I really wanted more from The Sims 4...
I remember when The Sims 4 was officially announced, I was 23 and living with my boyfriend (husband) I was pretty ecstatic at the news that the game franchise I had adored growing up was not over. I felt like the wait drudged on forever, I guess looking up the images EA provided and the trailers and so forth didn’t really help me in the patience department. Thankfully the game was released a year later, at that time I went from just being a girlfriend to being happily married, and my amazing husband ordered the game for me, in fact he ordered the edition that had the light up plumbob, and he also bought me the light up mouse and headphones to go with it! I was like YES! finally I have the game and now I can play it!
I remember seeing people online prior to the release that were talking about “missing features”, and I really didn’t want to believe it or focus on all that, as I am the type who likes to try and not judge games before I buy / try them. I guess as a long time fan of the franchise I really wanted to love this game, and I wasn’t going to let speculations or I guess you could say facts deter me from trying it for myself. Well I remember when I did install the game and I learned quickly it required Origin which honestly I did not and still do not like, and I also remember being utterly shocked that well the speculations and rumors and even facts were well... just that, they were facts, there were no toddlers! and at the time of release there were no pools, and still to this day we are missing tons of key features that I grew up indulging in with the past Sims games.
I am a Simmer who rather enjoys playing the Sims games for the family type aspect, like I really enjoy making a Sim, falling in love, getting married, and having tons of little Simlets *chuckles*, so I guess when I realized that The Sims 4 did not have toddlers like what was in the past Sims games (The Sims 2 and The Sims 3) I was pretty appalled and quite sad to be honest. It’s been two years now and I have all but given up hope of the possibility of toddlers, see to many Simmers today toddlers don’t matter, but typically those individuals are newcomers to the franchise who are so wowed by the graphics in The Sims 4 that they honestly don’t quite realize just how many features they are missing.
I am sort of in a love-hate relationship with The Sims 4, I mean I will admit for the record the graphics are amazing, but that’s just it... The Sims 4 to me I hate to say it is just a pretty shell, oddly I do get some enjoyment from playing at times, but I am still left with an emptiness that only The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 can fulfill. I will openly state that if The Sims 4 developers (EA - Electronic Arts) would come up with a way to add toddlers, and other missing features from the later games like the ability to own and drive your own vehicle I could quite possibly fall madly in love with The Sims 4 with the same amount of love that I had bestowed on the later Sims games. Of course I must say that by now I would have hoped that Seasons and Pets would have been in the base game, also I must say it’s not very realistic for a baby Sim to completely skip the toddler stage and age up to a child, it just doesn’t make any sense, I guess I cannot fathom in my mind for the life of me why EA would think that’s okay to make The Sims 4 with no toddlers! *shaking my head in disbelief*.
Now I don’t hate The Sims 4 perse` but I can’t say that I completely love it, I guess I am just stuck in the middle, I don’t quite know how to feel... It’s odd spending like 16 years growing up on The Sims franchise and watching it progress, and all of a sudden The Sims 4 comes out and instead of progressing, it’s a complete regression. I don’t know why I still play, I think somewhere deep down there is a glimmer of hope, and the kid in me somewhere that loved The Sims wants to see EA actually care enough about the long time fans to implement missing features, and add things that should have been in the base game to begin with, and maybe then I can feel complete again.
Until things are fixed I will continue on feeling incomplete with my feelings towards The Sims 4, talking about it is even an embarrassment and a sore spot for me, in fact I get teary eyed thinking about how far The Sims came and how EA has literally obliterated the franchise all due to their money grubbing ways, I guess I am a little bitter over Maxis selling out to EA. Truth be told The Sims franchise isn’t the first and probably won’t be the last game that EA has bought out and ultimately destroyed, hopefully the poor reception, plummeting sales, and even recent voice actor(s) strike surrounding The Sims 4 game has opened their eyes, but unfortunately I doubt it.