"alexandrea;c-16527454" wrote:
"Destrx;c-16527171" wrote:
Some of these might have already been said but here are mine...
- The game feels underdone. Even with all of the current packs and expansions it feels some things are missing. I think it's slowly fixing itself but it's still sad to see a game with such large support levels and fan base get thrown under the bus for the sake of profit. As a fan of the series I'm not saying the game is bad - it just deserves more love and attention put into it.
It always baffles me when people say this now even with all the SP's, GP's, and EP's we have. In what way does the game feel underdone to you??? :o
I'll try to field this one:
Totally in my own opinion, the problem with TS4 is that it tends not to complete themes and details. Except for Vampires, every single theme that TS4 has ever tackled has been split into pieces in order to be sold in some further undisclosed pack.
For me, this is the biggest problem. They sold a pack called Kids Room Stuff and neglected to add a highly requested thing often found in children's rooms -- bunk beds.
The Seasons EP is adding pool parties. However, it looks like we'll be waiting how much longer for things like slides, pool floats, diving boards, and pool games such as Marco Polo, volleyball, and breath-holding contests.
The traditional pets pack was broken into cats and dogs only. How much longer before the theme will be completed with birds? Reptiles? Horses?
Apartments were released with City Living. They were touted as such a big deal. Still, the game was released without functional elevators, and apartments can not be custom built by the player. Apartment buildings do not actually exist in TS4. There are floating lots with the illusion of building built around them. Sims can't climb the steps out front, or enter the lobby, none of that. It's all an illusion. We're still waiting for the real deal so that we can add
those to other worlds.
In other words, EA's marketing is making it so that it is difficult to complete certain themes without buying multiple pacts, for just the basics. We had to wait nearly four years just for a swing set which has typically been base game fare. And we still don't have either a pool table or a drum set. We're still waiting for so many things.
To me (aside from the fact that the Sims are the least responsive, intuitive, and immersive since the inception of the series), this is why the game tends to feel so incomplete. EA barely touches on a theme and then rushes off to introduce something entirely different before they've even really got to the meat of what they just introduced. It's tiresome and frustrating, to say the least.
In the previous games, by now, we would have had a choice of vacations -- adventure, seaside, winter, leisure. There would have been resorts or some kind of hotel system. We could have had an entire pantheon of supernaturals. Also, pool stuff, beach stuff, the ability to build apartments, to lounge in a chair, to treat an enemy as if they were an enemy and not a dear friend. By now, even if we didn't have open water swimming, we would have, at least, had the ability to build on a beach and add activities. The beaches of Windenburg and Brindleton Bay still remain bare, barren places with very little to do.
As further example, Granite Falls and Selvadorada have such similar functions that they could have been both added into one complete EP, instead of two packs that still don't manage to give the complete vacation experience. Notice that, JA relies heavily on items from Outdoor Retreat in order to fulfill the fantasy of being a jungle explorer. Meanwhile, other types of vacations are still somewhere off in some ephemeral "future".
It's not even to say that the packs are split up in this fashion in order to make them more substantive and comprehensive, because they're not.
This time around, EA always manages to dip in a toe, but never makes a real splash.
