I have been playing the sims since the very 1st game, and in a way i am a little put off by this new release. I don't hate it to say the least but i am not in love either. The sims was released back in 2000, and at that time i was in high school. I thought this game was so lame when my cousin installed it to my mom's hewlett packard that i told him as much. Well, ya live and ya learn. I got caught up so fast into that lame little game that i didn't even realize it. Looking back at the graphics then and now, wow the sims has come a long way, but with the sims 4 it also felt like you guys stepped back 14 years in some aspects. So before i ramble on with my childhood musing let me get to the point and congratulate the wins while sulking at the losses.
The Wins:
1. No more lame outfits when pregnant--YAY! if anything was more annoying than seeing your sims look busted in a raggedy sweatpants when you had awesome clothes in her wardrobe.
2. Multi-tasking-- Oh yeah, no more just talking to one sims you can do almost everything simultaneously, almost.
3. Create-a-sim-- Love, hate relationship. The way its setup in terms of creating a sim is really fantastic but we'll get into this one a little later on.
4. Dating and Weddings-- The way it was put together to give the players the opportunity to make it legendary or an epic fail is pretty sweet, and if somehow it did fail i would say the player decided the sims were not meant to be.
5. Trophy and aspirations-- I get bored easily so it gives me a sense of purpose when playing, I don't only have to focus on wealth, murder,mayhem and babies.
The Losses:
1. Open world--This is the stepping back part that i don't quite get. Sims 3 introduced it, as buggy as it was, the open world was way better than 'this'. We could interact with the neighbors house, ride bikes, drive cars or jog to the park.
2. Loading screens-- Wow! really in this day and age and following sims 3. Did you guys face planted into the keyboard when you programmed this in. Again a step back. I would have understood if it were a couple loading screens, but for every community lot that you travel to.
3. Create-a-sim-- The love, hate i feel is real, It is limited compared. Limited because, why do i have to choose a set color palette, where is the full customization capabilities not just with creating the features of my sims, but also with choosing the colors i desire. I see a hair with multi-color highlights, why am i not able to choose the different colors to be reflected in these highlights. That's not the idea that was advertised to me.
4. No swimming pool--I feel insulted, come on! I can't even describe how annoyed i was to find out that my sims won't be swimming until an ep, or possible sim store item. I see dollar signs...unnecessary dollar signs.
5. User Interface-- I don't really like that i have to click on an icons to see the visual cues, like hygiene,bladder,energy, etc. I get that the idea was probably to make the interface more open for those of us who enjoy making movies with our sims, but quite frankly to me its the opposite. Its a nuisance opening it up to look at the cues, and it takes up more space than the previous user interfaces.
After Thoughts:
To many this might just be a rant, but i honestly think the creators overlooked many aspects of the previous games that should have been included in this base game regardless of how the game was constructed. Maybe sims 3 was overly buggy because they tried to incorporate too many things at once, however this game doesn't have half those things and am sure an actual openworld wouldn't break my computer. So maybe you guys could fix that, at least in the next expansion pack. Wishful thinking, i know.
Its still too soon to brush this game under the rug, maybe the Eps can rectify a few shortcomings, I hope. There might be more issues with the game itself but as for me i love the sims it gives me some creative freedom to destroy lives on a daily basis without jail time(lol). Hopefully one day all the creators and programmers will get it right, but till then thank you for the efforts that were placed in the creation of the sims past, present and future.
EA Staff (Retired)
