Sims 4 seasons vs. Sims 3 seasons

At this point, it's kind of like comparing apples to oranges. They both have their good points.

Now if you ask me which one I actually play, that'll be TS4 Seasons, and I can definitely share with you why that is! I enjoy the focus on the sims and the family via the customizeable holidays. Children have a lot of ways to participate, and I like that. They feel like active members of the household with crafts and activities that they can actually do to contribute to holiday preparation. Even toddlers have holiday goals that include them in the holiday process. I really like that, it breathes life into the various life states and makes my simming heart happy.

I very much enjoy the aesthetics of Sims 4 Seasons, too. The shimmering heat in the sweltering summer, gently falling leaves of fall, the insane thunderstorms (really impressed by those, actually), brutal winter blizzards that send sims slipping and falling on the streets, and the gentle breezes and bright colors of spring. How the environment gradually changes between them, is really impressive to be honest. It gives everything new life, and I find myself snapping pictures of mundane locations that previously held no appeal to me, simply because they are so visually different and thus more interesting with the addition of seasons.

Sims 4 Seasons EP is I believe the most detailed and best seasons EP in the franchise so far. They made a completely different (in a good way) Seasons EP in the game. Actually, I'm not really disappointed on the features that wasn't included in this pack like the sunburns, snow depth, etc. since we have received completely and brand new cool features like calendar. holiday creations, thermostat. more detailed worlds on each season that are new to the game and entire franchise (phew * that was long *)

It's honestly so hard to compare TS4 Seasons to TS3 Seasons. One of my favorite things...in TS4 is the ability to travel to different worlds. & with weather being different in different worlds, when my Sims travel....I honestly dont' know what the weather will be like in another world. My Sims live in Oasis Springs, so no snow, that kind of thing. So traveling to visit friends in Willow Creek or Windenburg in Fall & Winter....was just super cool to see what weather those worlds had. With TS3 being an open world, which I really loved, you were confined to the weather in that 1 world.

At the time, I loved TS3 Seasons. But I think I love TS4 Seasons a little bit better. The level of customization is neat. & just graphically....wow, the game is just gorgeous.

It warms my heart to see so much love for a Sims 4 pack! It definitely is such an amazing pack that the team should be very proud of. I am so excited about the future of this game.

"Sha2520032003;c-16570212" wrote:
It's honestly so hard to compare TS4 Seasons to TS3 Seasons. One of my favorite things...in TS4 is the ability to travel to different worlds. & with weather being different in different worlds, when my Sims travel....I honestly dont' know what the weather will be like in another world. My Sims live in Oasis Springs, so no snow, that kind of thing. So traveling to visit friends in Willow Creek or Windenburg in Fall & Winter....was just super cool to see what weather those worlds had. With TS3 being an open world, which I really loved, you were confined to the weather in that 1 world.

At the time, I loved TS3 Seasons. But I think I love TS4 Seasons a little bit better. The level of customization is neat. & just graphically....wow, the game is just gorgeous.

@Sha2520032003 yeah totally agree. But for me, Sims 4 and 3 aren't comparable anymore or for me seems like actually not fair for comparing these two. Each game has different focuses right now. 3 focused more on customization while 4 on characters with smarter artificial intelligence and game optimization. Sims 3 has great varieties of features that the only thing that can limit you to make the most of it is your creativity. Sims 4, well it's actually great for me since we now have a lot of different ways to make our perfect sims and they now have emotions and better for storytelling.

But regardless of that, I'll prefer the seasons ep in the current entry since it really is much more greater and better than 3.

I’m starting to become curious for this pack, because it seems like everybody is very positive and enthousiastic about it.

@jackjack_k This for instance makes me curious:

The Sims 3 focused too much on Festival gameplay objects which left almost none for everyday gameplay. If you didn’t play with Festival objects, there wasn’t really a lot about Seasons that impacted day to day life as much as 4

I always figured Seasons would be an atmosphere like pack rather than a gameplay pack. Like you say, the festivals you only use every now and then, they’re not something that affects your sims daily. Weather in the game does though. When it starts raining or snowing or there’s a thunderstorm, I’m always surprised when I look outside and the sun is shining. I sometimes turn off rain for this reason because it can really bring me down. The weather in the game influences me and also my sims. So I’m curious, in what way does the TS4 pack influence your sims in a day to day manner that sets it apart from predecessors?

A p.s. by the way: whenever people start praising the current team in a comparison thread, giving them kudos for their great job, it feels as if they are slating the work of previous teams (quite often the same people). I don’t know Sims 4’s Seasons so I cannot compare, but I’d like to leave my huge appreciation for the beauty and variety of Sims 3’s Seasons here to those devs who it may concern. I love what it added to my game and I think they did a great job with that pack as well. Sims 3 was Sims 3, Sims 4 is Sims 4.

ETA:

"Ceres_Meiriona;c-16570184" wrote:
At this point, it's kind of like comparing apples to oranges. They both have their good points.

Now if you ask me which one I actually play, that'll be TS4 Seasons, and I can definitely share with you why that is! I enjoy the focus on the sims and the family via the customizeable holidays. Children have a lot of ways to participate, and I like that. They feel like active members of the household with crafts and activities that they can actually do to contribute to holiday preparation. Even toddlers have holiday goals that include them in the holiday process. I really like that, it breathes life into the various life states and makes my simming heart happy.

Spoiler

I very much enjoy the aesthetics of Sims 4 Seasons, too. The shimmering heat in the sweltering summer, gently falling leaves of fall, the insane thunderstorms (really impressed by those, actually), brutal winter blizzards that send sims slipping and falling on the streets, and the gentle breezes and bright colors of spring. How the environment gradually changes between them, is really impressive to be honest. It gives everything new life, and I find myself snapping pictures of mundane locations that previously held no appeal to me, simply because they are so visually different and thus more interesting with the addition of seasons.

I actually think this might answer my question :)

Although I'm not a fan of The Sims 4 as a whole, I have to give this one to The Sims 4. Sure, I have my complaints, but I've had complaints with every Seasons pack so far. I really do feel that for what is lacking, what they added really makes up for it, and that's why I'll say that TS4 Seasons is even better than TS3 Seasons.

The Holiday system was expanded upon here and made customizable. Sure we could use more traditions, but this is very much the evolution of a TS3 Seasons feature that I'd expect out of a sequel, and it's done quite well. Plus, I think the holidays here have quite a bit more charm than in The Sims 3. For example, there was no Santa/Father Winter in TS3 at all (an oddity for this franchise, the only entry that didn't). My biggest complaint here? Features like fireworks and pumpkin carving are not included in the base game or Seasons - they were put in other packs. So if you don't have them, you have to miss out on these features that are downright essential to various holidays. TS3 has one up on TS4 there since those features were included with Seasons, as they should be.

The Seasonal aesthetic details were really taken up a notch here, too, and this is really important to me because the changing visuals really help keep the game feeling alive. In previous The Sims Seasons EPs the only plants that changed with the seasons were trees. They left the shrubs, bushes, grasses the same for all four seasons - a major drawback, if you ask me. Here, they finally went all-out, turning grasses brown for the autumn and winter, having flowerless shrubs/bushes/etc for the winter, etc., and it is SUCH a massive improvement over TS3 where you awkwardly see green bushes with flowers on them underneath the snow. Another major aesthetic improvement is the changing of the terrain grass over the seasons. I just love this so much and have been wanting it forever and it really makes late autumn and winter look very distinct (coupled with the adjustments to the plants) even without snow.

I love the winter aesthetic IRL. Where I live we don't get much snow (at least not anymore), so during the winter that's mostly what I see (pretty much entirely nowadays, snow is extremely rare now). Seeing winters with green grass terrain and flowering bushes/shrubs in The Sims 3 just really ruined it for me.

Other improvements include blowing snow and rain, I love that. I love the thunderstorms and how the wind shakes the trees in a much more violent, realistic nature than ever in The Sims 3. The rain puddles also form a bit more realistically.

The downsides? Fog is really downplayed, although cloudy days look very pretty. The rain have any visible splashes on the ground nor does it drip off the roofs - but this is The Sims 4, and honestly, I'm so much more impressed with everything that I mentioned above than The Sims 3's rain effects. I'll take changing terrain and changing non-tree plants over rain dripping off the roof any day. Also the lack of snow depth is a bit odd, but again, at least Winter is aesthetically unique this time. If the developers had to choose between these features, I'm glad they picked what they did.

Also a downside that has plagued all of The Sims Seasons games and continues to plague The Sims 4 - Why don't we get blooming trees for Spring and why are the cherry blossoms eternally blooming? Spring could really use that boost in aesthetics, and seeing cherry blossoms blooming during the summer and even the fall in this game's case is not right.

Overall, The Sims 4 Seasons is amazing for me. I did not expect The Sims 4 to be where they would finally fix some of these issues I've had for a long time. I expected TS4 Seasons to play it safe like Cats and Dogs and pretty much just be par for the course. Instead they put a lot of detail into it. This pack is amazing. It's too good for The Sims 4!

the sims 3 seasons is bigger and one of my own personally all time favorites.

I do love seasons for the sims 4. the only thing i will miss is the seasonal festivals :'(

but other than that its the best expansion so far for me

That is easy Sims 3 was way better then Sims 4there is no comparison to it. I know a lot of people don't agree but it was much better then this EP Sims 4 Season. The Sims 4 Season brought some nice new things to the game but really I was not that excited for it and now I know why. Just a repeat of what Sims 3 was with a few add is maybe if the worlds were opened up but you really can't see the Seasons change much you are looking at it from the ground. I dont' get what people think is so wonderful about it they still can't swim in the ocean.

"candy8;c-16570768" wrote:
That is easy Sims 3 was way better then Sims 4there is no comparison to it. I know a lot of people don't agree but it was much better then this EP Sims 4 Season. The Sims 4 Season brought some nice new things to the game but really I was not that excited for it and now I know why. Just a repeat of what Sims 3 was with a few add is maybe if the worlds were opened up but you really can't see the Seasons change much you are looking at it from the ground. I dont' get what people think is so wonderful about it they still can't swim in the ocean.

Personally I didn't get swimming in the ocean it's no different than swimming in the pool just more room. You can't even drown in the ocean in S3 for some odd reason. Though to each ones own. Seasons in each installment of the sims isn't terribly comparable as I've enjoyed just weather in each one. I loved it all in 2, 3 and now 4. It's weather and definitely changes things up and the atmosphere of the over all game.

I do love what's on offer here and I don't think I've had this much enjoyment on every season in an expansion that just wasn't Winter. I really like how each world is connected and weather functions a bit differently in each one. Sims participating in holidays (or some might depending on their trait) feels pretty immersive. Like sims care about the others around them and what's going on with the day. I actually feel genuinely interested in their daily life more so than before where it was pretty 'meh'.