LGR Nifty Knitting Review

"Naus;c-17596607" wrote:
I'm not surprised to see some people defend even the worst packs. They literally put ZERO effort into this pack. Only 2 or 3 animations and the wool they use doesn't even change colors. There's no excuse for the little effort they put (other than what we already know: budget constraints, not enough manpower, tight release schedules, etc).

And some people say this SP is one of the best? I guess that the bar for SPs have been set SO ???? low, it's kinda true. I know some people bring up that SPs now have gameplay when I said that I prefer SPs in 2 and 3, but the truth is that you aren't getting any new gameplay. You're just getting less in EPs. Most of the gameplay and hero objects included in packs was part of a larger EP in previous games.

Take for example buttlers. They were in The Sims 1 Superstar, The Sims 2 Apartment Life, and The Sims 3 Late Night. Or bowling, which was featured in TS2 Nightlife and TS3 University Life, or the Slip N Slide that was included in TS3 Generations, or ice cream machines, that were included in TS3 Seasons, etc.

Some of those objects have been improved a TINY BIT. But can you honestly say that having more ice cream flavors with more effects JUSTIFIES not having ice cream machines in The Sims 4 Seasons and having to pay extra for them (and a bunch of items you may not care for)?

Just because you don't happen to like it doesn't make it one of the worst Stuff packs. Have you played with the pack? Among my favourites are Laundry Day and Kids Room, and this one is at least as good as those in my opinion. I have been really enjoying it and I think they put a lot of care into it. For instance, they invited player input on the Community Vote forum regarding what kind of knitting gameplay to include. A bunch of players responded (myself included) and the main thing we all stressed was how much we wanted children to be included, to be able to be taught to knit ( which they are, with a nice, new animation), and to be able to use the rocking chair (another couple of cute new animations for the different ages) etc. Lo and behold, when the pack arrived, we got exactly that and more, like the Metal station and air guitar (also with new animations), as well as Plopsy which is turning out to be a very useful system for both buying and selling.

People are always saying that they want more gameplay, and for me the nicest feature of the pack is that it includes some fun new gameplay, especially tailored for multi-generational families (which are the kind I like to create and play). In addition, the developers even added extra objects into the pack, giving us four variants of the rocking chair, two knitting baskets (in recognition that the vote was so close), extra children's boots (not chosen in the vote) and all three wall heights of the hanging plants. On the whole, there's a really good number of furniture and decor items, along with craftable objects and clothing while the Plopsy online selling system integrates well with a number of packs and the basegame, not to mention knitting being a nice new club activity. To me, the developers don't seem lazy at all, and the SP seems like pretty good value for $10 -- at least as good, if not better than anything available from the much more expensive TS3 store, which these Stuff packs are more comparable to than the SPs in previous games.

Plus it is not as though we haven't gotten any gameplay or interesting activities in the game at all: the fact is that they have to distribute things differently to avoid repeating themselves endlessly. So we got the violin (which in Sims 2 first came with Freetime) in basegame this time, insect collecting (also originally in Freetime) in OR and linked to a new Herbalism skill, robot-making (originally from OFB) in DU, basketball hoops and the synthesizer (also first seen in Freetime) in CL, the Don't Wake the Llama game in Get Together, etc. Several other good hobbies/ activities have arrived as well, with some new and some repeated from the past, and these are being dispersed throughout different packs as well as the base game, like Flower Arranging (originally in OFB, now in Seasons), Candle-making (new to the franchise in EL), Woodworking (in the Basegame and also new in the series), Baking (one of my favourites, from GTW), etc. Vampires are the best they've been in the series, in a really superior Gamepack, which had a ton of gameplay, and as a result they were much more fleshed out than in TS2 or TS3.

To me, the Stuff Packs are not falsely limited or piecemeal content but a certain category of how they choose to deliver content in a more narrow way. They represent a certain price range, which, yes, inherently limits the number of team members, resources, etc that they are able to devote to it, but which also makes them attractive for their price and niche appeal. Now some people (like LGR) think that they should stop doing SPs at all, and they have certainly been doing many more than in previous games, but compared to the SPs in previous games these are mostly much better. Would knitting be better if it had been included with candlemaking as another activity in EL? Sorry, I do doubt it would be as fleshed out. It's doubtful whether it would have been a 10 level skill or available to children, increasing their motor skill until maxed and then as a separate skill for them. As an instructive contrast, kids can only make one type of dipped candle in EL, and it is not a skill, nor does it even enhance one of their existing skills like creativity.

Like I suggested above, I also see the TS4 SPs as an improved replacement for the overpriced TS3 store. I was a frequent consumer of that store, even if I tried to get a lot of its items and sets on sale, and the objects there rarely included gameplay (or, if they did, they were hugely expensive -- as expensive as this stuff pack), nor were they as well made. Some of them never integrated with the game properly or fully, or they broke and were never fixed. Here are a few examples: the buccaneer bounty telescope which was static, the Jazz age stereo being without animations, the Crate TV being unable to be repaired or upgraded, the Bayside counters not recolouring, the entire restaurant set never working properly, etc. I could go on, but I won't. The upshot of it is, given a choice between the The Sims 3 Store, and the much better integrated Stuff and Game Packs of Sims 4, I would choose the latter hands down every time.