Looking Forward To the End Of TS4
Let's look at a few reasons why. Unlike TS2 or TS3, TS4 has been built on such a small scale, with limited gameplay, I will be happy the day it has ended and TS5 possibly revealed. Or maybe I won't...
Forum Discussion
Thank you for this topic, @Cinebar. It doesn't take much common sense to realize we are clearly being taken advanatge of every time a new pack comes around. During the last Q&A with SimGuruLyndsay, the gurus were asked about the 'secret mermaid lot', and they refused to give the audience a straight answer. And this happened on the day Island Living was released. I don't know how anyone else feels about this, but I don't enjoy being treated like a child that can't handle being told the truth. Especially when the question was being asked of the very people that created this pack. When will EA and the gurus stop thinking a bunch of kids play this game? We are not children, a good many of us are adults that have been playing this game since the beginning. And supporting the franchise by purchasing everything EA has published for it. But when a free pre-ep update contains more than what was included in the EP itself, that's when I dig in my heels and say 'enough'. Free stuff isn't cutting it as far as keeping this Simmer content and happy with Sims4. Freebies don't make up for the fact this latest iteration in the Sims franchise is barely a Sims game at all. They had great ideas for it but no way to implement those ideas because of a poorly made game engine and refusing to make the decision to drop support for 32-bit systems while Sims4 was in the development stage. But this is 2019, and newer technology has not been taken advantage of to make this game better than it is. Sims4 has a Corvette body but it has a four cylinder engine under the hood. And what good is it to have a great looking car if the engine can't deliver great performance? Sims4 looks beautiful, the artwork is nearly flawless. Nearly. But beneath all that eye candy lies a very shallow, under-optimized game.
We can draw all the comparisons we can think of between Sims2, 3 and 4, but those comparisons are not relevant because all three of those were built with different game engines. And rather than looking back at what we had in the past, I want to know what EA is going to do with Sims4 in the near future. Such as creating new packs and content in 64-bit. We were told months ago to expect the conversion to 64-bit would be made this month. Then it was postponed. And each time we ask when will it happen, their only reply is soon. They claim to have a couple years worth of content for us. I don't want that content if it was created to be compatible with 32-bit systems. The game engine is clearly struggling now after the addition of so many different packs and updates. When a simple task such as reading while lounging on a lounge chair can't be done, something is wrong. And my hopes for any kind of future for Sim4 fade a bit more. So perhaps it is the right time for us to start a dialog on what we expect from Sims5. But seeing as I have been down this road four times already, and the game disappoints me with each new iteration, I don't know if I want to do it all again. I might stay with Sims4, mod the heck out of it, and just play my game. At least I wouldn't have to search for updates for those mods after a patch, update or new pack ever again. Which would suit me just fine.
A lot will have to be done differently before I decide to take a chance and try Sims5. Sims4 sat on my computer, unplayed, for over fifteen months before I went back to it and gave it another chance. And even after adding a couple of Sims4 packs, I continued to go back and forth between Sims3 and 4. So I know every comparison that can be drawn between the two. But there is no comparing the two because they are two totally different concepts, created on two totally different game engines. Choosing, or building the game engine for Sims5 will be a critical first step. It is the very foundation upon which the game will be built. A shaky foundation means we will get a shaky game. Which is what we ended up with in Sims4, and continue to pay the price for to this day. Because of EA's poor decision making during the development stage of Sims4, the game has never had the opportunity to be anything more than a clumsy, and quite shallow, sequel. Island Living shows just how far EA will go to take every opportunity to give as little as they possibly can in the hope of reaping more than they deserve.
I have little, to no hope for Sims4's future. As long as they continue creating poor content and folks buy it, I guess EA can carry on with this for as long as three more years, or until the game engine implodes. I'm as guilty of this as anyone else. I preordered Island Living. It is the last preorder I will ever make. The level of disappointment I felt after I went into Sulani for the first time almost made me cry. Ten minutes into that first game, I was ready to pull my hair out in frustration. My game, a vanilla save without mods or CC, was, and still is, a glitchy mess. I can't play my brand new expansion for more than a few minutes before my right eye starts to twitch. Not because my mods are not present, but because the pre-ep update and the expansion borked my entire game. I am dumbfounded by the level of ineptness represented in this pack. There are few features from the past packs that this new EP has not impacted in a negative way. How is that even possible? Dine Out is a mess. Spa Day has issues now, and I never had any before. Toddlers have sticky fingers and can't put objects down which then makes every Sim on that lot freeze in place. The new floaties, so cute, but our Sims can, and do get stuck on them. The list of issues and bugs is quite long. I spend much of my playing time resetting Sims rather than being able to enjoy the new world. And I paid forty dollars for this experience?? Kill me now. Please.
If the devs aren't able to create better content we can't blame them for that. The fault lies within the game engine itself. And the fact whatever they do create has to be compatible with older systems. Well, there are solutions for those problems. Why EA is dragging its feet to take that leap is beyond my understanding. Island Living could have been a great expansion. It is hardly a well-kept secret this expansion was supposed to be a game pack. Someone found vacation destination coding in it. There is a lot type for rental units that pops up whenever we want to change a lot from retail to residential to park, etc. One full time career was included when we usually get more. There are no pack-based whims. Rabbithole diving, and lifeguard career, exploring a cave is a rabbithole. Oh, look, the map fills in when you explore a different area. Then once it is completed, the map disappears. That's it. No prize or new trait to be had for your effort. The least they could have done was give us the map to be displayed in our Sim homes. Only one island is changed during the conservationist career. Lame. Just another dead end. No lasting gameplay at all. Mermaids. Sigh. Another golden opportunity wasted. Island culture. Sigh. Another wasted opportunity. I guess having ocean swimming meant other features couldn't be expanded upon. And that about sums up Sims4 and most of the previous packs. A very long string of missed opportunities to make the game come alive, and hold our interest for longer than an hour. If Sims5 is being worked on right now, I hope the team gets it right the first time around. As we have seen in Sims4, there are no do-overs. What you have is what you will have for years to come. And we are a tough audience to please. After almost five years of Sims4 we're more than ready for something new.
We can draw all the comparisons we can think of between Sims2, 3 and 4, but those comparisons are not relevant because all three of those were built with different game engines. And rather than looking back at what we had in the past, I want to know what EA is going to do with Sims4 in the near future. Such as creating new packs and content in 64-bit. We were told months ago to expect the conversion to 64-bit would be made this month. Then it was postponed. And each time we ask when will it happen, their only reply is soon. They claim to have a couple years worth of content for us. I don't want that content if it was created to be compatible with 32-bit systems. The game engine is clearly struggling now after the addition of so many different packs and updates. When a simple task such as reading while lounging on a lounge chair can't be done, something is wrong. And my hopes for any kind of future for Sim4 fade a bit more. So perhaps it is the right time for us to start a dialog on what we expect from Sims5. But seeing as I have been down this road four times already, and the game disappoints me with each new iteration, I don't know if I want to do it all again. I might stay with Sims4, mod the heck out of it, and just play my game. At least I wouldn't have to search for updates for those mods after a patch, update or new pack ever again. Which would suit me just fine.
A lot will have to be done differently before I decide to take a chance and try Sims5. Sims4 sat on my computer, unplayed, for over fifteen months before I went back to it and gave it another chance. And even after adding a couple of Sims4 packs, I continued to go back and forth between Sims3 and 4. So I know every comparison that can be drawn between the two. But there is no comparing the two because they are two totally different concepts, created on two totally different game engines. Choosing, or building the game engine for Sims5 will be a critical first step. It is the very foundation upon which the game will be built. A shaky foundation means we will get a shaky game. Which is what we ended up with in Sims4, and continue to pay the price for to this day. Because of EA's poor decision making during the development stage of Sims4, the game has never had the opportunity to be anything more than a clumsy, and quite shallow, sequel. Island Living shows just how far EA will go to take every opportunity to give as little as they possibly can in the hope of reaping more than they deserve.
I have little, to no hope for Sims4's future. As long as they continue creating poor content and folks buy it, I guess EA can carry on with this for as long as three more years, or until the game engine implodes. I'm as guilty of this as anyone else. I preordered Island Living. It is the last preorder I will ever make. The level of disappointment I felt after I went into Sulani for the first time almost made me cry. Ten minutes into that first game, I was ready to pull my hair out in frustration. My game, a vanilla save without mods or CC, was, and still is, a glitchy mess. I can't play my brand new expansion for more than a few minutes before my right eye starts to twitch. Not because my mods are not present, but because the pre-ep update and the expansion borked my entire game. I am dumbfounded by the level of ineptness represented in this pack. There are few features from the past packs that this new EP has not impacted in a negative way. How is that even possible? Dine Out is a mess. Spa Day has issues now, and I never had any before. Toddlers have sticky fingers and can't put objects down which then makes every Sim on that lot freeze in place. The new floaties, so cute, but our Sims can, and do get stuck on them. The list of issues and bugs is quite long. I spend much of my playing time resetting Sims rather than being able to enjoy the new world. And I paid forty dollars for this experience?? Kill me now. Please.
If the devs aren't able to create better content we can't blame them for that. The fault lies within the game engine itself. And the fact whatever they do create has to be compatible with older systems. Well, there are solutions for those problems. Why EA is dragging its feet to take that leap is beyond my understanding. Island Living could have been a great expansion. It is hardly a well-kept secret this expansion was supposed to be a game pack. Someone found vacation destination coding in it. There is a lot type for rental units that pops up whenever we want to change a lot from retail to residential to park, etc. One full time career was included when we usually get more. There are no pack-based whims. Rabbithole diving, and lifeguard career, exploring a cave is a rabbithole. Oh, look, the map fills in when you explore a different area. Then once it is completed, the map disappears. That's it. No prize or new trait to be had for your effort. The least they could have done was give us the map to be displayed in our Sim homes. Only one island is changed during the conservationist career. Lame. Just another dead end. No lasting gameplay at all. Mermaids. Sigh. Another golden opportunity wasted. Island culture. Sigh. Another wasted opportunity. I guess having ocean swimming meant other features couldn't be expanded upon. And that about sums up Sims4 and most of the previous packs. A very long string of missed opportunities to make the game come alive, and hold our interest for longer than an hour. If Sims5 is being worked on right now, I hope the team gets it right the first time around. As we have seen in Sims4, there are no do-overs. What you have is what you will have for years to come. And we are a tough audience to please. After almost five years of Sims4 we're more than ready for something new.
