Is Sims 4 just pretty graphics compared to its predecessors?

"Colton147147;c-17147185" wrote:
The Sims 4 is one of the best Sims games ever made and you can do whatever your heart desires in the Sims 4. o:)

I miss the stampeding buffalos of yore :p

"So_Money;c-17147192" wrote:
It goes beyond graphics. Build mode and CAS, for instance, are far better than TS3. And no multitasking in TS3 is a big step back.

You can’t take a step back when you came first. At most you could say multitasking in Sims 4 is a move forward. You could, if they’d done it properly. No CASt, that’s a huge step back.

"ScottDemon;c-17147444" wrote:

"Scobre;c-17147187" wrote:
Yep pretty much what it has going for it the most. I think it will become outdated even with graphics fairly soon just because games these days have better tech and graphics. I mean I'm even going to get the chance to try out cloud based gaming. They always raise price with each iteration and Sims 4 is the most expensive Sims game yet with the packs with packs totaling $600 so far and I wouldn't be shocked if it reached $1,000 to get the complete pack DLC experience.

Actually the Sims 3 is the most expensive. Back when the game was still supported it would cost $780 total for the Base Game, all EP's and SP's and if you throw in the Sims 3 Store well over $3000.

If you just buy Sims 3’s EP’s, you have the full experience. The rest is paint. For Sims 4 you’ll need it all. That’s the difference. That being said: yup, Sims 3 was very expensive as well. That doesn’t make Sims 4 a cheap game, costs wise. My son who plays other games can’t believe his ears when I tell him what it all costs.

As for the OP, I think in the beginning they did pay attention to gameplay. It’s not gameplay that can hold my attention, but it was gameplay. By now however I have a feeling they are paying more and more and way too much attention to how it looks and not to how it plays. Sometimes I wonder if they realize they’re creating a game even, not something to just sit and look at. I also can’t help wondering whether the cause might be they keep selling that way, but the game can’t carry much more by now.

"ScottDemon;c-17147444" wrote:

"Scobre;c-17147187" wrote:
Yep pretty much what it has going for it the most. I think it will become outdated even with graphics fairly soon just because games these days have better tech and graphics. I mean I'm even going to get the chance to try out cloud based gaming. They always raise price with each iteration and Sims 4 is the most expensive Sims game yet with the packs with packs totaling $600 so far and I wouldn't be shocked if it reached $1,000 to get the complete pack DLC experience.

Actually the Sims 3 is the most expensive. Back when the game was still supported it would cost $780 total for the Base Game, all EP's and SP's and if you throw in the Sims 3 Store well over $3000.

Actually that’s not true.

If you buy the sims 3 right now
Sims 3 starter pack =29.99
Sims 3 expansions 29.99 x 11 = 329.89
Stuff packs 14.99 x 9= 134.91
= £494.79

Sims 4
Base game 34.99 (deluxe edition 44.99)
7 expansions 34.99 x7 = 244.93
7 Game packs 17.99 x7 = 125.93
14 stuff packs 9.99 x 14 = 139.86

= £545.71 or £555.71

Not to mention sims 4 has an additional stuff pack and game pack on the way and three more years worth of content. Sims 4 is more expensive. That is a fact.


Excluding store content as that’s not essential and you actually get free sims points with every expansion registered. I should know as I have 8GB of free store content thanks to that and watching ads.

And that is today’s prices. During the original sims 3 run I didn’t pay those prices. I paid £10 for a stuff pack and £24 for an expansion.

"MidnightAura;c-17147494" wrote:

"ScottDemon;c-17147444" wrote:

"Scobre;c-17147187" wrote:
Yep pretty much what it has going for it the most. I think it will become outdated even with graphics fairly soon just because games these days have better tech and graphics. I mean I'm even going to get the chance to try out cloud based gaming. They always raise price with each iteration and Sims 4 is the most expensive Sims game yet with the packs with packs totaling $600 so far and I wouldn't be shocked if it reached $1,000 to get the complete pack DLC experience.

Actually the Sims 3 is the most expensive. Back when the game was still supported it would cost $780 total for the Base Game, all EP's and SP's and if you throw in the Sims 3 Store well over $3000.

Actually that’s not true.

If you buy the sims 3 right now

Sims 3 expansions 29.99 x 11 = 329.89
Stuff packs 14.99 x 9= 134.91
= £464.80

Sims 4
7 expansions 34.99 x7 = 244.93
7 Game packs 17.99 x7 = 125.93
14 stuff packs 9.99 x 14 = 139.86

= £510.72

Not to mention sims 4 has an additional stuff pack and game pack on the way and three more years worth of content. Sims 4 is more expensive. That is a fact.


Excluding store content as that’s not essential and you actually get free sims points with every expansion registered. I should know as I have 8GB of free store content thanks to that and watching ads.

And that is today’s prices. During the original sims 3 run I didn’t pay those prices. I paid £10 for a stuff pack and £24 for an expansion.

Today's prices yes but as I said back when the game was still being supported EP's where $10 higher and the SP's $15 higher at least where I live. And I own everthing that was ever in the Store including all the Special Promotions and other stuff.

Not all regions where the same. Some had to pay more. So in my area it was in fact $780.

Yes - for the most part - it is just nicer to look at. Gameplaywise - it is inferior to Sim 2 and Sims 3 IMO. CAS is better for creating a sim but when it comes to clothing - it is worse because there are so limited selections for colors/patterns. I do like the search function in build mode in Sims 4. I am not that much of a builder but some things are easier for building in Sims 4 and some things are harder and there is no water tool to put a pond on a lot and limited colors/patterns. Multitasking just seems to create more problems than it is worth and is apparently limited since they cannot even multitask at all in a lounge chair. At least in Sims 2 and 3 they actually sat at a table to eat and talked to each other w/o playing musical chairs. For a game that was promoted on the big feature being the emotions - that is a joke because they are meaningless - my sim beats up another sims and they hug afterward! In Sims 2 and 3 - you always knew what emotion they experienced by their facial expressions and actions. Sims 4 sims all seem the same - the few traits there are seem to do little to distinguish them. Sims should also have wants and fears based on their personalities and situations ( not just the same buy a bee box whim over and over) and they should have memories. Seems like they have just given up on whims even because there have not been any new ones since seasons. There are very few group activities - especially for kids - and the few they have done are lame, like snowball and water balloon fights - those were much better in Sims 2 and 3.

"So_Money;c-17147192" wrote:
It goes beyond graphics. Build mode and CAS, for instance, are far better than TS3. And no multitasking in TS3 is a big step back.

Ok. Build mode? No. TS3 has curved and l shaped stairs, ladders, elevators, modular sofas, there’s celling paint, platforms, you can put penthouses in any world, you can recolor almost any asset, you can create garages, and so on....

Multitasking in TS3 is a step back but TS3 is not the sequel lmao. Look how manh step bakcs did TS4 take.

Yes TS4 is mostly a pretty game and nothing more. There are some instances where it improves on previous games but overall it always falls short compared to it’s predecessors.

The bugs spoil what would otherwise have been a good iteration in the franchise.

I'm not wild about the 'you must use travel to go to another part of the neighbourhood or load a different lot' but with a modern gaming PC, the loading times are fast enough that it's open-ish.

But yeah, where it fails for me is when there are glitches, things don't work properly, and it takes months for things to get fixed, if they get fixed at all.

I'd much rather that there was a big clearing out of bugs than get new content and some bug fixes. I'd much rather that new content took longer to arrive and was relatively free of bugs.

This probably isn't economically viable though, because if there isn't any new content being made, presumably there's a big cross-section of staff who have nothing to do except wait until the next update ships or, they can get started on new content but can't finish because other people are busy working on testing, fixing, testing, and more fixing.

However, I'll tell you what else isn't economically viable. Expansion packs which sell less than previous ones. Every customer who turns away from newer expansion packs because of the bugs or other annoying issues that still exist in the old ones, even when they're massively discounted, that's a lost sale that could not be accounted for. Sure, it's possible to get an idea of what budget to pour into an expansion pack so that there will be a net profit, but it might not be the profit that was hoped for.

I would speculate that the reason why an expansion pack, game pack, and stuff pack were announced earlier this year was because the number of units (of base game or existing expansions) being shifted, did not match expectations. To keep people interested in the game, it's got to have even more content. At least, that what seems to be the driving direction at the moment.

I haven't bought Island Living because I'm not happy about the quality of the game, and more content isn't going to fix that.

Sims 4 is all for show. They put more effort into the decor backdrop than they do the gameplay and don’t get me started on all of the novelty content they make for this game. It’s pretty obv to me that there’s no other way for Sims 4 to go.

They took an online-multiplayer game out of the trash can and turned it into Sims 4 (literally that’s what they did) and given everything we can’t do I would say that makes this game a dud. A pretty dud, but a dud nonetheless. Hence why they desperately push the game toward young teens and children hoping they see it and buy it on visuals alone since the simulation is trash. The developers know the simulation in this game is garbage too, they just refuse to admit it or even fix it. Whatever is easiest for them, is what they will choose to do.

TS4 isn't the best, but it does offer some good things, like multitasking, click and drag CAS sculpting, the Parenthood pack, toddlers, clubs, and customizable holidays.

I think if they manage to fix most of the bugs, reintroduce some old base game features, and retool some of the base systems, it could be an even better game. We'll just have to see.

It's hard for me to compare with the Sims 2. It was so long ago now that I barely remember the game play. I know I loved it at the time though.

Sims 3 I disliked for many reasons and to me the Sims 4 will always be superior to that version in every way.

Sims 4 lacks randomness and consequences to actions and it has unfixed bugs that have been left for far to long. Those are the only things I find are an issue with the Sims 4 for me personally and even with those faults I still enjoy the game very much and play it daily. It's all really just a matter of preference. If you prefer an older version then good for you.

No I don’t feel this way. Yes it’s pretty but it has many other things that are great about it. CAS, build mode, multitasking, being able to easily travel to all worlds without mods. I like a lot about sims 4 in comparison to sims 3. Honestly tend to prefer it and I loved sims 3 when it was out and advocated for it when others didn’t. I just like certain things about 4 better and I have a hard time returning to sims 3 now. I find the systems like holidays, fame and even the vampire system are the best we’ve ever had. Toddlers are fantastic and I hated them in sims 2 and 3. Sims 4 has a lot going for it and it still has a few years to go.

Yes the game is buggy but so were it’s predecessors that’s just a common theme among sims games. We can only hope they don’t leave it a mess like sims 3.

I hate that people feel this way about sims 4 but not everyone will like every sims game and I know that. We all want different things. There were a lot on the dislike train for 3 as well because it was too different from 2. I guess I just accept each game for what it is. They are the same series but they tend to be drastically different in a lot of ways. I didn’t like 4 at first but after it was out for a few years (2017) I really started playing and haven’t stopped. Maybe sims 5 if it comes will be a perfect combo of all three games, taking the best from each. Wishful thinking for some I know but I’m hopeful.