Have The Sims Games Gotten Worse?

[Shelter]

I know some people don't consider the sims series an actual game, but this thread isn't for you. I played sims 2 and sims 3, but not sims 4. I noticed as you go up in the generations of sims you're given a lot to do, sims 3 being the most (sort of) and sims 4 being the least. However, I think sims 2 was the best in the series. I never played the first sims but it had the same sims 2. 


Personally, I think the sims have increased customization and graphics, but lack character and emotion. The sims is trying to be realistic when that was never the goal. It was supposed to be zany and whimsical, cartoonish even. Anyway, what is your thoughts?

 

[Osthavula]

EA had taken a route of giving you the most basic and then give you tons of DLC or expansions for you, and in my opinion, that had step up a level in sims 4.


In sims 4 you really were given the bare minimum, you weren't even given the whole open world now.I didn't like how you must load the environment again when you are going to, lets say, the park near your house. Which in previous sims you do get to enjoy the whole town view and even watching people near the cinema without calling your character over there.


But the expansion was what I would have wanted when there was not even sims 3. It went on a greater scale...if you have the money.


But yes, I still prefer sims 3 and some expansion that I had tried. (the world adventure I think). In terms of game, I can't really say it is a step back or not. 


The depth of your wallet determines how good your experience is. 

 

[two]

I think the sims 2 and 3 were the best in the series, 4 was definitely a waste of money and a huge dissapointment. I like the new way of creating sims on there but they look way more like cartoons or something. Also like said here above the fact that you can't walk to a park or the mall near your house sucks because the whole town view was way nicer. The sims 4 is hella expensive and not worth it, maybe with all the expansion packs but those shouldn't be necessarily to make the game fun to play you know. 

 

[punkinblackk]

I found Sims 2 very difficult. Like... It was nearly impossible to keep more than two people alive and happy without using cheats. But was otherwise good, and I got into it late enough that all the expansions were bundled and fairly cheap. (but the apartments were astounding, and roommates man)


Sims 3 was easily playable, and yes the open worldness was amazing, but if you added too many expansions, especially the world travels one, the entire game would start lagging on mid level computers. Character customization was also good (clothing/furniture customization was extreme). 


Sims 4 has spectacular character customization, though the traits are extremely lacking compared to three. Sims are much more autonomous, and though the open world thing was chopped, the game runs extremely well on my mid level laptop with mid high graphics settings. 


I'd say three and four are about tied for me. I mean yes the expansions for four are getting a bit up there in price, but they are fairly on par with what you'd expect to pay for that amount of new material in another high end game. 

 

[Fable]

In sims 4 you really were given the bare minimum, you weren't even given the whole open world now.I didn't like how you must load the environment again when you are going to, lets say, the park near your house. Which in previous sims you do get to enjoy the whole town view and even watching people near the cinema without calling your character over there.

The reason for the lack of open world was to fix the issue where in Sims 3 it could take a very long time to load in the game because it had to load in everything.  With Sims 4 it's not as open, but the load is so much nicer than what it was in the Sims 3 (even with a high end custom built PC).


@Shelter


I dislike how they went the route of the "Sims Store" where you have to buy a ton of the vanity content.  I get paying for expansions to add new play content, but for vanity items in their own packs annoys me.  But, there are plenty of content creators where you can just download items for the game for free, so if I want new clothes for my sims, I just go download them from content creators.  I do think 4 is an improvement over 3 in terms of overall game functionality.  Though things are obviously missing, such as the toddler phase of the sim life cycle.

 

[Flooffy]

I personally found Sims 4 super boring. The gathering isn't as exciting, the exploring of the one area was also meh...


sims 3 will remain my personal favorite, not to mention the mods you have for it, the game just is such high quality in comparison to two prior (it was a VAST improvement compared with the second), but with 4th, where you expected at least a small amount of the said improvement, you saw the complete opposite. I was so excited to go to space... only to find that it was a complete waste of time. There was nothing much you could do there, aside from meeting aliens and gathering odd plants that had no purpose.


The emotion thingie was quite creative, but that was the only pro in the sea of cons.


I mean... THEY REMOVED THE DISHWASHER AT RELEASE. With the explanation 'well, you can just throw them out' hurr.


I will stick to my Sims 3, where I have 12th generation of my Witch-Vampire family going.

 

[Count Gensokyo]

tl;dr Yes they are.

 

[spookie]

i really never got the point of sims 4. it's a stripped-back, bare-bones shell of its predecessors that's more expensive with less to do. it lacks the ease of play and open world of 3 and the magic i've always felt in 2. the graphics aren't very nice in my opinion either, they're too shiny and plastic for my taste. i actually prefer the older games for graphics as they're obviously dated, but i can still make a decent looking sim with the right CC. to me it feels like they're trying too hard to go back to the goofy ridiculousness of 2 (and somewhat 3), but have taken it in the wrong direction and it's fallen flat. it's either too serious or too ridiculous, and i just can't get into it. 


i do know a few people who prefer it, but most share my opinion, it seems. if someone was just getting into the sims and asked me for advice, i'd definitely suggest starting with 2 or 3, as i don't think i would've loved this game since i was a kid if i'd started on 4.

 

[The Mechanist]

@SplashingSunsetsI think you would have a good opinion on this topic

 

[Catharsis]

@SplashingSunsetsI think you would have a good opinion on this topic

I actually started to reply to this yesterday! 


Personally, I love the new graphics that the sims 4 has to offer. If you compare sims 3 and 4, you'll notice sims 3 was a bit dull in color, which is why I'm okay with the cartoony look. 


I do wish EA would stop with the expansion packs. I feel like a life stimulator should include pets, seasons, and children that actually have actions. I get maybe expanding to add like "supernatural" effects or more towns, but c'mon man we've been there and done the expansions one too many times. ( in my opinion. )


I like all sims games, I think 4 has potential to be great. I like the mood system, but sims 3 holds way more content at this point in time  

 

[lazytowns]

call me old fashioned, but i think the first sims games were the of the series. the games are progressively growing more lifelike but honestly i just want to go back to the days where you could wrestle ferrets for a living to the anthem of black eyed peas 


shoutout to the tragic clown for giving me childhood trauma too

 

[Husk]

I have a hate/love relationship with the Sims 4. EA took so much out that was just... unnecessary. On the other hand, I really love the emotions and the fact your sim can multitask, say, during conversations. I feel if they merged it more with what they had going with the Sim 3 (I loved the open neighborhoods, I don't care it devoured memory) I'd probably enjoy it more. I never actually played the Sim 1 yet.
I want to say 3 is my favorite, even though I played the 2nd just as much. The Sims 4 runs really smoothly though, so there's that. 

 

[Silent Howling]

I've only ever played Sims 3 and Sims 4 (Even though I have Sims 2 Pets on the PSP) and I very much prefer Sims 3. The only reason I actually bought Sims 4 and all the expansion packs was because the game was 65% off and the packs were 50% off so that was fine. But like hell will I ever pay full price for Sims 4 on anything. Except a pet expansion if they add that. But Sims 3 just has so much more to offer which is what I love about it.

 

[Phadia]

Just started playing Sims 4 for the first time a couple days ago. It's my first ever Sims game, so I suppose I can't compare it to the others like a lot of you can. I think it's a LOT of fun! I've never played anything like it. It's amazing how you can build everything from scratch, down to even shaping your characters face bones! I also just found out about custom content, and that makes the already massive game even bigger! It's just amazing... The kind of programming that must have gone into it is just mind boggling!

 

[Lord Pug]

I've only ever played Sims 3 and Sims 4. Just, in my opinion, Sims 3 was shit and I love Sims 4.


Sims 3:


Pros: Um...I can't think of any.


Cons: Customization is pretty crappy. There are barely any clothing options. There are, like, four aspirations so if you don't fit into one of them, you're outta luck. You can't make more than one character. Call me pissy but this annoys me since I like making lots of characters. You can make "townies" but you can't control them. It's REALLY hard to court people and it's mostly luck-of-the-draw. Let's say you make your girlfriend so that you're character can court her...but the sim you made that is supposed to be your girlfriend doesn't like you. Welp, you're outta luck. Again.


Sims 4:


Pros: Customization is amazing! There are tons of clothing options, tons of aspirations, and lots of personality traits. You can make as many characters/households as you want and you can control them if you want but you don't have to. While it's still hard to court people, it's not quite as luck-of-the-draw as Sims 3 and usually characters that you work really hard to get together will get together. And there are so many more options for customizing your house! I love it. Don't forget how you can always add little things to your characters' rooms to really make them unique. Plus you can make Transgender characters, which is important to me, being Transgender myself. You can customize the way your characters walk, talk, and even if they can get pregnant or not! It's awesome.


Cons: There are not enough personality traits. Call me pissy (again) but I'd like if they had hearing aids as a customization option just because I have a character that I made that's hard of hearing and it's weird to see him without his hearing aids. Really weird. Courting people is still kind of luck-of-the-draw...if they don't like you, they don't like you. Only the defaults walking option for the characters actually looks natural.


Well, this is just my experience and my opinion, no offense if anybody likes Sims 3 better than Sims 4.

 

[Flooffy]

Cons: Customization is pretty crappy. There are barely any clothing options.

 ever visited TheSimsResource or mod the sims? There are SO many clothes, items, pets, etc for customization... 


not to mention, Sims 3 had so much fun mini games, which sims 4 didn't have.

 

[Lord Pug]

 ever visited TheSimsResource or mod the sims? There are SO many clothes, items, pets, etc for customization... 


not to mention, Sims 3 had so much fun mini games, which sims 4 didn't have.

I played Sims 3. I never found any "minigames" ever.

 

[Flooffy]

I played Sims 3. I never found any "minigames" ever.

collections, opportunities, the whole ALL of the expansions... Sims 4, you could visit an alien planet... and do nothing there XD

 

[Voyage]

I personally don't really like the Sims 4.


I feel like EA downgraded to be honest. But maybe that's just because I have so many amazing memories with The Sims 3. I just like the game design so much more than from Sims 4.

 

[fattiest fat cat]

The reason for the lack of open world was to fix the issue where in Sims 3 it could take a very long time to load in the game because it had to load in everything.  With Sims 4 it's not as open, but the load is so much nicer than what it was in the Sims 3 (even with a high end custom built PC).

That's the BS reason they gave us, but several people looked into it and it seems the actual problem was a memory leak issue.  Especially with the downgraded specs that SIms 4 has, and given the fact they load up the neighbourhood as HQ objects, there's little reason they couldn't do what they did in Sims 3, which is load up the lot in detail when you go there, or at least something similar.  Especially because their "neighbourhood" divisions means you're not going to be loading up an entire town or world.

I've only ever played Sims 3 and Sims 4. Just, in my opinion, Sims 3 was shit and I love Sims 4.


Sims 3:


Pros: Um...I can't think of any.


Cons: Customization is pretty crappy. There are barely any clothing options. There are, like, four aspirations so if you don't fit into one of them, you're outta luck. You can't make more than one character. Call me pissy but this annoys me since I like making lots of characters. You can make "townies" but you can't control them. It's REALLY hard to court people and it's mostly luck-of-the-draw. Let's say you make your girlfriend so that you're character can court her...but the sim you made that is supposed to be your girlfriend doesn't like you. Welp, you're outta luck. Again.

Uuuuh... sounds like you never played the desktop version?  None of these cons exist for that version.

 

[Shelter]

Sims 4 just had toddlers come out, I'm going to watch videos later to see how they are but what does everyone think?

 

[fattiest fat cat]

Sims 4 just had toddlers come out, I'm going to watch videos later to see how they are but what does everyone think?

Comes with some interesting bugs and breaks a couple of mods.  I also wish there was more hair, but that's what mods are for!! (I'm gonna make so much hair cc).  Overall though, I'm DELIGHTED.  They're really dynamic so far, and all the toddler-specific items are adorable.  They're meant to be a bit older than previous toddlers, I think.  Maybe around 3?  Considering it was FREE!! I'm super happy with it.

 

[Shelter]

Comes with some interesting bugs and breaks a couple of mods.  I also wish there was more hair, but that's what mods are for!! (I'm gonna make so much hair cc).  Overall though, I'm DELIGHTED.  They're really dynamic so far, and all the toddler-specific items are adorable.  They're meant to be a bit older than previous toddlers, I think.  Maybe around 3?  Considering it was FREE!! I'm super happy with it.

I'm glad you like it, being free is a huge plus considerings EA's history.

 

[fattiest fat cat]

I'm glad you like it, being free is a huge plus considerings EA's history.

I'd be mad as hell if it had cost money lmao.  But as things are I'm happy as a clam.  Their faces are kinda freaky though  :withlines:

 

[Negative Zone]

I don't play 'em as much as I intend to play 'em (I get overambitious with downloading extra stuff, the curse of the mod user) but I can appreciate all the Sims games in different ways for different things. Though to be fair I haven't played 4 since the first expansion came out so I don't really know how the game or community has matured! I guess I feel like each game has its own distinct personality thanks to all the content people make.