The Sims 4 is rotting (literally)

Why The Sims 4 is such a broken game! A deep dive into the failings of The Sims 4 launch and how the game is dying.
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[@medusesurunpalmier]

At this point I honestly don’t know why there’s no class action against EA. I feel like it the sims weren’t a video game people would actually sue the company for selling a faulty product

[@Bluestarferies]

Or Ubisoft

[@NerdyNanaSimulations]

It's been 10 years of broken content, the only ones to blame are us for continuing to buy in hopes that it will get better. Doing the same thing over and over hoping for different results. 😂

[@iveivory2584]

I thought about this a lot, EA already got sued multiple times, and they had to pay. maybe there is lawyer in the comments who could explain why nobody is doing this or if it would be that difficult 😅

[@ChatWithCatastrophe]

@@iveivory2584 Am NOT a lawyer, but I watched something on YT where it was mentioned possibly quite difficult to do. It left me with the feeling there's a TON of gray area legally for video games/online content in regards to suing them. Not that it's right, NO WAY...just wanted to share what I "heard".

[@yasminni485]

I've been wondering the same thing.

[@icedtea-1819]

The thing here is that bugs in the other sims are normal - sims 1 had things harder because of the year they made it - sims 2 has tons of content in Gameplay, so is normal to have some bugs - sims 3 had an open world, so again, its normal because its a huge thing Sims 4 is just a mess 😔

[@floskywalker6220]

All four games also have the excuse of having not been updated in years. Even sims 3 was last updated over a decade ago. Codes gonna bug with new hardware. Sims 4 is constantly updated and still is more broken than all 3 of them combined

[@DarkeningDemise]

Sims 2 was also rebuilt after losing original data too wasn't it?

[@keit99]

As a sims 3 player. We keep the game alive with duct tape and glue at this point.

[@keit99]

E.g. a moder fixed Isla paradiso by simply not allowing inactive sims to move houseboats. Which removes like 90%of the expensive sim is stuck in routing issues

[@onidaaitsubasa4177]

Hmm, I would say bugs are normal in Sims 4 also, at this point bugs are the one thing we can be sure of to be in new packs, with as many bugs as there are we might as well call them a feature, and unfortunately the bugs are the one feature that is consistent.

[@shakedamram1313]

I have an honestly innocent question: How is it that a third party modder can fix a bug in the game within a few days - week, but the Sims team can't? You say there are bugs that might not be fixable or they are struggling to fix, but here comes a common modder and does it. What is the excuse for that?

[@jessice293]

I 100% agree! Like a single person with a pretty standard PC can fix a bug in their free time where a full on team can’t even fix them… at this point it’s that they don’t want to fix them not that they can’t

[@Ang7.8]

No need to wait for budget approvals, attend team meetings, or wait for middle management to decide whose piece of the pie is most important … all of the office politics are completely eliminated. (my guess)

[@TylaStark]

EA doesn't want to pay someone to take the time to do it

[@razrv3lc]

Because they see no monetary reason to do so. They already got their money and fixing it doesn’t give them more money. Meanwhile modders work for free and never expected payment anyways and were just doing it because they want a better game.

[@Ang7.8]

@@razrv3lc Right … no monetary gain and no collateral damage. Customers can’t say to them “fix it or else!” The company is of the mindset “or else what? You bought it. We have your money.”

[@sarahrose1512]

i said it before and i’ll say it again: EA is lazy and greedy and thats why sims 4 sucks this much. there’s zero passion and attention to detail. while i understand the game went out already broken they still had years to fix it up instead of shoving broken content down our throats. if moders can fix it why cant a team of paid professionals🙄

[@onidaaitsubasa4177]

Probably because the modders test everything properly with all the packs before releasing the mod, where as EA releases a pack before it's been completely tested and if it's been tested they test it only with the base game, and when that happens, there's gonna be bugs with other packs in the game, not to mention, with as many times as the modders have had to remake and update their mods every time a patch or game update breaks their mod, the modders have become experts on the game coding, and some modders are probably more of an expert than the ones at EA that make the game, if the modders did the code for the game packs, the whole game would be a lot more stable and run better.

[@Bluestarferies]

It’s not just EA, it’s the gaming industry in general. Big gaming companies have gone all out with the bad practises!

[@TheDawnofVanlife]

To be fair, modders just bandaid bad code which can always be destroyed by the next ‘official’ update, to actually fix the game, the core systems need actual work done on them. Bless the modders tho, the band aids do help.

[@rowdygoat2334]

because they KNOW,modders will fix the problems,so why bother when they can focus their minds on money making. :D

[@nadiastar6264]

The gaming industry can be very toxic. They overwork their employees. Some places don't pay overtime despite pressure to work overtime. They are expected to come out with something within a certain amount of time and it forces programmers to rush things. They don't care if the project comes out sloppy and full of bugs as long as it comes out on time. And that's how you get cyberpunk 2077.

[@zhanaemilford7481]

Honestly I've ditched the sims 4 and moved onto the sims 3 it's much better atleast my sims don't stand for half an hour

[@saraght3188]

Same I’m between house flipper and sims 3 because sims 4 is gone unplayable

[@Ca11MeMayb3]

Omg same! Every single one of my saves, whether it was a new or old, had my Sims stuck in simulation lag hell😭😭😭. They'd occasionally talk to each other if they were stuck close to eachother but with one animation while looking dead as hell😢😢

[@whowantstogame]

bahaha same but with sims 2!! i went straight from the original sims to the sims 4 and after years and years of playing sims 4 i was so blown away by the autonomy in the sims 2!! only to realise that that's literally normal autonomy without simulation lag or weird routing issues 😭😭

[@TheGlassAddiction]

I went back to sims 2 and it's like, so incredibly refreshing??

[@enazia619]

I wish i could play sims 3, it has much more gameplay but it keeps crashing every 30 minutes, cant even make a new household :/

[@henry770]

My best guess as a software architect is EA refusing to let Maxis pay off technical debt. Technical debt is when developers are forced to take short cuts or not meet certain standards of quality in order to meet a deadline. Paying it off means necessarily expending resources on something that has already been sold, from a business perspective.

[@baniboo]

its very unfortunate how little they care for the game and the players, can't even blame the developers when you have to work for people like that

[@fridamrch4759]

That’s a good theory, i think so too

[@feloniousbutterfly]

This is a big part of why so many games suck now and never get improved...

[@dear_totheheart]

Irony is "from a business perspective" this is losing long-term customers and running their products and brand into the ground. If they invested in making it the best it could be, I think we'd be singing their praises and there would be a whole lot more support and sales because the customer would be happy to shill out for anything you produced instead of now assuming every single release is either broken or below quality

[@henry770]

@@dear_totheheart I don’t disagree. Unfortunately, there are many in management who are only thinking about what’s right in front of them. There is the opposite error, of course-you can’t always have your head in the clouds, being in the future without having your mind on the now. As with many things, a proper balance must be struck. I think what Satch and so many others are trying to do is encourage EA to tilt the scales a bit.

[@SnipsySnips]

Not only is there compelling evidence that Project Olympus IS The Sims 4 but rehashed, but Project Olympus is as old or even older than The Sims 3 itself. Sims 4 itself is damn near a decade old, but it's very possible they're using coding that is 16 years old. A 16 year old game that was never intended to be a main entry... it makes sense that it's self destructing now.

[@thegamingenderman]

I agree the engine and just as old if not older than Sims 3

[@Ballora1965]

I agree with you 100 percent,Snipsy. I've stated this dozens of times on the official Sims 4 forum, but yet people STILL are demanding things like casinos, hotels,cars,a death/funerals expansion pack, and even a romance expansion pack. I've ditched Sims 4,and I will purchase Life By You when it comes out.

[@EvilParagon4]

"Multiplayer/online Sims" was a concept since Sims 2 that Maxis was interested in. Yes, Olympus is older than Sims 3.

[@mickeyg7219]

They add content faster than they patch the bugs, and new content being broken doesn't help either. Even if you don't buy any new DLCs, the new content that comes with the update often breaks something else. Imagine a boat with a lot of holes in it, instead of focusing on plugging every leak, they just keep extending the ship.

[@emma_luce_0623]

I'm surprised they haven't released a 50$ pack that fixes all the bugs, but creates new ones, yet 😂

[@GabrielleTollerson]

​@@emma_luce_0623 knowing EA they might do that

[@Harley24986]

I think one of the bigger issues to this as well is the fact that the game is ten years old. They keep adding onto a broken software program. There is a reason the games prior were "done" within 5 or so years. The Sims 4 was never built to last this long. It just can't handle all the things they keep adding to it.

[@jackofhearts5542]

What's worse is the game is 10 years old, but the coding is actually 16 years old. They started coding it as a multiplayer before the Sims 3 even fully released and repurposed that code to make ts4 later.

[@nayankumar2418]

Can we all just gather for 5 seconds and come to terms this project Renee is not the sims 5 and is more of a spiritual successor to what sims mobile should've been. That means we are going to be dealing with the sims 4 for many years to come and the game is fundamentally broken without adding more stuff to it. And that means the sims 5 hasn't even began its earliest stages of development 💀

[@wrenpen]

this

[@MssIAMNOBODYSPECIAL]

1:08 game corruption in sims 2 doesnt happen when deleting gravestones or sims from the bin. Thats a myth. April Black did a very nice deep dive on this. Sims 2 is a much more stable game than many people believe.

[@maxwellbowman4084]

Yeah - I think “the Sims 2 is spaghetti code!!!!” is mostly folks blaming the game for their massive CC folders.

[@lauz-im3ov]

I am a professional software tester (admittedly not in the gaming space) and I think you make a lot of good points. There will always be bugs that testers miss, but they tend to be very edge-case scenarios more often than not, rather than fundamental functionality not working. With something like My Wedding Stories, weddings not working will have been noticed and raised very early on, but someone is making a business (i.e. financial) decision to release sub-par code rather than delay a release date - then it seems that once something goes live, the bugs they release with it go straight to the back of the live bug fixing queue. I do think Sims 4 would be a nightmare to test though. It'll be impossible to test every possible combination of packs with anything like the time and budget they'll be allowed.

[@FuckedUpGenius]

As a software dev, I completely understand why there are so many job offers there. I couldn't keep working in an environment where I'm forced to release a broken product. Game Devs are often very passionate about their work, so there is a good chance that they're completely burned out by not being able to release a good product that everyone loves. The game development industry is a very cutthroat industry these days, which doesn't match well with passion. Look at something like Stardew Valley or Paralives. It takes ages to develop these passion projects alone or with a small team, but you can be at least sure that they care about the final product. I don't buy AAA games anymore, because I'd rather support several indie developers for the same amount of money and actually have a good product

[@Ang7.8]

Yep, if you think of it in terms of dollars and cents, they have to budget for developer hours spent. If you have 5 devs and they’re budgeted for 200 hours of work a piece or 10 devs and they’re budgeted for 100 hours a piece, that is all they get! More time is more money. Where is that money coming from until you make some sales/pre-sales. So it’s more like ‘how valuable 💵💰💵 is that bug fix? What is the return on the time invested? Of course modders fix everything! This makes the game(s) buyable and playable. So it seems real odd to me when the Sims started to crackdown on the money 💴 modders were making. EA couldn’t even afford the quality dev work these modders do. Why sink their own ship? These kind people are keeping you afloat

[@user-zy3sr6hz1t]

Every other game I play invites a variety of players to alpha or beta test though. It feels like the testers are not simmers that already know how to do cas, build buy and generational gameplay. They could at least alpha test with creators for large expansion packs. The way infants just don’t work really does not feel play tested by someone that had the game before infants if they thought it was acceptable.

[@oceanegougeon3025]

This is also why releasing too many packs is not good. But only greed drives them, so of course they fragment their product.

[@mer762]

@@FuckedUpGenius +1 on the Indie Game dev support!

[@someonesomewhere517]

what i hate the most is even if you dont buy any packs, or atleast any of the most broken ones etc, your game can and will still break and glitch because the sims has constant patches, constant updates etc relating to new packs but also in general, so it doesnt really matter whether you buy any packs or not, you can still wake up one day and find your game messed up because of a update or pack release that you never cared for. or when you have pack from years ago like Seasons, even if it's your only pack you can still find it broken all of a sudden because of a recent update, even though it was released 6 years ago. which is why im just constantly begging for the sims to stop releasing new stuff and just work on bug fixes(even tho those also just create new bugs) because not buying new things does not protect me from the game getting messed up. there is literally no way of avoiding a glitchy game at this point. it's been harder and harder to play this game for me since 2020 and ive constantly had to go looking for mods that fix bugs, and im not really a mods/cc person, so it's frustrating for me, especially when those mods break with an update and then i have to go find an updated mod and it's just a neverending cycle.i used to love this game and now i feel like i wont ever get it back

[@lorrainethomas241]

Exactly this. I haven't bought anything since Growing Together, but not buying is no protection. It makes me sad.

[@debrairish7993]

My last pack was Country Living and I will not be buying anything else on principle. Even so I keep having to deal with new bugs and glitches due to the constant updates. I avoided updates for awhile by playing offline but opened my game last week to find things had reset and updates were downloading. It's so frustrating. I just want the buggy mess of a game that existed back in 2021.

[@LunaRuna212]

The need to keep so many bug fix mods updated alongside my preferred gameplay mods is also the main reason why I play TS4 so rarely in recent years. Checking for updates on all of my mods and installing/organizing them takes more than 2 hours, even though I've already set up a spreadsheet to help me keep up with sources and stuff. In recent years there were points where they had released MONTHLY patches and it was a nightmare. I've also had to deal with save file corruption several times thanks to this and I barely buy any packs too! Just, so frustrating. So my TS4 cycle is usually, when I find the motivation for it, I wait for another patch, then wait another week before updating all my mods, then I play in offline mode for the next weeks to avoid more patches which would break everything again. And then I get bored at some point, and won't play again for like half a year until I find motivation to fix everything again before I could even begin playing...

[@lorrainethomas241]

@@LunaRuna212 😭

[@jaydenlavaman]

I’ve gone to my game and my Get to Work pack was just gone and so my save files were unusable. I went on to customer support and it was constant emails where no one really helped me at all. I ended up giving up and now I just don’t have that pack anymore :’(

[@emolass16]

The main problem is that the Sims 4 is a python micro service program which means when certain parts code are updated can cause issues other areas to fail and when you have multiple layers of different code it's very hard if not impossible to fix the issue without causing more issues and to potentially fix EA would have to employ a large team of coder's to break down the current system which from their point of view is time consuming and not a quick fix as it would take many months to do that and there's no guarantee that they will find the issue while doing so all they can really do is to patch code over issues to make the game work something what work So you're right in saying there's some degree of code of rot it's really code failure as certain codes languages are update and parts not talking to each other creates the issues we see in the game

[@sashapacek7421]

I was looking for a comment that would mention the python issue! This is exactly it thank you.

[@liferx4343]

Sims 3 just needs a graphics overhaul, some updates and bug fixes (fewer than the Sims 4) and it could be light years ahead of the Sims 4. Of course EA would never.

[@JimiH19]

That won't happen once a new sims game comes out the other gets abandoned. I think it should have gone like release sims 1. Then release sims 2 and work on both. Then release sims 3 and work on sims 2 and 3. And then do the same so they Al get worked on in good time!

[@jxynxe]

The amount of families I’ve had to abandon because the game keeps breaking is insane

[@scoobykitty]

I am probably one of your oldest subscribers. I started playing the original sims when it first came out and I was hooked. My son's first job was with EA. He did really well there,and he worked on the Sims 3. Then the company suddenly let everyone go,and informed them that the office was being moved somewhere outside of the US,because they could run the company cheaper that way. I believe that is the real problem,because that is when things went downhill. I believe that EA,like a lot of other American companies,are willing to sacrifice the quality of their product by cutting corners to save money.

[@autinerd]

As with Sims 2, when watching the videos from April Black you will find out that most of the corruption claims are just urban legends and that Sims 2 was mostly quite solid.

[@alyfrench8023]

for sure... I was playing sims 2 with zero major issues through 2012. and I only stopped playing because I finally bought sims 3

[@silvervixen007]

TS4 bugs don't feel like bugs because its core features that don't work! How can a compagny even continue releasing faulty products and get away with it for 10 years?!

[@user-sd9sn7wf3o]

Cute kitty lying on the bed, thought it was a towel until it moves 😆

[@IsidorTheNordicGuy]

An awfully cute towel 😂 Thought the same at first haha!

[@GiveUsTodayOurDailyBread]

master of camouflage

[@strawberrymuffinthesecond]

Even the glitchest Sims 3 dlc (Island Paradise) is way less troublesome than any of the Sims 4 broken dlc. And with the sims 3 not releasing more updates or dlc, it's easier to resolve the issues with a mod or doing the manual "clean up." With a sims 4 pack, you have no guarantee anything you do or mod you install will fix the issue since they keep repeating or bring a new one with each update

[@vicdelray376]

also the sims 3 expansions were normally really big and offered more. the island living one had so much to offer, but it was just not done well. they at least tried to make it something special.

[@onidaaitsubasa4177]

Dine out is only fixed if you can use mods and have Carl's Dine Out Reloaded mod, and to this day, I'm still convinced that the T pose challenge was a glitch that they made into a feature in order to control the glitch and make the glitch stop when it happens.

[@NerdyNanaSimulations]

If a modder can fix it so can they... just a point

[@jadedjhypsi]

Thank you for bringing this up. The coding cannot even keep up with all the kits and packs they keep shoving at us. I never actually choose to close my game anymore, it decides when I am done playing by crashing on me.... going to get "have you saved lately?" tattooed on me.

[@mecstasy]

Considering that the CEO of EA plans to use AI for the development process of future games,it’s time to move on from this franchise. I mean if this is what a whole human team of people who are supposed to be skilled in programming and software put out into the market, I’d hate to see what AI would do to the game. Went back to playing sims 2 again and haven’t looked back. Couldn’t believe how much detailing and care they used to have for a game that came out in the mid 2000’s

[@KimL1000]

Video game design is like building a house. You need a solid foundation before adding walls and floors. Sims 5 will suffer the same fate as Sims 4.

[@NerdyNanaSimulations]

I am so glad someone else can see this and it's not just me. Time to find a new game I like.

[@cydneyd6368]

Is anyone recently having issues trying to weed their plants in the sims 4? My sim will do the action but the weeds never leave and my sim gets stuck in a loop. It’s so frustrating.

[@Pixieroses]

If you’re using a greenhouse, make sure the plants aren’t in the corners or too close to the walls, if not shift click them and you can change the growth stage and fix the weeds! Make sure you do testingcheats first though.

[@yoongistangerine4617]

I heard of that being a glitch that others are experiencing as well

[@jessice293]

@@yoongistangerine4617I think it’s been a glitch for a while now

[@kiyoshu9482]

Simmer Erin uploaded a video about a list full of bugs in the sims 4. It's in the description, and there's a link. Thank me later!

[@angelant96]

That happened to me once, but after restarting the game it didn’t happen again.

[@slyceth]

When sims 5 comes out, nobody will even think of looking at sims 4 again. remember, when sims 4 came out everyone hated it and ea threatened that they would not make a sims 5 unless sims 4 was succesful, full knowing they screwed up

[@bingusslingus7020]

That’s assuming ts5 is an improvement.

[@SVIXIV]

I refuse to buy another sims game since more people are making games like life by you and actually making what the community wants, I grew up playing the sims and its terrible to see what they've made it in to. I highly doubt ts5 will be any good.

[@sludgetime]

@@bingusslingus7020 Doubtful :(

[@sacredpower7530]

​@@SVIXIVI'm definitely looking forward to Life BY You, Paralives and especially Inzoi. To heck with The Sims.

[@lucydraws1237]

Not me just watching the cat on the bed the entire time 😂

[@archi5461]

Yes, so FLUFFY

[@mightyowl1800]

😺 just a lil guy having a nap, oblivious to the hot mess express that is TS4

[@carolinehal1209]

Priorities

[@monalisa8504]

Istg, in less than a year instead of employing coders, EA will let ChatGPT fix the bugs. This is how greedy they are.

[@exentine7693]

11:13 “recommendation: don’t load ‘my wedding stories’, thank you” 💀💀

[@kemurikurosagi5826]

to me it almost seems like EA is actively trying to destroy The Sims 4 but making the most of money that they can still get before it's entirely unplayable, so people will move on to the next game (Project Rene), when it's released.

[@Bricichon]

Watching satch so early in the morning is truly a gift to us all

[@airahchannelbumanglag9760]

Actually it's night for me

[@exentine7693]

It’s like midday for us british folk, usually watch his videos around evening/nighttime 😳

[@Snow_Bunny]

For me morning too

[@SailorEffinMoon]

I'm surprised no one ever mentions the Game Play Overhaul mod by Carl. Everyone went off about his Dine Out fix. Although it doesn't fix everything his Game Play Overhaul mod is truly a godsend.

[@XShaneX19]

A thing that shows the spaggheti code problem is modding the game. Updates that target completely opposite code from your mod still manage to break them catastrophically while sometimes a huge all game spanning update breaks almost no mod at all (rare but it happens). I'm into game modding since first booting up TES Morrowind and even at super jankfest games like skyrim I've never experienced this kind of jumbled coding mess some of those Sims 4 updates dump on rather easily and clean coded mods.

[@maxwellbowman4084]

I love how I can still play Morrowind mods from 2003. Can’t play Skyrim mods from 2015…

[@trashpanda7207]

**edit** Still blame the developers for this mess of a game and to use your own example, yes a chef cant make the best cake without the ingredients, but the same chef also doesnt have to charge its customers a lot of money for a product they dont have and wont be the same quality as what was promised of this chef. You still blame the chef for being a poor cook. We can still blame EA, for being poor game developers. Honestly i think part of the problem is with the testing phase. Weve seen how they give the new packs to people to play. Weve seen the game changers play the game with new packs, most of the time they’re playing with base game and the newest pack, so of course theres going to be less issues. I dont believe their game testers are testing the game with anything other than base game. Their game testers should try the game with all or most of the packs (especially the more broken ones) and the newest pack to get the full broken experience.

[@augustinesim1672]

EA is not the developer, it is the publisher and owns the game, dictating what is ignored, what is patched etc Maxis is the developer, the og, but unfortunately has no say in anything, especially price.

[@TheDawnofVanlife]

The problem is not every player has “all of the packs” there are litterally an infinite number of pack combinations on people’s computers and at this point, with this number of packs, while testing with all packs will certainly help you also almost need random pack combinations as well to see if anything specifically is triggered.

[@trashpanda7207]

@@augustinesim1672 my point still stands. Might have gotten the developers wrong but the point is still valid. Actually its made stronger cause both the developers and the publishers dont seem to care enough to fix their past mistakes or release anything thats not broken.

[@trashpanda7207]

@@TheDawnofVanlife which is why the second part of my comment is how they should test the packs with all the packs at least. They literally own the game, they can do that. It at least ensures that most of the problems most simmers face would be covered since the games code is so messed up to begin with. But it might also not do that since again, the games code is so messed up ti begin with. Its why ive given up on the sims entirely.

[@RebeccaLizEve]

“The ship is sinking” lol totally agree- I haven’t bought a couple recent releases specifically because I know that the more packs I have when I’m playing the Sims the more faulty it’s going to be-

[@CrowChild_]

At this point I want my money back.

[@oceanegougeon3025]

Please stop spreading the myth of easy game corruption in the Sims 2

[@grilledmerman6067]

When realm of magic was released you could use the spell on family members to kiss each other and their romantic relationship bar would increase as well. What was even more odd is that you could do it on Teen/Elder Sims

[@artisticanna5275]

EA may be shit, but as consumers if you knowingly buy broken packs then you can’t complain! We look dumb as hell complaining while still giving them are money

[@alanarama]

I feel like we'll really see a real exodus of simmers when all the new games release. People aren't buying them because they love sims 4, they're buying it because it's literally the only game like it atm. So yeah very excited to see EA realise their profits may now depend on quality rather than having a monopoly on the life sim genre

[@katet8639]

Agree, that's why I stopped buying packs altogether.

[@dreamiinotdream730]

That’s why I prefer the older games. Sims 4 is BORING as hell without packs.

[@sacredpower7530]

​@@alanaramaWhich is why i'm very much looking forward to the three new life sim games releasing in the near future.

[@derralle5705]

Yes, there ARE modders who fix what ea doesn't. This shows that it can be done and the one good reason why ea doesn't fix things is that they just don't care. Why should they? Fixing things costs money that is better spent on churning out new content with minimal development and qa effort. And they must hurry because soon they will lose the life sim genre as we know it to their competitors, and they wil have to go for the freemium sector where they will compete with Nightmare Valley and Roblox or who knows what the children play today.

[@kaitlyn333]

Yea i only play sims 3 now hate myself for buying so many sims 4 packs

[@Samagachi]

I just wish the philosopher’s stone wasn’t bugged

[@casimit2469]

The mith about deleting gravestones in TS2 was debunked. You can also delete sims from the bin.

[@Alexx_sso]

Honestly i dont even think the sims4 can handle the space these packs they are releasing need. I spent like an hour yesterday making a sim and it glitched and turned into a 5 star celebrity plant sim. Also all babies/toddlers i either make from CAS or adopt them are blue in game, with like the pitch blank vampire eyes, so now i have a plant sim and a smurf colony in what was supposed to be my "realistic family"

[@Xeonocona]

I 100% think EA is responsible for the disastrous state which this game is in. They strong-armed the developers into turning the game into The Sims 4 in such a short time-span. The lack of toddlers being in the base game makes sense since that life stage would require a whole new set of animations (on top of the ones children use, and then teens / adults, which are shared for sure). One year to do all of this work, on top of adding in pools, just wasn't going to happen. They essentially shipped a pre-alpha initially, and for the past 10 years have been trying to add on to something which legitimately is unshippable. So many core issues. Had EA said "Okay, we want you to scrap Olympus and make The Sims 4 instead - we'll give you 4 years" the game would've been infinitely better, and the foundation which all of the expansions were built upon would've been so much more solid. Software development is like a house of cards - the more complex it is, the more potential there is for it to completely fall apart. A game this large NEEDS a proper studio. None of this worldwide stuff. Or at the very least have the majority in the same building, and outsource some work such as asset creation elsewhere if needed. The saddest part is the developers are the ones who face all the backlash, and not the executives who make these horrible decisions.

[@lemontrickle6033]

The spaghetti code The Sims 4 has made me absolutely astounded they were able to port the game onto console. Unrelated game but allegedly one of the reasons RDR1 wasn’t ported to PC was because that games coding was such a mess it would have been near impossible to port without making the game from scratch (a rumour though, might not have been a mess because of the code but they were having severe technical difficulties near the end of development). Altho I guess the console version of sims 4 is a buggy mess itself I guess.

[@hi-tl6fi]

The console version works ok for me, I don't get bugs that often.

[@lemontrickle6033]

@@hi-tl6fi honestly maybe it works well I’m not sure not really played the console version much. Great if it does haha.

[@JohnResidene]

I might be biased when I say this but I've played both the Playstation 4 and the Steam versions and the PS4 does glitch from time to time, but I don't remember seeing anything game breaking or bad. However, despite only using the Steam version for a few hours on and off. In total, I've played less than a days' worth on PC but without any glitches (other than a troll CC) On console? A few glitches mostly relating to sims T-posing is the most often occurrence in restaurants if I spend, like in game days there while trying to upkeep my sim's small fast-food joint.

[@maxwellbowman4084]

I wonder if it is developed FOR consoles, and then ported to PC.

[@s.c.1740]

We all complain about the game. We all complain about EA. Us whenever a new pack or sale happens: LOOK WHAT I GOT MYSELF! and that people, is the issue and the ONLY way you can fprce a company to do better: by STOP BUYING THEIR FAULTY PRODUCTS. So either stop complaining and play the game in the current state OR stop buying their stuff and force them to do better.

[@gregm7969]

Never had problems with Dine Out, or the High school pack, but Wedding Stories was a mess in my games! A lot of the bugs are gonna be cross-compatibility among packs, I would think … there are so many of them it's hard to get them to play nice together! 🔷💥

[@KMort]

In Jan this year I actually had to stop playing the sims cause my laptop wouldn't have it anymore. If you think, but you shouldn't play it on a laptop! you would be wrong. It's a pretty good laptop and I play the WITCHER 2 game on it💀 It can handle an RPG but breaks down when a loading screen shows up.

[@Katie-zj5sw]

The ship sunk for me when Wedding Stories and following packs started coming out. The sims 4 team showed that they essentially don’t care about broken packs as long as they get released. I was so excited for High School Years and was let down terribly.

[@checksam]

It's not just EA, AAA game companies in general have been giving unfinished or broken products trying to break even or make a profit. Its an issue with the industry as a whole almost solely because of subscription-based services and games, and now that we are in a post-pandemic world, the cost of producing games has skyrocketed especially for AAA game companies. That is also why we are seeing a rise in populatiry for indie games. There is currently an effort to bring this entire issue into a class action lawsuit against not just EA, but all AAA companies.

[@roughrambo1000000]

Frankly gamers have gotten what they deserve. They want to winch and cry about "how we need to appreciate a game because of the effort put into it" or "We need to buy a broken game because we need to support people who had to work overtime to make it." It doesn't matter how long or how much effort goes into a consumer product if it's not worth the price they want. Unfortunately most games are not worth the price companies want for them and I'm not going to support practices that allow a broken and unfinished game to be launched then expect people to buy it and be thankful that they got it. Oh yeah and you need to pay more to get the rest of the game.

[@TheDawnofVanlife]

Honestly, one I DO get paid as a landlord. I did have to get rid of every rental I made at launch AND rebuild after the last patch. But that was lot corruption, rent works fine in my game and I have seen it work fine in other lets plays. That being said, For Rent still has a ton of other issues like tenant events and if you have community cottage living animals, it will bug out so building things like a commune just don’t work that well. And people should be grateful much asked for hotels were not built on added on to this system as the game just wasn’t built to handle basically cutting up a lot into multiple lots the way For Rent does, which is why they had to cap it. Sometimes my landlord can’t even access their own rentals for maintenance and such…spaghetti code at work!!! Honestly, my sims patronize restaurants all the time and get there food. Still takes longer than just ordering food at the bar or something but I honestly had Dine Out work more times than it didn’t by a huge margin. Carls mod does give running restaurants more options and tools, but it didn’t really make a huge difference in getting served or not as a patron. I took it out because I barely to never run restaurants and carl’s mod didn’t do anything special on the patronizing end. Sometimes the order que of the simulation just clogs for no good reason (oh yeah, spaghetti code) resulting in the rare occasion I don’t get food. I’ve found larger restaurants work better than smaller ones and it may have to do with how the restaurant simulation is designed. Like the small local burger joint I made seem to crumble under its que and I never got served. Where as most of my larger ones work no problem. But its just a theory. Gardening has been broken since seasons and everytime they fix it, as soon as they introduce new harvestable it almost always breaks again. spaghetti code!!! Sims 4 also has a bunch of rushed bad designs to their simulation which, even when working as designed, work badly or don’t work in a player-satifactory way because of flat out bad design not bugs. And I do and don’t blame the devs, EA really just crapped out packs last year…tooo many. And, I am sure, executives demanded tight timelines to make a launch date or ‘fill a quarter with content’ were just unreasonable timelines to fully test the systems they were implimenting.

[@Deluvander]

The thumbnail 😂

[@daisyrobinson4326]

Before I had a laptop I played the sims 3 on my Xbox and would constantly experience glitches such as my sims couldn’t have baths because they would get stuck, my sims couldn’t teach their toddlers to talk or they would get stuck in a loop and the toddlers would eventually get taken away and the sims in the bath would eventually die of starvation, it was horrible to play with

[@togoxo]

the console versions before the sims 4 were made totally separately from the main pc game so that doesnt really count as a main sims game they were all like spin offs. so did you mean sims 3 for the xbox 360?

[@TheDawnofVanlife]

Sims 3 is literally an entirely different game on console and PC.

[@spookyskeletons727]

🧢 because I also played console (Xbox 360) for the Sims 3 AND the Sims 3 Pets. No problems,it must’ve been your console or you don’t take care of your discs (laser burn)

[@togoxo]

@@spookyskeletons727 yeah it was probably getting stuck because disk access issues

[@MarkusHansson]

I think they are dealing with an increasing technical debt (prioritizing speed over quality) because they are making so much content for the game in a rather fast pace with a tight budget so as you said, they know about the bugs but the packs are deemed "good enough for release".

[@atumra5]

I have the original The Sims 4 game disc and I managed to get it to work on my old pc without installing any patches, quite literally playing the release build of The Sims 4, its funny how the map was all "black and white", but at the same time the game was way more optimized and with way less bugs...

[@carrinwhitehurst7397]

Omfg, yes.... i have never had a game this glitchy.... I've never had.... before sims 4.... Bern forc3d to buy broken packs...😅 they owe us. It takes modders to fix them. I. Glad you're bringing this up. Ea deserves a lawsuit. We deserve a refund. This gma isn't in early access....

[@trytoholdon]

I love how you explain things, I always finish your videos until the very end

[@keyholderBeia]

Venting time. My game got A LOT WORSE after the recent packs like the jewellery pack thing. My game would lag SO MUCH and it was so annoying and it makes the game unplayable. Now I just use the Sims 4 for the build mode and the CAS mode.

[@WinterwolfFFM]

I´m experiencing the whole load of crap from this game right now to a point where its literally unplayable (and I play it only on the PS5): - Wedding Storys: is an absolute horror stories pack trying to get sims wed any other way but on the spot is almost impossible as all the sims behave like a sack of cockroaches cut open ... - toddler and infants: are just nerve wrecking (i play these litte shits only so they can develop their later attributes but I would love it more if the sims could just give birth to a teenager - seriously) - dine out: better cook at home! it gives one food poisoning from just trying ...and in addition the game crashes permanently for unknown reasons! predictably and instantly when one attempts to do any activity (visit, CAS, traveling, getting married, join household, move - u name it- everything that isn´t a rabbit hole) and yes I have tried everything: clearing cache, reset the ps5, backup, download, deleting and reinstalling everything on an empty console and it just got worse....just to imagine the fortune one spends on buying the packs and stuff ....i stopped buying stuff - they will not get another simoleon from me for this crap!!! 👎Eternal Ass (wipes)👎

[@g.e131]

If software rot is the culprit, there's still no excuse whatsoever for a company to be selling faulty products.. The Sims 4 is so broken it's absolutely ridiculous. Even so, if one random modder can fix bugs for free, why can't a whole group of people getting paid do it? There's absolutely no excuse. That's why I don't support this game or buy anything from EA anymore. If they don't give a damn about their game, then I don't give a damn either.

[@melisandree]

Honestly, the experience of playing the sims 4 for me is most of the time having the patience to fix errors, and opening folders... And opening the game to see what is the new problem, repeating the process etc, to be able to start playing. Just to find new bugs, corrupted saves etc.

[@saged1513]

Been playing again recently and even just playing fairly normally the ai stalling and task dropping is making playing so, so clunky and obnoxious. Selling things out of inventory is weirdly bugged. I feel like it's way more broken than when I was last actively playing

[@Vobatho]

I have all packs excluding the gem release/goth/medieval packs because it's already gotten to the point for me where the game is giving end of era SIMS 3 vibes. Since the developers don't give an easy way for me, on Origin, to pick and choose which packs I load- I no longer want to take the chance. Every new purchase seems to make everything more shaky and unstable.

[@cheshirewolf1574]

Its videos like this that make me glad i have all the dlcs cracked and haven't paid for a single thing on this game

[@SyntheticGoth]

8:16 I thought the cat was a pillow until she moved her head! What a pleasant surprise. 😂❤️

[@mutecryptid]

I have 1k+ hours in this game, idk I broke the timer. I get so worried with each update that it’s gonna be taken away forever.

[@nedrane297]

Someday, after they stop making Sims 4 packs and modders fix it so its playable, I'll go back to Sims 4. Maybe. But most likely not until then.

[@isisaphrodite3585]

I stopped playing after I bought the Growing Together expansion pack. Sucks bc I was so excited for it and it messed my game up on both my laptop and my desktop computer. I even removed all my cc and mods and it didn’t fix the problem so I uninstalled the game and installed it on both devices and it still didn’t fix the problem. Everytime I try to play a family, the file gets corrupted and I can’t play with that family anymore. It happens to every sim I try to play as. The file gets corrupted after the first or second play and I can’t play them anymore. I was in the middle of decades challenge and I was near the end of it. I was in the year 1990. I had spent so much time and money on that. So upset.

[@hr_3m0_fk_rv5u2]

Ohhh, so this is why my sims literally won't take care of their children. I had to cheat to keep the child's needs filled sometimes because apparently neglect was a whole glitch in this game. Got tired of that really quickly and aged the child up enough that it wasn't a problem anymore via testing cheats.

[@kittenrants]

Ive never thought of this tbh, interesting 🤔

[@NicolesBookishNook]

I JUST started playing Sims 4 and just have the Pets and Seasons packs (got them on sale recently) and luckily, no issues at all. Been about a month, possibly two months. Time flies playing Sims 😂 But I knew off the bat that I wasn't getting more than 3 packs because it's just too much on your computer, even gaming computers which I have.

[@_anneli_]

Thank you for another very interesting video, Satch. Love your fluffy companion in the background btw🥰

[@Pressbutan]

It’s a broken buggy mess because it’s ad-how and there’s no team left, it’s merely a profit vehicle rather than any sort of passion product. Hence the game losing its adult themes, charm, and general sense of humor. Even the cartoony style is moving away for an enhanced sense of realism, thus ruining the escapism it once held

[@Pressbutan]

Ad-hoc**

[@michellelouise6486]

This is so true. I find every time I get a new pack my game lags even more. I’m really over it.

[@phoebevaughan5095]

The best thing the Sims franchise can do is a complete reboot, and to make less content that works. Sims 1, for example, is very simple gameplay but it all works. Same for 2. As much as open world is a great idea it does cause bugs and lags like in Sims 3. Often less is more and I think thats where the Sims is best at. Simple simulation fun.

[@ItsN2theA2theT]

I appreciate this video so much today! I play sims 4 on PS but barley play anymore. Yesterday I had some time to play and I’ve spent 3hours doing nothing because the game is so broken it kept standing still on a loading screen. I feel like I can never play the way I actually want to smh. Thank you for your honest videos!

[@KawaiiLpsLittlestPetShop]

I accidentally created a new ea account while trying to reset my password and i bought 4 rent on that account on accident and they refused to refund it bc i didn’t download it but I LITERALLY COULDNT bc if i downloaded it i couldn’t refund it at the same time. steam has NO problem refunding anything

[@moyahardman483]

Same here I sometimes glitches out whatever playing will always happens in the summer because of it overheating

[@adventureswithmadison]

I just started playing TS4 again because I wanted to play the Ultimate Decades Challenge with all the fancy mods that sims 4 modders put out. Its only been 8 days and its driving me insane but the modders 😢

[@NoahGooder]

from expirence with modding its a giant mess. let me put it this way too, the engine is very much so not made for SP content packs. It was pade for small MP packs so players would sync up.

[@Quaila]

I thought I heard you say, after talking about the Sims 3 launcher recommending limiting the packs you load, that you could see Sims 4 implementing a “simless” system when you said “similar system” and I was just like you know what I wouldn’t put it past them 😆

[@Hayleighx0]

WE DONT WANT * THE SIMS 5* WE WANT THE SIMS 2 AMPLIFIED

[@wendyyi7715]

I own all Sims 3 packs and have no problems playing with all packs enabled.

[@sydneysage6727]

I've just given up. Once I had more mods than actual game, it was time to abandon ship. I'll just wait for all of the upcoming life sim games.

[@winterwarbler]

As a professional game tester: It's not impossible to manage a team that's spread out in several countries. Most companies work like that, even other EA projects manage to do this in a very efficient way. The bugyness of The Sims 4 is probably due to the dev team not having enough time to fix everything with how much content the game is trying to push in such a short time, so executive decisions are made to leave bugs unfixed because they have to prioritize others in order to make the deadlines. I cannot tell you how much it sucks to report a bug and get a notification saying the status has been set to "Will not fix". I'm sure the people working on the game are as annoyed about it as any of us, ultimately they have to follow deadlines imposed by the producers.

[@heavyweaponsguy6284]

4:12 literally a mod called whicked whims:exists. lmao

[@lena_513]

This is why ive downloaded cracked packs and ive been playing offline since last year. I bugs many times but at least bugs are not comstant nor severe

[@PearlPersonal]

The thumbnail is gorgeous. Love your content Satchonsims.

[@jtaylor9880]

I was playing Snowy Escape and a glitch happened where random Sims came into my home, all of them to get a drink of water. Two days later, my 6 year old save file crashed and refused to load... it was then that I simply gave up.

[@lorrainethomas241]

I remember all too well the last gasps of S3. I wasn't interested in S4 at release, because of all they'd stripped out of the game, so I kept on with S3, unsupported though it was, and only stopped when my game was literslly crashing within minutes of loading (if it loaded at all.) It makes me sad to know I'll have to eventually quit the franchise. Absolutely not interested in multiplayer, and even if I were, I no longer have faith S5 will be any better. Fingers crossed LBY is good.

[@hopejonas158]

high school years is so broken, i got detention and when i went to detention - it didn’t recognize it cause the game glitched out and my sim ended up getting expelled 🙃🙃🙃

[@GXSimmer]

Great points, Satch. I'd like to see them fix the game because when it works well it is a good game but when it glitches out - it's very frustrating. Loved the video.

[@tarapogancev]

Software developer here; it's sad but common for gaming industry to overwork it's engineers and push tight deadlines. A constant demand for new features and more content results in the lack of time and resources for refactoring and fixing the existent code. I understand this choice as a purely income-oriented one, with the game's quality and playability completely out of focus... I enjoyed game at it's earliest years, but Sims 3 remains my favorite! :)

[@CGiles]

I feel like the majority of the sims team lack the passion and that comes across as a user playing the game. I understand maybe they're overworked and underpaid and that can make a worker less passionate. it comes down to EA being greedy. I'm just looking forward to their competitors, like paralives and life by you.

[@BamberMe]

My biggest gripe is EA. I had very few glitches with Origin. Since switching to EA, i get constant crashes, glitches, and false starts. Its awful

[@jakobebroke]

they've stopped caring because they realized that die-hard braindead fans will buy the new dlc regardless of its quality

[@nellevermeulen5511]

I really love your videos❤

[@likepocketsjingling]

I find that I'm able to play HSY but that - due to the size of the lot and how slow moving Sims are - it becomes grindy very quickly, and it's not even possible to complete all the 'tasks' for that day. "Workout on the treadmill" before class starts? Nope, by the time my Sims get to the machines, it will be time to start walking to their classroom. I redid the lot where I deleted the basement so everything's on two floors and not three, which improved it a little but not significantly. The only Sim I haven't run into this problem with is my teenaged vampire who can *bat* everywhere xD

[@koololdster]

Which is why I refuse to purchase any content any more.