How is this the most expensive S4 pack? The issue with sims glitching all the time is so immersion-breaking.

I wonder who in the community will fix the problem (just like with restaurants).

The way they handled Cooking Contests is emblematic of the design style that was present in TS3 onwards, which has gotten worse. A cooking contest used to be an object. You can cook for a contest and compete, and maybe win money. It was simple but works well. That's the point.

In The Sims 1 and 2, they started with a theme which encompassed the core identify of the expansion pack. There was a core mechanic that fleshed this idea out with other supporting mechanics, each with their own gameplay items. let's break this down with arguably 2's most popular expansion: Nightlife.

Nightlife is about its name: nightlife.

The core mechanic is the ability to go downtown and have a night out. From there, the game provides a collection of mechanics to facilitate this experience. You can go downtime by taxi or by car. While you can go out with friends, go on a date, or meet new people. You can go out with Sims to new venues: Nightclubs, Restaurants, and Bowling Alleys.

These are the core parts of the expansion pack and each elements is fleshed out appropriate. You can see how each element stems from the other elements, create a core experience. Everything feels cohesive.


Adventure Awaits is not about it's name. It's not about Adventures, it's about Getaways. You can have an adventure, but it can be about a relaxing trip as well.

The core mechanic of Adventure Awaits is Getaways, which are personalized scheduled stayover events that can happen on most of the game's lots, but targeted at Custom Venues, which uses a Similar system to create personalized lots. Getaways can have added challenges, modified, and relationship or skill based competitions. The pack focuses on three types of getaways, which are an Outdoor Children's Camp, a Fitness Retreat and a romantic competition.

Already, we see the issue with Adventure Awaits: It's a lot of nothing and difficult to describe. Get together was the same way, but in the opposite direction:

"Sims can create Clubs based on different personalities, traits, etc., that can visit the new cafe lot. Clubs include a list of Do and Do Not Do rules. Clubs can unlock rewards including mood changes, decor, clothing, and secret handshakes."

This results in packs of content with no systems or random systems tied to them, or filler content. What does a closet have to do with a club? Closets made sense in Apartment Life, but not Get Together. A DJ booth is great to add to a nightclub you can go to with clubs, but Nightclubs are already in the base game. Same with pub games. Bars are a base game feature.

Adventure Awaits might have been received better if it focuses on something specific and add gameplay mechanics to support the themes:

The game focuses on Personalized Retreats on Retreat Lots, making them a clear distinction from hotels. Retreats target different people and encourage Sims to engage in different behavior with personalized activities. Hosts and Staff can also have their behavior personalized. The pack would feature a Wilderness Retreat, A Wellness Retreat, and a Romantic Single's Retreat. Sims can operate a Bed and Breakfast of their own, acting as a Host at their home, or by purchasing a Retreat Lot, where the player is expected to keep Sims happy.

Far more focused than whatever we got.

I saw a post from 5 years ago on Reddit about things from The Sims 3 we still don't have. To put this into perspective, the Sims 3 life's cycle was about 5 years. As it's year 11 and Adventure Awaits added in several classic items, I decided to just make another, focusing on items we don't have unless replaced with a feature (exceptions listed below).

This doesn't include buy debug items, like the Actor's Trailer or Snark Charming Basket or speciaal rabbit holes, like Sky Diving. What's funny is that some of the objects below can be made form existing resources and animations, like the fire pole and arcade cabinet. The All In One Bathroom is literally a closet, and would have worked well in Tiny Living.



Personally, I'd rather have new objects instead of the billionth gameplay system leading to yet another notification, yet another festival, or YET ANOTHER PHONE CALL. Do you know now annoying it is playing on speed 3 and it's stopped by a phone call?

Edit: And in making this, I realized we had several versions of commonly used items in the game, even some from other packs, and here we usually get one or two because lot of items are relegated to expansion packs. Pack content is so light, those items are needed to sell the packs so they're not repurposed in another pack if they don't get a recolor elsewhere. The pool table replacement - foosball - has had one variation for a decade. There's not much to do in a bar except watch TV or play cards, darts, foosball and pong pong. The last addition was 6 years ago, despite getting content focused around bars with not bar gameplay objects - Horse Ranch & Lovestruck.

The Sims Mobile is going to be shut down! Here is an EA article detailing the last months of the app being available. Honestly, I am not mad or anything, but I know that it was a waste of money for the people who played the game.

I think that this is no surprise if you think about the buyout. But, it may not be connected. Maybe, Freeplay is next?

I know this thread is about TS4, but it may be an indicative of times to come.

I doubt the Sims Mobile brought them as much of a revenue than The Sims Freeplay, hence the shutdown. I can understand players playing the latter, but The Sims Mobile? It didn’t seem a fun game at all.

Sims Mobile could be shutting down because of the buyout, but I'm thinking it is more a timing thing as there was a announcement last year that Sims Mobile would no longer be updated.



https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/The_Sims_Mobile

IMO, it doesn't matter either way. It was a terrible, expensive game that was loaded with bugs and problems just like TS4.

I tried to play The Sims Freeplay a long time ago and it didn't seem like a very fun game at all. You basically needed to wait hours to finish some tasks. Either the game improved, or people don't mind the cashgrab because you need to spend diamonds to accelerate the tasks (writing from my memory).