GUYS! I put the free holiday pack at the top as a mistake lol

I'm so glad I got Sims 4 for free during a promotion... I was never satisfied with the base gameplay and always felt it should have been free from the start! Especially with all these packs... lol

with city living: they didnt even let us able to build our own apartments. that was what I was looking forward to. I am still hoping that they'd implement it, and it'd be a good opportunity for them to have a multi-function lot since they're not giving us that many lots to begin with. though as years have passed my hope for the game is dwindling.

he did make me realize how empty the cats and dogs pack is, like they should have called it the "pets" pack and added the "my first pet" pack to it AND the "cottage living" animal stuff to it. or they should have just put cats and dogs into base game since it is literally a everyday thing for most people (if you have pets) also yall thank you for all the likes i wasn't expecting it

7:13 FINALLY someone said it. I always thought I was the only one finding it odd that people put Seasons up so high. Yes it's an amazing pack, which adds a lot of realism. But weather is so involved in everyone's day to day lifes that it just should have been in the base game of a life simulator.

The biggest crime of the sims 4 packs is separating the content which previously was included in one pack into 2 or 3 packs. ironically though, the one pack always had more content back in the day. ts3 ambitions was absolutely amazing with so many careers, meanwhile ts4 only had 3 active careers in get to work and 1 career in a separate game pack. t3 pets had cats,dogs,horses, and smaller animals and tons of wildlife, ts4 cats and dogs plus my first pet stuff - no thank you. dine out should've been a part of city living pack. the first place in crimes against packs def goes to the generations pack...parenthood gave us basically nothing, kids room stuff was items only, and now high school years shallowly covers teenagers. all of these combined don't give us the amount of content generations pack had. it was a great foundation to build upon for ts4 but they watered it down.

I think Nifty Kitting should be higher, because it WAS requested by fans as part of a larger "hobbies" pack through this one big survey they did, then trimmed down to just knitting, and sold separately when it could and imo should have been included in cottage living or another pack.

Veteran player here. Fortunately, I was late to the party with TS4, so got everything bundled or discounted except Werewolves and the upcoming High School Years, so that has brought the cost down dramatically. Here's a beef I have: to get a TS4ified experience of earlier games, you would have to have multiple packs. Examples: -To emulate TS1 Superstar, you would need Get Famous, Spa Day, and Vintage Luxury (which I feel make a very complementary bundle). -To emulate TS2 Nightlife, you would need Get Together, Vampires, Dine Out, and Bowling Night. -To emulate TS1 Unleashed or TS2 Pets (Unleashed was the best pets gameplay, IMO) you'd need Cats & Dogs, Werewolves, and My First Pet and then it STILL FALLS SHORT -To emulate TS1 Vacation or TS2 Bon Voyage (Bon Voyage best vacations pack by a long shot) you'd need Island Living, Snowy Escape, Outdoor Retreat, and the Little Campers Kit. You should probably throw in Jungle Adventure as well, and as you mentioned still no hotels. I prefer vacation homes but I'd like hotels. Honestly Discover University is the only one that stands on its own. No zombies, but Servos. I could live without Zombies as they are the most useless and annoying of all the occults in TS2. Can we please abandon the kits and get back to stuff packs? I haven't bought a single kit. And so many need a good refresh (particularly Dine Out).

Most capitalistic-y pack: my first pet stuff. What the f*** is that. I’ve honestly wanted it because I’m a sucker for cute pet things and I want the smaller pets but it’s just so absurd and absolutely should’ve been part of cats & dogs. Especially when you look at how the furniture matches, yet it’s separated…totally an intentional cash grab. Least capitalistic-y pack: hot take but…StrangerVille. It’s not something that I’d expect out of the base game and I’m obsessed with the world and build/buy. It could be better but I don’t feel that it was released with any expectation of a large profit

Moschino is a weird one, because, even though it was an unwanted brand collab with horrible CAS, it kind of felt like it was a turning point for Stuff Packs. The Build/Buy was great and surprisingly usable, and it completely revamped photography to make it so much better.

I feel like with the snowy escape pack the team really missed out on a few build/buy items that are very iconic. No futon mattresses your Sims can roll out and sleep on? No squat toilet? Not even a rice cooker? How dare they 😂

When I got "The Sims 3" (I had only ever played TS4) I was literally so surprised with all the gameplay that was in the base game.

I think Get To Work and Get Together were the only ones kind of worth the expansion pack price, the others just feel like game packs to me personally.

What sims 4 needs is actual Neighbors. You can fill up every lot with families but you never see them in there back yards on patios and I know we can’t get open worlds but open neighborhoods would be nice to have .like it was in sims 3 the world is alive . Great video .

As a latina, I remember being soooo excited about Jungle Adventure when it came out. But I bought it and I can't build a home in El Selvadorada. I do love that there's latin music, they put in rumbasim as a form of latin dancing, the build and buy is *chef's kiss* I use it all the time in my builds lmao. I just hate that it's a vacation only spot and I can't live there. I wish they updated it to be like Island Living, where you can take vacation or live there.

I have ALL sims games. Regarding Pets in Sims3 - my faerie RACES HER HORSE! You groom it, lead it, saddle it, ride it, train it for racing or jumping or just go for a ride or gallop around the neighbourhood on your horse (watch your horse's needs bar) and YOUR HORSE has a skills bar too! It's very complex - well above BOTH sims4 pet packs.

I disagree about Island Living specifically in regards to having hotels with it. As someone who lives on an island I'm really sick of places like my home being only branded as holiday destinations. We live in these places. So for that I'm glad they didn't stick hotels in there too. I do think the pack needs a refresh so that the mermaids can have the same occult system as the Vampires, Witches and Werewolves. Also if they could give us a base game occult update which allows for hybrids that'd also be really cool! Finally, I don't think it's fair to compare it to the Sims 3 Island Paradise as that pack while full of stuff to do was a buggy laggy mess.

Get Together's world actually created before the base game release, they probably cut out from the basegame and put into DLC

honestly, I think get to work should have all the "retail" places (like the restaurants from dine out and the thrift store thingy that is coming in the high school pack). I wouldn't say that the veterinarian clinic thing should be in the pack because of course, if you dont have cats and dogs it wouldn't work (duh)

Island living is at the top for me. If it came with resorts I'd be fine with it but as it is is just 'Eco living lite: Island edition' Mermaids are literally forgettable, no real diving, conservationist is boring and shallow, it's all just too niche and forgettable.

I remember the chicken coop on the Sims 3 store actually caused so much drama because it cost like 20 dollars for the item. 😩

I think they should update outdoor retreat and jungle adventure so you can actually live in those worlds.

The Batuu pack could have been tied with the aliens we already have in Sims 4. They could have introduced alien genetics (instead they made alien costumes) and they could have made Batuu a more difficult destination to visit like the basic alien word we have. That way it would make sense why we can`t use the CAS and can`t build there.

FINALLY someone who shares the same opinion on seasons as I do!! Seasons is something that should’ve been in the base game at launch and idk why so much of the sims community can’t see that 🤨🤨

And right after Paranormal Stuff, which was for once a superb stuff pack, they abandoned the idea of a stuff pack and instead went to Kits, something that has less value (fun AND nutritional!) than three dollar menu items at McDonalds. Eat 5 cheeseburgers and you feel... not hungry for like two hours, but at least you don't feel robbed

Batuu could have easily been a spin off game from sims 4 because older sims games had spin offs like medieval and castaway stories and my wedding stories seems to work well in my game after that patch they released to fix it

I was so excited about dine out and I would love to use it but like you said it literally doesn’t work. If they’re doing refreshes they need to give done out one for sure. It has so much potential

“Allegedly, in my opinion, based on no evidence.” I love this so much.

“When we think of American neighborhoods, we think of Desperate Housewives.” Crying. I love that show and it made me want to move to a suburb. Rural America is…not like that 💀 but TS4 doesn’t really have anything for that either. Riverview from TS3 was the closest. But Brindleton Bay seems like a dead ringer for the upper east coast

I love these critisms because they're so true and funny

This is such a great, honest review. I wish I had found videos like this before I bought in to the brainwashed recs from other simmers. I never would have bought Cats and Dogs, that’s for sure. Definitely the most over-rated pack.

Paranormal stuff pack really is a great example of what the meaning of stuff packs is and can easily compete with good old sims content. I'm not into occults and anything supernatural, but even I enjoyed this stuff pack a lot which speaks volumes! If it came with a new world it would have the same amount of content as most game packs, haha (sad but true). For sims 4 standards, Eco lifestyle is a good expansion pack regarding the amount of gameplay. I would choose Spa Day as my favorite game pack, but only after we got a refresh of it. Cottage Living was a step in the right direction and it could easily be my favorite EP considering the theme, but it lacks new skills (we only got cross-stitching), it brought no new careers, the trait "lactose-intolerant" is not even a trait, and there are no new events apart from a fair which is very boring + picnics are not real picnics as they were in the sims 3 because your sims can't lay in the grass on the picnic blanket :(

YES!!! I 100% agree with your opinions on the Seasons pack. The brainwashing that so many simmers have gone through blows my mind. Also I find it so confusing how everything is completely dead in winter and green in summer. Here in Western Australia it's the other way around. The seasons in The Sims 4 are so unrealistic to me. I wish I could customise them. It rains in winter so everything is bright green and beautiful and towards the end of winter all the wild flowers are starting to bloom in preparation for spring. It is winter here now and looking out my back window right now my entire back lawn is full of yellow wild flowers with bees bobbing from flower to flower and the sky is bright blue with white fluffy clouds (yesterday there was a hail storm). Spring is full of so much colour that it is breathtaking. The roads are lined with pink, purple, white and yellow wildflowers. Most of the native trees are also covered in red, white or yellow blossoms. And the weather is sunny majority of the time but not too hot. Summer is always the most yellow and sunburnt looking season. Everything it ugly and dead looking by the middle of summer. It is just heat wave after heat wave. But the entire summer is basically spent indoors in the air conditioning or on the beach / in the pool. Pretty much everyone has BBQ for dinner in the summer (to prevent the house getting heated up by cooking indoors) so every evening is filled with the smell of BBQ goodness wafting in for the neighbours (unless there is a 100% fireban that day). The lovely colours start to return towards the middle of autumn when the rain picks up again. Autumn is full of strong winds and thunderstorms. But it is still mostly sunny during the day and the weather is finally cool enough to not be melting anymore.

I completely agree about the Seasons pack - weather and the calendar should absolutely be base game, though I don't think the base game should usually be free (instead, they should heavily promote massive discounts - like 80% - regularly to get players invested at a small cost and then upsell the dlc). I'm happy paying for cats & dogs, but it should have come with more focused activities and careers (groomers, training, pet daycare, adoption/rescue, etc) for those of us who want to dote on our pets and have that reflected in the game. Also, it would have been nice to see pets' needs and give them more things to do (as well as walk more than one dog at a time). And though perhaps it could have included a few more common domestic pets, I don't think it's such a big deal that there was a small pets dedicated pack, but it should have been more fleshed out. I don't think horses or exotic animals should have been in cats and dogs, though there are packs where they could have included them in lieu of a dedicated pets pack (parrots and lizards in jungle adventure, forest animals in outdoor retreat, etc.). And it would be great if we could adopt animals that are considered domestic to our households, such as rabbits.

I was really really glad they didn't do the whole hotel gameplay in island living thing. I don't know it just seems othering to assume it's a holiday place just because it's an island. I don't know it's my home, so I'm biased but I was glad that they added the eco awareness and the festivities rather than hotels. I reckon it would be cool if they update the outdoor retreat and add hotels

Agree with apartments - I live in a condo and most young adults live in apartments where I live - there should be way more apartments and maybe row houses🤷🏻‍♀️

Mostly I'd agree with your rankings. Though I'd say laundry and knitting were voted for by the community so I'd probably say they are up towards the angel end.

The only problem I had with realm of magic that that I wish we could have lived in the magic realm, it would of been easy to add like one lot of the diagon ally wannabe shop area

I love the Sims 4 and it's a lot of fun but I will forever not understand 2 things. One, I know DLC on DLC is bad but I want occult University so bad. I had a vampire Sim die going to college cuz she went in the sunlight.Two, why Get Famous had no apartments, it would make more lots in the world and also be perfect for like the "struggling actor" storyline.

Ngl, this video is why I always wait for the holidays to buy stuff, when everything’s half off

My main issue with Realm of magic is that you can't live in the magic world. I would be fine with a simpler magic system if you could just live in the magic world!

I'm just going to add one small comment, Seasons was the first one I bought, and I didn't buy it for holidays or the weather, I legitimately bought it to have a sprinkler for my base game farm. My sim took like 2 days to water all the plants on his farm. And he was in really bad shape with his needs. I spent 20 dollars on a video game sprinkler.

I've been saying this stuff forever. Especially the bit about how certain packs/expansions should have been sold together. Cats & Dogs/my first pet stuff, together. Parenthood, high school years, toddler stuff, kids room stuff should have been sold as one "family" pack". Most of the other stuff like fitness stuff, backyard, movie, etc should have been under an umbrella "hobbies/entertainment" pack. and now the ultimate bullshit....making separate supernatural sims packs instead of one pack for all of them. Vampires, spellcasters, and werewolves should have been in ONE SINGLE PACK. Instead, they are trying to bleed simmers dry. And because some simmers like myself, who have been playing for 20 years (since sims 1), are loyal to it and love the sims, we buy it like idiots. I'm tired of them doing stuff like this instead of condensing packs to make it less cash crabby.

This isn't related to the video or anything but when you mentioned that fitness stuff pack it came to me. You know what? The last time I played the sims 4, they didn't have any dumbbells, does it still not have any dumbbells in the game? I honestly thought that would have been a good and cheap way to gain fitness skill points in the game while also saving space and staying in your house.

my one thing about sims 4 packs is that the worlds keep getting smaller and smaller and with less and less lots. also I’m still beyond annoyed seasons didn’t come with a world

I love how honest you are. I share all the same opinions and have seen multiple people get lost into the EA money drain defending EA constantly. It's nice to see someone be true and honest about it whilst also giving praise where due. Personally my opinion is that EA are greedy but you can tell that the dev team actually care about the game just are not given enough time or pressured into rush and release. Anthem is a massive example of EA rushing and destroying a game.

Strangerville is literally one of, if not the most, fun pack I've played in TS4. The only issue is the replay value, so I don't play it often. If there had been a second storyline to follow it would've been amazing.

Most Cash Grab: Batuu Least Cash Grab: City Living To be honest I would pile 70% of the packs on the top tier for most cash grabbing packs lol

Someone: likes a pack SatchOnSims: dislikes that pack Someone: dislikes a pack SatchOnSims: likes that pack Is that just me or what???

I wish seasons & holidays should have been a base game update.

Journey to Batuu just has such a niche target demographic. Like…sims players who ALSO like Star Wars who ALSO like the newer Star Wars movies who ALSO like to go to Disney world? Batuu doesn’t exist in the movies and only exists for the purposes of the Disney parks. It’s so strange because it is very much a cash grab pack, but who they think they are grabbing cash from I’m not exactly sure.

i just love how honest you are, thank you

I'll be honest, I feel like eco lifestyle was one of the most capitalistic things they brought out. It felt like it was taking advantage of a real-world problem that was on everyone's minds for the sake of turning a profit. Also, the fact that the CAS items were really not that great. It felt a little bit like it was mocking folks. If you enjoy it, that's perfectly okay! Just felt off to me.

Honestly I wish they would do more pack refreshes

I think that the old packs are more basic, but have soooo much more stuff, new packs are very detailed but include hardly anything for the amount you pay

i’m so with you on the seasons thing!! i was genuinely shocked when i realized seasons weren’t in the base game

Thank you for being so honest with this and I also overall love the concept of this video

also lets appreciate that EA didn't take aliens out of "get to work" and made its own pack for it (like a "space exploration" pack) because that would be sort of bad. but ngl, i think in the future EA is going to add a "space exploration" type of pack in the future (when they run out of ideas). i kinda hope they dont

As someone who works for a game company, at 17:53 you said "technically I don't know if Sims team knows it doesn't work". Believe me, the people who actually dev/design/art on the game absolutely do know, might even been pushing to get it fixed, but usually to get something done it needs to improve some numbers and that's why it will be unlikely to ever get priority from the people who decide what the dev team's time will be spent on. I love my job and where I work and honestly my employer is much smaller than EA so for us it really does matter that it makes money. But even then it's still always in favor of making more money than fixing stuff or making fun stuff just for the sake of providing potential fun. Also, saying that it is shameful for the sims team, it's a shame on the people above the team who take these decisions. I've personally yet to meet devs who really don't care...

As a weeb, I agree with the Snowy Escape one. Aside from skiing/snowboarding not working for me, everything else is lovely (and provides great pictures spots) 🤗

I love that you gave get to work its credit. It's so fun, and although the retail system can be a bit sluggish the careers are really fun

I agree with your opinion on Dine Out. The idea of building, managing, and running a restaurant sounded so cool to me... I just want to run a functional restaurant that can actually make a profit

As always you are on point and honest we need more summers with influence speaking up about these things especially if they are going to continue to release broken and half ah dlc’s for the foreseeable future

Satch def said Shitty Living and I'm just curious as to how no one caught that??🤣🤣

Thanks for the review 💜

just discovered you and i absolutely love your channel

These are always so interesting to me because I only build in the sims so my rankings are completely based on build/buy mode and never even think about game play.

Ok Ily Satch and this is gonna be a controversial take but almost always the people I see saying “TS4 is not a farming simulator” are either from major cities or outside of the USA. Which is fine, TS4 should still have content for that of course. But as an American…the majority of our country (which TS4 seems to focus on, for better or worse) is fully driven by agriculture and I’m not sure a lot of people realize that. The entirety of the Midwest and south are basically built on farming. If you aren’t a farmer, you know someone who is or pass by them, go to farmer’s markets, all events like parades/fairs have tractors and whatnot…like it’s a REALLY big deal and what makes home feel like home for me (unfortunately) so I’ve always felt it’s missing. I agree Cottage Living is a perfect compromise to add that sort of gameplay without it being egregiously American. But IMO it was definitely necessary and should’ve came sooner.

Hey Satch, love your videos thanks for your entertaining content! Would you be willing to plz make a video ranking all the Sims 4 world packs based on lore/size/ lots/ aesthetic/ etc. ? Thanks.

I was LIVID when they gave us an anniversary hot tub in an update because I bought the perfect patio game pack ONLY FOR THE HOT TUB. 😡

Most: country kitchen because it was released just before cottage living was announced. Least: paranormal stuff, I don't play with it much but it is the most in-depth stuff pack, a lot of fun, a unique style and comes with a lot of content (although bonehilda should have had a coffin)

I love the editing in this.

Why'd you put the Holiday pack in the cashgrab? it's free. It cost $0.

I think you're too generous on city living and snowy escape. DLC for college and japanese culture? Cash grab.

Well you spoke it into existence. Sims 4 base game is officially free.

I dunno if hotels would’ve worked with island living, since the theme of the pack is about culture and people native to the island and preserving the natural landscape…I think a hotel system in the pack would’ve undermined that a little. I’d like a tourist-y world with hotels, though. I wish Batuu had just been a theme park experience, focused on roleplaying within the game - heck, they could’ve tacked hotels into that lmao.

When I first heard of seasons I was shocked like ea is making u pay for bad weather?!?? Anyways I’m not buying it until it goes on sale for real cheap

This aged well with the base game being free now lol

This was such a fun and infuriating video to watch lol I recently got curious about how much it would cost to purchase EVERYTHING TS4 has to offer without a discount. It's almost $1000. ONE THOUSAND US DOLLARS?! For THIS?! And while most people don't necessarily have the computer set up to support absolutely everything the game has to offer, the least they could do is like, combine some packs, maybe? I know they have bundles but it's NOT ENOUGH!! Ugh, I love the Sims and have been playing it for almost 2 decades now, but damn. Anyway, great vid!!

2:54 I could've sworn I heard him say "Shitty Living"

Realm of Magic is my favourite. I like Vampires, too, but Realm of Magic is my must have!

„Honestly I dont know why they dont just give the Sims away for free“ IF ONLY HE KNEW

loving this video

6:41 - 8:32 and 19:26 - 20:06 as a teen girl who loves cute pets, the "dollhouse" or "perfect little cute family" game playand building, whos first sims 4 (and 3) packs were pets, generations (sims 3 obvi), parenthood and seasons I totally agree with literally all of those statements.

The thing I miss the most is actually having a house boat, this was the best feature in the Sims 3 in my opinion. But yeah it was still laggy af 😅 (sry for my english I‘m from germany)

Oh my god guys! Sims 5 dlc confirmed! Now your sims can experience day AND night time!! Looking forward sooo much to sims 5: night and day cycle

I am so glad you talked about seasons needing to be in the base game. I’m so tired of it being sold as a separate expansion pack every time. Especially in sims 4 since you covered how lacking it is.

anybody else think the best pack in sims 4 is the free Christmas pack, ITS LITERALLY FREE! You put it in the most capitalistic lol

are we not going to talk about how he said, "sh**ty living"

I think you really hit the nail on the head with saying that most of the packs should have been added onto the base game. Obviously the base game couldn’t have had all of this stuff at launch, but just adding to it and refreshing it is what they should’ve done. They’ll still make money because continually adding onto and refreshing the game will attract new players over the years. Some DLC is fine, but again there should be continual add ons and refreshes to the DLC to make it worth your money and attract new players.

This is such a brilliant idea for a tier ranking - the Sims 4 DLCs are notoriously cash-grabby, but there are defo some of them that add actual GAMEPLAY. I certainly agree with your list!

Love what you said about seasons! If the base game came with seasons, I wouldn’t mind them but I refuse to pay for something that will make my go to hobby (gardening) harder. Which is a bummer because I really want the holidays. If only holidays were their own game pack…oh well. Glad to hear you’re not in the seasons is the best camp!

im so glad i was able to get the game for free😭 i agree it's such BS that's seasons ain't base game. i want the pack so bad so i can have cute holidays and play in the snow, but im not about to pay for weather💀

I have fallen in love with your content ❤

I think an annoying thing about the Seasons pack is that every sim celebrates every holiday unless you manually X out of it and then they get sad. Like, not all people celebrate the same holidays I want to choose which of my households celebrate what !!

I actually think Moschino Stuff Pack was good because It overhauled the entire photography system and gave us two new careers; Freelance Photographer and Modeling career! Its a little niche If you don't take a loy of photos In the sims, but I do so, and the style Isn't for everyone, but I like having those bold outfits options for my bold sims, and some of the clutter Items I use In every build. Those one windows, I use them every time. Its a pack that sounds cash grabby at the sound of Its name, but I use It often

Looking back is such a wild thing.

i remember not that long ago, i actually tried with the wedding event but bob literally would not make the cake. like he just started making the cake when the event was about to end so i was stuck with a silver medal instead of a gold one

I hope the release a new animal/pet expansion. The first effort was so poor. A vet, pet shop, farming, marine and wildlife rehabilitation careers would be amazing auditions to the game. So many people love animals.

Most capitalistic- My First Pet Stuff I think we all know why, so need I say more? Least capitalistic- Paranormal stuff pack For only being a stuff pack it came with so much stuff and it’s such a unique pack. I think it genuinely is worth the price tag.