty.
I guess it looks fine if you play at a distance from above and don't get to close to the objects, but I often play at sim level and I get up close to the objects.
Those were pictures from when I first got the game.
Since then I have replaced or added eyes, hair, eyebrows, eyelashes, grass, trees, Textures (especially TS2 textures), and objects with more detailed meshes and textures.
So I now have the game to a visual style I can enjoy.
I love putting TS2 textures into TS4.
And OMG!
This converted TS2 window in TS4 looks fantastic. I wish more TS4 objects matched this style--the right balance of thick and thin and not so blocky.
So my game is a hybrid of TS2, TS3, and TS4 textures and objects, along with custom content.
That's what it takes for me to like how TS4 looks.
However, how the game looks does not keep me playing.
I was very happy to finally receive toddlers in this game along with more family play with parenthood.
But even with that, I have set the game aside to play Cities: Skylines and the Final Fantasy XII remaster. I will probably pick up TS3 again.
I am now waiting for University and Seasons because I don't want to play without them.
The sad thing is it is not jut that there are loading screens between lots but I have heard of Sims teleporting around as well. Sims teleporting between lots, into elevators and just teleporting to work. So much for trying to get a Sim up early so they can get to school or work on time!
Thanks to the modders, we can travel between worlds using the Traveler Mod. You can also move to another world without losing relationships in the previous world. It's a shame that EA didn't allow proper travelling in TS3 to other worlds as they only allowed travelling to the World Adventure worlds and the University Life world. I know when Island Paradise came out, a lot of players had wished that they had enabled proper travelling between any worlds so that we could visit the IP world and then go back to the home world. And when Into the Future came out, not only can we visit Oasis Landings, we can also buy a house there and live and still travel back to the home world. It is a shame that EA didn't do what some other games have done when it comes to mods by adding the concept of those mods to their games so that the people who don't use mods can still get pretty much the same benefits. Take for an example, World of Warcraft had done just that with some of the mods that people use in the game such as the Mailbox mod that allows the player to take all of the mail at once and not piece by piece.
I so agree with @CravenLestat and @Sk8rblaze on their comments.
When I play TS3, I feel like I'm playing with a table top diorama where I can move the people to any part of the map and have them explore that area. When I see scenery screenshots from TS4, I feel like the Sims are in a shoe box, you know the ones where someone has either printed off nice scenery shots or cut out scenery shots and pasted to the back of the box and then added the little trees, rocks, cars, etc to try to give it a 3D effect.
And yes, TS3 may have their boundaries as well but at least if my Sim is at home in the backyard and looking out over the lay of the land and spots a nice mountain top in the background and rolls a wish to go climb that mountain top, then I can send my Sim to go climb that mountain and then turn around a take pictures of the town below without running into a wall. And even if after my sim has climbed that mountain top and does hit a wall once up top, at least my sim was able to get that far to climb up there. Plus I didn't have to teleport my sim to the mountain as she would be able to stop at the fields that isn't classified as a residential or community lot to literally smell the flowers...
I play World of Warcraft which came out in 2004 and it has an open world to it. And yes, we do have boundaries to the game but for the most part, but you can travel all over the world and explore it properly without having loading screens to get from one section of the map to another. The only loading screens that WoW has is when a player enters into a dungeon/instance/battlegrounds or when players hearth back to an inn in the game.
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Those look pretty neat. I wish someone would mod them for The Sims 3 as well. I looked around for the creator and they have made a lot of these sorts of plants that have detail similar to TS3, but they're actually rendered in 3D. I want them in TS3 (and honestly, they look like they'd fit much better with TS3's style than TS4's):
I will never not be bothered by the non-3D plants in TS3.
@xitneverendss your comment of "same horrendous smile" jogged my memory. I think I've seen that "horrendous smile" before and it only looks good on one character...
Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~
@FloppyFish Did you ever play Sims 3? There are no houses in the backdrops, just empty mountains. And as for the careers, I have played both Ambitions and GTW. I like how there are colleagues around in Sims 4, but as for gameplay and being repetative they are completely comparable (lineair). And many of the actions in Ambitions are more spectaculair (ghosthunters and firefighters).
@xitneverendss The phonecall in Sims 4 is emotion based, this guy is happy. When they have a different emotion, the phonecall looks different, but with as little variety in their facial expression as here. The sims look lively and so do the animations because they jump around, but that's really an illusion. And indeed, it's the same guy and he doesn't look anything like the way I created him, which irritates me to no end in the game. People can cheer CAS all they like (and CAS does come with improvements), I don't play the game in CAS.
(yes, trees move in TS3 as well)
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I don't have an opinion on Ambitions. I never said if I thought it was good or bad or whatever. I just said what I noticed based off of the review. I personally don't care if Ambitions was "better" or whatever than Get to Work, I just care if Get to Work is good, and I think it is pretty good.
@JoAnne65 I have played Sims 3 but it was a very long time ago, sorry I didn't know it was just mountains xD As for Get to Work I thought the careers were fun, so it didn't matter to me that they were "repetitive". And personally I don't think the firefighter or ghosthunter look that fun but I have never tried them so I don't know. Lots of people say they were good thing so I guess they probably are. I wish I could play ambitions but Sims 3 stopped working on my computer so...
EDIT: I didn't even wanna discuss things like Ambitions because I don't have much of an opinion on it, and have not played it, but it seems like Sims 3 vs. Sims 4 is now the topic of the thread... that is disappointing.