The Sims 4

[DreekLass]

There has been a lot of controversy surrounding The Sims 4, it seems. When it was first released it lacked a whole bunch of things that the previous three games had - components which made the Sims franchise what it is today.

Many fans of the game seem to be upset or let down. I have to say that as a long-running fan of The Sims franchise, I was disappointed with The Sims 4. The new emotional system is great but it is not enough to make up for all that is missing.

What are your thoughts on The Sims 4?

 

[Maxprime94]

I honestly just bought this game for my girlfriend and boy is she disappointed! I have no idea what they did to the game... seems like they literally chopped it in half in order to increase FPS. It would have been better if they had never realease sims 4 this year and took the time to work on it for a few more YEARS.

 

[Saccharine]

I have to agree that Sims 4 feels rather stripped down, but to be honest most of the complaints I have with it are ones I also had with The Sims 3, so I've got a bit of a bone to pick with the series at this point. I feel that The Sims 2 was an incredible game, the high point of the franchise and that it'll never again reach that level of quality. Custom content creators are still producing amazing stuff for it even today; like with VtMB, you can usually tell a game is something special if fans stick around that long even after the ship sails. For all the appeal of an open world that changes as your particular Sim family does, neither 3 nor 4 have anywhere near the kind of depth you could acheive with 2. Still, it was my first game of the franchise, so it's hard to tell where honest critique gives way to rose-coloured lenses where I'm concerned.

 

[Inglenook]

It's weird, because they don't even have a Mac version yet like all their other games. Is the game just rushed or did the devs make these decisions consciously? Anyway, I guess they could always fix this kind of stuff later with patches?

The most annoying part of the Sims series is that I have to play the games digitally since I bought the digital versions. When Sims 4 for Mac comes out I'm going to buy the CD version for my girlfriend for sure.

 

[jurew2]

I know what you're talking about. My friend who is crazy about Sims said the same thing about Sims 4. She loved all the Sims games, but this new version which is chopped down a lot is not as fun as the previous releases. They should've definetely take their time and make this game better before releasing it. I just hope that they will fix this in the next release or in some DLCs. We'll see.

 

[Squeakish]

I have to agree that Sims 4 feels rather stripped down, but to be honest most of the complaints I have with it are ones I also had with The Sims 3, so I've got a bit of a bone to pick with the series at this point. I feel that The Sims 2 was an incredible game, the high point of the franchise and that it'll never again reach that level of quality. Custom content creators are still producing amazing stuff for it even today; like with VtMB, you can usually tell a game is something special if fans stick around that long even after the ship sails. For all the appeal of an open world that changes as your particular Sim family does, neither 3 nor 4 have anywhere near the kind of depth you could acheive with 2. Still, it was my first game of the franchise, so it's hard to tell where honest critique gives way to rose-coloured lenses where I'm concerned.

I totally agree, I came into sims on Sims 2, but it honestly feels like the best game they've done so far in the franchise. Sims 3 has aspects I enjoyed (like the open world) but it still felt lacking in overall content. The story's in the towns for Sims 2 felt more fleshed out as well, I really got into playing out the pre-made sims in Strangetown, and the Romeo/Juliet thing going on in Veronaville. In Sims 3 it was hard to jump into and feel attached to any of the pre-made sims, or storylines which has been a big selling point for me.

I haven't played a ton of Sims 4, but I read about a lot of the content they stripped out (I read an article that said it was like 78 vital features, not sure how accurate) and it seems like a huge bummer for them to do that. On the bright side, I know one thing they were missing was Pools, which they either recently added or are adding (haven't played it recently just remember seeing an update in a gaming article I read.) So that's cool, if they add all the missing features in free content updates I think it will still be a fun game worth playing - but it will take time for it to get there.

 

[sorrowscall]

Awe! This was going to be one of the next games I bought! Everyone seems to be very unimpressed with it though. Now I feel a little embarrassed about standing there and staring at it for twenty minutes the other day. I'm glad they implemented a kind of emotion system to the game; it really needed something like that. On the other hand, they at least seem to be re-adding the usual stuff via updates.

 

[shreklock]

I know what you're talking about. My friend who is crazy about Sims said the same thing about Sims 4. She loved all the Sims games, but this new version which is chopped down a lot is not as fun as the previous releases. They should've definetely take their time and make this game better before releasing it. I just hope that they will fix this in the next release or in some DLCs. We'll see.

Man, if they start releasing bug fixes as DLCs, I'll be mad as hell. I kind would expect it from EA, though.

 

[Ansp]

I think a large part with the Sims 2 was that (almost) everything people wanted changed, added or removed from The Sims was done. I remember it took me 2 weeks after the game came out to finally get a copy. People would talk about how much changed and as a base game it was fantastic.

The DLC for The Sims 2 was initially an example of how to do DLC properly. I personally got Open for Business as I really liked the idea of running a store or a restaurant. However a friend of mine got University as that's what he wanted to play and didn't like the idea of business. Regardless the base game was still the same and it felt like a bolt on to an already great game which you could tailor to yourself.

In the Sims 3 whilst they did do the much needed overhaul on exiting lots and the neighborhood. Yet the base game felt limited compared to the transition of Sims to Sims 2. There was much less choice in terms of items you could buy, careers felt like a linear path and 'custom' items were already out for purchase from day 1.

The Sims 2 felt like a complete game from the start, the Sims 3 didn't. You knew there would be DLC that would become almost mandatory in 3. That it would modify the base game and experience and add new missing basic elements. Something that didn't happen often in the Sims 2.

I personally don't own the Sims 4, I still play the Sims 2 to this day after a day or two on 3. 2 gives me the ability to choose between my basic Sims experience that has been the same since day 1 or my expansion pack where I can do something almost completely different in the same game.
I imagine that the Sims 4 went one step further and stripped even more back for what they assume is a core experience. However I know that what made the Sims so popular was that lack of small choice. Every experience was different and EA seems to have missed that point.

Either way if the experience is as bad as I have heard some people say people wont rush out to buy the Sims 5 and maybe EA will go back to the drawing board and look at what actually worked and come out with a true sequel to 2. Maybe they will do a SimCity and add some content into the base game for free and try and undo the damage. Either way I haven't heard much at all about 4 which says it all.

 

[BluBird]

Haven't bought it yet because I heard it was a mess...also is anyone playing it on the newest MacBook Pros (13 inch)? How does it play on those? I might buy one so if it plays really well on it and the game is actually good then I would consider purchasing.