Well I was disappointed when TS4 was announced as not having "open world" but instead had open neighborhoods, so I was like ok I can work with that ......
Until .......
We discovered that was not really true.
It's open ONLY in the areas that EA has designated, not the player! An "open neighborhood" should not mean if I visit the store literally 5 tiles away from my sims house, that I need to hit a loading screen, if I want to visit my neighbor right next door I should not need to hit a loading screen in an "open neighborhood".
I'm fine with not having open world ...... IF we had true, open neighborhoods that I can modify how I want.