My case for The Sims 3 against The Sims 4

I went back to The Sims 3 recently after Steam put all of the expansion packs on sale for $190 total. Being a 50% off deal, I grabbed and was transformed back to days of being lost in the world of my creation and losing time and not caring in the world how many house have passed. Turns out, two hours had passed as I was simply testing out the game on my laptop. Testing, running, creating a sim, creating their spouse, creating their child, and moving them into their first home to be exact. After three years playing The Sims 4 back in 2014, it was so refreshing to have a game that I enjoyed in my hands again.

Y’see, the main thing they changed with Sims 4 that I loved about Sims 3 was there were no loading screens between locations. Homes, jobs, neighbors, all were open to the player to just show up and continue playing with having to pause.

Okay, but I continued playing. I was determined to making this work for myself as a long time player of the Sims franchise.

Back in the year 1999, The Sims was first released in this big box. The premise was that you could control people and make their lives as happy or as miserable as yours. As an intrigued child, I was hooked from the beginning. While other children moved onto other games, I kept going with the improved graphics of The Sims 2, and finally having a family tree to follow. It was a magical time as I hopped from expansion pack to pack to pack and kept being drawn in.

But something changed with Sims 4, and that was that each sim now had emotions. Granted, they could be in bad moods previously, but now their actions were determined by what emotions they exhibited at the time. From anger to infatuated, I was infuriated by the constant swings my sims were going through like they were super fickle about everything. I pressed on, cautiously investing in the expansion packs that were slowly being released with content I had seen before.

Three years just happened to be my limit. 2017 was the year someone on YouTube best described it the Sims 4 games, “The Sims 3 with less features.” And that is exactly what I was feeling as I was playing the game for over 1,000 days (okay, it was more like a collective of 1,000 hours, but the point still stands…).

As with my other reviews, I will give you the details of the game I’m reviewing. As of September of this year, you can get the base game of The Sims 4 on Steam for free. Yes, it is free to play on Steam. However, you have to pay for the extra content in the expansion packs. If you want a simple stuff pack, that will run you about $10, which doesn’t seem bad, but with over twenty stuff packs, it can get intense. The expansion packs for the Sims 4 are often on sale on Steam for $20, but run usually at $40. And now there are Kits, which are $5 for a few new items to certain themes.

Getting everything for The Sims 4 (stuff, kit, and expansion packs) will cost a grand total of $1,040 as of September 15, 2025. This includes items that are on sale.

In conclusion, if you are new to The Sims franchise, I would start with the earlier games before touching The Sims 4. Fun fact: You can get the full games and their expansions for $20 each with both The Sims 1 and The Sims 2.