Is anyone else finding this game more difficult than Sims 2&3? I haven't had to work this hard at making friends, gaining skills and keeping my Sims green in a long while. I usually play households of 8 and just 4 are keeping me hopping at the moment (and I've kachinged more than a few times).

It just seems like the skills take much longer to learn and friends are much harder to make. Even things like upgrading take a lot of work because you have to find the parts to fix things with. Also, nothing is free in this version of the game. Even painting a picture costs money.

I'm not complaining. I like the challenge. Just wondering if anyone else had noticed a difference.

I think it is more difficult to get promotions, but that's it. Skills seem to be too easy and it is much easier to keep them happy than it was in sims 2.

Skills are definitely easy to get in my experience. At one point, I left most of my sims alone and was only controlling the one for about 3 sim-days. The others all managed to skill up on their own at least 2-3 skill points each.