@kangaroobabe thank you so much! that was one detailed review and i very much appreciate it :)
it sounds amazing and i am now definitely gonna get the sime 4 although most likely not very very soon. 70 dollar? that is simply crazy especially as i assume the game will be full of bugs and lags in the early stages as usual. unbelievable.
sims 4 does sound like it will take a while to get used to. but that is always true i think. when i switched away from sims 2, i was not too fond of 3 and i went back to playing 2 quite frequently. but eventually that changed, mainly i was won over by the new ways of building and how you can place stuff better. it's so convenient. therefore i bet that the shop/build mode and combined cas family screen you described, will be among my favourite features. along with shorter loading times. they are a bummer in my game right now, taking up to or even longer than 10 minutes sometimes! i think next year some time i may consider the new sims game. or i might break down sooner if i keep reading exciting stuff. and also if forums like this get empty due to everybody playing the new game lol
EDIT: after reading all your conversations about sims 4, i figure it will be really hard to stay away from it!!