Hello, I got the Sims 4 yesterday! Hooray!
Now, allow me to preface this by stating that I personally don't particularly care about the lack of toddlers and pools. I never really used pools, and toddlers are my least favorite life stage.
Okay, now that that's out of the way...
I...I don't know what to think about this game right now. I was enjoying it so much at first, but now...well, I'll get into that in a bit.
First off, character creation is quite fun. Being able to choose default walkstyles is a very nice touch. The whole click and drag body morphing feature is a bit wonky, and I find it generally better to click on the part I want to morph, and choose a preset before messing with the dragging. At least, for the face. Body morphing is pretty simple, although remember to turn you Sim around in order to make sure that you're getting everything.
At first, I was rather disappointed at the lack of color customization for clothing, hair, eyes, etc. I still am for hair, especially since some of the colors are not quite appealing (the brown-blonde one looks like poo, in my opinion). Eyes are fine, I very rarely used colors besides the ones available. I'm actually not to disappointed on the clothing options. Are there some outfits I wish I could have in a different color? Yes! For the most part, though, I'm pretty satisfied with the color options.
Also, for those who haven't figured it out yet, you can delete the filters for any clothing type, allowing you to pick from every outfit. This is great for things like sportswear and pajamas, where there otherwise aren't many options.
House building is pretty much the same as before, with the addition of the pre-made rooms, which aren't wonderful, considering that they get messed up when you stretch the room. The square blocks of walls that you can place down are no faster or easier than the old system, which, luckily, you can still use.
Now then, on to the actual game-play.
The new UI is relatively simple, once you get the hang of it. It's different, yes, but not really in a bad way.
Emotional states can be a pain, especially when your character is angry and wants to kick trashcans and yell at people. That's no fun. Some emotional states, like Energetic, are more interesting. Energetic seems to generally allow you to do actions more quickly.
Relationships are a bit more complex. I found that it's easier to befriend a love interest
before pursuing any romance with them. That said, I've only wooed one Sim so far. He wouldn't let me flirt with him until we were friends first, and after that it was smooth sailing.
I just want to note that romantic interests will often show up at your house for no particular reason, multiple times a day until you let them in. I didn't know until my characters got married, but apparently there was a lady interested in my husband. She shows up at the door every. single. day, about three times a day. And calls all the time. And she won't leave me alone.
Pregnancies are another big change. I personally found the pregnancy to be worse than in any other game. Reason being? Lack of maternity leave. My Sim's needs were going down too quickly to manage while working, especially since you can't see what their needs are doing when they're at work, meaning that when she gets home, she pees on the floor and passes out in it. She was running at zero energy, zero fun, zero hygiene, zero bladder, and dangerous levels of hunger by the time she gave birth. It got to the point where she couldn't even pee, because she'd pass out before then.
Then, she gave birth to twin boys, who when you hold them, their limbs are all stretched out, and when their in their cribs, they are invisible. She then proceeded to pee on the floor immediately after giving birth, and then she passed out again. I tried to have her sleep through the night, but, due to the fact that I can't see my babies' needs, I had to wake her up again due to a notification stating that if I did not feed them right now they would be taken away. I am quite honestly
relieved at the fact that I don't have to deal with toddlers after this, and they'll become semi-self-sufficient children soon.
On top of that, I can't seem to find any way to hire a nanny or take time off of work for either of my Sims. The time off isn't even to take care of the baby, as my Sims' schedules work pretty well for that (she goes to work at 8AM and comes back at 4PM, he goes to work at 4PM and comes back at 1AM). It's so I can try and get my Sims' moods back up so they aren't dying of starvation/peeing/passing out.
Other than the pregnancy/baby issue, I'm actually having quite a bit of fun. My only other complaint is rather minor, and that is that time doesn't pass by very quickly. Things on normal-speed sometimes look like they're in slow-motion, and sped-up time doesn't go by as quickly as I'd like. But, like I said, that's minor compared to the pregnancy issues.
Oh, and I really hope that we get a fix for the babies' appearances. They're scaring me the way they are right now.
