Right now, I'm on the fence about how I feel about Sims 4. I've been playing this game since Sims 1, and while there are some FANTASTIC things about this incarnation, I agree with many that it feels a bit unfinished.
What I like:
1. CAS. I LOVE being able to push and pull to create features. I think that it allows me to make Sims that I never could in the other games, especially more ethnic Sims, or Sims with curvier bodies.
2. Build/Buy Mode. I am not a builder by any means, in fact, in the other games, I might have built less than 5 houses the entire time I owned them. This game will change that for me. Love, love, love how easy it is to make something that looks nice.
3. I love the new careers, but I also hate them. (More about that later.)
4. Kids!! The child stage is really fun now.
5. Teenagers. The options for teenagers in relationships are racy, but I like it.
6. Multitasking! The first time my Sims read while on the toilet, I cried with joy.
7. I don't really like the loading screens, but I'll take them because every time I go to a place, it's filled with Sims. I hated in Sims 3, when I would go to a club or something and it would tell me that the place was hot, and it'd be three people in there. Now I go, and every bar stool is full.
8. I love the gourmet cooking skill.
What I dislike:
1. I feel that this game is not made for the player who builds legacies. I don't want to have to keep adding people from the gallery to my game because everyone is dead. I want my town to grow and change for my Sims.
2. The careers. While the new ones are fun, sometimes you want your Sim to be a teacher or police officer. I have problems placing my Sims in careers sometimes because they're so specific, and I'm looking at my Sim, like, none of these jobs fit your personality.
3. I HATE that my Sims go to work/school and don't build relationships with specific people. Yeah, they can socialize, but they have no work or school friends. This is especially important for teenagers since I can't tell who's an adult or a teenager. (I had to make and upload a family to my game so my Sim could have a boyfriend.) Especially with having to make friends to progress to a new level, it would be nice if they could do it while they're at work.
4. Speaking of work, I hate how they go and I'm just stuck with an empty house. I can't even click on things for them to do when they get back home. It's boring. And it makes it worse that I'm bored and they're not building relationships or skills, like in Sims 3. I don't have the time for my Sims to make 5 friends during their free time.
5. Cheat codes!!! With so few hours in the day, I need to be able to max out my Sims' needs when I want.
6. Also, I hate that the children's skills are different than the adults and doesn't carry over when they become teenagers. If they learn the violin, I want them to learn the violin, not the "creativity" skill. I was excited when I found out that kids could learn instruments, (cause isn't that when most people learn?) only to feel cheated when I realized that they have to learn the skill all over again when they become teenagers. Then why did I bother?
7. FAMILY TREE!!!
I feel like this game has a lot of potential. But I don't feel that it was made with the long-term player in mind. Lots of people will play a family for generations, and I feel like this game isn't very conducive to that.
EA Staff (Retired)
