Sims 4 - First Impressions

[Dellena]

Lucky you.  Amazon hasn't even dispatched mine yet and it's a minimum of two days to get it to the Shetland Isles where I live.  So if it's dispatched tomorrow, I probably won't have it until at least Saturday or even Monday (/cry).

[KhaineGB]

I dunno.

I hate it taunting me with "Preloaded. Available: Sept 5th."

I -have- found a way to get it working though... >_>

[RunAmokSims]

I really would like to get some more play time under my belt but I have formed some first impressions.

I didn't like being ushered into CAS upon opening the game for the first time. I wanted to get right to the map and start to explore.
I didn't like being forced into a tutorial. I'd rather find things out by myself. This needs an optional setting.

The partially open world was fine and I was actually able to go more places than I thought I would be able to. I do think they are a little small though. It could use more open lots.

I didn't experience the clipping that many people are talking about.

I played on two different laptops. An older one with Win7 and a newer one with WIn8.1. The game ran very well on both. On the older laptop the graphics were automatically set on low so there wasn't as much detail but it was still acceptable.

I was actually able to play in a sandbox style....which I didn't think I would be able to do.

While I was a pretty decent builder in TS3 I'm going to need more practice time here. Build mode is a learning experience.

The Sims have some pretty cute actions. Things like dropping the salt shaker into the pan or flipping a frilled cheese out onto the stove are funny. It's the little things.

I was surprised at how well the Sims will take care of themselves. Free will is on and they fed themselves, showered and one even took it upon himself to fix a broken toilet.

Do I think the Sims are remarkably smarter? No. They are smarter than TS3 Sims....which to me that isn't hard to do...but terribly smarter, again, no.

Since I've been testing out intelligence and emotions I haven't gotten into careers or heavily into relationships yet. As far as traits I think the TS4 team missed the boat on this one.  One of my favorite challenges is the asylum one. So to test the game I put 6 Sims in a house together and while they all had different traits they all had the insane trait in common. After three hours of game play I have yet to experience any kind of insane behavior. My Sims with the evil trait also failed to do anything in an evil manner.

What I think the game needs,

I'd like to see ghosts and cemeteries return. In my current game the stove caught fire and I was going to let it burn and see if I could kill off a Sim and I thought "why bother?" if a Sim dies there's no ghost. I do miss them a lot.

In CAS we really do need eyelashes. I didn't think I would miss them and I do.

Am I sorry I bought TS4? No, I think I'll get a lot of play time out of it.

Will I buy EPs or new content?  I'm not sure about that.  I think EA is going to have to up it's game to get me to spend more mooney this time around.

[Alexandra88]

I only played for about an hour last night and there were a few things I liked and didn't like.

I really disliked the camera style.  Again it's the getting used to a new way of doing it but it seems like its going to annoy me to no end.  Haven't quite figured out build mode yet but so far it looks fairly easy.

I liked the emotions and the graphics are super nice compared to past games.  I enjoy multi-tasking at least from what I experienced so far.  My sim was at the library and he was able to research on the computer and make a friend at the same time.  Haven't explored the moods so far but I'm sure I'll know what people are talking about with them collapsing on me.  So only minimum gameplay as of right now but I'm about to go explore some more and see what I like/dislike

[Flynn Arrowstarr]

Having played a few hours (maybe five or six total), here's my thoughts:

Likes

• The Sims in the game look very nice.
• The game runs great at Ultra on my mid-range laptop, including the uncompressed textures.
• The neighborhoods offer nice, "bite-sized sections" to explore.
• Emotions so far seem to be pretty well implemented.
• Animations are smooth, and some are pretty hilarious.

Dislikes

• Scrolling the camera in Edge Scrolling is needlessly hampered by the UI.
• Sometimes, the keyboard shortcuts for setting game speed don't work. Switching from Live to Build/Buy seems to fix this.
• Still can't make Sims with different heights. No freakishly tall or short Sims. *sigh*

This is just what I can think of off the top of my head. I still need to dig deeper into the Create-a-Sim and Build/Buy modes for further analysis. So far, I'm enjoying the game. It really reminds me of The Sims 2 in a good way. Unlike some, I'm finding I don't miss the open worlds as much. I do wish the actual towns were a little bigger with more lot options, but overall, I'm having fun with it.

Flynn

[ladydragon76]

It looks great, and the push-pull and all the details in CAS are fun, but the more I discover the more I am unhappy.  Infants are as useless as ever, and now we have no toddlers.  I knew that was a thing, but I had expected more with the infants to make up for it.  Breastfeeding is pixelled out and all she does is stand there in front of the bassinet.  That CRY! Oh man, that's an obnoxious cry and I can't even click on the infant to see what it needs.  I really wish I could use hexcodes for colors.  We're lacking dishwashers, pools, and just now, trying to go back to my first family file, I find I do not HAVE a first game file.  BOTH families are in the same game, and that first family has been on it's own, doing it's own thing without me for a sim week, and I can't go back to them where I left them.

I think I'm going to go and play my Sims 3 for a while.  4 is interesting in a lot of ways, but irksome in many more that I keep tripping over. I really don't like this load screen thing and not being able to roam around the world. (I never played 2).  I don't know.  Right now, I'm really kind of kicking myself for having spent $60+ on this game, and I've never regretted spending money on Sims 3 stuff, not once.  I'm pretty disappointed.

Over all?  meh, 3.5 out of 10.  How can I possibly be bored with a brand new game I've had for only 36 hours.

[EleLL]

You might want to turn off aging for all but the active household then. I did that this morning when I left my current family to go to the Pancakes and have them get pregnant. There just weren't enough kids roaming around for my taste  Now I am playing my family again and I'll go through and age up the kids as I need to after mine has aged up.

Infants will tell you what's wrong if you pay attention to your notifications at the top right. It will say they are hungry, or if they aren't, the Change Diaper becomes Change Dirty Diaper when it needs changing.

[kymber13]

kymber13 - To travel off of your lot to World View, click on your Phone Icon to the left of your Portrait Bar and choose "Travel" or "Travel With" if you want to take other people from your lot with you.

Thank you, jillz!!

[jillz]

We're lacking dishwashers

Just an FYI - you can drag/drop dirty dishes to the sink or trashcan. There's no need for dishwashers or for your Sims to clean up after themselves. You can actually do this in Sims 3 as well.

[Mack]

Have been playing for two days now.

Dislike very much:
1.      My game has crashed once so far.
2.      Camera. How many of us are expert in using the mouse and keyboard at the same time? (Check your Sims when he is at the computer) Not me. I am right handed, my right hand uses the mouse and my left holds my coffee cup because that is about all my left hand is good at. I tried to use the . an , keys but I keep hitting the the ? key.  Hopeless. And don't get me going about rotating to the left or right. I always end up behind the UI.
3.     Tutorial. Arg!!! go away I am playing here! Ok. definitively need an option to turn it off if one chooses. If I want to know something. I will look up the lessons.
4.    Selling your produces/plants etc... one kind at a time and only through the inventory. So far, I figured out how to sell all of one kind.   We need a place or a way to sell in "bulk".
5.     My kid Sims could not play/visit with the Dinosaur in the "non accessible" neighborhood with the nice buildings, things and decors.
6.     During building, if you are holding an object and trying to "rotate" (we are back at this again), all you accomplish is rotating the object. You need to let go of the object, rotate, and start over again. Very time consuming.

Dislike with positive attitude:

1.      If you put down an already furnished room and you start moving walls, some objects disappears. I am not sure if I was refunded for these objects as I did not expect this. The guru's video gave me the impression that everything re-position itself. I suppose there is a sequential way of building a home. I have very little experience so far. I am sure I only need to practice.
2.    Load time to go somewhere and load time to come back home. On my computer 20 to 30 seconds. Cuts your train of thought. I don't like separate venues. Plus the Sims left at home cannot be controlled. You are stuck with the Sims who has gone to a venue. I am pretty sure my gardener at home will not tend the garden as I can not command her to do so. I am aware that I can control my Sims at work by clicking on the tiny thingy at the top right of his picture. Perhaps I can control my "non active" Sims as well. but I don't recall seeing a little thingy.
3.     Career. Nice and interesting but not enough of them. It feels that everyone on your street is a writer or a cook.  I am hoping for a grocer or florist in the future expansion since produces, flowers and fishes are a big part of the game. Or a lawyer/notary for Sims that want a divorce, change name, wills etc. Again I have just been playing for a couple of days. I need to explore more.
4.    5 queue only. Not enough and weird the way it changes place. Still a lot to learn and manage how to here.

Like

1. The funny walk when a Sims has to pee. And all the other little things while their cooking. Very entertaining.
2. Aspiration, Emotions, Multitasking. Weird but fun. Wow I am impressed. I have just scratched the surface and I am having a ball. Lot to learn and keep you interested here.
3. Hidden world to visit and explore.
4. Friends that visit or call to hang out with your Sims and show up.
5. Kids and babies. I think there is a bug with babies. I could not see her in her crib and when mom fed her she was "deformed".   But I still hope we will have toddler soon.
6. CAS. Dressing Sims from head to toe in one go. Love love love it. No need to have a Sims go to the mirror to change hair, hat etc... One for all and all for one. 

That's it. Many of us seems to like and dislike the same things. I hope someone at Maxis is doing a follow up by reading  this forum and considered our opinions in the planning of future expansions. Right now I am on the fence with this game. But, I will not jump to conclusion. I will allow myself a good six months of play. Then I will come back to this post and reassess the game.
 

[Twinmum]

yay, it's here.
I've been playing for a little bit and love what I have seen so far! Controls are a littlle different and will need a bit of time to get used to. It also took me a while to work out there is no map view as such, you just need to select travel to bring up the map.
I haven't even looked at build mode yet. I have decided to make myself play in live mode for at least a sim week before opening up the build area (it's a struggle, but I think I can do it lol)
I've picked up a few things from digging. The fossils have to be taken home it seems, before you can extract whatever is inside. I also found a time capsule which produced a Yuki statue and I also found a treasure map which is no longer in my inventory so it must have just opened up something on the map (need to check that!)

mmm, just checked and nothing new on the map view. Maybe I need to do something else to use it. Would love to hear if anyone else has one and what can be done with it.

OK, enough, back to the game :-)

[kellie13]

Overall I'm enjoying the game. Love the interactions and personalities of the sims; they are fun to watch. Probably mistakenly, I thought we would have the loading screens when we left the neighborhood, not the lot, so finding out that we can't leave our lot (or at least the immediate vicinity) without the loading screen was a bit disappointing. Socializing is much easier and I'm enjoying that. My biggest issue is that the baby is a deformed alien and, according to the Sims Forum, there may never be a fix. I tried switching my graphics processor setting from Intel to Nvidia per the instructions on the forum, but I still have an alien. Correction: *had* an alien. I had to age him up; he was way to scary. Sad that I may always have to play that way.   

[jillz]

I've picked up a few things from digging. The fossils have to be taken home it seems, before you can extract whatever is inside. I also found a time capsule which produced a Yuki statue and I also found a treasure map which is no longer in my inventory so it must have just opened up something on the map (need to check that!)

I think if you do use a treasure map, a time capsule is always the result (not 100% sure that using the map always yields a time capsule, but I'm pretty sure this is the case)

If you don't use a treasure map, the outcroppings yield gemstones, fossils and sometimes time capsules that have collectible things in them (like your Yuki statue).

There's nothing else you can do with the map other than "Dig for Treasure" - at least that I have discovered.

And YAY you got the game! *flailing muppet dance for you*

[jillz]

Dislike with positive attitude:
1.      If you put down an already furnished room and you start moving walls, some objects disappears. I am not sure if I was refunded for these objects as I did not expect this. The guru's video gave me the impression that everything re-position itself. I suppose there is a sequential way of building a home. I have very little experience so far. I am sure I only need to practice.

When you are putting down already furnished room or moving walls etc. anything that is going to be removed, gets highlighted in YELLOW. Those things are either put into your Family Inventory or refunded in the case of building items.

[CodePink]

I like it. I am running it on my laptop so the graphics quality is way down and the loading times are a bit slow but thats just because of my laptop. I think that not having an open world makes the game run WAY smoother. No lag at all. And the new camera controls just take getting used to. I will admit I was kind of disappointed at how little community lots there were and that you can't add more.
I created my own sim making it look the way I wanted. There are lots of different colour options but I still miss CASt.
The emotions are fun. And that have some really cute actions for thing. My sim really had to pee so as she walked to the bathroom her legs were crossed because she was holding it in. Another cute one was when my sim ask a girl to be her girlfriend and when she said yes they took a picture together.
Overall I like that it is a completely different set up from TS3. It gives you a chance to relearn the game and change your strategies for accomplishing certain things.