When you are in Origin, if you hover your cursor over the Sims4 game you will get the dialog box with a huge orange "Play" button. To the left of that button is a grey "i" button. Left click on that and you will get a new screen with options for Sims 4. Right next to the graphic for the game are some links. Choose the Actions heading click on Game Properties. You will get a new window pop up See this to see how it should be:
Sim 4 Properties
This opens the game with Origin offline and Sims 4 in the windowed mode, not full screen as is the default. This allowed me to play longer for a while, but not by much. I finally just dumped my Sims4 folder (losing my progress in the game) and started over. I had saved my original couple and was able to move them into the neighborhood. Very aggravating because I had to start them all over again, however it also allows me to correct a few mistakes I had made learning the new game.
I'm hoping the figure the problem out soon because I know I am far from the only one experiencing this and to be honest, it's a problem that should have been fleshed out in Beta and fixed before release, because it is a major factor in my wanting my money back fro what has turned out to be a regression in the Sims game. The game isn't even as much fun as Sims2 at release.