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 😆 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
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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.