"simgirl1010;c-17042577" wrote:
"Triplis;d-958512" wrote:
The brain can only process so many things at a time and the game can throw many of them at you in a small space. Emotions, whims, achievements, aspirations, satisfaction points, reward traits and potions, skills, ranked skills, quirks, perks, reward traits, cas traits, character values, weight and muscle change, aging, interaction queues, needs, object quality, environmental hazards (ex: fire), environmental changes (ex: dirty dishes, weather), careers, career goals, career rewards/unlocks, weather-aware outfits, temperature changes, thermostats for addressing temperature changes, audiovisual changes (ex: sim turning on music autonomously), things that require persistent attention to what a sim is doing to make them do it (ex: queuing up an interaction and it failing).
I wanted to respond before reading any of the other comments. This is exactly how I feel when playing. Sometimes to the extent that it all seems a bit overwhelming. I've been playing since The Sims and this is the first version where I occasionally move all but one of my sims to another household in order to concentrate on the one. As much as I love it sometimes I'll delay loading the game because there's so much I want to do but can't decide where to start. Right now I'm actually feeling a tiny bit of anxiety because we'll probably get a new release in June and I'm not ready. In addition to the features you mentioned above I don't think I'm adequately utilizing the club and calendar features. Also, for the first time I find myself having to use lists to keep up with with things like food stall offerings, experimental foods, and other recipes, harvestables and when they're active/dormant, and since we have the ability to move within worlds I have to keep a list of which lots are in which worlds. And the true test for me of a more absorbing game. I can no longer watch tv while playing. :p The game demands all of my attention.
ETA: Have completed reading the other comments and I think one of the reasons I don't experience the 'all sims feel the same syndrome' is because I focus on one household and their related sims so its not as evident in my gameplay. I do see how playing lots of households would result in a feeling of less individuality.
Sounds more like it has too many directives and not a enough sandbox. Too many FX things popping up like texts and notices, too many goals, instead of sandbox, too much grind to succeed. No randomness of life thrown into the mix where someone grinding away would have to get off the hampster wheel and live a little and deal with 'life' instead of goaling. It's focus is on goals, and to me that's where it fails to reflect life and or what happens in life, and why nothing you do in this game matters unless you want to fill every goal they keep adding. That's not The Sims, that's a quest game in Sim disguise. Not saying people shouldn't fill goals if they want, but that's all that is ever added. If it was about the Sim, the Sim would have memories, and remember, and the player could look at that memory and remember what happened two weeks ago. Not even the picture taking memory system was a memory system, it's a way to goal by using a picture to bring on a mood. The premise of the game is so lack luster, grindy in the long run, it's hardly worth the name of TS4.
