"Wot I Think: The Sims 4"
"The Sims sequels are odd things. Normally, you sit down with a new game to see the world expanded, a game made deeper, the stakes raised higher. In this series though, it’s inevitably a clearing of the board, a throwing out of all the really cool stuff and also Katy Perry’s Sweet Treats so that it can be repackaged and resold later on. We all know that’s going to happen. The Sims is as shameless about it as a Lego starter kit composed entirely of lime-green flat pieces. Soon enough, there will be pets, there will be goofy new destinations to visit, there will be a whole array of exciting DLC opportunities to fill your life and credit card statements. The only person apparently not aware that this is more a core to plug stuff into than a full game is whoever decided the ‘Standard Edition’ should be fifty shitting pounds. More for the Digital Deluxe Edition!
"The deal then is essentially this - in exchange for winding back the clock, each new version of The Sims needs to offer a darn good reason for doing so. It’s unrealistic to expect the equivalent of five years worth of additions at launch, even if at this point a few things like cats and dogs do feel like they should be in on Day 1, but there has to be something. Some justification. The Sims 2 for instance saw a full jump into 3D and a strong refining of the original game’s concept now that it was a proven success. That counted. The Sims 3 then dramatically opened up the possibilities, with its open town marking a transition from simply a fancy dollhouse to a living world where your little darlings/minions/victims could collide in endless clever and funny ways.
"The Sims 4... doesn’t have anything close to that level. It has improvements, and we’ll get to those, but in terms of scope and ambition it actually feels like a big step backwards."
And that was as far as I felt the need to read, and jives with pretty much everything else I've been hearing about this game. I'll just say it again, this game might (might) be nice to play in 5-10 years, once all the expansions are out and the whole damn thing has bundled at a much more reasonable price (such as, let's say, for free), but in the meantime, I'm perfectly fine with waiting and playing other, better, more interesting games. Like The Sims 3, for example.
"The deal then is essentially this - in exchange for winding back the clock, each new version of The Sims needs to offer a darn good reason for doing so. It’s unrealistic to expect the equivalent of five years worth of additions at launch, even if at this point a few things like cats and dogs do feel like they should be in on Day 1, but there has to be something. Some justification. The Sims 2 for instance saw a full jump into 3D and a strong refining of the original game’s concept now that it was a proven success. That counted. The Sims 3 then dramatically opened up the possibilities, with its open town marking a transition from simply a fancy dollhouse to a living world where your little darlings/minions/victims could collide in endless clever and funny ways.
"The Sims 4... doesn’t have anything close to that level. It has improvements, and we’ll get to those, but in terms of scope and ambition it actually feels like a big step backwards."
And that was as far as I felt the need to read, and jives with pretty much everything else I've been hearing about this game. I'll just say it again, this game might (might) be nice to play in 5-10 years, once all the expansions are out and the whole damn thing has bundled at a much more reasonable price (such as, let's say, for free), but in the meantime, I'm perfectly fine with waiting and playing other, better, more interesting games. Like The Sims 3, for example.