AIBU to think that Sims 4 is like HOMEWORK

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

So I cut my Sims teeth on Sims 1, 20 years+ ago, peak Sims play Sims 2 at like 18 or so. Dabbled a smidge in Sim 3 never really that fussed then real life, kids etc came along and I totally retired from the sport.

Now my youngest is 8 and we have a PS4 which has Sims 4 for free

So, the odd evening I've dipped in and had a go. Fuck me. Its as challenging as real life. Its not escapism.

They have aspirations and wants along with their needs. They get sad if you don't fulfil their life goal of earning a million quid in a day, they get pissed off if you schedule too many actions in a row. Trying to get them on a sleep schedule is harder than it was for both my infants, and they just seem to piss themselves every day!

I've started creating sims with little to no real goals or interests, just so that the game play is less stressful for me, as I just want to switch off when I play, not have to babysit another family of kids I created.

Fuck me.

Take me back to listening to Pure Shores and smashing it at Sims 2 til the small hours on a pc in my folks house.

In Sims 3 you can woohoo in the hot tub, shower, even in the movie theatre and the lift if you have the celebrity expansion pack, or the time machine if you have Inventions expansion pack. I prefer it for the whole town open play. You can easily jump from one family member to the next to check on them.

Mortimer Goth is very wealthy and lives in the old mansion. Thornton Wolf also very wealthy but has commitment issues so tricky to pin down 😂

Riotlady because in order not to have loading screens, your computer has to load the entire neighborhood at once, which is fine for big beefy gaming machines but it will damage laptops. Because the Sims series is typically played by those who aren't big into gaming and have cheaper machines, they needed to tone it down for their audience.

Oh I’ve always played it on laptops, does it really damage them?

I killed my old laptops with the sims ha.

I play on an Xbox Series One now, I wonder if they will look at whole neighbourhoods again for sims 5 now tech will be better able to keep up? Assuming with large games like COD and Fortnite consoles could manage it?

The issue with laptops is overheating. All the components are squished close together and the fans can't be too big (or the laptop wouldn't be portable) so if you play a demanding game like The Sims, things can literally start to melt.

A proper gaming laptop will be okay with The Sims (even they will struggle with the really demanding games) but you're looking at £1,500+.

I had them too, loved the first sims also guilty of playing sims urbz and pretty sure I had the one that was on an island. That was way back in 2003 or 4
So long ago :(
I now own sims freeplay so can go back to it anytime and it doesn't take up all day. Fun to build the houses up ect

Oh the sims, how much of my life has been spent on the games.
It started with a free demo cd on another game I'd purchased, and that was it. I have every game and expansion pack for sims 1,2 &3. Refuse to play 4.

Very rarely play now, but I just love building stuff. Memories

I never understood why 3 fans are so into that aspect. The loading screens in 4 are really fast and not something I could be bothered about.

I think I liked 3 best because of the open world.
I have a weird correlation between compulsion to design and decorate houses on Sims and monthly pms.

Yes, there was a good analogy on modthesims years ago - a computer is like a car.

Basically your computer components are designed to do a certain amount of heavy lifting (processing, memory, graphics, etc)

If you have a tiny hatchback, you can physically load loads of heavy stuff into it and drive it around, but if you do that more often than every once in a while you're going to cause excess wear to the tyres, the engine, the bits that balance it etc and they will wear out. So if you want to do that kind of work with your vehicle, you're better off buying a van or a pick up truck which is designed to do that kind of work.

It's the same with computers. You can get laptops which are designed for a bit of web surfing, email, browsing photos, writing word documents and spreadsheets etc, and while you can make them run demanding games if you really want to, they will get hot, they will run slowly, and they will eventually die much sooner than their intended life span.

But if you buy a gaming laptop or a desktop with the appropriate cooling system, a fast processor, a dedicated graphics card etc then it won't be working as hard running a game like sims and it will last much longer.

Sims 3 is very hard on computer systems (although less so now, as it's an older game) whereas Sims 4 was developed to be laptop friendly. Loading the whole neighbourhood at once is like putting all your heavy bags of sand in the car every time you drive around, whereas loading one lot at a time is like taking one bag of sand to do a job, then driving back for the next bag, etc.

I'm used to sims 2 and don't mind loading screens at all. But I do remember when I very first got the game and was running it on more of a "hatchback" computer, the loading screens took FOREVER and it was frustrating. Now that the game is older and my computer is a gaming machine anyway because I get DH's hand me down parts (though more often he skips me and gives them to DS1 now!) the loading screens take maybe a minute, and I don't mind that at all.

Interesting, I feel bad for pinching DH’s laptop to play now 😂(mines a Chromebook) does it make any difference it being on steam vs a disc?

I remember when I first got Sims 2 having to take ages to install it with 4 separate discs, I think that one felt like such a beast (relative to our computer at the time) everything else has seemed relatively steam lined and manageable

*streamlined

I play sims 4 with the disable needs cheat active so I'm free to make them do whatever rather than wasting time eating ect.
Horse expansion is out for pc atm you can build a ranch with cows and chicken and lambs ect very cute

does it make any difference it being on steam vs a disc

No, though I don't know if 4 was even released on CD-ROM! By the time it was released, nearly all games were only available via download.

I haven’t even thought about the sims in ages but the knowledge of a horse ranch expansion has got me updating my game - getting country living at the same time!

Yep I played it during lockdown and it just stressed me out. One of them refused to look after her baby and another started having an existential crisis whilst his wife was in labour on the living room floor then he went and made a sandwich. Not sure I will ever go back to it.

Omg the ranch expansion pack looks amazing though!! God how old am I?

I’ve watched one trailer and it’s convinced me I need it

I have an old tower PC which has never been connected to the internet. This runs Sims 3 fine which is why I prefer it. I don't like the screen loading in Sims 4 because whilst you're playing one character at their location, you can't keep an eye on what the others are doing at other locations.

Thought I'd give the 100 baby challenge a go today and jeepers - the woman can not pull!!!! No single man is taking to her flirts.

You need charisma and to not rush them!

Get a light flirt on with many, before going back around and sealing the deal with each of them. You just cannnot expect to meet, flirt and woo all in one go

Urgh......

See. It's like work

What parts of the game do you enjoy BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz?

Haha it sounds like none, doesn't it!

Sims 2 - all of it.

Sims 4 - less and less. The build, designing people and outfits, hitting career goals and progression, raising the kids (aside from the high needs).

28.99 and now i am officially a hermit