Post screenshots or videos of a cherished memory you've had playing the Sims. Let us reminisce the 21 yrs of the Sims.
For me, it would be when I was around 8-10 yrs, waking up early in the morning, booting up that Windows 95/XP, plopping that scratched up CD, launching the game and listening to the amazing soundtracks composed. My favorite go to families to play were the Goths and the Newbies. I enjoyed every expansion pack, but my favorite top 3 were Makin Magic, Hot Date, and Vacation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKnkQdsITUE
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My favourite packs from each iteration are:
Sims 1: Vacation, and Unleashed.
Sims 2: University, and Pets.
Sims 3: Pets (the only pack I had, but Showtime sounds like it would have been a lot of fun).
Sims 4: Island Living, and Snowy Escape.
https://youtube.com/channel/UCaj9o4hycNSPy8U1Ip0OCFA/videos
At first i always played as Bella Goth. Always! For years
My favourite expansion pack was hot date. I played that one so much! My Bella was always on the disco having drinks and dancing in the dancing cage 😅
When TS3 came out I was disappointed that I would "lose" everything I had created on TS2. I wondered whether I should continue playing with both. But as soon as I got it and started playing with it, I lost all interest in TS2, the new gameplay being so good. I loved the open world and all the new features.
I had 5 EPs, World Adventures, Ambitions, Generation, Pets and finally Seasons, and I loved them, especially WA. Until Pets came out, most of my game play revolved around WA and exploring locations in Egypt/China/France. There was a quest in France that I never completed - but I completed all the ones in the other locations. After Pets came out most of my gameplay revolved around creating cool pets and roaming around with them (they were playable characters back then), in search of collectibles. I also loved the horses and I remember you could befriend a unicorn from the wild horse herd. The Open world, playable animals, exotic travel locations and the quests you could undertake there, and the jobs from Ambitions (especially the firefighter) were my favourite game features. They are definitely the gameplay elements I miss.
I kept playing until about 2012, which was when I stopped using a PC and got a Mac. The PC broke down and I lost everything. Then I stopped playing any Sims game until earlier this year, when I got TS4 for Mac. I took advantage of the bundles offer first, and the 1/2 price discount these past days and so got a few expansions and gamepacks. Snowy Escape and Seasons are my favourite packs.
Sims 2 the same deal, and it remains my favorite of the series for too many reasons to list. It's, for me, more immersive and flexible in what I can do.
Sims 3 was a later start and couldn't really get into it. Lots of great features, but loss of the album and look-alike sims really dampened the enthusiasm. Still have it, and go back on occasion.
Sims 4 Got it early on, believing/hoping it would be a blend of the best of 2 & 3. Sorely disappointed in that, but play from time to time depending on mood. Lots of great features, and beautiful to look at, but shallow, boring, and still no proper album.
This is when I got Dina and Nina to go on a winter vacation along with their boyfriends Malcom Landgraab and the chinese food delivery guy:
And here are the Pleasants at a graduation party:
I thought the pets, in particular those cats, and the realistic way they looked and behaved, were the cutest things I'd ever seen. I didn't care a jot about the college professor. I would fire up the game and zoom in on that house, and spend hours simply watching the antics of those cats.
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Discussion interests added a lot of depth to the game as well. This made it even more challenging to be social, as well as basically being ostracized if you had not socialized with someone in too long. (Not to mention, every single job required more and more friend references to get promoted, which added a huge amount of challenge to the game.)
Crafters: We need more crafting and activity objects. The woodworking table has been around since the beginning. The artist's easel has been around since the beginning. The diving tank from Sims 1 made a return in much better form in Sims 3. Makin Magic is probably the pack I miss most right now. Bookshelves that actually hid objects, the quirky hole to jump into that reminded me of Beetlejuice, and the vendor challenges and magic crafting. Sims 3 brought back the magic crafting through the alchemy skill. The knitting and embroidery are a good start on Sims 4.
Music and staff responsiveness: The staff actively acted on and implemented player suggestions, and the lead time on those was not huge. The music was absolutely wonderful, and still is. I would say I probably played the game for the music a lot of the time. The neighborhood music was a welcome sound after almost overloading my computer with custom content and hacked objects (ie object mods), then waiting about a half hour for everything to load up. Not to even mention the scary music when a raccoon was coming for your trash or a burglar was about to break into your Sim's home. It was actually even kinda cute having Clair the bear try to eat from your can or steal the honey, getting stung in the process more often than not.
Then there is the stuff developers don't seem to be able to get away with anymore...slot machines for Sims, gorillas jumping out of cakes, and the like.
CARS were a huge new feature in Sims 2; they never brought back the feature to repair and fix up a car, to watch your Sim sit in a car and drive off the lot, or even a new woohoo spot in the car (aka Titanic love scene). I am sad that we have not even seen a drivable car for Sims 4.
I also miss that in Sims 2, you could choose whether or not to buy the cell phone, handheld gaming device, or mp3 player from the kiosk, and it wasn't just permanently attached and visible.
The Sims 2 did reservable apartment spaces, dorm rooms, and hotels right. They made the door only admit Sims that had been assigned to it by default (except the dorm rooms that were open to all visitors till they were locked...resulting in other university Sims sleeping in your Sims bed and hogging the computer in the room). They even made buildable elevators with the animations done right (door closes THEN Sim disappears inside the elevator rabbithole, not disappearing before the door closes as the player watches them vanish into thin air without an invisibility potion).
The Sims 2 store also had great objects like toddler swings, castle walls/doors/floors/furnishings, that I would love to see return. I was a bit sad not to see those things all included in the Sims 2 ultimate after the Sims 2 site and its store were long gone.
The "Unsavory Charlatan" pickpocket added challenge to the vacation pack for Sims 2, since no money meant vacation cut short. I also loved the local gestures and dances and greetings and collections.
The developers in Sims 2 still included great freebies just for visiting the website, just like in Sims 1 they did. Freebies like a downloadable holiday carol, Windows wallpapers, even random furnishings or Sims. Sadly, once Sims 3 came along, there was almost no more free content except what was offered through the Sims 3 store, and the Sims 3 freebies were almost without exception, either holiday stuff or branded sponsored content.
I loved the junkyard and the huge venues for performers, and the horse ranches, but was sad that I could not fit all of these in the same world, nor could I have my Sims travel between the worlds.
Speaking of performers, the Sims 3 brought fame back (from Sims Superstar but reworked), and the venues depended on the performers fame.
I miss the personality issues with the different supernatural types - the fairy tendency to play tricks, the witches conjuring apples that matched their reputation, and so on. (I had a witch Sim whose reputation took a huge hit after she cast fireball on one zombie (and accidentally ending up with a gravestone in the yard) because she was tired of them munching on her garden. So I used a freeze spell instead on another zombie, but the more zombies she cast spells on, the more poisonous her apples.) I love the gothy stuff that Sims 3 supernatural added. Sims 4 vampire pack was empty compared to the Sims 3 supernatural pack, and werewolves and fairies have not even made a return in Sims 4. I also seriously miss the graveyard venue and its chance cards for visiting the crypt.
The underwater diving experience was unparallelled, as were the hidden islands to discover, and I am still hoping those might come back to Sims 4 or make a reappearance in Sims 5.
I miss actually being able to watch the cars, scooters, and bicycles drive around town on the town map, or even make my Sim jog for miles around the town, especially in a World Adventures setting. (That really should have increased their fitness skill, but did not even come close, nor did they get sore muscles from jogging.) However, you still never saw the Sim actually get IN to the car, which kind of broke the immersion.
I also seriously miss the hidden object game that was added during the last year or so of development on the loading screen of the game, after loading the world, but before loading a household. Maybe its meta, but I like seeing games IN games, especially minigames.
My Sims phase wasn't very long, though. I know my younger sister played it while I was at university, and she still has her copy of TS2 displayed on a bookshelf.
I rediscovered The Sims this spring, when I was looking for a new game to enjoy while another school year wound down. I'm a teacher now, rather than a student, but the stresses are still real! I bought TS3 first, and then TS4. My daughter and, now, my wife enjoy joining in, so it's become a family pastime.
So my Sims story is a long one, but there's a two-decade break in the middle.
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Yevsas mairzeemo!
Sims 1: I do remember being like 8 or 9 and at a church event at someone's house and all the girls were playing sims and I found it sooo cool. My mom didn't like video games and wouldn't buy it for me cause I was too young.
Sims 2: When I was 10 I met my childhood bestie and she owned Sims 2 and we created our crushes and ourselves, I mean we were 10 lol of course we did! I was never good at building so I remember she would build all my homes for me. What is absolutely HILARIOUS is her mom took sims 2 away from us for like 2-3 years I think because sims woohooed AHAH we didn't hide that they did that but when she found out she was horrified lol even tho we explained like we see nothing lol.
Sims 3: Finally her mom let us play again and by this time sims 3 was out. We were animal obsessed so we had lots of fun with horses and dogs. Years later I finally got it for myself and started a blog (That I sadly can't find) and I remember only having the pet's expansion pack and the generation's expansion pack. But with sims 3 you had sooo much gameplay like I wanted other packs but I just didn't have the money.
Sims 4: I literally posted to my Instagram the day I got sims 4 in the mail. I was soooo excited! But very bummed they took away toddlers especially since I wanted to blog them. I started a simstagram and got to 1,000 followers but then college got crazy and I moved out and no longer had a computer to use. I was also blogging and had about 5-10 regular readers.
Now-I just got a mac from a friend and I am finally playing sims after not being able to for about 3 or 4 years. I have started blogging again, maybe I'll restart my intsa- see if my 1,000 followers remember me lol and I just started a youtube channel! Lots on my plate but Sims is such a fun way to destress and I still love it despite the improvements needed.
Sims 1/ Bustin' Out
Sims 2
Sims 3
Sims 4
For me every 'generation' of Sims has a special place in my heart for different reasons which is why I don't care to really rank any of them, they all have their pros and cons to me. And it's nice that the forum is a (mostly) chill place to chat about and share my love for the series with others. I think it's that community aspect that keeps me playing the game because it's fun to chat about it and then spam everyone with screenshots later on, and to see what everyone does with their games, stories, the premades etc.
https://youtu.be/D0BKHn6xty8
I also had Bustin Out. I have completed the Bust Out mode 100%, mainly through the usage of cheats.
I did also get the base game on PC, and enjoyed it, but would have liked it more if I'd had the expansions. I mostly used the klapaucius cheat and built giant houses with expensive furniture!
Sims 2: I've played it on PC and PS2. I don't really like Sims 2 PS2 much because the Sims are kinda ugly IMO. Sims 2 Pets and Sims 2 Castaway is better in regard to how the Sims actually look. Again, I used cheats a lot, because I'm that kind of player
With regards to the PC version, I finally bought Apartment Life and Glamour Life Stuff last year, completing my collection. I also only started using mods last year, although I'd had CC before. Now I'm like "why didn't I use mods before???"
Sims 3: I have all the EPs and most of the SPs (not Diesel, 70s 80s 90s or Movie). I like all the expansions for various reasons... I love having a Sim master martial arts, smash space rock blocks and becoming rich off selling cut Tiberium gems Again, I only started using NRAAS last year although I'd been playing for years before that.
Sims 4: I didn't get it until January 2016, apparently. Pools were there but toddlers weren't. This is becoming repetitive, but I didn't really use CC/mods until last year, because I thought patches would mess them up. Then someone on here reassured me that CC (hairs/clothes) don't get broken. So, I started downloading! The only mod I have that needs regular updates is MCCC, but I can deal with that and I appreciate being able to change certain things with it.
I have nearly all the packs; the only ones I don't have are Vampires, StrangerVille, Journey to Batuu, Dream Home Decorator and Moschino Stuff. I'm just not particularly interested in them, although I could possibly get DHD and Moschino in the future - I took a while to decide if I wanted Eco Lifestyle, but I do have it now and don't regret it. It's not my favourite, but I like what it adds.
Like others, I don't really have a favourite iteration, and enjoy Sims 2/3/4 for different reasons.