@iEllaLouise reading all the different hardware out there for both laptop and and desktop is something people have to learn if they want to game. If you don't understand it, there are places like Tom's hardware and other webs that can help you with that. It's up to the customer who buys games to understand the hardware needed and the hardware they are buying.
If you want to game on laptop, you need a computer designed to handle the games you want to play. People who buy computers going strictly by looks is not a great idea. We have had people do that and the end result is the computer looks the way they want it to however it does not have the hardware to handle the games they want to play. This would be the same situation for you.
You must put your laptop on a hard surface. Blocking the cooling by putting the laptop on a bed can do serious damage to your laptop and could set your bed and laptop on fire. I hope you at least have a portable bed table to put the laptop on.
That HP you posted is also way below requirements to run the sims 3 and 4, why you eventually had problems.
Laptops that meet requirements, you need
Video card: Nvidia GTX 1050, 1050 ti or 1060
Processor, intel i5 or i7 quad core for gaming. They will end in HQ or MQ ( Not U)
Hard drive space 500 gb or more
computer ram: 8gb
Windows 64 bit