SIMply Schmoozin'

Sugah wrote:

Do my eyes deceive me or do the Sims in Sims 4 resemble the icky puddin-faced Sims of Sims 3?  

Em wrote:

I don't have a lot of time to devote to playing anymore and even if I did, I still have a lot I'd like to do with TS2 still. Plus, so far, I haven't really heard anything about TS4 that's caught my attention enough to make me want to switch...Basically, I'm just content with TS2.

Sandy wrote:

I love Sims 2 and not ready at all to "move on" ...

 
Well said, Emily & Sandy.

Me too!

mac wrote:

Sugah wrote:

Do my eyes deceive me or do the Sims in Sims 4 resemble the icky puddin-faced Sims of Sims 3?  

Em wrote:

I don't have a lot of time to devote to playing anymore and even if I did, I still have a lot I'd like to do with TS2 still. Plus, so far, I haven't really heard anything about TS4 that's caught my attention enough to make me want to switch...Basically, I'm just content with TS2.

Sandy wrote:

I love Sims 2 and not ready at all to "move on" ...

 
Well said, Emily & Sandy.

Me too!

Me three!

Sugah wrote:

Do my eyes deceive me or do the Sims in Sims 4 resemble the icky puddin-faced Sims of Sims 3?

I thought that, too. Ari and Em are gorgeous, but there seems to be that lack of detail or something that would make their TS4 sim selves look more real to me. My SIL uploaded quite a few cc-free TS3 sims on the exchange, but they still don't look as good as cc-free TS2 sims. She says her most downloaded sim is Shemar Moore as Derek Morgan from Criminal Minds. Anytime I tell that to anyone, the response is, "Well, yeah." I wish she'd been into making sims when she was still playing TS2!

Ari wrote:

I played the game vanilla for the longest time and was terrified of cc, lol.  Now I run all kinds of stuff, including 295 different mods!

I'm afraid to count my mods.  I had just discovered cc for TS1 shortly before switching to 2. It never even occurred to me to worry about it, but I didn't do much forum reading at that time. Ignorance is bliss, right? When I learned more about it, I looked in my downloads folder and saw all these crazy number/letter combinations and had no idea what was what. I'm an organizing freak, so I set about getting it all organized into folders and subfolders, and my SIL had the idea to stick a picture in each one so we'd know exactly what we had.

I'm a "me four" on Sims 2. I'm still enjoying it so much.

As I said I am not ready to "move-on" from Sims2, but I want my cake and eat it too!! I caved in and bought the Sims4 on 9-2!! I've played it twice and I like it a lot better than when I tried Sims3...There is a big learning curve for me in learning the new UI and controls etc!! The first time I played it I played the tutorial sim, ugh! Then I played the family Mr and Mrs Pancake, haha. Today I made a new Sim in CAS and gave her a room mate as well. They are a lot of fun so far! I DO still plan on keeping up with my Sims2 play (and sometimes I play Sims1 when I'm too tired)

Anyway, I like the game more than I thought I would :)

Well, having been burned by Sims 3, I'm approaching Sims 4 very tentatively. I have, however, ordered the Prima guide to Sims 4. (In Sims 2 I got all the guides and have found them to be helpful, no, essential.)

The Prima guide will at least give me the flavor of Sims 4. Besides, I do enjoy reading guides and hintbooks. Treeware forever!  

Mac, I do love the Prima Guides also. I need to get this one. I hear it'll be out September 9th!

Mac wrote:

Treeware forever!

Nothing beats an honest to goodness book!

Autumnelle wrote:

Nothing beats an honest to goodness book!

One of the joys of buying software, whether a game, a compiler, an OS, or whatever, was to shake the box and out would come several manuals/books for an enjoyable evening's reading. Nowadays, even out of a BIG box, comes a skinny CD and that's it! Whatever documentation is in PDF files or online. (Or in the case of many games, shelling out more $ for a hint book).

Even Microsoft.     What would I do without my O'Reilly book: Windows 7, the Missing Manual (and we won't even talk about Win 8 )

Quote :

...(and we won't even talk about Win 8 )

I like the thinner lips, Ari. Very nice! That is the perfect aspiration for you. I didn't notice that aspirations came with bonus traits. I'll have to look at that again sometime.

I picked one of the knowledge aspirations for my simself. It wasn't the computer geek one, but one of the other two. I think I chose the one about being handy and book smart, but I wasn't sure what the difference between that one and the other about knowing a lot about everything was exactly. They sounded really similar to me. I picked genius, loves nature/ outdoors, and loner for my traits. I chose creative at first, but then I switched it out in favor of loner when I saw that trait. Creativeness is more of an aspiration than a trait for me. I aspire to be creative, but I'm not as creative as I'd like to be.

I like the traits, but I wish it was in addition to rather than instead of personality points, because you could make a sim who loves music, loves art, loves nature etc and pick all traits about their interests and nothing that tells you about their personality.

Sugah wrote:

Do my eyes deceive me or do the Sims in Sims 4 resemble the icky puddin-faced Sims of Sims 3?

I don't know. I actually think they look a lot better than the TS3 sims and once people start making cc, they will look a lot better. TS3 sims can actually look pretty decent with cc and custom sliders or whatever it is that people use. They improved a lot from those original pudding faced sims that we were seeing at first. I honestly wouldn't mind playing a game with sims that look like these. But I would need more to entice me than that. When TS2 came out I was so excited and following the news about it. There was going to be a 3D camera where you can change the angles and zoom with more control, sims could actually age, they had genetics they could pass on. Honestly I would have switched from TS1 for any one of those features, let alone all three. TS3 offered open worlds, which was interesting to me, but didn't seem like something I really NEEDED. And for TS4, I've barely heard anything interesting about it at all, let alone something I felt like I needed. I'm kind of selective about what I spend my money on. For as much as I played TS1, I only bought 2 or 3 of the expansions, only the ones that offered something I really, really wanted.

Cher wrote:

I thought that, too. Ari and Em are gorgeous, but there seems to be that lack of detail or something that would make their TS4 sim selves look more real to me.

I think cc would help a lot. The default eyes, for example, in any of the games, even TS2, are especially awful. If I could only put one piece of cc in to help my sims appearance that would be it.

Sandy wrote:

I've played it twice and I like it a lot better than when I tried Sims3...

I'm glad to hear you're enjoying it.

I recently got the Prima guide for Sims 4, just to get an idea of the game. The following is based on a comparison between Sims 2 (which I've played and played and played) and Sims 4 (just the Prima guide).

Good points of Sims 4 (Some might be in Sims 3 as well):
Some worthwhile changes - addressed by hacks in Sims 2 but incorporated into the game in Sims 4: No Burglars - period!, Moms can nurse their baby, no Helicopter - I pointed out the difficulty with helicopters on narrow lots and Aaroneous continues to come up with hacks to solve the problem   Probably other changes as well.

More flexibility in job punctuality and no more commuting time.

Career advancement involves much more than just skills and friends. This is big! I do spend a lot of time fast-forwarding my game while my poor sim is swotting up some skill. Involving activities as well as skills for job advancement is brilliant!

Career advancement awards aren't just cash, but minor goodies as well. So many of my level 10 sims are loaded with simoleans!

Different voices (this was in Sims 3 as well) and different walking gaits. Traits (Sims 3 as well) Just plain fun! Add a whole new dimension to CAS. Wish they could have been incorporated into Sims 2.

Different kinds of bodies. In Sims 2, the basic differences are the head and hair. There are, however, 3rd party skins to accommodate different body types. In Sims 4, the flexibility is built in to CAS. Note, however, that, due to various animated interactions (among them hugs 'n kisses  ) there can be no height differences in a given age group

Bad points (in my humble opinion):

I don't know whether Maxis is continuing the practice in Sims 4, but I resented the whole idea of buying additional stuff from their website with points - points bought with real money. It was one of the things that really turned me off of Sims 3. Probably more of the same for Sims 4. (I see that BigFish is doing much the same with some of their games)

Very limited size of neighborhoods

Jury is still out on CAS. While I appreciate the efforts of Em and Ari in this thread and realize that they're working without any 3rd party contributions, the sims both in this thread and the pictures in the Prima guide seem to be all air-brushed perfection. I do realize that it's all in the mind of the beholder. Simmies from Sims 1, 2, 3, and 4 are all cartoons. We learn to live with a cartoon-y style as "reality" but so far, for me, the Sims 2 simmies are in a class by themselves.
Jury is also out on emotions. Suddenly everything seems to be getting very complicated. So much to keep track of. Sims 4 would seem to be oriented toward playing just a few sims intensely, rather than a thundering herd of sims (as in my 'hood  )

Collections - collections - collections. These were also in Sims 3. I really have never thought of having my simmies looking under every rock and log. I've had limited patience with the bug hunting activity in the Nature hobby and haven't fished much either. But collections, and the activity to fill them, do seem to be a big part of Sims 4, a part my simmies would prefer to be living without!

In addition:
There is such a legacy of Sims 2 stuff. Sims (ladies of Sugah's place, both current and retired -  ), houses, 'hoods, objects, and clothing (Milano -  ). Not only a legacy but still ongoing creation. I haven't explored the creations for Sims 3, but I doubt if the amount of them is close to the amount for Sims 2, and for Sims 4 - currently - very little if any.

Why and how do we play? For many of us, much of what happens is not on our computers but in our heads! Toni was writing stories about her paper dolls before she began Christoph Harbor. All of the wonderful - amusing - intriguing happenings in "What's going on in your game?". I remember (and I confess my age) listening to the Lone Ranger on the radio - MWF 7:30. When the Lone Ranger came out on TV, I watch one episode. That was enough. What was on the screen wasn't at all like what was in my imagination - and I preferred my own imagined version.

These all are one person's take on the whole Sims phenomenon. I welcome comments, disagreements, whatever. I do know - and appreciate - that this site is all about Sims 2 (how many computer games are still being played and added to after 10 years?) but I also think it's a site to share impressions about newer versions. Maxis - are you listening?

Em wrote:

I don't know. I actually think they look a lot better than the TS3 sims and once people start making cc, they will look a lot better.

They do look much better than their Sims 3 brethren, but on a whole I just don't like the direction the looks of video games are going, especially the characters. I suppose this is the future, and maybe I will get used to it but I am not fond of the way they are drawing people not just in the sims games but just in general.

Em wrote:

TS3 sims can actually look pretty decent with cc and custom sliders or whatever it is that people use. They improved a lot from those original pudding faced sims that we were seeing at first.

I have to disagree here. While they do not look quite as offensive as they used to, even with all the CC and stuff they still look way too similar to one another. There are aspects of their faces that just cannot seem to be modified which makes them look as if they all originated from the same sim. The CC seems to have made the best of a bad situation; they still look alike when you scrutinize as I do when I look for the pretty.

I played the original Sims games only for a brief moment in time, but the jump from the original to Sims 2 is mind-blowing. A lot of thought went into the study of how people interact with one another, pets, situations, etc. You may not agree with all EAxis' choices, I know I don't, but they did a really good job building a pretty realistic world for our pixel dollies. That being said, they did not take it much further in the new additions; the changes are mainly aesthetic and I don't like the direction they went in with it. So far, they only thing in Sims 3 that I would like for my game is the seamless neighborhoods. I am not going to say Sims 4 will never catch my interest (you never know what the future holds) but for right now I am happy with TS2.

Great comparisons, mac! I totally agree with your pros and cons. How great would it be if they could just add the (easier) custom body shapes and the additional traits for sims 2. I still wish different heights were possible, but I understand how difficult that would be with animations not lining up. The different voices and walking gaits are fun, but not too essential to me. In the CAS demo the different walking styles were so extremely exaggerated . . . I imagine the novelty of it might wear off soon, unless it's toned down a little in the actually game. I hadn't heard about the new career advancement details. I do get bored with skill building, so that sounds like a nice feature to me. Of the cons you listed, the biggest one for me is that the size of neighborhoods is so limited. That would be so limiting for gameplay. I couldn't imagine being content with a limited neighborhood for long. I also read that community lots aren't customizable, which is a huge limitation. Also, I hate that they're removing life stages, when honestly, I had wished there would be more in the future. Babies that are treated as objects, no toddlers, and teens that are the same height as adults is basically going back to TS1 as far as age groups go. I think more bothersome, in my opinion, than the flatness of the sims, is the overall lighting that the game seems to have. It could be editing (I have seen a lot of TS2 pics lately where people edit the saturation super high), but the scenery and everything in TS4 screenshots seems to be overly bright and saturated.

You might appreciate this post I saw on tumblr today. It rings true for me and I think it echos your additional thoughts.

Even though we are TS2 players (some primarily and some exclusively) and this is a TS2 site, I do enjoy hearing others thoughts and impressions on the new games as they come out. Thanks for sharing yours, mac!

Elle wrote:

I suppose this is the future, and maybe I will get used to it but I am not fond of the way they are drawing people not just in the sims games but just in general.

It does seem to be the trend. I can't say I have strong feelings on the changes either way.

Elle wrote:

I have to disagree here. While they do not look quite as offensive as they used to, even with all the CC and stuff they still look way too similar to one another. There are aspects of their faces that just cannot seem to be modified which makes them look as if they all originated from the same sim. The CC seems to have made the best of a bad situation; they still look alike when you scrutinize as I do when I look for the pretty.

I think that's true for the majority of TS3 sims. Most still do look very much alike, but I have seen some TS3 sims on tumblr that look amazing, to the point that it's difficult to tell them from TS2 sims at a quick glance. I don't have many examples I can find easily, the only TS3 blog I follow is Aikea-guinea's, because I really enjoyed her TS2 story Deception Pass, but that's an example of the type of TS3 sims I was talking about. But those types of sims are the exception to the rule, I admit. Apparently it takes a lot of not just cc, but mods (and a lot of tweaking) to make TS3 sims that don't all look like a generic TS3 sim. I agree 99% of them (and those make my the typical player) do look like they came from the same basic template.

(Please, excuse any typos, my laptop is being very laggy at the moment. )

I'm with Elle on this. Although I've listed any number of things I like about Sims 4, I'm going to pass on it for the present - and wish I'd passed on Sims 3 as well. Neither one has the soul of Sims 2! Sims 2 was simply an extraordinary creation, which hasn't been equaled! As I said above, how many 10-year-old computer games still have a large and (very) creative following?

Em, the tumblr post you referenced says it all! I think that a lot of the simplifications/"improvements" in Sims 4 were to allow it to run on more platforms and lesser computers. More platforms = More sales, More sales = More Profits for Maxis.

Viva Sims 2!

My SIL got Sims 4 and has spent quite a bit of time on it. We both thought she'd love it because she doesn't play; she builds. She told me last week she's going back to Sims 3 for good. She didn't think the additional building and CAS stuff was enough better to make it worth her while to put up with loading screens. She really hates loading screens.

Sims 4 to Sims 3! Just one more to go!

LOL! I don't think I'll ever convince her of that -- loading screens, you know.

I really wouldn't call these event as bugs, But they are none the less interesting.

I had a stray walk past my lot and it started attacking the snowman one of my sims just built.


A few hours later on the same lot and after the cat destroyed the snowman. A penguin came and talked to the remains of the snowman. I have seen them talk to a snowman before, But never a destroyed one.

That's really cute, Aaron.

Cher, I'm not sure what the big deal is with loading screens, but I've heard a lot of people complain about them.

SimEm wrote:

I've heard a lot of people complain about them.  

I simply plan on a half-hour load, do it first thing in the morning, find something else to do while it loads, then use Windows-M to minimize the screen when I need to do other things with my 'puter.

Em, I've read that when you load a lot or go to a destination in Sims 3, it takes just as long to get there as it does when you're looking at a loading screen in Sims 2 waiting for your destination to appear, so ... whatever, I guess. They don't bother me, but I've never known anything else.

Aaron, that's very cute. I've never had a stray animal destroy a snowman, nor have I seen a penguin talk to a destroyed one.

@Aaron: I've never seen them talk to a destroyed one, either. I guess he empathized.

I haven't used hot tubs much in my game, but recently I tried having a pregnant femsim use one. Not possible! That's as it should be. Medical advice is that pregnant women (sims or real) shouldn't use hot tubs.

Mac, I merged your post into our SIMply Schmoozin' section, as it's very appropriate subject matter for this thread.

You know, I've never noticed that pregnant Sims can not get into the hot tub.
That's news to me. Interesting!
We are STILL learning about our beloved Sims 2 after a full decade, aren't we?

Sugah was kind enough to let me know that another post about the release of prior Sims games was already shared (sorry slowly but surely getting through the site).  

However, in case you didn't have this one yet, check out http://oceanofgames.com/simulation/  

It has games, other than simulations, but I downloaded the Sims Castaway and Medieval from there.