Oh God the meltdowns over at reddit. People are finally realizing this pack wasn't worth it. Most people don't understand why the story was so short or anticlimatic:
https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims/co...thread/ehcnnz6/
https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims/co...e_am_i_missing/
https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims/co...his_gp/ehcisx8/
https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims/co...his_gp/ehcgw1u/
https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims/co...or_nay/ehcrv19/
https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims/co...thread/ehcn3xo/

About the town: https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims/co...ng_shells_town/

I expect most people to go into full cognitive dissonance mode to try and justify the fact they spent $20 for 2 hours of linear gameplay and 3 gameplay objects.

and a world which's set dressing looks bomb, but it's 11 lots are either empty, a copy of a base game lot or untested lot with broken kitchen...

I'm trying to avoid spoilers as I do plan to eventually play this pack at some point in the distant future but what is the broken kitchen I keep seeing mentioned? I already know about the copy of the base game home.

Which is the whole problem with the Gamechanger’s program. It’s only useful for the gamechangers and EA. Why paying simmers fall for that trick will always be beyond me.

You should, because once you’ve seen it (I have) there’s no need to play it. Because you’ve seen it. This is a revolutionary development in this franchise, never seen before. Hooray experiments they call it.

A crater the size of Windenburg..?

Some people over at the official forums are expressing their disappointment with the story: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/di...-honest-review/

It is a sci-fi pack. So we can assume that something like the TARDIS is nearby translating simlish into English.

Too bad EA isn't clever enough to actually have played on that.

I honestly don't know what they were expecting. The GC's can barely say anything besides a thinly veiled "This pack sucks but you're not hearing it from me." That trailer should have been enough to scare anyone away from this atrocity of a pack. Look, I realize that there are people that genuinely like TS4. If you do, that's all great and fine. But no one can even look at this pack and say that the devs were really trying with this one.

I'd post a nice popcorn gif, but I think I've poured enough salt on this festering wound.

Wow. I can't believe people are really pressed about spoilers for this thing. Like it's an actual mystery and not just some generic ass alien zombie plague. Spoiler alert, folks, there is no real mystery to this mystery story XD

The real mystery isn't about mother, but rather the slow realization that EA was actually the bad guy all along, trying to swindle you out of your money by encouraging you NOT to research the pack in advance, with the "mystery" of mother just being a red herring to distract. The real mystery is about who is causing buyer's remorse and oh boy the buyers just solved it, though it doesn't feel very fulfilling.

But we've been here before: people were all hyped and excited, there were people on the main forums going "HAPPY RELEASE DAY!!!" ffs, the only poll on the officials asking if people like the pack is overwhelmingly positive because they asked people to vote before they even had it, and within 24 hours there's this sinking feeling as everyone realizes they're bored as shit. Best comment I saw is this is a new game world akin to the ones people could buy from Sims 3's Store, but they're masquerading it as a Game Pack.

People still won't learn anything and the very next pack will get the exact same treatment, with people lining up to pre-order it regardless of how the pack actually looks. The fans are too emotionally invested in this series and are incapable of telling it "no," like a parent accidently raising a spoiled child because they hate seeing that child upset, even if the child just got finished running around breaking someone else's stuff. There was that SimsSecret post with someone flipping out at these forums for dissing the pack, there's a big list of early access reviews on the officials that's mysteriously missing all the critical reviews like lilsimsie's (NOT EA's fault; in this case it'd be fans willingly omitting it because hearing critique of the franchise is apparently rly hard), and personally I feel the tone of some posts is a dead giveaway many are hesitant to speak their mind or admit to themselves that they didn't like the pack. (jist of it being you have a post asking if the story is truly over and if there's more, and they end their question by praising the color scheme of the pack or something for 5 minutes, as if it's taboo to even insinuate you might be disappointed by asking "wait that was it??" without at least offering reasons why you're satisfied with the purchase)

Crazy part is knowing you can actually get and complete this pack within the time limit for their return policy, no? Maybe I'm confusing Origin's with Steam's, but either way the point is that if a pack can be fully explored with no need to speedrun it and with plenty of extra time to still qualify for a return, then yeah...

“Wow! This pack has nothing in common with the Sims experience I’ve grown to love. I want it!”

*plays it*

“Wow! This pack has nothing in common with the Sims experience I’ve grown to love. I want a refund.”

I’m seeing lots of that, tbh. We all knew what kind of pack this was. Why waste the money?

Except TS3 Store worlds were 10 TIMES BIGGER. Seriously, StrangerVille has 11 lots. ELEVEN! That's a 44% of what Lucky Palms has in the upper desert area (REFERENCE). And they were all OPEN WORLD, which is ten times more work.

And just look at the quality of Lucky Palms pre-made lots and furnishings:


I used to LOVE premade lots in The Sims 3. Now they're literally TRASH. They put ZERO effort in making them.
Just look at this trash:

And let's not even talk about the interiors. They're the stuff nightmares are made of.

I always thought prices for worlds on The Sims 3 Store were ridiculous. But honestly, they look more reasonable now if we take into account the amount of work it was required to make those worlds VERSUS what they're doing now. Yes, The Sims 4 in its awful overpriced packs are making The Sims 3 Store look fairly priced. Let that sink in for a minute.

Everyone take a shot for how many times this pack is defended on twitter by a guru. Take an extra two if Grant comes in with that "Well it made money so we might try something like it again" bullshit that he did with My First Pet Stuff.



Jeez. You just made me wanna fire up TS3 again. It's actually been a while.

And honestly just to be clear, it's not even the new concept that's bad by default, it's that it was horrendously executed. We would be complaining just as much if this were Witches and it had as little content as this pack.
We complain beforehand "why this instead of witches" and that's definitely a good question for timing of release (pushing it back til there aren't two-year-old highly requested pack concepts is obviously ideal), but if it were fun and enjoyable, people would look past that. Like I personally feel the best approach would be a new spin on old concepts (such as this iteration of Vampires being far more detailed and customizable), but at the end of the day if you have a fun pack concept, people will be more willing to look past potentially sub-par decisions since on the whole the pack still fulfilled what it set out to do.

That's not this pack though. It's a little over an hour long. The "quest" basically involves clicking evidence piles, clicking those fruit and talking to people. There's no thought or special steps involved, it's just the same three actions repeated. It's tedious. The homes are empty, with the gurus having the audacity to claim this is for "story reasons." A starter home was practically cloned. Even the logos and images for the military career are lazily done; most careers have pictures of sims previewing the style of the career path, but here you get the same badge logo copy-pasted with no additional details or previews.

Exploring new ideas - if they turn out good - will be welcomed with open arms. Thing is, in this case the "people getting mad at the Gurus for daring to try something new" is just a shield. Hell no, the problem here is a clear lack of effort with "trying something new" being the scapegoat for disappointment, so that fans can be blamed for not being open-minded enough instead of the devs....yknow, being really freaking lazy. This is easily the least gameplay-intensive pack they've ever released. (aside from Stuff packs of course, but those practically have no goal of gameplay and I'd dare say Romantic Garden Stuff's one gameplay item could compete with this story in value) Even dud packs like Sims 3's Showtime, Jungle Adventures or City Living have absolutely no fear of this pack having more content than them. We could still debate if City Living or the like is the bigger rip-off due to pricetag differences, but if we look at sheer gameplay then this is honestly akin to what a modest-scale fanmade mod could provide for free.

But again, we know how this'll end. No one's gonna learn shit. Just like how the Strangerville Sims tell you "EVERYTHING IS FINE," the fans will be here to insist this pack is great and if you feel it's not worth the pricetag because it has less content, that's just you and you should shutup and not voice your opinion.

I made a side by side comparison of Lucky Palms vs StrangerVille:

Threads like this one are my favorites: https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/di...-that-was-quick

"Guess my expectations were more realistic cause I loved it."
"Some of you simmers always want more."
"Maybe they purposefully made the story short so you can complete it quick if you don't want the strange aspect."
"Sounds like you rushed. I'll be enjoying the story for weeks or even months!!"

Excuses, excuses, excuses. You can just read those comments and immediately tell the purpose of the comment is that the poster has to convince themselves that the pack is good.

Yeah. I decided to dip my toes in the cesspool of positivity and cognitive dissonance that are the official forums. I had an account registered in 2009 but I never used it.
I think the official forum needs a little bit of tough criticism to balance things out. Hopefully it won't hurt anyone's feelings. I can already tell there are some very sensitive people there.

Oh dear, that can’t be argued with.

Not that I would try this new pack looks shit.

May I use that image? May want to post it in a few places. Although I think if I posted that on officials It would be gone by lunch time.

What I cannot get my head around is people buying it but calling it crap in advance. I have saw a lot of that. “This looks like the worst game pack ever” then watching as they head on over to open their wallets to EA.

But then when there’s people who have admitted to buying it so they can still download off the gallery without the message of some items have been replaced; people admitting it they are buying it for hairstyles and grunge decor and EA are laughing all the way to the bank.

Yes, use it. Post it on the officials and tag me (I'm Naus there). I would've done it myself but I can't create posts yet (this is the first day I wrote in the official forums, even though I have a nine-year-old account).

Even if they remove the post, at least some people will see it an realize what a rip-off TS4 worlds.



A user at the official forums is trying to argue you have more freedom in The Sims 4 because you can travel between worlds and that you can't have a dive bar and a nightclub at the same time because there's a limited amount of lots in The Sims 3. I don't know if this person is crazy or what, but she doesn't realize that most Sims 3 worlds have 25-35 empty lots AND you can place your own lots on routable terrain (even on the ocean) AND you can create your own worlds AND you can download custom worlds with as many lots as you need. Heck, someone could make a super world for The Sims 3 with every tiny world from The Sims 4 in one map and it would work just like in TS4 but without loading screens. I swear, there are some crazy wackos and liars at the official forums.

PS: There's also NRaas Traveller, which allows you travel to any world you have installed. But according to this person it doesn't count because it's a mod. Oh, and vacation worlds don't count either. Why? Because they say so...

That’s hiliarious. Doesn’t Roaring Heights have like 90 + lots?

When I play the sims 3 I never have to sacrifice say the library for I don’t know.. a nightclub. When I play the sims 4 if I use every single lot that came with the dlcs (all restaurants and spa’s) you don’t have a lot of space left over. Even if I don’t use all the dlc I feel claustrophobic. It’s impossible to play a sim that say has grew up in San Myshuno and just have my sim live there. They need to travel to other towns because despite being a city san Myshuno has only 3 bars, a gym and a park. That’s not a problem with sims 3 worlds.

Also another sims 4 world with another library and another bar? Seriously? That’s crazy. That’s all that’s in the worlds. World is the wrong word. Map!

Have to heavy agree here, I have a premade restaurant that I plopped down for time sake and my god it is just the shittiest fucking lot i still had to go in and fix it just for my own sanity. Some of the houses and premades are quite nice but so many are just barely functional let alone cared about.

Taste is subjective. What's impossible to argue is that they didn't put a lot of effort making pre-made houses in The Sims 4, especially for this Game Pack.

I too fix most of Maxis lots in 3, mainly because I don't like the color scheme or the interior. But I believe some effort was put into them though. I just don't see that in The Sims 4. The only half decent premade lot is probably the Goth mansion and some of the lots in Windenburg. Most premades in 4 are big but nearly empty.

It's sad how often I've seen people being excited about the new world because "WOAH, it has the same size as the last EP world! This is awesome!" But they conveniently forget that the Get Famous world was the tiniest EP world we had so far. People shouldn't get used to it already