Okay, I put in a few more hours than I should have last night starting at about 12:01.
Here are some things I learned that people who haven't purchased yet may find interesting:
1. The Sims' bodies themselves are less realistic and more cartoony. This is in exchange for you having more control over the details, and, I presume, less strain on your machine. I actually like this. I don't know if it's an Uncanny Valley thing or what, but I think the Sims are overall more attractive this way.
2. This is absolutely a revert to TS2 in many ways. EA looked at what didn't work in TS3 and axed it. The big one is the open world. Do not be fooled. There are no open neighborhoods; it's all window dressing. Remember in TS2 where sometimes people would walk along your front sidewalk and give you a chance to interact with them without leaving your lot? It's just like that, except your front sidewalk has been expanded to include your entire street and perhaps a jogging path or hiking trail. They try to make it look new with the "neighborhood system," but it's not. It's the old system back again. To be clear, this is not a complaint. I actually think it's better this way. And the load times for moving from lot to lot are extremely short.
3. I have not played a family long enough to study generational issues. That will be today. My take from the game settings and what I've read is that we'll need to move families in, and play them at least long enough to get them jobs and get them pregnant, if we want growing families for neighbors. It appears - and I'm sure someone will be able to confirm/deny this before I do - that the worries of switching households in TS3 are over. If you switch to another family to make them do a few things, when you come back, you don't have to worry about new jobs, ex-fiancees, etc. popping up out of nowhere. Your other family will just wait patiently around for you (but not forever, because they will still age).
3a. I hope someone else can confirm this, too, since it doesn't match what I read on a few other sites, but my take seems to be that in each saved game, both towns age together, regardless of which one you are playing. If this is true, it is one of my favorite improvements. Finally, we'll be able to move parts of families to different towns, if for no reason other than story-telling purposes, and continue to interact with them.
4. Speaking of story-telling, I think I can make a good judgment here, since I am a middle-of-the-road player. Sometimes I powergame, and sometimes I tell stories. The changes from TS3 to TS4 does not ignore powergamers, but they were made by and for storytellers. The emotional system and the reversion to TS2 style neighborhoods both act to add flexibility to the stories you want to tell. I'm sure it won't be long until we have the first Dynasty ruleset in place, but the "Miscellaneous Stories" board is the one that is really going to get a lot of play with this game.
5. On a related note, I love the emotion system. Two things to highlight, both of which relate to what I said directly above. First, as I think Carl already pointed out somewhere, you no longer have to spend all day stacking the appropriate moodlets for your Sim to be prepared to work, school, paint, whatever. Once he or she is in the right mood, you can focus on doing what your Sim wants, not what your Sim "needs" (by "needs," I mean "needs to have a maxed mood"). Second, huge variety of available actions that change according to mood is very fun. My artistic Sim came home from a successful date with her husband in a "Very Flirty" mood, and decided to paint a "Flirty Painting." She wasn't very good, so it looked like stick figures to me, but it was something she was able to channel her flirtatious mood into. There are tons of little things like that. For example, if your Sim is in a Flirty
or Angry mood, they may roll a whim (desire) to take a cold shower to cool off.
6. I am in love with the multitasking. The way they can keep listening to music or watching TV while talking, eating, even walking around, is amazing. They continue to carry on conversations as they sit down or stand up, or walk around the room. A lot of possibilities here.
Anway, long story short is this: This game is very unlike TS3. Parts of it - like the emotional system and the multitasking - are brand new, while other parts - like the lack of story progression and the neighborhoods - are very much reversions to TS2 style. Overall, I am very impressed. I was most skeptical about losing story progression, but we've been given a system that allows us to essentially ignore our neighbors and let them die off if we choose, while putting in a very minimum amount of time keeping the neighborhood populated. That small effort is a small price to pay for not having your best friend's family all turn into 4-star celebrity vampires out of nowhere before abandoning their house and skipping town.
Goat
