The Sims 4is a massive game given the amount of additional content that’s available to purchase, but that doesn’t mean it’s a perfect game. Instead, it still struggles with an endless list of glitches, and when some are fixed, more inevitably appear when the next piece of DLC is released. Even when there are issues and glitches,The Sims 4can run decently well, as there aren’t many crashes or long loading times. It’s just an issue that brings frustration more than anything.
Each base game forThe Simshas improved on the issues of the game before it, butThe Sims 4made some of the most drastic changes to the franchise to fix problems that plagued its predecessors. While it’s great that itruns better even when new content introduces unexpected bugs, there are some downsides to the way that the game is designed to address this problem.The Sims 4had to sacrifice featuresto avoid running into the issues with running content thatThe Sims 3had.
The Sims 3 Could Struggle To Run With Expansions
Problems With Optimization
AlthoughThe Sims 3didn’t reach the same staggering size thatThe Sims 4has with its DLC, it still received more expansions thanTS1andTS2. However,The Sims 3, like its predecessors, didn’t have the best optimization, which meant that itoften struggled to load content. Additionally,The Sims 3had a relatively open-world approach to neighborhoods, and Sims could be sent to different locations, such as a store, without prompting a loading screen in the process. So, it’s understandable that the game ended up struggling as more content was added.
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Later in the lifespan ofThe Sims 3, a pop-up would appear to let players know that itwasn’t recommended to play the game with more than a few expansion packsenabled at once, as the game would run slower and encounter more issues. At best, this was an annoying feature, since the game is more fun when there’s as much extra content as possible, and switching the packs that are enabled in order to access various features can be frustrating. As far as avoiding that same issue goes,TS4has done a great job.
The Sims 4 Has Better Optimization At A Cost
The Sims 4 Did Some Downsizing
In general,The Sims 4,from its base gameand beyond, runs well. It also doesn’t have the same pop-up about limiting how many packs are used at once to improve the game’s performance, since its optimization is better and able to handle additional content. Unfortunately, this improved optimization came at the cost of neighborhood size and more loading screens. These loading screens aren’t as long as those from games likeTS2, where a player could feel like they were waiting forever for their game to load.
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The smaller neighborhoods are the biggest drawback of increased optimization, especially since the number ofavailable lots inThe Sims 4’sneighborhood is incredibly small. Previous games let playersadd a lot of houses and community lots to their neighborhoodand customize them how they wanted as a result, but that’s no longer the case inThe Sims 4. Instead, players have access to a lot more neighborhoods than ever before, but each one severely limits the number of lots that can be used.
A Decade Of DLC Works Most Of The Time
Smaller Worlds For Smoother Play
Despite the drawbacks of having limited options for customizing each neighborhood,The Sims 4provides a smooth and consistent gameplay experience, even with10 years of DLC added on top of the base game. There’s always room for improvement inTS4, since it tends to have new issues every time there’s a fix for previous issues or another pack introduced. However, the issues that pop up inTS4generally aren’t game-breaking. They can be frustrating, of course, but the game usually continues to run well enough to make it playable.
It’s fortunate that optimization has been a consideration in the design ofThe Sims 4.
Now about to celebrate 25 years,The Simsas a franchise has come a long way, and it now has features that would’ve seemed impossible when playing the original game. It’s clear thatTS4has been made with the intention of giving it more DLC than any game before it, and it looks like the game won’t be slowing down after the announcement that there won’t be aSims 5. Because of this, it’s fortunate that optimization has been a consideration in the design ofThe Sims 4.
