Vet Clinic Ideas & Concerns

After watching the newest livestream, I'd say that I was right for not having extremely high hopes for this vet "career". Not that I didn't like what I saw because, believe me, I did, but almost everything went down the route I had in mind before watching the video. I'll just comment on a few things off the top of my head, with no special order or significance. And keep in mind that: a) I'm a veterinarian in real life and b) I've already pre-ordered the game and I love all the previous installments that had to do with our furry companions.

• Brindleton Map: To be quite honest, I was expecting a bigger world this time around. Also, why do the developers feel the need to include such big lots? For me, the smaller ones are more convenient and easy to build and you can add various types of venues there. I'm not mad, just purely curious.
  
• Vet Clinic Objects: Well, most of them are deeply aesthetically pleasing, but come on, why a Check in Podium instead of a receptionist? In the vet clinic I work in real life, we've got 2 receptionists and sometimes even this number isn't enough. Not that it has any real effect on the gameplay, but it'd still be kind of cool to see such a feature. Not going to fret though, so let's move on.
  
• Options On The Patient: Overall, I really liked what I saw and most of the options nicely correspond to what happens in real life (and, trust me, most of it isn't as cute as it looked in the livestream). Nice choices of word games and funny iterations when it comes to the patient's responses, animations and, also, the owner's facial expressions. To be fairly honest, I didn't expect them to stay true to how the owner may react when he/she sees their dog/cat getting examined or treated, but they've pretty much stayed loyal to what happens in real life. So, high five for these options, even though they may get a bit repetitive in the future. We'll see.
  
• Treats: I was impressed with how creative and funny these little things are going to be! Some of them may mess our little furry souls up, but I think it'll be positive for the replayability of the pack to have a variety of treats which we can choose from. I'm still slightly concerned, though, over how useful these treats are going to be when it comes to the everyday life of our pets. I mean, except for the "Age Up" and "Age Down" special treats -and, sometimes, the "Ambrosia" one as well-, all the other ones seem slightly... redundant? I may be wrong, though, so please tell me what you think, friends.
  
• Pets Can Only Die From Old Age: Still hugely disappointed with this fact. I mean, we are able to kill Sims with fire, drown them, have them electrocute themselves or die from laughter, even being eaten from a completely imaginary CowPlant, but we don't get the option to have our lovely pets die from natural causes? In my opinion, this choice seems a bit silly. I'm not talking about euthanasia and stuff, because I clearly know this game is targeted to a really young audience as well (even though a big portion of hardcore Simmers are older than the teenage years). They could use the same animations if they didn't want to make it depressing, triggering or "too realistic". I don't know. I'm neither a programmer nor a game developer, so I can't really say more on this topic.
  
• Vet Perks: Not much to say about this feature, because it's pretty much known to all the players who've played with the Dine Out GP. I like how household members can help run the clinic, despite how many other vets we may have hired. Knowing the way I like playing TS4, in other words knowing that I'm a huge family player, I think this new feature would definitely come in handy for my stories.
  
• Build/Buy Mode Objects: Even though this category will be vastly explored during the next, and final, livestream, I'll only say a few words about the objects I noticed. Not really happy with the dog beds, but I'm sure they've included more, they just didn't want to show them during this livestream. Nice new wall decorations and so neat that we can put some decals on the windows as well! Very cute pet toys and rugs. Finally, I fell completely and wholeheartedly in love with the new mail boxes! So, so cute!!!
  

And that is all with my commentary on the livestream and some of my concerns when it comes to the vet clinic. I know that a couple of these sentences seem overly negative, but believe me when I say that I liked how much they've tried to make this new feature look as awesome as possible and add depth to the replayability of this new "career". We'll see how much of it will live up to the hype, though. Overall, thank you Sims team! As a vet in real life, I can't wait to treat dogs and cats in my favorite game as well, not only in real life, hahaha! Happy Simming, everyone! <3