Serious interest ended at least 2 years ago, casual since then, and more or less stopped except for checking builds or trying experiments about the voted 6 months ago. Any play now is either said testing or to de-fry brain after a tough work day.
Why: Lack of gameplay, shallow sims, the legion of bugs/glitches/sloppy programming, the wasted space and opportunities missed in the worlds themselves, poor vehicle for recorded story telling, just comes across as shallow and empty & not worth my time.
Packs: Up to date on Expansion and game packs (bought only on sale, none of them worth full price), often for the CAS & b/b assets. Very much regret Seasons so have it disabled, more trouble than it's worth. Been ages since a stuff pack, they are increasingly irrelevant to how I play and often are mere cash grabs.
Other iterations: TS2 was and still is my favourite. It was made with care and attention to detail with the simmers coming first. To borrow from old Chevy ads, putting us first kept them first for years. Same with TS2; it may be dated, but never disappoints. I still have all my TS1 disks and an old PC, so may give that a go again. Never got into 3.
TS5: Only if single player off line and done by someone other than those responsible for the TS4 debacle. At 20 years into the franchise, and as a simmer who has been in this since day 1, I expect that by now there should be a game that both is made with the same (or greater) care as TS2 while taking full advantage of the enormous strides in gaming technology that have come since. EA set the bar of a high standard long ago, do they have what it takes to meet it?
