Lazy Gamer Review of Cottage Living now up

"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?

I can't dislike his review because nothing he said isn't the truth. Last week I had a few minutes to kill and took a look at a couple of replays from EA Play. I was stunned when I saw the line up of new games that are coming up. All of those being published, and partially, if not fully financed by EA. I haven't been keeping up with those because EA is involved, but one has to ask the question that's on a lot of player's minds. The studios involved in creating those games seem to have a better grasp of what players want, and they deliver. So what's up with Maxis, and why hasn't the studio been able to create better content for the Sims franchise? After seeing what I saw coming out of EA Play, I was stunned, and I was angry EA and Maxis seem to have made it their mission in life to make Sims4 look foolish and childish. Where's the innovative game play Simmers so desperately want? If anyone believes this will happen when Sims5 rolls out, don't be too disappointed when it doesn't look or play any differently than Sims4. Or we'll get more for the money we spend for the new content for Sims5. I know I'm not going down that rabbit hole again. Four iterations, the fourth one flailing and buggy and shallow, and we're seeing no growth, and less effort being put forth? My future with the Sims franchise is murky because I can't envision myself staying with the franchise when we've been playing a stripped down version of a Sims game for almost seven years and it's heartbreaking knowing what it should be like compared to what it actually is today. LGR knows this is true and if he does these reviews to please a few of his loyal fans, I can't criticize him for being truthful. If one doesn't want to hear about Sims4 shortcomings and issues, don't watch anyone's reviews then expect the reviewer to sugarcoat the truth.

"Paigeisin5;c-17948383" wrote:
I can't dislike his review because nothing he said isn't the truth. Last week I had a few minutes to kill and took a look at a couple of replays from EA Play. I was stunned when I saw the line up of new games that are coming up. All of those being published, and partially, if not fully financed by EA. I haven't been keeping up with those because EA is involved, but one has to ask the question that's on a lot of player's minds. The studios involved in creating those games seem to have a better grasp of what players want, and they deliver. So what's up with Maxis, and why hasn't the studio been able to create better content for the Sims franchise? After seeing what I saw coming out of EA Play, I was stunned, and I was angry EA and Maxis seem to have made it their mission in life to make Sims4 look foolish and childish. Where's the innovative game play Simmers so desperately want? If anyone believes this will happen when Sims5 rolls out, don't be too disappointed when it doesn't look or play any differently than Sims4. Or we'll get more for the money we spend for the new content for Sims5. I know I'm not going down that rabbit hole again. Four iterations, the fourth one flailing and buggy and shallow, and we're seeing no growth, and less effort being put forth? My future with the Sims franchise is murky because I can't envision myself staying with the franchise when we've been playing a stripped down version of a Sims game for almost seven years and it's heartbreaking knowing what it should be like compared to what it actually is today. LGR knows this is true and if he does these reviews to please a few of his loyal fans, I can't criticize him for being truthful. If one doesn't want to hear about Sims4 shortcomings and issues, don't watch anyone's reviews then expect the reviewer to sugarcoat the truth.

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.

That was something that was on my mind, too. Watching the previews of some of those games, I wondered why those games had had major updates, while Sims4, even with it's staggering sales numbers, seems outdated and in need of more money for the creative teams. This has been only one of my issues with EA when it comes to Sims4's lack of innovative new game play content, and why the packs are so bloated with CAS and B/B content which is cheaper to create. The money being generated by Sims4 is not being funneled into Sims4. To me, it appears Sims4 receives just enough to stay afloat when it truly needs some serious work and EA would rather spend those funds on their bigger titles even when those games aren't generating as much in actual sales. And EA has been doing business this way since Sims2.

"simgirl1010;c-17947272" wrote:
Comment from LGR.

So! Regarding my statement about future videos at the very end. To elaborate:
I do not plan on reviewing any more Sims 4 packs, other than full expansions most likely. There are only so many times I can say I'm disappointed or that something sucks, after all.

The Sims 4 continues to get new content all the time and I generally just don’t care, man. Over the past seven years and 50+ videos I’ve made about it, I have said everything that I wanna say about it, many times over. At this point I feel like I’m going nuts repeating myself. Like, we all know EA is a pile of ❤️❤️❤️❤️ and the core gameplay of The Sims 4 isn't gonna change all of a sudden, so I haven’t bothered talking about the last six or seven content packs because my heart simply isn’t in it anymore.

I value my time enough not to waste it on covering things I’m not fully invested in. Years ago now, covering this series went from “ooh, I get to make videos on The Sims!” to “ah ❤️❤️❤️❤️, I have to make videos on The Sims.” It became an obligation, then a burden, and now it's just a pain in the ❤️❤️❤️❤️ to keep up with.

So yeah. I’m tired of this onslaught of products. Exhausted, honestly. The series has gone off in confusing directions with monetization schemes I don’t care for, and it's become clear the new content is being made for an audience different than me, someone that's a specific breed of old school simmer. I’d rather not waste my time and yours talking about overpriced products made by a corporation I dislike. So going forward I only plan to check in on the series when a full expansion comes along (if that), since at least there are only one or two of those a year. That's as much as I can stomach.

Thank you to all of you for watching over the years, and I truly appreciate all the messages you’ve sent in asking for more Sims videos. But for all intents and purposes, I've mentally checked out and left The Sims behind. Which is fitting, since it left me behind years ago.

Thanks for posting this, I agree with him 100%. Also that last sentence both broke my heart and is exactly how I feel about this franchise.

"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.....

"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.

"TS1299;c-17946925" wrote:

"LadyKyn;c-17946689" 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?

Like me, general curiosity.

Wasn't feeling the usual humor he had, which is rare but I'm pretty sure this is more tiring than anything to him now, which I would have liked him to just stick to his guns and just say no if it's not entertaining to him, but with it being one of the more popular things on his channel aside from his usual old software and hardware reviews along with other things which people probably been asking him to do is probably why. The same rinse and repeat method when he grew tired of S3 when he said it 'wore out it's welcome'. Same situation with S4. Though, I don't even see him play S2 anymore which I liked seeing on his channel too for the sheer randomness, so I think he's just pretty tired of the Sims franchise all over.

Surprised he didn't go into a bit more depth like the evil chickens and the absolute chaos they can cause havoc on your sims and garden. Or have sims that were lactose intolerant get sick and gassy from drinking milk. (Since there's usually some sort of fart joke in his reviews).

Along with the death by rabbit and death by chicken. Didn't really feel like a overall thorough review from him even if it'd be the same result, which is pretty disappointing. You can see and feel he just wasn't motivated and just did it because it's more expected of him than anything. You can definitely pick up the tone of this video compared to previous ones and his computer related ones.

It was all fairly underwhelming if not disappointing for him.

Probably won't look at anymore sim videos of his as they've become less entertaining.

This is the problem really for me. Most of reviewers similar to him (except carl) felt that they only count the features, and then that's it. They based the price based on the number of features, not by the depth of each. What he didn't cover in the animals as you mention is just one part of it. He didn't even go into detail about simple living, a feature of this pack....

It seems to me that he is more dissapointed that TS4 is not a copy of TS3 with huge open worlds (judging by the comparison into the mod) and what not.

I very much agree with you. He's getting rather like a critic of the theatre or cinema who only watches the first few minutes and gives a review on that. He doesn't see the depth of play later on when you have the linking up with other packs. He doesn't play the game anymore and just fires it up and now gives a truly lazy review.

It took ages for me to enjoy the depth that Get to work or Eco Lifestyle have after seeing some reviews of them. I now only watch reviews to see what building and objects the packs have.

Carl's is better as he honestly states that he tries to break the Pack but he still seemed to enjoy some of it. His review is probably quite useful for the Gurus.

"Schantal;c-17948475" wrote:

"simgirl1010;c-17947272" wrote:
Comment from LGR.

So! Regarding my statement about future videos at the very end. To elaborate:
I do not plan on reviewing any more Sims 4 packs, other than full expansions most likely. There are only so many times I can say I'm disappointed or that something sucks, after all.

The Sims 4 continues to get new content all the time and I generally just don’t care, man. Over the past seven years and 50+ videos I’ve made about it, I have said everything that I wanna say about it, many times over. At this point I feel like I’m going nuts repeating myself. Like, we all know EA is a pile of ❤️❤️❤️❤️ and the core gameplay of The Sims 4 isn't gonna change all of a sudden, so I haven’t bothered talking about the last six or seven content packs because my heart simply isn’t in it anymore.

I value my time enough not to waste it on covering things I’m not fully invested in. Years ago now, covering this series went from “ooh, I get to make videos on The Sims!” to “ah ❤️❤️❤️❤️, I have to make videos on The Sims.” It became an obligation, then a burden, and now it's just a pain in the ❤️❤️❤️❤️ to keep up with.

So yeah. I’m tired of this onslaught of products. Exhausted, honestly. The series has gone off in confusing directions with monetization schemes I don’t care for, and it's become clear the new content is being made for an audience different than me, someone that's a specific breed of old school simmer. I’d rather not waste my time and yours talking about overpriced products made by a corporation I dislike. So going forward I only plan to check in on the series when a full expansion comes along (if that), since at least there are only one or two of those a year. That's as much as I can stomach.

Thank you to all of you for watching over the years, and I truly appreciate all the messages you’ve sent in asking for more Sims videos. But for all intents and purposes, I've mentally checked out and left The Sims behind. Which is fitting, since it left me behind years ago.

Thanks for posting this, I agree with him 100%. Also that last sentence both broke my heart and is exactly how I feel about this franchise.

That is how I feel as I am an veteran Simmer myself and seen all the changes and for me Sims 4 changes was really drastic and not in an good way. Sims 4 is geared to one group the newbies as they may have never played the previous versions to really know what has changed over time as Sims 4 did not go through an evolution like other programs go through.

"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.