I feel the same way. And the funny thing is that the Sims 4 made me feel exactly the same way, even though the view from the window isn't as dead as in Sims 2 and it's occasional passerbys. Even though that Sims 2 video above looks nice, I noticed that my eyes were automatically drawn to the window to see the view and in this case, the lack of it. It does make you feel isolated and not part of the bigger sim world that moves on with story progression. Thought, the enhanced view in Sims 4 didn't really help at all. Those loading screens in 2 and 4... way to kill the immersion.

Oh, and another thing... after trying Sims 4, it felt like moving from tv drama show (sims 3) to a full-fledged sitcom. Sims 4 to me felt like comedy show all the way, including simmies facial expressions and everything they did. It's like their IQ was now on the same level as a cleaning sponge.

This is because you are playing without the 4 GB patch, which all of us dedicated Sims 2 players now use, well those of us who want the game to run well on new machines as well as handle a ton load of cc and mods.



Sims 4 players also put up with loading screens and it's the newest instalment. You hate loading screen, fair enough, I hate sims 3 rabbit holes. You feel trapped on a home lot I felt trapped waiting outside a rabbit hole, so its all perspective. Sims 3 open-world looks nice (and the colour wheel is great I miss that) but it unfortunately made me ill and I'm not the only one so I would rather have a loading screen than feel ill. There are a lot of games that give me motion sickness, it's a real pain.



That's because you are playing without mods, I don't play sims 2 that way because I have it modded. My sims would have arrived back at home a bit after 10pm. I'm sure you have Sims 3 modded to how you like it.



That is not how it works, all sims in the household should have aged.If they didn't you have a glitch. They should only age on the home lot not out at a diner.



Most of us who play sims 2 don't want households we are not playing to age, because we rotate and play all the households. So again perspective, what irritates you is one of the things I love. I hate playable sims ageing if I am not controlling them.



I love playing businesses and having other playable sims buy things from them. When my sim needs groceries they go to my playable store, many of my kids go to my playable school and I have it so nearly everything is run by my playable sims so it feels very connected. I don't want households that I am not currently playing to age or do anything.

We are lucky to have a variety of games to suit us all. You have your open world and constant ageing of all sims, I have all my businesses and sims not ageing or changing until I want them to.

To be fair, both games need a setup of the end user, either so it can run on older modern and other not to lag much because EA didn't implement error catcher or whatever. You can't really critic a game over it, but though for its core implementation (like being infested with bugs, proness to corruption) you can.

It's a small thing but here's the mod that allows someone to Set the Table and Call to Meal. If you have a large house, you might want to start routing sims towards the table just so they all get to the table at about the same time. There are also several mods to slow down how fast sims eat (I'm not sure which one is current because I don't use them).

IMO TS2 is better for more focused gameplay, and is largely playable without significant modding. It's a game about the small moments of life.

TS3 really shines in larger-scale community simulation, and with mods, it really does feel alive.

Because it's open world (I find loading screen between lots immersion-breaking), and it has amazing core features like story progression, Create-A-Style and traits. Sims in TS3 have the most interesting personalities out of all the games in the series IMO. It also runs really well on my PC (I know not everyone has the same experience). Graphics still look really nice (especially environments) and the sound design and soundtrack is top notch.

Motion sickness is serious illness, I understand that, but you don't need to follow your Sim through their way to their destination. You can watch another Sims during that period if you have more then one in your household (which for me is the best feature of open world in Sims 3, possibility to control all of my Sims whenever in the world they are), you can focus straight to their destination and wait there for them, you can just divert your head from the screen and wait till your Sim is in their destination. It's not Sims 3 fault you can't take measures to prevent your sickness.


You can turn aging off and age your Sims manually and unlike in Sims 2, turn aging off will not stop your pregnancy progress. You can set long or epic aging, so Sims will be less likely to age while you play with other families. Or you can download mods which will give you Sims 2 style aging, though I think EA should implement this into Sims 3 natively. You can also turn story progression off, though that feature was bugged in vanilla game. Every player is different and I am actually the kind of player who hated Sims 2 for forcing me to rotational gameplay. I don't want to play for Sims I despise like Don Juan or the Caliente sisters, just so I don't see them around my neighbourhood in my Sims' third generation. And I know for fact I am not the only one annoyed by this as I read a lot of similar comments under a review of Sims 2 from 2004.



Yeah, business model is definitely one thing Sims 2 did better than 3. I wish they implemented this to Sims 3, but I don't know if simulation of such in-game economy wouldn't be too much to handle for the game engine, sadly.


But going to Black and White after Heart Gold and Soul Silver, which I still consider the best Pokémon games so far, felt similarly degressive to me as going from Sims 3 to Sims 4, though not as extremely so, since Black and White were still enjoyable games mostly for their great story, which was worth going through very frustrating XP model in BW.

Yeah. The difference between the games one your Sim disappears out of the screen and the other you're stuck looking at the building (or switch to another Sim that isn't looking. I don't see how that's a con when it applies to TS2 but whatever. Though with TS3, the pros you can explore the world while you're ALL sims are at work.

The open world and story progression as well as customization. I prefer the Sims 2's makeups simply because they appeared "different," more textured and visibly different from one another whereas Sims 3 lipsticks look all the same to me, except for a slight few CC ones. The scenery is quite beautiful too and I love having minor pets. I feel like the EPs really fleshed out the game, minus one or two (lookin' at you Showtime), and made it feel alive and I like that feeling when playing a simulation.

Their semester clocks get desynced, yes, if you send them to a community lot in the Uni neighborhood. (If you send them to a community lot in a different subhood -- say one in a Downtown -- then the semester clock pauses as well, eliminating the desync.) But their ages don't get out of sync because no one ages at Uni in TS2 at all, same as they don't age while on vacation. It works the exact same way as TS3 does when it comes to uni and vacations. The semester clock getting desynced means that some dormmates graduate before others, sure, but in my book that's a good thing because IRL, some people take more time than others to get through a college career. When that happens in my TS2 game, I just make a note and adjust ages manually accordingly, once they're back in the main neighborhood, to reflect that some took longer than others to finish.

Other than that, in a regular neighborhood, Jo is correct that no one ages on community lots. If you're not using a mod, a Sim stays on a community lot for however long they stay. If a Sim stays past 6PM (which is when age increments in TS2) they don't age. If they stay there for days it doesn't matter. When they go home, it will be the same day and time as they left and neither they nor the other household members will have aged. None of them will age until 6PM is reached on the home lot. THAT is basic TS2. I actually don't like this system, which is why I mod it. Either way, it's completely untrue that Sim ages get out of sync by going to community lots. That's not how TS2 works at all. The situation in Uni does not apply universally.



Funny, I can do so just fine. Maybe the majority of people who enjoy TS3 can't, but I don't think it's fair to say that NO ONE who enjoys TS3 can. I'm not even sure that they typically can't. I follow quite a few people on Tumblr who play both games, although it is more typical for people to play both 2 and 4 but not 3. But I imagine that a lot of people who now play 4 exclusively actually moved on from enjoying 3, so I don't even know that it's "typical" that people who've enjoyed an open world can't subsequently enjoy a closed one. Perhaps they appreciate a game that runs smoothly on lower-end computers over the more resource-intensive open world, I don't know.

Me, I appreciate both TS2 and TS3 for their strengths while also bearing in mind each of their weaknesses. For instance, if I want to focus on a single household/family in an already-built world and do the fun things you can do in TS3 but that are completely impossible in TS2 -- Like, say, playing a sea bum Sim who spends all of their time traveling around to all the worlds I have that have dive spots -- then I play TS3. That's the mode I'm in right now, since right now I'm more interested in building in TS2 than in playing it. But if I want to, for instance, organically grow a town from the ground up according to the needs of its population, all of which is created/controlled by me, then TS2 is frankly the ONLY choice. Both of my games are heavily modded to suit my personal preferences and have CC to make the aesthetics what I want them to be. I just choose the right tool for the "job" I'm currently in the mood to do. If I ever decide to try out TS4, I might very well find something I enjoy doing in it, too. Who knows? I see no reason to narrow my choices, personally. If someone else is most comfortable with and enjoys playing one game over the others, it's no skin off my back. You do you, as they say. Just don't make the mistake of thinking that your preferences apply to everyone because that's never true.

The 4 GB patch makes sims 2 use up to 4GB. If we all got only 15 FP we wouldn't be playing it because that would drive me crazy.



I don't use the Sims 2 rabbit hole jobs very much because I'm an integrated hood player. I was talking about how in 3 you go to the grocery store or spa and you wait outside while a meter fills, those rabbit holes. If you have gone through the lovely open world to just sit outside the lot I don't see the point. That to me feels trapped. Playing integrated means playable sims run most things which does mean a ton of loading screens but I am used to them I guess since I've played this game since 2004. The pay off is lively community lots. My spa is player run as is my grocery store, that is more important to me than the open world. I want both, but an open world and all open lots that I can run myself would probably grind most computers to a halt. Plus then I am back to the motion sickness issue.

I think a lot (not all) of us sims 2 players are way more control freaks. We hate sims ageing on us, we hate sims doing stuff without us or for any major change to take place that we don't know of or approve. As for not watching a sim move in a car, I tried not to but when I played it I would click around each sim in the family so it would zoom from say the police station, to the school to whoever was collecting stuff, back to the house. I am guessing long term players probably don't do that? Either that or the movement doesn't bother them.




Well only that you mentioned an issue that is completely fixable with a mod. Some people really like the whole go back in time thing but I've had that modded out for some years now. If my sims leave a comm lot at 10pm they arrive home just after 10pm.

Then this age thing you mention is NOT how the game works at all, so either you have a mod messing things up or a really bad bug. Sims do not age on community lots, doesn't matter if it's owned or unowned if you sleep there or not. They only age at 6pm on the home lot. So that sim sleeping on an owned lot should not have aged at all.



Yes, the uni meter messes up in the uni hood but that isn't connected to ageing but rather class times and semesters. Again this is something I don't use a huge amount of as I have this area of the game highly modded so I play uni for 10 days mostly in the main hood and often it's just a couple of YA in a house by themselves. If the meter gets too messed up I just change how many hours it is to the exam. I have over 2 1/2 thousand mods (that is hacks) so my game doesn't resemble how it came out of the box very much.




You know if you talk about sims 2 we will arrive. Since I saw some things which were not necessarily true like that ageing bug I have to comment.



I am one of those who bought and played Simcity13 early on, so many server issues and space issues ugh. I haven't had that installed in ages.

It's so odd but when I do play sims 4 I find the camera and movement control so hard. I keep hitting the space bar to jump between sims and it doesn't work. Meanwhile, people say sims 2 is hard to manoeuvre and I have no issues at all. I think you just get use to whatever game you play and if you love it enough you mod out all the crap that annoys you the most.

Just on the window view thing and sims 2, your view is however much work you put into it. The one thing that can't be helped too much is the ugly lot imposters. There is a mod that makes lot imposter windows look better and another mod that lets you light them up (but they clash so you can only have one of them) Tiny hood, lots of small houses and ocean and hood view work and you can get nice views, but really it's how much effort you put into it. Sims 3 just gives you the view, I remember that fondly. I've added a couple of my window views. Those are 3 to 2 deco beach cabins on the second picture because we have a lot of sims 3 buildings converted for hood view. I don't use many but some people manage the view that way.

I am a long-time player of Sims 2 and I think when it is properly modded, it is still the best Sims game but I don't have the time & energy to play multiple households anymore (I was on Gen 6 once but my neighborhood got corrupted). Briefly tried Sims 3 but it's too laggy and moved on to Sims 4. After 4 hours, I abandoned 4 because the game is just too dead for me.

So I returned to 3 for good. Playing on and off for the last 4 years.

Am I really the only one who actually prefer Sims 3 style of clothing makeover? At least I've found a mod that allowed to do clothes-shopping from home, which made things easier for me. Maybe it would be different experience with open world, but I still prefer 3 (or more with mods) different clothing styles per category I can freely switch between than having to go to dresser every time I want different clothing style for my Sims, only to find I have to buy the clothing pieces I want first. Sims 2 way may feel more realistic, but there's always thing where it's too much realism in even a simulation game and this was that for me.

I thought you might have a lot of that modded by now. That's good.
I think I last played in about 2012. It never ran well on my computer and I had very little cc and even that looked bad.




It's Sims 3 style that I have it set on...



There are numerous mods allowing you to either buy or get clothes for free at home in sims 2. With the plugin Closet gussy up mod on the sims pie menu, you can get and set clothes on any sim, anywhere. Plus it also allows for facial structure changes and general appearance changes like makeup and hair. One of my favourite mods. I do have playable clothing stores but I don't use them at every age up. Too lazy for that. I often use Monique's computer which lets sims buy just about everything online. Mostly mobile (cell) phones.

Yeah, I think it's the Monique's computer I use for online shopping, not only for clothes, but I am not 100% sure, since I have so many mods for Sims 2 that I am often forgetting what mod do what thing In Sims 3, I admittedly try to keep better watch over my mods, but sometime I too forget what mod added certain thing, which is especially the case with NRaas mods.

yeah... because i know how much i hated 3, i go back and try to give 4 a try every now and then and even though the game has changed a lot since launch i still do not enjoy 4... but hey if they like it i am happy that they are happy but i hope 5 ( if there is a 5) is more like the others! i really did try to give it a chance.....

Eh..because CAST?
I've thought about it: that is one thing that makes me play 3 over and over. Maybe because I don't wanna go back on downloading multiple recolors of the same thing just to have to make things match-y. But that's just me speaking from a builder's perspective..

Yes, I've never understood this complaint. Lots of things in TS2 happened off screen, like all jobs, school, the teenage sneak out, jogging, university classes, the "honeymoon" after a wedding. At least in TS3 you're not stuck staring at your home lot. I agree that community lots felt more organic in TS2, like restaurants and nightclubs. But just like TS3 a lot of these were also improved with expansions and not included in the basegame.

Because I like how I can send one sim to grocery shopping while another sim is on the home lot and other one is in the arcade. Basically I love it how I can have multiple sims all across the town in different locations and I don't need to play any time "twice" all without loading screens.

I love the CAST, I like giving all my sims unique clothes with like colors and patterns that suit their personalities and I don't need to download any recolours (and even with those I do end up repeating the same red shirt for example). There is something about TS3 sims that make me bond with them compared to my TS2 sims. I think it's the traits and ease of customization, since all my sims in TS2 feel the same even if they have different points. I do acknowledge the social interactions are better in TS2 but I have grown tired of two similar sims doing the same things over and over again. I love how there is a slider for skintones, I love how I can make their eyes and hair any colour I want, it just helps make my sims more diverse without needing to download bunch of additional skins or eyes just for different tones and colours (and one thing that has me in slump with TS2 is that I want to change my default skin but then I might need to give up on having as many varied tones I have depending on which skin I want to change into).

I also prefer the skill system in TS3 better, I think it's more fleshed out and more varied and I really like how in TS3 expansions included skills, a thing which wasn't really possible with TS2. The scope on skills feels really limited in TS2 in comparsion. Also gardening is much better in TS3 in my opinion.

I love story progression and how I can just focus on one family and if they have more than one kid I don't need to play with them all to keep their ages synced or them to grow their own families.

It's probably because in the basegame, grocery stores, spas, stores, and restaurants were rabbitholes, and they never really received a 'full' expansion pack that fleshes them out.

Yes, I know that some of these were expanded on via the store and mods as mentioned by nitromon, but they still are a bit janky on the UI- and gameplay-side of things (which made them feel less fulfilling) due to their piecemeal implementation. There was also no OfB expansion that brought everything under one umbrella- so some objects like the pizza oven, teppanyaki grill, and massage tables (umodded) are missing potential community lot gameplay

Simultaneously, unfixed quirks with TS3 meant that if you didn't properly balance your population and community lot counts, you ran into issues of empty community lots. I find that once you get a good balance, the community lots are never really empty- and are really quite fulfilling.

I completely agree, I just wanted to emphasize what nitromon wrote about being off lot = same as a rabbithole.

Honestly, the only things I truly miss when I play TS2 is having a nice background to outdoor photos (which can be fixed with hood deco), on a few occasions CASt (but at the same time TS2 does have a lot more room for details in the textures), and sometimes being able to do photoshoots away from the house without needing to go through a loading screen (mostly because TS2 lot imposters can be really annoying). But I have found a lot of workarounds, and I prefer doing photoshoots with TS2 because it offers a lot more control on lots. I know how the game behaves, know which rules it follows, and I'm comfortable with that. Currently having some pink-flashy problems, but Bodyshop is working like a charm, so at least I get some of my projects done until I figure out what's wrong...

TS3 is a resource hog and back when I did play it, the game kept borking my saves. I guess I have a tendency to just give it up after a while (installing ITTF broke the game on my old laptop, and I never got around to reinstalling, so I went about 4-5 years without playing it). I have installed it on my new laptop, but at the moment I'm struggling to even get the game working properly (floodfill grass for some reason, and I hate that shiny overlay everywhere, and via Origin creates its own set of issues). It's a fun game when it works, but it's a pain to fix because it doesn't "work straight out of the box" like it did on my previous laptop. I have all the EPs for the playability, but gave up a bit on the SPs (I don't have any).

TS4 is... well, it's the game I play when none of the above work properly, which means I've played it a bit more than usual the past year. Basically whenever I get simming abstinences and want to play "a" sims game, but not the one I actually want to play (which is TS2). I got it partly for the purpose of converting CC. I play it for a couple or so hours, and then I get bored, because most of the time it's uneventful and quite uninteresting, and quite frankly offers very little challenge, and either need to be modded to infinity and beyond or needs most of the way too many packs to even be remotely interesting for more than a few hours at a time (in contrast, back when I bought TS2 I played with just NL and Uni for hours at an end until the next pack came out, pretty much every single day - and all the EPs after that added something fun and interesting to the game. I'm still surprised I got any sleep back then... I think TS2 was partly responsible of making me into the night-owl I am today )

I would play TS3 over TS4, even relatively unmodded (except for some annoyance fixes and such) and just for the fun of it, because it does have a lot more fun to offer - but I am a little worried about the resource hogging, and I do prefer when I can save the game and trust that save to work at least 99% of the time (so far, TS2 and a relatively unmodded TS4 are a bit more reliable there, though TS4 has a bucketload of patching issues... ).

I feel the same way with TS4. Sometimes I just want a game that's mildly entertaining, but I don't care much for. I just download basemental drugs and other mods and just goof around in TS4 lol.