This is for those who have the EP or have played it only.
I have a lot of mixed feelings from reviews and comments, but honestly it's hard to have an opinion about an EP without having played it.
My birthday is at the end of the month and my mother has offered to buy the EP for me if I want for my birthday. Sooo, I need real opinions and thoughts. I've watched a few reviews and let's plays, but I want to know what the average simmer thinks, those of you who don't play the sims for your career/youtube channel.
So, for those of you who have played the new EP and/or have it what do you think of the EP? Do you love it, like it, dislike it, hate it, etc.?
Also if you can share at least one positive and negative thing about it, that would be really helpful though of course if you don't have one over the other then that's fine too.
Best EP so far.
Good
Apartments,beautful world,lots of objects to keep sims entertained,singing added etc.
Bad
Can't place apartments in other worlds.
Nowhere in San Myshuno to add lots unless you bulldoze something.
@pamy1124 My opinion is that I created 5 talk show rooms that looks like Ricki Lake from 1993-2004
Omg, you are too funny. You remind me of a friend I used to have when I was in the army lol
Btw, you should share pics of it. And if you have a blog where you share the stories of your sim's, I'd love to read it
@pamy1124 Right here I got it Ricki Lake - Season 1-3 Ricki Lake - Season 4-5 Ricki Lake - Season 6-8 Ricki Lake - Season 9 Ricki Lake - Season 10-11
I like the ninth season one better than the other version sets in Chelsea Studio Television New York City, New York 10001, see!
Do you do stories with that too?
I'll go with the first-third season one with my talk show host sim, but yes, I put it with a wedding party but I'll show a picture like this
Her name is Raven Lobo, she was married in my game, and she looks like a talk show host with a wedding dress! But she's a bit more like Ricki Lake
@pamy1124 My opinion is that I created 5 talk show rooms that looks like Ricki Lake from 1993-2004
Omg, you are too funny. You remind me of a friend I used to have when I was in the army lol
Btw, you should share pics of it. And if you have a blog where you share the stories of your sim's, I'd love to read it
@pamy1124 Right here I got it Ricki Lake - Season 1-3 Ricki Lake - Season 4-5 Ricki Lake - Season 6-8 Ricki Lake - Season 9 Ricki Lake - Season 10-11
I like the ninth season one better than the other version sets in Chelsea Studio Television New York City, New York 10001, see!
Do you do stories with that too?
I'll go with the first-third season one with my talk show host sim, but yes, I put it with a wedding party but I'll show a picture like this
Her name is Raven Lobo, she was married in my game, and she looks like a talk show host with a wedding dress! But she's a bit more like Ricki Lake
If you had a blog with an ongoing story I'd definitely read it. You should think of doing that.
I've been working and busy with school so I only got to play last night after work. So far I really like this EP, but am annoyed with a few things. There have been some game play glitches and also the festivals are too short. I missed a few already because I didn't know they were going on and they aren't very long. I wish they were a few sim days long.
Anyways, here are some screen shots of my play last night!
My sim is a vegetarian and ate meat. Afterwards he got sick and had stripes all over him! Idk if this is because of eating meat or what
Hanging out with some tourists lol
And this townie...
Trying to make a large mural
Look at the views my sim sees from his apartment window!!
I changed up my sims outfits. I do like some of the clothes but overall CAS is ok. I think I prefer build/buy mode over CAS this time.
Some fireworks after the only festival I could go to, The Hijinks festival
I've been working and busy with school so I only got to play last night after work. So far I really like this EP, but am annoyed with a few things. There have been some game play glitches and also the festivals are too short. I missed a few already because I didn't know they were going on and they aren't very long. I wish they were a few sim days long.
Anyways, here are some screen shots of my play last night!
My sim is a vegetarian and ate meat. Afterwards he got sick and had stripes all over him! Idk if this is because of eating meat or what
Hanging out with some tourists lol
And this townie...
Trying to make a large mural
Look at the views my sim sees from his apartment window!!
I changed up my sims outfits. I do like some of the clothes but overall CAS is ok. I think I prefer build/buy mode over CAS this time.
Some fireworks after the only festival I could go to, The Hijinks festival
Loving your sims XD I haven't had much of a chance to play either but I'll definitely try Also your thumbnail gif of the penguins is absolutely adorable. Idk if it's a thumbnail Sooo cute. *dies*
I've been working and busy with school so I only got to play last night after work. So far I really like this EP, but am annoyed with a few things. There have been some game play glitches and also the festivals are too short. I missed a few already because I didn't know they were going on and they aren't very long. I wish they were a few sim days long.
Anyways, here are some screen shots of my play last night!
My sim is a vegetarian and ate meat. Afterwards he got sick and had stripes all over him! Idk if this is because of eating meat or what
Hanging out with some tourists lol
And this townie...
Trying to make a large mural
Look at the views my sim sees from his apartment window!!
I changed up my sims outfits. I do like some of the clothes but overall CAS is ok. I think I prefer build/buy mode over CAS this time.
Some fireworks after the only festival I could go to, The Hijinks festival
Loving your sims XD I haven't had much of a chance to play either but I'll definitely try Also your thumbnail gif of the penguins is absolutely adorable. Idk if it's a thumbnail Sooo cute. *dies*
Thank you so much! I hope you get to play soon. It is fun. And thanks about the gif, lol. I saw it on tumblr and had to add it to my signature.
Lots of set dressing, little gameplay value. I like the lot traits, but wish they had more impact.
I do agree with this... I kinda feel like there isn't much to do except go eat and try to go to the festivals, which like I said I missed two of them. Also, yeah I don't notice a difference really with lot traits except my sim gained exp for doing skills faster with the homey trait... that's it.
So I've been playing this EP for a little while now and wanted to share my thoughts in case anyone comes across this thread and wants to know opinions before they purchase this game themselves:
The Good:
Beautiful, this city is absolutely beautiful. The landscape, build/buy mode - all of it is gorgeous
The festivals, when my sims can get to them, are really fun
I love the bubble blowers and the hookah/bubble machine
Karaoke is fun and nice to add to bars
I do love the art murals your sims can make
Did I say build/buy mode is amazing?! I really love a lot of the objects available. So much color and prettiness.
The idea of the lot traits - I'll talk more about this later
Interesting sims - I have noticed some different kinds of sims in town which I like
The food - though I wish there were more options per kind of food, I do love that there is tons of new cultural types of food available
The Bad:
The festivals are too short. My sims kept missing them because I didn't always have time to check the signs for when the next festival was going to start
The lot traits are very boring - and they don't do anything really. Like the lot trait to make earth quakes. I had that on almost every lot I had and not once did I get a single earth quake.
Apartments are very limiting. I like the idea of them but man do I feel limited with them.
The food stalls don't stay very long at all. They are constantly disappearing. Every time I go to one it leaves right after. So my sims family can not enjoy the food stalls together.
The careers - they aren't for me I guess. I don't find them very interesting or fun
Overall, the game feels lackluster. I find myself pretty bored with it after a while. I didn't feel this way with Get Together or Get To Work even, which Get To Work is my least favorite pack.
So overall, I think this pack is ok. I enjoy aspects of it but got bored with it quickly
Lots of set dressing, little gameplay value. I like the lot traits, but wish they had more impact.
I got this super cheap so I tried it out the other night when I could tear myself away from Skyrim SE... if you want to enjoy this game, don't play it after playing Skyrim SE, I guess, because although it was pretty and there were some new (not-very-impactful) things to do, the bottom line was the same old boring base stuff. I was pretty disappointed. GT at least added some game-altering stuff with the clubs.
Nothing you do has much impact at all on the basic function of this game, which function is dull. I will probably pick it up again down the road and try again since I had to try twice with GT, but I wasn't super impressed. It's ok. Fine for the price I paid.
Maybe it's me (I know a lot of people have been asking themselves this question) and the Sims just don't appeal anymore. I remember playing Sims 2 & 3 to get my "digital homemaking fix", but I've never gotten that feeling once from Sims 4. Something about it grates on me in a subconscious way and only gets worse the longer I try. It's all about getting your shallow Sims to talk/socialize/woohoo with other Sims... and that's it. There doesn't seem to be anything else except grinding towards goals that have negligible game or Sim impact. My Sim could be a homeless shmuck or the king of the world, but he would still behave exactly the same, which is like every other Sim. CL only puts a very beautiful dress on that.
I almost hate to post this because I know a lot of work went into CL, however I think feedback is important so if Sims 5 happens, different ideas can be put into the engine development. Also I don't doubt CL is being enjoyed by some, even loved. It is lovely, and if I liked the basic formula of Sims 4, I would also love CL.
Well. It was less than $20 at Target so I decided to get the CL expansion. Aaaaaaaand.....it really is more of the same 🐸🐸🐸🐸, like I thought it would be.
Pros:
- The city looks nice, despite most of it being decoration
- We finally have a singing skill that coincides with the instruments
- The build mode items are pretty good, especially the gaming console
- Getting new foods is always nice. Especially multicultural dishes.
- I really like the urban themed CAS clothes
Cons:
- Like I said before, most of San Myshuno is just for show. There's really not a lot to explore. In fact, despite being a city, it feels like there's less to explore than Windenburg. And the immersion here, more than any other world, is seriously broken from having to use loading screens to go from lot to lot. It just...doesn't feel like a city. It looks like one, but it doesn't feel like one.
- Almost everything in this pack that is a returning feature from previous installments is a watered down version of what it used to be. Aside from the basketball hoop and the singing skill, not a single thing is done better. Apartments are not better than how they were in TS2 (Whether they're better than TS3's is up to debate). Elevators are just for show, like 80% of the city. You have to buy this special busker station to perform for tips, instead of...just doing it. You can't spray graffiti wherever you want, on whatever surface you want. Kids can't use the bubble blowing thing (slightly understandable since they're supposed to be hookahs but...kids could use them in TS2). And, of course, apartments are limited to San Myshuno only and they can't be built from scratch. I know that's a complain that's been heard a million times but it needs to be repeated because out of all the disappointed that came with this pack, this was the biggest. Being able to build the top floor of one Penthouse does make me forget how half baked the apartments are this time around.
- The festivals aren't really anything special. Like...I have nothing good or bad to say about them. They're just there. They don't offer anything you couldn't already do. They were a lot more fun in TS3.
- This would have been the perfect expansion to give us back vehicles. I guess Maxis thought otherwise.
- Like sim traits in this game (and emotions), most of the lot traits are pretty insignificant. It was a good idea, in theory. I can't fault them for trying. But I feel like they could have gone further with it. And, as far as I know, you can't change the lot traits on the apartments. Big no no, Maxis. Stop restricting my game.
- I am SO upset at the CAS clothes. A lot of them would have been SO good if they hadn't added those hideous patterns and the unnecessary encrusted jewelry. Like...some flashier palettes on the outfits are fine, I guess. Tacky as hell. But fine. But some solid colors wouldn't have hurt. Some muted colors wouldn't have hurt. Almost everything looks like a rainbow vomited on it. Especially that paint splattered suit. I hate it so much, I kill every sim I see wearing it.
All in all, I can't give this expansion a pass. It's not as bad as Get to Work. But it's not as good as Get Together. The new things they introduced lose their novelty VERY fast. Most of the old things they bring back aren't as good as they were before. And their major selling point, the apartments and San Myshuno itself, are the worst parts of the pack. I'm glad I got it, because I needed things like the basketball hoop, the gaming system, and the singing skill. But it is NOT worth $40. I'm so glad I waited until it was more than half off. Because that's what this thing is worth. Less than a Game Pack but more than a Stuff Pack.
[
I got this super cheap so I tried it out the other night when I could tear myself away from Skyrim SE... if you want to enjoy this game, don't play it after playing Skyrim SE, I guess, because although it was pretty and there were some new (not-very-impactful) things to do, the bottom line was the same old boring base stuff. I was pretty disappointed. GT at least added some game-altering stuff with the clubs.
^This. I got Skyrim SE around the same time I got this expansion. Skyrim is looking like the better sim game right now. Let that sink in
I'm not sure what to say about CL. I wasn't into the theme to start with, but got interested after seeing it. I got my copy from a giveaway, so I didn't have to ponder over the cost as deeply as some may have. However I spent 20€ on GTW and I think CL is better.
I have definitely liked playing CL. I've played in three different apartments and the experience has been smooth and enjoyable. The latest apartment has needs TLC trait and it's been amusing. My usual playstyle is irregular rotational play and the festivals are always something to look forward to even when playing in another worlds. Often I'd like a specific sim go to a specific festival, but it's a matter of luck whether it shows up while I'm playing their household. This kind of randomness is very welcome to my game.
I haven't done much building or redecorating yet or even tried to fill whole neighbourhood with my own sims and because of that I don't feel like I've gotten very deep in the city living yet. To me San Myshuno feels different enough compared to the other worlds and that makes it worth it. But if I wanted to create a different kind of city in another save then there's not much I can do. That's the big minus of whole TS4.
I also have played the careers very little. It's great to have new ones, but I'm not that much into pushing my sims through the promotions. The option to work from home has proven useful a couple of times already.
I was really excited about lot traits pre-release and now I almost skipped mentioning them. I think they're okay. I could see myself creating neighbourhoods where all houses have the same trait, but for now I've mostly used them on community lots to give them extra character. One of my bars has romantic aura, so when sims get invited there it usually means a little bit more.
Overall I would recommend City Living even though Get Together remains my favourite EP.
The main problem I have with it is that there are frameworks it adds that seem to have no alternative use. Like apartments in general are a gimmick that has little to no carryover to areas outside San Myshuno. Festivals are preset and, afaik, locked to the city. So what relevance will those things have in the next xpac?
It adds some really cool stuff, but the cool stuff mostly seems to be in the little things, such as Singing skill, lot traits, bubbly thingy, basketball hoop, karaoke machine, keyboard, and more that I'm probably forgetting.
The experience of living in a city is, to me, moderately well-crafted, but it's missing something big, which is the freedom to take that experience and customize it into your own. The customization limitations are starkly felt, so if you're the type who is really into making the experience feel like your own, it lacks in that department.
I think in terms of the experience itself (not factoring in customization at all) CL blows the other two expansions out of the water. GTW and GT were more sandbox tools that you add to what you're already doing. CL is more its own game entirely.
But when customization is factored in, CL doesn't hold a candle to GTW or GT.
I think CL is perhaps the most deserving of the title "expansion," but given the expectation of customization for the sims, it isn't necessarily most deserving of the title "sims expansion."
My feeling for future expansions is try to find a sweet spot in-between GTW/GT and CL, where the world feels like something you haven't seen before in the sims 4, but it's also customizable enough that you use the framework to make it into your own image. Take how Windenburg compares to San Myshuno, for instance; Windenburg was new in how the neighborhoods were laid out, but it was still more or less the same standard of suburban neighborhoods. San Myshuno, on the other hand, is no question about it urban.
Perhaps the next xpac should focus on rural landscapes, adding in lots that are super large. Then they could add in a few animals, have horse riding, hunting. I don't know. I'm kinda going off the rails into idea land here. Just letting my mind wander.
I'm loving it. I love the city, apartments, karaoke, everything. And don't even get me started on that man-bun.
The biggest issues I have is, well... I've moved away from the city (temporarily, thankfully) and the expansion really makes me miss it (come back to me fast internet), and I wish there were more songs for the singing skill, I loved the songs from showtime, and I wish that they would find a fix for the lighting bug with cabinets asap, as it became really prominent with apartments. But other than that, I really love it.
I'm thinking of getting either GT or CL. Which one did you like better?
That's a tough one. I can't imagine living without the GT Clubs system anymore, so I'm going to go with GT. But not by much. CL is my favorite Sims city pack ever - it hits all sorts of "right" notes for me as someone who lives downtown in a big city.
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I really like it it's just so beautiful!!! The screenshots I've been able to get are absolutely amazing, I have so much fun with them. As a family player, it inspired me to start a bit of rotational play as I followed different storylines into the city. I really love it, I got a couple bugs at the start of November when I got the pack that took awhile to figure out but now i've got MC and I'm hoping to start it off right with no more bugs or culling problems. I think the bugs may have been due to that awful patch update and not the EP itself.
Family player we got toddlers...my life is complete 1/12/17 best. day. ever. My Plum Family Tree
Positive= So far I am enjoying this pack, and I did not think I would cause it is not Gothic type.
Negative= Well the only negative part I can see with this pack so far is the fact that you can not build a apartment yourself in other worlds, which is a bummer for the builders who Luv to make their own.
The main problem I have with it is that there are frameworks it adds that seem to have no alternative use. Like apartments in general are a gimmick that has little to no carryover to areas outside San Myshuno. Festivals are preset and, afaik, locked to the city.
The experience of living in a city is, to me, moderately well-crafted, but it's missing something big, which is the freedom to take that experience and customize it into your own. The customization limitations are starkly felt, so if you're the type who is really into making the experience feel like your own, it lacks in that department.
THAT! You nailed it! That's the biggest gripe I have about this expansion pack and I think when the newness of playing apartment life wears off, this pack will be useless.
This is for those who have the EP or have played it only.
I have a lot of mixed feelings from reviews and comments, but honestly it's hard to have an opinion about an EP without having played it.
My birthday is at the end of the month and my mother has offered to buy the EP for me if I want for my birthday. Sooo, I need real opinions and thoughts. I've watched a few reviews and let's plays, but I want to know what the average simmer thinks, those of you who don't play the sims for your career/youtube channel.
So, for those of you who have played the new EP and/or have it what do you think of the EP? Do you love it, like it, dislike it, hate it, etc.?
Also if you can share at least one positive and negative thing about it, that would be really helpful though of course if you don't have one over the other then that's fine too.
It was given to me mid Dec. I played it once, it crashed, End of story. About after three Sim days. It's was o.k. nothing spectacular at all. ETA: I don't mean to dis their world, it was nice. But I play a lot of games, where immersion is just as meaningful and 'real' so I wasn't all that impressed with the world since I have many type games where worlds are amazing. So, I hold developers to much higher standards than the average player.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
Comments
Omg, you are too funny. You remind me of a friend I used to have when I was in the army lol
Btw, you should share pics of it. And if you have a blog where you share the stories of your sim's, I'd love to read it
Ricki Lake - Season 1-3
Ricki Lake - Season 4-5
Ricki Lake - Season 6-8
Ricki Lake - Season 9
Ricki Lake - Season 10-11
I like the ninth season one better than the other version sets in Chelsea Studio Television New York City, New York 10001, see!
Best EP so far.
Good
Apartments,beautful world,lots of objects to keep sims entertained,singing added etc.
Bad
Can't place apartments in other worlds.
Nowhere in San Myshuno to add lots unless you bulldoze something.
Do you do stories with that too?
Her name is Raven Lobo, she was married in my game, and she looks like a talk show host with a wedding dress! But she's a bit more like Ricki Lake
If you had a blog with an ongoing story I'd definitely read it. You should think of doing that.
I've been working and busy with school so I only got to play last night after work. So far I really like this EP, but am annoyed with a few things. There have been some game play glitches and also the festivals are too short. I missed a few already because I didn't know they were going on and they aren't very long. I wish they were a few sim days long.
Anyways, here are some screen shots of my play last night!
My sim is a vegetarian and ate meat. Afterwards he got sick and had stripes all over him! Idk if this is because of eating meat or what
Hanging out with some tourists lol
And this townie...
Trying to make a large mural
Look at the views my sim sees from his apartment window!!
I changed up my sims outfits. I do like some of the clothes but overall CAS is ok. I think I prefer build/buy mode over CAS this time.
Some fireworks after the only festival I could go to, The Hijinks festival
Loving your sims XD I haven't had much of a chance to play either but I'll definitely try
Thank you so much! I hope you get to play soon. It is fun. And thanks about the gif, lol. I saw it on tumblr and had to add it to my signature.
I do agree with this... I kinda feel like there isn't much to do except go eat and try to go to the festivals, which like I said I missed two of them. Also, yeah I don't notice a difference really with lot traits except my sim gained exp for doing skills faster with the homey trait... that's it.
The Good:
The Bad:
So overall, I think this pack is ok. I enjoy aspects of it but got bored with it quickly
I got this super cheap so I tried it out the other night when I could tear myself away from Skyrim SE... if you want to enjoy this game, don't play it after playing Skyrim SE, I guess, because although it was pretty and there were some new (not-very-impactful) things to do, the bottom line was the same old boring base stuff. I was pretty disappointed. GT at least added some game-altering stuff with the clubs.
Nothing you do has much impact at all on the basic function of this game, which function is dull. I will probably pick it up again down the road and try again since I had to try twice with GT, but I wasn't super impressed. It's ok. Fine for the price I paid.
Maybe it's me (I know a lot of people have been asking themselves this question) and the Sims just don't appeal anymore. I remember playing Sims 2 & 3 to get my "digital homemaking fix", but I've never gotten that feeling once from Sims 4. Something about it grates on me in a subconscious way and only gets worse the longer I try. It's all about getting your shallow Sims to talk/socialize/woohoo with other Sims... and that's it. There doesn't seem to be anything else except grinding towards goals that have negligible game or Sim impact. My Sim could be a homeless shmuck or the king of the world, but he would still behave exactly the same, which is like every other Sim. CL only puts a very beautiful dress on that.
I almost hate to post this because I know a lot of work went into CL, however I think feedback is important so if Sims 5 happens, different ideas can be put into the engine development. Also I don't doubt CL is being enjoyed by some, even loved. It is lovely, and if I liked the basic formula of Sims 4, I would also love CL.
Pros:
- The city looks nice, despite most of it being decoration
- We finally have a singing skill that coincides with the instruments
- The build mode items are pretty good, especially the gaming console
- Getting new foods is always nice. Especially multicultural dishes.
- I really like the urban themed CAS clothes
Cons:
- Like I said before, most of San Myshuno is just for show. There's really not a lot to explore. In fact, despite being a city, it feels like there's less to explore than Windenburg. And the immersion here, more than any other world, is seriously broken from having to use loading screens to go from lot to lot. It just...doesn't feel like a city. It looks like one, but it doesn't feel like one.
- Almost everything in this pack that is a returning feature from previous installments is a watered down version of what it used to be. Aside from the basketball hoop and the singing skill, not a single thing is done better. Apartments are not better than how they were in TS2 (Whether they're better than TS3's is up to debate). Elevators are just for show, like 80% of the city. You have to buy this special busker station to perform for tips, instead of...just doing it. You can't spray graffiti wherever you want, on whatever surface you want. Kids can't use the bubble blowing thing (slightly understandable since they're supposed to be hookahs but...kids could use them in TS2). And, of course, apartments are limited to San Myshuno only and they can't be built from scratch. I know that's a complain that's been heard a million times but it needs to be repeated because out of all the disappointed that came with this pack, this was the biggest. Being able to build the top floor of one Penthouse does make me forget how half baked the apartments are this time around.
- The festivals aren't really anything special. Like...I have nothing good or bad to say about them. They're just there. They don't offer anything you couldn't already do. They were a lot more fun in TS3.
- This would have been the perfect expansion to give us back vehicles. I guess Maxis thought otherwise.
- Like sim traits in this game (and emotions), most of the lot traits are pretty insignificant. It was a good idea, in theory. I can't fault them for trying. But I feel like they could have gone further with it. And, as far as I know, you can't change the lot traits on the apartments. Big no no, Maxis. Stop restricting my game.
- I am SO upset at the CAS clothes. A lot of them would have been SO good if they hadn't added those hideous patterns and the unnecessary encrusted jewelry. Like...some flashier palettes on the outfits are fine, I guess. Tacky as hell. But fine. But some solid colors wouldn't have hurt. Some muted colors wouldn't have hurt. Almost everything looks like a rainbow vomited on it. Especially that paint splattered suit. I hate it so much, I kill every sim I see wearing it.
All in all, I can't give this expansion a pass. It's not as bad as Get to Work. But it's not as good as Get Together. The new things they introduced lose their novelty VERY fast. Most of the old things they bring back aren't as good as they were before. And their major selling point, the apartments and San Myshuno itself, are the worst parts of the pack. I'm glad I got it, because I needed things like the basketball hoop, the gaming system, and the singing skill. But it is NOT worth $40. I'm so glad I waited until it was more than half off. Because that's what this thing is worth. Less than a Game Pack but more than a Stuff Pack.
^This. I got Skyrim SE around the same time I got this expansion. Skyrim is looking like the better sim game right now. Let that sink in
I have definitely liked playing CL. I've played in three different apartments and the experience has been smooth and enjoyable. The latest apartment has needs TLC trait and it's been amusing. My usual playstyle is irregular rotational play and the festivals are always something to look forward to even when playing in another worlds. Often I'd like a specific sim go to a specific festival, but it's a matter of luck whether it shows up while I'm playing their household. This kind of randomness is very welcome to my game.
I haven't done much building or redecorating yet or even tried to fill whole neighbourhood with my own sims and because of that I don't feel like I've gotten very deep in the city living yet. To me San Myshuno feels different enough compared to the other worlds and that makes it worth it. But if I wanted to create a different kind of city in another save then there's not much I can do. That's the big minus of whole TS4.
I also have played the careers very little. It's great to have new ones, but I'm not that much into pushing my sims through the promotions. The option to work from home has proven useful a couple of times already.
I was really excited about lot traits pre-release and now I almost skipped mentioning them. I think they're okay. I could see myself creating neighbourhoods where all houses have the same trait, but for now I've mostly used them on community lots to give them extra character. One of my bars has romantic aura, so when sims get invited there it usually means a little bit more.
Overall I would recommend City Living even though Get Together remains my favourite EP.
Updated with Werewolf Diaries (1)
It adds some really cool stuff, but the cool stuff mostly seems to be in the little things, such as Singing skill, lot traits, bubbly thingy, basketball hoop, karaoke machine, keyboard, and more that I'm probably forgetting.
The experience of living in a city is, to me, moderately well-crafted, but it's missing something big, which is the freedom to take that experience and customize it into your own. The customization limitations are starkly felt, so if you're the type who is really into making the experience feel like your own, it lacks in that department.
I think in terms of the experience itself (not factoring in customization at all) CL blows the other two expansions out of the water. GTW and GT were more sandbox tools that you add to what you're already doing. CL is more its own game entirely.
But when customization is factored in, CL doesn't hold a candle to GTW or GT.
I think CL is perhaps the most deserving of the title "expansion," but given the expectation of customization for the sims, it isn't necessarily most deserving of the title "sims expansion."
My feeling for future expansions is try to find a sweet spot in-between GTW/GT and CL, where the world feels like something you haven't seen before in the sims 4, but it's also customizable enough that you use the framework to make it into your own image. Take how Windenburg compares to San Myshuno, for instance; Windenburg was new in how the neighborhoods were laid out, but it was still more or less the same standard of suburban neighborhoods. San Myshuno, on the other hand, is no question about it urban.
Perhaps the next xpac should focus on rural landscapes, adding in lots that are super large. Then they could add in a few animals, have horse riding, hunting. I don't know. I'm kinda going off the rails into idea land here. Just letting my mind wander.
The biggest issues I have is, well... I've moved away from the city (temporarily, thankfully) and the expansion really makes me miss it (come back to me fast internet), and I wish there were more songs for the singing skill, I loved the songs from showtime, and I wish that they would find a fix for the lighting bug with cabinets asap, as it became really prominent with apartments. But other than that, I really love it.
That's a tough one. I can't imagine living without the GT Clubs system anymore, so I'm going to go with GT. But not by much. CL is my favorite Sims city pack ever - it hits all sorts of "right" notes for me as someone who lives downtown in a big city.
My Plum Family Tree
Negative= Well the only negative part I can see with this pack so far is the fact that you can not build a apartment yourself in other worlds, which is a bummer for the builders who Luv to make their own.
THAT! You nailed it! That's the biggest gripe I have about this expansion pack and I think when the newness of playing apartment life wears off, this pack will be useless.
It was given to me mid Dec. I played it once, it crashed, End of story. About after three Sim days. It's was o.k. nothing spectacular at all. ETA: I don't mean to dis their world, it was nice. But I play a lot of games, where immersion is just as meaningful and 'real' so I wasn't all that impressed with the world since I have many type games where worlds are amazing. So, I hold developers to much higher standards than the average player.