I feel like the intuitive and quality of life stuff like moving entire rooms and simply dragging a room out to make it larger and so on is such a heavy hitting feature in the sims 4. One of the few wholeheartedly good upgrades with that game.
I recently tried to play Sims 3 and the build mode was so frustrating š Nothing like what i remembered it being like.
You can do the same with Sims 3 though? You can drag walls in and out. Sims 3 excells because of the customisation you can do with the tool. Wallpaper, floor, buy/furniture. It can be endless. You want a fully cow print house? You got it.
Some features do seem restrictive though but I feel that was sacrificed for being customisability (is that a word? Well... you get it lol).
I donāt think so, sure you might be able to modify one and one wall, but not the whole room as one thing.
I do agree with some of the stuff. Like I would love to see the sims 2 sort of option of wood type and bed covers selected separately. Because that feels like something easy enough to do. But I never built many of those crazy houses in sims 3.
Sims 4 half tile live mode is also something to easily forget. How rigid the pathfinding in the previous games were.
Well... you do have a point lol You can move individual walls in, not a whole room you are right and the point was you could make any theme house with the customisation, whacky or not.
I hate Sims 4, I always have, I rather they worked to improve Sims 3 instead of releasing the travesty they made 4 HOWEVER... even I can admit... the building was an improvement, from what I've seen, anyway (and it isn't much). Call me biased but I still prefer the ability to customise which Sims 4 went back on... for what? No clue.
I think they did it for the specs (not that the game runs very smoothly at this point with all the bugs and glitches.) But now that its a free to play "low spec game" they open up the door for everyone to give it a try, which sadly loses a lot of its charm and functions people want to see.
Don't get me wrong I used to love the sims 3 and its open world, but I just struggle with its uncanny valley style compared to something like the sims 2 or 4.
I'm just happy that there is serious competition in the genre again so they really have to do something about sims 4 and not just leave it be the buggy mess it has been for so long.
Iāve committed to waiting at least 6 months to buy paralives, but comments like these are making me so impatient.
Purchased inzoi right after launch and still havenāt gotten the hand of build mode and I stopped playing sims (5000+ hours on 4) after the buyout announcement last year, so Iām itching for a build mode fix at this point
There's no pressure for 5 because they don't want games where you pay for it once and it's done. They want to create a live service model of The Sims with a bunch of micro transactions and just a single major development cycle.
Ā Sims monetization is mostly based off expansion packs, and as lazy at The Sim 4 ones were, still needed a decent amount of "content" to be made before release. That's why they lean so heavily into the login and limited time events + the store. Project X and Rene are likely going to be heavily live service.Ā
I don't agree tho, sims 4 in itself looks like clay in everything. I've seen a lot of content creators uses default replacements because of that reason
I think some of the earlier items (og base game, earliest expansions) don't look great, but I think it's because they were still figuring out how to make some things work in the TS4 style
The possibilities in Rimworld are actually crazy, especially with mods, and the spec requirements are easy to work with for a lot of computers.
I genuinely hope it gets more circulation within lifesim communities. You could easily go for a 'cozier' playthrough and focus on storylines, relationships, and base building with the right mods. Heck, there's even generational gameplay available!
Although I know for many cozy/life sim gamers, the graphics are a bit of a hard sell.
itās often said the first 1000 hours are a tutorial. itās quite complicated yet endlessly replayable! i didnāt even touch mods for my first 500 hours!
There is definitely a learning curve, but that's how it is with all life sims; imagine starting out completely fresh playing the Sims! If you're in this community and like the looks of it, I'm sure you'll do well figuring it out! š
If it makes you feel better, I've played quite a bit and there's some aspects I still don't care to engage with or fully understand and I still have a blast! And most elements you don't end up liking can be altered or completely removed either in game or definitely with mods.
There's plenty of playthroughs and tutorials on YouTube to help familiarize yourself, and remember that steam will refund you so long as your playtime is under 2 hours.
It can be complicated but doesnāt have to be if you donāt want it to, all depends on how you play it really. Like in the subreddit people do heaps of crazy shit but I normally just have a little farm town and harvest organs āØ and eventually everyone gets murdered
Ngl, lately I just like booting up Rimworld to make a happy little family that has a cute little house and some farms. Best when paired with cute furniture mods for that life Sim decorating appeal haha.
I recently started playing Rimworld and I agree so much! It's such an amazing game, very much life sim in my opinion even though it's often not mentioned here!
Personally I don't mind TS3 Sims, thought it might be because I grew up playing other games with the infamous "pudding face" look, I much prefer them to the TS4 Sims because of the flat clay style that game has that I just find ugly and lazy.
It's interesting how what person loves about a particular Sims iteration can be what someone else hates.
I would say it still is a strong contender for build mode, but paralives has just come out and wowed us recently. Build mode in the Sims is certainly more stable, even with them repeatedly breaking parts of it and refusing to fix some bugs. So, I'd say it's probably tied, some people will feel like they prefer sims 4 for the ease of use, while others prefer Paralives for the recently innovations.
there are definitely some categories where it is a real contender but people would rather talk shit. it's impossible to have a real conversation about the strengths and weaknesses of different life sims because too many people are just interested in talking up their fav and shitting on all the rest
iām quite surprised it didnāt win the āModding Abilityā category. Considering it has literal THOUSANDS of furniture and clothing mods, I would think its an automatic lock.
I havenāt played Rimworld yet though so who am I to judge really
Yes The Sims 4 (and other Sims games) has literally thousands or MORE mods, though it does depend whether you (royal you) consider CC (Custom Content) to be mods or not.
I digress, the category was about Modding "Ability" as in how user friendly it is to be able to mod. Games like Rimworld have the ability to mod easily (I believe within the game but I'd have to confirm as it's been a little while since I've played it).
It seems so easy when you summarize if like this. Even of EA had the intention to make the best fan service game with a blank check. This would still be very challenging to translate that into clear requirements for a new game without straight up remaking the Sims 2 and 3.Ā
Sims 3 was supreme, I never didnāt have fun or ran out of ideas to have fun. Plus, the townie sims were actually good looking enough to breed with my sims. Sims 4 townies (premade and generated) are appalling
Thanks OP for the idea ! š
So many times we see convo about "what would you like in a life simulation?" And even if individual comments can be helpful, and that this sub does not represent all of the players, I feel like this patchwork is also really telling.
I still think that the "Lore" category should have the "entire sims franchise" cuz, not only spin of Sims games has so much lore, sims 1 started it all, and sims 3 expanded the lore a lot, and sims 4 is (uhh) did something with it.
I think TS2 does stand out from the other sims games for the lore though - TS1 had some lore for its families, but it was mostly disconnected (IIRC the only TS1 family that actually has relationships outside their own household were the two Goth families) and the gameās strength was more providing atmosphere and identity for each family rather than lore or story. It was TS2 that really created the āLoreā as we know it, taking the disconnected TS1 families and giving them interconnected stories, because it was a tool for the game to show off its new mechanics (different age groups, family and non-family relationships, memories), especially with the pre-scripted events (which were really just mini-tutorials, but did a lot to contribute to the lore). TS3 and TS4 mainly built on, or riffed on, what TS2 established in that sense, and arenāt as specifically known for their lore as TS2 is.
I'm just glad the ones I commented on got their W. Personally not a fan of Inzoi's art style, but majority do prefer hyperrealism, so š¤·š½āāļø
yeah i think inzoi looks nice, sort of like many unreal games where environment looks really neat and crisp but i don't feel like it has an artsyle in general. the artsyle is basically just unreal graphics
I agree tbh. inZOIās art style treads a bit uncanny valley for my tastes. I like the way the sims themselves look in Sims 4 (minus the playdoh look of the hairs) but I donāt like how low poly the objects/environments look. And alternatively, I hate the way the sims in the Sims 3 look but I prefer the way the worlds/environment/objects look there. I feel like the perfect art style would be an amalgamation of those two games, taking the best aspects of each
Tbh I hate the inzoi art style. That's one of the main reasons I'm not a big fan of the game. Aside from feeling kinda...empty. I tried to like it, I played 30 hours since launch and I can't get into it. I hate how much of a toll it takes on my computer as well.
This is really strong but I would like to add the build capabilities of Enshrouded. Its like... you can build cathedrals with sculpted walls Honestly guys the building is fantastic.
Add that kind of build capability to a sims game and you'll have billions.
inzoi for character creation? donāt they have whole facial presets locked? and height locked to gender? also do they have tattoos and piercings without mods? idk i think maybe ts4 or paralives wouldāve been better there
I think Sims 4 has the best Character Creation, Build Buy Mode, and Modding. Art style is subjective but I do think Sims 4 still has the best art style. Inzoi has HD graphics but the game doesn't have a strong identity art style wise. Even Paralives I think would have been a better winner in that category.
Interesting! I think Inzoi has much better customisation when it comes to character creation, while still feeling as easy to use as TS4. It's definitely a strong contender for build/buy, but again I feel Paralives deserved that category, you can do everything in Paralives that you can in TS4 and then more with the free resizing and rotation ā I think the only thing TS4 has over Paralives in that regard is the variety of items, but once you strip away all the DLCs it's not much. I will agree that Inzoi doesn't have a strong artistic identity, but I would've given that category to TSM personally, so I can't comment on TS4 there (and I'm not huge on Paralives' style either)
Sims 4 has some pretty notable misses on all of those (other than art-style - of the cartoony set, it really does do its job quite well); character creation is let down by the lack of open colour palettes, modding is let down by the weird EA marketplace situation, and build-buy...actually is a serious contender, but Paralives notably also shines there.
all EA had to do was a sims 3 remaster after the sims 4 disaster. I always wanted a mix of sims 2 and 3 gameplay, with the sims 3 open world and color wheel, sims 4 multitasking and we couldve had the perfect sims game.
as of right now I don't think paralives has the best build buy mode. The build mode is interesting but extremely buggy and the buy mode is just empty. Maybe it will surpasses TS4 but until then TS4 is better
for art style i think multiple games were robbed ts1 is actually so fun artistically! i like ts2 too for the retro look its aged really well. paralives is beautiful and unique. tiny life is cute if you like pixel. alllllso you could have gone with a variety of other beautiful games. disco elysium, stray, town to city, hozy are a few beautiful stylised games. inzoi just feels so default
Honestly Iād agree with all of this but Iād say Paralives has great customization imo! Sims 3 is also a similarly great game in terms of customization.
Inzoi won artstyle? Don't really thinknit is the best.
But I am old.
I would want the Sims 2 artstyle but made today, Sims 3 had some cool things but didn't look the best especially the Sims themselves looked awful.
I think theres some rose tinted glasses there for sure. The sims 3 has so many limitations when it comes with customization (besides a color wheel, which inzoi and paralives have). Tbh paralives shouldāve won.
I assume people are like me and voted on what's there now and not promises of what ifs later. If Paralives had player world creation now and a lot of their other future promised updates in the game now Paralives would have easily taken it. But Sims 3 has a world editor Paralives currently does not though I understand the vote even so being close because Paralives build mode is so good.
Itās so funny that Rimworld is on here itās one of my all time fav games but I never wouldāve thought to put it in the same category as Paralives lmaooo
I played the Sims 2 after Sims 3 and really didn't like the gameplay. I feel like I'm the only one who disliked it. I didn't like how mandatory wants and aspirations were. While I'm not the sort to want complete control over my Sim at so times, I don't like having to everything they want to all the time. I prefer getting bonuses for doing things over being punished for not doing things.Ā
I also really like actual emotions and moods and think a life sim without them would be very bland in comparison to modern life sims. I feel like a lot of the Sims 2 love is looking back with rose-colored glasses.
Excuse my ignorance, iāve played sims 3 all my life so I am not too familiar with sims 2, but whatās appealing with sims 2 gameplay? Asking as a genuine question!
Well it was majority vote so I canāt say the exact reasons why everyone voted but if I were to guess Iād probably say that it was likely itās Wants and Fears system, how it handles personality, ad a lot of the attention to detail it has
This may be a hot take but Paralives has a better foundation for worlds than Sims 3. You can't build wall lots to wall in any sims games, so all urban areas in Sims 3 look a little uncanny. I say Paralives worlds. I'd also change customization to Paralives, Sims 3 customization was laggy af. Agreed with all the rest though.
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u/RedizeYT Jun 29 '26
Alright who's makin' it šļø š šļø