TS4 Chat Thread (Things I've Seen/Heard/Read About in TS4 v2)

The way I feel - and as an old time fan of the series, it seems most people feel the same way - is that developers fail to see what matters in The Sims. It's pretty sad to witness this, because I expected The Sims 4 to fix all the mess The Sims 3 made.

In The Sims 3, "open world", "CAST" and "Story Progression" were to blame for a lot of the elements taken away from the life simulation experience, so obviously, this was the chance to actually go back to the series root and make it a great life simulator again.

Smaller and less ambicious is OK, as long as it delivers. I had hoped my sims would stop taking stuff - including cars - out of their assess. I had hoped the money would actually matter this time - that once again I would have the challenge to manage a household by making choices like "do I buy a new TV or pay the bill?" without the game throwing money at me because I sold a rock. That I would have to keep an eye in the fridge meter to see if I had food for the family, and if I didn't, that I would actually have to send my Sim to buy it so I was able to serve my guests. That I would have to make money in order to compile a nice wardrobe for my Sim, by actually sending him to a store, chosing outfits by trying them on, clicking on actual funcional object and then buy it on the cashier (a proper NPC attached to the object).

I thought that my sims could go out on an actual date, be shown where to sit, order the food and be served by functional waitress - Mind you, even sitting at the same table, which I was never able to achieve in The Sims 3. That when going to a bar, I would find a proper NPC spawned by the community lot, instead of me having to act like I was home and serve my own. That my sims would use payed public transportation or cars to move around - yes, even with loading screens.

I don't think that was too much to ask for. The Sims 2 was taken care of, while The Sims 3 just took the easy way out for everything. It seems that developers once actually knew what to do, how to improve upon an existing system. The Sims 2 was a huge step foward from The Sims 1, it improved gameplay in every single aspect. It was incredible. It wasn't just one new improvement, everything changed, got bigger and better while still maintaining the core gameplay. It didn't need any new gameplay gimmick, it sold on its own roots.

All animations were beautifuly done, most systems worked and all EPS enhanced the basic gameplay - which was already rich on its own. All of these elements played their part really well, added to gameplay and gave us a lot of different options - on top of that, it never forgot that extra humor, which was just a bonus, not the focus. The series' sense of humor was great because of its discretion, it's sassyness, its maturity and darkness - now, it just looks stupid and childish.

It was a pain to see all of these systems broken for The Sims 3. The way cars, money and community lots worked in general was just a joke, pretty incomprehensible. The smartphone/telephone was a nightmare that would never stop ringing with different goals and oportunities.

The Sims 4 was supposed to be a break from all of that, a fresh start with a functional system that restored what was lost. Coming from a subpar game, you could improve upon basically everything. Then I realized it's not the tecnical aspect that was holding The Sims 3. It seems that the series is rotten from inside. It's not a tecnical issue, it's just that you don't seem to know what to do with the game. The concept is so pure, so simple: make a life simulator. Set that as a foundation and start from there.

There's no need to present players with different directions for the series, because the results are often disastrous. Just improve on its roots and that's it. The last two SimCity games tried to change the gameplay focus and we all know what happened. So it's quite shocking to me that The Sims team would decide to give us what nobody asked. And I know you can't address certain things, but you must know that the community is not receiving this new game with open arms. Even big fansites are starting to crack jokes. It must suck for your guys because of all time wasted (not invested), but quite frankly, you missed a great oportunity.

I know making games must be hard, but honestly, that is not our job nor our problem. We just want a good product, but instead, we keep hearing some decisions that just sound bizarre. It's more than toddles and pools - they just represent, among other things, that the entire concept is what is wrong.

Everytime The Sims 3 presented some "spetacular" new feature, it needed mods to stop them from ruining gameplay or breaking your game. Every EP broke something somehow. Memories bloated everyone's savedgames with stupid information. Paparazzi and Celebrities would spawn like crazy, everyone was a star and it was frankly annoying. That horrible "attraction" system made incest a normal thing and random sims started sending me TVs and Stoves just because they saw me around. Supernatural beings looked and behaved just like Sims, there was no special element that made them out of reach. You can't really say those systems worked because they didn't. They were weird and broken.

Now, the entire game is being built up around some of these scary features - "emotions". When it was announced that The Sims 4 would be built around this, I seriously got worried. You assured us that a trailer was just a trailer, sims would not get depressed just because they listenedto a sad song - but looking at Grant's latest tweets, this already sounds broken, over the top as usual, and something that needs to be modded out as soon as possible. And then, another Guru goes ahead and say "emotions are fun because they are new" but cooking is what she loves the most. She's right, that's the beauty of life simulation - it should be the focus and it shows.

When I heard about emotions a couple of months ago, I was a bit aprehensive. When I saw the new art style of the game, I was shocked. When I heard "car animations were too hard", I started to lose faith. When I heard unlockables would be a thing again, the game started to lose me for good. When I noticed the freakshow that the neighborhood will be - with giant machines, rockets, luchadores and astronauts running around - I needed no more - I was sure this game is what is lost, not me. That its focus group is kids and I'm not going to support it.

The life simulation elements that I loved from The Sims 2 was ignored, but its limitations seem to be back. The customization and criativity involved with The Sims 3 (along with its elements that had great potential) were removed, not improved upon. What made The Sims 3 gameplay lacking is what is coming back, and in worse form it seems. The ammount of decor speaks volumes - the game is filled with objetcs that could add to gameplay, but don't. If you could remove an entire life stage because your priorities wouldn't allow it, than you - developers - can be sure you got it all twisted.

Now, you end up with a game that is not improved upon The Sims 2 nor The Sims 3. It's not even in the middle, because it doesn't look like a proper sequel to neither of them. Add that to the fact that nobody is really allowed to show anything at this point, so it doesn't help the ideia that this game will not be stable enough or worth it. Don't get me wrong, I know you could just stop talking and go back to hiding what's wrong (like cars, which is still a "no comment" like toddlers and pools were, and we had to find that out on its own. Lord knows what else is missing).

But I suppose you guys know everything that is wrong and all you can say to counter balance the removal of basic features is "... but you will love what's in the game!".

Thing is - at this point, we don't exactly know what that is.

We just heard about it.

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