I am not necessarily unhappy with this game but I am not happy either and here's why:
The Good:
1. Ease of create a sim
-easy to understand controls
-simple
2. Ability to adjust existing rooms
-changing walls to fences or deleting them altogether in one motion is genius
-love that we can move the entire house or just one room with the click of a button
3. Fantastic background scenery
-love that it blurs in the distance
-flowers and trees are lovely (resizing cheat makes these especially fun)
-love that we can change the color of the flowers on most plants
-also love being able to choose between three colors for rocks
4. Detail of wall covering and flooring
-flooring- especially the wood and tiles- have a lot of depth
5. Bills are spaced out further which is nice when playing
6. Interactions between Sims are more rewarding and quirky
7. Dates and events have special rewards and requirements
8. Death is more interesting
-dying from laughter was my first experience with death
-glad to see that family members can still beg for your life
9. Children are more interesting to play
10. Babies are better in some ways
-love that you can breast feed
-love that caring for a baby is no longer as time consuming for Sims
11. Ability to manually select counter and cabinet type
12. Roofing system is fantastic
-love being able to select roof styles for each roof section
-love new intuitive pitch control and ability to remove overhang- or extend it
13. Emotions have interesting effects on gameplay
The Bad:
1. Color swatches
-IMO there are not enough choices- I understand not having CAStyle, it was heavy but what we have now is way too limited
2. Choices for wallpapers and flooring do not mesh well with many of the furniture objects
3. Choices for curtains and rugs either clash with furniture or wallpaper or both
4. Hate having mismatched rooms.
5. Hate having mismatched clothes.
6. No moveobjects cheat ***that I know of***
7. Windows and doors clash with wallpapers
8. Glitchy party system
-Sims will leave their wedding to go to work without warning
-Don't like being able to plan ahead for big events
9. Lack of lots
-inability to add lots
Build mode overall- 7/10
Buy mode overall- 6/10
Live mode overall- 8/10
Overall my experience had been favorable, however I feel that I MOST DEFINITELY did not get my money's worth. I primarily enjoy building and sharing with other players- so the restrictions placed on style is crippling to me in the way that I like to play. I am not saying that we should have create-a-style even though I lament the fact that it was left out. I fail to see the need to limit the pallets as much as they have been. I feel that build/buy has been set back unnecessarily because of these limitations. What good are fantastic Sims who live interesting lives who live in gaudy surroundings that look like they were planned out by the toddlers who are missing from the game.
I hate having to rely on mods to get the experience that I have come to expect from this franchise. It is unfortunate.
Suggestions:
1. Have more color options for build/buy and CAS in the future
(Consider how people will match up these items and think about what looks good together style wise)
2. Force Sims who are getting married to have off the day of the wedding- give Sims 2 days off after the wedding to adjust to new life.
3. Make goals of party events clearer
4. Work on CAW if possible- I would love to see this happen
5. Add move objects cheat if possible
6. Would like to be able to make half walls
As you can see most of my unhappiness with the game is centered around aesthetics- simply giving us more options would clear this up and make for a much more enjoyable game.
Thanks!
EA Staff (Retired)
