I do think in some ways TS4 is perhaps "watered down" in comparison to older titles on certain things, but I also think TS4 has truly improved on many things, like more skin tones and hair textures, toddlers, the gender options, the ability for sims to breastfeed, even being able to move the whole lot while in build mode and how foundations are added (they were kind of a pain in TS2). I like TS4's art style, I like how nicely it runs, and I like the flexibility CAS gives me. But, as other folks have said here, TS4 lacks "depth" in some stuff.
- Romantic relationships. Your sims can't cuddle in bed anymore. They use the generic "cheer" like someone at a sport's game after asking another sim to woohoo.
- Families. I think some of the interactions between children and their parents are cute, but it feels like there's stuff missing. Only 4 aspirations for children. Babies look creepy and we can't even tell what their hair or eye colour is until they're toddlers (unlike TS2 babies). Maybe kids don't play cops and robbers these days, but it would be nice for kids to have other games with other children that don't require an object to do. And sim kids should be way more affected by their parents breaking up than they are now. Same goes for deaths.
- Teens. There's not a whole lot of unique things for teens to do, no special interactions for them and between their parents or siblings (anyone remember noogies from TS2?).
- No firefighters or robbers. I've heard there's a repo-man in University, but shouldn't that be base game?
- As someone else said here, there's no Fear emotion. Tense is okay for some things, but it doesn't really encapsulate what fear is.
- Fine should be the default emotion, because when a sim is feeling something negative, the happy moodlets of a nicely-decorated room cancel them out. Like, a decent, normal meal should give a sim a +1 Fine, but a higher-quality or gourmet meal could give a +1 or 2 happiness or something.
- The lack of depth in world-building. I mean, the sims seems to be enjoyed by lots of creative types (modders/writers/artists/etc.), and these types of folks probably enjoy the lore. The sims is a sandbox game, so yeah, it's not gonna have a ton of worldbuilding, but if a household has description that says they're enemies or lovers or whatever, their initial relationships tab should reflect that.
I mean, I really do enjoy TS4, and nothing's perfect of course. But I really do wish it had a greater depth in some things.
