TS3 2.0
It seems like some player truly want TS4 to be TS3 2.0. I've spent a little more than $375 on this game, with a few discounts, and I definitely wouldn't do that for the same game with better graphics....
Forum Discussion
So if wanting Sims 4 to have had open world and Create-A-Style retained; perhaps we were expecting Sims3 2.0 but as @Mazakeen said, I think we were expecting a worthy Sims 4 successor which built on the previous iteration with new features. And that wasn't what we got. What we got was a monumental step backwards. They completely trashed every bit of progress that came along with the Sims 3 and gave us Sims 1 in 2014 wrappings expecting us all to eat it up and "be happy"... Well, some of us aren't...
But when you have loading screens to go to a neighbour's house, you end up creating something worse than a closed-world situation. Your house is a separate entity. When one plays in Sims 4; nothing happens outside of your home while you are playing inside the home - it's like the outside world doesn't exist. Whereas in Sims 3 if you looked outside the window, you see Sims going around their business doing their own thing - story progression. For my style of gameplay, rabbit-holes don't matter. If my Sim gets a rabbithole job...well, that's 6 hours I don't have to worry about him/her doing something stupid like setting a SimmerChar on fire while making Goopy Carbonara. I can concentrate on doing something that will mess with his/her little Sim mind when he/she gets home from work like tearing his/her house down and rebuilding all the way up or doing other things to the lots. But the thing is while that Sim is at work, it's not like nothing happens in the neighborhood, you see kids going to school, you see adults going to work or townies hanging around the park. Every Sim is doing its own thing.
If I wanted a social interaction simulator where I wanted to blather on and on to one Sim or more Sims, I'd just pop open Evie and talk to her. She's just as responsive and irritating as doing anything in the Sims 4 and she comes up with better non-sequitur answers. And a 30-45 sec. loading screen to go from one's house to the park...I'm surprised that my Sim doesn't forget what it was that he/she was sent to do in the first place. Yes, we got those 3 minutes loading screens in TS3 WA but at least there it felt like they were going somewhere to do something. Whereas forget WA type adventures in Sims 4. Loading screens to visit every single market place (bookstore - loading screen, general store - loading screen, market food vendor - loading screen...), every tomb. every sightseeing location? And then they want to add other locations to it too - not just Egypt, France and China. With TS3 WA you got to go to Map View and get a birds-eye view of the whole map and you could go to ANY Location on the map...not just directly to a lot. which is what everyone will be restricted to with any attempt to recreate TS3 WA experience in a Sims 4 expansion pack. At least in TS3 we could stand "between" the lots if we wanted to or go anywhere on the map - no restrictions unless the place was outside the playing area of the constructed world.
Secondly, they blew Create-A-Style completely away...and left us with very limited options for clothing for the Sims, but oh, we're supposed to be sooo happy that we can dress our sim like a HOTDOG!??? :/ Meh... No color palette, no style options...no way to customize your Sim's clothing to not be a carbon copy of another Sim walking down the street. We can't dress our Sims the way that we want to using the color palette to customize the Sim's clothing to the color or style that we want her to have.
There is no CAW option either in TS4. Meaning what lots you have are what YOU are stuck with. You want to place a lot on that blank area of land on the map? Sorry...no dice. You're stuck with the SINGLE empty lot that you're given for that neighborhood that you're plunked into and if you want to go visit your neighbours to diffuse the boredom, oh...sorry...you can't do that either...unless you endure our loading screen. Of course if you don't care that you have no interaction with your neighbours then that won't bother TS4 players.
Thirdly: Welcome to the PRAIRIES! Your lot is flat. There is no terrain mapping...or editing features. You get a grid...to build a flat terrain house ho hum...yep...no topographical features at all. WYSIWYG. Wow...we just went back to Sims 2. We can't have raised or lowered terrain on our lot. Want a gentle slope going up to your house? Forget it...Can't have it.
Fourthly: NO cars...no pools, no ghosts, no burglars, no cops, firemen or anything else until we're waiting for the next EXPANSION PACK...KACHING!!!! Hellooooo...more $$$$$. Goody...
Well, hey...at least the plus side is that I can breed cowplants and have an angry poop. Yeah... :/
Rant done.
But when you have loading screens to go to a neighbour's house, you end up creating something worse than a closed-world situation. Your house is a separate entity. When one plays in Sims 4; nothing happens outside of your home while you are playing inside the home - it's like the outside world doesn't exist. Whereas in Sims 3 if you looked outside the window, you see Sims going around their business doing their own thing - story progression. For my style of gameplay, rabbit-holes don't matter. If my Sim gets a rabbithole job...well, that's 6 hours I don't have to worry about him/her doing something stupid like setting a SimmerChar on fire while making Goopy Carbonara. I can concentrate on doing something that will mess with his/her little Sim mind when he/she gets home from work like tearing his/her house down and rebuilding all the way up or doing other things to the lots. But the thing is while that Sim is at work, it's not like nothing happens in the neighborhood, you see kids going to school, you see adults going to work or townies hanging around the park. Every Sim is doing its own thing.
If I wanted a social interaction simulator where I wanted to blather on and on to one Sim or more Sims, I'd just pop open Evie and talk to her. She's just as responsive and irritating as doing anything in the Sims 4 and she comes up with better non-sequitur answers. And a 30-45 sec. loading screen to go from one's house to the park...I'm surprised that my Sim doesn't forget what it was that he/she was sent to do in the first place. Yes, we got those 3 minutes loading screens in TS3 WA but at least there it felt like they were going somewhere to do something. Whereas forget WA type adventures in Sims 4. Loading screens to visit every single market place (bookstore - loading screen, general store - loading screen, market food vendor - loading screen...), every tomb. every sightseeing location? And then they want to add other locations to it too - not just Egypt, France and China. With TS3 WA you got to go to Map View and get a birds-eye view of the whole map and you could go to ANY Location on the map...not just directly to a lot. which is what everyone will be restricted to with any attempt to recreate TS3 WA experience in a Sims 4 expansion pack. At least in TS3 we could stand "between" the lots if we wanted to or go anywhere on the map - no restrictions unless the place was outside the playing area of the constructed world.
Secondly, they blew Create-A-Style completely away...and left us with very limited options for clothing for the Sims, but oh, we're supposed to be sooo happy that we can dress our sim like a HOTDOG!??? :/ Meh... No color palette, no style options...no way to customize your Sim's clothing to not be a carbon copy of another Sim walking down the street. We can't dress our Sims the way that we want to using the color palette to customize the Sim's clothing to the color or style that we want her to have.
There is no CAW option either in TS4. Meaning what lots you have are what YOU are stuck with. You want to place a lot on that blank area of land on the map? Sorry...no dice. You're stuck with the SINGLE empty lot that you're given for that neighborhood that you're plunked into and if you want to go visit your neighbours to diffuse the boredom, oh...sorry...you can't do that either...unless you endure our loading screen. Of course if you don't care that you have no interaction with your neighbours then that won't bother TS4 players.
Thirdly: Welcome to the PRAIRIES! Your lot is flat. There is no terrain mapping...or editing features. You get a grid...to build a flat terrain house ho hum...yep...no topographical features at all. WYSIWYG. Wow...we just went back to Sims 2. We can't have raised or lowered terrain on our lot. Want a gentle slope going up to your house? Forget it...Can't have it.
Fourthly: NO cars...no pools, no ghosts, no burglars, no cops, firemen or anything else until we're waiting for the next EXPANSION PACK...KACHING!!!! Hellooooo...more $$$$$. Goody...
Well, hey...at least the plus side is that I can breed cowplants and have an angry poop. Yeah... :/
Rant done.
