Ah shit, here I go again being curious. The Question of The Day today is why do you play the Sims 3 over the 4, 2, or 1? I'm very interested.

I never played the Sims 1 or 2, but I've been thinking about picking up the Sims 2 and it's expansions for free. I have The Sims 4, but currently I only have the base game and I really, really despise it. In a save I have a Sims who's the mother of two toddlers who I, personally, love with my entire soul. But apparently, my sim doesn't share the sentiments since she ignores every command I give her to take steps to prevent her children from being taken away from her. She either stands around and does nothing, or she ignores my commands to feed her fucking kids to go play on the damn computer. I would get more expansions for it to see if it adds to the gameplay or even fixes some bugs, but they're unbelievably overpriced and don't seem to add much? The Cats & Dogs and Island Living expansions are 40$ a piece. 80$ for two expansion packs? Are you kidding me?

So yuh...I've been sticking to my Echantacy Challenge playthrough in my Sims 3 game lately...

As much as cliche it sounds, it's because open world I suppose. I do enjoy the game alongside with TS2 (though can't play it on the current device for other unrelated reasons), albeit with a different outlook to it. Let's say it's mechanically interesting game. The way in certain components is intuitive, but also in certain aspects powerful. It's like a different piece of cake, with TS2 being a different piece of cake. Haven't tried TS1, have tried TS4 (gonna be honest with you, I didn't like it). So yeah: I love TS2 and TS3 the most. I do look forward the day if I ever get to try TS1 (though I feel like I might not like as much because of limitations, monotonous routine of taking care they're needs and the absence of weekends and days off). Though from how I seen it, I might enjoy Makin Magic from playthroughs I seen.

I love Sims 1 and 2 but the open world is a main thing for me, as well. Also, there's so much to do in Sims 3. I do have Sims 4 and few expansion packs but everytime I have tried to play it, I have gotten so incredibly bored so incredibly fast that it's not even funny. And not being able to use my own textures always drove me crazy. Also I just can't swallow down the cartoony art style of Sims 4. It makes it feel like kids game.

I think everyone who prefers Sims 3 over the others likes the open world, and yuh, I'm definitely one of those people. I like Sims 3 for that and because there are just so many possibilities, it can be almost overwhelming with how much you can do. And I do agree with other people who say the game is lacking in areas like playability, but the drawbacks aren't so big and numerous to where I can't or willingly refuse to play it.

Also, one thing that also drove me nuts was the fact that I couldn't do anything to the neighborhood, not the way I can in Sims 3. I remember I was playing in San Myshuno and suddenly decided that I want to buldoze one of the city appartments, so I can build my own industrial style house there. Well what do you know, I couldn't even do that. It only "buldozed" the one single home in that entire building. I was so annoyed. The freedom to create the world the way you want, the way that suits you was completely taken away. No creative freedom anymore. It was pretty disappointing.

Wait. There's a Sims 4? I must have missed the memo, when did that happen?

Because nothing fucking matches in all the other ones like TS1 and TS2 and.....wait, what? TS4? When did that happen? Have they announced something?

This should be filed under the other thread "Stupid Questions."

TS3 has the best graphics and the most content.
TS2 is the most customizable and has more depth in a lot of areas, but it feels very limited in other ways.
TS4 has the best CAS (minus the frustrating lack of sliders and randomization options) and the sims look okay, but nearly everything else about it is a step backwards.

Those questions are more "what should i do" while this inquires pure opinion of owns preference.

Well, if it is free... sure why not?

Otherwise don't do it. Seriously, just don't do it. You're talking about a game from 20 years ago and trying to run it on a modern machine. There are tons of compatibility issues and when you finally got it working, it still has the limitation of a 20 yr old program. Even people today running TS3 beginning to find the game highly incompatible with newer hardware such as CPU too fast your disc loading cache cannot keep up, GPU too new that the VRAM is not recognized and you have to supplement with your RAM instead which is slower than VRAM, and other issues such as core parking, runaway FPS, etc...

I was an avid lover of TS2 and when TS3 came out, I kept all my TS2 intact to play both. But I haven't touched my TS2 now in years! It is just hogging up space on my disc drive. Reality of the fact is, once you go open world you just can't mentally go back to a dollhouse. The whole concept has me feeling trapped, isolated, imprisoned, I could not stand it.

I run it on a 7 year old i7 and it runs like crap, lags like crazy. I finally figured out it was the core parking that was making it unbearable. But even without it, the game doesn't run smooth at all. Despite the LAA and the game can use more than 2GB or RAM? It still doesn't utilize it efficiently and the only time I broke the 2GB barrier is when I use a cheat to get 50 sims on the same lot. It also doesn't take advantage of multi-threading. So it runs like crap.

Yes, there are a lot more "details" in TS2 such as sims actually getting into cars by opening the door and the car backing out of the drive way. But you have to take that into consideration how it would pan out in a open world engine. Look at Island Paradise, just having excessive sims going into water taxis lag the world so badly, imagine if you have sims doing that open door animation et.c.. each time they get in the car. The sacrifices made in TS3 is to allow the game to run more smoothly in an open world engine. The trade off? Is definitely worth it.

TS4 should've continued the direction and improved upon TS3 as a 64-bit open world engine. It should be TS3 except with better graphics, better multi-threading, and of course 64-bit above 4GB RAM limit. Problems with TS3's performance today is no longer an issue of hardware, practically any new machine can run it. The problem is the outdated coding that doesn't utilize our new hardware.

There, hope that is thorough enough.

Here we go again. Sigh. This horse was beaten to death years ago.

Why should I post it under Stupid Questions? I'm asking for everyone's reasons on why they play the installment they play, and everyone has their own reasons, some of them may not be unique, per say, and can be predictable, but I still find them interesting. It's nothing more than asking people, "Why do you like this?"

As for your thoughts on me getting TS2 and it's expansions for free, I've taken note of them, thanks.



I can only assume that you think this is a Sims 3 vs Sims 4 thread, and hey I get tired of them too, but this isn't one of them. I'm asking people why they play the game they do, not why they think Sims 3 is better than 4. My reason as to why I play Sims 3 over other installments is because I enjoy the open world and the almost endless things you can do in it and that currently Sims 4 has a lack of content and possibly shitty programming. They're my reasons, and Sims 4 just happens to be apart those reasons. Sometimes it's like that for others, too.

At this point, that much is to be expected. It'd be a huge credit to anyone who could still come up with an original topic at this point. Yes, the horse may be deader than the Supreme Leader of North Korea but it'll always be fun to complain about TS4 some more, and the freedom to endlessly bash TS4 is a hill I'm more than willing to die on.

Just decided to give the old TS2 a run. It actually runs a lot more smoother than I remembered. I guess my memories was from when I ran it with core parked. So you must unpark it in order to run it. But still it is crappy, TS3 is actually smoother despite running a whole world engine.

- unpark your CPU cores
- Win 7, no compatibility needed, it actually utilized multi-thread during loading, which loads faster than setting it at XP compatibility. However, still no multi-threading during gameplay though.

1) First test run was a party in a residential home. 15 sims. Game runs relatively smooth, but the game uses single core to handle the sims population. FPS jumping all over the place around 15 FPS. RAM usage 1GB. Took the party to a 50s Diner. Sure do miss the TS2 dining experience, all party of 8 seated in the booths area, 2 booths together. Sims are definitely more active than TS3 b/c it is a dollhouse game, but again, jagged FPS b/c single core performance.

2) Load up a business I was running at a pool and games lot ... I think around 30-40 sims. RAM usage 1.7GB (again well under the 2GB limit, doesn't even need LAA). FPS? 2-14, average, completely unstable. The game actually runs smoothly, no pausing. But as I've said, it feels heavy, and a lot of jaggedness b/c of the single core performance over 30-40 sims, it is constantly loading and using the CPU. When you pan the camera, it stutters and the FPS is low. But yes, all the sims are super active, no idling, and good programming so no collision routing complaints. But still, it is what you expect from a 20 yr old program.

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However, again after only a few minutes of playing, I feel trapped. You don't want to leave the lot because you know it will go into a loading screen and that just makes it bleh. Not to mention, it was 7 PM when I left my home lot, then it was 10 PM when I arrived at the diner, then it was 7 PM again when I returned home. Also, the sims that went to the diner aged during that time, the sim in the household that remained, didn't age. So your own household age gets screwed up, forget the whole global age b/c there is no global aging. So your sims moving out somewhere can literally become elders before their parents on a separate lot.

Just a whole lot of issues with the concept, that's why it is outdated. It is merely a dollhouse, you play each household individually as in different saves. They're semi connected through the game in visitation and public lots, but nothing else is synchronized. Just gawd awful.



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TS3 is a successor of TS2 because it took the concept of TS2 and improved upon it. Aside from some of the more detailed animation and concepts in TS2, TS3 basically in general does everything TS2 does and gone pro with it in an open world engine.

TS4 went backward to the TS2 engine, made it 64-bit, and added a global synchronization. However, despite doing so, it incorporated even less detail behavior model than TS3. That's why it didn't get any fans from TS3 or TS2.

I did not assume that at all and your post said vs. the other versions, not 4. As said, the game comparisons/debates have been done a zillion times already but if folks want to rehash the same things over and over and over .... beat the horse some more....

What else are we going to do quarantined at home?

Make masks! I need to get going doing that. And not drink chlorox cocktails!

And make Legos! I love to do that!

Work in CAW. Another thing I love to do.

Mmm yeah, nothing like a lemony fresh (or lavender scented if you prefer) way to kill oneself or at least end up sharing a hospital room with any Tide Pod munchers who might still be kicking around out there. Just as an aside, the sentence "I am addicted to Lysol" is one of those that, out of the quadrillions or whatever of searchable pages on the web, only gets one result. I just checked. And now that I've posted this, the number of results should double to two.

I actually envy those who have all this spare time to cope with while in isolation and who get to experiment with different iterations of the game that may not have fully explored for a very long time. I haven't ever logged more work hours (from home) per week on a consistent basis ever since I started doing my current job 24 years ago. Some of my users love me, others I am sure are tired of me altogether, but none of them will leave me alone with the net result that I now have no playtime left at all or none when I'm awake and coherent enough to even concentrate on a game session.

I disagree with TS2 being too limited / not fun / not running well. TS2 is an absolute marvel, and while it lacks the open world, the game has so much depth in its interactions between sims and how they behave ( more so than any other sims game ) . There can be some problems on modern hardware, and they can range from simple block shadows, which is an easy fix, to items flashing pink, which can be a bit more fiddly, but I, and many other people playing it, haven't had any issues at all, bar using the GFX rules maker to help it run well on newer hardware. Don't be put off even buying it, if it gets to that point. It is very well worth it.

I find TS3 is much more materialistic than Sims 2. It always gives the impression of sims having to have more "stuff" and buying things, rather than anything else. While 3 improved in many areas, it also regressed in areas like sim and family interaction. Families can simply move around each other in a household like fish in a bowl sometimes. Eating a meal as a family in TS3 is nowhere near as nice as seeing sims eat together in 2.

They barely speak in 3, and sometimes the only reaction you get to a sim that has made an attempt at conversation at the table is a + or a - above their heads. It has always been one of my pet peeves about the game, as well as the sim who cooks not laying meals out on the table for the family. Sometimes you get a huge crush of sims all attempting to get their dinner from the serving plate and they jostle to the point that sometimes they just give up. If they don't, when the last family member gets their meal and sits down, most of the others have finished shoveling their food in, and just leave.
Again, my huge peeve with TS3.

I play TS2 & 3 probably equally. When I feel like collecting, or playing a single sim, and exploring outside, I play TS3. When I want a real family experience, with plenty of interactions between sims, and Uni ( TS2 uni is my favourite ) then I play Sims 2.
I don't even acknowledge 4. It's appalling and doesn't exist to me.

Each version has strengths and weaknesses and I am not going to list them again, as many of us have done that already many, many times. I like 3 the most. But whichever version each person likes is fine for that person and as it should be. Play the one you like the most, at least the most. It does not matter if others like another version more or less than each of us does. We each get to pick the sandboxes we want to be in, and play them as we like. And that is all that matters. Play as you/we want. They are our unique games.

I loved 2 and played it hours on end, when 3 came out I hated it and refused to play it.... after a yr or 2 i decided to give it another try and i haven't looked back since.... i love the open world... and it doesn't have as many building restrictions.... 2 certainly got a lot right and i miss the play-ability, quirky personalities and OFB but I could not permanently go back for anything....open world is the biggest reason though, cast, i like to delete all the townies and play multiple families and sometimes set back and watch the town work! And i love building worlds.

I am the same. When each new version came out I moved to the next and never went back. Had no interest in doing that. OTHER than 4. I have played 4 700 hours I think. Probably have played 3 tens of thousands of hours.

Frankly, IMO, a loaded-to-the-eyeballs-with-mods TS2 is every bit as enjoyable as a loaded-to-the-eyeballs-with-mods TS3 is. (Unmodded...Eh, TS3 is better than TS2, but as the newer game, it OUGHT TO BE. *side-eyes TS4's backslide to worse-than-TS2*) Yes, TS2 lacks an open world, but on the flip side...You can easily build your own world in TS2, right in the game, without CAW's learning curve. For me, that's HUUUUGE because building worlds is what I do....but I can't seem to get CAW to run on my machine with my game version, and even if I did manage it, I'm not sure I'd want to take the time to learn to use it. I prefer TS2's very simple "open an empty terrain in game, plop down lots, build on one (or a dozen or a hundred), and play" system. Even better, I like TS2's "build your town organically as its population grows and its needs change" capability, which isn't something that works....well, pretty much at all, in TS3, with, for instance, its need for rabbitholes. At least, doing that in TS3 would require a lot more work, some of which would likely have to be done in CAW. Finally, it is much easier in TS2 to make a bunch of linked worlds that Sims can live in and travel freely between. So if your population gets too large, attach a subneighborhood and easily spread your population out across them. You can do this after a fashion with the Traveler mod in TS3, yes, but it's a native feature of TS2.

As for the open world...With some of the utilities out there that, for instance, allow you to move lots off the road, as well as CC like high-res neighborhood deco and horizons that serve as distant terrains as well as custom skies that are sometimes animated, you can MAKE a TS2 neighborhood look like an open world; the only limitation is that inactive lots won't render at high quality. Yeah, you get loading screens moving between lots, but...eh. I mean, in TS3, if a Sim is traveling from one end of a large world to another on/in a vehicle of some type, it can take just as long to get where they're going as it takes for TS2 to exit a lot and load a new one. I enjoy watching Sims riding around in taxis about as much as I enjoy watching a loading screen, so...Yeah, eh.

Another TS2 advantage: Yes, TS2 IS an old game, but it has maintained a surprisingly large and very loyal core of players/creators/modders. Because of this, 1) There is a SHIT-TON of gorgeous CC out there, from neighborhood deco to CAS stuff to build/buy stuff to stuff that default-replaces the 2004-era stuff, and there is tons more being produced every single day. Tumblr is full of some pretty amazing stuff. Much of it, these days is high-poly/high-res and very nice-looking. And 2) Pretty much everything that can be modded has been and/or continues to be modded. One modder, for instance, is currently doing amazing things with supernaturals and with romance/reproduction and a bunch of other things. The issue that Nitromon mentioned about time and community lots was solved by a mod looooooong ago, and that mod has recently been updated to fix some issues that didn't work in the original mod. People -- myself included -- make high-resolution CC, including default replacement terrains and custom skies that, IMO, make TS2 every bit as pretty as TS3. Sure, there has to be effort on your part to find stuff, but....Frankly, a vanilla TS3 is pretty bad, too. Better than TS2 overall, yes, because of TS3's very pretty scenery, but IMO vanilla TS2 Sims look better than vanilla TS3 ones.

Another advantage: TS2's gameplay is way more flexible than TS3's and, especially with mods, lends itself well to playing just about any scenario you can imagine. Want to have a completely player-controlled integrated, in-game economy, complete with raw-material-to-finished-product supply chains built across multiple households? You can do that fairly easily in TS2, since you can run any kind of business you can imagine, and the mods/CC that's available makes this even better. Wanna play medieval or stone-age? Easily done at least in terms of gameplay, though of course you'll need lots of CC for the appearance and such. Not so easily done in terms of gameplay in TS3, especially in worlds with roads, what with its penchant for generating taxis and other vehicles and cell phones as well as random Sims that randomly run around your world (something that you can control completely in TS2), AND you'll also need lots of CC. This lack of flexibility is, I imagine, at least in part because of the complexity of simulating an entire world all at once all the time. If I'm right about that, this is a disadvantage of the open world and, frankly, it's the reason why I'm NOT a big fan of the open world because one of my main joys when it comes to playing Sims games is inventing different scenarios to play with societies that have very different rules from ours. Sort of "what if" scenarios, world-building societies from the ground up. It's much harder to do this in TS3 than it is in TS2 because of its inherent lack of flexibility. The ONLY time I truly love the open world is when I'm having Sims ride horses around one. The rest of the time, I can honestly take it or leave it. Maybe because I'm really more of a TS2 fan, at heart. *shrug*

OTOH, areas where TS3 "wins" hands-down, IMO: Create-A-Style, which eliminates the need to have billions of recolors of pretty much everything, meaning you can run TS3 pretty lean and mean on the CC front if you're playing a standard contemporary-urban/suburban world, whereas, unless you like the 2004-era Maxis look, you can't really do that with TS2. The fact that the entire world ages together automatically in TS3 is very nice; I can do it manually in TS2, but when the population gets large, it's a pain. Also, horses. The fact that TS3 has them is a big win, in my book...even though their routing leaves MUCH to be desired. TS3 also wins at gardening/cooking and fishing. And sculpting/inventing. Its supernaturals are generally better than TS2's. (Except vampires. Screw TS3's day-walking vampires. ) And there's probably other things that I'm not thinking of. Basically, I think TS3 wins in its individual components that are fun to individually play and that I wish existed or were as good as in TS2, but when you put them all together and plop them in an open world that I, the player, don't have completely control of...it somehow loses something, at least for me. It feels to me like TS3 is winning all the battles but it's losing the war, I guess.

And yes, TS3 will run better on newer computers, specifically on those running Windows 10 which exacerbates TS2's native texture memory processing issues. (I have no problems on my Win7 machine with a decent video card.) There's plenty of info on the web about things you can do to fix this, though, if you want to play TS2 on a new, whiz-bang computer.

Alllllll that being said...I actually like both games pretty much equally, but for different reasons. Currently, I'm playing TS3 but building in TS2 because building is my first love, but I find it frustrating in TS3, mostly because CASt lags annoyingly for me. (It's something I need to look into fixing. Just haven't gotten there yet.) In some ways, to me, it's an "apples and oranges" situation. It's just better if you take each game on its own merits, play each according to its strengths and your preferences, and stop comparing them. I found that when I did that, as a TS2-Only-er, I could enjoy TS3 a lot more. And I have been, for the better part of a year now. Perhaps the reverse would be true for TS3-Only-ers.

To the OP: If you decide to get/install TS2 and need help with finding mods and stuff...Feel free to hit me up. My TS2 game runs with about 1000 mods in it. (Literally, not hyperbole at all.) So, I'm pretty well-versed in finding stuff to make TS2 do (or not do) what you want it to do or not do, whatever it is that you want it to do or not do. And, of course, hit up the TS2 forum here at MTS; it's actually much more active than the TS3 forum.

I would've done it if I was any good with sewing machine. But alas, I never learned that, despite efforts from my mom, who did that for living until she got disability pension twenty years ago, to teach me at least basics of sewing.


I agree with you about family interactions. That's definitely something Sims 2 do better than Sims 3, though it's not half as bad as you picture it. Though sadly, for most family interactions you need Generations EP. But Sims 3 being more materialistic? Come on. It's the other way around, actually. In Sims 2, I always tried to pack my Sims' houses with everything I could efford so they don't need to leave their houses. In Sims 3 I no longer do that, because I can easily send my Sims to library, gym, park etc., so there's no need for these things taking space at my own home.

I personally play Sims ever since it was first released twenty years ago and man, what twenty years they were. I enjoyed playing Sims 1, because there wasn't anything to compare it with.
I enjoyed playing Sims 2, because it improved significantly on the gameplay and overall concept, though there were things that annoyed me to no end, with the biggest being the force for rotational gameplay, which never was my thing. And yes, there still are things I think Sims 2 did better and miss in later versions.
I waited to get Sims 3 for about a year and then bought it with Ambitions and immediately loved it. Especially the fact I no longer need to play for other Sims in my town in order for them to progress. True, that feature had a flaws and without mods it could cause more annoyance than good, but it was here. I could list all the reasons why I still prefer to play Sims 3, but it would be so long post that no one would read it anyway.
The Sims 4 is the first Sims game I regret ever buying (and especially regret to buy the Collector's edition, even though I got a good deal for it). It just felt so barebones and empty and regressed that it was no fun any longer for me. And then came the EPs which are always more about what they don't have instead of what they actually have. In Sims 1, 2 and 3 I never had any issue to buy EPs for their full price. Here, I wouldn't buy them even in sales (maybe with exception of Seasons, which I consider buying every time there is a sale, only to realise I would probably not enjoy Sims 4 any better with it anyway). There still are some things Sims 4 do better than Sims 3 or 2, but they are vastly overshadowed with things that are missed and never will be brought back to the game because the engine couldn't handle them.
So, that's my take on this topic.