Cats and dogs is kind of worse then I expected.

"Pixelsimmer;c-16149460" wrote:


I have to say I have never been a fan of pets, the same way I was not a fan of toddlers in particular. I was in fact very angry when I learnt that this year's pack was going to be pets and not seasons or uni. And I am however surprised at how much I am enjoying this pack. And note too that I didn't like city living much and I definitely didn't like (and still don't like) Get Together. I always thought EPs were half baked. However this is to me the best EP to Date.

This is very encouraging to read. Despite my reservations, I've bought everything so far and I've been more disappointed than not. So this time, I'm determined to be more discerning and resist the urge to buy, despite my reservations.

If you don't mind, could you share what it is about the pack that you're enjoying most? I'm not trying to put you on the spot or anything. I'm just really curious. Especially from someone, like me, who's not been overly thrilled with everything so far.

"LesboKnope;c-16149389" wrote:
Brendhan, you do realize that you complain like this with every single pack? You don't have to like cats and dogs or sims 4, but you constantly complaining about everything makes me think that maybe sims 4 just isn't the game for you?

What's best, from his posts I'm getting the impression he hasn't even played yet.

Guys, up until yesterday we could all speculate to our hearts' content because we haven't played yet. Now that the EP is out, every negative opinion that's not backed up by something more constructive than "idk, people seem disappointed I guess" is irrelevant and I see no point in cluttering the board with threads like this one. Just go and play? See if you like it or not and then give your honest opinion. I have yet to play because I'm too busy to properly immerse myself so I'm waiting for a day off, but so far I'm seeing way more amazement and positive surprise on the forum than disappointment so frankly, not sure where you're getting this OP. Yes, there are bugs, some of them seem to be quite irritating but that's just how it is with this game. It's to be expected with every pack. When CL came out it was riddled with bugs.

No disrespect towards people who like to micro-manage, because I understand fully that storylines and such can be very hard when you can't control every movement and action. It's just that people have always wanted some sort of chaos or features that we can't control and pets are the perfect example. I can understand why people do not like the fact that they can't view their pet's needs, but controlling the pets itself should be looked as a good risk and not as some big problem. If the Sims team focused on giving everyone what they want we would end up good for a while, but with a jumbled mix. We can say that "We can't control Pets in real life", but we can also say we can't control people just like we do in Sims. The same can be said for making pets playable and for those who don't want to control them to leave them alone. I believe this was a good choice because we finally get some challenging gameplay and realistic at that. Not everything negative has to be bad, the Sims team has made a lot of "excuses" for decisions they thought would be best in hindsight, for example not being able to plop or build our own apartments, but this time they did a good thing.

Not having issues where all my pets do nothing but sleep, eat & poop. To be honest I WISH I had kind of option. Majority of the time my pets occupy themselves, yeah sure. When you first get them, give them a little love befriend them. They'll be fine on their own until when it comes to feeding and using the bathroom. You have to encourage your dog to use the rest room and sometimes (depending how new you got the animal) you would have to direct them to their feeding bowl.

It's just usually a three or four attempts and after that the game tells you that your dog knows where to use the rest room at. I haven't done this for cats yet, but I am getting there. Do I miss the needs function? Well yes I do miss it. It is rather annoying especially if you have a large household and have two or more animals in that said house hold that are going into an uncomfortable state it puts me into a panic. I had problems where the small dog couldn't go up the stairs at times to take his bath and when the dogs not using the restroom when going out for a walk after I tell them to come here and use the restroom.

There are rare occurrences where I Feed my animals food bowl and an hour or two later they're hungry again. It is a bit of a chore to be honest and I still wish we had the option to have pets controllable for story purposes anyway.

I've had no issues whatsoever, my puppy eats and sleeps and my sim is currently training her to use the potty outside.
the whole 'not being able to control the pet' is what pulled me in.
it's as realistic as it gets and for simmers complaining about how 'unrealistic' this sims game is (ironic) I'd think that would appeal to them.
But to each their own.
I'm enjoying the pack.

"Cynna;c-16149540" wrote:

"Pixelsimmer;c-16149460" wrote:


I have to say I have never been a fan of pets, the same way I was not a fan of toddlers in particular. I was in fact very angry when I learnt that this year's pack was going to be pets and not seasons or uni. And I am however surprised at how much I am enjoying this pack. And note too that I didn't like city living much and I definitely didn't like (and still don't like) Get Together. I always thought EPs were half baked. However this is to me the best EP to Date.

This is very encouraging to read. Despite my reservations, I've bought everything so far and I've been more disappointed than not. So this time, I'm determined to be more discerning and resist the urge to buy, despite my reservations.

If you don't mind, could you share what it is about the pack that you're enjoying most? I'm not trying to put you on the spot or anything. I'm just really curious. Especially from someone, like me, who's not been overly thrilled with everything so far.

Sure!! :D Of course this is not a exhaustive list (I'm just listing what comes to mind and mind you I've only had the game for a day!)

- Brindleton Bay: I have been waiting for a world like this since TS2 times. I really disliked Windenburg (I know I am in the minority here) because I didn't care for the tudor/german/english theme. But this town is perfect for me. A little too small, yes, but the public areas are HUGE and it feels like a truly open world. And I LOVE the build/buy objects that came with this pack.

- Chaos: I have been complaining about this game not being challenging enough since the beginning, it seems like we're too much in control of everything, and that is boring at least to me. I hate the fact that there are no random deaths or accidents to spice up my gameplay. Pets have brought some much needed chaos for me. They are truly unpredictable, and I am enjoying a lot following them around and see what they're up to.

- Pets personalities: I hate to say this, but currently pets have more personality than sims. Their traits truly show. My sim has a vocal, territorial chihuahua and she is THE WORST. She is barking at EVERY-THING and EVERY-ONE. All the time. Lol. My sim was walking her and saw this cute guy (who turned out to be one of the new gay premades, but anyway) walking his frenchie (I think it was a frenchie). I had them talk, and I really wanted my sim to hook up with this guy. But the stupid chihuahua kept barking at him and his dog all the time. His dog started barking back. The guy ended up leaving my sim there, clearly stressed out (tense) by the fact that the chihuahua was barking at him nonstop.

- Fears and obsessions: this has to do with the last bullet. But I really love that every pet has its own fears and obsessions. My sim's chihuahua wakes up my sim EVERY SINGLE MORNING at 6 am, barking. And she is clearly scared of the TV and the computer. She hates them.

- Stuff for my sims to do: I have to admit sometimes when my sims get home from work, I am at a loss about what to do with them. My sims are not very social and do not usually visit bars and community lots because I hate the loading screens. I've found that now my sim has plenty to do at home (and around): taking the dog out, cleaning after the dog, figuring out what the heck they want (why is it barking?!?!), teaching the dog tricks, ranting and housebreaking, etc.

OMG that was long...sorry haha

"DivineHysteria;c-16149659" wrote:
I've had no issues whatsoever, my puppy eats and sleeps and my sim is currently training her to use the potty outside.
the whole 'not being able to control the pet' is what pulled me in.
it's as realistic as it gets and for simmers complaining about how 'unrealistic' this sims game is (ironic) I'd think that would appeal to them.
But to each their own.
I'm enjoying the pack.

See that's another thing, what's the point of controlling pets and then being able to train them? Why am I wasting time to train my pets to do certain things when I can just skip that and control them to go outside and press a interaction for them to do it. There are already enough features in game that make it so you have to "imagine" it happening as you control them. Again, I understand why controlling them is a 'want', but it would just make training them useless.

"DivineHysteria;c-16149659" wrote:
I've had no issues whatsoever, my puppy eats and sleeps and my sim is currently training her to use the potty outside.
the whole 'not being able to control the pet' is what pulled me in.
it's as realistic as it gets and for simmers complaining about how 'unrealistic' this sims game is (ironic) I'd think that would appeal to them.
But to each their own.
I'm enjoying the pack.

so after playing it for a bit now i would say its still a bit less then i expected. when i was expecting it to be okay so its just okay i guess. not really groundbreaking and infact feels like its missing features (as usual) that were great or expected from pervious games. this feels the least interactive pets expansion pack so far. well maybe in the same leauge as sims 1 but even then sims 1 felt a bit more then this. this just feels like like the most stripped down version of pets we have had so far. not that i am saying the pets dont look like nice cuz they do but they have looked nice since sims 2.

I just saw how cats and dogs have woohoo and it looks like this expansion was made for brainless 3 years old who can't know what sex is. Ridiculous.

"Dayvon64;c-16149684" wrote:

"DivineHysteria;c-16149659" wrote:
I've had no issues whatsoever, my puppy eats and sleeps and my sim is currently training her to use the potty outside.
the whole 'not being able to control the pet' is what pulled me in.
it's as realistic as it gets and for simmers complaining about how 'unrealistic' this sims game is (ironic) I'd think that would appeal to them.
But to each their own.
I'm enjoying the pack.

See that's another thing, what's the point of controlling pets and then being able to train them? Why am I wasting time to train my pets to do certain things when I can just skip that and control them to go outside and press a interaction for them to do it. There are already enough features in game that make it so you have to "imagine" it happening as you control them. Again, I understand why controlling them is a 'want', but it would just make training them useless.

i can slightly see where you are coming from. i still feel like this pack feels meh. it does feel like there is something off and i cant put my finger on it. with city life its a bit more clear what my issues are with it same with vampires and parenthood which actually slightly made me realize whats a bit of a big issue with this game in general but this it just offers what you expect nothing more. and again feels like its missing something. i honestly can not put my finger on it this time. one of the few compliments i can give it is the pets are nice but that is about it.