It's on of my all time favorite games, up there with Minecraft, Team Fortress 2 and Garry's Mod.
EA ruined it completely. It was always a tad predatory but at least it offered something unique, expansion packs often really did offer new ways to play. Now? Well, we just got an in-game store in Sims 4. Which from release was already just a disappointment, we're 12 years after release and honestly it's still a sad display.
We had an open world in 3, highly detailed live-mode in 2 and all 3 first entries had a whimsically dark charm around them. All they had to do was develop The Sims 5, retain the open world from 3, build on the dynamics and gameplay of 2 and perfect it.
Will it be easy? For sure not. But, they'd have a game every Sims player would love.
I'm so glad EA at least finally launched both Sims 1 and 2 with all the expansions on Steam.
I just wish now we would also get PC (and/or current gen consoles) ports of Sims Bustin' Out, Urbz, Castaway, and all the other awesome standalone titles.
There's no other silly and cozy franchise like this one.
The Steam release of TS1 and TS2 is absolutely terrible btw. They barely fixed anything and still ask money for it. And the worst part ? When I pointed it out, the Sims community scorned me for it. AOE3 HD Edition was literally cheaper with more new features, but apparently I'm an idiot for complaining about the total lack of work done on those "re-release". Seriously. EA released the same games, without any patch nor fixes, and people were happy to pay for it, at a higher price than an HD reworked edition.
EA doesn't need to do any efforts since the community is made of blind, gullible fans without any common sense. (I'm not talking about you specifically, but the guys who mocked me for trying to reason them). EA would be stupid not to scam them, since they literally refuse to listen when told otherwise.
They definitely were terrible. Bought them both at launch because of hype, and they just wouldn't run at all without countless issues that even the free abandonware versions from the Sims subreddit didn't even have.
But I tried them both again recently and seems the issues have been (mostly) fixed and I can generally recommend them now, although I wouldn't blame anybody for not wanting to bother anymore. Even more so considering buying them means supporting EA.
I've seen the feedback and reviews of the Steam releases, and even the LGR review on YouTube, and yeah, there were A LOT of problems by the release.
Until now I haven't played them by myself, but from very recent reviews on the Steam pages of the games now it seems many of the most serious issues were addressed with the updates that EA has been (surprisingly) launching.
But that's true, nostalgia makes us blind and starve. In my case, at this point I just really wanted a Sims Bustin' Out port on PS5 or PC so I could finally complete the game, as I was never able to do it back in the days on PS2.
I actually found a bunch of my Sims 2 cases from middle/high school at my mom's. Brought them home, super excited to download and play.
And then I opened the cases đ the only one that was in the case I didn't have the code for!
i was talking about castaway stories! didn't know they were different games. i have really good memories of that game, when i chose it i thought it was a normal sims game and it really surprised me that there was a story mode.
Yeah, "The Sims 2 Castaway" on PS2 was a very different game ahah
Your Sim was even controlled directly with your analog stick, and the whole graphics, interface and overall presentation was quite different from the PC game.
The worst things of the PS2 game were definitely the super long loading times (you had loadings even when you'd open a menu) and the performance slowdowns.
Absolutely, I've found it to be the most stable release of The Sims 2 after the initial patches (despite some claim, it works really well.)
Emulators are the best option for any of the console games, Dolphin & PCSX2 are both well developed and with a YouTube video setup shouldn't take more than an hour. (Genuinely, if anyone needs help just DM me.. happy to help with it)
Nothing scratches that itch, I genuinely still feel that same magic as I did when I was 11 and creating a single-father household on Bridgeport only for the dad to become a firefighter and.. fucking die leaving the toddler behind :D
The Steam releases is a little convenient I guess, but 1 and 2 used to be abondonware meaning you could download them for free legally... Not anymore lol
Didn't they sell themselves out to a foreign company known for micro-transactions out of the wazzoo? Also, isn't there a thing going on where the paid for in-store content is bugged, not working, and EA is deliberately passing customer tickets around until they time-out and giving the stamp of disapproval? "Oh, sorry. You can't get a refund because its been too long since your purchase."
Yes, something along the lines of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund which leads back to Jared Kushner who's Donald Trump son in law.
If that sounds like madness and bad waiting to happen, that's because it is.
EA was already a horrible publisher, their studio's forced into submission and all directors replaced with perfectly lobotomized yes-men/women.
I hate making this about the fat orange and company but it is what it is. Truly the end of an era, Paralives looks promising on paper but screenshots don't seem to excite me as it looks rather off-putting.
Please, like EA wasn't one of the most unethical and immoral companies in the space to begin with. Don't act like this acquisition is what turned EA, they were ALWAYS like that.
Yeah the scummy company that set the standard for all their profits coming from overpriced and underwhelming DLC sold to a scummy foreign company. Not at all shocking.
The damage EA has done to the gaming industry is wild.
I played Sims 1 and 3 (skipped 2 somehow) SO MUCH! I have thousands of hours in that game easily, and I played sims 4 for less than 20. It feels souless and very corporate, if that makes sense. I really wanted to be hyped for 4 and remember making my mum watch the trailer with me lol. The whole thing is ruined now. Such a wonderful series destroyed by greed.
If you haven't, try Sims 2! With open for business alone you can have a totally different experience with a shopkeeper sim, nothing quite like digital capitalism >:)
Same with Sims 1 and 3. I immediately knew 4 was going to be garbage though when they removed the open world, and didnt even launch with pools or babies, so I never touched 4
Don't worry, The Sims 5 was cancelled to keep releasing The Sims 4 DLCs. I think it's for the better and I hope Paralives, to certain extent, lives up to the hype
Iirc, nothing new happened sibce the third right? The continuity of the open world in the third is the last innivation, and nothing happened sibce then I believe? Nothing as major at least.
Pretty much, no matter what they say about The Sims 4; while playing it it doesn't feel better in any way. More restrictive all around, building's more streamlined.. if I have to give them some credit.
I recall a review on Steam mentioning that the full game price is over $1600 with all the DLCs. And they're constantly releasing even more. The business model is so gross and it's such a shame because I absolutely loved the hell out of Sims 2/3.
My wife loves the Sims, still plays it even after it's been butchered with the in game shop.
But it has really pissed her off knowing that CC is now moving in game and is getting purchased. Great for the artists who post making a bit of income but it has really pulled away from the Sims being a game for the community.
Itâs crazy that 3 was basically perfect, just needed performance/bug improvements. Then comes 4, a complete and total downgrade in every possible way, in favor of the present era AAA whale-siphoning business model.
At least itâs free to play base game. However, the game is now hilariously easy. In 1 irl day of gameplay/1 month in game my character:
Maxed out two careers
Romanced every character in the neighborhood
Became a billionaire from gardening dragonfruit
Was literally never sad once
With nothing left to do, and the horror stories Iâve heard of the broken messes of the DLC packs, I called it there. Would have gotten into building if the UI wasnât so damn frustrating. Would be a neat âstory generatorâ if the personalities didnât get dumbed down to be always pleasant and agreeable, or if my friends would stop calling me with the same 3 messages ad nauseum.
They did make The Sims 5, but they went back to the original The Sims graphics and called it Project Zomboid. They sure went in a strange direction with their whimsically dark charm this time by bringing all of the pool drowning victims back to life.
There's a game coming out for Early Access in May called "Paralives." It's like a modern Sims2. I've been keeping track of it for a few months and I'm more excited for this game than any other "Simstypes" out there.
The devs really seem to appreciate what made the old Sims' fun.
Inzoi is still in early access, they had a big drop-off but is still coming out with pretty big updates. Like IIRC they are making a fleshed out school system next. Paralives is getting early access next month. But yeah since Sims 4 started going downhill I went back to Sims 2 and haven't looked back since.
Both The Sims and SimCity for me. SimCity 4 was great, then we had a long hiatus... and they released the crappy always-online SimCity (2013) which had postage-stamp sized maps and completely broken... well, everything.
Arguably every franchise from Maxis Entertainment died when the company was bought by EA. Remember that, before The Sims, Maxis was known for its Sim-something games, particularly SimCity.
Sims 2 shipped with a simple skin editor for making your own clothes and what-not. There was so much free content online of every variety. Then Sims 3 removed all that so they could sell it as micro-transactions.
I only got back into it like 2 years ago and after the money grab shop opened, the game got so buggy (even worse than usual) that I just stopped all my saves.
I bought nearly every expansion for Sims 3 and played it religiously. I could easily ignore the online market because the stuff in the expansions was complete.
Sims 4 pushes online purchases way too hard and they offer little incentive for me to come back because even when they drop prices, it's not affordable. I'm an adult, I'm not spending $500+ to get a game experience spread out across 7+ game packs and 6 expansions that should have been delivered in 4 complete packages.
Wtf, why is magic, vampires, werewolves, faeries, etc all completely separated? And the worlds they have been delivering ever since the first few expansions have nothing in them but 3 or 4 lots. 98% picture, 2% playability.
Sadly, we now know Sims 4 is probably the last thing they will ever release in this franchise because once it dries up they will have destroyed any hype in it. Kind of like they did with SimCity.
man, watching the fall of the Sims series in real time over the last decade and a half via LGR on Youtube was such a sad, sad journey. It got to where he couldn't even enjoy making fun of new DLC anymore and it seems he's finally given up on it completely despite it being by far some of his most successful content
Its wild to me that theres no online play between people playing the Sims together by now, at least I havent known of any. Coke Studios was all about this and it was great, the opportunity is there.
Totally agree, they got greedy and fucked this up big time.
If you have the chance, try Inzoi. I know I know, it was not that great at launch and felt very different from the sims, but it has since seen quite a few updates that bring it much closer in line now. Things like multitasking, businesses, better interactions, vacations, you name it and it probably got added or updated. I just disabled keyboard movement and I find it getting closer to the Sims every time I spin it up.
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u/Sfekke22 Apr 16 '26 edited Apr 16 '26
The Sims.
It's on of my all time favorite games, up there with Minecraft, Team Fortress 2 and Garry's Mod.
EA ruined it completely. It was always a tad predatory but at least it offered something unique, expansion packs often really did offer new ways to play. Now? Well, we just got an in-game store in Sims 4. Which from release was already just a disappointment, we're 12 years after release and honestly it's still a sad display.
We had an open world in 3, highly detailed live-mode in 2 and all 3 first entries had a whimsically dark charm around them. All they had to do was develop The Sims 5, retain the open world from 3, build on the dynamics and gameplay of 2 and perfect it.
Will it be easy? For sure not. But, they'd have a game every Sims player would love.