Sims 4 vs Sims 3

[River wisp 90]

I know a lot of people really disliked the sims 4 when it first came out, but it’s had a bit of a resurgence in recent times due to younger generations taking a liking to it. Personally, I much prefer sims 3, with a better design and more manageable characters. What do y’all think? After all this time which one holds up better?

[BritishBrony2012 719]

The Sims 4, cos I been playing it alot last year, like somewhere in 2021 til mid of 2022 cos update screw up my Sims 4 game data. I was annoyed alot of hate on the game, cos I played it alot and loved it, guess people played the Sims 3 alot, same with Sims 2. Miss playing The Sims 4 as I played alot and miss seeing these characters but updated that mess up My sims give me chance playing other games.

[Envy 6,000]

The Sims 3 is the better game. Open world added so much to the game and made me get used to managing different sims on different lots. The Sims 4 fails hard by not only reversing back from open world, but also regressing back to The Sims 1 in terms of neighborhoods being set in number and placement of lots. And of course, eight years in, there is still no create a world. The Sims 4 is so limited, it's pathetic.

One thing that The Sims 4 has gradually been better about is sexual orientation and gender identity/expression. You can finally have sims set to be straight, gay, or bi (or ace? I forget). The added gender expression options means that all clothing and such are available for every sim. That may seem small, but this is a life sim game so it is a pretty major.

I'm afraid I did end up coming to The Sims 4, and for the most shallowest of reasons... Seasons. Aesthetically, The Sims 4 did a great job with winter (snow depth aside, that was a bad failure)... Something that always bothered me about The Sims 3 Seasons. Winter aesthetic is so important to me because I love winter IRL and to see no visual detail be put into it aside from bare trees and snow makes me sad. The Sims 3 had flowering bushes and green grass in the middle of the winter. Lame. The Sims 4 Seasons, to my complete and utter shock (because TS4 has been a very low-detail game) got it right:

Embarrassingly enough this most shallow of reasons got me playing the game.

[Sonic Shimmer 4,116]

I was kind of disappointed with The Sims 4. With the loss of the open world, it just felt a lot less immersive, like a step backwards when it should have been a step forward.

[Iforgotmybrain 3,519]

Imo: Sims 3 was a better and more entertaining game. BUT it also ran really bad for me. To the point where it was painful to play it with like all the expansions. I haven't really played 3 since 4 came out for that reason. Sims 4 runs a lot better but obviously sacrifices a lot of the gameplay and customization elements that made 3 so much fun. Sims 3 with Sims 4 performance and the QoL changes like the new social system would be a perfect game.

[Clawdeen 12,110]

Tbh The Sims 2 is my all time favorite. Out of 3 and 4 though I definitely prefer 3.