Hello, so I am seeing a lot of comments about how TS4 is just a better version of TS2 and doesn't seem like progress from TS3.
I never played TS3 because I didn't think it was worth it and I didn't like the ugly sims, so I am just curious if there is anyone else out there that has never played TS3? Am I really the only one?
It is seeming to me that it is to my benefit that I never played because if TS4 really is just a better version of TS2, then I'm pretty excited.
It does seem like TS3 has some really great features, like the open world that I keep hearing about, and that TS4 is lacking in some pretty critical areas, but I am still seeing a lot of fun and exciting feedback from people.

For those of you that already have the game, did any of you bypass TS3 like me, and how do you like it compared to just TS2?

Hey,

I was actually thinking of asking a similar question. I own both Sims 1 and 2 but never got 3 because during production the team stated it would be a totally different gameplay. Knew from there it wouldn't be for me and the reviews solidified it. I've been so content playing my Sims 2 that I didn't even know that Sims 4 came out till I checked the website today!!! So yeh, I'm wondering if anyone who bought game 4 is like us and went from 2 to 4. I'd really like THEIR opinions. Comparing version 4 to version 3 doesn't mean a thing to me because I have never played 3.

Judging by what I've heard and seen it seems like The Sims 1, 2, and 3 were cut into 10ths, and one of each tenth made it into the game... (aka it's very barebones, with elements from all 3)

I did play TS3, but I stopped as soon as it was blatantly obvious to me that EA does not care about the game, only money. TS2 is my favorite game of all time, and what I've been playing the past few years, and TS4 is DEFINITELY an updated TS2. I wouldn't use the word 'better' just yet, but if we get more content patched in rather than sold separate, it could become a pretty good game. But yeah, just think of it as a high tech TS2.

Could people stop saying this train wreck of a game is like the Sims 2, it's nothing like the Sims 2. I would love a better version of the Sims 2 and would be willing to pay a lot if they ever made such a game, but sims 4 ain't it.

I like the graphics that I've seen on various youtube channels. Only thing I can't stand are those trees that look like they have purple leaves. Are they really purple on your computer screens or is that just some weird effect from video recording?

@OrganicSim - I am the same way, I was totally content to play TS2, and I have it all set up with all of my CC to make it awesome that I wasn't looking for a new Sims game. I just found out on 8/30 that it was coming out 9/2. I was glad I didn't find out sooner! lol

@parrot999 - I like your Odo avatar, and thank you for your reply!

@vampiresam9097 - I have another friend that played TS3 but never got anything more than base game because it wasn't that great. TS2 was just sooo much better than TS1, it's just too bad that EA didn't continue to the trend. I appreciate your response!

Joandsarah, what part of the game have you not liked so far that makes it a train wreck. I don't have it so I have no opinion other than watching videos of it. The baby glitches are creepy. Reminds me of Sims 3 toddler glitches. Oh, and just learned not too long ago there is no toddler stage!

Yea, TS2 is pretty awesome. So even with the cool new Create A Sim features and Build Mode features it doesn't compensate for other things that are lacking... maybe even just a little bit?

TS2 made such a big leap because of the times. It's like Super Mario 64 leap from Super Mario Bros series. It had to make a big leap.

I suggest you read up on TS4 and gather as much info as you can. There are way too many people that love or hate it to just take one opinion on it.

I do think it's a lot like TS2. The only things it is missing are toddlers, NPCs...if it had those things it'd be a advanced TS2.

I agree. I have tried TS3 out but I'm a TS2 player through and through, and TS4 seems like a step down from TS2 to me. I haven't seen anything that would entice me to give up toddlers, family trees, shopping, superior genetics, and routing that doesn't include sims walking through each other.

I don't have it and don't plan to until it's tossed into the bargain bin. I guess I was one who had high hopes when it was first announced as I really liked the look of the new sims, and I wanted to love it, i wanted it to be something I could move onto, but as more and more cuts were announced and finally the no toddlers and object babies were shown I got very disappointed and down right angry. To me they have taken a great series and thrown it down the toilet.

I am firstly a family player and secondly a builder. I don't want to play a family with ugly object babies who are chained to the crib (That's even before I saw the glitches with them- yeeikes!) Or where babies jump out of cribs to become children sims 1 style. I guess I had this little dream that in the fourth installment that babies and toddlers would be fleshed out, not ruined and missing. As a builder I have no terrain tool, no pools, no CFE, no octagon roofs for the octagon rooms and from what I am just gathering, terrible looking terrain paint. I've seen one player already have a sim die from embarrassment after playing for 10 minutes and sims who can't sit still but get up and move around who clip through everything and who even when directed to the toilet decide to leave. I don't think players will be able to get away from those smart phones, so historical hoods are also probably out (I have a full medieval sims 2 hood) I like my sims to be poor and work to gain things like computers. At least the free Sims 2 computer can be easily deleted.
To me it looks like it's taken some of the worst aspects of Sims 1, 2 and 3 but mostly from watching let's play's it feels like sims 3 in an inclosed world. And no i don't care too much for Sims 3. It has some fun stuff, but I find the sims 3 sims to be boring and soulless.

Sims 4 doesn't seem like Sims 2, to me. Maybe Sims 3 players who choose to play Sims 3 either exclusively or over the other games think it's more like Sims 2 than it is like Sims 3. That may be *somewhat* true, but it feels like a different game. It's not Sims 2, or 3, or 1.

On the topic of baby glitches, not everyone is reporting that. I wonder if it's a bug or if it might be related to the graphics card or system that people have?

I never played TS3 and to this day, I have no desire to... When people start talking about "Rabbit Holes" i get lost.

I'm still an avid TS2 player and i'm DYING to play it again. On July 1, i had a massive hard drive failure and i'm still working on recovering my lost data. I'm MOST upset about losing my TS2 game and all the downloads. But i am so eager to load it up and play!

From what i had read in the past, TS4 was supposed to be more like TS2 and that made me very happy. I loved TS2. I like the cartoonish look and i like the clever, goofy, amusing little things. I dont need them to be TOO realistic. And i'm STILL finding things in TS2 that i didn't know existed. Did you know that a sim kid can rub their feet on the carpet and give others a static shock?? I laughed so hard when I saw one of my sim-kids do that to her little brother!

I understand TS4 is kind of bare bones, but that's kind of to be expected. I'm not too worried about pools and cars and neighborhood sizes. I figure, that'll all be worked out with expensive EPs. Annoying, but not unexpected. What DOES concern me is the lack of diversity I'm hearing about. They can clean up a lot of issues, but i'm not sure how they can clean up teens being the same size as young adults, adults and elders. I was hoping we'd get a larger variety of heights... not more 'cookie cutters'.

To me, the BIGGEST thing standing in the way of getting the game is the Origin requirement. You know you cant even get EA to respond to a SIMPLE QUESTION without installing Origin and accepting their Terms of Service, which are intrusive and absurd!? I dont think i should have to surrender my privacy to a company to play a game from a disk i bought. And i dont think they should have the ability to have some nitwit of a mod "suspend" me from playing my games, my property, because they have a bug up their butts.

In the TS1 days, when "Pets" came out, i posted a fake, silly little story about how Betty Newbie was mean to Bob Newbie and that was the last straw... So he ran away from home and turned into a Strays. I said he would walk through my neighborhood, eat out of my trash cans, and pee on my lawn. I got banned for "lying". I'll be damned if i'm gonna pay $80 so some little nit can tell me I cant play my game cuz they disapprove of my imagination.

IF there was a way around their CONTROL FREAK status (i hear they even have restrictions on what you can name your sims!!), i'd probably get the game in about 6 months or so. In the meantime, i'll grind my teeth and keep reading about the game, while trying to decide if i should have bought it!

But no, you're not the only one who skipped TS3. I love TS2 and still play it. Proof's in the pudding, TS2's a better game. They gave up on that how many years ago? And it's still a better game than TS3...

I appreciate all of the replies. I'm glad to know I am not the only one that still loves TS2.

@grinevilly - that's crazy that you got banned for your newbie story. I thought sims were supposed to be all about imagination, plus that's a pretty funny story.

I never played TS3, and now with TS4 out and I am sure there will be expansions, I probably never will.
There are some amazing features, comparatively, in TS4 that TS2 never had - and additionally, there are some that I find problematic, too.


I don't have much to compare it to, but I loved TS2, so much and I think I'm just not a picky gameplayer, because so far I'm really enjoying TS4.

I'm a TS2 player who's never played TS3.

I won't be getting TS4 for a while (not at all, if it's bad), since I have to wait until used copies of it become available. I will no longer support EA financially by buying their products new, mostly because they left TS2 in a very buggy state. I would suggest people consider doing the same, as it's the only way to make these software developers listen.

As for the game itself, I haven't been impressed with the various building aspects I've seen. The new things they are making such a big deal about, such as being able to move a room or an entire house, are nothing more than gimmicks that do not add any new design functionality. Foundations are still there, which means all the issues associated with them regarding split levels, basements and everything else, are probably still there too. I haven't seen any information about what kind of split level stairs will be possible, among other things.
Edit: Nothing wrong with foundations, per se, I just don't like the way they are implemented. The sloped ground thing is what bothers me, and that still appears to be there. It is at the root of most building limitations.

Granted, many of these types of things can be expected with EP's, but the start nevertheless doesn't impress me. It will take at least 2-3 EPs before anyone has a reasonable idea of what will become possible. So, another year or two.

@ScaryRob - yea I read that basements or split level stairs wouldn't be possible in base game. I agree, it will probably take 3 EPs to see if its really worth it.

You are not the only one, but boy are you getting the wrong information. Sims 4 is...pretty much nothing like Sims 2. I play sims 2 still (bought sims 3, played it the first day, hated it, uninstalled it, never touched it again) and have played it since its launch.

Sims 4 is cool enough, but by no means will it be replacing Sims 2, at least not for me. There are things I like about it, but Sims 2 is still far better. I made up my mind to go into this one with an open mind (mostly because my fiancé surprised me with it, and he was so excited, I didn't want to rain on his parade) and I like it as its own game, but...it can't compete with Sims 2. The emotions make it hard to keep your family happy and productive, sims get embarrassed all the time over...nothing? And I have only played one (long) session so far, but I think the Sims on Family 1's lot age while you're playing Family 2... Also gardening is different, skills are harder, school and work promotion and grades are achieved through weird goals (my one kid was a C student and it said she needed to have 4 skills a level 2 or higher to get better grades, etc.) the parties are more involved, and there doesn't seem to be a family tree? Also, the photo albums seems to be where you record memories now, and instead of the longer descriptions of your photos like in Sims 2, you basically get as many characters as a tweet. It definitely isn't suited to my style of gameplay (I like to fill my neighborhoods with lots of families and play legacies and generations with kids, etc) and you can't seem to have more than about 5 households per world, which is insane to me, but with the Sims aging when I'm not playing them...that might be why, I suppose. Their lives won't last as long like in Sims 2 because they will age even when I'm not playing them.

Overall, I like it for more casual gameplay, but I probably won't bother buying any of the expansion packs (unless I see one that is unbelievably awesome) because I don't really see the point. Sims 2 will still be my primary Sims game, because it's still the only one I can play the way I like. I do wish you could travel to neighboring houses and stuff without the load screen and have gourmet cooking and the body shaping options like in Sims 4 in Sims 2 though. That would be wonderful.

I played The Sims 3 until the third expansion (Late Night) and got back to try Seasons (my favorite theme for expansions) and I didn't like it at all starting at the sims/graphics of the game and ending at the open world: my gameplay style is heavily based on families and I though the open world was to demanding and I kept feeling that the focus of the game was never at the houses but at the world as a whole... It's hard to explain but just didn't work out for me... and the world was always empty anyway. Oh and rotational gameplay really felt like a chore. Too messy.

I'm tempted to try it out soon again (especially the build mode) since there are so many people that love the game! I might install some mods as well just to see if it changes a little bit my awful experience with Sims 3. And that's why I'm managing my expectations for Sims 4 pretty carefully: don't want to be to excited.

One thing is sure: for what I saw with let's plays I'm guessing Sims 4 will fit my play style a lot better. Also praying that this time around the development team will "respect" the franchise a lot more. I kept feeling with the Sims 3 a major lack of care and with all the DLC and so on I felt they didn't care about the quality of the game at all.

Is this true?! That's awful!

I don't know if maybe you can unlock more areas later or if they're just going to make us wait for an expansion pack so they can sell us new worlds (that's bogus, money-grabbing crap, and I won't be playing into it if that's the case) or what, but yeah, there are two worlds, and very few spots for homes. Five or six per world, so maybe twelve residences total. I was highly unimpressed.

ETA: I'm going to play with it more today, if I find any ways I missed earlier I'll post to let you know. I'm hoping I just missed....something?

If I'd gone from TS2 straight to TS4, I think I would have liked it more. There were quite a few significant improvements. Better looking sims, better/more facial and body customization, better CAS, much faster loading screens. Yeah, there were a few cuts, though for me no real deal killers (I'm not big into pools or toddlers).

It's the fact that I did get really into TS3 and played it for so long, enjoying all its new features, most notably CASt and the open world, it's why I wasn't so excited for TS4. They cut the best features I loved about TS3. I do feel like maybe I could tolerate the loading screens if they're really as fast as people say, but CASt I think I would miss terribly. I felt its loss very strongly just playing the CAS Demo. I think I will always miss it. In TS3, I use it religiously.

Oh I forgot to say this but I really wish that one feature of the sims 3 makes a comeback for 4: other sims inviting you to parties in their houses. That was sooooo neat!

Response spoilered because pretty irrelevant to OP's original question.