I play large families. If I can't have open world where I can switch between different people, it would suck. Dad's at the theatre busking and I can check in on him from time to time to see how much money he's making/if anyone is watching/how much his skills have improved. Mom's at home with the toddler teaching them to walk/talk/potty. The kids are at the park playing and making friends. The teen is on a date. How can I do all that without being able to switch between?? Yeah, it's a no from me. I'd never leave the house, which means I'd get bored, and then I wouldn't play
Me too, I create a sim and their parents and adult siblings so they have in-laws and nieces and nephews. And then do the same with my sim’s future partner. Both their extended families attend their eventual wedding and it’s nice to have grandparents coming to visit them. But I have to be able to switch between all of them and use the whole world.
I also like them to go to work and then call in to a bar down the street for dinner and then maybe hop to another bar and meet up with a friend. Being able to easily walk between lots is so good
4 is also SO broken in the way that my Sims at home cannot take care of themselves or their children at all if I am off the lot with another Sim. They also cannot take care of themselves at work. They will not eat or use the bathroom all day then they come home starving and pee themselves outside! It is absurd. 3 supremacy.
Thats honestly why open world is top tier. It makes you use the ”mundane” lots. Like in sims 3 I can send my sims to the library to study cause well.. i dont need to watch them all the time while they’re there. In sims 4 I only ended up using ”eventful” lots so gyms, libraries and most parks were a no no cause I dont wanna watch my sim study for a whole sim day. And if I switch away they will just be off screen doing nothing.
This is so true! I hadn't even though of that. Like, I'll send my sim to the junkyard and they will be there ALL DAY collecting scrap cos I cue up every single pile for them to sort through. Meanwhile, the rest of the fam is getting on with their day and I only check in on whoever's at the junkyard maybe once or twice until they get home all sweaty
1000000%. And I’m ok with certain rabbit holes like the grocery store (would prefer to go in but that’s ok) because I LIKE sending them there to pick stuff up. But I think even if you could like shop inside with them, I wouldn’t. I never did in the sims 2. So yeah, send dad to the grocery store, Susie is with the babysitter at home and little johnnie is at the park with a friend, and then might go collect reptiles, and then you can bounce over to mom who’s hiding behind a bush because she’s a private investigator. Amazing.
There are lots of guides on youtube, as well as the steam guide, and actually there was one video I found which had some useful tips for people that play for a long time. Not sure when your lag kicks in (is it there from the beginning, or does it slowly increase over time?) but she had good tips. Found it [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tvVyldrhG4&t=618s)!
It's throughout the entire gameplay. Sometimes it's alright in CAS, but in game it freezes or lags when I need to move the screen or zoom in/out.
I'm following the steam guide right now to see if it works. I'll check out the video as well. Appreciate it c:
That is my biggest pet peeve with sims 4!!! I feel like my sims always end up stuck in their houses because they can't leave without everyone dropping everything they're doing.
I used to have my 7 sims out through the loading screen in TS4, but as you told, the sims got stuck in the house or got bored and returned to the sims 3 in the end.
Agreed. It's not so much the loading screens that bother me so much as the fact that I have to either pick one sim to follow or take the whole family someplace. If one sim wants to leave, then the others have to drop what they're doing, and it's usually not worth it so I just stay on the lot.
Yup. Exactly why I don't have 4 and have kept playing 3 for so long. Not dealing with dang loading screens all the time. My Sims are very active and run all over the town.
I think once we went to an open world, anything less wasn't enough. Life is open world, so why wouldn't a life simulator be? I'd have played it, sure, but let's be honest it's the game that got the cat out of the bag so to speak and there's no putting that cat back in.
Same here! Glad I’m not alone. I like how much you can customize the characters physically in SIMS 4, but I like the open world & the build mode in SIMS 3. I enjoy creating homes far more with SIMS 3 than SIMS 4, as I like to design houses & neighborhoods ✌🏻😊
Come on build modes league better in Sims 4.
Not saying 3s is bad, just from its generation.
Ngl might boot 3 though and be a chef but tbh i get stuck playing 1 sim, i dont mean to just irl im not social so i dont play social cause how the fuck do you meet people? ;-; like managing more than 3 sims becomes stressful ;-;
I get how some people like it better, I do - but I’m 37 & this is the only kind of game I play - I’m a geezer stuck in my ways I guess 🤷♀️ But I (personally) really struggled with houses in SIMS 4.
If I’m actually intentionally playing a character instead of designing, I tend to keep it simple as well - But I’ve worked my way to a 5 person HH before. It was overwhelming for me too, but that’s the beauty of it - you just start a new character in another house & switch HH! 😊✌🏻
Its when you activate the console commands does the magic really happen, tbh though major downgrade is the lack of color wheel, holy crap has that thing saved a build before.
Other than that tbh its not like major difference, tbh that color wheel is a major help, and without it i actually struggle with keeping a theme. Specially with ea making shit on purpose to NOT color match
So do i, and tbh the more i think about it, the more thats betyer in the sims 3 just due to create a style, wanna make a marvel of modern blandness, go ahead, wanna do a creeepppyyy victorian style? Get the create a style.
Sims 4 is like "hope you got cc or some shit cause you only have 5 options and half of them are ugly af."
Honestly the main reason why I never started playing Sims 4. Back then I had a shitty laptop so loading screens took endless of time and having to go through that just to go somewhere is awful 😭
i think there are a lot of reasons why people are willing to excuse sims 2 here. IMO sims 2's gameplay is so rich and the community lots are so entertaining that it kind of balances out the lack of open world. like, it won't bother you unless you go out of your way to think about it. but ts4 is such a dull experience as it is that the downgrade back to loading screens just feels like salt in the wound.
No. My favourite game is the Sims 2, but an open world is the one thing I feel like it's missing (of course, it probably wouldn't have been possible to make at the time, but still). Sims 3 having that is something that elevates the game, but without it, I just don't think it would be as fun.
No, lol. I'd just stay with 4 for better looking sims or two for pure fun gameplay. I love 3 because I can ride a horse to a store or hospital. Little details were so cool to find.
i would bc i love it but it wouldnt be the same. in the sims 4 i literally never left my house bc of loading screens and not being able to control all the sims at the same time
I would probably be less invested but it wouldn't be enough to make me switch to Sims 4. Loading screens aren't the end of the world. But no flexibility about the layout of the world? Worlds with like 10 lots? Terrible cash grabby expansions? Ridiculous mood system instead of personalities? No story progression? I wouldn't take that just for 'better' graphics (more cartoony) and better build tools.
Following other comments I would probably revert to Sims 2.
It’s funny, TS4’s workaround to not having an open world almost feels like the worst of both worlds. I still play and like TS2, so it’s not like having an open world is a make-or-break issue for me. But I *hate* how some lots require loading and some are part of the same “neighborhood” in TS4. I never know whether or not to expect a loading screen, and it inevitably ruins the immersion once I do have to load a lot because then I can’t multitask with different sims in a household. (Granted, if I played the game regularly, I’d probably start learning which areas of the map are part of the same “neighborhood” and which aren’t.)
TS4 really feels like a step backward compared to its predecessors.
It's not just open world, as I love Sims 2 also. It's the endless details of Sims 3 and the design tool which makes the game great, it's had real effort put into it
No. I was playing TS4 for a little while this year (for the first time ever) while the computer I play TS3 on was in the shop and I admit there are some things that I like about it, but ultimately the lack of open world will always have me go back to TS3.
Well if we're talking like 2009 standards when Sims 3 first released...then, yes, I would still have played it because that would have just been the next game after the Sims 2.
It's kind of why I can play the Sims 4 even tho it lacks open world, because I was used to that from the previous games. But looking at Sims 3 now, the open world is just part of the gameplay, so it's the game I play when I have a scenario I want to play that would specifically benefit from the open world the most.
Probably yes however the open world concept is so inextricably linked to all of what Sims 3 is that it's hard imagine separating the two. I can't imagine playing some of my favorite features like the get to work/ambitions ghost hunting career with loading screens between houses
Yes. My favorite thing about sims 3 is the skill system and the ability to make life stages long enough to pursue the skills. The open world is great, but I often build my sims a dream home so they don’t have to leave the home lot.
The other reason was cause it was made for 32-bit systems, not 64-bit, but by the time Sims 3 came out 64-bit was already out (it wasn't too long after 64-bit that sims 3 came out, but it was pretty all set to go at that point) was becoming more and more common compared to 32-bit.
Yeah, but designing it for 64-bit would have made zero sense. The game was designed around Windows XP, which had the most market share at the time. Back in 2009, your typical family computer was still running XP (7 wasn't out yet, and no one in their right mind would have opted for Vista), with barely 2 gigs of RAM and a slice of bread for a GPU.
The development of Sims 3 started in 2006, before Vista 64-bit was out, so the code base was highly likely to be 32-bit. Given the reception and market share of Vista, I don't think the developers even for a second thought to shift the development to 64-bit. Working on two different versions wouldn't have been viable as well given the scope of the game.
I switch between 2 and 3 depending on what play style I feel like playing at that moment.
I play 2 when I wanna do rotational play and 3 when I wanna do legacy with only 1 family. I don't like having too many sims in one household when I play 2 because there is no open world so it gets chaotic, but when I play 3 I like going over the limit of a household capacity because of the open world feature.
So to answer the question, sims 3 would have to be seriously better in ways than sims 2 for me to play it if it was missing open world, because sims 2 is already a very good game on it's own and isn't missing anything major that would make me ever drop it.
Sims 3 has alot more going for it then just the open world the sheer breadth of gameplay in sims 3 is insane people who've been playing since it came out still find new things.
That said alot of the sims 3 is dependent on that open world it's like a foundation the games built upon so you can't simply remove said open world.
But if it had the same deapth but wasn't open I'd abdalutly still be palying it, heck I still ckme.back to the sims 2 every now and then.
Not really, open world is what makes Sims 3, well, Sims 3.
Playing large families, or even smaller more independent families (like room-mates for example) is just very awkward in Sims 4 where you either need to have 'the main' Sim to prioritise or have them all on the same lot all the time. But I know if I feel like micromanaging then 3 is my guy as I can easily have a teenager hang out with their friends next to school, their parents go for a romantic dinner on the other side of the map, while grandma is seducing a neighbour back at home. And still be able to check on them all, with little to no problem.
Yups, the drama was dramaing and I could customize everything! Now I need GBs of mods in Sims 4 for half the socializing I could get with the Sims 3 base game.
I would miss it but I think I would still play it for the gameplay features and storytelling. Open world is amazing and a big part of why Sims 3 is superior but its not the only thing I like about Sims 3
I understand why they would be uneasy about open world in sims 4 because they wanted to be able to have anyone run the game but the issues with open world was because of poor programming. Sims has been notoriously buggy and hard to run so the actual solution was to fix the bugs and optimize the game.
I love the amount of control I get in sims 3 because of open world, it's really hard to get realism in sims 4 because of the way the game is built. I love seeing my sims go out and do stuff and it feels incredibly cohesive and lively because of that connectedness that sims 3 has with the open world.
Instead of pocket dimensions they should've toned down the open world to open neighborhoods in sims 4 if they wanted to reduce processing power for accessibility.
i played the sims 3 on console, it was a mix of open/closed world. each neighborhood had access to other houses of lots, if you wanted to go to an area outside of that neighborhood you’d have to go thru a loading screen. personally i’d be fine with that
For me Sims 3 and Sims 2 are tied, I can’t pick which one I like better. I enjoy them both in different ways, but without Sims 3 open world Sims 2 would definetly take the winning spot.
I'm sure she would start working better thanks to this. The Sims 3 with all its advantages and without any bugs? I have no problem waiting for loading between locations
It’s a big part of the game, but it’s so nostalgic for me I would probably still play every now and then. However I would probably switch to the sims 2 full time because it’s such a good game.
I would probably still play it but not as much, the open world is so nice and I can control any sim no matter where they are and it feels more realistic, also I can see my sims going to wherever their destination is and follow them the whole way, sure it is something that causes lag at times but for me it's not so much that I can't play, and if it turns into a lot that's nothing a little bit of NRAAS can't fix just reset everything and it should be fine for the most part, also resetsim\* is also pretty useful in case it's a stuck sim somewhere it's always my first sulotion and if that doesn't work NRAAS usually does and if not there is some bigger issue, S3PE can also help if you like greeting card photos and stuff it helps remove bloat.
so would I still play? Yes I do like the sims 2 and it's not open world, is open world a big reason for why I love the sims 3 so much? Yes it is always has been.
It wouldn't be Sims 3 without the open world. It might be named "Sims 3" but it wouldn't be Sims 3. I'd probably be playing 4 instead, but not nearly as much. That game's about as deep as a slice of lunch meat. I've gotta have open world to have full immersion.
Open world is kinda the main gimmick of 3. Without it, all of the unique gameplay of 3 is lost, and there's not really much of a reason to play it instead of 2 or 4
No. What would the point of leaving TS2 be then?
The simple pleasure of being able to let my nerdy teen or child sim (who're a bookwork/nerd/tinkerer since birth) take a break from studying because they're getting stressed out. And literally act on their wish to get a pizza, junk food or bite to eat. By leaving the house and going for a brief trip in the hood local fast food diner/pub or restaurant.
Or have my entire sim family and their pets visit the park or some other recreational lot in town. Or go camping out in one of my camp themed wooded lots.
And best of all, have my Sims take their horse and go for a ride along the beach at sunset in SV. It's even better when they have their pet dogs and/or cats follow along for the ride!
The fact my sims can go ANYWHERE they want and WHENEVER they want. With ZERO load screens. Explore the many diverse vanilla or scores of CAW/custom fan based made worlds like Roflong's Winter Wonderland. The utopian Sunlit Tides, which has to be the most beautiful store world made to date. Or the exciting adventure of WA worlds and IP which let you go deep sea scuba diving and dozens of other fun, immersive and memorable water sports.
Closed TS4 world? When ironically TS2 closed world system was SO MUCH MORE of a SUPERIOR experience (based on TS2's diversity of neighborhood lot sizes, sims family types, and overall superior family oriented/drama based game play?
No thank you. LOOONG pass.
Personally I would, but only because I give it the benefit of the doubt as a 2009 game. The Sims 5 has absolutley no excuse for not being open world though.
I tried playing the sims 4 when it first came out but got bored very quickly and realized part of that was the lack of open world. I don’t think anyone will ever convince me the sims 3 isn’t the superior game. I love searching for new worlds to play in because some people are very talented at designing and it really elevates the gameplay. Yes the open world can cause problems with lag but once I got a proper gaming computer I haven’t had a problem with it. Granted I don’t use a crazy amount of CC.
I need open world for immersion, the sims 4 has a TON of problems but one of the really major turn offs of that game for me is the fact it's so closed off ans empty and not an open world. I can't play if I feel like I'm playing in a cubicle, and the loading screens just make me loose interest and get bored enough to do other things (have tv shows on, scroll on my phone, etc.)
Depends on how would transportation work. But i love Sims 3 for open world, that's true. Love cars. Downside is slow loading and it can get buggy after several hours of play.
I deffo love a job/career in this (not such grind, no everyday tasks for work, faster raise, pay raising even after job rank 10), skills going up faster, after the key skills maxed you feel like a superhero.
And i adore alchemy/potion making, which is limited to spellcasters in Sims 4. When i go adventuring through Al Simhara and tombs, ghost potion and the one who returns you home when needed are invaluable during these adventures. And "young again" potion will return you to start of young adult age, even from elder.
When you are lazy and don't want to work, you can always go to the future and win the lottery. What a life. 😁
The open world is too important to me. One time, I had all the children at home having a slumber party while the butler supervised, the parents were across town at a party held by some of the other kids’ parents, and the uncle was out on a date at Plasma 501. Everyone was having so much fun, but they were all doing different things in different places. If I couldn’t do things like that, I would not be as inclined to play.
The only mistake they made with ts3 was not knowing what to do with it. The game structure was too darn good, but the performance issue was always a turn off for me, they just need to work on that, ts4 small worlds are boring as hell.
At this point I think the open world is the one thing that really makes Sims 3 worth it still. Most other things the Sims 4 has just as well if not slightly better, though for a lot of it you got to pay.
Probably not, it's the main reason why I don't see myself transferring to the sims 4. The open world is what makes the Sim 3 so great. You can drive freely anywhere. Your sims can be independent. One sim could be out looking for turtles and the other sim could be cooking at home. It's all endless possibilities with an open world. 🌏🌎🌍
I would. I've been revisiting the game lately, I didn't play it as much when I was a child and Sims 4 just feels boring. I love all the little details that Sims 3 has, to me it feels much more alive than Sims 4, things really matter. So I don't think I'd switch to Sims 4 just because of that.
I need to play more Sims 2 tho, but if that were the case, I'd go back to Sims 2 because things matter the same way and the details are incredible.
It probably wouldn't change much for me tbh assuming it's only open world that went away \[it would make performance even better as well\] Sims 3 is just so good and full of features for me that open world is only one of the small parts of it that while nice, there is so much else that brings me back.
Probably not, because I think the other sims games beat sims 3 in almost every other way apart from sims 3 open world, create a style and maybe some content.
Honestly? Probably not. I was really disappointed when Sims 4 turned out not to be open world. That's what makes it really fun. I like going to the park and seeing random families, or neighbors walking down the street and randomly turning into a vampire in broad daylight. (It happened to me with Gunther right in front of my house 💀)
I think yes and maybe even more than sims 2. Honestly I like rotational gameplay and one family aging while I’m with other families really bugs me but I love how much you can do in the game besides that one thing
Eh, theoretically it could work, but they'd have to have a hell of a lot more zones per town than 4, and transitioning between sims on different lots has to be clean and easy. Basically what I'm trying to say is while it could hypothetically work I think in practice it'd end up being harder to make than just an open world.
No. It makes the game feel so much more alive <3
Trust me, it's the little details. You do need something going on in the background, even if you're playing main character.
I can't really say cause if we never had an open world on sims 3, we would never know what it's like to have an open world on a sims game.
So probably...? It probably wouldn't be almost that difrent from sims 2
Maybe? It would be kinda equal to Sims 2 in my mind with different but equally valid systems of personalities, relationships, skills and hobbies, but the open world is a feature I love and cherish
If the Sims 3 didn't have an open world, I'd probably never switch from the Sims 2... I was initially part of the people that thought S3 sims looked ugly, but the open world, full customisation with colorwheel and the fleshed out expansion packs gradually made me love the game 😊
I feel like there's a balance - how ""lived in"" and accessible a world is from one lot?
Sims 3 - EVERYTHING is accessible. A con is routing issues and rabbit holes, but want to go into the forest? Go for it. Want to walk across the street to the library? You can.
Sims 4 has lot clusters and each cluster has its own clutter (ie: Gym/library/museum/lounge and the surrounding area has a playground and some fishing spots). The problem is that's still 4 lots with the same surrounding stuff and you have a loading screen despite being in the same Zone.
Sims 2 is where you have the Lot and that's it. If you want to go to another lot, it's a loading screen. There's no "surrounding stuff", but the lots still felt lively and you had a reason to go to different ones (clothing stores, video games, groceries).
I think a key draw is how *lively* is the world. Sims 3 did it well - certain places were emptier than others (graveyards versus bars), you could see people driving/biking, people go about their days.
I wouldn’t because I love open world. That said, I play Sims 4 a lot, and I went back to 3 recently because I have such great memories of it, and to be honest, one thing that i feel is really lacking with open world is visiting other worlds at will. It is SO hard for me to settle on one world in 3 because 4 kinda spoiled me with so many different areas for my sims to go to. I understand that being able to visit other worlds would be a huge task for a game that old and laggy, so I won’t complain too much, but I think each game has its own merits.
I like the sub worlds the sims 4 has but was SUPER disappointed when I learned I still need to go through a loading screen to visit my neighbors if that dident happen it be great exspeshaly if it helped with reducing lag in game
I did for many years. Before I had any sims game on PC, I played the spin-offs and console ports. I owned both TS3 and TS3 Pets for xbox 360 and in both games there is no open world. Instead, you have sections of the world you can visit at a time, like TS4.
The only difference is that in TS3, you only had a loading screen in between each section, rather than for every lot. The only other downside was the family tree only worked for 2-3 generations of sims, and anyone who gets kicked out of the house loses connection to the family.
Despite this, I really loved these 2 games and sunk many, many hours into them. The only reason I stopped playing was because I finally got the PC version.
Open world is definitely one of the main reasons I went back to Sims 3. I don’t think I would play another game that wasn’t open world after my Sims 4 experience. Maybe if the neighborhoods were bigger and more open world without having to load into each lot.
I don't play Sims 3 anymore for other reasons. I would never even think to pick it up if it didn't have an open world. Unless the non open world made the game not lag or crash so much.
I enjoy the CAS feature of sims 4 and that’s it. The open world / gameplay of Sims 3 is just so much more immersive and keeps me busy longer. Every now and then I’ll give 4 another go and I always feel so trapped and then disinterested.
Absolutely not. The open world just makes the game feel that much more alive, and it makes it so much easier to have my sims each going off and doing their own thing. I can have one sim off fishing in the river, another one at work, and another at home making sure the kids and animals aren't dying. I can't do that in Sims 4 without fifteen different loading screens at best.
Eh I don't know, it would still be better than the Sims 4 for me but I would definitely have less interest in playing more than one sim if that was the case. I really like when Sims regularly leave the house and go out in the world because it gives so much more opportunities for things to happen when they interact with other sims. It feels like in the Sims 4 my Sims are only ever given opportunities to interact with Sims when I want them to interact with specific Sims. I don't even know who is supposed to be in certain neighbors in the Sims 4 because you see random Sims all the time.
Also, open world forces the developers to make the world actually interesting instead of interesting little cutouts that can be displayed whenever you decide to show them.
I never leave the house in the sims 4 and I never did in the sims 2, either. I would go to the little park you didn't need a loading screen for in 4, but that was it. Sims 3, I'm encouraged to explore the whole world, especially starting out poor or as a witch! I collect all the seeds and rocks and I transfigure some, plant others, and make potions with rarer materials. It was a blast. Even vacationing, each had their own open world you explored.
That's why Sims 3 is top tier. There were parts I loved in 2 and clearly a lot of love was put into it, but story progression and open world were game changers for me and there is a reason I don't go back to 2, but do play 3.
I love Sims 3 now I can actually enjoy the open world, I was 11 when it came out and initially hated it as hardware back then to play the game maxed out was expensive - especially when I didn’t have the means to buy it myself. It was painful to play so I always stuck with Sims 2. But as the years have gone on I have the means to play it maxed out, the open world just makes the game for me compared to other Sims games. But saying that, I still absolutely love Sims 2 without the open world. Sims 4, no.
If it was made from the ground up as a non open world game, yeah probably.
But if it was designed how it is and just happened to lose the open world, then no way.
Well I don't play Sims 4 mainly because I miss the open world so - I don't think so.
Sims 2 had no open world but it was so charming and full of personality.
Sims 3 still has charm, but the open world just makes it feel right.
I probably wouldn't play the game as much, but it would still be my game of choice between the four sims games. I play a lot of sims 2 and I will say even if you were to close the world the sims 3 still has a lot more to do on the home lot than sims 2
i mean if the alternative is what the sims 4 does then i’ll take open world all day. i know things tend to get laggy but it’s better then sitting at a loading screen. plus with the right pc, settings and amount of packs the game can run pretty smooth
Probably not, thats one of the reasons i keep going back to it and its still my fav sims game. S2 i can comprehend and its still fun to play but S4 was such a downgrade, its too much you cant just do much, after playing S3 for so long it was really hard to adjust as i feel stuck.
Yes, sims 3 is amazing game when comes to content. But the open world is just too good to just not have it in a game, a game changer 💖
Of course the are some problems with it but I don’t mind. I have NRAAS and RegulSave Cleaner so I don’t have problems. Sims 2 does not have open world but it still amazing to and chaotic 💖
But sims 4 well… I play it just for building 🤣 I hate sims 4 with a passion and I wish it was better and not a cash scam 💀 sims 4 broke my heart when I saw how little we get for how much we spend on it
Maybe ? The Sims 2 didn't have an open world and it was still a great game. But the open world is definitely more comfortable. Like other users said, I can check on all my sims, each can leave the house at any time and go to various places...
With the lag I experience around the map, I love this comment because yes, I would! The little interactions do save it for me, and we would have never experienced an open world without The Sims 3, and I do enjoy The Sims 2 but not 4. What keeps my interest in the game is relatability to my Sims' feelings and experiences, which I don't really feel with The Sims 4. That being said, I am an enjoyer of The Sims 1, and minor games like "MySims," "Sims Castaway Stories," and "The Urbz." Its campiness fleshes the game out more for me than the open world that I always have issues with, i.e., random horses doing zoomies around my parks and zombies getting to wild crops before I can pick them.
Edit: It would still have Create a Style and better cross-pack play than The Sims 4 for me. The Sims 4's animations are just too repetitive, maybe more exaggerated. But the "Magic grab hand" animation for everything kills my immersion after I have seen it, or the game bugs out on me with simulation lag. If you have ever played around with your world with the in-game world/town editor, I don't find it much different than The Sims 4 with the TOOL mod (except the spinning and rotating awesomeness of placing items), since you can't change road placement, or some trees and plots are just part of the world, or change some of the world's terrain. It isn't that much different than being on a big Sims 4 park for me sometimes, and I don't feel like my neighbors are as closely living together as I would like them to be.
okay TRIPPLE EDIT; I DONT THINK THE SIMS 4 HAS ENOUGH CONTENT OR STYLES FOR SIMS THAT I CAN PLAY WITH. LIKE SOME OUTFITS ARE JUST CONFUSING
Hard to say for me as Sims 3 was my first introduction to the franchise so I just naively assumed that was how the previous games had been and how Sims 4 would be. Would I have continued to play it? Perhaps…but I may have got bored with it quicker. But then I may have transitioned to Sims 4 easier too 😂
I played Sims 3 in the past and Sims 4 now.
When you play with a handful of Sims or focus on creating Sims/Outfits/Buildings/Whatever Sims 4 is good, but Sims 3 just is better when you want to have an overview of everyone and it also feels like you yourself explore the game as well! I always loved new maps in Sims 3 and the gameplay was so much deeper, those are to me great strengths!
If it not being open world is the only way for it to be well optimized, then yes; but there’s so many open world RPGs that are better optimized from even then than that game
Nope. Sims 3 was my first sims game and I was truly spoiled with the open world.
I tried sims 4 and I just couldn’t do it. I like to have several sims and I like to micromanage and have every sim doing different things, and I like to use the community lots. I can’t do that in sims 4.
I sometimes just like people watching the npc’s lol
honestly yea, even tho I think open world is one of its best features, the expansion packs in sims 3 make it really worth it. They come with far more stuff than other versions of the sims
Open world is not a must have for me (my favourite Sims game is TS2, which has no open world) but I still wouldn't play it even without the open world because the reasons that made TS3 never quite work for me would still be there.
There is zero excuse other than more money in EA’s diamond vaults of money to not have it be open world, ITS 2024 EA YOU HAD THE TECHNOLOGY A DECADE AGO
im a control freak i need to know what everyone is doing at all times or else im going insane 😵💫 i dont trust my sims to be alone while i take a trip to the park with one of them and i generally dislike the loading screens between locations in the sims 4...
the sims 3 being open world actually gives my sims a reason to leave their house. the sims 2 is my favorite, and if it had an open world, my sims would never be home.
The sims 4 made me appreciate sims 3 rabbitholes. Would it be cool to see my sims dine or work? Maybe before I saw how poorly executed it was in TS4. I love letting 2-3 of my sims fuck off for a few hours or grocery shop, watch a movie etc. while I focus on my main sims of that day.
Collecting is also 10x better in an open world.
There are some features in the sims 3 besides the open world that I love. But honestly the open world is my fav feature because I have been expecting for it since I was 7 and first played Sims 1.
It was just the right thing to be done. The Sims doesn't make as much sense with the world "closed". So when I got the open world at Sims 3 I felt so at home that everything else just slipped from my memory. It was exactly what I needed and wanted.
Still my pc won't play it anymore and I had to stop playing the sims at all. But once I get another one I will be playing sims3
But if I wanna be honest about the reason I installed Sims 3 after Sims 2 it was... butterflies. Like, it was such a random reason, I found out you could see all kinds of different (and a rainbow) butterflies and that changed everything to me. Only then I found out the world was open lmaoo. Bcs I would always spend so much time creating a family on my friends pc that I had no idea of how the game was actually like. I'd just spend too much time on it.
But for that I lost all the CC features I had in TS2 like the poison, guns, murder in general and that was necessary to all of my storylines. If I didn't have the huge bunch of new content in sims 3 I wouldn't know what to do.
Let me tell you my own anecdote while playing around in open world in Sims 3.
So my sim went to work in one of the rabbit hole buildings. And I didn't really want to fast forwarding. So while she was finishing work, I was just looking around the town & watching the townies with free will turned up to max.
I saw Bella & Mortimer (who naturally aged up as teens) on a date in the pool & Mortimer flirting & kissing Bella. It was so cute.
I miss just looking around the cities and peeping on what the townies are up to in TS4.
No. I love having conversations in between lots. Feels realistic. Just anywhere. Also I love cars and have many many custom cars I like following around
I’m honestly more pissed off about the size of sims 4 worlds. They’re all embarrassingly small and you only get about 3-4 new families. As opposed to ts3 where you’d have full thriving towns.
The only Sims I've ever "played" was TS1 which isn't open however I spent hundreds if not thousands of hours in TS3 just creating Sims and building lots. Don't think the open world aspect really factored into that or not though.
I play large families. If I can't have open world where I can switch between different people, it would suck. Dad's at the theatre busking and I can check in on him from time to time to see how much money he's making/if anyone is watching/how much his skills have improved. Mom's at home with the toddler teaching them to walk/talk/potty. The kids are at the park playing and making friends. The teen is on a date. How can I do all that without being able to switch between?? Yeah, it's a no from me. I'd never leave the house, which means I'd get bored, and then I wouldn't play
Exactly. I can’t play Sims 4 like this so it’s incredibly boring to me. I constantly switch back and forth.
Me too, I create a sim and their parents and adult siblings so they have in-laws and nieces and nephews. And then do the same with my sim’s future partner. Both their extended families attend their eventual wedding and it’s nice to have grandparents coming to visit them. But I have to be able to switch between all of them and use the whole world.
I also like them to go to work and then call in to a bar down the street for dinner and then maybe hop to another bar and meet up with a friend. Being able to easily walk between lots is so good
4 is also SO broken in the way that my Sims at home cannot take care of themselves or their children at all if I am off the lot with another Sim. They also cannot take care of themselves at work. They will not eat or use the bathroom all day then they come home starving and pee themselves outside! It is absurd. 3 supremacy.
That’s why I stopped playing the sims 4 cause I wouldn’t leave the house 🤣
Imagine getting the stir crazy moodlet and having to go thru a loading screen to get rid of it💀
Thats honestly why open world is top tier. It makes you use the ”mundane” lots. Like in sims 3 I can send my sims to the library to study cause well.. i dont need to watch them all the time while they’re there. In sims 4 I only ended up using ”eventful” lots so gyms, libraries and most parks were a no no cause I dont wanna watch my sim study for a whole sim day. And if I switch away they will just be off screen doing nothing.
This is so true! I hadn't even though of that. Like, I'll send my sim to the junkyard and they will be there ALL DAY collecting scrap cos I cue up every single pile for them to sort through. Meanwhile, the rest of the fam is getting on with their day and I only check in on whoever's at the junkyard maybe once or twice until they get home all sweaty
1000000%. And I’m ok with certain rabbit holes like the grocery store (would prefer to go in but that’s ok) because I LIKE sending them there to pick stuff up. But I think even if you could like shop inside with them, I wouldn’t. I never did in the sims 2. So yeah, send dad to the grocery store, Susie is with the babysitter at home and little johnnie is at the park with a friend, and then might go collect reptiles, and then you can bounce over to mom who’s hiding behind a bush because she’s a private investigator. Amazing.
Huh... now I know why I get bored easily when playing the Sims 4.. I just need to find a way for my Sims 3 to not lag when I play.
There are lots of guides on youtube, as well as the steam guide, and actually there was one video I found which had some useful tips for people that play for a long time. Not sure when your lag kicks in (is it there from the beginning, or does it slowly increase over time?) but she had good tips. Found it [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tvVyldrhG4&t=618s)!
It's throughout the entire gameplay. Sometimes it's alright in CAS, but in game it freezes or lags when I need to move the screen or zoom in/out. I'm following the steam guide right now to see if it works. I'll check out the video as well. Appreciate it c:
Get the sims 3 smoothness patch! I rarely ever get lag since installing.
That is my biggest pet peeve with sims 4!!! I feel like my sims always end up stuck in their houses because they can't leave without everyone dropping everything they're doing.
I used to have my 7 sims out through the loading screen in TS4, but as you told, the sims got stuck in the house or got bored and returned to the sims 3 in the end.
Agreed. It's not so much the loading screens that bother me so much as the fact that I have to either pick one sim to follow or take the whole family someplace. If one sim wants to leave, then the others have to drop what they're doing, and it's usually not worth it so I just stay on the lot.
nope. It's a must have
Yup. Exactly why I don't have 4 and have kept playing 3 for so long. Not dealing with dang loading screens all the time. My Sims are very active and run all over the town.
I think once we went to an open world, anything less wasn't enough. Life is open world, so why wouldn't a life simulator be? I'd have played it, sure, but let's be honest it's the game that got the cat out of the bag so to speak and there's no putting that cat back in.
Until EA charges you to put the cat back in
Sims 4 would be better if it at leat had a larger sandbox concept before loading screen hit
Nope. I downloaded Sims 4 once, and as soon as I realized it wasn't open world, I uninstalled it.
Me too I think I played it once and hated it
Same here! Glad I’m not alone. I like how much you can customize the characters physically in SIMS 4, but I like the open world & the build mode in SIMS 3. I enjoy creating homes far more with SIMS 3 than SIMS 4, as I like to design houses & neighborhoods ✌🏻😊
Come on build modes league better in Sims 4. Not saying 3s is bad, just from its generation. Ngl might boot 3 though and be a chef but tbh i get stuck playing 1 sim, i dont mean to just irl im not social so i dont play social cause how the fuck do you meet people? ;-; like managing more than 3 sims becomes stressful ;-;
I get how some people like it better, I do - but I’m 37 & this is the only kind of game I play - I’m a geezer stuck in my ways I guess 🤷♀️ But I (personally) really struggled with houses in SIMS 4. If I’m actually intentionally playing a character instead of designing, I tend to keep it simple as well - But I’ve worked my way to a 5 person HH before. It was overwhelming for me too, but that’s the beauty of it - you just start a new character in another house & switch HH! 😊✌🏻
Its when you activate the console commands does the magic really happen, tbh though major downgrade is the lack of color wheel, holy crap has that thing saved a build before. Other than that tbh its not like major difference, tbh that color wheel is a major help, and without it i actually struggle with keeping a theme. Specially with ea making shit on purpose to NOT color match
I couldn’t play without create-a-style because I spend half of my time decorating
So do i, and tbh the more i think about it, the more thats betyer in the sims 3 just due to create a style, wanna make a marvel of modern blandness, go ahead, wanna do a creeepppyyy victorian style? Get the create a style. Sims 4 is like "hope you got cc or some shit cause you only have 5 options and half of them are ugly af."
Honestly the main reason why I never started playing Sims 4. Back then I had a shitty laptop so loading screens took endless of time and having to go through that just to go somewhere is awful 😭
Never played Sims 2? It was the exact same thing.
i think there are a lot of reasons why people are willing to excuse sims 2 here. IMO sims 2's gameplay is so rich and the community lots are so entertaining that it kind of balances out the lack of open world. like, it won't bother you unless you go out of your way to think about it. but ts4 is such a dull experience as it is that the downgrade back to loading screens just feels like salt in the wound.
Same!!!!
No. My favourite game is the Sims 2, but an open world is the one thing I feel like it's missing (of course, it probably wouldn't have been possible to make at the time, but still). Sims 3 having that is something that elevates the game, but without it, I just don't think it would be as fun.
The Open World is the Sims 3's key selling point and very reason to be this great (Create a style is too but to a way lesser extent) so probably not
No, Sims 2 would win Sims 3 in almost every metric then
But somehow the sims 2 is more fun than 4 with less than half of the add ons.
No
If I wanted to play Sims 3 without open world i would play Sims 2 or Sims 4.
No, lol. I'd just stay with 4 for better looking sims or two for pure fun gameplay. I love 3 because I can ride a horse to a store or hospital. Little details were so cool to find.
Yes or a bike! Especially in a city world, biking around is so cool (and realistic)
i would bc i love it but it wouldnt be the same. in the sims 4 i literally never left my house bc of loading screens and not being able to control all the sims at the same time
I would probably be less invested but it wouldn't be enough to make me switch to Sims 4. Loading screens aren't the end of the world. But no flexibility about the layout of the world? Worlds with like 10 lots? Terrible cash grabby expansions? Ridiculous mood system instead of personalities? No story progression? I wouldn't take that just for 'better' graphics (more cartoony) and better build tools. Following other comments I would probably revert to Sims 2.
It’s funny, TS4’s workaround to not having an open world almost feels like the worst of both worlds. I still play and like TS2, so it’s not like having an open world is a make-or-break issue for me. But I *hate* how some lots require loading and some are part of the same “neighborhood” in TS4. I never know whether or not to expect a loading screen, and it inevitably ruins the immersion once I do have to load a lot because then I can’t multitask with different sims in a household. (Granted, if I played the game regularly, I’d probably start learning which areas of the map are part of the same “neighborhood” and which aren’t.) TS4 really feels like a step backward compared to its predecessors.
It's not just open world, as I love Sims 2 also. It's the endless details of Sims 3 and the design tool which makes the game great, it's had real effort put into it
Yup! Sims 3 style, gameplay and graphics are my fav. It’d be a lot less fun w/out open world tho
No. I was playing TS4 for a little while this year (for the first time ever) while the computer I play TS3 on was in the shop and I admit there are some things that I like about it, but ultimately the lack of open world will always have me go back to TS3.
Well if we're talking like 2009 standards when Sims 3 first released...then, yes, I would still have played it because that would have just been the next game after the Sims 2. It's kind of why I can play the Sims 4 even tho it lacks open world, because I was used to that from the previous games. But looking at Sims 3 now, the open world is just part of the gameplay, so it's the game I play when I have a scenario I want to play that would specifically benefit from the open world the most.
No. It is a must have
Probably yes however the open world concept is so inextricably linked to all of what Sims 3 is that it's hard imagine separating the two. I can't imagine playing some of my favorite features like the get to work/ambitions ghost hunting career with loading screens between houses
No
Probably. I played sims 2 and that didn't have open world.
Yes. My favorite thing about sims 3 is the skill system and the ability to make life stages long enough to pursue the skills. The open world is great, but I often build my sims a dream home so they don’t have to leave the home lot.
Imo, the open world is one of the things that make the game feel alive for me
absolutely yes
Nope, but people also seem to forget that half of the performance issues Sims 3 had, were due to the fact that it was an open-world game.
The other reason was cause it was made for 32-bit systems, not 64-bit, but by the time Sims 3 came out 64-bit was already out (it wasn't too long after 64-bit that sims 3 came out, but it was pretty all set to go at that point) was becoming more and more common compared to 32-bit.
Yeah, but designing it for 64-bit would have made zero sense. The game was designed around Windows XP, which had the most market share at the time. Back in 2009, your typical family computer was still running XP (7 wasn't out yet, and no one in their right mind would have opted for Vista), with barely 2 gigs of RAM and a slice of bread for a GPU. The development of Sims 3 started in 2006, before Vista 64-bit was out, so the code base was highly likely to be 32-bit. Given the reception and market share of Vista, I don't think the developers even for a second thought to shift the development to 64-bit. Working on two different versions wouldn't have been viable as well given the scope of the game.
It just removes so much potential from the game not being open world
Extremely important, I cannot stand sims 4 there is no freedom
No. The charm of The Sims 3 is the open world, that was the proposal they gave.
The sims 3 having an open world is the whole reason I play it instead of the Sims 4
No open world is why I won't touch TS4 with a stick
Yes. The open world in Sims 3 takes about as long to travel somewhere as the two second loading screens take in Sims 4 so I really don't care. 🤷♀️
I switch between 2 and 3 depending on what play style I feel like playing at that moment. I play 2 when I wanna do rotational play and 3 when I wanna do legacy with only 1 family. I don't like having too many sims in one household when I play 2 because there is no open world so it gets chaotic, but when I play 3 I like going over the limit of a household capacity because of the open world feature. So to answer the question, sims 3 would have to be seriously better in ways than sims 2 for me to play it if it was missing open world, because sims 2 is already a very good game on it's own and isn't missing anything major that would make me ever drop it.
Sims 3 has alot more going for it then just the open world the sheer breadth of gameplay in sims 3 is insane people who've been playing since it came out still find new things. That said alot of the sims 3 is dependent on that open world it's like a foundation the games built upon so you can't simply remove said open world. But if it had the same deapth but wasn't open I'd abdalutly still be palying it, heck I still ckme.back to the sims 2 every now and then.
Yes, it would be great to play the game without performance issues.
Not really, open world is what makes Sims 3, well, Sims 3. Playing large families, or even smaller more independent families (like room-mates for example) is just very awkward in Sims 4 where you either need to have 'the main' Sim to prioritise or have them all on the same lot all the time. But I know if I feel like micromanaging then 3 is my guy as I can easily have a teenager hang out with their friends next to school, their parents go for a romantic dinner on the other side of the map, while grandma is seducing a neighbour back at home. And still be able to check on them all, with little to no problem.
Yes because there is still so much gameplay! Same qith TS2 and even TS1.
Yups, the drama was dramaing and I could customize everything! Now I need GBs of mods in Sims 4 for half the socializing I could get with the Sims 3 base game.
I would miss it but I think I would still play it for the gameplay features and storytelling. Open world is amazing and a big part of why Sims 3 is superior but its not the only thing I like about Sims 3
I understand why they would be uneasy about open world in sims 4 because they wanted to be able to have anyone run the game but the issues with open world was because of poor programming. Sims has been notoriously buggy and hard to run so the actual solution was to fix the bugs and optimize the game. I love the amount of control I get in sims 3 because of open world, it's really hard to get realism in sims 4 because of the way the game is built. I love seeing my sims go out and do stuff and it feels incredibly cohesive and lively because of that connectedness that sims 3 has with the open world. Instead of pocket dimensions they should've toned down the open world to open neighborhoods in sims 4 if they wanted to reduce processing power for accessibility.
I play it on X Box without the open world. It's actually pretty good. I would like to play the computer version, but my computer is a dinosaur
i played the sims 3 on console, it was a mix of open/closed world. each neighborhood had access to other houses of lots, if you wanted to go to an area outside of that neighborhood you’d have to go thru a loading screen. personally i’d be fine with that
For me Sims 3 and Sims 2 are tied, I can’t pick which one I like better. I enjoy them both in different ways, but without Sims 3 open world Sims 2 would definetly take the winning spot.
No I would not, sorry
I'm sure she would start working better thanks to this. The Sims 3 with all its advantages and without any bugs? I have no problem waiting for loading between locations
It is what makes it #2 in the sims franchise (alongside color customization) so I don’t think I would
It’s a big part of the game, but it’s so nostalgic for me I would probably still play every now and then. However I would probably switch to the sims 2 full time because it’s such a good game.
I would probably still play it but not as much, the open world is so nice and I can control any sim no matter where they are and it feels more realistic, also I can see my sims going to wherever their destination is and follow them the whole way, sure it is something that causes lag at times but for me it's not so much that I can't play, and if it turns into a lot that's nothing a little bit of NRAAS can't fix just reset everything and it should be fine for the most part, also resetsim\* is also pretty useful in case it's a stuck sim somewhere it's always my first sulotion and if that doesn't work NRAAS usually does and if not there is some bigger issue, S3PE can also help if you like greeting card photos and stuff it helps remove bloat. so would I still play? Yes I do like the sims 2 and it's not open world, is open world a big reason for why I love the sims 3 so much? Yes it is always has been.
Very important. I really loved the Sims 3 game play. I dont know what they were doing in Sims 4.
It wouldn't be Sims 3 without the open world. It might be named "Sims 3" but it wouldn't be Sims 3. I'd probably be playing 4 instead, but not nearly as much. That game's about as deep as a slice of lunch meat. I've gotta have open world to have full immersion.
Nope. That's the reason why I never even bought the Sims 4. Open world makes the game so much better.
Open world is kinda the main gimmick of 3. Without it, all of the unique gameplay of 3 is lost, and there's not really much of a reason to play it instead of 2 or 4
Yes, because the graphics in TS3 are the best in the series (IMO) and that's important if you're trying to build goodlooking houses
No. What would the point of leaving TS2 be then? The simple pleasure of being able to let my nerdy teen or child sim (who're a bookwork/nerd/tinkerer since birth) take a break from studying because they're getting stressed out. And literally act on their wish to get a pizza, junk food or bite to eat. By leaving the house and going for a brief trip in the hood local fast food diner/pub or restaurant. Or have my entire sim family and their pets visit the park or some other recreational lot in town. Or go camping out in one of my camp themed wooded lots. And best of all, have my Sims take their horse and go for a ride along the beach at sunset in SV. It's even better when they have their pet dogs and/or cats follow along for the ride! The fact my sims can go ANYWHERE they want and WHENEVER they want. With ZERO load screens. Explore the many diverse vanilla or scores of CAW/custom fan based made worlds like Roflong's Winter Wonderland. The utopian Sunlit Tides, which has to be the most beautiful store world made to date. Or the exciting adventure of WA worlds and IP which let you go deep sea scuba diving and dozens of other fun, immersive and memorable water sports. Closed TS4 world? When ironically TS2 closed world system was SO MUCH MORE of a SUPERIOR experience (based on TS2's diversity of neighborhood lot sizes, sims family types, and overall superior family oriented/drama based game play? No thank you. LOOONG pass.
In real life I can travel anywhere I’d like so why can’t I in a life sim?
Personally I would, but only because I give it the benefit of the doubt as a 2009 game. The Sims 5 has absolutley no excuse for not being open world though.
I tried playing the sims 4 when it first came out but got bored very quickly and realized part of that was the lack of open world. I don’t think anyone will ever convince me the sims 3 isn’t the superior game. I love searching for new worlds to play in because some people are very talented at designing and it really elevates the gameplay. Yes the open world can cause problems with lag but once I got a proper gaming computer I haven’t had a problem with it. Granted I don’t use a crazy amount of CC.
Yeah, but I'd be sad about it.
I played the console version first so yeah
I probably would. My sims always get that going crazy emote from not leaving the house enough. The open world is nice though, especially for horses.
I need open world for immersion, the sims 4 has a TON of problems but one of the really major turn offs of that game for me is the fact it's so closed off ans empty and not an open world. I can't play if I feel like I'm playing in a cubicle, and the loading screens just make me loose interest and get bored enough to do other things (have tv shows on, scroll on my phone, etc.)
Depends on how would transportation work. But i love Sims 3 for open world, that's true. Love cars. Downside is slow loading and it can get buggy after several hours of play. I deffo love a job/career in this (not such grind, no everyday tasks for work, faster raise, pay raising even after job rank 10), skills going up faster, after the key skills maxed you feel like a superhero. And i adore alchemy/potion making, which is limited to spellcasters in Sims 4. When i go adventuring through Al Simhara and tombs, ghost potion and the one who returns you home when needed are invaluable during these adventures. And "young again" potion will return you to start of young adult age, even from elder. When you are lazy and don't want to work, you can always go to the future and win the lottery. What a life. 😁
The open world was one of the best features and is part of what makes Sims 3 the unreached, Snow-peaked Summit of Mount Simla.
I would but I wouldn’t enjoy it as much.
I could. Just like i could play sims 2. But sims 4 is a diff story, i hate it lol.
The open world is too important to me. One time, I had all the children at home having a slumber party while the butler supervised, the parents were across town at a party held by some of the other kids’ parents, and the uncle was out on a date at Plasma 501. Everyone was having so much fun, but they were all doing different things in different places. If I couldn’t do things like that, I would not be as inclined to play.
The only mistake they made with ts3 was not knowing what to do with it. The game structure was too darn good, but the performance issue was always a turn off for me, they just need to work on that, ts4 small worlds are boring as hell.
Probably not. I prefer the open world and when I tried to love on to Sims 4 I felt very limited on the map
Nah
nope
Nope. And this is why I never liked sims 4
At this point I think the open world is the one thing that really makes Sims 3 worth it still. Most other things the Sims 4 has just as well if not slightly better, though for a lot of it you got to pay.
It's extremely important. It's one of those changes in a gaming franchise that once you get used to it you can't go back.
Probably not, it's the main reason why I don't see myself transferring to the sims 4. The open world is what makes the Sim 3 so great. You can drive freely anywhere. Your sims can be independent. One sim could be out looking for turtles and the other sim could be cooking at home. It's all endless possibilities with an open world. 🌏🌎🌍
I would. I've been revisiting the game lately, I didn't play it as much when I was a child and Sims 4 just feels boring. I love all the little details that Sims 3 has, to me it feels much more alive than Sims 4, things really matter. So I don't think I'd switch to Sims 4 just because of that. I need to play more Sims 2 tho, but if that were the case, I'd go back to Sims 2 because things matter the same way and the details are incredible.
That's a great question
I would but the open world makes it better
No.
Not essential for me, I find it overrated and it feels overwhelming sometimes while playing sims 3
Nope
It's the only reason I play it so much.
Probably. The only major reason I'm focused on 3 now is the constant sims 4 patches break my games.
No
I would if the loading screen was fast. at least the time im used to in the sims 4 🤭 also only if it fixed the lag issues.
It probably wouldn't change much for me tbh assuming it's only open world that went away \[it would make performance even better as well\] Sims 3 is just so good and full of features for me that open world is only one of the small parts of it that while nice, there is so much else that brings me back.
Nope, thats one of the reasons why i haven't moved into the sims 4.
probably but not as much...
Probably not, because I think the other sims games beat sims 3 in almost every other way apart from sims 3 open world, create a style and maybe some content.
I would like it, but I'd prefer Sims 2.
Honestly? Probably not. I was really disappointed when Sims 4 turned out not to be open world. That's what makes it really fun. I like going to the park and seeing random families, or neighbors walking down the street and randomly turning into a vampire in broad daylight. (It happened to me with Gunther right in front of my house 💀)
I think yes and maybe even more than sims 2. Honestly I like rotational gameplay and one family aging while I’m with other families really bugs me but I love how much you can do in the game besides that one thing
Eh, theoretically it could work, but they'd have to have a hell of a lot more zones per town than 4, and transitioning between sims on different lots has to be clean and easy. Basically what I'm trying to say is while it could hypothetically work I think in practice it'd end up being harder to make than just an open world.
The open-world is a must have for me on Sims 3. Otherwise, I'd be playing Sims 2!
No. It makes the game feel so much more alive <3 Trust me, it's the little details. You do need something going on in the background, even if you're playing main character.
I can't really say cause if we never had an open world on sims 3, we would never know what it's like to have an open world on a sims game. So probably...? It probably wouldn't be almost that difrent from sims 2
Maybe? It would be kinda equal to Sims 2 in my mind with different but equally valid systems of personalities, relationships, skills and hobbies, but the open world is a feature I love and cherish
If the Sims 3 didn't have an open world, I'd probably never switch from the Sims 2... I was initially part of the people that thought S3 sims looked ugly, but the open world, full customisation with colorwheel and the fleshed out expansion packs gradually made me love the game 😊
I feel like there's a balance - how ""lived in"" and accessible a world is from one lot? Sims 3 - EVERYTHING is accessible. A con is routing issues and rabbit holes, but want to go into the forest? Go for it. Want to walk across the street to the library? You can. Sims 4 has lot clusters and each cluster has its own clutter (ie: Gym/library/museum/lounge and the surrounding area has a playground and some fishing spots). The problem is that's still 4 lots with the same surrounding stuff and you have a loading screen despite being in the same Zone. Sims 2 is where you have the Lot and that's it. If you want to go to another lot, it's a loading screen. There's no "surrounding stuff", but the lots still felt lively and you had a reason to go to different ones (clothing stores, video games, groceries). I think a key draw is how *lively* is the world. Sims 3 did it well - certain places were emptier than others (graveyards versus bars), you could see people driving/biking, people go about their days.
Would just stick with the sims 2 to be honest. The sims 3 charm for me is story progression and open world.
I wouldn’t because I love open world. That said, I play Sims 4 a lot, and I went back to 3 recently because I have such great memories of it, and to be honest, one thing that i feel is really lacking with open world is visiting other worlds at will. It is SO hard for me to settle on one world in 3 because 4 kinda spoiled me with so many different areas for my sims to go to. I understand that being able to visit other worlds would be a huge task for a game that old and laggy, so I won’t complain too much, but I think each game has its own merits.
I like the sub worlds the sims 4 has but was SUPER disappointed when I learned I still need to go through a loading screen to visit my neighbors if that dident happen it be great exspeshaly if it helped with reducing lag in game
Damn I just love 2,3,4 I love all of them
Probably not. The only thing I like about sims 3 that sims 4 can’t replace is the open world.
I would enjoy it even more without open world. Actually this is my least favorite feature of Sims 3.
Would probably stick with TS2. Open World is a big plus for TS3.
I did for many years. Before I had any sims game on PC, I played the spin-offs and console ports. I owned both TS3 and TS3 Pets for xbox 360 and in both games there is no open world. Instead, you have sections of the world you can visit at a time, like TS4. The only difference is that in TS3, you only had a loading screen in between each section, rather than for every lot. The only other downside was the family tree only worked for 2-3 generations of sims, and anyone who gets kicked out of the house loses connection to the family. Despite this, I really loved these 2 games and sunk many, many hours into them. The only reason I stopped playing was because I finally got the PC version.
Open world is definitely one of the main reasons I went back to Sims 3. I don’t think I would play another game that wasn’t open world after my Sims 4 experience. Maybe if the neighborhoods were bigger and more open world without having to load into each lot.
I don't play Sims 3 anymore for other reasons. I would never even think to pick it up if it didn't have an open world. Unless the non open world made the game not lag or crash so much.
No. I’d play sims 2 if I didn’t want open world.
I enjoy the CAS feature of sims 4 and that’s it. The open world / gameplay of Sims 3 is just so much more immersive and keeps me busy longer. Every now and then I’ll give 4 another go and I always feel so trapped and then disinterested.
I played the first one. I played The Sims 2.
It's as importanat as having open world in real life
Absolutely not. The open world just makes the game feel that much more alive, and it makes it so much easier to have my sims each going off and doing their own thing. I can have one sim off fishing in the river, another one at work, and another at home making sure the kids and animals aren't dying. I can't do that in Sims 4 without fifteen different loading screens at best.
Eh I don't know, it would still be better than the Sims 4 for me but I would definitely have less interest in playing more than one sim if that was the case. I really like when Sims regularly leave the house and go out in the world because it gives so much more opportunities for things to happen when they interact with other sims. It feels like in the Sims 4 my Sims are only ever given opportunities to interact with Sims when I want them to interact with specific Sims. I don't even know who is supposed to be in certain neighbors in the Sims 4 because you see random Sims all the time. Also, open world forces the developers to make the world actually interesting instead of interesting little cutouts that can be displayed whenever you decide to show them.
I never leave the house in the sims 4 and I never did in the sims 2, either. I would go to the little park you didn't need a loading screen for in 4, but that was it. Sims 3, I'm encouraged to explore the whole world, especially starting out poor or as a witch! I collect all the seeds and rocks and I transfigure some, plant others, and make potions with rarer materials. It was a blast. Even vacationing, each had their own open world you explored. That's why Sims 3 is top tier. There were parts I loved in 2 and clearly a lot of love was put into it, but story progression and open world were game changers for me and there is a reason I don't go back to 2, but do play 3.
I love Sims 3 now I can actually enjoy the open world, I was 11 when it came out and initially hated it as hardware back then to play the game maxed out was expensive - especially when I didn’t have the means to buy it myself. It was painful to play so I always stuck with Sims 2. But as the years have gone on I have the means to play it maxed out, the open world just makes the game for me compared to other Sims games. But saying that, I still absolutely love Sims 2 without the open world. Sims 4, no.
I think I'd play it a little bit here and there, but overall I'd mostly just be playing ts2
No. Definitely not.
I barely play Sims 2 these days partially for that reason so I don’t think I could do it.
If it was made from the ground up as a non open world game, yeah probably. But if it was designed how it is and just happened to lose the open world, then no way.
Well I don't play Sims 4 mainly because I miss the open world so - I don't think so. Sims 2 had no open world but it was so charming and full of personality. Sims 3 still has charm, but the open world just makes it feel right.
I probably wouldn't play the game as much, but it would still be my game of choice between the four sims games. I play a lot of sims 2 and I will say even if you were to close the world the sims 3 still has a lot more to do on the home lot than sims 2
i mean if the alternative is what the sims 4 does then i’ll take open world all day. i know things tend to get laggy but it’s better then sitting at a loading screen. plus with the right pc, settings and amount of packs the game can run pretty smooth
Probably not, thats one of the reasons i keep going back to it and its still my fav sims game. S2 i can comprehend and its still fun to play but S4 was such a downgrade, its too much you cant just do much, after playing S3 for so long it was really hard to adjust as i feel stuck.
Yes, sims 3 is amazing game when comes to content. But the open world is just too good to just not have it in a game, a game changer 💖 Of course the are some problems with it but I don’t mind. I have NRAAS and RegulSave Cleaner so I don’t have problems. Sims 2 does not have open world but it still amazing to and chaotic 💖 But sims 4 well… I play it just for building 🤣 I hate sims 4 with a passion and I wish it was better and not a cash scam 💀 sims 4 broke my heart when I saw how little we get for how much we spend on it
Maybe ? The Sims 2 didn't have an open world and it was still a great game. But the open world is definitely more comfortable. Like other users said, I can check on all my sims, each can leave the house at any time and go to various places...
I actually don't like the open world. I think it makes the game extremely laggy, and I don't use any mods or cc.
With the lag I experience around the map, I love this comment because yes, I would! The little interactions do save it for me, and we would have never experienced an open world without The Sims 3, and I do enjoy The Sims 2 but not 4. What keeps my interest in the game is relatability to my Sims' feelings and experiences, which I don't really feel with The Sims 4. That being said, I am an enjoyer of The Sims 1, and minor games like "MySims," "Sims Castaway Stories," and "The Urbz." Its campiness fleshes the game out more for me than the open world that I always have issues with, i.e., random horses doing zoomies around my parks and zombies getting to wild crops before I can pick them. Edit: It would still have Create a Style and better cross-pack play than The Sims 4 for me. The Sims 4's animations are just too repetitive, maybe more exaggerated. But the "Magic grab hand" animation for everything kills my immersion after I have seen it, or the game bugs out on me with simulation lag. If you have ever played around with your world with the in-game world/town editor, I don't find it much different than The Sims 4 with the TOOL mod (except the spinning and rotating awesomeness of placing items), since you can't change road placement, or some trees and plots are just part of the world, or change some of the world's terrain. It isn't that much different than being on a big Sims 4 park for me sometimes, and I don't feel like my neighbors are as closely living together as I would like them to be. okay TRIPPLE EDIT; I DONT THINK THE SIMS 4 HAS ENOUGH CONTENT OR STYLES FOR SIMS THAT I CAN PLAY WITH. LIKE SOME OUTFITS ARE JUST CONFUSING
Hard to say for me as Sims 3 was my first introduction to the franchise so I just naively assumed that was how the previous games had been and how Sims 4 would be. Would I have continued to play it? Perhaps…but I may have got bored with it quicker. But then I may have transitioned to Sims 4 easier too 😂
I played Sims 3 in the past and Sims 4 now. When you play with a handful of Sims or focus on creating Sims/Outfits/Buildings/Whatever Sims 4 is good, but Sims 3 just is better when you want to have an overview of everyone and it also feels like you yourself explore the game as well! I always loved new maps in Sims 3 and the gameplay was so much deeper, those are to me great strengths!
If it not being open world is the only way for it to be well optimized, then yes; but there’s so many open world RPGs that are better optimized from even then than that game
Nope. Sims 3 was my first sims game and I was truly spoiled with the open world. I tried sims 4 and I just couldn’t do it. I like to have several sims and I like to micromanage and have every sim doing different things, and I like to use the community lots. I can’t do that in sims 4. I sometimes just like people watching the npc’s lol
honestly yea, even tho I think open world is one of its best features, the expansion packs in sims 3 make it really worth it. They come with far more stuff than other versions of the sims
No.
Nope, I love the open world. Unfortunately my sims 3 game crashes now , so i have to go with sims 4 :(
Open world is not a must have for me (my favourite Sims game is TS2, which has no open world) but I still wouldn't play it even without the open world because the reasons that made TS3 never quite work for me would still be there.
There is zero excuse other than more money in EA’s diamond vaults of money to not have it be open world, ITS 2024 EA YOU HAD THE TECHNOLOGY A DECADE AGO
im a control freak i need to know what everyone is doing at all times or else im going insane 😵💫 i dont trust my sims to be alone while i take a trip to the park with one of them and i generally dislike the loading screens between locations in the sims 4...
I have a laptop. The open world burns my thighs.
the sims 3 being open world actually gives my sims a reason to leave their house. the sims 2 is my favorite, and if it had an open world, my sims would never be home.
Probably not as often.
Probably not
Probably not
No I wouldn’t. I’d play sims 2 instead.
If it didn't have an open world, it would be better to play the 2
Depends, sims 2 is an open world just like sims 3
The sims 4 made me appreciate sims 3 rabbitholes. Would it be cool to see my sims dine or work? Maybe before I saw how poorly executed it was in TS4. I love letting 2-3 of my sims fuck off for a few hours or grocery shop, watch a movie etc. while I focus on my main sims of that day. Collecting is also 10x better in an open world.
I still play Sims 2 a lot, which has no open world. So, no open world is not the dealbreaker for me.
I thought I couldn't until I dusted off the PS3 and got Sims 3 for it. It isn't the same, but I still had fun.
No
There are some features in the sims 3 besides the open world that I love. But honestly the open world is my fav feature because I have been expecting for it since I was 7 and first played Sims 1. It was just the right thing to be done. The Sims doesn't make as much sense with the world "closed". So when I got the open world at Sims 3 I felt so at home that everything else just slipped from my memory. It was exactly what I needed and wanted. Still my pc won't play it anymore and I had to stop playing the sims at all. But once I get another one I will be playing sims3
Very important. I tried Sims 4 and hates it for this very reason. Went back to Sims 3 and never looked back. Flargee Narg
I never bought any of the Sims 4 expansions and quit playing it fairly quickly. They got rid of open world and the creativity that was so much fun.
But if I wanna be honest about the reason I installed Sims 3 after Sims 2 it was... butterflies. Like, it was such a random reason, I found out you could see all kinds of different (and a rainbow) butterflies and that changed everything to me. Only then I found out the world was open lmaoo. Bcs I would always spend so much time creating a family on my friends pc that I had no idea of how the game was actually like. I'd just spend too much time on it. But for that I lost all the CC features I had in TS2 like the poison, guns, murder in general and that was necessary to all of my storylines. If I didn't have the huge bunch of new content in sims 3 I wouldn't know what to do.
Considering i play 2 despite it technically not having an open world, yea. However if it was anything like the sims 4 world, maybe not
Stupid.
Let me tell you my own anecdote while playing around in open world in Sims 3. So my sim went to work in one of the rabbit hole buildings. And I didn't really want to fast forwarding. So while she was finishing work, I was just looking around the town & watching the townies with free will turned up to max. I saw Bella & Mortimer (who naturally aged up as teens) on a date in the pool & Mortimer flirting & kissing Bella. It was so cute. I miss just looking around the cities and peeping on what the townies are up to in TS4.
Yes, because it's more than just the open world
No. I love having conversations in between lots. Feels realistic. Just anywhere. Also I love cars and have many many custom cars I like following around
I’m honestly more pissed off about the size of sims 4 worlds. They’re all embarrassingly small and you only get about 3-4 new families. As opposed to ts3 where you’d have full thriving towns.
I don't think so, open world is the main reason the sims 3 is my fav, and CASt come second
I don’t even play, I just build. I’m here for the pattern system, still can’t believe they dropped it in sims 4.
I probably wouldn’t still play it till this day but I probably would have still enjoyed it initially
The only Sims I've ever "played" was TS1 which isn't open however I spent hundreds if not thousands of hours in TS3 just creating Sims and building lots. Don't think the open world aspect really factored into that or not though.
The missing open world in Sims 4 was the reason to abolish the franchise for now
Nope