Honestly, even though I was a late adopter of Sims 4 (took me until BOTH toddlers and unlocked gendered outfits were added to buy the game, despite buying on release for earlier versions barring Sims 1), I am always a bit boggled by people who think Sims 3 is the holy grail of comparisons.
Of course, to be fair, the game literally crashed every 5 minutes on me and became literally unplayable because of that for a solid 2-3 years before the issue was fixed for us Mac players.
Remember: the game was only current for 5 freakin' years. Ha. Hahaha. HHAHAHAHA- (*twitches spastically as they remember 300+ bucks worth of content being rendered literally unplayable*)
I like to say Sims 3 had some amazing ideas and concepts (although it started the track from 'goofy' to moar realism the sims 4 has continued, which Strangerville has thankfully halted a bit), but had godawful terrible execution and the worst looking sims to date. So if you had money and a pimped out windows' system computer than yeah, it was great! For everyone else it was hell, and to this DAY it suggests you play with only a couple expansions installed at a time for 'best performance'.
...Ok. Graphically Sims 1 Sims were worse. But in design... the pudding faces. Ugh.
Besides, if there is any direct comaprison going on, Sims 3 should really be removed out of the picture as Sims 4 is FAR more of a direct inheritor from 2 than it ever was from 3. But even then, comparisons are bunk because Sims 2 was the ultimate Sandbox game. It was extemely moddable, gave you tools built in the download itself to make your own content, allowed you to upload entire worlds you designed yourself from Sims City...2? Was it 2? IDK. Regardless, if we are comparing on a Sandbox basis, than Sims 2 beats all. Hands down. Game over.
But uh. That is just one level, and one type of player.
Look, I will consistently rank Sims 2 as the best (and sims 3 as the worst simply because of playability issues although I will sing the praises of the ideas in it. Even if those ideas crashed and burned on a regular basis, literally), but Sims 4 has it's place. It took me awhile to come around to it, but Sims 4 is more of a life sim instead of a sandbox sim, for better or for worse. Like. This was obvious from day 1 but just became more and more obvious as time went on.
Sims 4 is never going to be Sims 2 or Sims 3, and the quicker some people make peace with that, the happier everyone will be. I MEAN. If Sims 4 ticks you off so much, why keep buying it? (And like don't get me wrong. I can RANT about the number of stuff packs for DAYS and oh my god PET STUFF WHAT THE HECK THAT SHOULD'VE BEEN IN PETS-.... *cough*) Anyway.
TL'DR: Comparing Sims 3 and Sims 4 is bunk, Sims 3 was a terribly executed game anyway which honestly should've waited ten years from NOW to be made vs 5 years ago, and Sims 4 is a life sim not a sandbox sim. Yeet.
