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Availability:
Only 1 left in stock, order soon!
Arrives
Nov 2 – Nov 4
Platform: PC / Mac
Edition: Standard
Features
- Create unique sims: A variety of sims are yours to personalize, each with distinct appearances, dynamic personalities, and inspiring aspirations
- Build the perfect home: Construct the home of your, and their dreams by planning its layout, choosing furnishings, and altering the landscape and terrain
- Explore vibrant worlds: Travel between locations, discover amazing and distinctive neighborhoods, and encounter captivating venues
- Play with life: Control the rich and entertaining moments of your Sims lives from their relationships to their careers
Description
PC SYSTEM MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS REQUIRED: Internet connection required for product activation. OS: Windows XP (SP3), Windows Vista (SP2), Windows 7 (SP1), Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 CPU: 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD Athlon 64 Dual-Core 4000+ or equivalent (For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.0 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-62 or equivalent) RAM: At least 2 GB RAM DISC DRIVE: DVD ROM drive required for installation only HARD DRIVE: At least 9 GB of free space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games VIDEO: 128 MB of Video RAM and support for Pixel Shader 3.0. Supported Video Cards: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better, ATI Radeon X1300 or better, Intel GMA X4500 or better DirectX: DirectX 9, 10, and 11 compatible (Vista or 7 required for DirectX 10/11) INPUT: Keyboard and mouse MACINTOSH MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS REQUIRED: Internet connection required for product activation. OS: Mac OS X 10.7.5 (Lion) CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz Processor or better RAM: At least 4 GB RAM HARD DRIVE: At least 10 GB of free space (12 GB if installing with The Sims 4) with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 Pro or better. Video RAM of 256MB or better INPUT: Keyboard and mouse. Online interactions are not rated by the ESRB.
Publication Date: September 2, 2014
Computer Platform: PC
UPC: 014633730371 804067331165
Release date: September 2, 2014
Countries:
Product Dimensions: 6 x 8 x 2 inches; 3.2 ounces
Type of item: Video Game
Language: English
Rated: Teen
Item model number: 73037
Item Weight: 3.2 ounces
Manufacturer: Electronic Arts
Date First Available: August 20, 2013
Frequently asked questions
If you place your order now, the estimated arrival date for this product is:
Nov 2 – Nov 4
Yes, absolutely! You may return this product for a full refund within 30 days of receiving it.
To initiate a return, please visit our Returns Center.
View our full returns policy here.
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Top Amazon Reviews
No toddlers? Thank you, Maxis! It was always so irritating to deal with babies and toddlers so much that it was ALL you were doing and your Sim spent all their time meeting all their needs. Very realistic for sure but I did that in real life and I play games for fun not reality. I always just ended up aging them up to a child as quick as possible. No pools? They were nice to make your property cool and pretty. But having your Sims swim in them was about as exciting as watching your Sim bicycle across a big open world map to work. But anyway let's focus on the fact that this is Sims 4 and not Sims 3. A new direction. The create a sim is really great and easy to use. I love the cartoonish style graphics. I do admit I miss the ability to create some crazy outfits using all the patterns and the color wheel but I can manage without it and actually spend a lot less time creating my Sims and more time playing the game. I was nervous about a loading screen everytime my Sim changed venues but it is just a few seconds and is so much better than the waste of time of watching them travel or wasting all their energy running somewhere. Like I said I am a casual gamer though. The whole interface seems a lot more crisp and clear. I like the whole emotions idea and how it gets me to play my Sim based on how they feel at the moment. I don't have to of course but it is much more fun than always playing just to meet your needs or to increase skills or get a promotion. Oh and my favorite part that got me stoked about Sims 4 was when my Sim was double fisting a milk and a coffee while watching tv and talking to his friend. It could only be better if he was holding two beers :) The multi-tasking is a great feature. I haven't seen it yet but I sure hope my Sim can chat with someone on the phone while sitting on the toilet. This is a fun game. Give it a chance **I wanted to add that while I like the emotions, they can tend to shift around very quickly at times. Maybe my Sim is just overy emotional...or nuts :P ***Update: After getting some more playing time this weekend I will add some new things I enjoyed about the game and even some issues I had. I really enjoyed the fact that you can bake your own cake for your birthday party. I had to learn this through my own research however after searching through the items list for a birthday cake and finding nothing. I also really enjoy that you are given goals to accomplish to make your parties and dates better. It always irritated me in Sims 3 when you were given a bad party or date rating and had no idea what you did wrong. On that same note I like that you have goals to help gain promotion at work rather than just boosting skills related to your job and going to work with a good mood. In my tech job, I have to do things like "mod a game" and I think it is very cool that I can work on job related things while chatting with house guests or even send someone a text. Also I think Sims 3 simply had a smiley face to represent your job performance. Sims 4 gives a much more clear progress bar on how things are going at work and this seems to change pretty accurately based on how you perform out of work tasks and the way you choose to work when you get there. Work hard, take it easy, leave early, etc... I didnt notice this option at first. It is a bit difficult to notice at first. Not sure if I missed it in the tutorial but i figured it out eventually. Not sure if this is good or bad but depends on your game style I guess, but it seems like there is no noticeable affect for being late to work. If my guy is supposed to be to work at 9, he usually doesn't even leave until 9 and sometimes if I'm doing something, he doesn't even leave until 9:30. At times it seems like time flies by while at work, almost to the point you forget to adjust how you want to work that day. Other times it seems to go a bit slower like in Sims 3 and I wonder if that is related to the fact that I am clicking around looking at things. Also I noticed that you can't check your needs or click ahead on what you want your sim to do as soon as they get home while they are at work. I don't really love or hate this but it is a noticeable difference. I had one major issue where my son had started a sim and took my sim to the gym with him. When I restarted my game, it started at the gym but I couldn't find my sim or click on anything. I gave up on it slightly angry and quit the game. When I went back to it later, my sim was back in his house with all of his needs at 100%. Also I had a ton of friends i didn't know about and some of the chicks I was hitting on were now elders. Not sure how well it works having 4 of us with different families in the same sim world and playing at different times but I know we didn't have that option in Sims 3.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2014 by madjac74
I hate to feel like the only one saying this, but I really like TS4. I have played all sims games since the beginning. Yes, I miss a lot of the elements that people are complaining about, but this is a brand new game. There will be a ton of features added through expansion packs. The number one complaint I see is that you only load a small part of the world at a time. So, if you want to travel to the museum, for instance, you have to endure another loading screen. To me, this is a HUGE POSITIVE!! The loading screens never take any longer than a minute on my computer and that's much better and more tolerable than the 6+ minutes TS3 took to load! So, on the rare occasion that I want to send my kid to the park to play on the monkey bars there, I will sit through a loading screen. The game also has some really fun features with your aspirations and your career goals. Things are broken up into milestones and you have to meet certain requirements to pass the milestone and work towards the next step in achieving your goals. It's very fun to have these little tasks to do. Also, emotions are very fun to play with! I wish it was a little harder to manipulate emotions, but I'll take what I can get! I love how your sim will have different interactions available when they are in a certain mood. Going to school focused also boosts a sim's performance! I've found this to be a fun feature to play with. My sim also got pregnant from a random guy who was walking by her lot one day. So, I moved him into the household, but when he proposed she denied him (for some unknown reason, but if I had to say, I think it was because of his terrible facial structure) and he died of embarrassment right on the spot. Then my sim proceeded to get chummy with the grim reaper and still calls him sometimes! There was an achievement flashed on my screen for befriending the grim reaper! Now, onto building improvements! As a primarily live-mode player I really don't care too much for building fantastic homes. I prefer the quick and simple and my goodness does the new build mode cater to that! You have new features which allow you to choose from many premade rooms and just plop them onto your lot. You can resize them as you please. Then, you can also just decide to pick up and move the entire room on a whim, or you can move your entire house! It makes adding and editing your sim home so much easier. The only thing I truly miss is the auto roof. It might still exist and I just can't find it. Also, pressing F4 while in game brings up a menu where you can browse user created content. There are already so many beautiful homes, rooms, families, etc already waiting for you to use! Yes, it is a bit sad you can't build swimming pools, yet they put a lot of effort into making fountains elaborate. Do I get it? No... But I see an outdoor living (or some similar name) expansion or stuff pack coming out in the future with this option. How many players out there even used their pools? My sims never went swimming... And maybe you will miss being able to turn off floor elevation restraints and using terrain tools to make these crazy homes. I don't miss that stuff because I was never a master builder. What I do know is the master builders out there are still finding a way to make amazing content. It's a great and fun game, so I'm not sure why everyone is giving it all the bad reviews. If you all were expecting a clone of TS3, then why don't you just stick to TS3?
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Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2014 by J. Bean
Let me start by saying i understand that people are upset thinking that there is less content. I was a bit worried about getting the sims4 because of reviews and everything they took out like alot of you. Luckily i had amazon points that i used to pay for most of the game. Now for the game : I started playing and enjoyed the create a sim, it was very clear and you can customize every body part basically. If you played the CAS demo there is a lot more clothing once you get the game by the way. Getting into the game I played for about 2 hours thinking is this it? But as i played on the game offers a lot more than it's first impression. You go to work and have to do certain tasks to get a promotion but they aren't as tedious as the sims 3 when it was just getting the same skill higher for the most part. For example as a painter you need to complete a painting as a daily task, you don't have to but it helps with your job performance. Then they're are also the requirements such as paint a abstract painting, research art references etc. Then you also have your ambition which so far seems to be seperate from your job, much like real life your ambition and your job may not go hand in hand or they may be similiar in category but require you to do different things to achieve or fufill each one. The game started to get good when i got my sim hitched and had a kid. I know some people are upset about the toddler phase taken away but I am not one of those people the growing up of your child in Sims 3 seemed so repetitive and honestly just a nuisance, clicking potty train or teach to walk a bunch of times got pretty boring to me. In the sims 4 you have a baby and you can age it up to a child whenever you feel like it by having a parent click on the baby and clicking age up. Unrealistic? Ya. But for me i hated the baby and toddler stages they weren't fun to have to play through for me. But if you like the baby stage you can keep them there if you wish. Once i aged the baby into a child it was similiar to the sims 3 as you go to school and do homework. You are tasked with gaining skill to level 4 in 2 skills these are similiar to the adults as far as gaining the skill. (maybe a little easier). This is the point I am up to in the game. The best part for me has been this point, the game really shines when you have a household of 2 or more people the sims interaction seems more intuitive and flows very nicely. The multi tasking helps to keep the household alive when doing certain things instead of being cut off like in the sims 3. Content and moods: I know people are worried the game doesn't have alot to offer in the way of content and i was worried about this as well. Luckily i have found that it has alot of different elements to keep the game interesting. The different objects such as paintings, furniture etc. All influence your sims mood. The mood seems like some cheap gimmick when you are being told or shown what it is, but as you play the game the mood can drive the sims to do different activities and help them in their careers. I have so far discovered that if you are a painter if you are in a certain mood such as confident you can draw a confident painting and put it on the wall then depending on your skill it will increase the mood by that amount. The moods have different points which is hard to explain in review but it really helps in the game. Doing things your sim loves helps there mood much like in real life. If you love body building in real life it is the same in the Sims 4 you will have points going towards happy after a good workout and may have points going toward energized. But if your sim isnt that involved or skilled in working out they will get no fun from it, if they have a good workout they may get a point in happiness moodlet. It is hard to explain but all of the moods influence your sims to do different activities and each mood has certain perks and certain downfalls such as the sad or tense or angry mood. They're are a range of different types of furniture and video games some that aren't invented today. As well as some things we do have today such as a tablet. If you buy a tablet your sims can put it in there inventory and walk around with it, use it on the toilet etc. Graphics: i feel they are more cartoon but also more clear and crisp which means you can make a closer lookalike of a person but it will be more cartoonish, you can google comparisons of celebrities to characters people have made they seem pretty close. Careers: Not a lot of career choices but at the same time the game has ambitions and other activities your character can do to make money in my opinion it would have been nice to have at least 3 more careers in there but it doesn't really hurt the game in my opinion since their is so much else to do in the game. Ambitions: Ambitions seem accurate and to me i have no complaints about them. Objects furniture decorations activities etc: I feel the game has alot of different objects i was unhappy that they only had 2 different kinds of carpets that look the same and not a very wide selection of colors considering they only have 2 kinds. Again not a big deal to me though. Other than this so far they have plenty of different types of things to choose from as far as ovens(you have to unlock one good oven with cooking) Gym equipment they have at least 5 different types and atleast 2 different unlockable punching bags from 2 different career paths. 4 or 5 different easels 3 are unlocked through painting career i believe. Different desks some you unlock through careers and give you mood bonus towards the mood that helps you in your career. And more obviously but i don't want to type anymore. clothing: The clothing seems like there is not too much to choose from but i wouldnt say much less if it is less than the sims 3 had in it's base version. Toddlers are smaller than adult just btw. Hair styles: I won't lie i wish they had more to choose from but i think they have a wider range than the sim3 base version. Also if you like hats your hair can stick out the way it would in real life now instead of just disappearing under a cap. Object placement: You can now put something on the wall higher than something else example you can put a mirror above a sink on the wall and then put lights above the mirror and if you have room on a higher wall you can put windows above those lights so on and so forth. This helps also when i was trying to fit things into a smaller room because of a tight budget. You can put things on a diagnol now which also can help with fitting furniture also just more realistic. Building: I haven't spent alot of time building honestly but it is easier. I enjoyed building in the other sims this game seems like building will take less time to do. I ran into less (you cant do this because...) notices so far. Interactions: More intuitive. More life like. Only problem is if you are having a one on one convo with someone other people may just join in on the conversation. Which is I guess more life like. Oh ya if you are married or have woohoo'd you wont get embarrassed when your partner walks in anymore. Other people you will be embarrassed for though. I'm tired of typing. Summary: The Sims 4 is alot more then it's first impression which at first i felt sucked. As you play it is very intuitive and flows a lot easier. I haven't been able to explain in great detail what makes this game better than the rest because i feel you really have to play it to understand. The game keeps you from wasting time on tedious things and seems to keep you more into the playful side of the game. In my opinion this so far is the best sims game i have played BUT I also feel that everyone has a different taste for what they're favorite is and may like the sims 3 more. Btw they also put in a option to turn off aging sims when they are not used or you can turn it on. Also yes you can't drive but it keeps you saving time. The load screens are maybe 6 seconds and keeps people from being tired out by the time you go out. It seems easier to have a night on the town without your sim getting upset which is nice, they throw less temper tantrums it seems. Im sure there are other things i haven't mentioned but i'm not getting paid for this and i really don't feel a need to continue typing lol. But i hope this has helped you in your decision. Also i couldn't get the game with points for the instant download or w.e. but if you buy the physical copy and have it sent to your house you can use points on that. You still have to install and get the patch it all and all took about 20-40 minutes for me.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2014 by Connor
Updated. I hate this game even more even with mods and cheats it is still boring and so limited. Again. I am only giving it a chance because I paid too much money for it. I still do like the game just a tiny bit and that is only because of what you can do in Create A Sim and some more detailed interactive content that I wish was in SIms 2. Though they may have seemed like a great idea before but emotions are overrated and very annoying. Come on, why is she NOW tense from a fire at a neighbors house that happened an hour ago? Depending how your Sims are feeling you have to stop everything and go off and do something just to appease their emotions and it is a waste of time because you're only going around in circles. It's hard enough building skills and relationships without have to drop everything to go and kick a trash can on the far other end of the park. That's only a tidbit. Content, as far as design. I still don't know what Maxis is doing. Why does Maxis still have a problem putting together color schemes and proper furniture sets? I don't know where to begin with that but nothing matches or go together. Everything looks 2D while the Sims are in 3D if that makes sense. However, I do like the way you can arrange decorative items without the diagonal cheat. So basically I liked the design tools. Game play wise everything is at a stand still all the time. It's still amazing how you can do so much and it amounts to so little. I still can't believe I bought this game for this amount when Sims 2 was cheaper and you got more out of it. Even the Sims 2 base game alone was enjoyable. The amount of content that was taken from this game is ridiculous. What content they took out were these to name a few; police, firemen, repo man, nanny, toddlers, aliens, telescopes, burglars, the ability to customize lots, family tree, basements, they added the pools back in but they are still limited for example no diving boards and there's so more gone. It may not seem like much but these features had content that came with them that made them and the Sims game more fun. Which this game is not. I wish they instead of releasing this game, delayed it and made something great out of it and not leave stuff out just to charge customers for it later at a high price. I would gladly pay 60 dollars for Sims 4 if it was worth it and not lacking the basics that was even in Sims 2 base game. Origin is another story. It took 24 hours to install, each and every time. I purchased this back in Dec. 2014 and I don't know how many times I've uninstalled and reinstalled Sims 4. Too many times I think. I know I've uninstalled and reinstalled this game so many times I've threatened to break these **** disks. This last time (around July) Origin updated itself and then I was no longer able to play the game so I uninstalled it. I had no choice, every time. I just reinstalled it (Aug. 30th) and this time around I make sure not to be online so it won't update otherwise I have to deal with it breaking again. I've played a total of 25 hours of game play since buying it and that was last year. Origin as a game launcher just sucks. I don't see the purpose of having to be online to play a game I purchased that's meant to be played offline. I don't care about somebody else content if I want it I would download it myself. I'd per fer the old Sims launcher anyways. This is the last time I'll ever buy anything regarding the Sims 4. So anyone interested I say, save your money instead and if you still have your Sims2 or Sims3 games just install the downloads, mods and programs for any new content you want and there you go, you've just made your own Sims4 how it should be.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2015 by Seliyah
Endless Creativity and Storytelling Sandbox The Sims 4 is one of those games that can easily pull you in for hours without realizing it. I’ve played it both casually and in marathon sessions, and it continues to surprise me with the sheer number of ways you can shape characters, build homes, and tell stories. The Create-a-Sim tool is incredibly detailed—you can customize almost every feature of your Sims, and the building system has come a long way from earlier versions. Designing dream homes or quirky starter houses is just as fun as managing your Sims’ everyday lives. What I really like is the freedom to play however you want. You can focus on careers, relationships, or just pure chaos—it’s all possible. The expansions and downloadable content definitely add depth, though even the base game feels full enough to stand on its own for newcomers. One small thing to keep in mind is that the more content you add, the heavier it can run on your system, so having a decent PC or Mac makes a difference for smoother play. Bottom line: If you enjoy creativity, storytelling, or just experimenting with virtual lives, The Sims 4 is an endlessly replayable and rewarding game that’s easy to recommend.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2025 by Everyday Reviews
People need to stop thinking this is a Sims 3 sequel or something, just like TS2 was a follow-up to TS1, and TS3 was a follow-up to TS2. TS4 is not a follow-up to TS3. It is really a whole different game. No one can get over that fact. Everyone went in with the wrong expectations, and they feel hurt. But you know what, it is their fault and they can't be mad. The indications were there long ago. I spent 5 hours on the game last night after I got home from work, and I enjoyed every hour of it. But you know what? I went into the game thinking I would hate it but had good expectations for it, not the other way around. The core focus of the game kind of got lost somewhere between TS1 and TS3 until we ended up with TS3 which was a house-building game with a social simulator included. With TS4, they went back to what the game was always supposed to be, what it was always supposed to focus on: social interaction. TS3 is still a fantastic game for house-building, and it'll always be in my library, but TS4 for me will always be a fantastic game focusing on socialization. The system they developed is very unique and detailed to say the least, and the day-today life in TS4 is unrealistic like all of TS games, but does not lack the novelty of the franchise. Yes, there are ares where TS4 is lacking, and it is going to be. The core focus was shifted, and it is a base-game. Of course it will be different compared to TS3 base-game at release. Maxis wasn't trying to reboot the franchise or continue with something that became a perversion of Will Wright's original idea. To me it seems they were trying to give his dream new life, and I think they did it quite fantastically. I do not know what caused it, but one of the consequences of an unknown(to me) was the sacrifice in visual realism. TS3 was a beautiful game with beautiful visuals, but TS4 is too cartoony for too many people(mainly because the had hoped for an updated version of TS3). The focus on a life simulator is still there, and it is incredible. Just don't talk to Don Lothario. He'll harass you.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2014 by Donald Johnston
The first thing I would like to make clear is that I am a Sims virgin. For 18 years I have been untainted by the highly played sandbox game, but everything changed on February 9th, 2015. My knowledge of the Sims universe is very limited, but I did my best to read up on the Sims 4 game as well as its predecessors. My review for the Sims 4 game is going to be very unique and may only appeal to one type of audience—I will not be comparing the Sims 4 game to the previous Sims 3 game like many other reviews before mine. My review will be just on Sims 4 and how much I did or did not enjoy it so that other people who are like me and have not played the Sims before can decide if they would like to purchase the Sims 4 or not. The purpose of my review is to reassure other “Sims Virgins” like myself, that you don’t have to have the knowledge of all three previous Sims games to enjoy (or not enjoy) Sims 4 and you don’t have to have much gaming experience either. All you need is a bucket-ton of imagination and a god-complex. (I’m just kidding about that god-complex.) The day I started to play the Sims was the day that I realized how loosely I could define the word play. I am basically a god. I am the great god Zeus, constructing monuments that bring me pleasure and screwing with the mortal’s lives just for kicks and giggles. Needless to say I went a little crazy. I had no previous experience with past Sims games so everything was so new and vibrant to me (“what the heck are simoleons?”, “oh my gosh, how do I rotate the screen?”, “wait, wait, wait, wait! How do I put a roof on my house?”). The metaphor of me as a Greek god is as close as I can get to describe the experience. Well maybe a god who is also an exasperated parent (did you know Sims can’t go to the bathroom on their own? An adult man cannot use the toilet by himself and will wet his pants if not commanded by his creator to use the bathroom). For those who are unfamiliar with the Sims game (which most likely is a very small audience) you basically create a character, or two characters (in my case), or a family and you help them live life. You pick out their personalities, their traits, what they’re good at; you help them build up their skills (cooking, cleaning, singing, exercising…) until basically their death. In simplest terms, you’re playing house. Which, unfortunately, for me got boring pretty fast. So you get a better idea of Sims 4 allow me to walk you through a typical day of my two Sims, Pepper and Teddy. Teddy wakes up around 6--well that depends on whether or not I put him to bed on time and whether or not it looks like his bladder will explode—after waking up I feed him breakfast (that I had him cook beforehand) then I send him off to work all by 7:00 am. Pepper will be woken up at 7:00 so she will have enough to time to shower, eat, and pee before school at 8:00. Then I wait, and wait, and wait, and wait until finally both my Sims return home at 3:00. Thank goodness for the fast forward button or I would be (even more) bored out of my mind! The tricky thing with time in the Sims is that it goes impossibly fast. So as soon as my Sims come home I make Pepper do her homework and Teddy make dinner or relax (depending on his mood--he can be really tense after working as a secret agent all day) its already 6:00 o’clock or so and I don’t have enough time to take them to the town or have them take a walk, basically I have them chat or watch TV or swim in the pool in their backyard (which is the size of a puddle practically—pools are expensive). Then they are off to bed by 9:00 pm. Keep in mind though that the day is absolutely full of random bathroom visits, showers/baths, eating and napping. Sims are extremely needy. It’s hard rating a game on its level of fun. Fun is such an individualistic opinion. What I find fun might not be what everyone else finds fun. Any who, with that being said, I’m breaking my “play time” into three different parts so that I can show you the three different categories of “fun” you may or may not experience in Sims 4. I began the game by creating my avatar. Well, I created two. For some reason I got it into my head that just playing with one avatar would be too boring, so I made two. Pepper Brown and Teddy Hoffman. My favorite part of the Sims was probably creating these two. I love dressing up characters and customizing them so I spent a lot of time in the “dressing room” making them perfect. Only I couldn’t make them as perfect as I wanted to. Sims 4 actually is pretty slim on hairstyles and clothing choices. Like their entire wardrobe looks like it was decked out by a couple of early 2000s pre teens. No one wears this kind of stuff! So, unfortunately, I had to send Pepper and Teddy into the world looking like disasters. The thing I didn’t quite understand is why they have such sparse fashion choices but a plethora of eyes to choose from, or noses, or even eyebrows. They had at least 20 eyes to scroll over that looked practically identical to the next. The next part of the game was building. Building mode will become your friend. I spent close to two hours decking out my house from scratch—which I do not recommend. You have the option of making your own rooms or purchasing pre-built rooms and then maybe swapping some furniture in and out. I did the latter and let me tell you my wallet was not thanking me for it later. It was a lot of work and a lot of work for nothing. I assumed that my drones would make enough money for me to fix up my house later so I was pretty chill with starting out with my drab little house. Little did I know jobs in the Sims 4 world pay just as little as jobs in the real world. It’s been three weeks and I’ve never broke $2,000. My house still remains as cozy as a homeless man’s cardboard box. If you’re a first time Sims player, do yourself a favor and buy a pre-furnished house, you will thank yourself for it later. The third part of the game was the actual play time. At first I was obsessed with getting my two Sims to interact with each other. I was hell bent on making them best friends. I got to choose their personalities when I was customizing them so I was busy with that trying to make them win certain achievements to get them to develop as a “person”, but after a while it all just got…boring. It was just all the same. I expected the Sims to be like some wonderful life, like the whole “oh I created an avatar so I can live through it and be what I always wanted to be”, but instead it was just like regular life (only worse, I never clean my bathroom sink as much as they do). There are certain parts that pop up that are fun (like your Sim falling in love, or your Sim getting a promotion, stuff like that), but there are also things that are just chores. Maybe it’s different for everyone, but about seven hours into the Sims I was pretty much already done with virtual Pepper and Teddy. Okay imagine you wake up, go to school, come home, do homework, watch TV, maybe talk with your friends, go to bed, and then start all over in the morning! Oh, you’re not a student? Okay, imagine you wake up, go to work, come home, watch TV, maybe talk to your friends, go to bed, and then start all over in the morning! Sound like fun? Oh I forgot, on weekends you can go to the park that has absolutely nothing to do in it, go to a night club where all you do is dance, go to the museum and “view” art, or go to the gym and stink up the place. There we go, there’s the fun! That’s literally all you can do in “Sims World”, there’s nowhere else to go. You create this Sim and you feed it, care for it, bathe it, help it use the bathroom, send it to work/school, and help it achieve its dreams until it dies. That’s it. That’s the game. Well there’s a little more than that. Take Pepper for example. Pepper was given certain traits like ambition, criminal master-mind, and confidence (she’s based off of my dog) and throughout the game I am to help Pepper develop these skills so that she can use them to get ahead in life. So if I follow the rules the Sims game gives me I can level her up or earn Sims points that can go toward buying her new traits (like cleanliness or fertility). The same went for Teddy who had traits such as mischief, romance, and humor (he is based off of my best friend’s dog). After a while though I got bored of trying to level up these Sims. It was truly a grueling task. And I’m at it alone, they’re not trying to level up by themselves—it’s all up to me. I started to feel like a very put-up god. What was supposed to be the game’s fun value and playability became more like a chore and we all know how people feel about chores. However, the “fun” as well as the replay value is dependent on the individual. The replay value is tricky. Here’s the thing, you will always have the opportunity to start a new story and to create new characters who have different dreams and different goals. However, the chores most likely will remain the same, and the world itself won’t get bigger. The story is Sims 4’s saving grace. It is seriously the best part of Sims 4. The story is what makes a Sims game a Sims game—it is its bestselling feature. The types of stories are endless (the story itself may be endless depending on how long you get your Sim to live). You can be anything you want or you can create anyone you want! You can personify your dogs for Pete’s sake! You are the god of your own universe. However, that is where Sims 4 has its limits, as stated in previous discussion. You may be the god of your own universe, but your universe basically consists of 3 neighborhoods, a town, and a park. So while the story may be unique, your experiences may not be since you are subject to the same old places each time you start out. The main reason I chose to purchase Sims 4 instead of Sims 3 (which has way more extension packs and is generally more liked by the players than Sims 4) was because of the graphics. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to sit through a game with poor (early 2000’s) graphics so I splurged and bought Sims 4. So…the graphics are good. They’re not great, but how can they be? It’s a sandbox game. They’re good enough. Not enough to make up for some other poorer aspects of the game, but like I can appreciate how the river behind my house looks like a river, and how the people actually look like people, and that pretty tree that blocks half of my house. Before purchasing Sims 4 I read up on it and found that Sims 4 was supposed to be more focused on the Sims so the game designers worked pretty hard to give your Sim as many expressions as they could. And in that regard they did a pretty bang-up job. The facial expressions are gold in this game. And not only the facial expressions but the whole body language. If Pepper is mad, you can tell she’s made from her head to her toes, from her scowled brow to her stomping feet. The Sims 4 game is a constant battle between commanding your Sim to do something and waiting for them to do it. I may click on a dish from Teddy to clean up and wait for him to finish talking to Pepper, walk over to the table, pick up the plate, and wash it (this all can take a minute in real life and close to 5 minutes in Sims time). Even though it’s fun to watch Pepper and Teddy chat it can get pretty annoying when their too caught up with that that they forget to use the bathroom and get close to wetting themselves. The thing I enjoy most about the cut-scenes (which is also ironically one of the things I dislike the least) is the anticipation. I like telling Pepper to insult someone and wait for her voice to change to a mocking sneer and for her hand to fall on her hip. I like telling Teddy to kiss Pepper’s hand and wait for him to drop to his knees and confess his adoration for her. However I don’t like how I usually have to wait a good four minutes for this to happen. If a Sim is talking with three of more people they can get pretty distracted and forget to follow through with one of your commands. If you’re an old time Sims player the controls are probably old news. If you’re a newbie like me it may cause you a bit of trouble. The thing is, the game doesn’t really ever explain the controls, and you kind of have to be smart enough to figure them out for yourself. The controls weren’t really a huge issue until you were done creating your minion and sat down to fix your house. It probably took me longer than average to figure out that if you hold right click and drag the mouse you can rotate the angle of the camera (at least from left to right), but other than that small tidbit everything else was pretty easy. The key to the controls is patience; and to be adventurous with the buttons on the mouse. There is something I must warn every new user of. You’re radio is magic. Either that or its haunted. It literally never turns off. You can turn it off and seconds later it will turn itself back on. However, just because your radio is constantly playing doesn’t mean that you’re listening to its music. Most likely you’re listening to your Sims speak in Simlish (something that was hilarious the first few hours of game play and now grates on my ears) or listening to the little horn medley that plays every time you win an achievement. Be prepared to hand your life over to hearing that little jingle. My overall opinion on Sims 4 is try it for yourself. I’m not you; I’m not sure what you like. For me I wasn’t satisfied with it, maybe that will change when I retry it, but I don’t know. If you want more adventure in your games and more activities to do, I suggest you do not get Sims 4. Sims 4 may have pretty rad graphics and Sims with fun, new personalities and such, but Sims 4 doesn’t have a lot of playability. I’m giving it a 3 out of 5—its good, but it unfortunately had the opportunity to be so much more.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2015 by Stephanie Brown
I actually own this game and have played it more than just a day or few hours. I wanted to make that clear as it seems this game is getting a lot of hate without actually have been played or owned by a lot of reviewers. I have played the sims since the first game way back in the early 2000s. So I've played all four versions now. So I will first address some issues that people seem to hate/miss from prior games...... Babies are not objects, you can build relationship them right from birth and the light changes around their heads to show their moods. There are multiple interactions available with babies too but it's true you can't leave the vicinity of the bassinet. The bassinet is movable with the baby inside though. No toddlers but I don't miss them yet. They were a pain for me to potty train, bring up stairs etc. So I like skipping all that. Open world is gone but we have a semi open world which loads better without lag or rendering issues. You can't tell from the world map but each lot has public space around it where you can find steams to fish in, jogging paths with sims, plants to discover, places to dig etc. etc. There are no loading screens to get to these areas. When you do travel to another area the loading screen is only seconds long and not any longer than waiting for your sim to walk/run/drive in the open world. No rabbit holes! Swimming pools.....These are coming back in the November patch! BTW patches have added content like ghosts, costumes, more eye colors etc. Lack of Create a style.... So I thought I would miss this but I ended up not missing it at all. Most of the clothing and objects have a ton of color/pattern choices and you can click on an object already in your house and change the color without deleting or rebuying. Also since the sims are so interesting/have personality/do random funny stuff I find I enjoy just playing the game instead of customizing things. For me the actual sims were borning in the sims 3 and lacked personality so I spent all my time decorating, creating outfits, changing they way they looked etc. I don't feel the need to do that in the sims 4. Lack of items/stuff to do..... I actually feel there is plenty to do and feel that there is a lot of stuff in this base game. You can build a rocket ship and explore space(the choose your own adventure aspect is entertaining), fish, collect frogs/rocks/plants(which you can then garden)/space rocks/space creatures/space prints/elements/fossils/crystals/metals/postcards from penpals(find one on pc). There are secret lots to unlock, very detailed gardening, detailed cooking with different options in different moods, very detailed paintings to paint, tons of different skills like rocket science, comedy, gourmet cooking to name a few of the unique ones. Moving on to what I love or enjoy personally about the game....... The actual sims! With the new create a sim you can easily make unique looking sims and random sims all look different. The children born also end up looking like a mix of their parents but not weird or ugly looking which is nice. It's fun to see how they will turn out. The emotions really add to the game too and your sims can interact with other sims and objects in different ways depending on their moods. I find I really like to zoom in as their faces are so animated. There are so many details to the sims life now too. Watching them learn to cook is hilarious for one. I find I enjoy playing the different life stages now too since the sims are so interesting on their own and have personality. All the life stages are fun again. Being stuck in negative moodlets is gone and you can improve your sims mood or give them things to be happy about by having them do different things so they are not stuck for hours being negative etc. Gaining weight and losing weight is much more realistic too. One of my child sims aged up into a heavy teen who slowly got slimmer over a few days and several workouts. There was no sudden slim down, she just shrunk slowly. Multitasking! You sim can play games, eat, workout, paint, watch tv etc. all while talking to another sim. You can also talk to multiple sims at once. You can even build skills while having a conversation with another sim. You can also eat while watching tv and the list goes on. It's entertaining. If you just let your sims do their thing they do all kinds of stuff and all the animations are well done and detailed. Even when you tell them what to do there are surprises and it's fun to watch them. The public venues... If you go to the bar all the sims will actually sit at the bar and you can talk to a large group, order drinks, drink and build relationships all at the same time. It's also hilarious to watch the sims around hit on each other and the looks on their faces as they check each other out. It's actually real bar behavior. If you go to the gym the sims are working out and when your sim works out they will get to know each other and have conversations at the same time. The venues are full of other sims doing interesting things and multitasking. It's fun again. The sims have personality and you care about them. No more blank faces and foot tapping as they stand around doing nothing. The comedy is back and there is plenty to do and explore. Over all I have to agree with those that say if you liked the sims 2 over the sims 3 you will probably like the sims 4. It brings back the aliveness that was missing from the sims 3 sims. I also want to point out that my 14 year old daughter also loves this new sims game. She played the sims 3 extensively until I broke out all my old sims 2 games a few months ago. She was hooked and quit playing the sims 3 as she enjoyed the actual sims and their quirkiness in the sims 2. So she has been really happy with this new game too. Overall this review is just the tip of the iceberg on what's in the game. Give it a chance and don't be scared away by all the negativity.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2014 by KarouKarou