The Sims 4 Feedback Thread - come share yours

Thank you for sharing all these thoughts - we're reading through these.

Overall I'm fairly happy with the Sims 4.The loss of CASt is still bothering me in terms of CAS itself and matching up furniture, but the furniture options and the InstaRoom feature kind of makes up for it a bit. I have a lot of fun with the CAS drag-and-droop system, even though I swear I haven't a clue what I'm doing half the time. I'm glad to see the cartoonier aspect come back to Sims, as well. Somehow, it opens up the possibilities for sillier gameplay (if that makes any sense. The animations are actually kind of awesome, too. Sure, some of them look like little robots, but for the most part the improvement is incredible! Even little things, like the way the meals look and the way the dirty dishes change as the Sim goes around gathering them up are pretty neat. And let's not forget the CAH details. Dragging wall lamps and windows up and down actually elicited a little squeak of surprised delight. So much happiness from that one little aspect. Searching will be amazing once the Mods have wriggled their way into the game, as well. I love the emotions and the intuitive dialogue wheel, and the fact that my Sims can multitask has made me much happier than I ever expected. The fact that my SpyGuy took a book into the bathroom with him and continued to read while "Peeing Like a Champion" made me laugh.

Honestly, though, I was (am) more than a little horrified to discover the size of the playable neighborhoods. Not only are player houses almost non-existent, but the venues have been utterly obliterated from the game! Where is the cinema? The Diner? The Bistro?? I don't care if they were mostly rabbit-holes in Sims 3; they gave my Sims something to do! I feel like they're essentially trapped at home, now, with the shorter days. Their lives now consist of basic needs, work, and about an hour or so to actually socialize. There are no seasons / seasonal festivities for them to visit, no outdoor activities (that I saw - since when do Sims not even throw a baseball?), and very limited indoor activities. I mean, I can see "buildings" right across the street from the venues I'm actually able to visit (a partially-completed gym comes to mind), two of which have architecture not unlike the Bistro, but have absolutely no way to access them. I'm hoping this becomes available later, AT NO EXTRA CHARGE to players who have already shelled out $70 just to get this game.

I think a large part of my frustration comes from the camera controls. I'm constantly trying to bounce between the S4 & S3 cameras to find something partially usable. I might even be able to adjust to using JUST the S4 camera, if only there was some method of pitch control (seriously, how could that have been nixed?!). I rarely, if ever use the keyboard while Simming, and this new demand that I do so is really throwing me off. Controls aren't just confined to a nice little corner - they're kind of everywhere, where they don't exactly make sense. I feel that as a person who has been playing Sims since the very first game I should at least have >some< idea of what's going on, but by the time the tutorial decides that it wants to share the information I've either figured it out already (or some approximation thereof) or moved on completely. The fact that the menu-tutorial popped up after nearly three in-game days of gameplay made me laugh. Nope, yup, kinda already figured that out on my own, thanks for trying. And phones. Why have phones been completely removed from the game? My Sims keep wanting to call other Sims, but there is no option to do so on their cell phones (which rather defeats the purpose of having a cell in the first place) and there is no other way in which to acquire a phone. (On a similar, but utterly unrelated note, is there any way to make a Sim more serious? I have a very Stoic individual who has taken it upon himself to be a very silly, bubble-bath-loving goof. Not at all what I imagined when trying to create the household in CAS)

As for suggestions for game improvement, I suppose my #1 plea would be to address the neighborhoods. I can handle the controls, as aggravating as they are, and I can handle the fact that the Sim's eyes are a disturbing shade of neon blue and their hair is a set such-and-such, but I absolutely cannot handle these so-called "neighborhoods." Even in the dinky three-venue square you give us to explore, my Sim can't just go from one building to the other. It's like a mutant-baby hybrid between a rabbit-hole and open world; you can see it, but it's still isolated. I beg you to open up room to build and modify, to add houses and families, and not be stuck with just the ones provided. I miss being able to build up a coffee shop, like the ones available in Uni. Just a generic hang out for most Sims. I miss being able to "treat" my Sims after a freakish day of work to a movie, or a sports game, or let them tour the science facility so they can bask in their Inner Geekiness. I don't care if they're rabbit holes, I don't care if I can't manipulate every single aspect of the commercial/tourist property. I just want my Sims to have something to do. My poor Spy jogs in a circle (like, a >very little< circle) because there is no where for him to go. Your tutorial mentioned digging through junk piles for repair parts - I was ecstatic at the thought of a Dump because that meant another area on the little map I hadn't seen. Turns out the dead radio just pooped on the floor. Just... please, guys, fix the neighborhood. I have never been so underwhelmed with a game in all my life. I want to love Sims 4, I really do, but I have the feeling that until this is addressed, or you release some kind of expansion (and please, don't you dare try to charge a bat-crazy amount of $ for it!), then I suppose I shall have to trudge back over to S3 and rejoice in the fact that I never removed it from my computer. This game is nifty, but definitely not even remotely worth the $ I just paid for it. I should have just waited, and put the $ to the heating unit in my car, instead.

Soo.. since the game has come out I have been playing everyday after work. I haven't had too much time to play but reading everyone likes and dislikes I realized there is a lot to the game then I realized!

Likes:
-Creating a sim is soo much fun! Making all of my Sims look so different and creating different ethnicity's and they actually look like they are from that country is amazing!
-Creating a house is sooo much easier! I was not a fan of creating houses before.
-Multitasking is AMAZING! My Sim can use the bathroom AND still play a game on a tablet?? What!! LOVE!
-The nightclubs and lounges feel as such. I coudn't stand TS3 Night Life, no one was ever at the club! But now it's packed!
-The gym is amazing! Punching bags!! Yes Yes!
-I like the different levels of romance with the Sims. Lovebirds, Sweethearts, etc. It's cute.
-I never liked the toddler stage lol sorry. I thought they were very cute but I hated teaching them stuff!
I'm sure there is more things I like but I can't think of them right now.

Dislikes:
-WHERE ARE ALL THE PEOPLE?? There are like 4 premade families in each town. I did see that the game would automatically populate the empty homes but that hasn't happen yet..
-The time seems to go soooooo fast!!! I don't have time for them to actually have fun! My Sim is always tired at work because when he gets off all he wants to do is go to sleep and I refuse!!
-The load screens are a killer.. A very slow killer.
-I really don't like how the game doesn't progress on its own. I can play one family and then switch to another and nothing new happened while I was gone! I don't like that.
-Playing families with lots of Sims is 10x harder now! It's pretty hard to control them.
-Where was the memo that there would be no transportation?? Like I can't even see the taxi?? Really?? -____-
-Figuring out what my Sims are talking about is harder. One minute everything is going well in the convo and the next someone is mad?! What happened because it only says were chatting...?!
-Why is it so hard to rotate furniture??!! Took me forever to figure it out.
-The camera controls are ridiculous. It was pretty hard to function the game without a mouse. And can someone tell me how to rotate without going to top arrows at the top of the screen??

I went off on such a rant earlier before I returned the game for a full refund that I was barely making sense so I decided to edit my comment:
This game was a huge disappointment, just as bad as SimCity. Like many others here, I have been playing for over a decade and have purchased every game, ep, stuff pack and a lot of items from the Sims3 store but this? I just felt like I had been completely ripped off.
The game is boring with very little content and almost no world to speak of.
The camera controls are just deplorable.
There is very little for the Sims to do and everything just takes too long.
The game locks up and I have to wait for it to unfreeze when doing anything that involves the keyboard. (no it is not my computer, a powerful gaming pc and I am not the only one)
The developers seem determined to take away as much opportunity for creativity as possible which is sad because most simmers are very creative people.
I was so hoping you wouldn't have kitchens and sims catching fire so easily but alas, my sim can't own any stove at any cooking level without setting herself and her house on fire. That is not entertaining, it is jarring and unnecessary.
You promised we would not need "a persistent online connection" to play, I should have known there was some catch to that wording, when we log in the game wants us to log into origin and it took a while to figure out how to tell it to play offline. You were deliberately misleading.
When I returned the game to Walmart, I offered to bring them a printout of the complaints in this forums and of Origin's promise to refund people who were unhappy with the game. Mine was a retail copy but after calmly explaining the games main issues, glitchy, freezing etc, and EA's lie about the necessity of an online connection, I convinced them to refund the 80 dollars, with tax, I had wasted on it.
You peaked with Sims 3. I am so glad it is still installed on my machine.

I like many others have been playing the Sims for years and this is the first time I have been so disappointed. Yes, Sims 3 had some glitches, I had a person drown in the tub while pregnant, went on vacation and the game said the wife had a child not with the husband, had one lot over run by bugs and trash, but I was never sorry that I purchased the game. Sims 3 was groundbreaking, even without the expansions, Sims 4 is not.

The lack of the basic careers such as policeman, fireman, military...is disappointing.
The small size of neighborhoods and the lack of lots...is disappointing.
T
he fact that every career is a rabbit hole...is disappointing.
The constant loading between lots and loss of freedom to walk or drive to a community lot...is disappointing.
Having a baby is sad, no going to the hospital since there isn't a hospital, at least we could have had a mid-wife....so disappointing.
We can no longer directly decide how long a person is a certain age...disappointing.

The only thing I wished would change on Sims 3 was how quickly time went, I always felt even at the lowest setting, that actions like taking a bath or eating, took to long. In Sims 4, as far as I can see this still hasn't changed, there is still barely enough time to build skills and do anything other than eat, sleep and work. Plus without things like a genie to wish for money, even after hours of game play, my Sims still only have less than 10000 simoleons and are in a starter home. BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT.

I had hoped in this new version of the Sims that we would gain new functionality, not lose so much. Sims 4 is one big disappointment. Thanks EA for worrying more about making money and less about your loyal customers. Even if you had given us more in the base game, I would have still bought the expansions. I am seriously considering just calling my love of the Sims a wrap and treating Sims 4 like I do X-Men 3 or Aliens 3, the bad sequel I act like never happened.

Sure, there are things I miss (moodlets from all the spa treatments or going to a movie/concert for example plus the frequently commented on - no CASt) but I think my biggest complaint right now is the camera control. I spend a lot of time building and having just the keyboard controls is exhausting - remembering to put down an item to switch/rotate the view so it can be placed properly etc. is bad but the lack of pitch control is horrifying, Trying to place/move items without being able to see it due to the pitch (or even the view from above) control - sucks!

I absolutely love this game. It's getting a lot of negative feedback, which I don't think all of it is necessary.

This is a new installment to the Sims franchise, and they way you guys went about it I thought was very good. The way Sims act now with their moodlets and the multitasking makes it seem more lifelike. I enjoy how my Sims can bring their coffee to the toilet with them, or how another Sim can bring her book on the couch, talk to her husband while he watches TV. I started cracking up when my daughter came home from school, was super pissed, and instead of using the toilet normally, she had to take an angry poop.

The building tools are completely flawless, I don't ever want to go back to old style building. I feel like making houses are so much more customize-able and it makes them look more lifelike. I find myself making more dreamlike houses, or more simple houses just with the new added features - I don't need to use pesky mods or cheats to get the roof exactly how I'd like it, or to get foundations and walls working properly. When I pick up Sims 3 again, whenever that will be, it's definitely going to be hard to readjust to building.

Now, for negative feedback, like I said not all of it was necessary, but there are a few things I miss from the older games that I feel as though should of been included in this new release.

Missing NPCs. I'm not entirely sure why for example Firefighters were not included, NPC's of this sort could of been left out on purpose, but i'd at least like to know why. For example, I started a legacy family (one single sim), she went to cook her first meal on her first day, her kitchen caught on fire and while she tried to extinguish the flames, she died. I realize there is the sprinkler wall system implemented, but in some of my homes I feel as though it doesn't fit having a large blue box on my wall. The fire alarm is nice that it warns all the sims to get out of the house, but then the house will continue to burn and the fire will get even larger, making it harder to extinguish the flames.

The lack of color customization - I almost want to kick myself for saying this. I'm pretty sure that there will be added color customization in later expansion packs, and even though this is the vanilla Sims 4, I felt as though I was a bit too limited to choosing.

Grey'd out menu bar when a sim goes to work/school. I like being able to see my moodlets dropping while my sim is at work, or at least be able to check on friend relationships while I wait for them to get home.

Lastly the only thing that I find kind of aggravating is that my sims' daily routines are all but the same - get up super early to make breakfast before work, while taking a shower, then working, coming home, eating dinner, (maybe squeezing in homework before bedtime showers and last minute working on the fun moodlet) and then sleeping. Unless my sims have a day off from work, I find it's hard to manage all the moodlets with having a lot of extra time to do just about anything. I feel as though that it's essentially harder to raise the moodlets for sims this time around, and i'm so focused on doing that I find myself scrambling for time to do other things. Keeping friendships is harder as well for me to manage because of all of this, or gaining skills.

Overall, for being a base game for an entirely new franchise, I give the Sims 4 an 8/10. I cannot wait to see what you guys continue to come out with for this new series, it's so innovative and I feel as though things will only go up from here. And I'd also like to thank you for the hard work you guys put into this installment, I feel like the team needs to receive more credit for everything they've done this time around, along with the past series as well.

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.

Things I liked:
1. They added a lot of clutter furniture/decorations. I enjoy making homes look realistic.
2. I love how pretty the neighborhoods are, and the noises from outside at night.
3. Making Sims look very detailed has been great.

Things I disliked: (Where do I begin...?)
1. No toddlers...
2. Babies are objects just like they were in Sims 1.
3. No color wheel/pattern choices! Everything is going to look the same now.
4. Not an open world. How could we add so much to Sims 3 and take it away in Sims 4?
5. Camera angling is impossible now.
I could go on and on but it's mostly been covered already. So disappointed :(

Opinions:
It seems as if the creators want us to use their hideous pre-made rooms rather than build our own. Build mode was FANTASTIC in the Sims 3. I really wish I hadn't purchased this game, but I've been so loyal to the company since the first game came out, I gave it a chance and was terribly disappointed. I don't want to buy expansion after expansion to get the things we should already have back. I guess if I had to pick TWO things to be added back, it would be toddlers (all the wonderful interactions with them), and having an open world. The Sims was my way of escaping from every day life and living an entirely different life, and now that concept is gone. But what's the point in complaining? It's not like EA is even going to look at this. They obviously don't care.

What I like:
>CAS - I could never go back to sliders. And there are more than 2 hairstyles I don't hate.
>The animation and look of the Sims. The stylized appearance was the right direction to take after 3's uncanny dolls.
>Traveling between worlds - will be especially nice when the EPs bring new towns with new lots.
>Environments. I love the view off my Sims' balcony in Oasis Springs, and Sylvan Glade is beautiful.
>Populated community lots
>Seems easier to form a relationship with the Grim Reaper

What I don't like:
>Almost no job NPCs. I mean leave paparazzi out of course, but the world feels emptier without firefighters, cops, mailmen, etc.
>Mostly ~weird!~ careers. Which are fine and can even be fun, but I miss the normal stuff for my normal sims.
>Tiny worlds with an inflexible map view. Even in Sims 2 you could have a look around from above.
>Confusing management. Adding Sims to your town, editing lots, and even entering the stupid game require you to take extra steps. It's like CAS is in my face when I want to jump into the game, but difficult to enter when I feel like making a Sim.
>Initially, I didn't care about toddlers or adult-height teens, but aging baby objects into kids into big teens just isn't as satisfying.
>Townies still wear stupid hats.
>I can't put my finger on it, but it's missing something Sims 2 had and Sims 3 got sort of close to. It's boring. I don't feel attached to these Sims. It doesn't feel like I'm telling a story.
>No ghosts or aliens/occult of any kind. The Supernatural EP was too much for me, but I like a hint of sci-fi and mysticism.
>Seems harder to kill your Sims which, along with the lack of job NPCs, is throwing off my Olive Specter household.
>This was also an issue in Sims 3, but I miss the automatic, simple memory system of Sims 2. I don't need a picture or to share it on social media (though the options are nice I guess?). I liked reading "learned to walk from Dad" and "Son born" and "Mom died."
>No family trees??? I hate know-nothings commenting on game development, but how many man-hours could this have taken to implement? It does away with the sense of accomplishment of marrying my third-generation original Sims into the fleshed-out Goth family tree, complete with dead ancestors in the family plot. This and the lack of backstories for the worlds and their premade families suck even more of the personality from the game. I'm a family player, and my Sims don't feel like part of a lineage in this installment.
>Clearly not finished. The games before felt like standalone games - The Sims 4 feels like a skeleton for EPs.

Overall:
Hopefully some EPs will flesh it out and bring back some of the very basic missing features (and dishwashers). I really tried to hold out against all the negative hype, rolling my eyes at the mention of "pools and toddlers" in every article about the game, but Everyone's Favorite Corporation EA really made a mess this time - they farted out a glorified Facebook game in a bid for quick profits from the casual dollar and dealt a serious blow to one of my favorite game franchises in the process. I've been playing since the original game, and it greatly saddens me to see the series slide even farther downhill from the peak of The Sims 2.