I personally really did love The Sims 3.
I got to spend a lot of time in the run-up to release and subsequent to release doing gameplay preview and review. Way back in 2008, I was lucky enough to meet the exec producer Ben Bell and have a demonstration from him prior to release in a fancy hotel somewhere in London. Later on we then got to test it ourselves prior to release.
One thing that blew me away at the time, and that I still miss today, is the Create-a-Style with the full colour palette available to the player to customise practically anything in the game. This added a lot of texture for me as a passionate builder and decorator, but I know it made a difference for those that took pride in their Sims' appearance too.
The Open Neighbourhood was also a literal game-changer and really made it much more interesting for me as a player. The lot-to-lot approach we have back again from The Sims 2 isn't a welcome change for me although I realise we have the nice communal/wild areas between them to explore to obtain collectables. On the other-hand, the transitions from world to world in The Sims 4 are much more fluid though.
I both enjoy and resent the pre-packed world content which is inaccessible by the player. Seeing buildings and houses in my neighbourhood that I have no control over makes me pretty unhappy, being the control-freak that I am. That said, it is effective in making me feel that these areas are more urban than we've normally been able to experience in previous iterations.
I also think that the building tools are somewhat more forgiving - once you know what you're doing. :lol: I dreamt of being able to pick up a building and just move it before when you'd ended up a bit too close to the boundary or misjudged the size of the lot you placed. :lol:
