There's a more rural area that doesn't have much going on.

For me, The Sims 4 has reached a state where it has become unplayable, both for myself and many other Simmers. Although I use numerous mods to fix the game, there are now issues that modders cannot resolve, and I doubt EA will address these bugs either. I’ve included links to various bug threads, where you can see that some of these problems have persisted for years.

Unfortunately, the For Rent pack introduced numerous issues with ongoing save games, and after the latest patches, save files have become corrupt to the point of being irreparable. I’ve been playing rotationally in the same save for seven years, and despite all the backups I’ve made, it’s now impossible to continue playing at the current patch level with all expansions installed.

One major issue affects apartments, residential rentals, and dormitories. When playing on these lots, litter, food, and other items multiply and accumulate in the neighborhoods. These items cannot be deleted, even with cheats, the T.O.O.L. mod, or MCCC:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Repor...er/td-p/7123323

There is a workaround using Sims 4 Studio to clean up lots individually, but it is not 100% effective and is extremely time-consuming.

Another related issue is described here:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Repor...r/td-p/14193914

And here:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Repor...ls/td-p/7811392

Additionally, there is a save-corrupting bug that occurs when all expansion packs are installed and every world is filled with lots. In such cases, unplayed lots revert to their default state, disappear, or cause error codes 800/801:
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Repor...01/td-p/4620279
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Repor...s/td-p/10533991

I’ve encountered this bug as well. To work around it, I’ve had to delete all lots in some worlds, but honestly, that defeats the purpose. Why release so many worlds if the game cannot handle them properly?

To sum it all up, I’ve given up. And I’m someone who actively looks for solutions—whether through mods or third-party programs to repair the game. But at this point, the game is so broken that I don’t feel it’s safe to start a new save or attempt to play, knowing that undeletable items will corrupt the save even further.

I refuse to buy anything new EA releases for the Sims 4. I haven't bought anything since For Rent. With these issues persisting, I'm not about to change my view. It's less about "making a point" now and more about keeping my game from breaking.

This is such a wise decision. I could kick myself for getting For Rent and updating to the latest patches.

I still keep on top of the patches. At least only mods risk getting broken by those, not the game itself. "Knock on wood."

This new event in my game crashes. I don't even know what it's about or how to play it. The UI is mucked up. I can't play it (not that I care). This is the first time an event has done this to me. It's obviously a mod that is messing with it, but which one I don't know. If I cared I'd do the 50/50 eliminate thing to find the culprit. But I don't care. I'm glad the mod is mucking it up - ha, ha, ha. The mod isn't causing me any other problems (at least I don't think so. Other parts of my game seems to play well enough, at least for now - that is, until the next mod-breaking update.) But with the event not functioning, I can't earn any giveaways. But who cares. I don't. Ha, ha, ha.

If the UI is messed up that's probably due to an unpatched UI mod. Do you have the UI Cheats Extension? If so, you should remove it ASAP. UI bugs sometimes stick. I had to fix relationships with MC Command Center once due to a relation UI bug. I'd recommend getting the Better Exceptions mod by TwistedMaxi. It helps a lot in finding mod issues.

The only thing I like about these events are that they help flesh out the very barren base game with new items, and giving us recolors of things we don’t have many of.

Yes. It actually turned out to be the UI Cheats Extension. When I updated it, everything went back to normal.

EA is having another sale on Steam. It's been more than a week from the last one. Are they losing momentum?

Stuff is always on sale at this point. They're trying to cash in on the holiday like any other business.

Yes, but EA beating everybody else to the Christmas sale in order to get to the players' money first is so typically greedy it is almost comical.

I don't know, maybe.

I'm not defending them, but in my neck of the woods, "Black Friday" sales were happening a week before Black Friday both online and with brick and mortar stores. I won't start about all the "sales" of fake Christmas trees and decor that have been going on since September. It feels like Christmas should have come and be gone by now.

Exactly. We imported Black Friday years ago and Christmas has never been the same after that. Nostalgia.

P.S.: I had to google "brick and mortar stores". Never came across the phrase before but I thought it was unlikely that you were talking about shops selling brick and mortar.

I honestly do not understand the rationale about not pursuing a Sims 5.

For all of the tawk about minding current Sims 4 players and the $1000+ of DLC in their game libraries, there has never been less hype for the Sims as a series.

I personally think that they are trying to figure out TS5, but the dev team are unable to develop anything that EA would greenlight.

The formula for a winning TS5 is easy- take TS3 + stability + quality of life features/more customization + an actual art direction like TS4; but once you start adding demands like online gameplay, mulitplayer, more monetization, etc. it likely becomes an uncompelling mess.

Hence 'games' like Project Rene, which seems as appealing as toast water.

EA would want the Sims 4 to be some interconnected multiplayer game with a lot of microtransactions and live service support. The Sims 4 isn't built for this. Project Renee doesn't even look appealing.

I'm grateful to have experienced a monumental moment in time where a company would delivery a product and probably produce a spin-off or expansion packs post launch. Even though it was for profit, it never felt like desperation of greed as a consumer (at least not the extent is does now).

Fully agree. I just don't think modern Maxis have the capability or technical wherewithal to deliver a true, groundbreaking iteration we could remotely consider calling Sims 5.

In the most part, these last ten years, and the few years prior when TS4 was in development, their workforce consists mostly of CC creators brought into the big leagues and are without a true clue. Don't get me wrong, CC creators can, and do, work wonders when left to their own devices. You, yourself, know well about this. But bring them into the fold, give them a job with EA, and in the end, what you get is TS4. Not The (OG) Sims. Not TS2. Not TS3. What you get is TS4. And what you don't get is TS5.

If they loved and cared for the franchise, we may as well would have gotten TS5. But alias - minimal work and fast buck is what lead us to The Sims Forever, Renee and other crappy projects that I can’t be bother looking up as it doesn’t interest me in the slighted (something about dimming players or more ways to dress dollies and build houses, which is ironic it was Will Wright ideas at the start when controlling SIMS is what lead it to succeess in the first game. Hell, The Sims Mobile and online compotents would have worked very least if they weren’t thinking about money rather than player experience. Greed and corporate capitalism ruins everything.

But its whatever. My desire to sim is slowly diminishing and that opens for me to look for other things that could bring me joy in life. I could for all I know be sipping juice, do something else all while showing the finger to EA has they already lose me as a consumer as I gotten tired waiting for a better consumer. It’s their lose, not mine. They gonna make The Sims irrelevant at some if they keep up releasing mediocore products

I’m expecting the roadmap to be announced tomorrow. Simmers got a magazine thing in the mail and they’re expecting a vacation style expansion pack.

Being honest, I can see us getting a Hotels & Resorts type pack, with 3 new vacation neighborhoods to visit or build a resort and adjoining amenities on. One could be beach side, another in the countryside in the woods, and one in the desert.

—————

Something I’m very surprised we haven’t gotten has been fashion shows and catwalks. It seems like an interesting enough idea to execute on.

Using the new drafting table and sewing machine, design and curate a collections based on requested themes to show off at a fashion show and sell to clientele. Build and design elaborate catwalks to showcase new looks for Sims. Hire Sims to model looks and sell new designs. Showcase looks on catwalks, or photograph them for magazines or billboards.

All of the clothing is tagged and color-flagged, so I can see us getting a “Nautical” theme where we have to create 3 women’s swimsuits with the colors blue, or a “Nightmare” challenge to create 5 goth sleepwear looks with the color black.

Build mode would feature generic green room stuff (vanity, clothing rack), a folding chair for guests and a catwalk object models will walk on. Props are a collection of items used to create a variety of scenes, like tiled floors, large columns, overgrowth, trash, candelabras - random stuff.

Fashion shows are an event like anything else, so sims can ordered to mingle, eat, drink, or watch the show. Catwalks come in 3 lengths which models will walk down them back up. If chairs are available, Sims will watch.

Some content has leaked: 3 new kits (yay) coming next week.

1 Collab Kit with Lilsimsie
2 Hybrid Kits with CAS and Build Buy

The “gamer desk” collab will probably be cute, but if the gaming PC doesn’t function like the streamer gaming PCs from HSY, that would be disappointing.

I assume the CAS kits aren’t selling as well as Build Kits so they merged the two. Truth be told, there’s more you can do with build buy than you can with CAS.

There’s another Men’s kit, which I assume is to make up for the DREADFUL Modern Men’s Fashion Kit. A “man cave” sound lackluster without the inclusion of games but we’ll see.

The draw of the secret sanctuary kit is the bookcase door, which would be appealing if the base game did not have two lol

three new kits, meh. not a great way to start 2025

Kits are nice for consoler players but not so much for PC gamers as there is a ton of cc items out there which is free. Also with every new kit/pack the game gets more unstable.
At the moment there are too many save game breaking bugs so I have to wait until EA releases a patch that solves these issues. I've lost a five year ongoing save due to the latest patches and especially because of the For Rent residential lot types.

So, as of now, I don't want to risk anything again and just wait for a patch or a modder to fix the game. Then I just play in offline mode and won't "clutter" this broken engine with new content or patches ever again.

There's two hidden book shelf doors in the base game? I've only see one and that one is locked behind the author career.

That said, I'm not at all interested in getting more stuff to this already bloated game. I'll be forever grateful I held out on getting For Rent. That pack seems to have irreparably broken the game, and I'm happy to not have it. I don't wanna spend any more money on Sims 4 until they fix the game.

There are two - one is traditional and one is modern.

It’s weird the only things that leaked were the board game and 3 kits. Being that this is a massive 25th anniversary celebration of the Sims, I’m hoping the game gets some iconic MISSING content added back into the game.

If I could make some useless suggestions…
- Burglar NPC + Burglar Alarm
- Pool Table
- Flamingo Wall Lamp
- Romantic Hot Tub (SOMEHOW missing from Lovestruck)
- Diving Board
- Dance Sphere