Lazy Gamer Review of Cottage Living now up

"catloverplayer;d-992493" wrote:
https://twitter.com/lazygamereviews/status/1421144420477546499?s=19

https://youtu.be/AEi9FFZhqn0

I have not seen any of his reviews before and his dry sense of humour did give me a chuckle I have to say.

I can understand to a certain extent after playing Cottage Living. There is indeed not enough time to do everything. Raising animals, growing plants and interacting with the locals, running errands, entering the weekly fair and maybe your Sim is also trying to hold down a full time job LOL. Need to take a fully maxed out Sim in all skills there LOL.

There seems to be quite a few issues for me in Cottage Living. Game lag seems to have got worse but having said that I am playing on an older desktop. I feel the Sims 4 has become a bit of a monster with the amount of things to do in the game, the quantity of clothing and items, one can often loose sight of actually playing a life simulation and get drawn into all the little side quests the Sims 4 now has to offer.

I wish in many respects the game would get more back to how it was in the Sims 1 and Sims 2. That is not to say I don't like some of the different and new things added into the Sims 4 but I often feel overwhelmed and lose direction. Something that never happened to me in the previous Sims games. Even in the Sims 3 I had a lot of fun playing the game how I wanted too.

As packs have come along and added to the game, there has been at times substantial changes to how we play and use items, especially with the Seasons pack. That for me was a complete game changer with plants being put into growing seasons. I don't mind if it only worked properly! And finding collectables is so much harder now than when the Sims 4 first came out.

Many items in the food (unless you have fresh chef) and drink category are time limited, they spoil and are thrown away. Milk and Cheese etc is the same in Cottage Living.

I found making Flowers bouquets is similar. I understand people want to have it more like real life but for me this aspect spoils the fun. You spend your time making something then its gone in a short time. I feel there should be better rewards in the aspirations so that flowers do not wilt and drinks and other perishables do not spoil. Something to aspire too!

The errands in Cottage Living are not working all that well. Played a few now and some have not credited so growing that special crop was a waste of time LOL. And some of the goals are not all showing all stages so one can't see what is left to complete. I am sure these are teething problems and I hope they will be sorted out. The good thing is you can delete it and try again.

It took quite some time for mushrooms to show up in my game, not many were growing in the wild but after playing two households I found many of the items were given as gifts and or for completing errands. By that time I didn't need to find them in the wild but still I would have preferred to have foraged. Finding plants and collectables in my Sims 4 has not been fun for a long time now, not just with Cottage Living.

I am having a bit of fun exploring this pack and finding out what it has to offer but just like my Sims becoming bored in the game, I often find myself in that state of mind playing the Sims 4!

"TS1299;c-17948444" wrote:
I will not be surprised if the profit earned from The Sims 4 was being used to fund Battlefield, Need for Speed, FIFA, or even other EA Franchises. It seems to me that instead of the profit a sign of bigger investment for the game, EA decides that it would be better to use that in their other games. I mean Battlefield V failed expectations and earned very low number of profit....yet somehow DICE and EA get to create a new better and bigger Battlefield game with tons of new effects (weather simulation for example and even animals like penguins) for their next game..... also don't forget that according to financial report, quarterly The Sims 4 is surpassing expectations... If this is a sign then I don't know what will.

So far the biggest money makers for EA are Apex Legends, The Sims 4 and FIFA. With FIFA being filed with lawsuits due to gambling, it is only a matter of time before the Ultimate Team will be categorized by law as gambling. Don't forget that FIFA earns billion dollars on Ultimate Team, yet from FIFA 17-FIFA20 there are almost no major improvements on that game showing how the money is being used for other games like Battlefront and Battlefield. It lead stagnation for FIFA. Now with FIFA slowly having more contreversy with the recent discover of Ultimate team black market from the players who use computer algorithms, I would not be surprised if EA already looked at other games like Apex Legends and The Sims 4 to finance their new and upcoming games.

One of the Sims 2 devs, Jake Simpson said that EA did this during Sims 2 run using the profits of TS2 to prop up the development of another game (https://mobile.twitter.com/justjakesimpson/status/1377687600262090753). I would not be surprised if the same thing is currently happening with Sims 4. Hopefully the Sims team gets their bonus for good sales this time though :)

"Felicity;c-17948764" wrote:

"TS1299;c-17948631" wrote:

Spoiler

"Schantal;c-17948477" wrote:

"Icewolf;c-17947279" wrote:
I used to love watching his Sims reviews. His old videos seemed more balanced back then and he had both postive and negative feedback that felt valid. Now his videos are just kind of obnoxious to me. I don't understand why he keeps doing them since he hates The Sims 4 that much. He used to be so fun and interesting and now it's just "Uuugh another Sims 4 pack. Why do they keep making packs for The Sims 4." and so on.

Why does he keep doing this to himself? His videos only seem to entertain everyone who hates The Sims 4. There were so many things in Cottage Living he didn't seem to mention and go in depth with.

I haven't watched it yet, BUT I own cottage living and I have to say, its 100% a Gamepack, which most people agree with. It also broke so many things and there were some beyond lazy decisions....like why are the overgrown crops not coded with the ability to graft and cut? If you notice they don't even have an Evolve feature. You also can only use fertilizer that came with this pack on them and they didn't code that fertilizer to be used with any old plants....it was supposed to be a major "feature" and its shallow as with most of the stuff in sims 4. Also, not being able to spread the jam on bread or any baked goods....really....another "major" feature....pretty much useless. Picnic baskets you cant sit on the ground with....just lazy coding and decisions.... None of that matters though because gardening is still broken for many people with crops resetting, dying, not blooming, etc.....

Also, look at nifty knitting, the paranormal stuff packs, etc....those are STUFF packs for 10 bucks and the paranormal one came with a freaking career, build/buy, cas, this awesome lot type, seances, etc etc.... so many things....for 10 bucks. Same with nifty knitting. Then you have gamepacks like Jungle Adventures, which came with a giant world, tombs, tons of skills, a new dance, one of the largest if not the largest build/buy of any gamepack, cas items, and so much more....all for 20 dollars. The sims 4 content just isn't balanced. Some packs seem packed with things and others....not so much. Im enjoying the pack for what it is, BUT thats because I have other packs to compliment it.....on its own, this pack def shouldn't be $40.....also, there are so many bugs that make many of the features downright frustrating to play with such as chickens, cow, llama, etc.....

The thing is the problem when measuring what type a pack is for the developers a ferature is depends on how difficult the features are to implement since they change the game/engine that they need engineers for it. Many of Gameplay engineers of TS4 work on EP, that is why we have weather simulation, pets, and even open water swimming.

For example Island Living. That expansion pack has no new gameplay systems at all. Gameplay objects? a lot of but system like clubs, holidays, retail, veterinary or apartments? Nope. The only reason that pack was an expansion pack to begin with was because the game engine did not support open waters/oceans as SimGuruDaniel mention it. (the engine part not the pack part). In order to achieve that a gamepack budget would not fit them since it develops shorter and the investment in return is not that big. So instead they went to EP, changed the engine foundation to support ocean swimming and then added features around it. That is why it was an expansion pack. Oh and It wasn't ocean swimming that they need the engine to do for that expansion pack. The lots on the beach have different terrain meaning they have to implement a terrain tool to make it possible for lots to be on different heights. With the toddlers blog they confirmed that they have pulled devs from different teams (EP, GP etc.) in order to make toddlers possible. I would not be surprised if it was done too during the development of Island Living for the Terrain Tools.

Now we have cottage living. The reason why it was an EP is not because of the strong feature it has... but rather by the difficulty to implement it on the technical side. Cats and Dogs is already a challenge for them. How about Rabbits, Chickens, Cows and Llamas in one pack then? creating model alone and making sure that they won''t play sim animations and stay on animals are difficult already. Not to mention The Sims 4 never reuse animations from previous games. It was one of the reason why Horses in TS3 is possible as animations for cats and dogs are simply carried over since they use the same engine. In TS4 for those animals, from walking, to sitting, to breathing everything needed to be animated along with sims interacting them. What did technical problem they needed it to be an EP to make it work. That is probably why the cows and llama are locked into their cage, they probably didn't implement a running animation. Not being tied into objects means aside from animating, and modeling these two big animals, they also need to have a set of behaviors autonomously like cats and dogs. If that happens just like cats and dogs, they will need emotions, personalities and etc. since they are major animals and not minor pets...doing that would mean to cut the rest of the animals from the pack, even the festivals. That reminds me that is probably why we don't have any festivals in the Brindleton Bay.

So In short, the reason why an EP is an EP is not just by the amount of content but primarily because of how difficult the feature to implement is. The lesser the difficulty in technical side a major feature is, the bigger gameplay we receive. Get To work only needed retail and active careers, mostly it was just travel to lot and change UI. That is why that pack is huge. This is also why there are inconsistencies in the amount of content than an EP have.

I'm sorry for spoiler tagging most of your post, as it's interesting and should be read, but I wanted to address your summation. Most of these issues, from a player point of view, fall under "not the consumer's problem." The developers made the choice of which engine to use. This was not dictated by EA -- it was Maxis' choice. EA has insisted other devs use Frostbite, whether it's a good fit for the studio or not. A choice made because they thought they were going to make a different type of game until SimCity2013 tanked, but one they continued to soldier on with. They knew the limitations of it. That it's now being used as a reason for providing less content (the old, "too difficult, too expensive" reason they used to trot out, but with more words) is insulting.

Let me be clear -- I have no doubt that implementing features on a sub-par engine where they can't reuse animations from past games is probably quite cost and labor intensive. But they're not losing money. They wouldn't be losing money with more content in the packs. They'd still be raking in millions, if not billions, on the Sims 4. And that's the real crux of the matter -- they can spend a bit more, have better content, or they can not bother, and provide less than they did in previous iterations, and either way, they keep earning $$ because they have no competition in this genre.

Sims 2 and Sims 3 are both broken games. Games that, oddly enough, don't have to be broken. With Sims 3, as serious, game-breaking bugs started showing up, modders fixed them. EA/Maxis were aware of the bugs and the fixes. In fact, customer support would direct people to these websites. When worlds came out in Sims 3 that were completely broken, a modder took it on to fix them all in her free time. And within the past few weeks, the last game-breaking bug, which is more of a design decision, has been fixed.

My point in bringing that up is it is obvious that Maxis/EA are not choosing customer good will and providing stable content. They try to provide as little as possible from actual content to QA. Sims 2 players absolutely hated the corners that Sims 3 cut, but at least Sims 3 brought something new to the table. Sims 4 really does not. If it were a $60 game with a $30 season pass, I'd understand. But when you charge almost as much for an expansion pack as you do for a game, you should be providing a game's worth of content given that you have a lot less cost associated with making an EP than you do a full game.

Just to be clear I am not defending EA or anything hehe I miss the old expansion packs too ? This is just my observation based on the tweets and infos they shared on public. The consumer like you said does not need the explanation on why pack is so empty and have empathy when they buy a $40 expansion. Instead they should get the content that they deserve regardless of how difficult a feature might be.

So Yeah... EA and Maxis if they cannot put more content in their EP because many huge features are very difficult to make and they cannot create a new engine for the game since it is too late already, then they should increase their budget. Can you imagine The Sims having a huge budget like the latest upcoming Battlefield?There are what 5 studios for that game...EA should really need to do something for The Sims before it is too late...

"wormofthebook;c-17948951" wrote:

"TS1299;c-17948444" wrote:
I will not be surprised if the profit earned from The Sims 4 was being used to fund Battlefield, Need for Speed, FIFA, or even other EA Franchises. It seems to me that instead of the profit a sign of bigger investment for the game, EA decides that it would be better to use that in their other games. I mean Battlefield V failed expectations and earned very low number of profit....yet somehow DICE and EA get to create a new better and bigger Battlefield game with tons of new effects (weather simulation for example and even animals like penguins) for their next game..... also don't forget that according to financial report, quarterly The Sims 4 is surpassing expectations... If this is a sign then I don't know what will.

So far the biggest money makers for EA are Apex Legends, The Sims 4 and FIFA. With FIFA being filed with lawsuits due to gambling, it is only a matter of time before the Ultimate Team will be categorized by law as gambling. Don't forget that FIFA earns billion dollars on Ultimate Team, yet from FIFA 17-FIFA20 there are almost no major improvements on that game showing how the money is being used for other games like Battlefront and Battlefield. It lead stagnation for FIFA. Now with FIFA slowly having more contreversy with the recent discover of Ultimate team black market from the players who use computer algorithms, I would not be surprised if EA already looked at other games like Apex Legends and The Sims 4 to finance their new and upcoming games.

One of the Sims 2 devs, Jake Simpson said that EA did this during Sims 2 run using the profits of TS2 to prop up the development of another game (https://mobile.twitter.com/justjakesimpson/status/1377687600262090753). I would not be surprised if the same thing is currently happening with Sims 4. Hopefully the Sims team gets their bonus for good sales this time though :)

Ever since Andrew Wilson become the CEO of EA as much as I hate his love for the monetization and Live services games, he did make EA a better place to work for. The problem left is that they are too focused on other games. I fear that they consider The Sims as just a "Casual" game which is why they don't gave Maxis a bigger team.

I do wish that Maxis Europe will grow and then able to do their own Expansion packs for the game. Until then we just really hope that EA will notice how The Sims could have been a great investment. This is the community that was easiest to please since mostly simmers are united on content they want.. They just have to invest.

"BlueR0se;c-17947682" wrote:
Honestly, I thought the review was fine. Couldve gone into more detail about the simple living stuff but that's his prerogative. It's obvious the chicken stuff brought a lot of nostalgia for him and it was nice to hear him ramble on about it. He wasnt even that critical of the pack, just that it wasn't worth $40 price which is the general state of Sims 4's packs for years.

It sucks to see him so burdened by reviewing the series, cause I love his reviews, but I can understand/respect his stance. It's not like Maxis doesn't pop 1-2 EPs per year anyway.

In the meantime, I've drifted to Carl's channel as he and LGR seem to be some of the few folks that are genuinely critical of the game and one of the few game changers that arent blatant advertising machines (from my understanding). Im sure there are others, though.

Still waiting on Carl's Full Review.

"Felicity;c-17947476" wrote:

"bshag4lv;c-17947440" wrote:

"Kimmer;c-17947270" wrote:

"musteni;c-17946675" wrote:
Umm why did I watch it? He used to be funny and I get why he isn't into it anymore, but again why did I watch it?

You just convinced me not to watch it. ;)

My thoughts exactly. When LGR refused to lower himself to review JtB, that's when he lost me. I still love JtB, I know many, many who don't and that's okay. Since then it's been obvious that he no longer bring himself to review a Sims 4 pack anymore.

I have enjoyed his previous reviews but hey, when it's time to go...

He kind of reviewed JtB in this last review, though it was short. He referred to it as "Journey to a Disney Advertisement." I laughed out loud at that. I don't have JtB. It looks repetitive to me but there are some things in there that look decent. Like gambling. Can Sabacc be played outside of Batuu for simoleans?

I tried to put a Sabacc table down in a bar in OS but the only games it let me play was card games and the llama game. :#

"bshag4lv;c-17948288" wrote:

"Felicity;c-17947476" wrote:

"bshag4lv;c-17947440" wrote:

"Kimmer;c-17947270" wrote:

"musteni;c-17946675" wrote:
Umm why did I watch it? He used to be funny and I get why he isn't into it anymore, but again why did I watch it?

You just convinced me not to watch it. ;)

My thoughts exactly. When LGR refused to lower himself to review JtB, that's when he lost me. I still love JtB, I know many, many who don't and that's okay. Since then it's been obvious that he no longer bring himself to review a Sims 4 pack anymore.

I have enjoyed his previous reviews but hey, when it's time to go...

He kind of reviewed JtB in this last review, though it was short. He referred to it as "Journey to a Disney Advertisement." I laughed out loud at that. I don't have JtB. It looks repetitive to me but there are some things in there that look decent. Like gambling. Can Sabacc be played outside of Batuu for simoleans?

I tried to put a Sabacc table down in a bar in OS but the only games it let me play was card games and the llama game. :#

Might need to file a bug report with AMQ. Do you have mods though?

"Felicity;c-17947332" wrote:

"Babykittyjade;c-17947308" wrote:
It's so strange to me. I don't know why LGR and hundreds of others I've seen on other sites or social medias continues to torture themselves being misrable by engaging in a misrable game they hate so much for whatever reason. I would never review or engage in any activity that brought me more misery than joy.

For example the love of my life is the final fantasy serious. After FFX (the best ever??)I felt like it was all going down hill from there. I stomached ffx-2 because of how much I loved the characters from X. but literally a whole nother dude made it and you could tell. I have played a few demos of newer final fantasies but otherwise never looked back, looked up news or previews, spent money, time or effort engaging in anything related to it because the gameplay or storylines have lost their essence and no longer bring me joy. I like being happy ? so I just moved on to other hobbies. And currently only play roblox and ts4
So I just find it strange that people do this with sims....

I understand with LGR. He loves the franchise. A big part of his channel growth came from reviewing the Sims 3, and many people considered his reviews invaluable. He loved the game, hated the prices, and was very good at breaking everything down. With Sims 4, the people who found him an invaluable resource still wanted his input. So reviewing Sims had become part of his career, and it's hard to let people down who really look forward to your work. There's a huge difference in playing games in your private time and having it be part of your job. When you're lucky, what you love and what makes you money are the same.

What surprises me more, tbh, is how many people seem to take negative reviews as a personal affront. I was sad that my husband didn't like Valheim because I wanted to play multiplayer with him. But some reviewer on the internet? They're entitled to their opinion even if I don't agree with them.

I'm hoping LGR reviews the smoothness patch for Sims 3. But whether he does or doesn't, I'm still using and enjoying it.

Edit: FF6 is the best ;)

OMG there is a smoothness patch? I am so happy

"stepbot153;c-17952123" wrote:

"Felicity;c-17947332" wrote:

"Babykittyjade;c-17947308" wrote:
It's so strange to me. I don't know why LGR and hundreds of others I've seen on other sites or social medias continues to torture themselves being misrable by engaging in a misrable game they hate so much for whatever reason. I would never review or engage in any activity that brought me more misery than joy.

For example the love of my life is the final fantasy serious. After FFX (the best ever??)I felt like it was all going down hill from there. I stomached ffx-2 because of how much I loved the characters from X. but literally a whole nother dude made it and you could tell. I have played a few demos of newer final fantasies but otherwise never looked back, looked up news or previews, spent money, time or effort engaging in anything related to it because the gameplay or storylines have lost their essence and no longer bring me joy. I like being happy ? so I just moved on to other hobbies. And currently only play roblox and ts4
So I just find it strange that people do this with sims....

I understand with LGR. He loves the franchise. A big part of his channel growth came from reviewing the Sims 3, and many people considered his reviews invaluable. He loved the game, hated the prices, and was very good at breaking everything down. With Sims 4, the people who found him an invaluable resource still wanted his input. So reviewing Sims had become part of his career, and it's hard to let people down who really look forward to your work. There's a huge difference in playing games in your private time and having it be part of your job. When you're lucky, what you love and what makes you money are the same.

What surprises me more, tbh, is how many people seem to take negative reviews as a personal affront. I was sad that my husband didn't like Valheim because I wanted to play multiplayer with him. But some reviewer on the internet? They're entitled to their opinion even if I don't agree with them.

I'm hoping LGR reviews the smoothness patch for Sims 3. But whether he does or doesn't, I'm still using and enjoying it.

Edit: FF6 is the best ;)

OMG there is a smoothness patch? I am so happy

Not only for TS3 but also now for TS4.

"stepbot153;c-17952123" wrote:

"Felicity;c-17947332" wrote:

"Babykittyjade;c-17947308" wrote:
It's so strange to me. I don't know why LGR and hundreds of others I've seen on other sites or social medias continues to torture themselves being misrable by engaging in a misrable game they hate so much for whatever reason. I would never review or engage in any activity that brought me more misery than joy.

For example the love of my life is the final fantasy serious. After FFX (the best ever??)I felt like it was all going down hill from there. I stomached ffx-2 because of how much I loved the characters from X. but literally a whole nother dude made it and you could tell. I have played a few demos of newer final fantasies but otherwise never looked back, looked up news or previews, spent money, time or effort engaging in anything related to it because the gameplay or storylines have lost their essence and no longer bring me joy. I like being happy ? so I just moved on to other hobbies. And currently only play roblox and ts4
So I just find it strange that people do this with sims....

I understand with LGR. He loves the franchise. A big part of his channel growth came from reviewing the Sims 3, and many people considered his reviews invaluable. He loved the game, hated the prices, and was very good at breaking everything down. With Sims 4, the people who found him an invaluable resource still wanted his input. So reviewing Sims had become part of his career, and it's hard to let people down who really look forward to your work. There's a huge difference in playing games in your private time and having it be part of your job. When you're lucky, what you love and what makes you money are the same.

What surprises me more, tbh, is how many people seem to take negative reviews as a personal affront. I was sad that my husband didn't like Valheim because I wanted to play multiplayer with him. But some reviewer on the internet? They're entitled to their opinion even if I don't agree with them.

I'm hoping LGR reviews the smoothness patch for Sims 3. But whether he does or doesn't, I'm still using and enjoying it.

Edit: FF6 is the best ;)

OMG there is a smoothness patch? I am so happy

It's amazing. You still need mods addressing other types of lag (NRaas Overwatch or Awesomemod, ellacharmed world fixes or custom worlds), and NRaas Master Controller compacted CAS clothing categories help a lot, but we're talking, on my machine, the entire store plus all packs clothing, all categories, loading up in under 5 seconds. Hair, with a lot of CC, less than a second delay. Patterns in CASt loading about 10x as fast. Lots loading, all patterns, almost instantly. You also still need to do the manual tweaks so Sims 3 will recognize your modern hardware, but that's a once-and-done situation.

One thing it does do is prove that CASt is absolutely doable without tons of lag and that it was a choice to make it run so poorly. Sims 3 was patched a few years ago to tie it to Origin -- this fix could have been done at that time.

And you still have the issue with Sims 3 being a 32bit game, with the RAM limitations that come with that. But since my loading times are vastly improved, I don't mind restarting every few hours.

Disclaimer, I'm playing on a decent machine. Ryzan 7 5800x, 370rtx. But I think anyone who isn't playing on a potato is going to see vast improvements.

https://modthesims.info/d/658759/smooth-patch.html

Now I need to find the one for Sims 4. I had no idea there was one. Hopefully it will help with simulation lag.

Edit: @catloverplayer my googlefu is failing me. Do you know who put out the patch for the Sims 4? Or were you talking about turbodriver's simulation unclogger and srslysims simulation lag fix?

EDIT for topic: I think LGR only reviewing EPs is a good compromise. His fans still get a review for the very expensive packs, and he doesn't have to think about the smaller ones. And his refusing to review smaller packs, and especially his dismissiveness of kits, is probably enough review. You already know he won't like it and will think it's overpriced.