is Sims 3 a better game than Sims 4?

We've all seen this debate online... The Sims 3 is better because of the create - a - style, but Sims 4 has better graphics! So, let's settle this. Which Sims game is better?

c h a p t e r s

0:00 - Which One is BETTER? The Sims 3 or Sims 4?
1:45 - General
10:56 - Live Mode
17:15 - Build/Buy Mode
19:42 - CAS

l i n k s

Happy gaming! xx

p o p u l a r

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[silaslealsantos]

I remember that in The Sims 3 I could play in three different places with my sims at the same time, some having a sleepover, some going on a date and other at home.

[Denbrr]

The animations in TS3 are so much more, intricate, surprising, . I think that if you itemized it per series then you would see how many more animations you are getting for kids and teens in particular. You can teach your teen to drive... it is so SO cute. Then the imaginary friend!!! Are you kidding me? It's amazing. TS3 has done life stages so much better, having sims autonomously create drama on their own.. I need to stop going on.

[Banana]

I run the Sims three with three expansion packs every time on a super cheap $200 HP laptop I bought like five years ago… I have never had these problems that you’re talking about. The loading screens are a few minutes long… But then once they’re done loading, you never have another one again. So you just go and get a drink and come back and you’re there. The only thing that I will say that I cannot do is play in the island Paradise world on my laptop- but that’s pretty standard across-the-board

[tristanbrooks]

The reason there are so many Sims in community lots in Sims 4 and not Sims 3 is because the lives of those Sims are totally fake in Sims 4. They just force them to appear at the lot because you are there! There is no story progression. In the Sims 3 each Sim is living their own life and making their own choices. If they aren't at the park it is because they didn't want to go there. I'd take that realism over having 20 empty shells of sims who have no real lives (and a horse) show up in the bar only because they were forced there.

[reading]

Did you know that thelarge birds in sims 3 can be taught to speak parrot style? Also that cats can kill your birds if left alone and all small pets like snakes, frogs and birds and fish can be fed, pet, caught in the wild, taken care of and they can die.

[Sam_XNE]

The PS3/Xbox 360 versions of the Sims 3 didn't have open world due to tech limitations, so it instead had open neighbourhoods which was something that TS4 should've at least went with. The Wii version had open world, but the problem was that it was _way_ too taxing on the Wii's limited hardware, along with a whole cargo of game-breaking bugs, glitches and gameplay errors.

[bettiplays]

Sims 4 actually often runs worse for me. The several loading screens always take at LEAST a minute and a half. I rarely ever leave my lots just to avoid all the loading screens 😅🥺

[S-Dfan]

The biggest difference is that things actually happen in TS3 but for TS4 you just have to use your imagination. One is a life simulation and the other is a doll house simulation.

[siloPIRATE]

4:16 This is why it's bad. By prioritising low end machines, EA stripped out anything and everything that made it worth playing. I played Sims 3 first, initially on a laptop that could just about do it (there was a lot of heat, and some lag and some crashing, but it worked). Then I played on a gaming PC I built. That could run the game as intended. There was the initial load time (10 minutes) then no further load screens and the very rare instance of it crashing. Even bought expansion packs and it still handled it fine. Added CC, still handled it. Ran the game on my MacBook Pro, was happy to do it. I'm not sure I've played it on my M1 iMac yet, but given it's much newer than the game, it could probably do it. I eventually got the Master Controller mod

Sims 4 on the other hand, having started as an online game that was then reworked after Sim City flopped and Cities Skylines showed EA up, was devoid of anything to do.The smarter sims that were promised weren't there either, the routing was non-existent as well and it just seems flat in comparison to 3. In 3, sims had more personality to the point certain sims could be a challenge to befriend and you could see family dynamics play out, know who might get on better with who etc. In Sims 4? Doesn't matter, the traits do nothing. Also, you're confined to a single lot, or it can feel that way because if you want to go somewhere you hit a load screen so I'd rather just stay put on the lot I started on whereas in 3 I'd just go wherever I wanted. Considering the game only needs to load 1 lot, the load times are too slow for what it's loading IMO. I decided I wasn't going to reward EA for what I saw as low effort work so I haven't bought any expansion packs for Sims 4. I've modded the Sims 4 to within an inch of stability and I mostly use it to build and make Sims. The actual gameplay is trash IMO, because they were too busy focusing on low end hardware rather than making the game they could have/wanted to make and then scaling up or down via graphics settings based on what hardware it's running on.

Also, Sims 4 lots are tiny, EA strip out stuff that should be base game or were things you had in previous iterations and resell it piecemeal rather than put features that should be together in one expansion pack. With the tiny lots I cannot really build the houses and grounds I want to build. And I forgot, sims in Sims 4 like to stand there and do nothing even though you told them to do something. In 3, I seem to remember, you tell them to do something they do it or there is visual confirmation that that instruction has been received, but something is preventing them acting right now (like a Sim in the way) and as soon as soon as the obstruction is cleared, they get on with it.

[IdzeLemon]

you can get all the sims 3 store content for free

[floridayankee]

I gave up on Sims 4 last year and went back to Sims 3. Sims 3 is alot more fun.

[jessemurphy]

You give Sims 4 WAYYYY too much credit, and don't forget Sims 3 is a decade old and still holds up better then Sims 4 (in my opinion)

[devonazulay]

I played the Sims 3 on less than 8 gb of ram back in the day. Now I'm on 32 gb ram. Sims three is just as fast as Sims 4 for me these days. I'm switching back. I felt the same about the Sims on Sims 3 when it came out. I was obsessed with the Sims 2. So much fun!

[chilldogs]

Honestly people complaining about the sims 3s loading time is kinda silly, I have a low end pc and sims 4 takes around a minute per plot change. I would rather sit through a 30 minute screen once than constant short ones that breaks immersion and I cant go do other things

[moopthesims]

The Sims 3 obviously have long loading screens because it charge textures, sims, a whole open world, all the different packs you have. The Sims 4 load faster because of cartoonists texture, tiny neighborhoods system, but if you have all the packs, in my position, the game gets even more lagging and buggy than Sims 3. I play The Sims 3 without any of this mods that fix bugs and it runs perfectly. Beside, the game has never been optimized to modern computers and 64 bits system.

[ilhambudi]

The Sims 4 characters are dumber. Their traits don't impact their lives and they all act the same.

And it's actually The Sims 4 whose packs are less integrated to each other, not The Sims 3.

[jessiccablessngs]

Simply put: Sims 4 has better CAS and build mode. Sims 3 has better gameplay mode . This makes Sims 3 superior overall because the gameplay mode is what defines The Sims.

[monsterfurby]

3 seems to be the better story generator imho. 4 is extremely consequence-free, which might be because they're going more for the doll house / full control / creative target audience, which is fine. I want my Sims to be - to exaggerate a bit - more Rimworld/Dwarf Fortress, less Little Computer People. I also don't like EA's tendency to rely on pre-loaded game situations that don't arise organically from the simulation and are instead predetermined in the design stage so that they can only play out in one particular way.
I guess 3 is just a lot "smoother" as a simulation and story generator, whereas 4 is the more polished overall game.

[chanceauger]

Sims 3 will always be my number one, mainly due to the nostalgia factor, i was but an anklebiter when i first got the game, like 7 or 8, and i would always love to go visit my grandparents because the game was on their computer. Oh the good old days. I do like the sims 2 as well, but i only recently picked it up when i got my own pc.

[judialbert]

I'm a Sims 3 player. There may be more variety of animals in Sims 4 (baby goats and sheep and llamas and what not), but as you pointed out, many of them are just objects. One thing Sims 3 does is let you control the animals like any other player. You can be the cat or the dog or the horse. When the "crazy cat lady" is sleeping at night, you can send all the cats out on a hunting contest and see which one brings back the best catch. The dog can go next door and scratch on the door and befriend the neighbors (or make an enemy of them.) I know many people hate the Sims 3 store and the way it's available in game, but the thing is, unlike Sims 4, you DON'T HAVE TO buy extra items to make the game fun or interesting, the enhancement is there if you want it, but the even the base game alone is fun without all those things. I think Sims 4 gets stale a lot faster and the need to purchase additional content to keep it interesting is required rather than optional.