I Like:
- The CAS
- The build mode
- The fact that it runs fast and smooth, even on my computer which is barely above minimum specs. Hope this stays that way, even after future EPs.
Neither like nor dislike:
- The new Emotions.
- The bugs. Some are annoying, some are funny...I'm sure they will get sorted out at some point.
Do not like:
- Invisible rabbit holes (sims just disappears when going to work)
- No open world (It is ok that 'worlds' are small because travelling to another 'world' is fast. But having loading screens when visiting another house in the same neighbourhood is annoying).
- No CASt
- Needs should be visible at all times (unobtrusively)
- Lack of toddlers and same height Teens/YA/A
- Way too big skill meters
- Lack of story progression
- Not being able to manage two sims (or groups of sims) when they are in separate locations (one sims visits the park when the other stays home)
Suggestions:
- Make needs visible at all times. You do not have to lose the popup dialog but also include some small overview of the 6 needs somewhere in the UI (small bars, circles etc. perhaps below the timer)
- I had hoped that age would be gradual in TS4 (1 day = 1 year) and we would lose the life stages completely.
- I had also hoped there would have been some sort of personal & household scheduling ability to make needs manageable. Something like sim A needs 8 hours of sleep (this could vary from sims to sim and age to age) and he/she has to be at work at 8 a.m. Before leaving work he/she want to shower and eat, this takes 1 hour, so the alarm should go off at 7 am therefore go to bed at 11 pm. And for household things like set times for breakfast, diner, etc. who cooks, who cleans, etc. All this should always be override-able. Not only would this make needs more manageable, but it also makes families more social (eating together, dividing chores, etc.)
- Energy: this is not the same as 'Sleepy'. It always has been in the sims, but it shouldn't be, Getting tired from working out does not imply you become sleepy.
- Make work part of the gameplay (via added town with work-places)
- In fact, make towns more specialized and don't call them towns, but districts. So we can have commercial districts with shops, workplaces; housing districts, with neighbourhoods; nature districts with forests, beaches, etc. and fun districts with carnivals, clubs, movies, etc. etc. etc. Make the most of the 'modular' towns and fast loading, this would ease the pain of losing the open world.
- At least add having kids to story progression so families don't just die and are replaced with new ones.
Also, perhaps this is a glitch but after adopting a child, the neighbourhood suddenly teems with children. When trying to find out where they live I cannot find them anywhere in neither of the both towns. Feels to me, the game is just plopping them in there to accommodate my gameplay, but it feels un-real.
EA Staff (Retired)
