I own Into The Future, but I never installed it yet because I'm honestly just so overwhelmed by looking at the content
Around two years ago I finally "completed" World Adventures stuff and then after that I focused on Island Paradise and mermaids (haven't even touched the resort management). It's incredible how much time you can spend with just one new EP. And I still randomly discover new things from other EPs. I don't even want to imagine how much time I would spend with the Into The Future content

Yeah, Sims 3 expansions were definitely packed with content. In Sims 4 you can go through everything an expansion has to offer in just over a couple hours, then it all becomes boring and redundant as the replay value of it all is minimal :/

Same here, there's a lot of TS3 content I haven't played with yet, and I've got a lot of hours in that game despite being a good three years late to it. Haven't cleared the WA stuff, not touched the resorts either, barely done much with Uni either really. And I don't even own ITF!

Of course, I'd play the game properly more often (rather than just storytelling) if it was a lot faster, but hey, at least the options are there... There really is so much to do.

TS2: Quality
TS3: Quantity
TS4: Ehh.

It would help a lot if they re-released Sims 3 as 64bit. Would have been great to have done it for the Sims' anniversary. Perhaps even as a free download through origin for people who already owned the Sims 3.

That would have made everyone love them again ; -;

But this generation of the franchise will go down in history as the generation of missed opportunities .-.

That is the hammer that hit the nail right on the head!

TS3 has a lot of content... almost too much. Much of it is rushed, shallow, unfocused... but it’s there. It is hard to think of what to add to TS3 because it literally did so much. The problem being that it didn’t do much incredibly well.

Compare to TS2, there isn’t an awful lot going on. It is very direct, but the content on offer is deep, rich, and very rewarding with the need for excessive leveling up systems, endless collections, tired gimmicks, etc.. Just the experience of getting an apartment is a gameplay mechanic. This is paired with household wealth, social class, social groups, and reputation. Compare this TS3 where you move into an apartment and that’s it - everyone spawns on the lot and nothing changes. Compare this to TS4 where an apartment might have problems, but it’s not a universal thing. Once you move out of the crappy apartments, an apartment is effectively a house with the occasional problem neighbor.

I'm still a bit peeved at how badly they botched bands and entertainment in TS3 Late Night/Showtime. Showtime should have been an open system that allowed sims/multiple sims to show whatever skills they had, rather than the three meme tracks that were provided.

I don't know, from how you all are talking, it sounds just about as expected.

I've played another mobile game, Kingdom Hearts Unchained/Union Cross, since day one, and have seen exactly how scummy mobile games are. $15 a week for VIP in-game benefits which even when they are nice still doesn't even begin to justify a $15 a week price point. And then $15 for a single RNG pull (imagine that all of The Sims furnitures and objects were locked behind a similar mechanism.). It's just absurd. (People, and I mean individuals, have spent THOUSANDS of dollars) These are not "micro"transactions, and the games being free to download does not even begin to justify this. It's such a horrendous, never-ending rip-off. I thought EA was bad with The Sims 3 and all of the overpriced content spread out through EPs, SPs, and the Store. "Micro"transaction games make The Sims 3 look saintly, and I know that's hard to imagine. It's an incredibly scary thought.

It sounds like The Sims Mobile is embracing this atrocious money-making scheme whole-heartedly. I'm not even shocked, but I am scared. Scared that this will eventually seep into real console and PC games. Which I know, with EA, it has already began with those things called "loot boxes". The future of gaming isn't looking bright. Oh well, with The Sims 4, EA no longer is making a compelling product to begin with, I suppose.

I miss the old days when stuff packs are just packs of objects. For example, laundry. Laundry was firstly introduce in The Sims 3 Ambitions, then carried on to The Sims 3 Town Life Stuff and The Sims 3 University. The same with hot tubs (First in Late Night then returned in several EPs and one SP). Now in The Sims 4, it only has two hot tubs and three laundry machines and they won't return in future EPs/SPs.

That's one thing I like about The Sims 3. Despite the overpriced store contents, at least some gameplay objects (hot tubs, laundry, photo booths, pool tables, arcade machines, etc) aren't exclusively available in one particular DLC.

I was just thinking about that yesterday. If you don't own Late Night and want jacuzzis, you can get the backyard stuff pack. If you don't have ambitions, you can get laundry with town life stuff. I forget if there is more.

I always thought it was cool, even tho that sounds a little silly lol

lmao. I bought Town Life Stuff because I wanted those expensive washing and dryer machines and hamper. I bought Outdoor Living Stuff because I wanted to add those hot tubs to my collection. Crap I even bought Katy Perry Sweet Treat at 70% off because I wanted that arcade machine, it has a new video animation.

Into The Future has a lot of the content they carried forward. It’s understandable, too. Some things just make sense.

Like, Bunk/Lot Beds. They were introduced in Generations, and started appearing everywhere shortly after. That’s actually a good thing because you can have a variety of bedroom styles beyond Cheap, Traditional, and Castle. There’s Modern, FutureShock, Futuristic, Antique... mood I cannot think of for the life of me. This was better in TS3 because while you can change the style of something entirely, you can’t change the meshes.

I wish EA did more of this.

\

I miss the ability to make everything look like any material I wanted. You could easily make the same mesh work for a kids room looking like bright plastic, a adult's bedroom/living room with a polished wood grain, a rustic/abandoned shack with a rougher raw wood texture, or a futuristic/modern abode with brushed steel or chrome. only one mesh needed. it was infinitely better.

Yeah, TS3 brought a f*ck ton of content, while TS2 offered content with content: but both lacking the verse of other. Both, however, could stand on their feet at least: one them offering in-depth or ton of activities for you to do to break the repetitiveness of the game. Traits offered a lot of character for you to choose for your sims, but personality points had a well-thought system offering precision and depth that sims aren't absolutely the one or the other, but less or more of that thing with the point-scale. TS4 fails to have any of that and just fall flat (people are complaining how all of their sims (regardless of diversive traits) are indentical to one another and how there's little of traits from the available list to choose from). TS2 offered better animation and details with vehicles (but with the con that you cannot own any without an EP), whereas TS3 (althought at expense of details/animation) it at least was packed with cars already in the BASE game. TS4? FX doesn't count as they're just cosmetic objects and not gameplay-affecting. TS2 was deep with although having few LTW they were tied to the deep mechanic known as Aspiration and anything tied to it (wants & fears, influence, sanity/aspiration-meter, ec.), but vice versa with TS3: didn't have much depth, but hey a sh!t ton of Lifetime Wishes and LifetimeRewards to choose from your sim made up for the lost of depth. (Don't have insight how much TS4 stand out regarding that domain, but take that as an example of TS2-TS3 substile difference it has that I was talking about before)

Etc etc etc. My point is, the previous two had at least something to offer for someone but not for everyone, and although I have yet to play and tried out in my life TS1 it can be excused for what it is as it was the first game out there trying out the attempt of bringing a new concept that is of a life simulator. TS4? It's boring when it's back to The Sims series roots.

I actually liked TS2's limited but broad aspirations. Like, if you wish to succeed in a specific career, you just pick fortune, and tie in each career to fortune. This allows the aspiration to be expanded up in future titles. By adding other random aspirations, you sacrifice depth later because content for that aspiration is EP exclusive.

Like, imagine if we get a university pack and the Sims aspires to be knowledgeable. University will give this particular Sims buffs due to various knowledge outlets. When they leave University, since "Knowledge" is a basic aspiration, they can pursue learning elsewhere, even with other packs. When an aspiration it's limited to an expansion, the depth of the aspiration stops at that expansion.

Edit:
Basically, imagine if TS4 only had a limited set of aspirations, and every expansion or game pack catered to each of those aspirations, so as more content rolls out, Sims can explore more of themselves.

Like, in TS4, there's an aspiration for being a friend to animals. Why not just provides buffs for family oriented Sims and let them develop experiences to see if they like animals or not.

Oh I haven't played the game, I don't do mobile or freemium games.

It's just that looking at some of the design choices makes me want to punch whoever made them (not really. I don't punch people. Figuratively speaking)

EA: We hear ya! That's why we are giving away MFP SP.

TheSimSupply just posted his review about the pet SP and I'm honestly surprised. I really enjoy his building videos, but I often feel like he'll praise everything about TS4. I rarely see him complain and if he does then it feels like he covers it up quickly.
But in this new video he's really annoyed by basically everything - the separate childroom set, the tube wall decals, the third child experiment table thingy, the only round glass table that doesn't work as aquarium, the silly adventures of the hamsters etc.
I'm happy about this video It's important that big Youtubers use their influence to inform other people about such things. Not every Sims player visits forums or news sites.
And at the end he even shows how to do recolors

Also, the part at 15:05 where he compares the Cats & Dogs items to the My First Pet Stuff items and starts switching forth and back, and yelling "You can't even tell it's changing! IT LOOKS EXACTLY THE SAME!"

The part where he was saying "You can't even tell it's changing!" was funny. Good to see more influencers being critical.

Let's see how long he will get the Packs for free after that...(just like LGR) cuz EA does not like criticism
But nice to see him (and others?) calling them out on this BS.

This one is also good!

I only trust in LGR. I never like The Sims Supply, Deligracy and the likes. It's good that LGR is still being snarky after EA/Maxis has done with him. And you know, I hate every time I'm done watching his review, some random The Sims 4 videos start flooding in my home feed.

hold on... So they're telling us that they didn't remove anything from the cats and dogs pack to sell later. Wasn't that cat head litter box in the Cats and Dogs trailer? Or one of the teasers for it? I remember pointing it out and complaining about it...

If he’s still a gamechanger after that, I’d be shocked.



Oh, was it now...? TO YOUTUBE!

I'm 99% positive.

EDIT: Oh hey, I guess I'm the 1% turns out it was an equally stupid looking cat face litter box, but it was from the quarterly teaser not an actual cats and dogs teaser.



Sorry about that everyone

but lord doesn't that thing look stupid?

Oh.

I was looking... and looking... lol