I'm giving it a 7 for now -- it's definitely increased my game play but so far I'm only on raising toddlers (Summer Munch's two that she wants nothing to deal with so step-dad Gunther is taking on much of the load) and Cassidy Purdue as a single mom raising Gunther's son Jaxon. Next time I go into game I'll likely have a third, Ollie and Aicha's daughter Kiara who's still a baby but I'll probably be aging up; Aicha is going to be a stay at home mom so Kiara will likely get a lot of attention. Once I have a chance to play with older ages I'll get a better feel for the pack, but so far it's been a definite plus.
Check out my Gallery! Origin ID: justme22
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
It's too early for me to call it in terms of a number or anything but I'm mostly enjoying it so far. I do like what it adds to the game in terms of character development so far. I also actually kind of like how long it takes to seriously develop any traits. There are a bunch of kids in my rotation and this means that they will not all turn out the same. For toddlers, I used to have a formula of getting them all to level 3 on every skill before they could show individual interest in anything. Now, I'm accepting that some kids are going to be developmentally different and there's a whole other span of ways to work with them. I can think in terms of, "How would this specific sim react to this child in this situation?" Even as someone who is not a 100% family player all the time, I think it enhances the game. I know that some people think adults are developed enough, but in terms of adding emotional depth, I'd like to see more like this hence my call for a deeper "Romance" pack.
I don't really regret anything I've gotten for TS. If I did regret it then I'd quit playing it pretty quickly. That said, I generally like this GP but I'm still solidly on "Team Fix The Bugs". I have noticed some issues with the most recent update and with this pack that I hope will get worked out along with some of the longstanding bug requests. So, my rating in the long term is contingent upon how that kind of stuff is handled. I'm glad that they have been fixing stuff but it is kind of a case of fixing one thing and having another break.
I like the new furniture and new gameplay objects like the school projects.
I am disappointed that toddlers, children and teens are mostly unchanged* unless I choose to make them so.
For example, I have two households at the moment. One is two parents and two toddlers with the clingy and wild traits. (House A)
The other household has two parents, two children and a toddler.(House B Now I admit I play with free will on but mostly my sims have things lined up to keep them busy so they don't often get the chance to exhibit autonomous behaviour. But when the pack released, I stopped being so hands on and didn't control the kids.
In household A all that's happened since Tuesday is the toddler with the clingy trait made one mess on his own. Then"wild toddler" even when she is angry, the most disobedient she has been is playing in the toilet.
In House B both the children have had pop up notifications saying they are entering phases. "that's cool" I thought until I realised that the phase had no impact whatsoever on them. One had the fussy eater phase but I must have got lucky when I served her meal as she ate it with a smile. The other is going through a rebellious phase. She didn't even get a moodlet to indicate the phase and had I missed the notification I would have been none the wiser as she acted the exact same and didn't appear to have any special socials.
Leaving the children to their own devices, not much changed. I was/am disappointed to see that there's very little challenging behaviour unless I were the one telling them to. I understand the player can choose to make the children/teens misbehave and there are times I tried it. I made the toddler in house B be gross all the time. Didn't have the parents discipline her. She had a little bit in the red for the manners character value, but this was wiped when the toddlers Mum tried to teach her to say please and Thankyou.
I like the idea that the player can decide how the kids will behave but I really wish there was more autonomous negative behaviour, without player intervention my sim kids are the same as they were before. I don't use mods or cc so that can't be the issue.
The other 2 things I'm slightly disappointed about is when a parent disciplines their child, there is no relationship impact. My sim children are still best friends with their Mum even though she is a strict parent. I love the fact the player can decide what method of discipline to use but the method should impact on their relationship even if it's short term. I have a sim in the sims 3 who hated his mum after she kept punisning him for egging Neighbours homes and skipping school. Their relationship suffered. Even after he became a young adult, he just didn't get on with her. She tried hard to be nice to him but he was having none of it.
The last thing that disappoints me is the fact that unless you get each character value to a certain level, the sim will not get the corresponding trait on age up. So in theory you could raise a sim from baby to young adult and be very middle of the road with all character values and get no traits. Or if you really want a certain trait associated with a character value you may have to repeatedly do socials that correspond with that value purely just to get "past the point" to earn the trait. Personally I hate that kind of "grind" in a sandbox game and I would have preferred a trait being awarded at random depending on the upbringing of the sim.
I know I sound really negative, I wish I didn't have to. I like the pack a lot. But to me it's not fixed the core issue with gameplay. It's trying but it's not hit the target in my opinion.
It's given players choices which is good but I personally wish there was more meaningful game play.
This is a helpful review, thank you.
I cannot rate the pack yet as I really haven't played it enough but I do enjoy reading everyone's thoughts and opinions.
I like a lot of the little touches that they put into the game. I adore the setting the table, the school assignments given to kids/teens to finish. I had a rebellious teen who got into fights and harassed her little child sister.
Teens finally have a teen feeling to them with their mood swings and their attitude. Each life stage has a feeling to it and teens are no longer just young adults that go to school instead of go to work.
I love lot of the CAS and build/buy items. It is not perfect, there was a few other things that could have been in ( as others have said, bunkbeds )
so to me and how I play it is a very good investment.
8/10 This pack is the only pack that made my sims NEED or want a vacation.
I love all the new social options. I honestly thought Id hate the fact that volunteering was only a rabbit hole but I've grown to like it that way. It gives my sims something to do with the family on the weekends without planing an event and having it fail from poor planning on my part. xD Plus I can choose who goes so the mom can get away from the kids sometimes and clean the house in peace.
I know modders will put there mark on this, but if there's one thing I want from this pack its more sims acting on there moods and less on there needs. The mom would be cooking dinner and the teen would go in the fridge to get food.... They need a "smells good" emote or something so when they smell food they wait a bit for it.
I'm early on in playing the pack and taking it slow on long life, so it isn't as accurate as a rating as it could be, but I'll give it a 8 almost 9.
The parenting skill is awesome! So unexpected and new but exactly what the game needs.
Love the bagged lunches!
Love the new family socials and the care the devs put into siblings, grandparents etc.
The new stuff/ clutter/ toys are amazing, I adore my sims home right now.
I do wish we got a sandbox and swings though.
I love the addition to character values and that you can actually even choose negative values (great for drama and diversity)
My one downfall with that though is that sims around your sim's family aren't gaining/losing points without your involvement. I have been rotating a little bit, but always want to get back to my main family before much headway can be made. But that's been the issue with us story progression folks all along, hoping mcc will tweak that at some point.
My favorite thing about the whole pack is actually the phases. When it comes to my sims heirs I like to watch and see how they are so when I choose the next trait it means more. I've had a little girl be in the clingy phase for weeks and really
paints picture for where I want to take her.
I've only played it a couple of times but so far I would rate it an 7.5/10, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of gameplay it actually added in. I very rarely played as children/teens before as there was so little for them to do and it became rather boring. But now there's so much more and probably lots I haven't found yet. I also feel it makes the game a whole lot more realistic.
I had a toddler to try out the new pack and it certainly made it more difficult, I was struggling to get the needs up for long enough to even attempt to train her (i.e. to speak, potty) and the mood swings made it worse. The character values fill very slowly and it is really hard to try and keep up, I can't imagine how you'd raise a whole family at once like this. I've also had a problem with my sims not responding to what I've asked them to do (it's always done this a litte but it seems worse now, I had to tell the mum 7 times to give the toddler a bath before she did it. The action just kept cancelling and she'd go to the computer instead, fab parenting.) But it has certainly made the game more interesting and so far I am happy with it, I'm hoping it gets easier as time goes on and they learn more skills but I've read a lot of posts about teenagers so, we'll see.
Can anyone describe how this pack affects teens? I'm not really a family player, although I do have one save that focuses around a group of teen friends. So far I haven't really seen any reasons to get the pack.
Quality - 7/10 (Good quality but a lot recycling)
Gameplay - 8/10 (Its an addition to the whole Game and not limited to small parts and its a complement to the core game)
Amount- 3/10 (Minimalistic, just what is direly needed to call it a Pack nothing more, many categories got just 1 or no items and too many gameplay possibilities and interactions didnt make it in the Pack)
Its again the amount of content that is a big let down. At this rate it would require a lot of Packs just to complete families with all aspects let alone all the other features that could be in the Game. Its just a fraction of family play, i would like that they add more bigger addons with complete features. Of course than a higher price would be fair to ask but i rather pay twice the amount and get a complete car than just one half of a car.
6/10
I have only played with it for a few hours and the first thing I learned was not to start with triplets. So i starred a new family with 1 toddler. And it has been a nice change from the "same-old". I like the difficulty of getting the new traits. It seems as if the parents never stop cleaning up messes or quelling tantrums. So the few hours I have played have been quite refreshing.
Can anyone describe how this pack affects teens? I'm not really a family player, although I do have one save that focuses around a group of teen friends. So far I haven't really seen any reasons to get the pack.
They get mood swings. One of my teens is constantly tense for being around his family. I play rotational and when I came back to his house he still gets that moodlet. Most time he chooses to Shout Forbidden words or he goes outside for a yoga session away from his parents and little siblings.
Teens also go through phases (rebellious being one of them) but I haven't seen much of that.
ETA: They also some new friendly interactions like "Show new app", "Obsess over favorite game", "Show off selfie", "Boast about messing around".
Also some mean ones among themselves like "Act Tough", "Pressure to conform", and others toward their siblings like "Convince Monsters are real", "Insult existence".
I won't rate it because I don't like rating things I love. But I really enjoy this pack. Can't wait for the pool fun game pack or stuff back , whichever one its going to be, to come out, because I can see myself having so much fun with my Painter family and a pool . Im probably going to set the game aside for a while until I get more fun activities to do with my family .
Love , love, love parenthood though. Im also glad I bought bowling, because they can at least do that together,
> @Yoko2112 said: > alexandrea wrote: » > > 4......... > > > > > That ellipsis needs to be longer for a more dramatic effect. And maybe consider adding an emoji. > > 4....................................... :disappointed: > > ^ now this really screams "I want attention!"
Wow, that is so rude. She gave her rating like everybody else. Why you gotta be so mean about it? Only because she doesn't like the pack? She even gave an explanation. But apparently an opinion is only respected in here if it's something positive.
I played it only a little last night, so far a 7 because it's so hard to build up all the characteristics and then i dont notice much difference in them as adults. So It's like all the work is for nothing. But I do like the teenagers - i wish we had bunkbeds and prom. I also wish people could "crash" at others houses and make up a little bed on the couches.. instead of napping. Because if you are friends, you let someone crash on the sofa, right.. ha ha.
I get what you are saying. I would have liked this ability, too. (sleep on couch) But the game already has this covered and it might have wound up as seen as redundant (by someone like me, ) because if your Sims have the Always Welcome trait they can stay and sleep anywhere they like. But not played teens long enough in TS4 to find out if they ever get this bonus option.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
@MidnightAura , I read your review. That's a good read. I see what you mean, there is a huge difference between my dysfunctional family (I'll call it family A) and family B. I love family A because things are so chaotic and it's been a blast. I started a different family in WC instead of NC and they are almost perfect, not much going on there. So, maybe it depends on which Sims we used in CAS to build our own (some of those have hidden stuff that never actually gets changed from what I have read) and the traits we actually give them.
Family B lives in a nicer home, so not much tension there, and they don't have any toddlers but two kids built in CAS. It's pretty easy to play them like we always did. But family A is the most fun for me because she was a single mom with two toddlers (built in CAS) and I gave her another kid before I started playing them. It's been the best experience with how much one thing affects the other and lowers those totals and someone would have to keep after them if they wanted them to get particular traits when they grow up. LOL Both these families are as different as day and night even before I started manipulating to behave or not to behave. That's why some may find it flat and I would advise anyone to play more than two families and see how things go. Because it's true two families without much input from me were either a handful or almost perfect and it takes some influence from the player to get things rolling.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
I'd give it a 8.5 (almost 9). I was indeed one of those simmers who wanted a parenting system since the start of TS4 and even came up with ideas for it. So to see it and experience it on a daily basis in game is rather mind-blowing to me. The chaotic fun is pretty epic lol.
That being said, in any pack there's always room for improvement. And I think whatever some may think this pack lacks (like the toddler stuff, bunk beds), are already played in motion to the pack rotation (in other words, I sense a Toddler pack approaching sometime after the possible EP ). Also I'm hoping that this is a stepping stone for other "life-fleshing" packs to come. Like a school pack before University, maybe a sort of ancestry like pack..I just thought of that...hmm.
But yes, all in all, this gamepack is a beautiful stepping stone of family play . And it's currently the only pack that I can't live without lol.
@MidnightAura , I read your review. That's a good read. I see what you mean, there is a huge difference between my dysfunctional family (I'll call it family A) and family B. I love family A because things are so chaotic and it's been a blast. I started a different family in WC instead of NC and they are almost perfect, not much going on there. So, maybe it depends on which Sims we used in CAS to build our own (some of those have hidden stuff that never actually gets changed from what I have read) and the traits we actually give them.
Family B lives in a nicer home, so not much tension there, and they don't have any toddlers but two kids built in CAS. It's pretty easy to play them like we always did. But family A is the most fun for me because she was a single mom with two toddlers (built in CAS) and I gave her another kid before I started playing them. It's been the best experience with how much one thing affects the other and lowers those totals and someone would have to keep after them if they wanted them to get particular traits when they grow up. LOL Both these families are as different as day and night even before I started manipulating to behave or not to behave. That's why some may find it flat and I would advise anyone to play more than two families and see how things go. Because it's true two families without much input from me were either a handful or almost perfect and it takes some influence from the player to get things rolling.
It takes a lot of influence to get things going. Having played the game some more I would now give it a 7. I'm still disappointed with the lack of reaction from parents autonomously. Like you said, kid makes a mess and parent ignores it. My children broke curfew and sauntered in at midnight. Both parents were watching tv and didn't utter a word. I know I can choose to set the punishment if any but it breaks my immersion to see the parents do nothing.
I think it feels to me like EA don't want to upset the community of fans that didn't want parents disciplining their children automatically as I'm just not seeing it. I do love being able to decide how to handle each situation but I wish more than anything they would react!
Having spent more time with the house hold with two kids (now 3kids) I do enjoy seeing more autonomous behaviour once the sims hit the threshold to gain an extra skill. My sim with high responsibility will automatically do her homework and set the table. She does have quite a few character values in the red but not majorly so.
Ironically her younger sister who I make badly behaved and direct her to be naughty at every opportunity has positive character values in every character value. I don't understand that lol
For me @MidnightAura and @Nelus said it all so I would give it a 4.8 not quite a 5 but close. Maybe when I can play it more I'll change my mind. Idk though, it still feel like something is missing other than CAS and BB
@alexandrea Can you elaborate? I haven't gotten the pack yet, so I want to know the criticisms people have of the GP.
Sure. The developers made the game pack seem to be more than it was. If you raise your sims "badly" there really is no change. These new traits hold no weight. Besides the diary, and score board there really isn't anything new to do. It gets old really fast. Most of the "new" interactions are just recycled socials from the base game. Talk about a disappointment.
What new gameplay were you expecting? It seems like you're basing your opinion on something that was never promised or even hinted at.The pack is about parenting and family , hence the name. It is not about anything other than parenting and family play, within the household. Keeping that in mind, what exactly, regarding raising children has been left out?
The game pack has everything that was promised. Parenting influences which traits sims will develop into adulthood. Those traits influence their behavior. If sims arent careful, their kids grow up to have poor manners. How is that not a change? Their personalities will be influenced by the experiences they have at home. This game pack influences the sims BEHAVIOR and there are quite a few new animations that are not at all recycled. To me, your criticism of this pack seems to be based not so much on what this pack is lacking or didn't deliver, but rather your own personal issues with what you thought this game pack was all about. Which is a miscommunication , at best @alexandrea
Whatever gameplay you think is missing, you would have known it was not included and could have spared your self, had you actually done some looking into what the pack is all about.
@MidnightAura , I read your review. That's a good read. I see what you mean, there is a huge difference between my dysfunctional family (I'll call it family A) and family B. I love family A because things are so chaotic and it's been a blast. I started a different family in WC instead of NC and they are almost perfect, not much going on there. So, maybe it depends on which Sims we used in CAS to build our own (some of those have hidden stuff that never actually gets changed from what I have read) and the traits we actually give them.
Family B lives in a nicer home, so not much tension there, and they don't have any toddlers but two kids built in CAS. It's pretty easy to play them like we always did. But family A is the most fun for me because she was a single mom with two toddlers (built in CAS) and I gave her another kid before I started playing them. It's been the best experience with how much one thing affects the other and lowers those totals and someone would have to keep after them if they wanted them to get particular traits when they grow up. LOL Both these families are as different as day and night even before I started manipulating to behave or not to behave. That's why some may find it flat and I would advise anyone to play more than two families and see how things go. Because it's true two families without much input from me were either a handful or almost perfect and it takes some influence from the player to get things rolling.
It takes a lot of influence to get things going. Having played the game some more I would now give it a 7. I'm still disappointed with the lack of reaction from parents autonomously. Like you said, kid makes a mess and parent ignores it. My children broke curfew and sauntered in at midnight. Both parents were watching tv and didn't utter a word. I know I can choose to set the punishment if any but it breaks my immersion to see the parents do nothing.
I think it feels to me like EA don't want to upset the community of fans that didn't want parents disciplining their children automatically as I'm just not seeing it. I do love being able to decide how to handle each situation but I wish more than anything they would react!
Having spent more time with the house hold with two kids (now 3kids) I do enjoy seeing more autonomous behaviour once the sims hit the threshold to gain an extra skill. My sim with high responsibility will automatically do her homework and set the table. She does have quite a few character values in the red but not majorly so.
Ironically her younger sister who I make badly behaved and direct her to be naughty at every opportunity has positive character values in every character value. I don't understand that lol
When my toddler pushes his food off the high chair he gets a talking to autonomously by his mom -- but I'm not sure if it does anything for character values. You have to catch the bad behavior pretty quickly in order to nip it in the bud.
Check out my Gallery! Origin ID: justme22
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
Comments
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
I don't really regret anything I've gotten for TS. If I did regret it then I'd quit playing it pretty quickly. That said, I generally like this GP but I'm still solidly on "Team Fix The Bugs". I have noticed some issues with the most recent update and with this pack that I hope will get worked out along with some of the longstanding bug requests. So, my rating in the long term is contingent upon how that kind of stuff is handled. I'm glad that they have been fixing stuff but it is kind of a case of fixing one thing and having another break.
This is a helpful review, thank you.
I cannot rate the pack yet as I really haven't played it enough but I do enjoy reading everyone's thoughts and opinions.
I like a lot of the little touches that they put into the game. I adore the setting the table, the school assignments given to kids/teens to finish. I had a rebellious teen who got into fights and harassed her little child sister.
Teens finally have a teen feeling to them with their mood swings and their attitude. Each life stage has a feeling to it and teens are no longer just young adults that go to school instead of go to work.
I love lot of the CAS and build/buy items. It is not perfect, there was a few other things that could have been in ( as others have said, bunkbeds )
so to me and how I play it is a very good investment.
You have issues.
I love all the new social options.
I honestly thought Id hate the fact that volunteering was only a rabbit hole but I've grown to like it that way. It gives my sims something to do with the family on the weekends without planing an event and having it fail from poor planning on my part. xD
Plus I can choose who goes so the mom can get away from the kids sometimes and clean the house in peace.
I know modders will put there mark on this, but if there's one thing I want from this pack its more sims acting on there moods and less on there needs. The mom would be cooking dinner and the teen would go in the fridge to get food.... They need a "smells good" emote or something so when they smell food they wait a bit for it.
I'm gonna do it anyway.
I'd give it a 4.
Needs more CAS stuff. And if you're a person who likes modern objects (like me), this pack is definitely not for you.
I do like the new social options that came with this pack though.
The parenting skill is awesome! So unexpected and new but exactly what the game needs.
Love the bagged lunches!
Love the new family socials and the care the devs put into siblings, grandparents etc.
The new stuff/ clutter/ toys are amazing, I adore my sims home right now.
I do wish we got a sandbox and swings though.
I love the addition to character values and that you can actually even choose negative values (great for drama and diversity)
My one downfall with that though is that sims around your sim's family aren't gaining/losing points without your involvement. I have been rotating a little bit, but always want to get back to my main family before much headway can be made. But that's been the issue with us story progression folks all along, hoping mcc will tweak that at some point.
My favorite thing about the whole pack is actually the phases. When it comes to my sims heirs I like to watch and see how they are so when I choose the next trait it means more. I've had a little girl be in the clingy phase for weeks and really
paints picture for where I want to take her.
I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of gameplay it actually added in. I very rarely played as children/teens before as there was so little for them to do and it became rather boring. But now there's so much more and probably lots I haven't found yet. I also feel it makes the game a whole lot more realistic.
I had a toddler to try out the new pack and it certainly made it more difficult, I was struggling to get the needs up for long enough to even attempt to train her (i.e. to speak, potty) and the mood swings made it worse. The character values fill very slowly and it is really hard to try and keep up, I can't imagine how you'd raise a whole family at once like this. I've also had a problem with my sims not responding to what I've asked them to do (it's always done this a litte but it seems worse now, I had to tell the mum 7 times to give the toddler a bath before she did it. The action just kept cancelling and she'd go to the computer instead, fab parenting.) But it has certainly made the game more interesting and so far I am happy with it, I'm hoping it gets easier as time goes on and they learn more skills but I've read a lot of posts about teenagers so, we'll see.
Gameplay - 8/10 (Its an addition to the whole Game and not limited to small parts and its a complement to the core game)
Amount- 3/10 (Minimalistic, just what is direly needed to call it a Pack nothing more, many categories got just 1 or no items and too many gameplay possibilities and interactions didnt make it in the Pack)
Its again the amount of content that is a big let down. At this rate it would require a lot of Packs just to complete families with all aspects let alone all the other features that could be in the Game. Its just a fraction of family play, i would like that they add more bigger addons with complete features. Of course than a higher price would be fair to ask but i rather pay twice the amount and get a complete car than just one half of a car.
I have only played with it for a few hours and the first thing I learned was not to start with triplets. So i starred a new family with 1 toddler. And it has been a nice change from the "same-old". I like the difficulty of getting the new traits. It seems as if the parents never stop cleaning up messes or quelling tantrums. So the few hours I have played have been quite refreshing.
They get mood swings. One of my teens is constantly tense for being around his family. I play rotational and when I came back to his house he still gets that moodlet. Most time he chooses to Shout Forbidden words or he goes outside for a yoga session away from his parents and little siblings.
Teens also go through phases (rebellious being one of them) but I haven't seen much of that.
ETA: They also some new friendly interactions like "Show new app", "Obsess over favorite game", "Show off selfie", "Boast about messing around".
Also some mean ones among themselves like "Act Tough", "Pressure to conform", and others toward their siblings like "Convince Monsters are real", "Insult existence".
Love , love, love parenthood though. Im also glad I bought bowling, because they can at least do that together,
> alexandrea wrote: »
>
> 4.........
>
>
>
>
> That ellipsis needs to be longer for a more dramatic effect. And maybe consider adding an emoji.
>
> 4....................................... :disappointed:
>
> ^ now this really screams "I want attention!"
Wow, that is so rude. She gave her rating like everybody else. Why you gotta be so mean about it? Only because she doesn't like the pack? She even gave an explanation. But apparently an opinion is only respected in here if it's something positive.
.....
I get what you are saying. I would have liked this ability, too. (sleep on couch) But the game already has this covered and it might have wound up as seen as redundant (by someone like me,
Family B lives in a nicer home, so not much tension there, and they don't have any toddlers but two kids built in CAS. It's pretty easy to play them like we always did. But family A is the most fun for me because she was a single mom with two toddlers (built in CAS) and I gave her another kid before I started playing them. It's been the best experience with how much one thing affects the other and lowers those totals and someone would have to keep after them if they wanted them to get particular traits when they grow up. LOL Both these families are as different as day and night even before I started manipulating to behave or not to behave. That's why some may find it flat and I would advise anyone to play more than two families and see how things go. Because it's true two families without much input from me were either a handful or almost perfect and it takes some influence from the player to get things rolling.
That being said, in any pack there's always room for improvement. And I think whatever some may think this pack lacks (like the toddler stuff, bunk beds), are already played in motion to the pack rotation (in other words, I sense a Toddler pack approaching sometime after the possible EP
But yes, all in all, this gamepack is a beautiful stepping stone of family play
It takes a lot of influence to get things going. Having played the game some more I would now give it a 7. I'm still disappointed with the lack of reaction from parents autonomously. Like you said, kid makes a mess and parent ignores it. My children broke curfew and sauntered in at midnight. Both parents were watching tv and didn't utter a word. I know I can choose to set the punishment if any but it breaks my immersion to see the parents do nothing.
I think it feels to me like EA don't want to upset the community of fans that didn't want parents disciplining their children automatically as I'm just not seeing it. I do love being able to decide how to handle each situation but I wish more than anything they would react!
Having spent more time with the house hold with two kids (now 3kids) I do enjoy seeing more autonomous behaviour once the sims hit the threshold to gain an extra skill. My sim with high responsibility will automatically do her homework and set the table. She does have quite a few character values in the red but not majorly so.
Ironically her younger sister who I make badly behaved and direct her to be naughty at every opportunity has positive character values in every character value. I don't understand that lol
What new gameplay were you expecting? It seems like you're basing your opinion on something that was never promised or even hinted at.The pack is about parenting and family , hence the name. It is not about anything other than parenting and family play, within the household. Keeping that in mind, what exactly, regarding raising children has been left out?
The game pack has everything that was promised. Parenting influences which traits sims will develop into adulthood. Those traits influence their behavior. If sims arent careful, their kids grow up to have poor manners. How is that not a change? Their personalities will be influenced by the experiences they have at home. This game pack influences the sims BEHAVIOR and there are quite a few new animations that are not at all recycled. To me, your criticism of this pack seems to be based not so much on what this pack is lacking or didn't deliver, but rather your own personal issues with what you thought this game pack was all about. Which is a miscommunication , at best @alexandrea
Whatever gameplay you think is missing, you would have known it was not included and could have spared your self, had you actually done some looking into what the pack is all about.
When my toddler pushes his food off the high chair he gets a talking to autonomously by his mom -- but I'm not sure if it does anything for character values. You have to catch the bad behavior pretty quickly in order to nip it in the bud.
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)