Sims 4 DLC Keeps Adding Problems, But The Biggest Sims 3 DLC Issue Was Worse
The Sims 4 is a massive game given the amount of additional content that's available to purchase, but that doesn't mean it's a perfect game. Instead, it still struggles with an endless list of glitches, and when some are fixed, more inevitably appear when the next piece of DLC is released. Even when there are issues and glitches, The Sims 4 can run decently well, as there aren't many crashes or long loading times. It's just an issue that brings frustration more than anything.
Each base game for The Sims has improved on the issues of the game before it, but The Sims 4 made some of the most drastic changes to the franchise to fix problems that plagued its predecessors. While it's great that it runs better even when new content introduces unexpected bugs, there are some downsides to the way that the game is designed to address this problem. The Sims 4 had to sacrifice features to avoid running into the issues with running content that The Sims 3 had.
The Sims 3 Could Struggle To Run With Expansions
Problems With Optimization
Although The Sims 3 didn't reach the same staggering size that The Sims 4 has with its DLC, it still received more expansions than TS1 and TS2. However, The Sims 3, like its predecessors, didn't have the best optimization, which meant that it often struggled to load content. Additionally, The Sims 3 had a relatively open-world approach to neighborhoods, and Sims could be sent to different locations, such as a store, without prompting a loading screen in the process. So, it's understandable that the game ended up struggling as more content was added.
Later in the lifespan of The Sims 3, a pop-up would appear to let players know that it wasn't recommended to play the game with more than a few expansion packs enabled at once, as the game would run slower and encounter more issues. At best, this was an annoying feature, since the game is more fun when there's as much extra content as possible, and switching the packs that are enabled in order to access various features can be frustrating. As far as avoiding that same issue goes, TS4 has done a great job.
The Sims 4 Has Better Optimization At A Cost
The Sims 4 Did Some Downsizing
In general, The Sims 4, from its base game and beyond, runs well. It also doesn't have the same pop-up about limiting how many packs are used at once to improve the game's performance, since its optimization is better and able to handle additional content. Unfortunately, this improved optimization came at the cost of neighborhood size and more loading screens. These loading screens aren't as long as those from games like TS2, where a player could feel like they were waiting forever for their game to load.
The smaller neighborhoods are the biggest drawback of increased optimization, especially since the number of available lots in The Sims 4's neighborhood is incredibly small. Previous games let players add a lot of houses and community lots to their neighborhood and customize them how they wanted as a result, but that's no longer the case in The Sims 4. Instead, players have access to a lot more neighborhoods than ever before, but each one severely limits the number of lots that can be used.
A Decade Of DLC Works Most Of The Time
Smaller Worlds For Smoother Play
Despite the drawbacks of having limited options for customizing each neighborhood, The Sims 4 provides a smooth and consistent gameplay experience, even with 10 years of DLC added on top of the base game. There's always room for improvement in TS4, since it tends to have new issues every time there's a fix for previous issues or another pack introduced. However, the issues that pop up in TS4 generally aren't game-breaking. They can be frustrating, of course, but the game usually continues to run well enough to make it playable.
It's fortunate that optimization has been a consideration in the design of The Sims 4.
Now about to celebrate 25 years, The Sims as a franchise has come a long way, and it now has features that would've seemed impossible when playing the original game. It's clear that TS4 has been made with the intention of giving it more DLC than any game before it, and it looks like the game won't be slowing down after the announcement that there won't be a Sims 5. Because of this, it's fortunate that optimization has been a consideration in the design of The Sims 4.
The Sims 4
- Released
- September 2, 2014
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Crude Humor, Sexual Themes, Violence
- Developer(s)
- Maxis
- Publisher(s)
- Electronic Arts
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- Cross-Platform Play
- Xbox, PlayStation, and computer versions of Sims 4 are all separate games incompatible with each other
- Cross Save
- no
- Franchise
- The Sims
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- yes
- How Long To Beat
- N/A
- X|S Optimized
- No
- File Size Xbox Series
- 22 GB (November 2023)
- Metascore
- 70
- OpenCritic Rating
- Fair
