About 3 and a half years into Sims 4, how would you rate it?

"Cynna;c-16346978" wrote:

"AshtontoAshton22;c-16346375" wrote:
I think some people will start giving it 8s, 9s, and 10s, once Seasons and University come out.

Maybe! If those EPs are done well. :)

And when I say done well, I hope that the EPs are game-changers as far as the Sims are concerned. Weather and a couple of activities won't change what's wrong with TS4. At least, it won't change anything for me.

I'm looking for Sims to once again feel like little people with minds and dreams of their own. That was the charm of the series. TS4 Sims are puppets, easily manipulated by the things that are placed in their environments. Personality and behavior don't originate from within.

The troubles with TS4 cannot be solved by EPs, SPs or GPs as they're in the base game.

The only way to solve that would be a complete rewrite.

I'd give it 9/10

"Evil_One;c-16349278" wrote:

"Cynna;c-16346978" wrote:

"AshtontoAshton22;c-16346375" wrote:
I think some people will start giving it 8s, 9s, and 10s, once Seasons and University come out.

Maybe! If those EPs are done well. :)

And when I say done well, I hope that the EPs are game-changers as far as the Sims are concerned. Weather and a couple of activities won't change what's wrong with TS4. At least, it won't change anything for me.

I'm looking for Sims to once again feel like little people with minds and dreams of their own. That was the charm of the series. TS4 Sims are puppets, easily manipulated by the things that are placed in their environments. Personality and behavior don't originate from within.

The troubles with TS4 cannot be solved by EPs, SPs or GPs as they're in the base game.

The only way to solve that would be a complete rewrite.

There may be some truth to your statement. Yet, I don't believe that it is wholly true. There are still things that can be done to breathe more life into the Sims of this version. At this very moment, there are mod creators who are doing more toward this end than anything that I have seen EA do. So, it is possible.

My hope is that the development team is already hard at work on substantive improvements to the TS4 Sims. The frustrating part is not knowing whether or not they are. This version of the game is operating under a heavy cloak of secrecy. So, the dilemma is: keep on waiting and hoping that improvements are just around the bend (similar to how toddlers suddenly showed up, unannounced)? Or, waste time hoping for something that will never come?

Employees at EA are the only ones who know for sure whether or not hope is unfounded. I could, personally, be setting myself up for a hard fall. Still, it's very difficult for me to accept that EA has intentionally created a game that will end up skipping all of the features that created so much joy in the previous three games.

3/10

I think TS4 has come a long way. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it. And I think a lot of hard work has been put into it.

My grievances with TS4 undoubtedly stem from being a long time Sim player. I was disappointed with TS3, and it pretty much killed my passion for the game. I stuck to TS2 for many years until I couldn't get over the feeling that the game was starting to become outdated, as fun as it was.

I think TS4 missed the mark on a lot. I think their inability to innovate forward instead of backwards was a huge reason as to why the game failed in my eyes. At the same time, their stakeholders and CEO's are going by sales numbers, so if a lot of people are buying the game and the profits are good, then who cares what I think I guess.

Here are a few features which I really wanted for the game:

• Open Neighbourhoods - I didn't need an open world. I wanted open neighbourhoods. Maybe TS3 was too ambitious with creating the open world because the coding was a nightmare and the game ate up a ton of resources once it was layered with expansion packs. The funny thing is that people still loved playing the game despite how resource intensive it was. TS2 had coding issues as well. People still loved playing that despite its faults. So I think the game should have been pushing beyond single-instance lots into multiple-instance neighbourhoods. That, to me, would have been a happy medium between single instance lots and open world. Call me crazy.
  
  
• World Editor - I think this would have made the game a lot better. And it could have been an answer to the lack of open world/neighbourhood issue, or at least diminished the issue for me. Had I been able to manipulate the world my Sims was living in, maybe I wouldn't have yearned so much for an open neighbourhood. Because the main reason was that I felt like there was nothing to do after a while without a loading screen. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind loading screens, but making the game itself as seamless as possible is pretty much a given for the modern era of game design. My idea for a world editor was to be able to not only edit the terrain of the world but also to place objects as well. I wanted to create worlds with secret passages and hidden rooms. I wanted to add objects to the town square in Forgotten Hollow to make it seem more relevant. It would also help with story-telling efforts as a player would be able to create a townhall meeting or a festival by placing objects around the world. It would make the world feel more alive. I rarely use my Sims to actually go around the neighbourhood. Since there is nothing to do around the neighbourhoods except sit on picnic tables or play chess, I would rather jump from a house to a bar or a restaurant instead of running around the neighbourhood going for jogs and eating hotdogs.
  
  
• Open Storytelling - I don't really know how to describe this one. Maybe it's just me being nit picky. But I wanted TS4 to depart from linear gameplay and move into providing features that were more open. I definitely think they have been trying to do this for the past little while, but there are so many things that could open up the storytelling abilities that stray from following a linear path. I don't really feel like the game has reached that point where there are vast amounts of open storytelling options. I think they should have built that foundation with the first few EP's. I don't think that foundation was ever really built though.
  

It also doesn't help that all the EP's have been mediocre for me. I think the GP's have been way better ... DO, Vampires, Parenthood ... I haven't had a chance to play Jungle Adventure yet, but it looks decent. I don't know, the GP's have all been way more appealing than the EP's ever have. I guess C&D is an alright EP but it's not amazing.

I don't know really. The Sims 4 is really flawed in my eyes. I don't understand why they would make the game super basic in the name of "appealing to as many people as possible" when the game was always known to push the boundaries. There's also the bugs and glitches. I've never experienced so many bugs and glitches like I have with TS4.

Shadows are also a pet peeve of mine. Instead of the light source seamlessly going down, changing the direction/shape of shadows and transitioning into night, the light source moves in very obvious "stages", making the shadow animations very noticeably jerky ... I'm not sure how to explain this. If you are curious about what I'm talking about, here's a video link. (CLICK HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dQXsqZVw3A)

Anyway, that's basically a small review that I have of the game. I'm sure there's a ton I'm leaving out. Point is, the game is flawed. I tried giving the game time to grow and develop, but I'm not seeing the growth and development I would like to see. They are adding layers to the game, but it feels very short lived.

Generally, I would prefer to see way less SP's, more GP's, and better EP's.

3/10
This game stills feels empty, boring an rushed after more than 3 years.

I give it a 6.
Because of all the still missing features.
For its never ending stuff packs.
Because of its endless issues.

Had this been when this game was released. I would of added a 2.so its improved.

But it is better for me now than when it came out so happy to give it an extra 4.

The animations are smooth and creative but we need more packs that will actually benefit the game. I think TS4 Developers should include the community more when creating packs because some people are so creative and most people actually want their ideas.

"Cynna;c-16353650" wrote:

"Evil_One;c-16349278" wrote:

"Cynna;c-16346978" wrote:

"AshtontoAshton22;c-16346375" wrote:
I think some people will start giving it 8s, 9s, and 10s, once Seasons and University come out.

Maybe! If those EPs are done well. :)

And when I say done well, I hope that the EPs are game-changers as far as the Sims are concerned. Weather and a couple of activities won't change what's wrong with TS4. At least, it won't change anything for me.

I'm looking for Sims to once again feel like little people with minds and dreams of their own. That was the charm of the series. TS4 Sims are puppets, easily manipulated by the things that are placed in their environments. Personality and behavior don't originate from within.

The troubles with TS4 cannot be solved by EPs, SPs or GPs as they're in the base game.

The only way to solve that would be a complete rewrite.

There may be some truth to your statement. Yet, I don't believe that it is wholly true. There are still things that can be done to breathe more life into the Sims of this version. At this very moment, there are mod creators who are doing more toward this end than anything that I have seen EA do. So, it is possible.

My hope is that the development team is already hard at work on substantive improvements to the TS4 Sims. The frustrating part is not knowing whether or not they are. This version of the game is operating under a heavy cloak of secrecy. So, the dilemma is: keep on waiting and hoping that improvements are just around the bend (similar to how toddlers suddenly showed up, unannounced)? Or, waste time hoping for something that will never come?

Employees at EA are the only ones who know for sure whether or not hope is unfounded. I could, personally, be setting myself up for a hard fall. Still, it's very difficult for me to accept that EA has intentionally created a game that will end up skipping all of the features that created so much joy in the previous three games.

Stuff like, open worlds, improved personality system, world editor, CASt, terrain tools, pond tools, ETC will all require a rewrite.

The game's design is totally rigid.

I goofed and rated it 7/10. I want to say 6/10.

The game has very strong points for stability, animations, voices, graphics, CAS and music. It's still entertaining to me, but something's amiss, I get bored too quickly. I could name a few things that made this a semi-flop : no open world, no possibility to build apartments, low poly furniture, very limited world customization, too utopian, bland expansions, slow development, high cost involved in making the game interesting, some game breaking bugs, limited career choices and boring style to name a few.

"BlueOvale;c-16365301" wrote:
I goofed and rated it 7/10. I want to say 6/10.

The game has very strong points for stability, animations, voices, graphics, CAS and music. It's still entertaining to me, but something's amiss, I get bored too quickly. I could name a few things that made this a semi-flop : no open world, no possibility to build apartments, low poly furniture, very limited world customization, too utopian, bland expansions, slow development, high cost involved in making the game interesting, some game breaking bugs, limited career choices and boring style to name a few.

This is a very succinct description of the game. And, from my point of view, it's also incredibly accurate. I keep waiting for that one pack to come along that changes my mind. It's a good thing that I haven't been holding my breath. After the Cats & Dogs expansion, expansion, it's probably time to admit defeat and to just move on.