Picking it back up at the bookstore...
I ranted too long to make sense of the last post's title, which referenced going to the bookstore.
Yes. The bookstore in Sunset Valley in THE SIMS 3.
I was so disillusioned by TS4's newest and brightest crap that I said to myself, "What the hell! Let's open TS3 and see what I can do there!"
Dudes. Do you know they have a COLOUR WHEEL?? For like, EVERYTHING???
And do you remember that sims can literally travel down a street and go to the bookstore WITH NO LOADING SCREENS?
And do you remember CARS???? * faints *
Seriously, while the game takes longer to load on the front end, while EA has lost the fact that I do actually own some more worlds and store stuff than what they give me credit for, and while I don't have ALL the stuff I DO still "own" turned on to keep "performance" specs up (not even sure that's needed on this machine, but what-evs)...
This. Game. Is. Fabulous.
And it's HARDER. I have a much harder time keeping ONE SIM fully up on all their needs than I do in TS4. And I LIKE that. Seriously, TS4 is so easy. It's too easy to make money, too easy to keep everyone happy all the time, too easy to advance at work...
Maybe I'm just a freakin' good player and other folks may find it harder in TS4, for whatever reason. I mean, I'm a bit of a perfectionist and I've been playing "perfect lives" sims since the day TS2 came out... so there's that. ;) They don't call me "The Controller" for nuthin'!!!
But honestly, I found this more challenging. I decided to create a single sim, get them into a house they could afford at first, get them a career, and make it to the top of that career (it was a life wish to become CEO... which I did. :) ). Let's call her Rita - since that's her name. ;)
Oh, the things that broke and clogged and rotted! Oh, the horrible (but funny!) bad passes that Thornton Wolfe (the boss!) made to my poor sim! Oh, the fun in the park on days off of work, and the meetings Rita had to squish into times when she was not working and also not dying - just for that one... last... promotion...
It was fun. I even re-built Rita's house, and bought her some better stuff and let her learn handiness and a bit of fishing and painting...
I could pick an outfit - shirt with sweater-vest and belt, skirt, and shoes - and COLOUR COORDINATE them! I could make her doors match her windows and her walls coordinate with the carpet and the sheets match the bedspread...
I know it's been a few years since I've played, so I'm a bit rusty, BUT - - - I found it more challenging to keep one single sim going and really happy in TS3 than raising an entire family (mom, dad, 2 kids) in TS4. So there's that.
Sure, the sims walk around like they have sticks up their butts (a long-time pet peeve of mine re: the TS3 sims LOL) and the UI is old-fashioned and the build-mode tools are SO much less than what we have now in TS4. But to be honest, I found the UI to be direct, precise, and intuitive. While I re-built her a house and was AGHAST that I could not lower the roof more than "X" amount, I really didn't care, because it was the GAMEPLAY that was really engaging me again.
Rita made it to the top of her career (apparently, Level 8 was the top back then!) which was yesterday in my time. I'm going to start another sim off in Sunset Valley with a new goal. Maybe even make a couple! Kick it up a notch, look after TWO sims and get them to the top of their careers as fast as I can, or their lifetime wishes fulfilled or whatever. Maybe they will be Rita's neighbours! Wouldn't that be cool? Since there are no loading screens?????
Sims 5 needs to be better. With offerings coming our way like "Life by You" and "Paralives", they seriously have to up their game at EA with this genre. I'm rather doubtful that I will buy ANY more EA kits, packs, or EP's for TS4. I will dip back into my currently-working family now and then to keep them going and make a few more TS4 memories, but they have strung this thing out far too long and it's at the point where they will lose players to the boredom and mediocrity that they are currently asking money for. It's time to move on to the new and better stuff.
As for me, I'm moving back to old and better stuff and finding the joy there once again. My TS3 adventures will continue while I wait the rest out. I have pre-ordered Life by You, and I'm following the progress of Paralives. I'm dabbling pretty much daily in Disney Dreamlight Valley, and I have tons of those crazy little casual games that keep me entertained when my brain is too taxed to decide what to do next with my little sims' live. ;) Sad to say, I don't need or want TS4 to be part of my evening entertainment on a daily basis anymore.
Nothing has been as funny or quirky as TS2 since TS2. Nothing has been as open - both in world terms and in creative/pattern/colour terms - as TS3 since TS3. TS4 started on a flat note (no pools and no toddlers) and has tried to play catch-up ever since. NINE YEARS of catching up. And I'm feeling, sorry to say, that they've not actually succeeded in catching up.
Honestly, I'm just not that invested anymore. I'm hoping that new games will bring back that old TS2 "oh-my-gosh-this-is-so-cool-and-fun" thing for me, but I will wait and see. Maybe I'm just done with life simulation games. But maybe - just maybe - Rod Humble/Paradox or Alex/Paralives People will surprise me. Maybe they have something up their sleeves that will delight life sim fans all over again.
Remember that crazy gold helmet you could get in TS2 to wear when you learned stuff to make you learn faster? But if you used it too long, it could make you die?
Yeah. Quirks like that. Silly things that make no real sense, but give you a laugh - or even a game-based panic-attack where you have to quit without saving... that's the kind of thing I want. I don't need reality TV in a sims game. I need more of a "are you kidding me, you want to do WHAT right now???" kind of a game. Something that gives me a laugh, lets me be creative when I feel the urge, lets me escape from some of the harsher realities of life, and lets me control virtual little people to the Nth degree, because I can't do that in real life and doing it in virtuality is OK.😛
That's it. That's all I have to say about it for the moment. If I get the urge again, I'll be sure to post. Ha! Love to all!