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Vlisse's avatar
Vlisse
New Spectator
4 years ago

I am (overall) very impressed...

Okay, after having played Sims 3 on-and-off since the southern hemisphere autumn of 2012... I decided to get Sims 4 at the start of this month.

Suffice to say, I am blown away.

What I like:

  • Loading and Saving: I hated the fact Sims 3 would take so long to load, and even longer to save; I'd burn about five minutes a piece on loading and saving.
  • Lag: My device is a mid-range 2018 model; I expected it to run Sims 3 better than my high-end 2015 model (five years later, it's now mid-range), and definitely a LOT better than my Windows XP dinosaur with the minimum graphics settings. Well, it definitely ran better than the dinosaur, but the 2015 and 2018 models have not really any difference. In fact, my 2015 model has no issues running Skyrim - it's old, but cared for very well - and in fact runs it better than Sims 3. I started playing Sims 4, and everything is so seamless and lag-free; even on higher graphics settings.
  • Motives: What ground my gears so much in Sims 3 was how the motives would decay so fast; I could never, ever play more than two Sims in one household... and no school-aged children, either! Sims 4 has improved on this a lot, and so I feel confident playing children in my games.
  • Perks: I have Get Famous, Vampires, and Realm of Magic. I have played Vampires most heavily, and I love the perks tree so much. I'm taking baby steps to get into the fame system, so I can't speak for that because I don't even have a single star yet. Realm of Magic is my newest pack, but I love what little I've seen of it. I really do like how you can choose your perks, because there's so many abilities in Sims 3 that I didn't really like... there's a literal smorgasbord in Sims 4, and you don't have to pick ones you'll never use. It gives you something to work towards, too.
  • Pregnancy: Not only can same-sex couples have biological children, but no ugly maternity clothes either!
  • Aspirations: I like how they come in stages, and you can choose a new once when you complete your previous one.

    What I don't like:

  • Sentiments: This is really, really irritating with toddlers; discipline a toddler for throwing a tantrum, they'll have a Festering Grudge against you.
  • Emotions: This is... a mixed bag. It's actually OK with child and older Sims - but I would appreciate not having to be in the mood to unlock certain features, like feeling Flirty for writing romance novels - but with a toddler? They go from 0 to 100 and take a while to get down to 99.
  • Toddlers: They are a literal pain in so many ways, even if you keep their motives high. That, and toddler beds are hopeless for raising their Energy.
  • First Step - CAS: This really, really irritates me. Why do I have to go into CAS before adding lots, before choosing a household to play... before everything??? Grrrr! This is, by far, the very worst feature of Sims 4.

    I'll edit this post - or should I post new comments below? - if there are any more I can think of. I've only had Sims 4 for a week :p

    What say ye?

    What do you like and dislike about Sims 4, compared to Sims 3, and vice versa?
    • timurjr96's avatar
      timurjr96
      4 years ago
      What I like from Sims 4 is an ability to reach 144 fps easily, lighting quality, hair on a hat, swimming animation, cc or no cc has no impact in loading time. I can't think of anything else.
    • babajayne's avatar
      babajayne
      4 years ago
      Try rotational play. If you get sentiments you don’t like, play another family for a week or so, the sentiments will be gone by the time you return. (I actually wish they’d stick.)
    • Babykittyjade's avatar
      Babykittyjade
      Rising Observer
      4 years ago
      Years ago I couldn't play 3 because of the constant crashing and I gave up. Recently now that i have a much better pc and more tech knowledge,I was convinced to buy ts3 by simmers praising it like the best thing since sliced bread and decided to try it. I brought almost all packs with when they had that 5dollar a pack sale. It was fun it was great and there were many things I loved about it but it was NOT ts4.

      I have permanently went back to ts4 for now (though I may play it in the future. I just can't do two at once) there are too many things I love about ts4 to name but I'll just mention a few.

      1. What you said about lag is SO true. I have max ultra settings on my graphics. I'm proud to say I have 30thosand peices of cc, mods, reshade mod with presets, and all packs installed with 0 crashing, 0 issues, 0 lag on hudge cluttered lots or 0 technical problems. It's so easy to manage, add/takeaway cc too with 0 corruption or issues.

      While on the other hand ts3 would crash, lag and cc goes corrupt so ridiculously fast I got so annoyed. All my sims turned black and all kind of other glitches. I took the few peices of cc out and there was still glitches galore. I had to reconfigure my whole computer to play without crashes and minimum lag. I don't like story progression or open world. Cars and taxi's would glitch badly and pile up. You had to use a mod to try and manage it. And other issues before I gave up.


      Though I would love love open neighborhoods. The world was way too much for me. I have none of those issues with ts4 besides a few common bugs I don't care about. It was a great game but people refuse to acknowledge the problems and flaws and bugs, just for the sake of putting ts4 down.

      2. Parenthood added a really nice system like the character values, grounding, telling the kids to clean up, learn manners,mood swings, etc. I feel like I never gets any praise for how in depth it is. What lacks is things for the younger ages to do imo.

      3. The club system, multi tasking,calendar, holidays, fame system, gallery, lively sims, good voice options amazing mermaids and vampires in comparison to the past. and much more. There is just so many things to love. One thing I want to mention there are actually tons of traits in ts4. And you can have more than 4. They are designed differently. Everyone asks for challenge well you can't just select the trait. You earn them threw various ways. Someone on Twitter showed their sim with 16 traits or more and counting. You earn them through aspirations, the rewards store, character values, how you were raised as a toddler even determines your out outcome. It's quite a complex system.
      That's why my only complaint is still emotions overriding traits.


      Things I don't like are: flip flopping emotions, the plastic barbie look of furniture,shallow traits,and lack of negative traits. Lack of negativity in general and not enough danger,darkness or risk in this game.
      And they seem to lack intelligence compared to past games. Though they all did some dumb things ? other than that I love this game. It's my favorite part so far. People talk about what past games have that this one doesn't but never the little things this one has that the older games doesn't have or was better done. And for storytellers like myself this game is literally endless. I'm always coming up with something new and exciting to set up or do. And I haven't done even half of the stuff there is.

      I'm happy to hear how much you enjoy it!! I wish you many long hours of fun as I have had ?

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