My Trial of City Living Expansion Pack
I don't own the City Living expansion pack, and that expansion pack is up for a free trial this weekend. So yesterday, I downloaded the expansion pack and began playing with the free trial. Today, I continued playing with it. There are definitely some pros and cons to this pack.
Pros:
live in a big city in an apartment and work your way up into a penthouse!
cultural festivals (The fireworks were cool, though it would be even better if they were like The Sims 3 ones where you could go into the Map view and actually see the fireworks. Perhaps, in the Sims 4, you have to tilt the camera to see fireworks or something?)
street musicians (Not only can you tip the street musicians, you can also become one! Then, you can use your cell phone to register yourself as a self-employed street musician! You can customize whatever career you want!)
You can meet different Sims (though, you can do so in the base game as well).
You get the politics career, social media influencer career and the art/food critic career... and I think, the self-employed career?
Basketball court.
Singing.
New ethnic clothing and ethnic hairstyles and ethnic foods. If you have always wanted to create an ethnic Indian Sim, then now's your chance!
Karaoke.
Haggle for prices and get discounted items at the produce store and street vendors. Now, your Sim can shop for groceries and haggle for prices!
You can also sell crafted items or grown items on the little street store table, and start your own grocery store business!
Attend rally and protest - also linked to the Politics career track.
Old, worn-down Build/Buy content. You can make your apartment or house look old and worn-down and install utilities features so that the living space will look like it's been unfinished. I really like the Build/Buy content, because I can use it to make old basements. But then, I already own The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection, and that one is pretty similar.
Street art.
Bubble machine.
Voodoo doll. (The voodoo doll doesn't seem to have much of an effect, though.)
Cons:
Too many loading screens and rough transitions. In The Sims 3, you can actually see your Sim walk into the lounge area of the apartment building, press a button on the elevator, go up and enter the apartment. In The Sims 4, the Sim gets out of the apartment by magical teleportation. In The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection, your Sim selects an apartment and signs the lease and moves in. No loading screens at all to visit the neighbors, as everything is on the same apartment lot. In The Sims 4, if you want to visit a different community lot in the same neighborhood, guess what? Loading screen! You can go to places farther than the community lot, but if you want to visit the actual community lot, then you are met with a loading screen. Well, I can only say that this feels like a slight upgrade of The Sims 2, where you are stuck on the residential lot or apartment lot or community lot, but a major downgrade from The Sims 3.
Dumb AI. My Sim hired a caterer to make food, but this caterer made food, left the food cooking on the stove and then grabbed new food from the fridge. So, I just made my Sim fire her, instead. Afterwards, I made my Sim discard the food on the stove to avoid a fire.
No Story Progression. If you want to have neighbors moving in, then you can turn on Fill Empty Houses. Otherwise, the neighborhood may feel very static, as opposed to the dynamic liveliness of The Sims 3.
Overall, the City Living expansion pack is a pretty good expansion pack. You get quite a bit of stuff in it. I can definitely see a lot of replay value out of the street store table and other cool objects. I also like the huge variety of food and the ability to make them at home after trying one. My only complaints are more or less related to how The Sims 4 base game mechanics work, not the expansion pack, but they do affect the experience of the expansion pack features. I also wish that the world is a bit bigger with more playable families and community lots. Belladonna Cove in The Sims 2 is pretty similar, and it is stuffed with so many families and community lots to explore! Plus, The Sims 3 and The Sims 2 both offer the ability to create custom apartment lots in custom worlds, while The Sims 4 at this current moment still doesn't have the ability to create custom worlds, and I don't think you can create a custom apartment building because of how the game is set up. The best you can do will probably be creating a little apartment unit, not the whole apartment building.
If I had not owned The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection on release date or all of The Sims 3 expansion packs, then I would definitely buy The Sims 4 City Living, maybe at 50% off, just so that it's a comparable deal to The Sims 3 Late Night. Late Night also comes with a Reputation feature, which really changes gameplay at a significant level because then your Sims can experience consequences for certain behaviors. Celebrities may be in the Film career and work their way up to access the special venues in Bridgeport. Most of all, The Sims 3 has the ability to add these tall skyscrapers anywhere. You can place a skyscraper in Sunset Valley and live in a penthouse right in Sunset Valley, but in The Sims 4 City Living, that may not even be possible. So, when it comes to pricing, I think you get more replay value out of Late Night than City Living because of the player's customizations. Late Night at regular price is $20.00 right now, and City Living at regular price is $40. So, it's best to get it at 50% off, not 20% off to get your money's worth - maybe even less than that, because Late Night is also bundled up with High-End Loft Stuff and the Base Game.
The Sims 3 is also very resource-intensive, so despite the relatively low price tag ($20 for each expansion pack), you may be paying more for the hardware needed to run The Sims 3 in its entirely. Because of this, I think The Sims 4 City Living is the cheaper option. Though, I also own The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection, and that one was FREE. Nothing beats free. Plus, the Sims 2 UC runs great on my PC. It has a similar experience to the Sims 4 City Living, plus the ability to make my own apartment buildings and units!
Pros:
Cons:
Overall, the City Living expansion pack is a pretty good expansion pack. You get quite a bit of stuff in it. I can definitely see a lot of replay value out of the street store table and other cool objects. I also like the huge variety of food and the ability to make them at home after trying one. My only complaints are more or less related to how The Sims 4 base game mechanics work, not the expansion pack, but they do affect the experience of the expansion pack features. I also wish that the world is a bit bigger with more playable families and community lots. Belladonna Cove in The Sims 2 is pretty similar, and it is stuffed with so many families and community lots to explore! Plus, The Sims 3 and The Sims 2 both offer the ability to create custom apartment lots in custom worlds, while The Sims 4 at this current moment still doesn't have the ability to create custom worlds, and I don't think you can create a custom apartment building because of how the game is set up. The best you can do will probably be creating a little apartment unit, not the whole apartment building.
If I had not owned The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection on release date or all of The Sims 3 expansion packs, then I would definitely buy The Sims 4 City Living, maybe at 50% off, just so that it's a comparable deal to The Sims 3 Late Night. Late Night also comes with a Reputation feature, which really changes gameplay at a significant level because then your Sims can experience consequences for certain behaviors. Celebrities may be in the Film career and work their way up to access the special venues in Bridgeport. Most of all, The Sims 3 has the ability to add these tall skyscrapers anywhere. You can place a skyscraper in Sunset Valley and live in a penthouse right in Sunset Valley, but in The Sims 4 City Living, that may not even be possible. So, when it comes to pricing, I think you get more replay value out of Late Night than City Living because of the player's customizations. Late Night at regular price is $20.00 right now, and City Living at regular price is $40. So, it's best to get it at 50% off, not 20% off to get your money's worth - maybe even less than that, because Late Night is also bundled up with High-End Loft Stuff and the Base Game.
The Sims 3 is also very resource-intensive, so despite the relatively low price tag ($20 for each expansion pack), you may be paying more for the hardware needed to run The Sims 3 in its entirely. Because of this, I think The Sims 4 City Living is the cheaper option. Though, I also own The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection, and that one was FREE. Nothing beats free. Plus, the Sims 2 UC runs great on my PC. It has a similar experience to the Sims 4 City Living, plus the ability to make my own apartment buildings and units!
