My exact thoughts. TS3 was the fisrt game in the series I played seriously mainly because of the open neighborhood. If TS4 will just be TS2 with better graphics, I'll go back to not caring about the series.

I play the same way Ani_, right now I am playing Enekjaer now and having interactive, open venues tend to keep the lots filled with sims. You might have a point about not having sims travel far to get to the lots. The only lot with hardly any sims on it is the Big Show lot I downloaded from MySimsRealty. I haven't developed a performer yet because of waiting for mods to stop the need for simporting. *praying to the sim gods*

After giving Roaring Heights a go with it's enormous lots and RHs, I have changed it to the interactive/RH rugs lots. Now there are more sims on community lots. I get a good number on the nightclub lots too.



Maybe EA allowed open restaurants and shopping again? That is what I took from it.



My patience has thinned about information and really not anticipating it anymore. Otherwise I will become obsessive so forget EA is the best way for me to go.

I keep hoping the pictures from the Sims 4 presentation will be an improvement whenever they decide to show new, improved graphics. I am not a fan of the drawn, art style reflections on the windows. I want real reflections. My preference.

In a way it will be helpful to me if they do delay a while, because I think this constant churn of EPs and patches means that I never really got into actually playing TS3. A period where nothing new happens other than a few store things might relax me and let me play a bit. Just as long as each new store thing doesn't require a patch!!!

I wonder why EA reps "tell" things to the people interviewing them that are "off record" and not meant to be told on? Surely if it was really meant to be secret they'd not tell anyone at all, and if stuff kept slipping out accidentally during conversation, that rep would soon be replaced by someone more trustworthy for the role. Is it the intention that stuff will leak out ? That's usually the case when a politician "leaks" something.

Couldn't agree with you more. I never got into TS3 but the ONE thing I did like about it was the open world and that's what I'd be looking for in the new game to make the transition from TS2, which for me is an excellent game that suits my play style, to something new. And, as I said several months back, I'd like a new game. <sigh>

If we are back to separate lots, then this new engine better be that good. Sims's EPs are an absolute technical mess that only gets worse with time. I cannot imagine the loading times two years (which probably means 8 EPs) after the base game releases.

Regarding that interview, it's cute how they brag about this new feature that makes the game find the "correct" color combination for your outfitt. Who would ever use that? The results should be disastrous as the developers have made clear that you can't trust their sense of style at all

BTW:

Well then, something is seriously wrong. At first I thought that not giving information, was EA way to continue to sell worlds and other sims 3 stuff, by not let the customers attention to go to sims 4. But now I am thinking that they have some big problems with sims 4. Something is fishy and not only the origin spyware. I hope that we don’t see the game at 2017…

Well it rather confirms the snippet I read from one of the links above that the original start was scrapped - I guess that was when they decided not to make it an online game at its core based on problems with simcity. So basically all they *could* tell us all that way back was that it's not an online game

This probably has to be one of the worst game promos in the WORLD.

EA f*cked up again??!! well,well....surprises after surprises


Taking this into consideration, they could released one more ep and sp for sims 3..........but now it's too late.they probably further will milk money from store sets with pc.

So that’s what is going to happen:
The Sims Makin’ Magic Live Broadcast

SimGuruRyan: Let me talk about sims1. When the music is playing, sims dance the Charleston together; TV-watching sims will lean forward and gaze intently at the screen or laugh out loud; and conversing sims will gesticulate appropriately as they chat, dish out insults, tell jokes, and more…

SimGuruLauren: Oh my God!!!! Ryan that’s aaawesome!!!! So people what do you think? Would you buy again the sims 1 series and give as some bread? Of course our awesomeness doesn’t stop here, you can have all the expansions for only 99 dollars!!!! Isn’t that aaawesome????

Guru Ryan Oh yes its aaawesome, better start buying you lucky devils!!!!

Oh, wait, are these guru still working for EA?

I think Lauren is gone.

FYI, that's exactly what we mean when we discuss multitasking in The Sims 4. It is not a single interaction that's just animated differently. It is multiple independent interactions being executed simultaneously.

Unfortunately this highlights some of the difficulty that arises when doing previews when we don't share the same native language with the interviewer, and then those previews are ran back through an online translator. The high level stuff makes it through, but a lot of the subtle (but important) details can get scrambled. In this particular case I don't think the interviewer even misunderstood, just the way it's phrased there unintentionally suggests something that isn't true. I know you're all eager for information, I'd just generally suggest keeping that in mind before over-analyzing the minutiae in these previews.

Graham, will a sim who you have told to paint a picture be able to take a quick bathroom break and go back to painting without the player have to tell them to paint again?

That's a good question. I don't see that happening though... then how would sims burn meals after leaving them on stove just because he had to pee and then totally forgot about it.

Also, i would feel neglected.. so YOU don't need me to tell you what to do?, *flips table*

Nope, that would be a sequence of tasks and not a form of multitasking. As in previous games, you could direct a Sim to paint, then use the bathroom, then resume painting, and the extra interactions would wait in the queue until they could execute.

Alternatively you could ask me, "Graham, will Sims be able to multitask by painting a picture while using the bathroom?" to which I would also, sadly, have to answer "no".

lol! No I was thinking they'd just be in the user-directed painting interaction and visiting the bathroom might be automatically nested if their bladder got too full. So I guess I was talking nesting rather than multitasking.

That actually would be pretty amazing!

Saying "a few months" three months after saying "a few months" is... dumb. I could use stronger language but I don't think I even care enough to bother.

Godammit. Can they still read on the loo? Please tell me it's so.

Was that only in sims 2? or in 3 too? i tend to cancel the paper due to the incompetence of that little cute girl who always leaves the paper in front of the door. (NOT).

But if your answer was "sadly, yes", I would have pre-ordered this minute.

I'm guessing Sims can't wet themselves while painting. It'd make a mess, but it certainly kills 2 birds with one stone.

Guys at least this is not the Sailor Moon anime reboot... we waited for 2 years with no preview of the new reboot, we got new merchandise and a musical but it didn't please the fandom one bit!! Let's be a bit more patient and enjoy the things we have... finish the legacies we haven't finished, kill the sims that annoy us, build new houses for our favourite families and eat fruit.

^And we still haven't gotten a decent preview/promo yet. Toei and EA must be cousins.

Just as long as EA doesn't release sim lingerie to somehow promote 4 (though I admit, I would be bizarrely intrigued..)

Bravo! Sound advice and thoughtful insight from an apparently well grounded, emotionally mature person. I agree with all your suggested activities, but just want to check one thing. Would a piece of lemon meringue pie count as a fruit? Real lemon juice was used in making the pie, and I hate to waste a dessert slot on just an apple.

And to be honest, if it meant waiting for a delayed release into 2015 for them to have enough time to (re)build the game engine, I'd be perfectly content. After all, we'll be living with what that base game engine is capable of for 5 or so years through follow up EPs and other content, so getting it right at the beginning is crucial for the long term success of the franchise.