All we have had so far this year is Strangerville and Island Living, so really it is too soon to tell what 2019 will be like. However, I rather liked Strangerville, both the story and the military career (which we were missing). I really, really like the most recent EP, Island Living: it has my favourite world (currently). I love the ocean and the way it has been implemented (with visible fish and lots of space to sail around), and the Conservationist career and its impact on the world, (just today I spotted bioluminescent algae in Ohan’ali town, which surprised me because I thought it only appeared in Mua Pel’am). I also love the OTG lot trait in this setting and the new ways to play (especially with families and poor sims) that it has created. Even mermaids are well done in my view, with unique interactions and animations.
Prior to this year, in 2018, we had Get Famous, a decent EP with an active career (movie acting) that I have wanted back since TS1 days and a really good fame and reputation system. Previous packs that year, Seasons and Jungle Adventures, were, in my opinion, among the best of the series (along with the earlier Vampires, another favourite of mine). All of these give me a lot of hope for the future and at the moment I am perfectly content playing in Sulani.
Are there elements I wish were present already? Sure, but that has always been true. In our household, we didn’t get TS2 until after Bon Voyage came out (and then we got most of the packs on sale) because we were still happily (and ignorantly) playing TS1. Likewise we continued playing TS2 throughout the lifespan of TS3 and only bought TS3 around the time World Adventures was released. With TS4, I was initially disgusted by the lack of the colour wheel, open world, ghosts, pools, and toddlers (the last one bothered me the most). I planned to give it a pass and just continue with TS3. But eventually I tried it out during a free weekend and liked it more than I thought I would, and then ended up buying it at a reduced price with Outdoor Retreat. In general, I would suggest that it is a good idea to get these games on sale because they have always been very expensive.
In my humble opinion, TS4 does some things really well which makes it difficult to go back to earlier versions (even though I still play them from time to time out of nostalgia). I love the multi-tasking ability and the ability for sims to socialize in big groups in this game. These are definitely advances over previous versions of the sims. I also like that sims now have emotions, (although I think fear should have been one of the core feelings), even if they do interfere a bit with a sim’s traits and how they are expressed. Toddlers are also, to me, better than previous iterations (although I agree they should have been present from the start).
CAS and the Build/Buy tools are also better, more flexible and easier to use, than ever before. Love that gender is now so flexible and customizable. The clothing assets and the object catalogue are more attractive too. So I think TS4 has many good things about it and a lot of life in it yet. They have also given us some nice freebies over the years, nicer than in the past (I am speaking of all of the holiday stuff each year, with its international flavour, the pride stuff, as well as the fun activities like the Day of the Dead and the Easter Egg/ Growfruit challenges).
Hopefully in the next few years we will continue to get some of the gameplay we have enjoyed in previous versions, like memories, interests/ hobbies, cars, university, more kids’ clubs or activities, burglars (both NPCs and the active ability to be a burglar), firefighters (ditto —NPCs and an active career), ghost hunters, wine making, and many more elements. Even if we don’t get everything I want and think we should have, though, I am well satisfied with the game right now, in 2019.