Okay, I have finally gotten around to purchasing the Sims4… if for no other reason than curiosity. I decided to at least give it a chance and test it for those of you who, along with me might still be in the debate or indecision mode on it. I know that many of us have looked at previews and current in game pictures, not been overly impressed by any of them and chose not to sink any money into this game. So, for all of you out there still trying to decided… I have chosen to waste my money on it for you and attempt to give an honest review of the full game experience. Previously, I did do some previews of the demo but will now give my opinions on the rest of it.
Brenda Blonde has kindly volunteered… well, okay, she really didn’t have much say in the matter? Anyway, she will be working as our test subject for this project. It might benefit us to see how she appears in sims3 first? Now, please remember that sims3 is much more developed as far as custom content such as skin tones, hair, clothing and makeup options. Brenda makes use of all of those options in Sims3!
The transition to sims4 was difficult to put it mildly! I have already mentioned before the difficulties in getting used to the new sim sculpting tools. You can read more about that in these older posts.
https://timeslipsblog.wordpress.com/2014/08/02/from-the-creator-sims4-cas-demo/
This was the initial work on Brenda’s character for sims4 in the demo
https://timeslipsblog.wordpress.com/2014/08/09/sims4-cas-demo-creations/
Here is Brenda now as she appears in live mode of Sims4. I will be doing more work on her as we go along in this experiment! Of course this is how she looks on a normal day without dressing up for anything and in the stressful process of moving into a new place. I am quite sure that there is a lot more custom content coming available each and every day and we will be searching through some of it now that we have the actual game. I do have to say that it does still have a cartoony feel and look to it in game? Maybe that’s not such a bad thing though? We’ll have to see how it all plays out!
I did not get very far in the experiment tonight… We got as far as moving Brenda into a neighborhood in Willow Creek, buying her a house that she could afford with no money cheats. I wanted to get a feel for the build and decorating process so I decided to purchase an unfurnished pre-built house. We will walk through the building and decorating process by renovating this home that we’ve purchased. Don’t ask me what the address is because I didn’t even look at that! I will check that out later.
Before even going into the build/buy mode, my frustrations came quickly with not being able to locate tools and options easily. They seem to be scattered around the screen and it was annoying to say the least. The first big headache and frustration for me was the camera tools and options. It took me a while to even figure out how to take a quick in game picture! Once I figured out how to do it, I calmed down enough to continue on… I do like the option that you now have of labeling your picture as a memory or not. If you choose not to save as a memory, the photo will show up in screenshots category and you can view them while in game. This for me as a story teller/picture taker is a huge benefit! It saves me a lot of time not having to go back and forth between game and desktop to see my pictures now. I am finding the camera controls and angles really hard to work with right now but maybe that will improve as I get used to it… or possibly find mods for it as they come out?
Once I got the camera mode and pictures figured out, it was time to go into build/buy mode to start working with that portion… Let me just say that I did not get very far! It is a huge change from the way things worked in sims3 building and I was still struggling with finding the right tools and options in that mode as well. I could not even find the undo tool at first? It is located on the top of screen, along with some other options and not on the lower portion with the various building selections. I do like the lighting option where you can now easily change the lighting in build mode from morning to afternoon to night.
This is an initial photo of the interior with walls down so you can see the layout of the rooms. I have not yet figured out if there is an option to turn off those awful gridlines? That will be one of my priority searches, along with hopefully, a mod or something to get rid of those dang plumbobs hovering over my characters’ heads!
This is what the exterior of our little house looks like now with some very basic changes in wall coverings, window and door replacements, changing out the fencing. A huge plus for the game- the adjustable window heights! Thank Heavens for that! There is also a wider variety of window and door options than I expected for just a base game? I was easily able to find older style windows and doors to create more historic time period builds, so that in itself is a life saver for me! Another huge positive was the columns snapping to place on the fencing. And, one other great feature… I was able to change the fencing that was already in place by simply clicking on it and then choosing a different fence option. I did not have to remove the fence and then redo it with another one.
I ran out of time and patience to accomplish any more, but my initial observation is that I do see some potential as far as building. I was not so disappointed or frustrated as to throw up my hands and demand my money back immediately so I will continue on with the experiment for now. If it works out well enough, I will allow my other characters to move into the neighborhood and we’ll see how it goes from there?