Let's Discuss AlterLife in Terms of EA: Realism vs caricature simulation

AlterLife, while looking realistic and beautiful, looks robotic and lifeless for me. The graphics look similar to those action games like GTA. Not my cup of tea for a life simulator. And is it even real? I did see it on Steam. 

If it were not real, it would be the most convincing life sim forgery yet. There are counterfeit life simulation trailers on YouTube which are just clips bundled together from other game genres, but this trailer does not follow that tactic, so it could be legit. It is still easily days for the animation. The Sims Olympus project was robotic, in its infancy.

Hopefully, this developer, VGG Studio they proclaim, have an animation team with the needed equipment to change the robotic and lifeless aspect. That is one thing The Sims 4 trumps by far. What about art design, the environment? 

I find the cartoonish look of the sims cute, and not much like games that strives for so called realism; unattainable and harsh to the eyes. I would like the sims, or any other simulation game succeeding it, to be less silly though. I don't think it needs to be so childish to attract a large consumer base.

@calzonyCraze , I find the more realistic look better for games that are serious and  gritty in nature, like a war based game.  The Sims is always supposed to be light-hearted, even when our Sims die, which is why they can die of such things as being hysterical with laughter. So I think the more cartoony look fits the game perfectly! 
Therefore I agree with @bae281995 and @DonroaAkashu  on this one.  However I do like at least some of the silliness in The Sims 4.  There has always been some of that in all the versions of the Sims.  🥳🤪

Finally, they did try to go for a more realistic look with the Sims 3, but a lot of people hated the look of the Sims themselves.  They were called "doughy", "creepy doll people", "plastic looking", "Play-Doh like", and even "Pudding People"! 🤣  However, there will always be people on both sides of this argument. 😉

Yes, @PugLove888  I like the word silly, it contains every aspect from ignorant and unintelligent to cute and funny and goofy; and I use it variedly in all its meanings without ever clarify what I intend, since that is the fun with language, that it is up to the reciever to give it meaning. But I do agree, I like the sims being cute and funny, and cheeky and goofy!

I have seen the term pudding sim a lot, mostly on Sims Forum. I think the reason is that most are not very good in CAS, to shape the faces giving them character. It takes a while to get to know all the controls, and some of the mechanisms that gives them all the same look, in TS4 as well. 

@DonroaAkashu , yes, I agree about silly (which is why I said that I do at least like some of the silliness in the game). 😉 It can have a foolish connotation or a fun one. 😎

I love making Sims in CAS (in all version of the game except the Sims 1 since you just chose a head and there was nothing to do ).  And since I didn't like the Sims 3 gameplay compared to the Sims 2 gameplay, but loved the Sims 3 CASt wheel, I spent a lot of time in CAS in the Sims 3!!! 😅  I made somewhat nice looking Sims, but they always felt off to me.  No amount of manipulation could totally fix them.😔  While this was a problem for all Sims,  I didn't mind the female Sims so much, but the male Sims always looked on the feminine side, which is good if that is what you are going for, but if it isn't what you are trying to accomplish, then you will feel unsatisfied. The same can be said if you wanted to make a more masculine looking female Sim in the Sims 3.  The only Sims that came out looking somewhat as intended would be Sims that the player intended to be on the feminine side.  This also made all Sims look kind of too similar, which was another problem . 🙄 While I'm not the best at copying real life people in Sim form in my game, I'm pretty good at making attractive Sims, but I never liked how the TS3 Sims looked in general.  😕  The good thing was that I could at least give them any hair color or combination 🙌, even if it often looked way too shiny! 🤣

Oh, yes, I like the gender bender feature in TS4 very much, such a relief from the bipolar state in TS3! I am not good in CAS and I will never be since it does not have any interest to me; but I like to mix and match. The colour wheel made it easier to create nice hair colours in TS3 though, I agree! But I saw that they just added a new pinkish blond, just what I wanted. It's good the constant updates keeps us occupied... :P

@DonroaAkashu , yes I'm very happy that they added the new haircolors to TS4!  Before this it was impossible to make my Simself with anything even close to my real hair color! 😅  Yes, I love when they add new things in the updates (not to mention fix bugs as well!).  While the Sims 4 style is more cartoon like, it is still good to have a wide variety of of realistic hair and skin colors 🙌, not to mention a few hair colors that aren't so realistic! 🥳

Well, they are realistic in that they can be achieved in reality, but I have yet to give my sims the pure pink hair. I did make an alien descendant once, purple skinned and pointy teeth, that's a nice addition.. I'm not really sure what would count as realistic though, but if opposed to caricature, as in the original post, I prefer the goofy lines and full colour fields before the nitty gritty harsh and pale look in the screen shot; so depressing, and not like any reality I know. If I wanted to look at reality, I'd go outside, or sit inside doing whatever else than playing a game on a computer. Games can never be art, but it is slightly more interesting with a take on reality, than trying to copying it. I wouldn't call The Sims a caricature though, it lacks the high humour for it.

The better something looks the more obvious the limitations become.

Sims 4 works really well being in Cartoony life style, but likely Sims 4 engine could use an overhaul to Sims 5 - to allow more complex interaction mechanics.

Such as making a Custom Slide similar to Theme Park and allowing bigger wolds and plot world spaces by increasing minimum system requirements.