Oh, yes.. it's coming. And am I ever excited about it. It has completely revitalized my Sims addiction, and I've been closely following it's developments. (Mostly via SimsVip) I know a lot of people have been very polarized about it, many people are saying they're not going to switch, they don't like the changes, they don't like the things that have been cut from the game.. etc etc. However, being the computer/game geek that I am, I have a bit of a unique perspective on those things. I know that changes are often good for a game series. Historically, the Sims base games have always been very bare-bones. In fact, it took me a rather long time to switch from Sims 2 to 3 just because I was waiting for more features to be added. In some ways, I regret missing the early days of 3.. but in others, it worked out. Every time Sims gets updated, there are things I have missed from the previous incarnations, but on the whole, the changes each time they upgrade the game have been extremely positive. So.. I'm ALL for this new iteration of the series. I know pools and toddlers aren't in the base game.. and there's no work or school lots.. and there's going to be more loading screens with a less open world. Although I am disappointed with these (mostly about the toddlers and lack of work lots), I am very interested to see where it's going. The new Create A Sim features and abilities look amazing.. and the Build Mode upgrades... WOW! - look amazing. I can't WAIT to build houses with these new tools! The graphics look great, and I am SO very happy about the changes they're making to build mode. There is absolutely NO WAY that I will not be getting Sims 4 and playing it! That being said, I have no plans to be completely switching from Sims 3 to 4 initially... as I already mentioned, the base game is usually pretty vanilla.. and I really like having lots and lots of options available during play, so I won't be doing a final switch to 4 until more expansions are out. Which means I will still have plenty of time to play (and hopefully finish) my challenges in Sims 3 before I make an ultimate switch to 4. (Which is good news for anyone who likes the stories - including me!)
Some History
Sims 1
Yes, I started playing Sims way back with the first one... and I was hooked nearly right away. I still have the whole game, including all expansions, installed on my computer.. and I even occasionally load it up and play a bit! 🙂 Most of the time back then, my time was spent building houses and neighborhoods, but I did play with the simmies quite a bit too. I have lots of fond memories of the first game, and my addiction to the series has only grown since then!
Things I miss:
Magic Town!!!! Man, that place was the very best. The magic system really was quite a challenge! There was so very much flavor involved with the town, and having a completely separate "MagiCoins" currency was a fun idea. This is what I usually go back to Sims 1 to play - just to mess around. I loved the baby daffodil-munching dragons, and all the work involved in getting spell reagents... and the HUGE amount of work needed to actually purchase a Magic Town home.
Superstar. Cliche, but I really liked it. The way you did the different careers were really interesting, in my opinion, and it completely over-rode my dislike of everything celebrity and "fashionable" in today's culture.
Pet Shows. Seriously, those were fun. The Unleashed pack really did add quite a lot to the game, and all the different things you could do with the little furry creatures was a lot of fun.
Bella Goth. (Enough said.. lol)
Things I DON'T miss:
Kids never aging up. This annoyed me no end. Really, I utterly hated the never-ending or progressing way the game handled.
The graphics. Boy, does that game look dated now! 🙂
Sims 2
I was all-in on this game right away. I bought it right after it came out, and I really never looked back (except for the occasional re-visit to magic town).
Things I miss:
Open For Business expansion - there were so many things you could do with this, and it was ALWAYS a big challenge. I thought it really stepped up the difficulty factor, as well as just being plain fun to actually own the city's stores and lots and stuff.
Strangetown - enough said. I think I actually ended up playing here more than Pleasantville. For some reason, I was never able to get into Veronaville or the other towns.
Apartments - again, 'nuff said. It made building ye olde trailer park so much easier, and moving out sims SO much cheaper.
Sims 2 aging - other sims not aging when I'm playing one family. Sims 3 is so much harder to keep tabs on what is happening in the rest of the town..
More alien babies!
The University system was so much better in Sims 2. Having to go multiple times in 3 is annoying (although getting multiple degrees is nice)
Freetime Hobby system and clubs - those were fun, and being able to skill up in them was so much better than the way sims 3 does toy making and such.
Sims being able to have different types of sickness and die from them. (Kill the sims and collect different ghosts was SO much fun in 2! - not so much fun in sims 3, playable ghosts make weird noises and move SO slowly!)
Things I DON'T miss:
The weird good/bad/nuetral witch thing. It was so hard to switch between, and the constant glowy-ness always bugged me to no end.
Trying to find the count or countess to turn into a vampire. It always took forever!!
Sims 2 aging - just to be wishy washy.. in some ways I don't miss having to play all the families in a rotation, it's nice to have the rest of the town just keep rolling on.
The "chemistry" system... it just never made sense in the coding as to which sim would like which. At it's heart, it was nice to have attractions to other sims.. but, jeez.. be consistent!
Not being able to control the pets.
Sims 3
It took me a really long time to switch to Sims 3. Partially because of budget, and partially because I really liked Sims 2, and wasn't ready to switch to a game with less options and freedom. However, once I switched, I never looked back. There are simply so very many things to do in 3!
Things I love:
Controlling the pets
The very open world
Being able to control what sims do at work
Profession jobs and self-employment!
Horses!! (and minor pets) - you can practically make a zoo now! (and yay! unicorns!)
Supernatural's ability to make starting sims be .. well, supernatural. (although I hate that not all of the supernaturals can be gotten this way, ie aliens, mermaids, plantsims, imaginary friends
Gnome collecting! (although why is it so tough?!)
World Adventures travelling and Tomb-hunting.
Scuba Diving and boats.
SO many different career choices!
The immense variety of being supernatural - every type of sim is very different!
Lots of different skills to work on!
Things I DON'T love:
Into The Future and the early expansions having no achievements.
Lag. Nuff said.
Load times. Again, enough said.
Glitches, crashing, and bugs.
SimPort is great... when it works. But it doesn't work very often.
Being able to play as a ghost and bring sims back is great, but WHY do ghosts move like snails?!?!
Not being able to make the "cultural" or "hidden" traits be given to new sims.
Sim routing at buildings - it makes for pile-ups at the school and university classes.
Many of the skills are not integrated very well into careers.
Haha! I haven't read all of your recent posts, but I love this breakdown. I've been grazing the web for news about Sims 4, but the intensity of the negative feelings is really off-putting. Fans are really ANGRY! And honestly, though I agree that there's been some weird fumbling by EA/Maxis, I just don't see anything to merit this much feeling. I didn't start thinking pools were fun until Island Paradise. I couldn't care less about them being dropped from the base game. So far, I've heard three bits of news that I am unhappy about, in order of unhappiness:
1. Everything is going back to color presets. I really like having a color wheel. I can do without CASt, but the four-colored hairs and access to a full color wheel for hair and eyes is a real loss.
2. Can't edit the much-touted community spaces between lots. I do hope that will change in an expansion.
3. No toddlers. They weren't my favorite life stage, but the jump from baby to child is really jarring.
OTOH, the new tactile CAS and emotions have me really excited! And honestly just the lovely new look of the game has me engaged.
I'm not an early adopter, though. I have sworn I won't touch Sims 4 until I finish my 10-generation legacy, which is the SLOWEST LEGACY EVAR. It's about 2/3 done. At this rate I'll be able to get Sims 4 in 2016.
Guest
Echo Weaver
July 7, 2014 4:27 AM
Actually, I just learned that there's not even an attempt at Story Progression. That makes me sad. Maybe someone will attempt a mod akin to NRaas Story Progression.
Guest
illusorythrall
July 7, 2014 5:06 AM
They did state that there's something LIKE story progression though. I'm withholding judgement on that until I see how it plays out. since they've COMPLETELY rebuilt the entire engine the game is based on - so we'll see. I will definitely have sim 4 before (or at) christmas - probably before, so I'll give you my thoughts on it. As for the editing, I'm gonna keep an open mind about that, too. As much as I like rebuilding things, I'd like to still be able to do that, but we'll see. It sounds like the game system is moving towards what they did in console sims 3 - which wasn't bad, just different. It would definitely be a huge improvement on performance, which is clearly the part sims 3 was lacking for me. Since they're clearly still supporting mods, I'm sure someone will come up with something to add that editing functionality even if it isn't in base game. And toddlers - they've already stated they'll be back, so I'm really not worried about them, or pools. They'll be back. they just didn't have team resources to put them in the base game, which I'm totally cool with. I just don't understand the huge negativity from the fan base. There are so many cool things they've done.. why do people always gotta be so negative! Yeah, I'm sad about the color wheel gone.. but I'm waiting to see how it plays out. 🙂
Ha. You're one of the most reasonable Sims fans I've talked to about this! It's nice to have someone to chat with :).
The fanbase does seem to have forgotten just how many of the features of the previous games that they like the most came in expansions. And the level of angry, poinsonous vitriol is just shocking and off-putting. Clearly there's a big problem here with how PR was handled -- perhaps building up expectations, then having a series of announcements close to release date about features that have been cut. But the harder-core fan forums have always been filled with high-handed snarking about how awful the game is.... it seems like the deeper people get into the game, the more they want to hate on it. I don't really understand. It has flaws, and I'm grateful for modding, but I wouldn't have been playing Sims 3 for 5 years if it sucked. There's a handful of folks on the NRaas forums who immediately buy store content on release, just so they can post pictures and complain about how bad it is. It boggles the mind.
I strongly suspect that we'll get the ability to edit public spaces in a future expansion/patch. The Guru tweets on story progression seem to strongly indicate that we have AGING but not PROGRESSION. So play style will be much closer to Sims 2 -- you may turn aging on or off for the town, but if you want anyone in town to do anything, you have to switch to that household and play them a while.
Other rational players have pointed out that Sims 3 story progression never worked terribly well, even so far as to produce enough children to give active kids schoolmates. So Sims 4's system, with the ability to turn aging on and off for the town, plus a setting to allow you to set aging for families you have played, may well be an improvement on the Sims 3's attempt at progression.
My favorite play style involves downloading really interesting-looking sims and dumping them in my town to build an interesting gene pool for future generations. That will be pretty hard to do as Sims 4 is currently described. But there are other ways to play. I honestly think that GAME STABILITY is the single most important feature.
I do tend to be reasonable on new games coming out, because I have an affinity for developers. I've coded before, and I KNOW how difficult it is. I can't imagine being on both a budget and a strict time constraint.. it's gotta be a nightmare. You're right, they probably will add editing in the future.. if not, someone will mod it. And yes, sims 3 story progression caused more problems than it fixed. I'm in complete agreement that making game stability a priority is a huge bonus. I can't wait to see how it plays out!
Haha. I'm a software developer by trade. Maybe that's a major source of perpective :).
Guest
brainofivane
July 7, 2014 7:45 AM
I'm sure it's going to have some great features - that I have no doubt about, but as you said, base games are so vanilla, so I'll probably wait until there are more expansions before switching to Sims 4.
Anyway, I really liked your "commentary" of sorts on the sims games. Made me remember what I loved about each of the game's iterations. 🙂 I have my qualms about Sims 4, but I'm really hoping that it's a step up... just because I really do love Sims. 🙂
That being said, I'm looking forward to read about your review of Sims 4. 🙂
Thanks for your comment, Brian!! I'll definitely post a full review of sim 4 as soon as I'm able to get it. Despite it being vanilla, I really want to be involved from the beginning. Granted, I'll be coming back to sims 3 for the features, but I want to see how the game grow this iteration!
I am a 45 year old American wife, mother, and gamer. I’ve lived in the Midwest most of my life, and enjoy it for the changing seasons. My favorite movie is Labyrinth, my favorite game is Sims 4, and I have tattoos related to both. My favorite colors are purple, red, and green. When I’m not playing games (which is rare) I also enjoy reading and crafting. I’m also an animal lover, and have had many types of pets over the years. Currently, I have a dog named Cassie who is a Jack Russel / Beagle mix and three young fancy rats (all of whom are rescues). I run this Sims 4 Blog where I post screenshots and stories about the different challenges I play. Also here are the Sims 4 challenges I've written, and a place for me to store all the Sims 4 knowledge I've gotten over the years. I am also a Sims 4/variety streamer on Twitch for my mental health, fun, and to meet new people. I have also recently been accepted to the EA Creator Network, which is a dream come true! I look forward to meeting you!
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Haha! I haven't read all of your recent posts, but I love this breakdown. I've been grazing the web for news about Sims 4, but the intensity of the negative feelings is really off-putting. Fans are really ANGRY! And honestly, though I agree that there's been some weird fumbling by EA/Maxis, I just don't see anything to merit this much feeling. I didn't start thinking pools were fun until Island Paradise. I couldn't care less about them being dropped from the base game. So far, I've heard three bits of news that I am unhappy about, in order of unhappiness:
1. Everything is going back to color presets. I really like having a color wheel. I can do without CASt, but the four-colored hairs and access to a full color wheel for hair and eyes is a real loss.
2. Can't edit the much-touted community spaces between lots. I do hope that will change in an expansion.
3. No toddlers. They weren't my favorite life stage, but the jump from baby to child is really jarring.
OTOH, the new tactile CAS and emotions have me really excited! And honestly just the lovely new look of the game has me engaged.
I'm not an early adopter, though. I have sworn I won't touch Sims 4 until I finish my 10-generation legacy, which is the SLOWEST LEGACY EVAR. It's about 2/3 done. At this rate I'll be able to get Sims 4 in 2016.
Actually, I just learned that there's not even an attempt at Story Progression. That makes me sad. Maybe someone will attempt a mod akin to NRaas Story Progression.
They did state that there's something LIKE story progression though. I'm withholding judgement on that until I see how it plays out. since they've COMPLETELY rebuilt the entire engine the game is based on - so we'll see. I will definitely have sim 4 before (or at) christmas - probably before, so I'll give you my thoughts on it. As for the editing, I'm gonna keep an open mind about that, too. As much as I like rebuilding things, I'd like to still be able to do that, but we'll see. It sounds like the game system is moving towards what they did in console sims 3 - which wasn't bad, just different. It would definitely be a huge improvement on performance, which is clearly the part sims 3 was lacking for me. Since they're clearly still supporting mods, I'm sure someone will come up with something to add that editing functionality even if it isn't in base game. And toddlers - they've already stated they'll be back, so I'm really not worried about them, or pools. They'll be back. they just didn't have team resources to put them in the base game, which I'm totally cool with. I just don't understand the huge negativity from the fan base. There are so many cool things they've done.. why do people always gotta be so negative! Yeah, I'm sad about the color wheel gone.. but I'm waiting to see how it plays out. 🙂
Ha. You're one of the most reasonable Sims fans I've talked to about this! It's nice to have someone to chat with :).
The fanbase does seem to have forgotten just how many of the features of the previous games that they like the most came in expansions. And the level of angry, poinsonous vitriol is just shocking and off-putting. Clearly there's a big problem here with how PR was handled -- perhaps building up expectations, then having a series of announcements close to release date about features that have been cut. But the harder-core fan forums have always been filled with high-handed snarking about how awful the game is.... it seems like the deeper people get into the game, the more they want to hate on it. I don't really understand. It has flaws, and I'm grateful for modding, but I wouldn't have been playing Sims 3 for 5 years if it sucked. There's a handful of folks on the NRaas forums who immediately buy store content on release, just so they can post pictures and complain about how bad it is. It boggles the mind.
I strongly suspect that we'll get the ability to edit public spaces in a future expansion/patch. The Guru tweets on story progression seem to strongly indicate that we have AGING but not PROGRESSION. So play style will be much closer to Sims 2 -- you may turn aging on or off for the town, but if you want anyone in town to do anything, you have to switch to that household and play them a while.
Other rational players have pointed out that Sims 3 story progression never worked terribly well, even so far as to produce enough children to give active kids schoolmates. So Sims 4's system, with the ability to turn aging on and off for the town, plus a setting to allow you to set aging for families you have played, may well be an improvement on the Sims 3's attempt at progression.
My favorite play style involves downloading really interesting-looking sims and dumping them in my town to build an interesting gene pool for future generations. That will be pretty hard to do as Sims 4 is currently described. But there are other ways to play. I honestly think that GAME STABILITY is the single most important feature.
I do tend to be reasonable on new games coming out, because I have an affinity for developers. I've coded before, and I KNOW how difficult it is. I can't imagine being on both a budget and a strict time constraint.. it's gotta be a nightmare. You're right, they probably will add editing in the future.. if not, someone will mod it. And yes, sims 3 story progression caused more problems than it fixed. I'm in complete agreement that making game stability a priority is a huge bonus. I can't wait to see how it plays out!
Haha. I'm a software developer by trade. Maybe that's a major source of perpective :).
I'm sure it's going to have some great features - that I have no doubt about, but as you said, base games are so vanilla, so I'll probably wait until there are more expansions before switching to Sims 4.
Anyway, I really liked your "commentary" of sorts on the sims games. Made me remember what I loved about each of the game's iterations. 🙂 I have my qualms about Sims 4, but I'm really hoping that it's a step up... just because I really do love Sims. 🙂
That being said, I'm looking forward to read about your review of Sims 4. 🙂
What brain said! I look forward to your review!
Thanks for your comment, Brian!! I'll definitely post a full review of sim 4 as soon as I'm able to get it. Despite it being vanilla, I really want to be involved from the beginning. Granted, I'll be coming back to sims 3 for the features, but I want to see how the game grow this iteration!
Hahaha... yep... have fun!! And you can call me Ivane... 🙂