Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

It's been stated over on the Sims 4 forum that sims players who preferred Sims 2 are enjoying Sims 4, while players who preferred Sims 3 are not. While this is an oversimplification, what is true is that Sims 4 is currently set up for a play style that is a dramatic departure from Sims 3. Sims 4, like Sims 2, encourages rotational game play, where you play multiple households in a neighborhood and manually develop them. Sims 3, by contrast, largely encouraged focusing on one household, with story progression being used to develop the neighborhood as a whole. While you could play multiple households in Sims 3, it was less convenient--things such as saved wishes were lost without the use of mods whenever you switched households. Sims 4 currently does NOT have story progression; it is much more like Sims 2 in that it encourages rotational game play. While it is not required (you have the option of setting other households to age up automatically), if you want other families to get married, have kids, etc, you will need to do this yourself. For some people, this is a big minus. For others, such as myself, it is a plus. I prefer building up an entire neighborhood to focusing on a single family. Ideally, Sims 4 will implement a form of optional story progression so that both play styles are accommodated. That has not yet happened, and it has not been promised, so if story progression is important to you as a player, I recommend sticking with Sims 3 for now. Beyond that, I have been having fun with the game so far. There are some minor bugs that I have encountered, but nothing game breaking. Create a Sim is fantastic--never before has it been easier to create beautiful sims with no custom content. The selection of hair is satisfactory, while I am pleased with the selection of clothing for a base game. Children look amazing; I did not like how they looked in the Sims 3, but in the Sims 4 they're cute, and actually look like miniature versions of their adult selves. Teens are the same height as adults, the only difference being smoother faces and slightly narrower bodies. This I'm less pleased with; it was done to save time, clearly, and the end result is three life stages (teen, young adult, adult) that are visually almost indistinguishable. There are no toddlers; I am sure you have heard this by now. This has disappointed a lot of simmers, and I hope a toddler stage will be added in in the future. Babies cannot be created in CAS. What is also fantastic is the gallery. It has never been easier to grab sims and lots and bring them into your game. I spend a lot of time making my sims, but some people prefer to skip this stage, and with the online gallery it's easy to browse sims and download them into your game without having to exit the game itself. Myself, I'm not big on building, but with the gallery I can browse and download lots and rooms and move on to Live mode. The biggest drawback is the sheer number of downloads that are up in the Gallery. The longer the game is out, the more this will expand, and it makes browsing anything but the most popular downloads difficult. Game play is fun. It's a semi-closed world which means encountering loading screens frequently. The loading screens are fast, at least for me, and not something I mind terribly, but for some players it ruins the immersion. If open world is a deal breaker for you, then I recommend sticking with Sims 3. The "worlds" (which are more like towns) are small, with a limited number of lots. The base game comes with two worlds, and each world has a few community lots, plus a park, plus a number of pre-built houses and a couple empty lots for you to build on. The small number of community lots is probably the biggest downside for me, but it is a base game. For the first time, however, sims can travel back and forth between worlds easily. In Sims 3 you could move to another world, but in so doing you would lose your relationships with any sim that did not move with you. In Sims 4, you can live in Willow Creek, visit Oasis Springs, and then come back, and the relationships that you form in either world remain intact. What this means is that expanding the game will be much easier with the addition of new worlds that cater to specific expansion packs. To sum up, I am enjoying this game, but it suits my play style, which will not be the case for everyone. Before purchasing the game, do your research to see if it seems right for you. If you're on the fence, wait for the price to go down or for a sale, or check in on the game when an expansion or two has come out. For me, it was worth the purchase and I have no regrets.