I've been playing for a few hours, so far I'm liking it but I'm not loving it. I think it will get better with EPs and patches though so here's my feedback:
Positives
+ Emotions are a great addition & I like the interactions that come with them
+ The overall look of the sims and the world is beautiful, it is a lot more cartoony than TS3 but still manages to look great
+ The game runs very smoothly on high settings for me, so far I haven't experienced any lagging during gameplay (except when I first started due to a graphics card malfunction)
+ The animations and facial expressions of the sims are a lot more lifelike, it looks great!
+ Multitasking works really well
+ The new build mode and CAS are a nice improvement on previous games
+ Loading screens and save times are very fast
Negatives
- NO TODDLERS, this is the biggest downside for me because I love the little critters and I'm a huge family player. TS4 is good, but I don't think it can be great without basic life stages.
- No colour wheel. At first I wasn't bothered, but once I got into build mode I saw how limited I was. It's incredibly frustrating, I found that even with the new streamlined build tools I spent twice as long building because I had to look through every single item to find a colour swatch that would match (which was a rare thing anyway, hardly anything matches). PLEASE PLEASE ADD A COLOUR WHEEL!
- The camera controls are horrible. I changed to TS3 mode and inverted the controls but edge scrolling still doesn't work and the camera movements are so slow. Once again, I found it very difficult to build a house when I had grabbed hold of a room or a piece of furniture and couldn't edge scroll to put it where I wanted!
- No family tree
- The babies are tied to the bassinets, this really needs to change!
- No swimming pools
- SEVERE LACK OF CHEATS! Please give us a cheat for unlocking items/rooms, satisfaction points, and please expand on TestingCheats because it's so limited in this game. In TS3 I always used it for dragging up certain needs for one sim so I was always in total control, now I can't do that. I want to be able to cheat relationships as well, it's really important for storytelling!
- *EDIT* Forgot to mention the dark lighting inside houses, it's not a major problem but it doesn't look very nice.
At the moment, I'd give Sims 4 a score of 3/5. I like it, but not as much as Sims 3. I'm going to stick with TS4 in the hope that it will improve with a few patches and EPs, because it is a base game after all (and a solid one at that!).
EA Staff (Retired)
