The Sims 4

Alright, making another new household that would be slightly bigger; two brothers, one aspiring secret agent and the other an aspiring criminal master (Reggie and Cornelius respectively), along with their normal older sister, Cornelius' henchman, and possibly a maid.

Can you guess what the household will be named?

Steel In other news I have no idea how to use a Pot Hole in spoilers.

edited 13th Sep '14 12:03:37 PM by TruthHurts22

Free updates bringing in ghosts, Star Wars costumes, more careers, and most importantly, POOLS!

Color me impressed.

Pools? I bet /r/thesims is freaking out over it. (I'm at school.)

Cue the pictures of Sims swimming in ridiculous outfits.

edited 1st Oct '14 10:41:35 AM by chihuahua0

Huh. Didn't expect any of that to be free. Neat!

It's called "The Sims 4 is unfinished, and EA shoved it out the door too soon."

See:

• Star Wars The Old Republic
• Mass Effect 3
• Battlefield 4

edited 1st Oct '14 3:45:12 PM by AnotherGuy

Well, yeah.

But releasing it free is better than what I expected (which was that if any of this stuff was added, it'd be expansion content)

I'd rather wait another year. Which is why I haven't bought it.

About bloody time.

I understand the attitude to rush for release but it hurts your produce reputation. First impressions count. Even if you do eventually get a patch that fixes everything the public associates your brand to an unfinished product and most likely lost interest.

EA if you're reading this, let's be clear. You're killing yourself. They have been some been some pretty major triple-A disappointments of late as a result of your business practices. You might still be getting your money now in the short-term but this won't last. Your own impatient, short-term greed and excess is going to be your own undoing at this rate. I'm not saying this to be mean out of hatred of your company, I'm seriously terrified you're going to bankrupt your self out of your own incompetence and take a lot of good big budget developers down with you.

You're killing yourself. You're literally walking to the pool and deleting the ladder.

edited 1st Oct '14 4:54:53 PM by joeyjojo

They could just climb out of the pool, if the rules in Sims 3 are the same in Sims 4.

Pools are back, eh? Cool, I guess. I didn't really bother with them too much, preferring to have anti-social gamer geeks who didn't leave the house except to go to work.

Kinda how I am, actually. Play what you know, amirite?

So, there's the majority of us going "alright, nice, good to see pools are back", and one or two of you going "no, Sims 4 is still shit even if they're adding the stuff we want for free".

[attenborough] And here we witness the Ruined Forever trope in the wild. While it is likely that you or I have seen it referenced, or used to mock another's viewpoint, a wild Ruined Forever is a much rarer sight. Isn't it a beauty? [/attenborough]

edited 1st Oct '14 6:02:56 PM by Thnikkafan

Did they add Create-A-Style? How am I supposed to make John Lennon if I can't give him orange-tinted sunglasses?

Ha. Seriously though they are damaging their own brand image by releasing the game in an unfinished state.

EA has gone on record to say that if S Ims 4 undersells they're not making a The Sims 5, but honesty I can't see why people would want to buy it as a full price new release if the current tends continue.

x2 They haven't. And due to the way the game functions, I doubt they ever will.

Don't forget that we aren't the main demographic for this game by a long shot, and the actual demographic probably is content buying it. Especially since, removed content aside (especially since it's going back in), the actual gameplay seems quite good. I've seen videos of it but I haven't actually played it. (And I'm wondering if you haven't, either.)

Don't forget that Vocal Minority is a thing that exists, and that you might well be a part of it.

Anyway, I'm of the opinion that this version of the Sims will be the best once all the content comes out for it. As of right now, sure, it's kind of bare-bones, but once some expansions and more of these content patches put meat on those bones, those bones are going to make for the skeleton of a really good Sims game.

That's fair but remember that they are selling a $60 game here not another $2 mobile app. Quote unquote casual gamers tend to be more conscious with big purchases.

I fully admit to have not playing Sims 4. I dick'd around with earlier games back in the day but found that they weren't really mine thing.

If I did want to get back into the game franchise however I would probably get The Sims 3. It's cheaper and allegedly has better content. It's the same reason why I haven't upgraded from Windows 7 to windows eight. I haven't got any emotional opposition to new version I just haven't found a reason to yet. What few changes they have made to it have allegedly made it worse, so why should anyone buy it not that the original is easily available?

edited 1st Oct '14 8:47:34 PM by joeyjojo

Well, I'd call $60 for a roster upgrade with last year's version being perfectly viable ludicrous, but look how well FIFA does year after year.

Not to mention that the same demographic might not all necessarily know of all that they've removed. I'm sure for some, "being the newest Sims game" is more than enough reason. (For me, "according to Nerd Cubed, the actual gameplay is the best yet" is enough reason, and "college" is the reason I don't have it yet.)

Yet another relatively uncommon trope is on display now: Opinion Myopia. This truly is a fascinating display of opinion tropes we have going on.

And I'm not saying that that means that The Sims 4 is doing exceptionally well. We don't know how well it's doing because EA doesn't release sales figures. I'm just guessing it's doing adequately - not Destiny-levels of sales, but not "no Sims 5" levels.

Also, at this point, I doubt EA, of all things, cares about reputation.

edited 1st Oct '14 9:51:16 PM by Thnikkafan

Never mind.

edited 2nd Oct '14 4:07:45 AM by chihuahua0

Apparently, the old Legacy Challenge is BACK. The original creator of the Legacy Challenge (play ten generations of the same family, with only one heir of the next generation to carry on the torch) redid the rules to work with 4. My wife is starting it now.

I've taken a more casual approach, and decieded to do a hands-off playthrough. Make a bunch of randomly-generated sims, move them into a lot, and... watch what happens. We agreed to modify the rules for that to include being able to command them to fulfil one of their wants in a 24-hour period, since it's stuff they would actually want to do. Other than that, it's hands off. Surprisingly, no one in my household has died yet.

Double-post: New careers will be a welcome addition. I hope they have some more mundane careers, like Medical, Law Enforcement, Slacker and so on.

Slacker is a career now?

It was in Sims 2, IIRC.

It was basically a series of temp jobs.

Slacker pay was crap, but it was pretty chill and all that. Good for casual play. 4 seems to be all about being Over The Top with everything... but I just kinda like having mundane Sims in mundane situations - stuff I can relate to. Don't get me wrong, I like the awesome cool stuff you can do in the game, but I think we need a mix of both.

EDIT: I'm somewhat surprised we still lack a page for Sims 4; it's only mentioned on the Franchise page.

edited 2nd Oct '14 6:29:12 PM by pvtnum11