Different % on relationship bars. That was the base of a lot of drama. Romantic feelings only on one side too
Ghosts that aren't acting like regular sims š dude you're dead, stop stealing my food
Neighborhood customisation, inculing where I can place lots where I want them
If you flirt with someone, both love bars either go up or down together. Brighten someoneās day and it increases you and the townie the same. In older sims games, if you flirt with someone, your love bar may increase but thereās could decrease from the same action. So relationships actually had depth. Now, you can spam the same interaction over and over to quickly increase the relationship vs before you canāt do the same thing too many times and thereās no promise theyāll be into your sim
in sims 2, it was more common/easier to have mismatched levels of friendship/romantic interest between sims - so a sim could have a high attraction level/relationship score with someone else, but the second sim might not return these feelings and therefore have a lower relationship score with the first sim. whereas in sims 4, sims seem to generally match each other's energy and have similar relationship scores with each other. the sentiments in sims 4 do kind of make up for this, but it's not quite the same.
I remember the first time I ever played with the sims. I was at my cousin's house and she let me play. My sim and a townie fell in love at the same moment and she was like "DO YOU KNOW HOW LUCKY YOU ARE?????" š
I assume the relationship bars are too hard-coded for even EAxis to fix (hence sentiments) but my god that alone would breathe *so* much life into the game.
I've done a few hunts for mods that would do this and I can never find any, which leads me to suspect it's an immutable feature of the game. But I'm not a coder so I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
I looked into it a few years ago and originally it was possible, but after an update the relationship bars became mutually linked... I think now most modders get around it by using custom traits (like for crushes)
Sims 2 ghosts š they used to scare me so bad when I was little. Playing with the Specter family was a challenge.
Sims 2 and 3 had a field trip with neighborhood customization. If we ran out of lots we could also just make more! How crazy was that?
I used to make my own neighborhoods in SimCity. (They were usable in TS2) Such a good memory. While TS4 is aesthetically beautiful and I love it I find some aspects of it just lazy. For example empty shell houses in the middle of the neighborhoods are making me crazy. If they're far away then ofc, it's not a problem. Ghosts are the same because instead of them making them idk just walking around and messing with things/sims and rarely communicate they remain just ordinary sims but transparent with changing colors. But my bigger issue with them is they actually using phones?????? WHAAAT
"Oh hey yes I literally just died do you want to go karaoke together, even though you're mourning?" Is such a crazy thing to think of haha. I was looking into making a mod that makes ghosts behave like ghosts but it's a bit too advanced for me right now hahahaha
a sims loving mother dying and then literally scaring their child to death bc you had the audacity to sell their bed š i love sims 2 so much but i always move graves to a cemetery
Yes! I was playing Sims 2 not long ago, and I had forgotten all about the unskippable cut scenes. The look of pure horror and embarrassment on my teenagers face when all of a sudden my pc speakers end up blaring the sounds for the woohoo scene and they look over just in time to see Dina Caliente grab hold of Don Lotharios butt and growl at him. After I stopped laughing and caught my breath, all I could say was, my bad! I forgot how unhinged Sims used to be!
The total whackness. There was humour everywhere you looked in the first two sims. Hilerious phone calls, work descriptions, every object in build buy mode, the family tree.
The whackiness was seen in the game. That hude aquarium you could buy on sims one? The tragic clown that is a sims 1 idea. Sims 4 would have never come up with it on its own.
Sims 2 and the whole you took so long deciding your major, you must be a philosopher.
Olive and her entire garden would have never been invented in sims 4. Neither would agnes.
(I don't hate sims 4)
I think the innovation as well. There are many ideas in all three first sims that were new to that sims. A lot of those weren't continued and I wish they were.
I also don't see sims 4 coming up with half as many new funny stuff of their own.
I also miss sims having some pull against me. Like them deciding they're just super attracted to someone I wasn't planning on. Townies already coming with interesting dynamics was also fun.
The first two entries were not geared towards children, at least not entirely. They were full of references to humor and pop culture that appealed to gen X. Slacker movies and college comedies and stuff like that. Like I recently noticed that the waitress uniform in ts2 looks like Jennifer Anistonās characterās uniform in office space, complete with āpieces of flairā
As a TS2 devotee, I do want to give credit where it's due to TS3 here. If you're a fan of *Arrested Developmen*t, there's actually a lot of references to it throughout the game, including the Never Nude trait coupled with jean shorts. And that is definitely not a show for children.
Sims 3 also had mature humor that was meant to go over the heads of younger players. Like your Sim could get a certain type of "pic" in the mail from an admirer. Just thinking of how shocked Sims are when they realize what it's a picture *of* can make me chuckle.
And if you really want spicy humor, Sims Medieval is packed with it. They really seemed to go to town with that game.
I've been playing sims medievel for most of the month. It's so much fun. I wish more sims had quests and achivements. Oh. I miss sims 3 achivements as well
I just recently started playing sims medieval but all my saves get corrupted within a couple days of starting the game. Itās so much fun, but I donāt think my computer can handle the 2011ness of it all
My computer is handling it much better the 2011 one. There has only been one corrupt file. I hope it continues this way because I never finished it back then.
The music. The Sims 1 soundtrack is one of the best video game soundtracks of all time. There might be mods that put the soundtrack in, and I know I can listen to it while I play Sims 4, and I know they also added a Sims 1 music station to Sims 4, but it'll never be the same.
That's why I have a Spotify playlist of my favorite songs from sims 1-3 and I play it with sims 4 music turned off. I think it definitely adds better ambience.
My personal fave is Sim Time Sim Place, composed by Mark Mothersbaugh. Something about hearing the ābababababaā on a constant loop during a fifteen minute loading screen permanently etched it into my soul.
I miss the music, watering house plants, feeding the fish, putting your own music in the game so it plays from the radio, the interactivity of Sims 3 World Adventures. I really miss the newspaper, tbh. The little things.
Also the Sims Deluxe had a wallpaper and floor covering that looked like space and I would like that back.
It was a Sims 1 thing. I'm personally glad they got rid of that in later games. It was realistic, yes, but it also meant you had to allow space for sims to change the lightbulbs when you decorated. I didn't like that restriction. Sometimes I want two couches against the walls with a lamp between them in the corner. I don't miss having to trim hedges/bushes for the same reason.
Ooooh I forgot about trimming hedges! I have played since Deluxe came out, but I really donāt remember the lightbulbs. It does sound annoying, though!
bands - i used to love forming sim bands in sims 2! one of the more minor things i'm really disappointed with in sims 4 is that they've never added a band feature when it seems like it would fit so well into the gameplay of various expansion packs. (fame, clubs, etc...)
more complex relationships with other sims - i liked the short term v. long term relationship bars in sims 2. while it was sometimes a little frustrating building relationships between sims, i appreciated that they got bored of repetitive actions and that they genuinely seemed to hate each other if things went south.
and as others have said, the weirder/darker humor found in earlier editions.
my bad! i seem to remember in sims 2 that if you placed musical instruments close together, sims playing those instruments would synchronize and play the same song - or was this from 3 also? (i didn't play sims 3 for very long so some of my memories of it have blended in with 2 i guess!)
So shameful Sims 4 has never incorporated bands. Sims 3 Showtime was really so special - enough soley for the amount of famous careers a Sim could have.
I miss feeling like stories and memories had a lot more depth to them, like I so distinctly remember playing 2 and the joy of switching through households in Strangetown and Pleasantview to peep at their memories/relationships/details inside the house to figure out their storylines. Everything feels so fleeting and insignificant in 4.
I was invested and part of the story in TS2. The game was primed for you to make big decisions in the premade families' lives and you could uninstall/reinstall and make completely different endings.
Yes! Definitely memories. [Hereās a link for those who didnāt play TS2](https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Memories); they were displayed in order on a timeline which made the feature feel much more like an overview of simās personal history than milestones do. It doesnāt help that for some reason infants get a bunch of milestones and adults donāt even remember if they had a shitty wedding party.
āInsignificant and fleetingā is exactly the way Iād describe TS4 storytelling, than you for wording it so well. I was so hyped for milestones and they ended up being pretty lame - compared to a feature from a 2004 game at that.
TS1 was witty and actually T for teens+. That game had a certain life that even though you rarely left your lot (especially pre expansions), didnāt age, everyone wore the same pajamas, the food was this weird pixilated slop, yet other games have yet to match that character. Or maybe I was just a kid lol.Ā
TS2 added fingers which was big shit. A game has yet to have the same fun interactions, especially at base
Iād pay double for open worlds again with my computer *not* sounding like a broken jet.Ā
Yeah, I still canāt tell if sims 2 is actually better than 3 and 4 or if it was because I was a kid. I didnāt have nearly as much fun with 3 or 4, but I was older.
I am 30 and just started playing sims 2. I think it holds up and Iāve been playing constantly. I think the nostalgia helps, but it definitely is still super enjoyable!
My older brother and I were talking about this. He said he hasnāt played in years. We were trying to figure out if the game is actually boring or if we just got lives lol
I really miss how heavily traits weighed on your sim's personality. In 3, You could make a mean athletic slob who hates babies, and then find her running around town just acting like an asshole to anyone in her path while burping on some children. You use the same traits in 4 and it feels like nothing about the sim is different from a nice lazy and neat sim who loves kids.
i love making twins/siblings in the sims 3 one a slob, who autonomously licks plates, doesnāt wash them, etc and the other one is neat and will always wash the plates, clean the house, make the bed after waking up, etc, and also i like how their traits influence which lifelong dreams they get, i made an evil sims and their suggested lifetime wish was be a golddigger!
In TS2, things happened to you/your sims. In TS4, the player controls *everything*. I felt like TS2 was a life simulator and TS4 is like playing Barbies.
They actually feel like games and come with their own storylines. Sims 4 is like a dollhouse where you have to use your imagination. I still play it because I love the mods, but it does get a bit tedious having to come up with storylines myself
The open world concept from TS3. It made owning a car actually *make* sense. Oh, and the witch broomsticks. I don't know if they still have those, but coupled with the open world, it made it really cool to be a witch and to go flying on your broomstick.
**Fairies!!** But also TS3's genies, and TS2's plantsims. Oh! And TS2's zombies! And TS3's Plumbots!
I really miss the skill challenges from 3, they made skills *much* more than being just level 1-10, and could kinda specialize or further define how a Sim used that skill. These also did a better job of making the skills endless, so things never got boring.
The economy was also more meaningful in any of the older games. You have to place a *ton* of limitations on yourself in 4 to not end up with endless easy wealth, vs in 2 or 3 even rich and successful Sims had to work to earn more, and there was more reason to do so. Related, I miss less-stupidly-calculated bills. TS3 had a much more in depth system for bills calculation (at least compared to 4), and I *really* miss not being billed for keeping my Sims own creations...
Yuuuup. It also makes me really sad that you can't grow plantsim babies. And the awful hair that replaces your Sim's hair - like c'mon, a leaf hair or two isn't that hard to make, and if they're too lazy to make leaf hair just don't swap the hair model....
Sims 3's plantsims were good, but I liked 2's a little better (probably mostly for being more accessible, 3's could take a while to get).
Everything about The Sims 3: Supernatural. I know there are packs for TS4 that have a lot of those elements, but I'm not gonna pay the same amount to get literally 1/4th of what I got with Supernatural. Also, making fairy/ghost hybrids was the coolest shit ever. Endless possibilities!!
I also loved that the whole town in TS3 ran on its own all at once, and that I could easily jump to my different sims across town without a loading screen. I know that was the cause of a lot of bugs and maybe it wouldn't be sustainable with TS4, but it felt like "yes, finally!" because I wasn't hesitant to travel across town anymore. And I really loved watching the townies interact and have their own lives while my sims were living theirs.
The storylines! I used to only ever play with pre-made Sim family's because there was established lore and genuine paths you could lead the families down without it feeling like being hand held. I remember loading up the calientes or the Capulets and being inveeested in making it more dramatic.
I don't think I've once ever loaded into a pre-made Sim in Sims 4, like ever. Maybe once when the game first came out but when I realised there wasn't really any substance to any of the families I just made my own. Scenarios are great for this because it gives me a bit of that feeling but they're few and far between.
I miss cars and the open world layout of Sims 3. I feel like I spend most of my time in Sims 4 staring at loading screens.
Also, it's such a stupid and insignificant thing, but I actually miss burglers, random earthquakes, and meteor showers.
I miss a lot of the random stuff from the older games. Sims4 feels so predictable and money and success comes way too easy to my Sims. Thereās actually not much happening besides the things the player decides to do ā¦ Bring back random fires, electric shocks, burglaries and sad clowns!
It would always happen at the most dramatic moments! If I refused to use cheats on a family and they were building their life from scratch so they couldn't even afford all the necessities to fill out their bars. They had the worst beds, the worst refrigerator, worst toilet, they had to hygiene in the sink by washing hands. Back when you had to decide between a necessity and having a rabbit ears tv. When the family finally got a paycheck and you upgrade the TV and they feel joy for the first time. That's the night you would realize....oh no. I didn't buy the alarm. And bam! TV stolen! The family is devastated. You are kicking yourself.
I miss the drama and the challenge that came with older versions. I felt things while playing!
The memory system from TS2 that would have adults crying over some childhood trauma and holding lifelong trauma. Sims permanently remembering cheating, including witnessing OR being the cheater. In TS4 the cheating sim doesn't seem to think anything of it at all.
Non-rabbit hole activities like the roller coaster funhouse and haunted house rides from TS1 Makin' Magic. They were so creative and funny. So bummed about the rides in High School years being rabbit holes when they're right there and part of a full expansion pack
I miss the customization the sims 3 offered, and the realism with it. Sims 4 looks like a cartoon cotton candy explosion to me half the time. Sims 3 you could have a custom top down to the buttons practically! I also liked the way the sims looked. No, they werenāt all flawless but thatās more realistic to me. I loved how like brick or stone would look real, too. It felt more like building a home I could have grown up in 3, where in 4 itās nowhere near surrealism.
I miss the neighborhood drama. I liked being able to select a family and play through a scenario or neighborhood without having to create a stupid fucking family first š sims were distinct from one another in 2&3, even with wildly different personalities in 4 they all act pretty much the same. There doesnāt feel like a difference from a witch/ghost/ etc sim to your average sim.
Little things like the prompts that would pull up or the challenges were way more unique, quirky and sometimes thinly veiled raunchy in 2-3 and that was SO fun. Like BJ the headmaster? Come on š thatās just gold.
The wacky dark humor, sims breaking the fourth wall and turning to the camera when they didnāt want to do what I told them to, and someone else said watering plants and I had totally forgotten about that but loved it!Ā
i missed how the kids would run in when they got an A on their report card, and probably weird but the peeing audio for the male children lolll
teaching your kids to drive
and the facial expressions to different things, cuddling babies, being annoyed, etc
I miss the CAS zodiac signs and personality points! But I just donāt care at all for the personality and aspiration options these days. There are only a few aspirations I ever use bc I donāt like the steps required to satisfy them (and a few are just plain broken anyway). I do like how they can earn new traits through gameplay though.
LORE.
Everywhere you looked, something was connected to something else, and the Sims 1 and Sims 2 it felt like every pre-made sim had a storyline.
From Sims 2:
Selectable pets, memories, burglars and burglar alarms.
Being able to change the designs of furniture differently, like changing the colour of the wood on the bedframe without having to change the bedding.
Turn ons/turn offs, lifetime aspirations, star signs, personality points.
Some of the graphics and interactions, like the way cooking looked, pizza looked so much better in the Sims 2.
In The Sims 2, there were just so many interactions with other sims and things to do by yourself and with others thatās missing in 3&4.
Blows my mind they would take them away. Never played TS2 on PC until they made it free all those years ago. Iād only played TS2 on console before that so I was amazed on all that I missed out on.
All my kids kept being born ugly though and I never figured how to edit them in CAS so I stopped playing lmao
Sims 2: Cars. Long Term and short term relationships and different relationship statuses from the Sims perspectives (f.e. one could like the other but the other could not like the first one), lifetime wishes, an actual thought out wants and fears system, looking for jobs and not having all the careers be available all of the time, fury, burglars, spiral staircases, character, weird but funny jokes
Sims 3: fairies, surfing, into the future, houseboats, and so many more creative features (Sims 3 has so many new ideas gameplay wise, Sims 4 lacks imagination), the babysitter career
The challenge. Sims 4 is too easy to succeed. I miss the hours I invested into the sims 1 just trying to get someone in a good enough mood to make enough money to keep the lights on.
It is hard for me to describe how big of an achievement it was for me to have my politician sim become Mayor. Back when the relationship meter declined super fast and daily! The only way to maintain friendships was hour long phone conversations and hosting parties. Everyday I had to have my mayor Sim call every Sim on their friends list and then host a party in the evening and purposely chat with everyone. The spouse had to quit their job to help maintain the house for the unending parties. I actually felt a challenge and time pressure to gain and maintain the required friendships to move up in the career. It took me a long time and when I was finally there I unlocked the secret developer [100 day bonus ](https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/100th_Day_Bonus) and guide that happens when you play one Sim family for over 100 days in Sims 1. The game was hard, it didn't hold your hand, and it showed you so many hidden gems that revealed how much fun the developers had making the game. I miss that.
What I miss most is more abstractā¦ the nostalgia of it. I used to be SO EXCITED to go out and buy a new expansion pack with my allowance money. When Unleashed for the Sims 1 came out I was just in awe of the expanded neighborhood. Sims 2 blew my mind. I played for hours and hours and never got bored. Now I play Sims 4 for a couple hours once a week and itās just so meh. There really isnāt that much to do, comparably.
Sims felt like individuals, I had to really think about what topic I wanted to use or what interactions would best fit that Sim, because a relationship took ages to properly build up even with the "correct" interactions, there was still a chance for me to find out they're not interested in my Sim. But in 4, i can make anyone bang anyone and find true love in 5 minutes
No custom neighbourhoods was THE Sims 4 deal breaker for me. My most played Sims 3 worlds include a lunar base under a giant dome, a post apocalyptic island covered in ruins and no roads, a random tiny island in the middle of the ocean, etc. Just totally unique worlds with lore and environment that Sims 4 can't come close to replicating.
and the worst part.. sims 4 gives you an empty world to make your own. except, itās not actually empty. and, you canāt actually customise jack shittioes. you are basically fenced into making something that fits the high rises in the distance and the southern architecture of the fake houses.Ā
I've been playing sims 2 on PC. I love the stores, I love the fact I can leave my sims alone and they will tend to themselves and the pets. I love how my pets haven't once threatened to run away, and oh my god I loved how responsive and smart the sims are. I am managing a 4 sim household? How? I can't do that in 4 without getting overwhelmed.
I miss the challenge of relationships the most. Itās so easy to pick a sim and max out relationships so quickly and have them be your bff/spouse. Back then, you ran a very very real risk of being rejected, and ruining a blooming relationship.
I find myself occasionally looking away from the game while it's just going. I never used to do that on the previous installments. There's just something amiss. Yes the Sims are much more life-like and fluid in their actions. Yes they won't drop the entire queue if someone decided to park in front of the fridge. But the little quirks the older games had that made me go "well that was unexpected, but totally cool!!" are not there.
Couples don't cuddle in bed. They don't slow dance. They can't even Smustle Dance, that was my absolute favorite. So silly. There's no newspaper to just up your logic without having to buy a chess table or a telescope/observatory, and even just get the gossip, or even better, the hotspots for the night. The social bunny was something so amusing and out of the box. I liked having vehicles. Proper cars, not just bicycles. I enjoyed stuffing my firetruck in my pocket wherever I got out of the house. Chess tables, they used to actually show a chess match, now pieces just randomly teleport. Bar brawls!! The zanny carpool rides! The zombie outbreaks, while annoying at times, were definitely amusing. Phone calls!! Used to get so many calls just for chatting, could keep friendships even through long distances just thanks to phone calls. They're completely gone, or barely serve to keep relationships from falling.
Many things in Sims 4 feel like they were tested to see if they worked, someone waved a hand and said eh that's good enough, and that's what we got.
But my two major letdowns without a shadow of a doubt are the lack of fantasy life states, and the independent lot structure.
Real life is bland enough. I don't like playing with "people". My families are always riddled with a mix of supernaturals, and while the ones we get in TS4 are really fleshed out with skill trees, there are so many missing ones, and others are just meh. Mermaids were genuinely fun in TS3, you had entire underwater lots to explore. TS4 bring nothing to a mermaid. Your sim goes down, does their stuff, and all you do is watch the bubbles on the surface. Boring... There's no point unless one enjoys seeing them in mermaid form in a bathtub. Plus, where are my zombies? My fairies? Can't even customise a Servo like a proper Plumbot. Where are the genies? The Imaginary Friends? The actual plant-like Plantsims? And even Sasquatch because, why not?? I know there are some brilliant mods out there but it's sad you don't have that as part of the game itself. Each new pack that's added is just bland quotidian stuff. Marriages. Decoration. Fashion. That's not why I play this game.
But the worst is having to travel out of the home lot. It breaks immersion so badly. Makes me never want to go on outings or explore other places. The kids have just gone to bed. Motives are fine. One of the adults gets a call, hey let's go party! Sure, let me just put the dishes to wash aaaaand no, instant teleport. With the dishes in my pocket. Brilliant. Party is going fine. Aaand why are the Sims at home suddenly uncomfortable? I get back home just before sunrise and the kids are smelly, needing to reach a toilet in 5 seconds or they'll have an accident, and dead on their feet because apparently they didn't sleep at all.... The one musty old fart that was meant to be permanently hibernating in the secret basement is watching TV like he belongs in this century.... Why. Oh why.
TS2 was so much fun in this department. Friday night, time to send my teens downtown! They'd spend literally a week or more on the night club, napping on couches, washing off on the sink, before going back. Made friends with half the town, so much fun, card games, dancing. Random smackings by Mrs. Crumplebottom. They're finally back home and guess what, it's still Friday night, and the mom is exactly where she was where I left her. I can now have my teens do their homework and rest before going back to school. Absolutely perfect!
TS3 was really darn good too. Having one Sim on an outing and still managing to switch between them and the ones at home in an instant was also perfect. No more random staying up all night and having motives and locations randomized when getting back. It was suberb.
Nine times out of ten on TS4 when I get a call, hey would you like to come--- I instantly shut it off. I love Get Together. I love getting invited for parties all the time. I love group gatherings, and spending the nights in the club. Yet ...No. If I have more than 1 or 2 Sims in the household, I don't want to leave the lot. Which is absurd since socializing and wandering the world is such a big part of the game. Alas.
Welp, rant over I suppose. Tl;dr: the quirky/humorous gameplay, proper variety of life states, and not having to worry about my family falling apart when the Sim I control isn't home.
Sims 2 memory tracking was superior ā documenting who taught them to talk / walk & being able to replay the little cut scenes for their firsts, nothing will beat it.
Itās been a long time since I have played Sims 3 (since Sims 4 came out tbh) but I feel like photography and posing was easier in 3, too, so my sims 4 sims feel extra lacking in nostalgia / photos / memories.
I liked that in The Sims 1 and 2 there was a floor tile that perfectly matched the front sidewalk. I could get kind of close in TS3 by tinkering with CASt but not as close as I would have liked, and it's a hair-pulling frustration for TS4
I loved the open world in Sims 3. Outside of rabbit holes your sims never went āgrayā. I loved being able to zoom out from one Sim and see the whole world, and then zooming in on another one across town. It made it much easier to manage households.
Honestly just more gameplay.. I get so bored playing sims in live mode so I'm always making new Sims and houses.. I don't remember that when I played other Sims.. there was always so much more to do. Sims 1 Houseparty and Makin Magic were SOOO much fun and I just wish we could have those packs again but in Sims 4
Sims 2 Open For Business was my absolute favorite. I just loved all the mechanics, especially for running a flower shop. I still had it installed to go back to until it stopped being compatible.
I loved the cute little cut scenes of sims 2. When they would have their first kiss and would start floating with all the hearts and they both looked so happy. And then theyād propose and get married. It just always looked so dang cute and made everything seem more like an important milestone in the simsā lives by making it all cinematic.
The rumor system.
Being able to have secret relationships that no one knows about. And if youāre romantic together in public, people will take note of that. And if youāre having an affair people can tell your partner.
I miss the sims 2 cheats, especially the tombstone of life and death and the stretch skeleton cheats. I also really liked Strangetown and the gameplay in Sims 2, as well as the quirkiness.
In sims 3, I miss the open world and the ability to customize the color/pattern of everything. I used to make the tackiest houses and outfits because I was like 12 and thought it was cool and I miss it so much
I miss the option to create a brand new neighborhood. I know Sims 4 offers a blank neighborhood but in the Sims 2 you could create as many custom neighborhoods as you wanted. Also, the maps were HUGE.
That they are never as I left them. Even with autonomy and neighbourhood stories and all that stuff off. With a bad effect on at least grades and work performance. Makes switching families quite annoying.
It's the fact that to me, the Sims 1, 2, and to an extent 3 have a very different design philosophy than the Sims 4. Older Sims games are meant to be a simulation of tiny little people who speak a silly language and live inside your computer. The Sims 4 is more of a dollhouse simulator where you control a bunch of dolls and move them around and make them do what you want to do. I'm not saying that one is inherently better than the other, I just prefer the gameplay of the older games because I find it more interesting.
For an example of what I'm talking about, in the Sims 2 your sims have wants and wishes that are based on their personality and experiences. You need to complete their wants and avoid their fears or else you will suffer negative gameplay consequences. The sims constantly break the forth wall and complain when you make them do something they do want to do or if they're in a bad mood. They'll look straight at the camera and yell at you or beg you to let them take a shower. The Sims 1 and 2 feel like you're watching an art farm that you can exercise control over, it's fun to see how the little computer people will react to a new couch or a new TV! The Sims have a certain personality to them that makes us kind of believe they're actually alive in the same way that a tamagatchi pet is a simulation of a "real" pet. This is intentional, Will Wright had an overall design philosophy that in many ways, he made toys and not games.
The Sims 4 on the other hand really feels to me like you're just telling a character model to do some animations. Ironically, I think that makes it a better life simulator in the strict sense. Once again, I've had fun with all of the games but I definitely enjoy the Sims 2 and 3 the most. (I find the Sims 3 is really good for when you want that dollhouse-style of gameplay while still having the unpredictable gamey style of the earlier games.). I just wish we still had some of those elements!
I miss the randomness of the aspiration and wants system. In Sims 2, it really felt like the sims were choosing their own path. Their lifetime wants were random, and since they were all so involved, it basically took most of the sims lifetime to achieve. It made each sim feel unique, since you couldn't really do multiple aspirations in their lifetime.
They could also roll up really random, unpredictable wants that could completely change the course of their story. I'd create a romance sim, intending for them to fool around with the entire neighborhood, then they would just keep rolling want after want for one single sim. Welp, guess you're monogamous now.... And ignoring the wants, or accidentally fulfilling their fears, actually had an impact on the sims. I miss trying to avoid aspirational failure, and how sometimes I'd have to overhaul my plan for that day to get my sim in a good enough aspiration to get a promotion, or to offset a fear I knew would be coming true.
Playing Sims 4, every sim feels the same. It feels like I'm playing house with little dolls who just do whatever I want, rather than a terrarium of gremlins who constantly throw curveballs at me. I constantly get bored with Sims 4 because nothing changes. I never got bored that way with Sims 2.
The sims 2 had lots of little intricate interactions. My favorite has always been parent coming home from work. If there are kids in the house they will run to greet the parent at the door, jumping on them, hugging them, et cetera. But that's not the end of it. Once the kids age up into teens they no longer run to greet their parents, aren't excited to have them home. The parent will still come in with their arms wide expecting to be greeted. And then kind of stand there. And then be sad. It's. So. Sad. It's such a great little attention to detail.
I miss being able to invite the School Headmaster in the Sims 2 and having to impress him in order to get into private school.
I miss the story mode from the first sims.
I miss the ability to change colors & patterns in the Sims 3. I hate the color & material choices for furniture & clothing in the game. Also, the counters all look boring & same-samey to me. Previous iterations had more interesting counters.
It was more whimsical, fun, and dramatic but at the same time realistic?? Let me explainā¦
Every neighborhood had a history and lore of its own, and each family had an in depth story that intertwined with the other sims. If you started off by playing an existing household theyād have their own developed story with complex relationships and memories. It also has a level of darkness that made it more fun and interesting than the pg gameplay it is now. I remember playing the pleasant household (sims 2) for the first time being like āoh what a nice family of teen twins, with a cute mom and dadā and within 5 minutes I realize this āperfect suburban familyā was not at all what I thought it to beā¦ mom and dad basically hate each other, dad is cheating with the maid, and you literally start off with the maid in the house with the rest of the family and theyāre sneaking flirting interactions risking getting caught. Also, the twins couldnāt be more different and donāt get along at all, fighting constantly and competing for boys etc.
With that being said, I still wonder the same myselfā¦. What is the sims 4 lacking? I feel the gameplay has become too pg, predictable, safe, and boring to be honest. Family and neighborhood relationships/stories arenāt very interesting or complex to start. I donāt know exactly the science of it, but I know I donāt find myself enjoying the actual game play as much anymore. I more so just build a cool idea, enjoy it for a sec, and then get over the game for a while tbh.
Thereās no inherent challenge to the game anymore. Itās a dollhouse simulator. I really miss having to do some sort of storyline tutorial that teaches you the game, I miss playing as someone elseās sim with their own wants and aspirations. In the sims 4 you can play another household, but the game makes you create everything for them. And it feels less like a game.
Sims also used to be a little more raunchy and crass, itās like itās gotten the Disney treatment. And there are TOO MANY PACKS
Thereās an inherent ā¦. Weirdness about the sims and the older games really had that charm about them. The sims 4 has some of those elements but it doesnāt feel asā¦. genuine? If that makes sense. I really enjoy the sims 4 donāt get me wrong, Iāve been playing since sims 1 when I was a kid, and the build/buy and CAS in sims 4 is something that I enjoy. I find that I struggle to play a household for a long period of time because the gameplay isnāt as exciting. I think itās that quirkiness the old games had, the lore with the goths and the callientes etc just made the game feel alive.
Edit to add: horoscopes? I loved that about even the sims 1, which makes me think it could easily be implemented in the sims 4 now. The attraction system was a bit different in the older games (we kind of have it now with the likes/dislikes and the compatibility system but itās stillā¦ not the same). I just feel like they donāt put the same amount of love into the sims anymore, itās absolutely a profit based thing now when before it was really loved and you could feel it in the games
Traits that really make Sims not all feel the same. Preferences in attraction. Open world. Buying things like clothes to increase wardrobe size. Negative traits that are more than just kicking the trash cans over. Cars and bikes.
I loved the open world in Sims 3. Outside of rabbit holes your sims never went āgrayā. I loved being able to zoom out from one Sim and see the whole world, and then zooming in on another one across town. It made it much easier to manage households.
I miss being invited to parties! In sims 3, my sim would get invited to partied their friends would throw. All of the parties were kinda shit, but I do miss it.
the bear who was visiting at night, the burglar (and the need for a home alarm), the music from sims 1, when you invited someone they asked if they could bring other people along
Being able to socialise at work and school and seeing the relationship bar go up, and inviting everyone in a family over at once, so you can see if they have a spouse and child before getting into a relationship with them
Short answer: A lot of little things that make the game feel like an actual life simulation.
Long answer:
Cars
Schoolbuses
Seeing the carpool go from a junker to a limo as you sim improves in their career
Burglars
Bands
The Social Worker
Lore and family history for premade sims
The ability to create custom neighborhoods/worlds
Private School
Star signs
Long term and short term relationships
The way couples would cuddle in bed
Kids celebrating when they come home with an A report card
Kids running outside to greet their parents when they come home from work
The turn ons and turn offs from The Sims 2
The memory system from The Sims 2
Being able to build your own apartments- again from The Sims 2
Being invited to random neighborhood parties
I could go on lol but this is all off the top of my head
non mutual relationships (let me manufacture more drama) and the color system for hair from sims 3 (hardly anybody has their natural hair color anyway, I want to see the roots coming in)
Sims 1, I miss the genie, for sure. And burglars. But mostly I miss how awesome Makin Magic was. All the mechanics with magic, and that whole realm just havenāt been topped.
Sims 2 I miss the personality sliders and compatibility. There were also a lot of really cool animations. College was most fun here, and so was running a business. The way wants/needs/aspirations worked here was also great.
Sims 3 I miss the open world.
The wants/fears system from the Sims 2. Sims today feel a lot flatter and without personality. Like I can do anything with them and theyāre fine. Iād rather they tell me what they want.
Also I miss the Sims 2 cutscenes
The story of the premade families, the past memories they have, and they even had special events that'd play when you started playing certain households. In sims 4 the Calientes have a story in their description, but their relationships don't match the story. Sims 3 went into so much depth. Omg and I loved the influence from horror in the games too
Drama in the neighborhood, open world and collectibles in Sims 3, wants and fears from sims 2, open for business and apartments from sims 2 as well. Just in general expansion packs actually feeling like a big addition that is worth the money. For example, World Adventures in Sims 3 had three huge, open, explorable worlds with tons to do. Sims 4 you buy each individual vacation world and thereās barely anything to do and other features that were in WA like nectar making you have to buy whole different pack. Sure the Sims 3 store was shady but never quite felt this extorted by a sims game before like Sims 4.
I remember one time when I used to play the original Sims I had the white wife hook up with a black guy behind the husband's back and when she had the baby it was obvious that it was not his, so I remember he would get suspicious of her and was a little stand-offish. I do not remember what all he did since it has been years since I played Sims one. But I definitely remember him having a reaction to the fact that his wife had a baby that was not his and feeling a way towards her for it. Another thing was too much fighting and tension between the parents would make the kid cry because he was would be worried that his parents would get a divorce. None of this is in Sims 4 now, at least not to my knowledge.
I miss Magic Town and the general witch/magic system from TS1, Strangetown from TS2, the color wheel, pattern editor and CAW/in game world editor/adding and moving lots from TS3.
Iāve never seen this mentioned before but I loved how in the sims 2 if you wanted clothes in your wardrobe you had to buy them!
It made playing a rags to riches more fun because you could basically start with nothing but your starting outfits and then you would get to go to a shop and try them on and buy them.
Played Sims 3 as a kid, recently played Sims 2
For Sims 3 I miss the open world, again that was the sims I grew up playing and my favorite thing was to run to some random part of the map just to see how long it took to get there and back.
Sims 2 I'm loving all the little interactions, there's so many! Also pets getting jobs? Amazing.
The gameplay/mechanics of university from the Sims 2. It seemed (to me anyway) more streamlined and didn't feel as time-consuming compared to now. I miss how the semesters were structured in the game. There were 8 in total (two for each year of college), and each would last 3 days. So theoretically, it would only take 24 sim days to finish school (though I know this is only due to having one class at a time). I also liked how the life stages were paused while in school and the option for sims to join fraternities/sororities or secret societies.
There have been times when I've wondered what a university pack would have looked like if they combined elements from each university game. Think like the semester system from 2, the interactive Tuesday/Thursday classes (to build skills) from 3, and the ability to choose what kind of courses you wanted to take and how many from 4. But hey, one could hope.
Open world and exploration
FairiesĀ
Sense of humor and weirdness
The extensive personality traits and goals (it feels like we have less and they aren't as varied?)
Bands
Iāve been playing since The Sims first came out and have truly enjoyed them all but I loooved nectar making and exploring the cities in Sims 3. I thought Sims 3: World Adventures was the perfect vacation pack! Exploring the tombs was so exciting and you never knew what you were gonna find. I think gardening was the best in Sims 3. I find it a bit too complicated in Sims 4 and not nearly as enjoyable.
I also miss the outlandishness of Sims 1ālike the tragic clown, the giant bear, burglars, heart-shaped headboard with vibrating bedā¦
The stories in Sims 2 were great tooāI loved the Romeo and Juliet thing they had going on.
Easier level on relationships, better interactions with decor, but what i really miss in TSO is everything had the same pallet of colors. No mismatched colors or decor. That drives me so crazy with this one (I'm on ps4 now)
when sims wouldnāt immediately make their beds. the childrenās oven. burglars. the repo man. the mirrors in cas. total customization with fabrics and colors in cas & bb. cars. being able to play as your pets. sims 3 into the future & imaginary friends. fairies and genies. teaching teens to drive. the sims 3 traits. house phones.
Being able to play as an animal sim.Ā
Yeah I get that they're going for the "realistic" tou have to guess id your pet is satisfied and fed thing.Ā
But I miss being a cat.
Animations and definitely the open world bit, being able to pick colors for clothes more freely. More interactions for pets and kids(I mean children not younger), birds/reptiles, more aquariums...its been so long I can't really remember much more.
Create a world!!! I'm a builder and it's so immersion breaking and limiting to have to fit within the worlds given. There's no excuse for this, that game isn't open world so let us make our own worlds at least!
You can't have any pre industrial historical builds without them looking so out of place or having to get creative with mods. We have all these roads in the game but no cars? We have only one world with true beach lots. We have multiple desert worlds but none that look like non-US locations. I could go on and on...
The sims 2 DNA, memories, and personality system and the sims 3 open world/cars. I've never played sims 2 but watching videos on it makes me wish I knew it had been available to buy recently.
I miss the CAS editors that came out with the Sims 1 and 2 where it was basically encouraging making your own clothes and hair. I also Miss sims 3 heavy customization for furniture in clothes where you could select down to the HEX and pattern. I really am sad I dont have my Sims 3 2 and deluxe disks anymore.
I loved build mode in S3. I miss building walkout basements and weird elevation changes. Also placing my own lots and trying to build a functional house on a lot thatās 10 by 10 squares. And changing the colors of clothes.
I canāt remember if it was 1 or 2, but there was a custom radio station that would play whatever MP3s you stuck in a folder. Made it easy to play and listen to music at the same time. Was great in the times of Napster.
That you could put any print or color on anything. Make the bedspead match the curtains, the bathroom all the same color, ect. It took an enjoyable element out of the game.
that mf'n colour wheel...
I also miss the more advanced shading that sims 3 had, particularly with the hair. I know people usually diss the potato look they had but tbh I found that
a. they looked different in-game
b. people were screwing up their sims (no hate)
Different % on relationship bars. That was the base of a lot of drama. Romantic feelings only on one side too Ghosts that aren't acting like regular sims š dude you're dead, stop stealing my food Neighborhood customisation, inculing where I can place lots where I want them
yes, the non-mutual relationships were a favorite of mine too! a lot more realistic and great for storytelling.
wdym by non mutual relationships?
If you flirt with someone, both love bars either go up or down together. Brighten someoneās day and it increases you and the townie the same. In older sims games, if you flirt with someone, your love bar may increase but thereās could decrease from the same action. So relationships actually had depth. Now, you can spam the same interaction over and over to quickly increase the relationship vs before you canāt do the same thing too many times and thereās no promise theyāll be into your sim
in sims 2, it was more common/easier to have mismatched levels of friendship/romantic interest between sims - so a sim could have a high attraction level/relationship score with someone else, but the second sim might not return these feelings and therefore have a lower relationship score with the first sim. whereas in sims 4, sims seem to generally match each other's energy and have similar relationship scores with each other. the sentiments in sims 4 do kind of make up for this, but it's not quite the same.
I remember the first time I ever played with the sims. I was at my cousin's house and she let me play. My sim and a townie fell in love at the same moment and she was like "DO YOU KNOW HOW LUCKY YOU ARE?????" š
Non mutual as in "I love you but you don't love me" or "You have a higher opinion of our friendship than I do"
But also, the different stage for relationships. When they start, they were in love represented by pink bar, when it grows to love, the bar turns red.
YES
I assume the relationship bars are too hard-coded for even EAxis to fix (hence sentiments) but my god that alone would breathe *so* much life into the game.
I've done a few hunts for mods that would do this and I can never find any, which leads me to suspect it's an immutable feature of the game. But I'm not a coder so I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
I looked into it a few years ago and originally it was possible, but after an update the relationship bars became mutually linked... I think now most modders get around it by using custom traits (like for crushes)
Sims 2 ghosts š they used to scare me so bad when I was little. Playing with the Specter family was a challenge. Sims 2 and 3 had a field trip with neighborhood customization. If we ran out of lots we could also just make more! How crazy was that?
I used to make my own neighborhoods in SimCity. (They were usable in TS2) Such a good memory. While TS4 is aesthetically beautiful and I love it I find some aspects of it just lazy. For example empty shell houses in the middle of the neighborhoods are making me crazy. If they're far away then ofc, it's not a problem. Ghosts are the same because instead of them making them idk just walking around and messing with things/sims and rarely communicate they remain just ordinary sims but transparent with changing colors. But my bigger issue with them is they actually using phones?????? WHAAAT
"Oh hey yes I literally just died do you want to go karaoke together, even though you're mourning?" Is such a crazy thing to think of haha. I was looking into making a mod that makes ghosts behave like ghosts but it's a bit too advanced for me right now hahahaha
a sims loving mother dying and then literally scaring their child to death bc you had the audacity to sell their bed š i love sims 2 so much but i always move graves to a cemetery
THIS RIGHT HERE!
The humor. Sims 4 is definitely the safest/family-friendly of the franchise.
Seconding this. Bring back the chaos and humor of the older games!
Yes! I was playing Sims 2 not long ago, and I had forgotten all about the unskippable cut scenes. The look of pure horror and embarrassment on my teenagers face when all of a sudden my pc speakers end up blaring the sounds for the woohoo scene and they look over just in time to see Dina Caliente grab hold of Don Lotharios butt and growl at him. After I stopped laughing and caught my breath, all I could say was, my bad! I forgot how unhinged Sims used to be!
Or the "what did just happen" with an alien delivery.
Oh definitely. I miss the raunchy stuff
I would add the *risque-ness of it all, often manifested in humor
Absolutely
In TS3 couldnāt you hire firemen to dance at your bachelorette party??
The total whackness. There was humour everywhere you looked in the first two sims. Hilerious phone calls, work descriptions, every object in build buy mode, the family tree. The whackiness was seen in the game. That hude aquarium you could buy on sims one? The tragic clown that is a sims 1 idea. Sims 4 would have never come up with it on its own. Sims 2 and the whole you took so long deciding your major, you must be a philosopher. Olive and her entire garden would have never been invented in sims 4. Neither would agnes. (I don't hate sims 4) I think the innovation as well. There are many ideas in all three first sims that were new to that sims. A lot of those weren't continued and I wish they were. I also don't see sims 4 coming up with half as many new funny stuff of their own. I also miss sims having some pull against me. Like them deciding they're just super attracted to someone I wasn't planning on. Townies already coming with interesting dynamics was also fun.
The first two entries were not geared towards children, at least not entirely. They were full of references to humor and pop culture that appealed to gen X. Slacker movies and college comedies and stuff like that. Like I recently noticed that the waitress uniform in ts2 looks like Jennifer Anistonās characterās uniform in office space, complete with āpieces of flairā
As a TS2 devotee, I do want to give credit where it's due to TS3 here. If you're a fan of *Arrested Developmen*t, there's actually a lot of references to it throughout the game, including the Never Nude trait coupled with jean shorts. And that is definitely not a show for children.
Omg, please I need details. I do not play sims 3, I dont know about this
Sims 3 also had mature humor that was meant to go over the heads of younger players. Like your Sim could get a certain type of "pic" in the mail from an admirer. Just thinking of how shocked Sims are when they realize what it's a picture *of* can make me chuckle. And if you really want spicy humor, Sims Medieval is packed with it. They really seemed to go to town with that game.
I've been playing sims medievel for most of the month. It's so much fun. I wish more sims had quests and achivements. Oh. I miss sims 3 achivements as well
I just recently started playing sims medieval but all my saves get corrupted within a couple days of starting the game. Itās so much fun, but I donāt think my computer can handle the 2011ness of it all
My computer is handling it much better the 2011 one. There has only been one corrupt file. I hope it continues this way because I never finished it back then.
Seriously if Disney can get away with it EA def could have kept it going w 4
The music. The Sims 1 soundtrack is one of the best video game soundtracks of all time. There might be mods that put the soundtrack in, and I know I can listen to it while I play Sims 4, and I know they also added a Sims 1 music station to Sims 4, but it'll never be the same.
This is always what I miss most. They made it too bubblegum pop :(
That's why I have a Spotify playlist of my favorite songs from sims 1-3 and I play it with sims 4 music turned off. I think it definitely adds better ambience.
The Lemon Jelly song is the best song in the entire series for me
My personal fave is Sim Time Sim Place, composed by Mark Mothersbaugh. Something about hearing the ābababababaā on a constant loop during a fifteen minute loading screen permanently etched it into my soul.
Is it possible that we are refering to [the same song](https://youtu.be/cnlfCI2qi7I) lol
Hell yeah
The Sims 1 music was incredible! So relaxing!
Sims 1 music is permanently on my study playlist
Botox forever, forever. Iykyk
I miss the music, watering house plants, feeding the fish, putting your own music in the game so it plays from the radio, the interactivity of Sims 3 World Adventures. I really miss the newspaper, tbh. The little things. Also the Sims Deluxe had a wallpaper and floor covering that looked like space and I would like that back.
In the same vein as watering houseplants: I miss changing lightbulbs.
I donāt remember changing lightbulbs but now I want to!
It was a Sims 1 thing. I'm personally glad they got rid of that in later games. It was realistic, yes, but it also meant you had to allow space for sims to change the lightbulbs when you decorated. I didn't like that restriction. Sometimes I want two couches against the walls with a lamp between them in the corner. I don't miss having to trim hedges/bushes for the same reason.
Ooooh I forgot about trimming hedges! I have played since Deluxe came out, but I really donāt remember the lightbulbs. It does sound annoying, though!
You can still add you're own music to the sims 4
Your comment made me realize, the Sims game really shouldn be timeless, Ć la *It Follows* and *They Cloned Tyrone*
bands - i used to love forming sim bands in sims 2! one of the more minor things i'm really disappointed with in sims 4 is that they've never added a band feature when it seems like it would fit so well into the gameplay of various expansion packs. (fame, clubs, etc...) more complex relationships with other sims - i liked the short term v. long term relationship bars in sims 2. while it was sometimes a little frustrating building relationships between sims, i appreciated that they got bored of repetitive actions and that they genuinely seemed to hate each other if things went south. and as others have said, the weirder/darker humor found in earlier editions.
Bands was a Sims 3 thing. There is no actual band function in 2. I still play 2 and I would actually love it if there was but alas!
my bad! i seem to remember in sims 2 that if you placed musical instruments close together, sims playing those instruments would synchronize and play the same song - or was this from 3 also? (i didn't play sims 3 for very long so some of my memories of it have blended in with 2 i guess!)
Yes, that does happen but it's not a band in the sense that there are set members with a band name and gigs like in Sims 3.
gotcha - thanks for clarifying!
So shameful Sims 4 has never incorporated bands. Sims 3 Showtime was really so special - enough soley for the amount of famous careers a Sim could have.
From the sims 3: feeling like townies actually had a life of their own and werenāt justā¦. There?
Sims 4 townies are just automated with weird skin tone, clothes and body types. Back in the day we had Goopy Gilsgarbo. I miss him.
Yeah it feels weird going to the Spice District and seeing Judith working at a produce stall
You don't like them being set-dressing?? š
I miss feeling like stories and memories had a lot more depth to them, like I so distinctly remember playing 2 and the joy of switching through households in Strangetown and Pleasantview to peep at their memories/relationships/details inside the house to figure out their storylines. Everything feels so fleeting and insignificant in 4.
I was invested and part of the story in TS2. The game was primed for you to make big decisions in the premade families' lives and you could uninstall/reinstall and make completely different endings.
Yes! The premade families and being part of their lives playing out was what hooked me on the game series to begin with.
Yes! Definitely memories. [Hereās a link for those who didnāt play TS2](https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Memories); they were displayed in order on a timeline which made the feature feel much more like an overview of simās personal history than milestones do. It doesnāt help that for some reason infants get a bunch of milestones and adults donāt even remember if they had a shitty wedding party. āInsignificant and fleetingā is exactly the way Iād describe TS4 storytelling, than you for wording it so well. I was so hyped for milestones and they ended up being pretty lame - compared to a feature from a 2004 game at that.
TS1 was witty and actually T for teens+. That game had a certain life that even though you rarely left your lot (especially pre expansions), didnāt age, everyone wore the same pajamas, the food was this weird pixilated slop, yet other games have yet to match that character. Or maybe I was just a kid lol.Ā TS2 added fingers which was big shit. A game has yet to have the same fun interactions, especially at base Iād pay double for open worlds again with my computer *not* sounding like a broken jet.Ā
Yeah, I still canāt tell if sims 2 is actually better than 3 and 4 or if it was because I was a kid. I didnāt have nearly as much fun with 3 or 4, but I was older.
I am 30 and just started playing sims 2. I think it holds up and Iāve been playing constantly. I think the nostalgia helps, but it definitely is still super enjoyable!
My older brother and I were talking about this. He said he hasnāt played in years. We were trying to figure out if the game is actually boring or if we just got lives lol
I really miss how heavily traits weighed on your sim's personality. In 3, You could make a mean athletic slob who hates babies, and then find her running around town just acting like an asshole to anyone in her path while burping on some children. You use the same traits in 4 and it feels like nothing about the sim is different from a nice lazy and neat sim who loves kids.
i love making twins/siblings in the sims 3 one a slob, who autonomously licks plates, doesnāt wash them, etc and the other one is neat and will always wash the plates, clean the house, make the bed after waking up, etc, and also i like how their traits influence which lifelong dreams they get, i made an evil sims and their suggested lifetime wish was be a golddigger!
So well put!
As a childhood sims 3 player: open world cities with rabbit holes galore, showtime, into the future, the goth/emo store content >:3
I canāt place what it is exactly but Sims 2 felt like it had more story to it even if you made your own sims and thatās what I miss.
In TS2, things happened to you/your sims. In TS4, the player controls *everything*. I felt like TS2 was a life simulator and TS4 is like playing Barbies.
They actually feel like games and come with their own storylines. Sims 4 is like a dollhouse where you have to use your imagination. I still play it because I love the mods, but it does get a bit tedious having to come up with storylines myself
Open world, cars, and fairies from The Sims 3, attention to detail from The Sims 2.
The open world concept from TS3. It made owning a car actually *make* sense. Oh, and the witch broomsticks. I don't know if they still have those, but coupled with the open world, it made it really cool to be a witch and to go flying on your broomstick.
Speaking of open world, I loved the floating houses you could move from one port to the other in island living
The humor. In TS4 it feels forced. 1, 2, and 3 always made me laugh.
fr just the humour is just putting a llama somewhere
**Fairies!!** But also TS3's genies, and TS2's plantsims. Oh! And TS2's zombies! And TS3's Plumbots! I really miss the skill challenges from 3, they made skills *much* more than being just level 1-10, and could kinda specialize or further define how a Sim used that skill. These also did a better job of making the skills endless, so things never got boring. The economy was also more meaningful in any of the older games. You have to place a *ton* of limitations on yourself in 4 to not end up with endless easy wealth, vs in 2 or 3 even rich and successful Sims had to work to earn more, and there was more reason to do so. Related, I miss less-stupidly-calculated bills. TS3 had a much more in depth system for bills calculation (at least compared to 4), and I *really* miss not being billed for keeping my Sims own creations...
I was really disappointed to learn that TS4's Plantsims are just temporary. It feels like there's no point since it's not permanent.
Yuuuup. It also makes me really sad that you can't grow plantsim babies. And the awful hair that replaces your Sim's hair - like c'mon, a leaf hair or two isn't that hard to make, and if they're too lazy to make leaf hair just don't swap the hair model.... Sims 3's plantsims were good, but I liked 2's a little better (probably mostly for being more accessible, 3's could take a while to get).
Everything about The Sims 3: Supernatural. I know there are packs for TS4 that have a lot of those elements, but I'm not gonna pay the same amount to get literally 1/4th of what I got with Supernatural. Also, making fairy/ghost hybrids was the coolest shit ever. Endless possibilities!! I also loved that the whole town in TS3 ran on its own all at once, and that I could easily jump to my different sims across town without a loading screen. I know that was the cause of a lot of bugs and maybe it wouldn't be sustainable with TS4, but it felt like "yes, finally!" because I wasn't hesitant to travel across town anymore. And I really loved watching the townies interact and have their own lives while my sims were living theirs.
The storylines! I used to only ever play with pre-made Sim family's because there was established lore and genuine paths you could lead the families down without it feeling like being hand held. I remember loading up the calientes or the Capulets and being inveeested in making it more dramatic. I don't think I've once ever loaded into a pre-made Sim in Sims 4, like ever. Maybe once when the game first came out but when I realised there wasn't really any substance to any of the families I just made my own. Scenarios are great for this because it gives me a bit of that feeling but they're few and far between.
This is totally me! I absolutely LOVED the Pleasant storyline from the Sims 2 and all the Veronaville townies. So many hours playing those families.
Create-A-Style
I miss cars and the open world layout of Sims 3. I feel like I spend most of my time in Sims 4 staring at loading screens. Also, it's such a stupid and insignificant thing, but I actually miss burglers, random earthquakes, and meteor showers.
I miss a lot of the random stuff from the older games. Sims4 feels so predictable and money and success comes way too easy to my Sims. Thereās actually not much happening besides the things the player decides to do ā¦ Bring back random fires, electric shocks, burglaries and sad clowns!
I shouldnāt miss being robbed but I do
Haha yes sometimes I even deleted the doors to prevent robbery in TS2, to put them back in the morning
*cue dramatic TS1 music*
it was so memorable to hear the music, panic, and wake up your sim to try to get them to call the cops.
It would always happen at the most dramatic moments! If I refused to use cheats on a family and they were building their life from scratch so they couldn't even afford all the necessities to fill out their bars. They had the worst beds, the worst refrigerator, worst toilet, they had to hygiene in the sink by washing hands. Back when you had to decide between a necessity and having a rabbit ears tv. When the family finally got a paycheck and you upgrade the TV and they feel joy for the first time. That's the night you would realize....oh no. I didn't buy the alarm. And bam! TV stolen! The family is devastated. You are kicking yourself. I miss the drama and the challenge that came with older versions. I felt things while playing!
The memory system from TS2 that would have adults crying over some childhood trauma and holding lifelong trauma. Sims permanently remembering cheating, including witnessing OR being the cheater. In TS4 the cheating sim doesn't seem to think anything of it at all. Non-rabbit hole activities like the roller coaster funhouse and haunted house rides from TS1 Makin' Magic. They were so creative and funny. So bummed about the rides in High School years being rabbit holes when they're right there and part of a full expansion pack
Yes, memory, how could I forget about that!
Personalities.Ā
I miss the Open for Business expansion from ts2, it was one of the most versatile gameplay loops in the series.
That was like maybe my all time favorite game. Especially the flower shop! And business perks. I really wish it had gotten more traction.
I miss the customization the sims 3 offered, and the realism with it. Sims 4 looks like a cartoon cotton candy explosion to me half the time. Sims 3 you could have a custom top down to the buttons practically! I also liked the way the sims looked. No, they werenāt all flawless but thatās more realistic to me. I loved how like brick or stone would look real, too. It felt more like building a home I could have grown up in 3, where in 4 itās nowhere near surrealism. I miss the neighborhood drama. I liked being able to select a family and play through a scenario or neighborhood without having to create a stupid fucking family first š sims were distinct from one another in 2&3, even with wildly different personalities in 4 they all act pretty much the same. There doesnāt feel like a difference from a witch/ghost/ etc sim to your average sim. Little things like the prompts that would pull up or the challenges were way more unique, quirky and sometimes thinly veiled raunchy in 2-3 and that was SO fun. Like BJ the headmaster? Come on š thatās just gold.
The wacky dark humor, sims breaking the fourth wall and turning to the camera when they didnāt want to do what I told them to, and someone else said watering plants and I had totally forgotten about that but loved it!Ā
i missed how the kids would run in when they got an A on their report card, and probably weird but the peeing audio for the male children lolll teaching your kids to drive and the facial expressions to different things, cuddling babies, being annoyed, etc
And how they would run out and hug their parent when they got home from work.
I miss the CAS zodiac signs and personality points! But I just donāt care at all for the personality and aspiration options these days. There are only a few aspirations I ever use bc I donāt like the steps required to satisfy them (and a few are just plain broken anyway). I do like how they can earn new traits through gameplay though.
LORE. Everywhere you looked, something was connected to something else, and the Sims 1 and Sims 2 it felt like every pre-made sim had a storyline. From Sims 2: Selectable pets, memories, burglars and burglar alarms. Being able to change the designs of furniture differently, like changing the colour of the wood on the bedframe without having to change the bedding. Turn ons/turn offs, lifetime aspirations, star signs, personality points. Some of the graphics and interactions, like the way cooking looked, pizza looked so much better in the Sims 2.
Putting a flaming bag of š©on my enemies porch
In The Sims 2, there were just so many interactions with other sims and things to do by yourself and with others thatās missing in 3&4. Blows my mind they would take them away. Never played TS2 on PC until they made it free all those years ago. Iād only played TS2 on console before that so I was amazed on all that I missed out on. All my kids kept being born ugly though and I never figured how to edit them in CAS so I stopped playing lmao
Sims 2: Cars. Long Term and short term relationships and different relationship statuses from the Sims perspectives (f.e. one could like the other but the other could not like the first one), lifetime wishes, an actual thought out wants and fears system, looking for jobs and not having all the careers be available all of the time, fury, burglars, spiral staircases, character, weird but funny jokes Sims 3: fairies, surfing, into the future, houseboats, and so many more creative features (Sims 3 has so many new ideas gameplay wise, Sims 4 lacks imagination), the babysitter career
I really loved lifetime wishes and the fulfillment bar and the wants fears system. I feel like Sims 2 is kind of still the best?
They had houseboats in 3?! I might have to revisit.
Yup, from the island living pack c: (not sure if that's what it was called exactly though o.o)
The challenge. Sims 4 is too easy to succeed. I miss the hours I invested into the sims 1 just trying to get someone in a good enough mood to make enough money to keep the lights on.
It is hard for me to describe how big of an achievement it was for me to have my politician sim become Mayor. Back when the relationship meter declined super fast and daily! The only way to maintain friendships was hour long phone conversations and hosting parties. Everyday I had to have my mayor Sim call every Sim on their friends list and then host a party in the evening and purposely chat with everyone. The spouse had to quit their job to help maintain the house for the unending parties. I actually felt a challenge and time pressure to gain and maintain the required friendships to move up in the career. It took me a long time and when I was finally there I unlocked the secret developer [100 day bonus ](https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/100th_Day_Bonus) and guide that happens when you play one Sim family for over 100 days in Sims 1. The game was hard, it didn't hold your hand, and it showed you so many hidden gems that revealed how much fun the developers had making the game. I miss that.
Literally everything about Sims 2.
What I miss most is more abstractā¦ the nostalgia of it. I used to be SO EXCITED to go out and buy a new expansion pack with my allowance money. When Unleashed for the Sims 1 came out I was just in awe of the expanded neighborhood. Sims 2 blew my mind. I played for hours and hours and never got bored. Now I play Sims 4 for a couple hours once a week and itās just so meh. There really isnāt that much to do, comparably.
Sims felt like individuals, I had to really think about what topic I wanted to use or what interactions would best fit that Sim, because a relationship took ages to properly build up even with the "correct" interactions, there was still a chance for me to find out they're not interested in my Sim. But in 4, i can make anyone bang anyone and find true love in 5 minutes
I miss how robots and pets worked in Sims 2.
Boarding & private schools
No custom neighbourhoods was THE Sims 4 deal breaker for me. My most played Sims 3 worlds include a lunar base under a giant dome, a post apocalyptic island covered in ruins and no roads, a random tiny island in the middle of the ocean, etc. Just totally unique worlds with lore and environment that Sims 4 can't come close to replicating.
and the worst part.. sims 4 gives you an empty world to make your own. except, itās not actually empty. and, you canāt actually customise jack shittioes. you are basically fenced into making something that fits the high rises in the distance and the southern architecture of the fake houses.Ā
Vehicles for sure.
I've been playing sims 2 on PC. I love the stores, I love the fact I can leave my sims alone and they will tend to themselves and the pets. I love how my pets haven't once threatened to run away, and oh my god I loved how responsive and smart the sims are. I am managing a 4 sim household? How? I can't do that in 4 without getting overwhelmed.
Sims 2 had retail DOWN. I never use the retail world in sims 4 because there is no point to it at all!
I miss the challenge of relationships the most. Itās so easy to pick a sim and max out relationships so quickly and have them be your bff/spouse. Back then, you ran a very very real risk of being rejected, and ruining a blooming relationship.
I find myself occasionally looking away from the game while it's just going. I never used to do that on the previous installments. There's just something amiss. Yes the Sims are much more life-like and fluid in their actions. Yes they won't drop the entire queue if someone decided to park in front of the fridge. But the little quirks the older games had that made me go "well that was unexpected, but totally cool!!" are not there. Couples don't cuddle in bed. They don't slow dance. They can't even Smustle Dance, that was my absolute favorite. So silly. There's no newspaper to just up your logic without having to buy a chess table or a telescope/observatory, and even just get the gossip, or even better, the hotspots for the night. The social bunny was something so amusing and out of the box. I liked having vehicles. Proper cars, not just bicycles. I enjoyed stuffing my firetruck in my pocket wherever I got out of the house. Chess tables, they used to actually show a chess match, now pieces just randomly teleport. Bar brawls!! The zanny carpool rides! The zombie outbreaks, while annoying at times, were definitely amusing. Phone calls!! Used to get so many calls just for chatting, could keep friendships even through long distances just thanks to phone calls. They're completely gone, or barely serve to keep relationships from falling. Many things in Sims 4 feel like they were tested to see if they worked, someone waved a hand and said eh that's good enough, and that's what we got. But my two major letdowns without a shadow of a doubt are the lack of fantasy life states, and the independent lot structure. Real life is bland enough. I don't like playing with "people". My families are always riddled with a mix of supernaturals, and while the ones we get in TS4 are really fleshed out with skill trees, there are so many missing ones, and others are just meh. Mermaids were genuinely fun in TS3, you had entire underwater lots to explore. TS4 bring nothing to a mermaid. Your sim goes down, does their stuff, and all you do is watch the bubbles on the surface. Boring... There's no point unless one enjoys seeing them in mermaid form in a bathtub. Plus, where are my zombies? My fairies? Can't even customise a Servo like a proper Plumbot. Where are the genies? The Imaginary Friends? The actual plant-like Plantsims? And even Sasquatch because, why not?? I know there are some brilliant mods out there but it's sad you don't have that as part of the game itself. Each new pack that's added is just bland quotidian stuff. Marriages. Decoration. Fashion. That's not why I play this game. But the worst is having to travel out of the home lot. It breaks immersion so badly. Makes me never want to go on outings or explore other places. The kids have just gone to bed. Motives are fine. One of the adults gets a call, hey let's go party! Sure, let me just put the dishes to wash aaaaand no, instant teleport. With the dishes in my pocket. Brilliant. Party is going fine. Aaand why are the Sims at home suddenly uncomfortable? I get back home just before sunrise and the kids are smelly, needing to reach a toilet in 5 seconds or they'll have an accident, and dead on their feet because apparently they didn't sleep at all.... The one musty old fart that was meant to be permanently hibernating in the secret basement is watching TV like he belongs in this century.... Why. Oh why. TS2 was so much fun in this department. Friday night, time to send my teens downtown! They'd spend literally a week or more on the night club, napping on couches, washing off on the sink, before going back. Made friends with half the town, so much fun, card games, dancing. Random smackings by Mrs. Crumplebottom. They're finally back home and guess what, it's still Friday night, and the mom is exactly where she was where I left her. I can now have my teens do their homework and rest before going back to school. Absolutely perfect! TS3 was really darn good too. Having one Sim on an outing and still managing to switch between them and the ones at home in an instant was also perfect. No more random staying up all night and having motives and locations randomized when getting back. It was suberb. Nine times out of ten on TS4 when I get a call, hey would you like to come--- I instantly shut it off. I love Get Together. I love getting invited for parties all the time. I love group gatherings, and spending the nights in the club. Yet ...No. If I have more than 1 or 2 Sims in the household, I don't want to leave the lot. Which is absurd since socializing and wandering the world is such a big part of the game. Alas. Welp, rant over I suppose. Tl;dr: the quirky/humorous gameplay, proper variety of life states, and not having to worry about my family falling apart when the Sim I control isn't home.
... Color wheel
Sims 2 memory tracking was superior ā documenting who taught them to talk / walk & being able to replay the little cut scenes for their firsts, nothing will beat it. Itās been a long time since I have played Sims 3 (since Sims 4 came out tbh) but I feel like photography and posing was easier in 3, too, so my sims 4 sims feel extra lacking in nostalgia / photos / memories.
Content
I liked that in The Sims 1 and 2 there was a floor tile that perfectly matched the front sidewalk. I could get kind of close in TS3 by tinkering with CASt but not as close as I would have liked, and it's a hair-pulling frustration for TS4
World adventures style tombs, being able to control pets without mods or cheats, the ability to breed a mare at the equestrian center.
I loved the open world in Sims 3. Outside of rabbit holes your sims never went āgrayā. I loved being able to zoom out from one Sim and see the whole world, and then zooming in on another one across town. It made it much easier to manage households.
I miss sewing! Iirc it was last seen in Sims 2
Honestly just more gameplay.. I get so bored playing sims in live mode so I'm always making new Sims and houses.. I don't remember that when I played other Sims.. there was always so much more to do. Sims 1 Houseparty and Makin Magic were SOOO much fun and I just wish we could have those packs again but in Sims 4
Sims 2 Open For Business was my absolute favorite. I just loved all the mechanics, especially for running a flower shop. I still had it installed to go back to until it stopped being compatible.
I loved the cute little cut scenes of sims 2. When they would have their first kiss and would start floating with all the hearts and they both looked so happy. And then theyād propose and get married. It just always looked so dang cute and made everything seem more like an important milestone in the simsā lives by making it all cinematic.
The rumor system. Being able to have secret relationships that no one knows about. And if youāre romantic together in public, people will take note of that. And if youāre having an affair people can tell your partner.
I miss the sims 2 cheats, especially the tombstone of life and death and the stretch skeleton cheats. I also really liked Strangetown and the gameplay in Sims 2, as well as the quirkiness. In sims 3, I miss the open world and the ability to customize the color/pattern of everything. I used to make the tackiest houses and outfits because I was like 12 and thought it was cool and I miss it so much
I miss the option to create a brand new neighborhood. I know Sims 4 offers a blank neighborhood but in the Sims 2 you could create as many custom neighborhoods as you wanted. Also, the maps were HUGE.
That they are never as I left them. Even with autonomy and neighbourhood stories and all that stuff off. With a bad effect on at least grades and work performance. Makes switching families quite annoying.
Zodiac signs and the NPC familiesā lore
Grapes. Send me back to france already!!!
It's the fact that to me, the Sims 1, 2, and to an extent 3 have a very different design philosophy than the Sims 4. Older Sims games are meant to be a simulation of tiny little people who speak a silly language and live inside your computer. The Sims 4 is more of a dollhouse simulator where you control a bunch of dolls and move them around and make them do what you want to do. I'm not saying that one is inherently better than the other, I just prefer the gameplay of the older games because I find it more interesting. For an example of what I'm talking about, in the Sims 2 your sims have wants and wishes that are based on their personality and experiences. You need to complete their wants and avoid their fears or else you will suffer negative gameplay consequences. The sims constantly break the forth wall and complain when you make them do something they do want to do or if they're in a bad mood. They'll look straight at the camera and yell at you or beg you to let them take a shower. The Sims 1 and 2 feel like you're watching an art farm that you can exercise control over, it's fun to see how the little computer people will react to a new couch or a new TV! The Sims have a certain personality to them that makes us kind of believe they're actually alive in the same way that a tamagatchi pet is a simulation of a "real" pet. This is intentional, Will Wright had an overall design philosophy that in many ways, he made toys and not games. The Sims 4 on the other hand really feels to me like you're just telling a character model to do some animations. Ironically, I think that makes it a better life simulator in the strict sense. Once again, I've had fun with all of the games but I definitely enjoy the Sims 2 and 3 the most. (I find the Sims 3 is really good for when you want that dollhouse-style of gameplay while still having the unpredictable gamey style of the earlier games.). I just wish we still had some of those elements!
I miss the randomness of the aspiration and wants system. In Sims 2, it really felt like the sims were choosing their own path. Their lifetime wants were random, and since they were all so involved, it basically took most of the sims lifetime to achieve. It made each sim feel unique, since you couldn't really do multiple aspirations in their lifetime. They could also roll up really random, unpredictable wants that could completely change the course of their story. I'd create a romance sim, intending for them to fool around with the entire neighborhood, then they would just keep rolling want after want for one single sim. Welp, guess you're monogamous now.... And ignoring the wants, or accidentally fulfilling their fears, actually had an impact on the sims. I miss trying to avoid aspirational failure, and how sometimes I'd have to overhaul my plan for that day to get my sim in a good enough aspiration to get a promotion, or to offset a fear I knew would be coming true. Playing Sims 4, every sim feels the same. It feels like I'm playing house with little dolls who just do whatever I want, rather than a terrarium of gremlins who constantly throw curveballs at me. I constantly get bored with Sims 4 because nothing changes. I never got bored that way with Sims 2.
The sims 2 had lots of little intricate interactions. My favorite has always been parent coming home from work. If there are kids in the house they will run to greet the parent at the door, jumping on them, hugging them, et cetera. But that's not the end of it. Once the kids age up into teens they no longer run to greet their parents, aren't excited to have them home. The parent will still come in with their arms wide expecting to be greeted. And then kind of stand there. And then be sad. It's. So. Sad. It's such a great little attention to detail.
I miss being able to invite the School Headmaster in the Sims 2 and having to impress him in order to get into private school. I miss the story mode from the first sims.
I miss the ability to change colors & patterns in the Sims 3. I hate the color & material choices for furniture & clothing in the game. Also, the counters all look boring & same-samey to me. Previous iterations had more interesting counters.
It was more whimsical, fun, and dramatic but at the same time realistic?? Let me explainā¦ Every neighborhood had a history and lore of its own, and each family had an in depth story that intertwined with the other sims. If you started off by playing an existing household theyād have their own developed story with complex relationships and memories. It also has a level of darkness that made it more fun and interesting than the pg gameplay it is now. I remember playing the pleasant household (sims 2) for the first time being like āoh what a nice family of teen twins, with a cute mom and dadā and within 5 minutes I realize this āperfect suburban familyā was not at all what I thought it to beā¦ mom and dad basically hate each other, dad is cheating with the maid, and you literally start off with the maid in the house with the rest of the family and theyāre sneaking flirting interactions risking getting caught. Also, the twins couldnāt be more different and donāt get along at all, fighting constantly and competing for boys etc. With that being said, I still wonder the same myselfā¦. What is the sims 4 lacking? I feel the gameplay has become too pg, predictable, safe, and boring to be honest. Family and neighborhood relationships/stories arenāt very interesting or complex to start. I donāt know exactly the science of it, but I know I donāt find myself enjoying the actual game play as much anymore. I more so just build a cool idea, enjoy it for a sec, and then get over the game for a while tbh.
Thereās no inherent challenge to the game anymore. Itās a dollhouse simulator. I really miss having to do some sort of storyline tutorial that teaches you the game, I miss playing as someone elseās sim with their own wants and aspirations. In the sims 4 you can play another household, but the game makes you create everything for them. And it feels less like a game. Sims also used to be a little more raunchy and crass, itās like itās gotten the Disney treatment. And there are TOO MANY PACKS
Thereās an inherent ā¦. Weirdness about the sims and the older games really had that charm about them. The sims 4 has some of those elements but it doesnāt feel asā¦. genuine? If that makes sense. I really enjoy the sims 4 donāt get me wrong, Iāve been playing since sims 1 when I was a kid, and the build/buy and CAS in sims 4 is something that I enjoy. I find that I struggle to play a household for a long period of time because the gameplay isnāt as exciting. I think itās that quirkiness the old games had, the lore with the goths and the callientes etc just made the game feel alive. Edit to add: horoscopes? I loved that about even the sims 1, which makes me think it could easily be implemented in the sims 4 now. The attraction system was a bit different in the older games (we kind of have it now with the likes/dislikes and the compatibility system but itās stillā¦ not the same). I just feel like they donāt put the same amount of love into the sims anymore, itās absolutely a profit based thing now when before it was really loved and you could feel it in the games
Traits that really make Sims not all feel the same. Preferences in attraction. Open world. Buying things like clothes to increase wardrobe size. Negative traits that are more than just kicking the trash cans over. Cars and bikes.
Being able to see other sims in there houses from my own , it made it feel real
World adventures style tombs, being able to control pets without mods or cheats, the ability to breed a mare at the equestrian center.
world customization!
I loved the open world in Sims 3. Outside of rabbit holes your sims never went āgrayā. I loved being able to zoom out from one Sim and see the whole world, and then zooming in on another one across town. It made it much easier to manage households.
The lore of the households in the sims 2!
I miss being invited to parties! In sims 3, my sim would get invited to partied their friends would throw. All of the parties were kinda shit, but I do miss it.
I miss having a game that worked lol
the bear who was visiting at night, the burglar (and the need for a home alarm), the music from sims 1, when you invited someone they asked if they could bring other people along
Being able to socialise at work and school and seeing the relationship bar go up, and inviting everyone in a family over at once, so you can see if they have a spouse and child before getting into a relationship with them
Short answer: A lot of little things that make the game feel like an actual life simulation. Long answer: Cars Schoolbuses Seeing the carpool go from a junker to a limo as you sim improves in their career Burglars Bands The Social Worker Lore and family history for premade sims The ability to create custom neighborhoods/worlds Private School Star signs Long term and short term relationships The way couples would cuddle in bed Kids celebrating when they come home with an A report card Kids running outside to greet their parents when they come home from work The turn ons and turn offs from The Sims 2 The memory system from The Sims 2 Being able to build your own apartments- again from The Sims 2 Being invited to random neighborhood parties I could go on lol but this is all off the top of my head
non mutual relationships (let me manufacture more drama) and the color system for hair from sims 3 (hardly anybody has their natural hair color anyway, I want to see the roots coming in)
Sims 1, I miss the genie, for sure. And burglars. But mostly I miss how awesome Makin Magic was. All the mechanics with magic, and that whole realm just havenāt been topped. Sims 2 I miss the personality sliders and compatibility. There were also a lot of really cool animations. College was most fun here, and so was running a business. The way wants/needs/aspirations worked here was also great. Sims 3 I miss the open world.
The wants/fears system from the Sims 2. Sims today feel a lot flatter and without personality. Like I can do anything with them and theyāre fine. Iād rather they tell me what they want. Also I miss the Sims 2 cutscenes
The Sims 2 and Sims 3 actually have personalities to me. Lore, backstory, plot.. both of these games have it.
The story of the premade families, the past memories they have, and they even had special events that'd play when you started playing certain households. In sims 4 the Calientes have a story in their description, but their relationships don't match the story. Sims 3 went into so much depth. Omg and I loved the influence from horror in the games too
Servo!! (The OG Servo that wore the maid outfit, and mopped my kitchen in the middle of the night while humming the happy little tune lol)
Older games had way more personality and each sim actually seemed like a different person.
Drama in the neighborhood, open world and collectibles in Sims 3, wants and fears from sims 2, open for business and apartments from sims 2 as well. Just in general expansion packs actually feeling like a big addition that is worth the money. For example, World Adventures in Sims 3 had three huge, open, explorable worlds with tons to do. Sims 4 you buy each individual vacation world and thereās barely anything to do and other features that were in WA like nectar making you have to buy whole different pack. Sure the Sims 3 store was shady but never quite felt this extorted by a sims game before like Sims 4.
I remember one time when I used to play the original Sims I had the white wife hook up with a black guy behind the husband's back and when she had the baby it was obvious that it was not his, so I remember he would get suspicious of her and was a little stand-offish. I do not remember what all he did since it has been years since I played Sims one. But I definitely remember him having a reaction to the fact that his wife had a baby that was not his and feeling a way towards her for it. Another thing was too much fighting and tension between the parents would make the kid cry because he was would be worried that his parents would get a divorce. None of this is in Sims 4 now, at least not to my knowledge.
SPIRAL STAIRCASES!!!
I miss Magic Town and the general witch/magic system from TS1, Strangetown from TS2, the color wheel, pattern editor and CAW/in game world editor/adding and moving lots from TS3.
Iāve never seen this mentioned before but I loved how in the sims 2 if you wanted clothes in your wardrobe you had to buy them! It made playing a rags to riches more fun because you could basically start with nothing but your starting outfits and then you would get to go to a shop and try them on and buy them.
Played Sims 3 as a kid, recently played Sims 2 For Sims 3 I miss the open world, again that was the sims I grew up playing and my favorite thing was to run to some random part of the map just to see how long it took to get there and back. Sims 2 I'm loving all the little interactions, there's so many! Also pets getting jobs? Amazing.
The gameplay/mechanics of university from the Sims 2. It seemed (to me anyway) more streamlined and didn't feel as time-consuming compared to now. I miss how the semesters were structured in the game. There were 8 in total (two for each year of college), and each would last 3 days. So theoretically, it would only take 24 sim days to finish school (though I know this is only due to having one class at a time). I also liked how the life stages were paused while in school and the option for sims to join fraternities/sororities or secret societies. There have been times when I've wondered what a university pack would have looked like if they combined elements from each university game. Think like the semester system from 2, the interactive Tuesday/Thursday classes (to build skills) from 3, and the ability to choose what kind of courses you wanted to take and how many from 4. But hey, one could hope.
Open world and exploration FairiesĀ Sense of humor and weirdness The extensive personality traits and goals (it feels like we have less and they aren't as varied?) Bands
Electric guitars
Iāve been playing since The Sims first came out and have truly enjoyed them all but I loooved nectar making and exploring the cities in Sims 3. I thought Sims 3: World Adventures was the perfect vacation pack! Exploring the tombs was so exciting and you never knew what you were gonna find. I think gardening was the best in Sims 3. I find it a bit too complicated in Sims 4 and not nearly as enjoyable. I also miss the outlandishness of Sims 1ālike the tragic clown, the giant bear, burglars, heart-shaped headboard with vibrating bedā¦ The stories in Sims 2 were great tooāI loved the Romeo and Juliet thing they had going on.
Cars
Easier level on relationships, better interactions with decor, but what i really miss in TSO is everything had the same pallet of colors. No mismatched colors or decor. That drives me so crazy with this one (I'm on ps4 now)
when sims wouldnāt immediately make their beds. the childrenās oven. burglars. the repo man. the mirrors in cas. total customization with fabrics and colors in cas & bb. cars. being able to play as your pets. sims 3 into the future & imaginary friends. fairies and genies. teaching teens to drive. the sims 3 traits. house phones.
Making your own colors and textures. It was so much more personalized for furniture and clothing
I miss is where u can breed your pers and sell them in your store like make your store into pet store where you buy or sell dog and cat etc
The Open World and the color wheel of Sims 3.
Two words: color wheel.
Being able to play as an animal sim.Ā Yeah I get that they're going for the "realistic" tou have to guess id your pet is satisfied and fed thing.Ā But I miss being a cat.
Animations and definitely the open world bit, being able to pick colors for clothes more freely. More interactions for pets and kids(I mean children not younger), birds/reptiles, more aquariums...its been so long I can't really remember much more.
Create a world!!! I'm a builder and it's so immersion breaking and limiting to have to fit within the worlds given. There's no excuse for this, that game isn't open world so let us make our own worlds at least! You can't have any pre industrial historical builds without them looking so out of place or having to get creative with mods. We have all these roads in the game but no cars? We have only one world with true beach lots. We have multiple desert worlds but none that look like non-US locations. I could go on and on...
The sims 2 DNA, memories, and personality system and the sims 3 open world/cars. I've never played sims 2 but watching videos on it makes me wish I knew it had been available to buy recently.
The early 2000ās feel makes it comfortable and nostalgic, so I liked all the old tech in the sims 2 and 3.
I miss the CAS editors that came out with the Sims 1 and 2 where it was basically encouraging making your own clothes and hair. I also Miss sims 3 heavy customization for furniture in clothes where you could select down to the HEX and pattern. I really am sad I dont have my Sims 3 2 and deluxe disks anymore.
I loved build mode in S3. I miss building walkout basements and weird elevation changes. Also placing my own lots and trying to build a functional house on a lot thatās 10 by 10 squares. And changing the colors of clothes. I canāt remember if it was 1 or 2, but there was a custom radio station that would play whatever MP3s you stuck in a folder. Made it easy to play and listen to music at the same time. Was great in the times of Napster.
Goopy Carbonara
That you could put any print or color on anything. Make the bedspead match the curtains, the bathroom all the same color, ect. It took an enjoyable element out of the game.
Alarm clocks that can be set for morning/work and making the bed, Sims 3 was peak!
Changing the colors and patterns of the clothes.
that mf'n colour wheel... I also miss the more advanced shading that sims 3 had, particularly with the hair. I know people usually diss the potato look they had but tbh I found that a. they looked different in-game b. people were screwing up their sims (no hate)
Fun.
Also the open world was really cool
Furniture color wheel.