The Missed opportunities of The Sims 4 Packs

oh hi thanks for watching my video if you've been watching my channel for a while you'll know that i like to make videos where i play through various scenarios experiments and storylines in the sims 4 most of which involve mods i personally don't think i could make daily videos if it wasn't for mods as they enhance so much within the game and add valuable gameplay to a game that doesn't have much depth when compared to older installments in the franchise there's a lot that could be said about the sims 4. especially if you're talking about the failings of the game there's also plenty of good that could be said about the game and i've made videos on both i've spoken before about various things that the sims 4 does better than older games and i've spoken about a few more of the disappointing aspects and how the base game has evolved over time after nearly eight years since its initial release the sims 4 has had a huge amount of add-on content and by that i mean expansion packs game packs stuff packs and kits so today we're going to be talking about the add-on content for the sims 4 and what opportunities were missed within them as i mentioned i have already made a video about the base game which i'll link in the video description and in the white box at the top of the screen now so if you want to watch that one you can but as that video exists we won't really be talking much about the base game of the sims 4. so let's begin by talking about the missed opportunities in the expansion packs get to work get together and city living were the first three expansion packs released for the sims 4. and in my opinion this is before things started to get a bit wobbly to be honest i thought in terms of content these expansion packs were pretty good get to work introduced three active careers the ability to own and run a retail store and the life state of alien get together introduced a large and lively world called windenburg along with the club system and skills in dancing and being a dj and then city living introduced san maishuno and a new home type in the form of apartments each apartment having some kind of quirk like noisy neighbors or needs tlc i'm sure if i really sat down and thought about it there would be several small things that could have enhanced these packs but to give credit where it's due these packs were pretty good in my opinion and offered enough content to be considered an expansion pack although i do think one of the game packs should have been included in get to work but we'll get there in a minute so then we had cats and dogs in terms of expansion packs this is where i think the standard started slipping there's a phrase about this game that goes the worst thing that happened to the sims 4 was that the sims 3 exists and that statement couldn't be any more true when it comes to this pack in terms of customization and animation the cats and dogs were actually pretty good sadly though that seems to be where all of the budget was spent because we didn't get much more than that unlike in previous games the animals were limited to just cats and dogs this might have gone down well with the community if the last pets game we had for the last installment of the franchise didn't have cats dogs horses unicorns snakes birds and so many other smaller creatures there is also the seaside world of brindleton bay and the vet career i realize that we all have different takes on these packs but i don't really consider it to be anything special if we get the same old thing in a new skin bridleton bay is nice but there isn't much you can do there that you can't do anywhere else sure it looks pretty but i think one of the issues i have with the sims 4 is that everything feels the same just in a different setting every world is pretty but nothing really makes them special there's a lighthouse but it's just a rabbit hole and you can't use any of the boats on the water to get there seems just teleport nothing new here and the vet career is just a re-jig of the doctor career from get to work so you have those things plus the build and buy objects were clearly not finished in time and subsequently got released in a separate pack that was paid for separately the stuff pack my first pet stuff was not very well received simply because it was dlc for dlc so you'd have to own cats and dogs to use all of the items the items included pets clothing small pets like hamsters and build and buy objects that clearly belonged in a set with the cats and dogs pack it really really looked like the expansion just wasn't finished in time and so instead of later updating the pack ea just decided to use what was missing in a separately purchased stuff pack it was a real dog move and the community made their feelings known then we had seasons seasons didn't come with a new world but it never did historically so it wasn't expected it came with a good selection of creator sim items and added a new outfit category to go with the new weather no longer will your sims live through the same sunny day over and over now you'd experience heat waves rain thunder and snow but once again the sims 3's existence made the sims 4 seasons fairly underwhelming when it was released it was noted that the beloved seasonal festivals for the sims 3 were not carried over although there was a new feature introduced that didn't exist in previous games and that feature was the calendar a useful tool to plan and create custom holidays for your sims to celebrate a few years later though that calendar was added to base game so taking away one of the key features of this pack that being said there were certain holidays that could only really properly be celebrated with seasons like easter winterfest and harvest fest one holiday you won't find here though is halloween something that had also been included in the sims 3 seasons nope this time around ea did the same thing they did with cats and dogs and they took something that should have been included within an expansion and instead charged players a separate 10 fee for the spooky day stuff pack get famous was the fifth expansion released for the sims 4. get famous probably has the most misleading trailer you see all these cut scenes in the trailer that make you think that maybe you'd see your sim in cut scenes if they starred in a commercial or movie but actually what you see is just your sims standing on a spot and completing an animation for a few seconds the world of del sol valley was pretty small offering only a handful of lots and not much to do in the world i guess it would be fair to acknowledge though you could at least place a star on the walk of fame if you become a five-star celebrity not a huge thing but it is something you can only do there sims can follow the active career of being an actor which operated exactly the same way that the other active careers do get a list of tasks complete the tasks by doing a little animation and you're done imagine if being famous in the sims actually changed the world around you in some way like if your sim is a global superstar imagine having that sim on billboards or watching a movie they'd been in on tv even if you're playing with a separate household i think one of the things with some of these packs is that it is actually fun when you play through it the first time but it doesn't seem to have much replay value maybe it's just me but after i've done it once i don't really have much want to play through it again because it's quite repetitive for me anyway the acting career and the other active ones and just one more thing on this i do think it's a huge missed opportunity that this pack is only for the acting career i was kind of expecting a bit more than just one career like if they had also included the opportunity to be a singer and put on concerts all the ability to put together a band and perform on stage maybe sell their own merch i don't know just something a bit more that has more replay value then we have island living the island of sulani is beautiful and there are things that you can do only there like try to clean up and improve the island watching it turn into a thriving colorful area you can use boats and swim in the sea there were quite a few missed opportunities though it was suggested that there would be some kind of story to uncover in the island involving the island spirits sadly though this amounted to nothing and the island spirits don't do much there's no law to uncover here also the life state of mermaids were introduced and they were a big disappointment see this is where the sims 3 sets the bar the sims 3 mermaids were able to swim underwater and one of the biggest selling points of the sims 3 isla paradiso was the ability to go underwater and see the beauty of what lies beneath the surface sims could also live on houseboats in the sims 4 there were no underwater visuals so when sims went diving they just disappear houseboats were also not a thing anymore mermaids really don't have much about them they have a couple of powers they can use but no skill level no special abilities that could be unlocked through gameplay basically if you made a mermaid in the sims 4 you would see everything they have to offer in about 10 minutes discover university was the seventh expansion released and you know what i really don't have much to complain about here of course there are always little things and if i really tried to find something i didn't like i probably could but this video isn't about being negative just for the sake of being negative overall i was really happy with this pack playing through university was fun for me and i've played with it several times sure there are opportunities where rabbit holes could have not been used like certain classes but i think this pack was done well overall and i especially like the rivalry between the universities so moving on to eco lifestyle i don't really know what i can say about this pack mainly because i'll admit this isn't my kind of gameplay there are actually quite a few features here and i just don't use them the neighborhood action plans the community voting boards the crafting recycling reducing pollution i mean i guess it's a pretty good pack and i just don't use it enough to give it a fair opinion on it so i think this is probably where i'll ask you to let me know in the comments what you think based on what i've played with i do think it's definitely one of the better ones and seems to be beefed out enough to justify it being an expansion pack given that the choices you make actually impact the world around you makes me think that it does have a lot of replay value if you're into that kind of thing then we have snowy escape mount komareby is a beautiful world with lots of explorable areas you can go on hikes and wander around the bamboo forest and you can stumble across landmarks along the way i personally think it's a really good middle ground to an open world sure all of the lots are still locked behind a loading screen but you can still see a lot of the world from wandering around sims can also explore the snowy mountain and hit the slopes one disappointment though was the ski lift sims just teleport up there also there is no real need to prepare for a mountain excursion at all as long as you have the fitness level required to climb walls you'll be fine no need to stock up on anything there's even a tent provided for you three new festivals came with this pack although the only one worth attending is the festival of snow the other two are pretty empty and don't have much going on the trailer also showed what looked like a more active instagram profile possibly allowing you to actually upload photos yourself or write a caption for your sims profile no such luck though just in the trailer i think it would have been great to have had an active simstagram and also a bit more involved with the ski lift given that there were so many landmarks your sims could go and visit i think a holiday or vacation scrapbook would have been a brilliant addition to this pack and finally we have cottage living similarly to discover university i was overall quite happy with this one plenty of gameplay features charming world to live in the return of agnes crumplebottom not much to complain about the one thing i will say though in terms of missed opportunities is that there weren't enough large lots for a pack that is somewhat inspired by farming there isn't much opportunity to own and run a large farm i was hoping to have at least one 50 by 50 lot in here so those are the expansion packs do you agree with my thoughts i'd love to know in the comments but for now though it's time to move on to game packs apologies but journey to batu will not be included here because i just couldn't bring myself to buy it so game packs outdoor retreat was the first game pack for the sims 4 and it's offered the vacation world of granite falls the perfect spot for getting up and close to the wilderness and camping in the wild sadly it didn't really live up to that promise granite falls is a pretty world and does look like a great spot for living in pure nature but there really isn't anything you can do here that you can't do anywhere else there is a hidden lot in the deep woods but once you've seen it once there's no real reason to go back there aren't any activities here that you can't do at your sims home and there isn't much wildlife here to worry about either there was definitely a missed opportunity here for more gameplay and an actual reason to visit granite falls they could have had a lake with team building activities like raft building or a log game like in the sims 2. they could have added archery they even could have had a summer camp there for children and teams it's just such a shame because i really liked the idea of this pack but it just ended up being the same as everything else just in a different setting spa day is a bit of a different story because this is the first and so far only pack to have received a refresh so it was initially released in 2015 and later refreshed in 2021 so the first release of spa day offered the addition of a spa lot type a place where sims can go and pamper themselves and there was also a wellness skill i personally enjoyed spa day but it wasn't really value for money when you look at what was included in game packs later down the line so the refresh brought more to the table in terms of beauty offering face masks manicures pedicures healthy snacks and the ability to make money from hosting yoga classes overall i'm pretty happy with how it is right now and i use it a fair bit dine out well this is less about missed opportunities and more about just wanting a game pack that works properly personally i think this should have been a part of the get to work pack it's pretty much another version of the same retail system anyway and just like the retail store once you open shop you'll get a few customers and they will be the same sims lingering here at the end of the day sims don't come in and out for a meal they come and they stay for hours and hours meaning the opportunity to make much of a profit is not as good as it could be i don't think i've served more than four tables in an entire day of being open that is if my worker sims managed to actually do their jobs and if my customer sims sit in their seats for long enough anyone who has this pack will know the trouble sims getting up not eating their food sitting at tables with random sims walking around the restaurant taking plates from their own tables it really is a mess and attending a restaurant for a meal is as much of a hardship as running a restaurant there is no point in doing it for me it just takes too long to get the food vampires and realm of magic i'm just going to group together these two because they're pretty similar in my opinion i enjoyed both i think they were both well made and even though i don't personally play through vampires again and again i can see how someone else would the only criticism i have here is that the realm of magic trailer made it seem like there was some kind of law involved through the sages and that wasn't the case other than that though pretty good game packs if you're into a cults then we have parented this is one of the better game packs in my opinion of course an expansion pack based off of the sims 3 generations would have been ideal but as far as game packs go i enjoy this one and i wouldn't want to play as a family without it there could have been more however to the actual children and teens this pack is as the name suggests all about parents i would have loved to have had some of the old features return like having teens prank the shower with hair dye or throw eggs at the neighbor's house but i guess you can't have everything you want jungle adventure i don't really have much to say about this one because although i own it i really don't use it much i love the idea of having vacation worlds but since the sims 4 i've kind of lost faith in having a world that can only be a holiday destination it's a pretty place but it's just a bit too specific so unless your sim wants to go there to do the adventure stuff which in itself is quite repetitive then there isn't really much point in going again it doesn't have much replay value in my opinion if it were an actual holiday place that had the same adventures but with other things then it would be worth visiting several times take the sims 2 and sims 3 vacation worlds as an example they both have adventures and missions within them but you could send your sims there and not do any of that and still have plenty of things to keep you occupied like hanging out at the beach going on excursions sightseeing shopping for souvenirs and much much more moving on to strangerville strangerville is an interesting one i like this game pack you actually get what it says on the tin it's a story to uncover and play through does it have much replay value not really not when you've done it once i do think they missed a trick here with aliens they could have been the perfect place to have an alien crash site with pollination technicians and scientific experiments but there you go dream home decorator this was really more of a builder pack and i really liked the items in it but this probably could have just been a stuff pack the career itself was just a gig finder that sent you to sims houses to make over one of their rooms something you could always do in the sims 4 you could even use one sim to do it go house to house type in the enable free build cheat and you're good to go the only addition really was the process of greeting clients and taking pictures other than that there was no additional gameplay i don't really think there was enough to justify a game pack for this there was a lot of stuff probably more than what you get in a stuff pack but maybe if they had all that stuff plus three creative freelance careers it would have been more worth it even the decorator career had its flaws you could literally decorate a room with the same objects and the sims will love it because it's a color they like i just don't think sims was smart enough for a pack like this to work properly and finally my wedding stories well well well where do i begin with this one we all know this game pack was by far the biggest disappointment in terms of playability the world was beautiful the creator sim items were beautiful but the gameplay was something else the whole point of this pack was to enhance the wedding experience for sims however what we got was a very buggy and broken pack none of the sims would do any of the new commands trying to throw a wedding celebration was almost impossible because sims just froze they would gather at the aisle but wouldn't be seated most of the wedding gameplay functionality just didn't work and because weddings took so long to complete it made the other features pointless too like the new wedding cakes you can buy or make one but they go spoiled after eight sim hours considering how buggy this pack was if you managed to actually get the ceremony done before the cake spoiled that's quite an achievement and once you bought the pack you couldn't go back it completely overwrote the existing wedding system so every wedding party was going to be an ordeal until the game gets fixed probably the most disappointing part about this was that there was absolutely no acknowledgement from ea about the broken pack no update notes no explanation no insight into how it was going to be fixed just no communication at all and finally we have stuff packs this time around i'm not going to talk about each and every pack just because of the sheer amount of them so i'll just touch on the ones that had in my opinion missed opportunities luxury party luxury party makes the list because there was just too little in it even less than what we got in some kits it had some nice pieces it just needed a bit more stuff for what it was perfect patio perfect patio is a frustrating one because the main selling point of this pack was the hot tub an item that hadn't previously been as an additional cost to players in earlier sims games hot tubs were later added to the base game for free several years later after its release so many people that bought the pack felt like it was a bit of a waste as it was added for free anyway i think the biggest issue was having hot tubs as the main selling point i actually think perfect patio and backyard stuff should have just been one pack cool kitchen this pack has just one kitchen in it there's also an ice cream machine sure there are a few small decor items and creator sim items but for a kitchen pack you're paying ten dollars for one kitchen and an ice cream machine the country kitchen kit is half the price and has about the same amount of build and buy objects as this stuff pack vintage glamour this is a good stuff pack the clothing is nice the items are nice it wouldn't have even made the list if it wasn't for the butler the butler just doesn't work for me and i've seen comments from some of you too that say that your butlers don't work properly either so that's why it makes the list fitness stuff i think the only reason for this pack was the rock climbing machine we already had gyms we already had loads of fitness themed clothing so that was really the only thing that added anything new i do think there could have been an opportunity to become a personal trainer though that would have made this pack a lot more exciting and finally my first pet stuff what more is there to say about this one i already pretty much covered it earlier when i spoke about cats and dogs so let's just leave that one there so there you go a look at all of the missed opportunities of the sims 4 packs a video that no one asked for but i did anyway more importantly though i'd love to know what you think about all this do you agree with my feedback i'd love to know in the comments thanks for watching i hope you enjoyed it if you did please like and subscribe you know i love it when you do that and i'll see you in the next video bye bye [Music]

Channel: Whiny Brit

Views: 12,591

Keywords: sims 4, sims 4 packs, sims 4 missed opportunities, sims 4 expansion packs, sims 4 game packs, sims 4 stuff packs, sims 4 pack analysis, packs for the sims 4, sims 4 dlc, dlc for the sims 4

Id: Hywz7mxTN1o

Length: 24min 39sec (1479 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 02 2022