I don't feel that TS4 is "a stripped down cartoony version of TS3" .. TS4 is a different art style, but most people hated the look of the Sims in TS3! They called them plastic, doll-like, and doughy. I felt the females fared better in TS3, but all the males never looked how I wanted them to. I don't have that problem in TS4!
And TS4 is necessarily "stripped down" because TS3 was so bloated the game didn't work! ๐ Any good qualities that TS3 had were quickly overshadowed by the game at best being incredibly jumpy and slow, and at worst grinding to a complete halt!!! ๐ฌ I felt that TS3 was a much worse deal than TS4... TS4 I can actually play!!! ๐ And its better to have one or two 30 second loading screens (TS4) than to spend 20 - 40 minutes waiting for your game to start working again, only to have it advance a few frames before another waiting period! (TS3) !
So, yes I do think the TS4 expansions are worth it.โค๏ธ I didn't think the TS3 expansions were worth the price, since the game didn't work.๐ข Really a shame since TS3 had some great ideas.
I enjoy Discover University for TS4 much better than University Life for TS3, but not as much as University for TS2! โค๏ธ But, I'm not near finished exploring what Discover University has to offer,
In TS3 most of your classes were rabbit holes just like TS4 (and TS2, for that matter). There was a lecture you could attend with your Sim in TS3, but those were pretty boring.
As for you Sim being rejected for University, I started with a new Young Adult Sim and didn't get rejected !๐ค I didn't make it into any Distinguished courses, of course, since my Sim had no skills, but I still got in. And that is why there are 2 Universities: to give your Sims a chance at getting a distinguished degree. Also, this gives a chance to experience 2 different types of campuses and 2 different types of college experiences science and tech versus arts and literature! Also, by having 2 schools you have the opportunity to have school rivalries, which , at least in the United States is part of the fun of going to college!
You don't have to live in the dorms if you don't want to, but in real life some dorms are restrictive in what you are allowed to bring into them. Many don't allow you to burn candles or incense, for example. Some don't allow you to put nails in the walls. In the U.S. most dorms do not have a kitchen , so this is a direct reflection of everyone's experience in a dorm that I know. You are criticizing not the DU expansion, but the United States dorm experience! ๐ I had one friend that had a bathroom exactly like the ones at the dorms in UBrite, with the exception that all the dorms residents were female! So the dorm bathrooms might be poorly designed, but they are realistically designed! (I also had another friend at a different school that had semi-private dorms , so that her and her roommate had a connecting bathroom with 2 suitemates.) But having one poor bed and a desk shared with a roommate is fairly standard. If you want luxury accommodations then you can live in non-student housing or recreate the dorms to your specifications! ๐๐
Cheats do not make your game freak out and crash. There are tons of builders who use cheats all the time with no problems. ๐ Perhaps you are confusing cheats with Mods and Custom Content? ๐ค Mods and CC can make your game do weird things, if they are outdated, but EA didn't tell us to use Mods and CC for Discover University. @SheriGR is a builder who uses cheats a lot to make her creations. I also use several different cheats on a regular basis with no problems. Some cheats might make it difficult or impossible to complete some collections , but that won't make your game or computer freak out and crash. ๐
You mentioned that the cheat didn't work when you tried it. Perhaps you mistyped it? ๐ค Just bring up the cheat box by pressing "Ctrl"+ "Shift" + "C" and then typing in the box bb.enablefreebuild and press "Enter". ๐ (don't forget the period between "bb" and "enable..." I sometimes forget that. ๐คญ )
The microwave is to be placed on the mini fridge! ๐ You don't need a kitchen to place it! I had no problems placing the items bought in the kiosk in my dorm, since the controls to rotate the camera in Live Mode are the same as those would be in Build/Buy Mode. Bland posters and boring rugs? I found some very exciting posters and rugs in the collection. There seems to be a variety of bold designs mixed in with more subtle ones. โค๏ธ
This poster is certainly not bland:
There are some tricks to completing your coursework in the allotted time. If you go to the library located between the 2 universities, it has the Study Location lot trait that increases the rate at which you complete your homework, write term papers, and study! ๐ Also, you can form study groups to also speed the rate of homework and learning. Finally, the more you learn the Research and Debate skill, the better you will be at all of your coursework! ๐ค If you are having trouble at first completing everything in time, then just take one or 2 classes a term, until you increase your Research and Debate skill. ๐
I don't know what you mean by :
"Theres a couple of student bars, on the older campus the bar is a really big punch in the face from Origin and EA to players who have been in it for the long run. You're provided with a beer pong table, a bar and some of the most unimaginative building layouts in the history of The Sims."
There is only one bar and it isn't on either campus but in the area between them. So, I think you mean the Student Commons. But the poorly laid-out student commons that has the Ping-Pong/juice pong table isn't in the older campus , but on the modern one. And while the layout is horrible and ugly, this isn't all that this location has, as upstairs it has 2 robotics stations that you can use for free! ๐ And you don't even have to use a cheat to redesign the student commons as Build/Buy Mode can be accessed there for free! โค๏ธ
The Library isn't just a normal library with research machines, it also has the Study Location lot trait to boost your learning and homework speed! ๐
But you can still redesign any building... Check out on YouTube Lilsimsie, as she is known for making the games buildings both more functional and prettier! ๐ฅณ If you don't like to build, then you can even download her buildings and even her Save if you want to replace whole towns! ๐
Of course real universities are more exciting -- you actually get to do the learning in a real university! TS2's University EP was the most fun of the 3 versions we have had in the Sims, but it still can't hold a candle to the wonderful experience I had attending college in real life! ๐ฅณ๐คโค๏ธ
I found that Seasons was a game changing pack! And it didn't have the costumes and pumpkin carving because Spooky Stuff came out years before Seasons did! To include that in Seasons would have been redundant and would have meant that something else would have not made the cut. ๐ And since Spooky Stuff had been out for so long before Seasons was released, many people already had it! ๐ Besides, Seasons didn't give you town park events because that was already too similar to the festivals in City Living! To make up for that Seasons gave us holidays and even the ability to craft our own holidays! ๐ฅณ
True, Strangerville doesn't have a lot of replayabiltiy, but it does give us a new town with beautiful scenery, and for builders it gives a lot of new Build/Buy items. Personally, I use the CAS items from Strangerville a lot! For me this is worth it since I love to create new Sims! And I totally agree that Parenthood is a fantastic GP! (Though for people that don't like to play families, they would disagree with us!).
I do not think they are ripping players off. We all have access to YouTube and other places where we can see the content of each pack , both in Build/Buy & CAS items, as well as gameplay. I have bought every single EP for the original The Sims, as well as all the EPs and SPs for TS2 & TS3, and now all the EPs, GPs and SPs for TS4. I have not regretted any pack I have bought since I have found something to like about each of them, (even the Kate Perry Sweet Treats SP from TS3 which is my least favorite pack in all of the Sims!) ๐ I know I will find something worthwhile in each pack, so I don't have to watch reviews to decide whether a certain pack is for me or not. But since not everyone will like every pack, at least we have the ability to screen the packs before we buy them, If a player is more skeptical, then they just will need to do some research before purchasing.
And I think the real rip off was that horrible TS3 Store that nickeled and dimed us to death, all for a game that didn't work for most computers! ๐ค๐
I think Expansions are a good price, even if they are close to the base game (and they often go on sale anyway!). This is because I would never just want to play with the base game in any version of the Sims! Would you just read the first book of the Harry Potter series? You could , as its a nice story, but you would be preventing yourself the full experience. ๐ค
Thanks for your reply, interesting to see another opinion on the matter.
As for saying itโs cartoony I donโt mean that in a bad way, just kind of an observation. It is simplified a lot though in terms of what you can do. I get simplifying the game cuz TS3 crashes loads for lots of people (mine didnโt crash much until my computer got older though as it crashed for most games by that point) but I feel like theyโve taken things out that otherwise could have been kept like travelling without load screens etc. Itโs not the worst thing in the world but I felt like vehicles where an immersive detail that I quite liked.
In terms of dorms I donโt really agree with you in TS3 university you were able to edit the dorms and they had pretty cool layouts for shared accommodation. Maybe it is a common set up in the US but in the UK we have options for shared kitchens and bathrooms in some of the cheapest student halls around. I just thought it was an annoying thing to take away from the game when it was already there in TS3 and was a really nice feature to have. I donโt think you should really have to cheat in a game to do something you can do in any other part of the game though it seems a bit pointless. I want to live in dorms as it is a part of uni and living off campus just feels like Iโm missing out on a part of the game I was really looking forward to.
With the uni rivalryโs I guess I just donโt get the enjoyment of it cuz itโs not a part of university culture in the UK. I get the idea of having an old and modern uni but if theyโre cutting so much content out of the game anyway I donโt get why thatโs an option they chose to add if everything else is cut down and simplified, feel like it would be nice to just have one big campus like in Sims 3 that had a lot of stuff in it than two campuses that have less on them.
My game does bug a lot when I activate cheats and use them a lot. I donโt have any CC or mods cuz in TS3 I had loads and it was eventually the death of the game because all the characters out of my household would have weird and mental skins and clothes on ๐ Thatโs why I rely so much on the expansions being worth the money.
I wouldnโt want to play the base of sims on its own I agree with you there, but thatโs why I think the expansions are a bit annoying. They donโt seem to give you a whole lot that TS3 did but i suppose thatโs down to the crashing of TS3 due to the content they kept adding like you said.
I think with TS3 the fact they did have SO much content meant that expansions felt like youโd found stuff you never had before after playing it once over with a couple sims. So maybe thatโs soiled my view on the cut down content in Sims 4.
I can see your argument for Sims4 though, i do enjoy the game a lot but I definitely preferred Sims 3 more personally and TS2 will always be a classic. As for prices itโs always been expensive but again I feel like if you simplify and cut down on a game the prices shouldnโt go up.
Thanks again for your reply, I really like chatting about Sims with other people ๐
@AttackofCatalx, thanks for clarifying! I thought you meant cartoony in a bad way. ๐คญ I think that TS4 has the best looking Sims.
Some people had an ok time with TS3, but they usually had expensive computers and had to use certain Mods to make it work better. My computer was middle of the road, but by the games' end it was almost unplayable, which was a shame because I really enjoyed Into the Future! โค๏ธ๐ข
You wrote:
"I get simplifying the game cuz TS3 crashes loads for lots of people (mine didnโt crash much until my computer got older though as it crashed for most games by that point) but I feel like theyโve taken things out that otherwise could have been kept like travelling without load screens etc. "
The problem is is that these things couldn't have been left in the game--- those loading screens keep the game manageable; take those out and we run into the same problems as TS3 had! ๐ฎ๐ข TS3's main problem was the open world. All the Sims in that world would have to be loaded in the game, and then they would all move around constantly. To make matters worse, when you went to a venue like a bar, park, or bowling alley nobody would be at that location, and usually they wouldn't even begin to head that way. Venues were like ghost towns! ๐ Then I would have to pause the game to search for other Sims to interact with, and that would take quite a while to find some. Then by the time my Sim traveled to that location, those Sims might not still be there! With TS4, every time I travel somewhere either there are people already there, or else they arrive shortly after! ๐ Pherhpas there will be a way by the time TS5 comes out (if it is coming out), that will implement an open world better than TS3 -- if that is the case, then I would be OK with that. ๐ But to be honest, I breathed a sigh of relief when I found out TS4 wouldn't have an open world!
I didn't find the TS3 dorms that memorable except for the Murphy beds! ๐ The best dorm experience was with TS2, even though the dorms were extremely ugly, the gameplay in them was fun! But that is pretty much the same for all of TS2! @SheriGR is right when she states that we were addicted to TS2. And like her, TS3 broke my Sims addiction (still loved the game, but I doubt I will ever be as completely immersed in a game as I was with TS2! ).
Yes, I've never seen a dorm with a kitchen in the U.S.! I didn't even know the UK had kitchens in the dorms until I saw a Plumbella on YouTube explaining this and that she was shocked that the US didn't have kitchens in the dorms! ๐ But like I said before, this is for fire hazard reasons. I used to work in a shop that sold candles and other decorative items and we would always get students that lived in dorms come to my store and ask what alternatives to candles and incense could they use to make their dorms smell nice. Pot Pourri was an option as long as you set it out dry in a bowl (as opposed to cooking it in water over a candle in a pot pourri pot. But the most popular option was a lightbulb ring that used the heat of a lightbulb to warm aromatic oils.
But I can see if how if you weren't' aware of these US restrictions in dorms how that would be confusing to you! ๐คจ
I do find it odd that some of the houses in DU are considered "student housing" and don't have kitchens! They aren't dorms , so I don't understand that at all! ๐ค
I lived off campus for college and commuted to class everyday, But I did have friends who lived in the dorms. And yes, school rivalries are a big thing in the US, mostly due to the sports teams, and mostly due to American football. I think it is supposed to be like the houses in Harry Potter where you are expected to have a friendly rivalry. I have relatives who went to rival schools and they will "trash talk" the others . This is what @SheriGR thinks is overdone in the game. I agree in part: I don't think the rivalry is overdone , but I do think the autonomous trash talk is overdone, as is the detrimental effects that this has on relationships and reputation in the game. ๐ So, if EA were to tweak that , it would be closer to reality and much more enjoyable to players! ๐ I have one relative by marriage whose whole side of the family went to one school who is known for their fierce school pride and devotion -- she always gives my brother who went to a rival school a hard time, but in a good natured way. My brother doesn't get offended and thinks it is kind of funny! ๐
I prefer that DU has 2 schools! I didn't like that University Life for TS3 only had one school, especially after TS2' University had three schools!!! ๐คจ๐ I don't know how it is in other parts of the world, but part of the University experience in the US is deciding what school you want to go to and then trying to get accepted. I think DU does a good job at this aspect! ๐ I also think that having more than one campus keeps it from getting stale, and allows for a little more replay value. ๐ฅณ
Well, at least you got a refund on DU! ๐
It really worries me if you are having problems using cheats in your game! I'm not the most tech savvy, but it sounds as if your computer is having a hard time handling the game.๐ฎ (In which case, you don't want an open world !!!) ๐ You can try clearing your cache files and repairing your game through Origin. It might help. ๐ค
I know what you mean by TS3 Mods and CC causing problems! It is why I stopped using them and have never used them in TS4! I remember there was a CC doll that I had that caused my Sims to get spider arms and legs! Also, I had some item or Mod that caused the dreaded "Spike Baby"! ๐ฎ๐ข So, I rely on expansions for my game items and gameplay as well now! ๐
Yes, it is probably best that the expansions aren't bloated like some were in TS3. TS3's Island Paradise was known to be pretty much unplayable, even if it was fun and full of stuff. What good is spending money on an unplayable game no matter how many good items it has? Better to play a streamlined game and actually be able to play it!
Also, some of TS4's content is hidden. For example, there are hidden bar drink recipes, and hidden traits you can get by either having a child with Father Winter, or with one of the Island Elementals . Offspring with either of these will result in your child having a hidden trait! So by having certain hidden aspects, the game is actually a bit more complex than one initially thinks.
And as much as I love TS4, my favorite is TS2!!! It's gameplay was phenomenal and deep!
I'm also looking forward to the Community chosen Stuff Pack! I chose Arts & Crafts as my favorite category (followed by the Science category) and Knitting was my favorite activity. This is because I knit and crochet in real life, and I think it will be nice to have an activity that Elders will be able to do , as there isn't a lot that they can do in the gameโน๏ธ. That is one thing that TS3 got right was its Generations EP! โค๏ธ I just hope the knitting skill will be able to be done by children as well! Most people learn knitting as children and it is a great activity for them! Children in the game also need more activites that they can do! (I also really wanted glass creation in the game, as I love glass in real life! ).
And @SheriGR gave you a link to Carl's Sims 4 Guide which in case you haven't checked out yet, you will find very helpful! ๐
I agree! It is always nice to talk to others about the Sims! ๐ฅณโค๏ธ
