ForumsGamesThe Sims 4

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Reton8
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Reton8
3,173 posts
King

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The Sims 4: Introduction
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The Sims 4, a game that many have waited eagerly to play, has just recently been released. The Sims 4 features more moods and more interactivity with those moods. As well, The Sims 4 has more and more intricate social interactions, also affected by a Sims mood. Another notable feature of The Sims 4 is the improved build mode. The new build mode now includes the ability to change wall heights, move entire rooms with furniture, add foundations even after building the home, and the ability to add prefabricated rooms directly to an existing house.

However, a lot of negativity has been surrounding The Sims 4 as many features from previous Sims games have been removed.

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The major key features missing from The Sims 4
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- Swimming pools
- Toddlers
- Create-a-Style (CASt) (Customizing items with patterns and a color wheel)
- Open world
- Basements
- Terrain tools

A list of almost all the missing features (major and minor) can be found here.

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Purported Reasons for the Missing Features
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- Toddlers and Pools:
EA claims that the swimming pools and toddlers are rather difficult to design, especially since this iteration of The Sims was designed with many new development tools. Hence, why no pools or toddlers in the base version of The Sims 4. A patch or expansion pack/DLC may be released in the future with these features. (Source)

- Create-a-Style:
Create-a-Style may have been removed due causing lag with upcoming expansion packs. More items meant more styles the game had to "remember". Although this is only speculation. (Someone else posted about this but I can't find the site, if anyone can find it I will post the link).

Create-a-Style looks like it will not be possible to add to the game either. (Source).
Although, if you look at the comments in the article from the link, it looks like modders may have been able to make a Create-a-Style for The Sims 4 already.

- Open world:
Many speculate that The Sims 4 does not have an open world in order to improve the performance of the game in general and allow the game to play on older computers. The Sims 3 had some performance issues, partly due to the large open world (Source for The Sims 3 performance issues).

- Basements and Terrain tools
I personally think these features are missing because The Sims 4 has revamped the build-mode. I think the new build mode features were too complicated to implement with varying terrain heights and basements, if EA wanted to have the game ready on the release date. I think it may be possible for these features to return in a patch, expansion, or DLC.

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My Thoughts about the Missing Features
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After reading some forums and seeing what others have to say, I partially agree with what some others have suggested. EA has done two things.

One, they have purposely stripped down the base Sims game so that they can offer more content in pay for expansions (therefore why there are no pools or toddlers) and expend less effort and money creating the game.

Two, EA has removed the open world and simplified the game to appeal more to the casual and mobile gaming crowds. As some others have stated, on different forums, it may even be plausible that EA is planning on releasing The Sims 4 for iPad, due to the simplified game design. (Would that be technically possible, I don't know, maybe someone else can confirm).

I don't fully believe these are the only reasons The Sims 4 has ended up the way it is, but I think these reason played a large role in determining many aspects of the game. I also believe EA may have run into genuine technical issues (considering how complex a Sims game probably is) when making the game. This also leading to the stripped down state of the game.

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My Thoughts about The Sims 4 in General
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I have played The Sims 1, The Sims 2, and most of their expansions, for many hours. I have also played The Sims 3, just the base game for many hours. So, I am a fan of the series. I have not yet played The Sims 4 so I cannot give it a rating. But I can give my thoughts from what I have seen.

I think the new build tools are great. Being able to pick up and move fully furnished rooms that will stay intact, is a great new feature.

The graphics. I do think the graphics could be better. The graphics seem a bit bland, as if there should be a bit more detail in the objects and items. However, this blandness also helps to keep the distinct Sims style intact. It seems the graphics are sometimes underwhelming, yet sometimes impressive as well. Take a look at a few screenshots yourself.

Link 1, Link 2, Link 3, Link 4, Link 5

(Note: I did not take these screenshots. These screenshotes were found at: http://getsimplyruthless.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-roofthe-roofthe-roof-is-on-fire.html)

The new Sim moods and interaction, I think these will be interesting, but I do not think they will be enough to make up for the lack of features this time around.


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Conclusion
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My final thoughts for now, the game doesn't seem as bad as some would make it out to be, but I am disappoint. I do not see why EA couldn't have worked on keeping the game open-world but optimizing it better so there wouldn't be such performance issues as The Sims 3. The missing features are large and the new features don't seem like enough to make up for it, although I have no played the game. I think I would still enjoy play The Sims 4, but I am not as inclined to buy the game as I was when I first heard about it.

Lastly, I would like to know what others think about the missing features and the game and gameplay in general. I would especially like to hear form people who have actually played the game.

  • 1 Reply
09philj
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09philj
2,825 posts
Jester

It looks like a case of more is less, mixed with a good dash of greed. Luckily, modders.

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