So the other day, my friend was playing The Sims 3 Ambitions and I, Sims 4 Get To Work and we were comparing our gameplay. His experience seemed so much richer and his Sims personalities more unique. I decided for kicks and because I love charts and tables to compare the two expansion packs to see where the Sims 3 outperformed the Sims 4 and vise-versa and to try and nail down why I was feeling a touch dissatisfied with The Sims 4 and completely underwhelmed by the expansion packs. This is my analysis. http://i.imgur.com/rCMawrS.jpgNow, I didn't look at BB stuff or CAS stuff but just the gameplay and one thing became apparent. The things added in the Sims 3 expansion pack made for richer sims with diverse lives, whether you were playing the careers or not. The addition of more traits, rewards and LTW meant that there was more to do before you even got to the careers. The gameplay objects were useful to you, no matter how you played and nothing needed to be unlocked by playing the game in a certain way and you didn't need to be a certain Sim to use them. Children were not ignored and there was just a lot more on offer around the town. I had real estate moguls, tattoo artists, junkyard bandit and crazy inventors and they didn't need to go to work to be those things. Their job was another facet of them, not the only facet. My Sims all look different thanks to the amazing new CAS, but they act the same because they have limited LTW that I have played multiple times and the same traits. Sims 4 team - please develop more traits and more LTW and don't give us on per expansion - I want six per expansion like we used to get.

If you google for "best expansions pack + sims 3" you'll find out that Late Night was by far the most popular ep among simmers (I think LGR has it ranked also very high on his list).source: http://www.thetoptens.com/best-sims-3-expansion-packs/And this says it all.Let's give it a try: Late Night's best feature was Bridgeport (in fact, it was my second favorite world, so they did a pretty good job with it). The problem: If you don't use a fan-made patch the map suffers of significant routing errors that eventually can corrupt your save file if you don't use mods such as errortrap etc.Then we had apartments (camera-movement of doom, rabbithole neighbors, NO (!) new gameplay at all, ZERO control over neighbors etc.) and with them came elevators --> always leading to a traffic jam inside the building + more routing errors + sims getting stuck).In addition we got pubs, night-clubs and vip-lounges - everything neat in theory, but since they were almost always empty it seemed like a useless (because dysfunctional) addition to me.Also a very poorly designed celebrity system that made everybody become famous only because they talked several times to a VIP sim (resulting in a town full of VIPs), paparazzis that always leave as soon as you start interacting with them (which is so dumb) etc.And - of course - vampires, however, they got reworked later anyway. Nuff said.The only addition I truly enjoyed were butlers. They were alcoholics (drinking at the bar all day long) and it was great (but for real the AI was just terribe --> you can google it yourself "Sims 3 + butler + alcoholic)!And those were the *Special* fetures of Late Night (don't forget, every Sims 3 ep is packed with set dressing --> rabbithole interactions). I am sorry, I just don't see any more depth or better gameplay features in those eps in comparison to TS4. On the contrary.Almost everything in TS3 was half-baked at best.Conclusion: If you love the numbers game (meaning: quantitiy over quality) stick with TS3. By the way: Let's better not start a discussion about the glorified stuff pack (called Generations)... --> http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-sims-3-generations

"HalloMolli;15242216" wrote:If you google for "best expansions pack + sims 3" you'll find out that Late Night was by far the most popular ep among simmers (I think LGR has it ranked also very high on his list).source: http://www.thetoptens.com/best-sims-3-expansion-packs/And this says it all.Let's give it a try: Late Night's best feature was Bridgeport (in fact, it was my second favorite world, so they did a pretty good job with it). The problem: If you don't use a fan-made patch the map suffers of significant routing errors that eventually can corrupt your save file if you don't use mods such as errortrap etc.Then we had apartements (camera-movement of doom, rabbithole neighbors, NO (!) new gameplay at all etc.) and with them came elevators --> always leading to a traffic jam inside the building + more routing errors + sims getting stuck).In addition we got pubs, night-clubs and vip-lounges - everything neat in theory, but since they were almost always empty it almost seemed like a useless (because dysfunctional) addition.Also a very poorly designed celebrity system that made everybody become famous only because they talked several times to a VIP sim (resulting in a town full of VIPs), paparazzis that always leave as soon as you get to know them better (which is so dumb) etc.And - of course - vampires, however, they got reworked later anyway. Nuff said.The only addition I truly enjoyed were butlers. They were alcoholics (drinking at the bar all day long) and it was great (but in reality: the AI was not that great xD)!And those were the *Special* fetures of Late Night. I am sorry, I just don't see any more depth or better gameplay features in those eps in comparison to TS4. On the contrary.Almost everything in TS3 was half-baked at best.Conclusion: If you love the numbers game (meaning: quantitiy over quality) stick with TS3. I played Late Night for years when it came out without mods just fine honey.All hotspots in town were always full of celebrities and norms, and only once I had my sim get stuck on an elevator due to a ton of sims having to go home because the club closed. You seem to be also forgetting that the Late Night patch introduced breast augmentation, moving pictures etc on walls, half walls, platforms and zodiacs. We also got bands and group outings on that same pack along with mixology, bartenders, and extra traits and lifetime wishes. A new semi active career as well, dancing on tables and extra dancing animations, skinny dipping, bouncers and more than 4 skills some hidden. Drums, piano, bass, elevators, bubble blower, hot tubs, darts, full bars, shuffleboard, arcade machines, electric gates and fx machines were also included.And vampires didn't get reworked, they only patched a few features extra on them they didn't remove or directly alter anything. But just because people say it's best doesn't mean it is, how biased of you.But if TS3 is soooo half baked then where are these in TS4?http://i.imgur.com/UvoMOgk.jpgNuff said.And btw honey, if you care so much for those metacritic scores, be sure to know that the glorified trash that you call TS4 Base Game has a 3.9. user score--> http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-sims-4

And even Generations which was light on (at the time) had: -2 New Traits- 9 New Reward Perks- New Party types - including Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties and Teen Parties- Pranks- Boarding School (God I loved boarding school for annoying children)- Two new WooHoo locations- The Chemistry Table- A New Lifestate- Midlife Crisis- Teaching teens to drive (My sims would spend Sunday Family Funday teaching their kids to drive and then they'd hang out at a park or the beach...- Cloning- Bunkbeds & Spiral stairs (please can we have these back they were such good space savers)- And more...dates, memory system, body hair, dreams for kids, bedtime stories etc.All worked almost perfectly. There was as much in that "Glorified Stuff Pack" than any Sims 4 EP. I am not saying Sims 3 is perfect - obviously, if it was I would only play it and not care about the future of the Sims 4. It did glitch and crashed. But my reflection was to look at why I am dissatisfied with the Sims 4 and the lack of variety in everyday sim life is a big part of that. A variety of goals, traits, activities, and rewards. And an expansion pack is meant to counter that and it's not yet. I hope that voicing a desire for more traits and goals will help guide the game to that point.

@HalloMolli What did you want to prove by giving a link to a German description of the Get to Work expansion? Gamestar didn't say much about the game except also telling about the return of ghosts and pools. So what is your point?

Expansion Pack Comparison, Reflection and Feedback

Sigzy_29
New Spectator
9 years ago
Sims 4 EP's are a joke, sorry.
HalloMolli
9 years ago
If you google for "best expansions pack + sims 3" you'll find out that Late Night was by far the most popular ep among simmers (I think LGR has it ranked also very high on his list).

source: http://www.thetoptens.com/best-sims-3-expansion-packs/

And this says it all.

Let's give it a try: Late Night's best feature was Bridgeport (in fact, it was my second favorite world, so they did a pretty good job with it). The problem: If you don't use a fan-made patch the map suffers of significant routing errors that eventually can corrupt your save file if you don't use mods such as errortrap etc.
Then we had apartments (camera-movement of doom, rabbithole neighbors, NO (!) new gameplay at all, ZERO control over neighbors etc.) and with them came elevators --> always leading to a traffic jam inside the building + more routing errors + sims getting stuck).
In addition we got pubs, night-clubs and vip-lounges - everything neat in theory, but since they were almost always empty it seemed like a useless (because dysfunctional) addition to me.
Also a very poorly designed celebrity system that made everybody become famous only because they talked several times to a VIP sim (resulting in a town full of VIPs), paparazzis that always leave as soon as you start interacting with them (which is so dumb) etc.
And - of course - vampires, however, they got reworked later anyway. Nuff said.

The only addition I truly enjoyed were butlers. They were alcoholics (drinking at the bar all day long) and it was great (but for real the AI was just terribe --> you can google it yourself "Sims 3 + butler + alcoholic)!

And those were the *Special* fetures of Late Night (don't forget, every Sims 3 ep is packed with set dressing --> rabbithole interactions). I am sorry, I just don't see any more depth or better gameplay features in those eps in comparison to TS4. On the contrary.

Almost everything in TS3 was half-baked at best.

Conclusion: If you love the numbers game (meaning: quantitiy over quality) stick with TS3.

By the way: Let's better not start a discussion about the glorified stuff pack (called Generations)...
--> http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-sims-3-generations
Sigzy_29
New Spectator
9 years ago
"HalloMolli;15242216" wrote:
If you google for "best expansions pack + sims 3" you'll find out that Late Night was by far the most popular ep among simmers (I think LGR has it ranked also very high on his list).

source: http://www.thetoptens.com/best-sims-3-expansion-packs/

And this says it all.

Let's give it a try: Late Night's best feature was Bridgeport (in fact, it was my second favorite world, so they did a pretty good job with it). The problem: If you don't use a fan-made patch the map suffers of significant routing errors that eventually can corrupt your save file if you don't use mods such as errortrap etc.
Then we had apartements (camera-movement of doom, rabbithole neighbors, NO (!) new gameplay at all etc.) and with them came elevators --> always leading to a traffic jam inside the building + more routing errors + sims getting stuck).
In addition we got pubs, night-clubs and vip-lounges - everything neat in theory, but since they were almost always empty it almost seemed like a useless (because dysfunctional) addition.
Also a very poorly designed celebrity system that made everybody become famous only because they talked several times to a VIP sim (resulting in a town full of VIPs), paparazzis that always leave as soon as you get to know them better (which is so dumb) etc.
And - of course - vampires, however, they got reworked later anyway. Nuff said.

The only addition I truly enjoyed were butlers. They were alcoholics (drinking at the bar all day long) and it was great (but in reality: the AI was not that great xD)!

And those were the *Special* fetures of Late Night. I am sorry, I just don't see any more depth or better gameplay features in those eps in comparison to TS4. On the contrary.

Almost everything in TS3 was half-baked at best.

Conclusion: If you love the numbers game (meaning: quantitiy over quality) stick with TS3.

I played Late Night for years when it came out without mods just fine honey.

All hotspots in town were always full of celebrities and norms, and only once I had my sim get stuck on an elevator due to a ton of sims having to go home because the club closed. You seem to be also forgetting that the Late Night patch introduced breast augmentation, moving pictures etc on walls, half walls, platforms and zodiacs. We also got bands and group outings on that same pack along with mixology, bartenders, and extra traits and lifetime wishes. A new semi active career as well, dancing on tables and extra dancing animations, skinny dipping, bouncers and more than 4 skills some hidden. Drums, piano, bass, elevators, bubble blower, hot tubs, darts, full bars, shuffleboard, arcade machines, electric gates and fx machines were also included.

And vampires didn't get reworked, they only patched a few features extra on them they didn't remove or directly alter anything.

But just because people say it's best doesn't mean it is, how biased of you.

But if TS3 is soooo half baked then where are these in TS4?

http://i.imgur.com/UvoMOgk.jpg

Nuff said.

And btw honey, if you care so much for those metacritic scores, be sure to know that the glorified trash that you call TS4 Base Game has a 3.9. user score--> http://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/the-sims-4
Pollyannasims
9 years ago
And even Generations which was light on (at the time) had:

-2 New Traits
- 9 New Reward Perks
- New Party types - including Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties and Teen Parties
- Pranks
- Boarding School (God I loved boarding school for annoying children)
- Two new WooHoo locations
- The Chemistry Table
- A New Lifestate
- Midlife Crisis
- Teaching teens to drive (My sims would spend Sunday Family Funday teaching their kids to drive and then they'd hang out at a park or the beach...
- Cloning
- Bunkbeds & Spiral stairs (please can we have these back they were such good space savers)
- And more...dates, memory system, body hair, dreams for kids, bedtime stories etc.

All worked almost perfectly. There was as much in that "Glorified Stuff Pack" than any Sims 4 EP. I am not saying Sims 3 is perfect - obviously, if it was I would only play it and not care about the future of the Sims 4. It did glitch and crashed.

But my reflection was to look at why I am dissatisfied with the Sims 4 and the lack of variety in everyday sim life is a big part of that. A variety of goals, traits, activities, and rewards. And an expansion pack is meant to counter that and it's not yet. I hope that voicing a desire for more traits and goals will help guide the game to that point.
Erpeerpe
9 years ago
@HalloMolli What did you want to prove by giving a link to a German description of the Get to Work expansion? Gamestar didn't say much about the game except also telling about the return of ghosts and pools. So what is your point?
Erpeerpe
9 years ago
"HalloMolli;15242299" wrote:
"Erpe;15242295" wrote:
@HalloMolli What did you want to prove by giving a link to a German description of the Get to Work expansion? Gamestar didn't say much about the game except also telling about the return of ghosts and pools. So what is your point?

The link works fine for me, it shows a test where the reviewer decided to give TS4 a better score because of certain improvements they made with the game (written: 14.08.2015)

Edit: BTW: the point i am trying to prove? Never trust your (hardcore-) community. Since World of Warcraft Burning Crusade it became evident that view of hardcore gamers =/= view of casuals (and here is the money~).

The link tells me that Gamestar originally gave TS4 77 points because it wasn't as good as TS3 and now said: "Übrigens: Die kostenpflichtigen Erweiterungspakete fließen NICHT in die Wertung von Die Sims 4 ein, die bezieht sich rein auf das Hauptspiel inklusive Gratis-Updates. Was natürlich nicht heißt, dass wir die Erweiterungen ignorieren: Mehr zum Addon Die Sims 4: An die Arbeit und den anderen Paketen gibt's gleich." So Gamestar didn't change the score for TS4 as you claim.

The site also have a link to http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/die-sims-4/artikel/die_sims_4,49502,3080827.html which in German describes TS4 as a half game to a full price. Didn't you think that any of us could read German? ;)
auramaris
9 years ago
"HalloMolli;15242216" wrote:

Almost everything in TS3 was half-baked at best.

Conclusion: If you love the numbers game (meaning: quantitiy over quality) stick with TS3.

This literally made me laugh out loud and I needed it today, thanks :D
But I'm genuinely wondering how come you love TS4's packs which are obviously the half baked ones and don't like TS3's?
TS3's packs were full of content, I don't remember ever being disappointed. There was always so much to do and I never got bored after playing those for a week which is the case for TS4. I just don't understand anyone saying they rather have quality over quantity with TS4's packs cause honestly, those packs have neither of those.
squirulez
9 years ago
You get to spend about 20-30 mins of "quality" time with any S4 release before you wish you never purchased it and that S4 never existed.
auramaris
9 years ago
@HalloMolli No seriously, I just wanna know why you think TS4's packs are better and why you defend anything that's related to TS4 so hard.
Did you even play TS3 from start to finish or just checked it out later and said nah TS4 is the best? I'm just trying to understand your reasoning here.
squirulez
9 years ago
Wow those butlers must have been very impressive to turn a "half baked game" into a five year straight favorite :p