Whoops
Last night while Will and I were having a date night, he had Steam open before we launched Spiritfarer, there was an advert for The Sims 4 with the Cats & Dogs expansion for 80% off. Will pointed out that it would actually make good financial sense for me to get the game now, even if I wasn’t ready to play it yet. And thus begins the tale of how I spent last night on The Sims 4.
Don’t worry, I am still playing The Sims 3, I absolutely love it, it’s a nice chill game that I treat myself to in phases. But I have officially started 4. Screenshots ahoy, and I’ll talk about some differences further down.
I find it hard to make my own face in things like The Sims because I think I might actually have trouble picturing my own face. Bitmoji uses a selfie so you’re less likely to go wrong, but with The Sims it’s like, uh I think my features are that far apart? etc.
But yes clearly my ideal version of myself is thin and goes around in flowy skirts and crop tops.
Here is my Sphynx cat, he’s named Goblin and he’s dressed as a taco.
He likes to sit in our food.
The Letti living room, reimagined.
Tried building the same house, got the game room a bit wider this time, but the hall is maybe TOO wide now.
Of course after building the garage, I found out there are no vehicles on lots in The Sims 4, so a garage is useless. I made it into extra bedrooms, since I created 3 young adult kids for us.
I’m not sure quite how the roof has gone wrong, but I feel that it has.
And now the cat is on the fucking fridge!
My Sims 3 cats don’t do this to me.
This is Zosma and she’s beautiful but a bit weird.
Why are you on the kitchen floor. This is Bassoon and he’s a Bernese Mountain Dog. They didn’t seem to have a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, which I prefer a bit in real life.
Oh yeah, when I was making our lot I made it a haunted house. Why? Apparently because I’ve lost my mind, but it’s certainly been interesting so far.
A sit-down conversation with a ghost. The ghost reminds me of Lyndon a bit actually.
Apparently it’s normal for your unattended dog to fuck off around town.
“SHE’S COMING FOR YOU!” . . . getting a bit Phasmo over here.
Will fell asleep in the bath. He wasn’t even tired. I somehow made him look more like his brother Edward than actually like Will, I’m not sure how I went wrong.
A nice place where I built my haunted house.
Despite having actually met and talked to the ghost, we all get randomly terrified from slight noises sometimes.
I am actually very inspired by this dog bed, might try and make something like it one day. Stuff the inside with old duvets and pillows and *chef’s kiss*.
My son’s weird nightmare.
My bewildered smile after being screamed at in terror by my son and then him thinking I should be calm.
Why are you doing press-ups in a puddle.
Since my favourite joke is “Look at that S-car go” I of course used these counters.
This was a downside.
Apparently you can get Bonehilda in The Sims 4 too, I just haven’t figured it out yet.
This is Oxqa and he randomly came to my front door and threw a water balloon at me.
The flags actually spread out in different weather now.
Got to lock the gates on a full moon to stop zombies getting in.
Although this guy just kind of stood there growling.
Fighting them ghosts!
Visited the version of Ridgeview I made.
The best I could do about a truck lol.
There’s Oxqa again.
I’m guessing I would’ve taken this shot because of haunting info coming up, didn’t come out in the picture though.
Love a good flu shot!
Ghosts!
I got bees, because I’m mad.
A haunting AT the actual Phasmophobia house.
Also my kid is the Mayor.
Shelf of ghosts.
Milking the cow.
Getting attacked by bees.
Haunted furniture.
Baby left on the floor in a house I visited.
This woman’s boobs?! Even when I was making Lara Croft’s sim I couldn’t exaggerate them this much.
Serious question, would Bonehilda benefit from using the toothbrush on her whole body?
Went to a party at this unbelievable house.
“Purple, amirite?”
Snow on the lot.
The first thing that jumped out at me was that when creating the Sims 4 sims, and using “play with genetics” to make our children, The Sims 4, like most other iterations of The Sims I’ve played, assumed that our children would end up with darker hair. Two other iterations of playing The Sims 3 did as well, except for my current game, which gave both of our daughters red hair.
Creating a Sim is quite different, I found the menu a bit overwhelming. I didn’t get to choose Will’s traits at all, perhaps because I made him first as part of the tutorial, and there are only 3 trait slots this time. I prefer the look of the Sims 3 trait icons (I mean I even have some in the sidebar of this website lol!), and I think there’s a more interesting selection than in 4. Also couldn’t figure out voices at all and everyone sounds weirdly deep.
The Sims 4 is visually beautiful, but it seems a very “stripped-down” game. Not a lot of product options, very little decor. I expected to fill the living room walls with all sorts of new stuff but there just wasn’t a lot to choose from!
Pets, of course, are a frustration. Not only can we not control them, but we don’t even get to see their needs! Even The Sims 2 let us select them and see their need bars, we just couldn’t click on anything. So this is a massive step backwards, and of course, no horses or lizards or anything.
I find the UI a bit annoying, but maybe it’ll grow on me in time, I just prefer the way the Sims 3 bars and stuff are displayed at the bottom of the screen. Also everyone changes their mood every two minutes, and it’s like, calm down y’all.
Going to work is super weird, your sim just may as well not exist for that time. In The Sims 3, while you don’t actually see your sim doing stuff at work (unless you’re something like a ghost hunter), the camera can at least zoom over to the building they’re in, and you get some sort of audio going on, and you can see them drive to and from work, there is a designated place on the map where they currently are. In 4, they just vanish from the world for a while.
Hopefully The Sims 5 will be a perfect hybrid of 3 and 4, with more stuff to throw on the walls, and better pet management. I think I would be pushing my luck asking for horses again, because the company seems really averse to doing that for some reason. Just put all the good things about 3 and 4 together? Let us get some of our fave furniture with updated visuals? But please don’t make it too RAM heavy, so those of us on terrible laptops can still enjoy it without needing to be at a gaming PC.
That reminds me, 4 makes my laptop VERY HOT whereas I’ve been lucky so far that 3 doesn’t. This is a laptop that struggles with Tabletop Simulator, so I realise I’m lucky to play The Sims at all.
I am certainly enjoying the ability to live on a haunted lot so far, anyway.
Did I forget to mention anything? Almost definitely.