You know all this talk about TS2 actually made me vaguely remember a promising hilarious mod that unfortunately vanished from the light of the Earth;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkLqV_9lkzU
This needs to be done again. It is amusing to no end.
Anyways, yeah, TS2 = a proper, balanced and excellent sequel. That hasn't been accomplished again neither by TS3 nor TS4. And to me, the fact that I was able to pour so many hours into TS2 from the moment it was released even though my play style was not really there is quite telling of the quality of the game. Granted TS3 gave me everything I had wanted in the series, and what it didn't/half-baked it I fixed it anyways, but this is a thread solely about TS2 and TS4 so I'll leave that out.
I will always feel like TS2 had the right formula going, and had they maintained it the series would have been a whole lot better.