Sims 4 compared to Sims 3

I recently purchased all packs of sims 3 along with some store content and it made me realize why I never wanted to play sims 3 in the first place. It's probably because I like running businesses in the sims so much. I like that I can have family run restaurants and retail shops using the awesome mods that the community has created. I use restaurants alot for family gathering, date nights and proposal, so it's a really important place in my game. There's no open for business aspect in sims 3, and even with mods, it still doesn't feel like the real thing. Although the game allows you to run a restaurant by purchasing business as usual, the whole thing is a big glitchy mess. I had to spend hours trying to find a fix for it. The sims in 4, although they can be shallow, I actually find them more endearing than sims 3. Their animation is also better because it seems more fluid. Sims 3 sims all look the same and that blank expression on their faces creeps me out. I gotta say sims 4 has way better mods than 3, which is yet another reason why I like it more. Lastly, sims 4 is a much better optimized game, I like how intuitive the build tools and cas are. On the other hand, I can see why people like 3 so much. It has beautiful open worlds and much more content per pack.

I think The Sims franchise is quite unique, in the way that each game is so different and it all attracts different people. No Sims game is better than another, they are all different!

Personally I really can’t get into The Sims 3 (I’ve tried for years!) but The Sims 4? I can play for hours and hours! and that’s ok. We are all different. I love The Sims 4 graphics, emotions, multitasking, aspirations and the goofy ways they act when trying to perform actions they aren’t good at :D

"Flap;c-17600096" wrote:

"LiELF;c-17599374" wrote:

Oh, sure they do. Of course. It's just.... it's the same single personality.

I must disagree. Sims 4 personalities relies on a mix of traits (that are kinda ok), skills and the Sim current emotion whereas Sims 3 personalities relies almost exclusively on traits. I prefer Sims 4 approach because when it works it is amazing and offers more natural Sims. Nowadays I find kinda of silly how Sims 3 personalities used to handle emotion in such an vague way (feeeling + or – based on moodlets without qualitative difference).

My impression is that Maxis is halfway to get it right with Sims personalities being influenced by their environment and actions. The way skills unlocks progressively new interactions can set up a lot of probabilities of different actions within the autonomy script (or even within the pool of outcomes of a social interaction). Much more I guess if you calculate that each emotional state gives to X actions different odds of being triggered etc.

I feel the same way you do

In my opinion, Sims 3 & 4 both have their pros and cons now that Sims 3 has something to be compared to.

Pros/Cons of Sims 3:
- MY ALL TIME FAVORITE , Open World. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to control my entire family while they are all at different locations and it was easier to make sure the sim didn't feel "cooped" up in the house. Granted if I had a sim younger than a teenager, I had to find a babysitter but that wasn't nothing.
-I enjoyed that the toddlers had to be taught to walk & talk and be potty trained.
-I like that babies weren't just objects & that you could put them in strollers or sit on the couch and hold the baby. I miss the rockers and walkers.
-The life stages really had certain "to do " items that weren't meant for their life stage ONLY. (acne, drinking from the bar) Just age appropriate items.
- I REALLY miss having cars and making it feel more realistic when they left the house. Having a garage made my home feel complete. I am not the biggest fan of having a fake garage, it just makes me miss the cars even more.
-Small features such as: when the Sims worked out or ate too much, their body & weight would fluctuate. Sims had more "Woohoo" places and they could cuddle on the bed. I liked that they could relax on the bed and watch television.
- I enjoyed being able to go to the grocery store to get groceries ( if this wasn't Sims 3, then I know it was in Sims 2)
-Now that Sims 4 is out, I would say that Sims 3 lacked the creativity of building homes and the details of CAS.
- I did like the color wheel because my furniture could've been the same color instead of trying to match the colors.
-There were some lag issues, but I would blame that on me trying to use a laptop vs a desktop. (I have finally transitioned to a desktop)

Pros/Cons of Sims 4:
-I LOVEEE the detail in building in Sims 4 (like basements, lofts, tri-level stairs)
-CAS is also nice when I want to be detailed. I am not forced to have the same nose/mouth etc, with specific faces
-I don't like the "Get Famous" EP because you can only become an actress, Sims 3 you could be a singer, comedian, etc.. like a real superstar
-I STRONGLY dislike the "vacation" options. I don't wanna be out the woods where all I can do is play horseshoes, fish, cook by the firepit and looks for jewels. I want to be like Sims 1 where they could go to the beach, mountains, etc and have applicable activities.
- I like the festivals Sims 4 have, but I also enjoyed the Sims 3 carnivals for each season.
-I don't like the fact that all Sims are compatible, I prefer them to actually "click" with someone.
-I AM ALSO TIRED OF SEEING THE SAME SIMS, EVERYWHERE I GO. I have to create males for the female sims I create and I move them to an open house and wait until my female created Sim meets one of them.
-The autonomy with toddlers (such as when they need to be fed) gets soooo aggravating.
-Toddlers are super moody!!
-I also don't like the autonomy for when they have to wash the dishes, they go straight to the bathroom that is further away, than the kitchen sink.
-I don't like the fact that some EP were missing objects and "to do" items, and when the EA/Sims team realized it, they decided to create the Stuff and game packs. My thing is, my mom and I are HUGE fans of the game so I know we will buy the packs as long as they are worth it.




I could go on and on, but that would take all day. I have been playing Sims, since the beginning and I have really seen some improvement in different areas in each game. I am on the side of looking forward to Sims 5 unless we are presented with open world. I know that they can't please everyone and I really appreciate the survey they did a couple of months ago. If there is Sims 5, I really hope that they create another survey to make sure that the fans get what they want in the game. (at least the main important parts)

"peragogo;c-17593227" wrote:
I can’t get into 3 anymore. After spending ages to make a potato looking sim hot on the heels of spending ages to load the game, the sims go off, get jobs and then I stare at the neighbourhood for a while and shut it off.

I’d rather play Sims 2 over Sims 3.

I have this feeling as well. I kept trying to go back to it recently but it's so wildly laggy. I've tried a bunch of fixes, have a PC that should be able to run it without issue, and building/creating sims is just a stuttery mess. Sims 4 is so smooth, I can build the biggest house with an 8 sim family inside and not have one drop in fps; not to mention the sims 4 art style is awesome!

And when I did have a chance to play in TS3, it really shocked me how long everything took. Going to the bookstore took like 4 sim hours. I don't miss the open world and I absolutely do not miss create a style. I don't want to spend 6 hours furnishing a house just because I have to change the pattern on everything.

"beautimous;c-17609627" wrote:

"peragogo;c-17593227" wrote:
I can’t get into 3 anymore. After spending ages to make a potato looking sim hot on the heels of spending ages to load the game, the sims go off, get jobs and then I stare at the neighbourhood for a while and shut it off.

I’d rather play Sims 2 over Sims 3.

I have this feeling as well. I kept trying to go back to it recently but it's so wildly laggy. I've tried a bunch of fixes, have a PC that should be able to run it without issue, and building/creating sims is just a stuttery mess. Sims 4 is so smooth, I can build the biggest house with an 8 sim family inside and not have one drop in fps; not to mention the sims 4 art style is awesome!

And when I did have a chance to play in TS3, it really shocked me how long everything took. Going to the bookstore took like 4 sim hours. I don't miss the open world and I absolutely do not miss create a style. I don't want to spend 6 hours furnishing a house just because I have to change the pattern on everything.

This is exactly my experience with Sims 3 as well. I shouldn't have any stutter in CAS on my system. I can't create Sims that look the way I want them to because they all end up looking related with the same round, pudgy heads and murky tones. And once they animate they look like those claymation characters from the 1960s/70s. The faces do very strange and ugly things. Aesthetics are important to me in my Sims game, just as much as the gameplay because there are certain likenesses I want to make but I just can't in Sims 3. I feel there was more versatility in Sims 2 Body Shop.

I also need to be able to colonize my neighborhood and switch households when I feel like it. Sims 3 originally released without any rotational play whatsoever and it was shoehorned in later to appease the complaints. But it's an awful, clunky system and not at all intuitive for rotational players.

So for me, all of the great Expansion Packs and gameplay couldn't make up for the amount of issues I had with TS3. Which is a real shame because I really wanted to like it and enjoy it but I just....can't.

Also...rabbit holes. :s

TS3 Sims feel much more robotic and are very unattractive/unnatural-looking when compared to TS4 Sims. While I will always have a special place in my heart for TS3 and miss a lot of it's content, this is what stops me from going back to it. It also doesn't play as smoothly as TS4.

I pray that when “the sims 5” comes out the developers have learned enough to know what we want and do not want. I hope they have learned from the failures of the sims 4. Even though there hasn’t been any confirmation of a “sims 5” yet, I hope the developers actually read these (sims 4) threads and can decipher what the majority wants and what we expect. I feel like the sims 4 would have been a great game if there was no “sims 3/2/1”. But so many players have been with the sims for years now, and we all have an expectation of better things than the previous games, (not just graphics)!!! I know more than well enough now, at least, to check every single review video out there until I am fully convinced to even consider buying anything from the sims again. Sims 3 to Sims 4- the loading screen and the less amount of crashes is and always will be a start. Yet besides that, I have yet to find another reason that 4 is better than 3.

I also feel that because the unplayed sims/neighbors in the sims 4 do not grow/get married/pregnant/ or anything other than live and die in their original houses is a big disappointment for me. I like interacting with other households (even if they are randomly computer generated) and I like seeing household grow/dissipate. Because of that it feels like I am playing against myself, rather than playing in an actual world of sims (not that I want anything to do with an online version/other players in my world.) yet the lack of growth in neighbors is more than disappointing and it gets boring quick to me. I’m so tired of creating an entire neighborhood over and over just so my generation of sims can have others to interact with. That’s what gets boring and tiring to me because unfortunately I do not have multiple hours to expend upon household that I do not play and/or barely interact with.