I have grown to appreciate the uniqueness of each rendition.
TS of course was ground breaking in itself
TS2 for me offered the most for family style play. Sims appeared truly attached and to an extent dependent on one another in there interactions. In TS2 I couldn't really just focus on one sim because their happiness more times than not (in my experience) depended on the interaction with other sims as opposed to interaction with objects. I really loved this because it fit my play style perfectly.
TS3 felt far more singular focused. My sims really didn't seem to care or be as dependent on each other. It felt very representative of the "me" culture that was blooming at that time. It offered tons of variations of the same things but was somehow still satisfying. Then of course color wheel *YES!* Story progression! YES! Open world, tons of exciting stuff that made up for the fact that my sim families weren't so tightly tied anymore.
TS4 feels like its trying to do everything, without really mastering any of it. So it offers something (but not all of anything) for everyone. I am finally *FINALLY!* enjoying family play after 2 loooooooooong years.
Anyway I got off topic a bit, I'm glad to see other people enjoying older versions of the game still. I go back to TS2 pretty often and sometimes TS3 though since the toddler patch I open those games far less often.
