Looking it up, it doesn’t sound like it. Looks to be planned for later this month.
My understanding is that they are making the economy harder and completely removing the government subsidies that small cities get that make them absurdly easy. Other changes include making utility exports less lucrative and roads etc more expensive.
I only played one The Sims many years ago. I wonder if it was the first or second.
It certainly was a good game with good mechanics and content.
I’ve only seen a little bit of how it evolved in videos. I wonder how much EA is reiterating and republishing the same content and mechanics, and how much has evolved and changed? Did the products warrant regular and many releases and DLC?
Each Sims game is quite different. The biggest difference is between Sims 1 and 2 simply due to the change from isometric 2D to 3D graphics. Not the first game in the genre to have 3D graphics and they weren’t even particularly impressive for the time nor good compared to its competitor, but the charming animations and attention to detail make it a far more enjoyable experience than the comparatively sterile predecessor. Sims 2 ended up becoming an evergreen with very long legs, to the point that people are still playing it, although it helped that EA distributed the complete version with all add-ons (the game is older than the term DLC) for free for a while (you can still find it if you know where to look).
Sims 3 was fundamentally different from Sims 2. Gone were the isolated homes of the predecessor (initially in Sims 2, you couldn’t even see your neighbors’ homes unless you were on the map screen; later they added in low-res stand-ins) and instead, it’s an open world game where you can see your Sim commute to work in real-time. Neighbors can be visited without going through a loading screen - it all feels more organic as a result. Customization saw a huge upgrade as well, the AI was improved, etc. Sounds nice in theory, but the problem was that it was too ambitious for PCs of the time. This series has traditionally attracted non-gamers who don’t deeply upgrade their machines all that often and instead play on laptops bought for homework or old rigs inherited from big brothers. Sims 1 ran on a toaster, Sims 2 on a pizza oven with some kind of GPU grafted to it - whereas Sims 3 was one of the most demanding games of its time in order to facilitate gameplay changes that few people actually asked for and rounded, bloated looking Sims that are somewhat offputting. It was still a massive success and a huge hit with modders as well, but Sims 2 remained popular due to its more focused nature, the fact that it ran on anything and the fact that it was complete with a massive library of add-ons that took years to be replicated in Sims 3.
Sims 4 reset the series back to Sims 2, but went too far initially, limiting player freedom in regards to neighborhood creation. Instanced homes returned, customization features and open world of Sims 3 were cut, the AI saw a massive improvements, Sims didn’t all look obese anymore, hardware requirements were modest again - but at the price of having incredibly intrusive DRM, an attempt to monetize the proud modding community and being very bare-bones in the beginning, requiring years of DLCs to reach feature-parity with Sims 2 and 3. IIRC, even pools - an absolutely essential part of Sims lore - were missing initially. All of the improvements to the building mechanics in particular were overshadowed by EA’s corporate nonsense. It’s come a long way since though. Just like with the predecessors, buying all DLC at once will make you poor - but the base game is free now and the actual intention is that you only buy the DLC that have features or items you care about. The modding scene is as vibrant as ever, making any non-feature DLC unnecessary anyway.
This series is an interesting and unique phenomenon. It’s a prime example of something that only ever truly works on PC. All of the many console, mobile and browser spinoffs and ports were nothing but mere blips on the radar, because fundamentally, it can only work on a platform as open as the PC. It primarily attracts female players who rarely play anything else, yet dive deep into modding and modifying every little aspect of these games like the most hardened PC nerds. It started out and still is in many ways a faksimile of ideal American suburbia, although enhanced by both some quite subversive humor and subverted by an astonishing level of player freedom that goes against the conformity of the real world - while at the same time replicating the fads, consumerism, cliques, feuds and other less wholesome aspects of the real world through its behemoth of a community. It’s ultimately a platform for individual creative expression and the worlds (both in-game and outside of it) that emerge as a result of it, a sandbox that was only ever bested by Minecraft, which literally broke everything down to its individual building blocks. Each game and its DLCs become more like car payments to seasoned players, something you pay for so that you can travel where you want to go, which in turn keeps the experience fresh, finances further development and prevents the community from getting stagnant as it has to learn to adapt to changes from the developers.
I’ll end this here. This wasn’t meant to turn into an essay and now my fingers hurt, because I typed all of this nonsense on a touchscreen.
I know multiple women who mainly got themselves a PC to play Sims back in the day and who are now in senior IT roles because once they got the PC they kind of “sticked with it”.
That is something we indeed should thank The Sims for.
Been playing TS4 again, lightly modded to facilitate poly relationships. I’m not a fan of the shit storm of DLC that’s basically the staple of the game’s monetization at this point, but that’s nothing that can’t be solved on the high seas. Otherwise, I still enjoy the series a lot. (Also, shout-out to the various weird spinoffs like Castaways.)
I recently helped another person I know, who is like your daughter, pirate the game with all dlc so they don’t spend even more on the game than they already have.
After I tried Hollow Knight for the 3rd time I finally had the realization that I just don’t like metroidvanias. Tunic, Ori, HK, Guacamelee. Bounced off every single one of them despite wanting to like them. The closest I’ve ever gotten to liking one was Death’s Door, but that took some work to get through. Not really a metroidvania but it sort of feels like one? Ultimately the music and vibe/combat kept me going and you don’t really need to return to locations if you don’t want to, so you can keep marching forward for 90% of the game.
I do like this genre but I had the same experience with hollow knight. I wanted to like it, but something about the way it controlled felt really off to me, and I didn’t enjoy the punishing death mechanics.
For me personally I’ve never liked combining hard challenges with infrequent saves. I don’t mind things to be hard if I’m allowed to get right back to the same spot after, but I don’t like having to get back to the hard thing from far away just to try again.
Not that my opinion matters any more than the next person’s, but I also can’t recommend Celeste enough.
It does so many things so very right.
The pure gameplay is crisp and responsive platforming.
Like any good platfmorer it has some specific mechanics that make it unique, but every one is intuitive enough to pick up easily enough. I have heard it called something like “the hardest platformer that everyone can finish.”
And it is true. I could never finish some of the harder SMB levels but I never got too frustrated with Celeste.
And if I were, there would have been accessibility options to make the game more approachable.
But it also caters to the hardcore crowd with completely optional collectibles that are organically included into the gorgeous level design.
It is speedrunnable for those folks.
And as if that wasn’t enough to make a good platformer it also tells a heartwarming story supported by a beautiful soundtrack.
Sorry I am rambling, but Celeste is fucking awesome.
I’m in the same boat: Hollow Knight frustrated me so much that I never finished it, even though I really liked the lore and the world and the non-boss fights. Celeste on the other hand might be even “harder”, but as you respawn on every screen literally instantly, you can fail and retry hard parts a hundred times until you make it.
I finally tried the first one not long ago and went in super excited. I had the same experience, though… I think for me what caught me off guard the most was how hard it was. I’ve played a lot of platformers and metroidvanias, and I found Ori to be punishingly difficult. The “escape the area” sections were the killers ultimately. The first one in the tree took me dozens of tries, and it turned a very cool and cinematic moment into a frustrating slog that I couldn’t wait to put behind me. I got as far as the next one of these in the ice area and it was even more intense, and finally I just threw in the towel. It’s a shame because there was a lot to like, but the difficulty was a bit too much for my enjoyment.
i think this is what made it unfun, not the difficulty but the fact that you have to die a few times to even see what you’re supposed to do and it was aggravating way early in the game. Also I’m not a fan of the difficulty stemming from the controls being hard to use, like when you’re carrying stuff.
When I was 12 my Mum gave me my first PC, it was a second hand work PC with a tiny HDD.
There wasn’t enough space to install The Sims, so I deleted the Program Files folder, thinking I don’t need any programs, only games.
I bricked my PC lol. Needed a tech to reinstall Windows. Thankfully, I could tell him I needed enough space for the game and he debloated it as much as he could. Legend.
Reminds me of my younger sibling inheriting my first PC - 486 with a 500 MB hard drive that I had assembled from several scrap computers - and trying to install this game to it. It did just about fit and there was even enough RAM (48 MB instead of the minimum 32), but the CPU wasn’t compatible, since the game required the MMX instruction set.
I enjoy the mystery around the galaxy in ME1. I enjoy the interactions in ME2 the most. However it's a TERRIBLE TERRIBLE sequel. ME3.. Honestly It's disappointing compared to what came before, however the multiplayer was some of the best fun I ever had. Then they come out with Andromeda which has some weird retcons or interference with ME3s lore which boggles my mind. Pick a lane Bioware!
Honestly I'd reccomend the original trilogy. After more than 10 years I have learned that if you are super into ME then its best off not digging too deep if you enjoy it! I dont even go into detail pointing out the problems anymore as I dont want to spoil anyones fun! lol
I acutually have many problems with ME3. Some are little things and some are big things. Like I'm not a fan of the click npc and stand around or run in circles while they all talk to each other thing personally. Im much more into the whole chatting thing via the dialogue wheel. (But that's just a preference. I also wish they had kept Mordins original VA)
Most problems in ME3 can be boiled down to a poor framework left in ME2. ME3 starts with you under house arrest after a bit of a time skip. So you are instantly dropped off into a situation that you dont really know whats going on with people around you that you have relationships with that you dont really know. Then instantly its all "we need to save earth".. because reasons.. like I get it.. saving Earth is important.. but it's mostly marketting. "Take Back Earth!". Earth isn't important when it comes to stopping the reapers. Then you have to get to mars because the Prothean Archives are bigger than originally thought (because reasons) and they think there are some plans for a superweapon left by the protehans (maybe?). It's an asspull. The entire crucible thing is just thrown in there because they had nothing set up from the previous games. Don't get me wrong, the writers did great considering they had written themselves into a corner, but it's a hell of a lot worse than it could have been.
The Mass Effect Trilogy will always be known to me as a trilogy that only scratched it's potential. I eagerly wait a remake of the series with a lot of these problems ironed out.
I can’t think of another game that I like so much and enjoy playing so little. I will spend countless hours creating families and houses and then five minutes playing the actual game before I’m like “oh, right, I hate this” and then I start making another family.
The thing that helped me felt very counterintuitive, but I ended up just picking one family member as a ‘main’ character, and letting the rest run on their own.
My instinct is always to try and micro-manage everyone in the household, which gets stressful quickly. If I focus on one person and let the rest just generate their own stories I tend to last a lot longer.
I loved the building, but I find the other half of the gameplay quite boring. Some of the more focused games i thought were a bit better, but it’s been quite some time since I’ve played them.
I loved the building, but I find the other half of the gameplay quite boring.
i would spend hours using cheats to create the perfect house for the sims family and then lose interest within 30 minutes of letting the family do its thing.
i would rinse and repeat with each house becoming more elaborate and strange each time; they should make a game that focuses on that aspect of it more
Have you seen any of the youtube previews of Paralives? I’m very curious if the building in that title will be better. They have a couple features that seem really nice
I absolutely adored the Urbz game for DS. Pretty sure it’s the same game as the GBA version, but it had an added post-game minigame. I loved maxing out friendships and having bonus areas to decorate!
I’ve played Sims 2 and 3, and generally enjoyed them. I think I would have played both a lot more if they hadn’t been prone to such severe performance issues. Especially 3. I was in a better position financially back then, upgrading my PC every 2 years, and somehow even a brand new PC built around gaming performance could not run Sims 3 without severe lagging and stuttering. I tried various mods intended to improve performance, but never really made any headway on the issue. Gave up, haven’t tried Sims 4 because the quantity of DLC is huge and expensive.
I have exactly the same issues with Sims 3. My PC is pretty much as powerful as it’s gonna get but Sims 3 with all the performance tweaks and mods just won’t run properly, it’s downright unplayable. Too bad it’s my favourite Sims.
Does anyone actually buy the Sims games? Like the full game costs a fortune, just sail the high seas, EA shouldn’t get a cent.
While I have gotten fairly proficient with the TV and film high seas, I struggle with games and software, often leaving me uncertain if what I’ve actually downloaded is a virus.
Fair enough, that’s a sense you build up over time with some plunder, or at least it was for me.
If you wanna try Sims 4 I’m using Sims 4 updater by anadius, that gets everything you need and keeps everything up to date (while having less of a footprint than Origin).
My favorite is the Sims 3, and I’ve spent a lot of time on it! It’s a very addicting game for me, but only by spells. I’ll play it every chance I get for a few weeks, then let it sit for a long time. I’ve also played 2 and 4 as well. 2 was good, and 4 was disappointing to me. The overall gameplay wasn’t as good in my opinion, and losing the open world aspect of 3 was a negative too. Add to that the launcher and additional login requirements and I quit playing it fairly quickly.
I think the main reason I like 3 better than the others is because of the open world aspect. I can quickly switch back and forth between two sims at opposite ends of the map, and the world itself feels more real due to not having loading screens. I also like the graphics style a little better, but that’s a minor thing.
The way I normally play is to create a sim, either by picking traits or randomizing, and drop them into the world with a starter house. From there I normally have them get a job or learn a freelance skill to make some money. I generally let my sims find their own friends and spouses by finding who they get along with and going from there. I generally get at least a few generations in before I move on to another game or start over. I rarely do the challenges and things that many people do, but I have done games where I tried to keep a generational line going for a while.
I was really looking forward to both Life by You and Paralives, but the publisher and/or devs of Life by You just blew through their third release date, and have now delayed it indefinitely. So maybe Paralives will be good!
Sims 3 was my favorite for the open world and freelance jobs too. Was nice to be able to secure an income without disappearing off the map for 8 hours a day. Was surprised 4 didn’t follow through on that as much but I only played it a little.
My wife plays Sims with cheats all the time and I get that it becomes a fancy interactive dollhouse in that case, but to me the game is all about that progression from bachelor in a one room box to old family man in a mansion.
That is my primary playstyle in a nutshell! 😂 I really like the painter and writer professions, but I sometimes don’t even go that far! I’ve had sims that have never had a job and have made every simoleon by picking up rocks, playing guitar, and selling random things they found in the dumpsters around town. That’s the great thing about it, you get more freedom to do what you want.
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