This could've been a pack revamp like the Sims team had intended for other packs ...

so Negative 😂

Well given no other pack has managed that up to now I'd say that makes it a very good pack for a weak base game, not a bad pack.

@@matthewedwardriley i dont think its being negative, i think hes just being very truthful

@@matthewedwardriley Are we supposed to be happy about a bad pack then? orrr what..?

Wonder if modders can add a rabbit hole or figure out how to open it

and this is why modders carry the sims. i know someone will save us soon LOL

Me before video: oh OP is being dramatic me after: holy frick youre right😡😡

My personal theory is that they were only given so much time to develop the pack and spent more of that time on the gameplay aspect and the infants rather than worry too much about the world or the cas/build assets (mind you this is not me saying it's bad because it's very nice stuff it's just less than we get with normal EP's) this may or may not be true but it's just what I could gather as a legit reason why the world is SO empty

@@coltondean2709 so basically, EA is greedy and the gurus are incompetent. Honestly though (and this is more directed to OP), name 1 world in The Sims 4 that doesn't feel empty. It's all a backdrop. There is barely anything to do on any of these worlds. And what's even more annoying is that AI for the sims 4 is extremely stupid, just trying to start a conversation with passers-by is frustrating.

Same...

💯

I am a The Sims and Pokémon hardcore player. This is worst than depression

put it on the resume XD☠

💀

literally, and some people kiss ea's feet for whatever they throw at us like girl....

@@ember9361 it's so embarassing, and this stupid "they need to make money!!" when a complete version of the game is 1000+ dollars. I don't understand why people are so desperate to defend a 30 billion dollar company that is famous for being awful.

@@moonfish3638 It's genuinely an illness. Like actual maladaptive delusion, I stg.

​@@moonfish3638 fr, the sims was pretty much the only game I could play throughout my teens since I couldn't afford a good computer and my parents were very strict with what I was allowed to buy and play, so my concept of how much money games should cost was very warped for a long time. It was only after I got a good computer and downloaded steam in college that I became absolutely horrified by ts4 prices. I used to think that the EP-GP-SP build your bundle for 60 was on the pricy side but worth it but it's freaking ridiculous and a straight up scam!!! You know what else is 60? Elden Ring, The Spiderman games, Resident Evil 4, all fully fleshed out games that have been praised to hell and back. On top of that the amount of Indie, non Triple A and older titles you could get with 60 could last you a year of pure gameplay, it honestly can't sound anymore ridiculous to pay for DLC the same price as multiple full games just to make ts4 playable. I don't even buy games over 15 anymore unless I have a really good reason and It's insane to me just looking at how much I spent on ts4. Growing together is a pack I'd love to play with but it is NOT worth 40, heck even 20 is too much, I could buy 4+ fully fleshed out games I've been putting off with that kind of money. A game should never reach a point where DLC goes anywhere near the 4 digit territory, heck you've already messed up if you need 200 in DLC just to make a 40 game worth playing.

Exactly! I see this sentiment in fan bases among artists and also here with gaming companies or companies that produce tv shows, it’s weird parasocial delusion, they’re giving you a product for your money, they want your business, they’re not your friend or doing you a favor like you’re paying them for this lol

Exactly because what's the point of Parenthood when they threw an expansion pack like this? I feel like Get together, parenthood, and this pack should ahve been combine, buts that's EA greedy ass.

I mean, I don’t think it makes any sense if parenthood got an update, which is a growing together I mean you could say it does but if I’m not wrong, I think parenthood is about emotions than more about family

feel the same they could at least adjust the hight of teens its just wierd that they look like young adults. But of course that would mean adjusting the cas clothes!

​@Hallo yeah I feel like it's even weirder now that they are so detailed up to like age 7 or whatever and then straight to looking like an adult lol

Wonder if they'll ever do a tweens stage before sims 5 comes out

they should just fix the teenage life state instead of making a new one

I’ve been thinking this. I feel like they should have just updated the babies and the new life stage could be pre teens. But it would be less work doing infants cause really there’s only so much they can do and they just had to resize the toddlers lol

To my knowledge, the code is actually still in the base game and there is a mod to add the changing table, but I think it's only for patreons atm

@@anemic_moth I think I watched a video or a short from Satch where he reviewed the only current free access base game changing table he could find.

I miss seasonal festivals, meet and greets, grill a thon's, chess tournaments. I can't stand the flea market!!!! There's so many things that would make S4 more fun. I'm not sure if it was summer 20 or 21, for one week in Willow Creek Magnolia Blossom park there was a concert in the park where tents were put up NPC stars would perform! It was kinda fun and cute but they took it away.

Exactly! The pier could've had a seasonal craft festival and a menu-popup style ice cream shop. Those are both simple additions that we already have coding for and it would've made all that pretty decoration actually worth it. And popping in just a couple more fishing spots and park items randomly throughout the world would've made a big difference. Honestly they could've just added the new lots and townies without the world. I'm definitely getting the pack soon because of the gameplay but I do think the world is pointless bullshit.

​@@itkahsramal4983 There is a mod that allows this festival with celebs to happen every Sunday at the same park now!

Festivals, rotating outdoor markets, usable boats/boat tours/fishing excursions, usable subway (SINCE THEY PUT IN A STATION FOR CRYING OUT LOUD), thrift shops, an aquarium to learn about the seaside/marine life, "historic walks" with signposts pointing to important locations, heck a freaking haunted house or ghost tour, candy-making shops, glassblowing artists - LITERALLY ALL THINGS that you find in a coastal town that they have the EXISTING PROGRAMMING to use and implement. And they RELEASED AN EMPTY PIER. ; . ;

Kids selling cupcakes and lemonade like in the older games would be great.

+1 on this

Same

same

Him and LGR are the only reviewers I trust when it comes to this game

​@@shadeyxo LGR and pleasant sims for me, even if she doesnt post to her sims channel anymore

Yup. I think a majority of gameplay additions should be free... It's shocking we have to pay for stuff like weather, laundry, pets and stuff like baby changing tables. Paying for stuff like Get Famous or Jungle Adventure makes sense... but ordinary life stuff? No If laundry was free they could just made a kit revolving around it to get some profit at release. And then we also could have gotten new laundry items from future packs. But no... We're stuck with the same laundry items forever because they lock everything behind a paywall

@@AgentDigits Exactly those things should be free, but if they aren't going to make them free the least they could do is make the packs more content rich. Like Growing together could have had retirement homes, imaginary friends, and a daycare job. Also things like Parenthood and Knifty Knitting could have been included in this pack instead of being separate. If they are going to make us pay for things that should be free the least they could do is give us a lot of it and make it fleshed out. We could have a vacation expansion pack that would be Island Living, Outdoor Retreat, and Snowy Escape all in one expansion pack. Instead each of those packs feel like they are lackluster even if I enjoy the few things they do have.

​@@AgentDigits That definitely seems to be the biggest issue with how they did Sims 4, all the new gameplay mechanics they develop get locked behind a new pay wall, so they can't expand on any of them in future packs. Can't have new active careers because those go with Get to Work. Can't Have new club features, those are Get Together. Can't have new cities with festivals, that's a city living thing. Etc. It's so annoying.

⁠@@alicine-sims8988 that Get together part, clubs probably should’ve been a base game feature for long term purposes. Like I always wondered why werewolves have those two different wolf pack options but not a way to make your own. If they didn’t box themselves in with this setup they could’ve just made those two wolf packs into clubs and added some new club settings/features that are werewolf related. Same for vampires and witches to make covens and stuff. Plus they could’ve added in 1-2 clubs for some of the other expansion worlds and their characters like a beach treasure hunt club for sulani, an actual Fan club where they can select 1 celebrity (or a band) to Stan in del sol valley and the sims in that club will primarily be the fans seen around the celebrity when out and about, Ect. There are just so many issues with this game that could be fixed if they went back to most of their packs fixed buggs, made certain features base game and reworked others it may even encourage players who haven’t yet to buy them. Or just a color wheel for cas and build mode I’ll never complain about the game again

Right I don't have it yet cause 40 dollars for me can go for something else, tried playing with infants and got bored very quickly

Yes, but at same time he underestimate stuff saying things like "its just line of codes and new texts". Isnt all games just lines of codes ? You achive things and unlock stuff. Its and expasion not a new game with totally new gameplay functions.

Or is it possible that other UKpostsrs might like the pack

I love Satcha, but I honestly love this pack. I totally understand some of his points and is it worth $40? No.. do I love it? Yes.

@@augusto7681 Yes, but it's an very SMALL expansion for $50, which is twice the price of a full brand new full featured game on other platforms, which have a LOT more content and depth to them, and very few bugs. The Sims 4 never got out of Alpha state in reality. And what he means by 'it's just code' is that it's just code that puts writing on the screen here and there, saying "Congratuations! Your Sim achieved this!", without actual gameplay where you actually have to do something for it. And other coding is just copied and pasted into a slightly different use (see the game tables, which were already there - they just had to add a some new graphics and words to it), (see the walking thing - copied and pasted code from the skiing retreat). And most of the other functions are kind of adaptations of already existing stuff: sleeping bags from already existing beds, the massively overused 'party' code copied and pasted to death. Some new features such as bike riding, the tree house, teeth losing, mid-live crisis, and the infant related stuff are new - that's good, but it it an $50 expansion pack worth of functionality? Short answer: definitely NO! The relationship stuff is also good, but it should have been there in the base game, like it was for all the other iterations of the Sims. In typical EA style they just added code to make stuff look good. The world is a direct symbol of the game - mostly window-dressing to make it look good and very little actual functionality. Not really surprising for EA - more dumbed down lackluster content aimed at 10 year olds. And this is probably the most functional expansion pack they've added to The Sims 4 to date, because EA are now getting their finger out because they have up and coming competition. Satch's review is actually the best, most honest, review on UKposts. He isn't a game-changer, meaning that he's not ridiculously sucking up to EA with false rubbish like lilsimsie and the other EA influencers do, "Awww...that's so CUTE!! Blah, blah, suck, suck", with not a criticism in sight. And he's not hating everything about the packs unnecessarily either, like a couple other UKpostsrs. Kudos to him. It's a balanced review, and those are very rare. The UKpostsr I have always trusted is Carl's Guides. He's been around for about as long as The Sims has, and he has a great website guide for The Sims games and is always been completely honest in his reviews. But he's more and more silent these days, except for his game fixing mod. He hasn't put out a review yet and he seems less and less interested in doing so these days.

I don't think some of them are fearful to criticise EA, I think they're just excited because as he said in the video it's going to really appeal to a certain kind of player.

I’m big on cc but haven’t really tried much mods over the years. I quit playing the sims for years and came back as this pack caught my eye but am bitterly disappointed. Are there any mods you’d recommend??

@@Wendipops I'm like you, mostly CC and essential mods like TwistedMExi,, Tool mod, Better Buildbuy I tried Meaningful stories and that helped a little. Carl of Carl's guides has fixed some of the packs like Dine Out. I have played since SIms1 and really enjoyed playing until 4. I like the building, but get too frustrated playing families. And now I am getting my building fix with House Flipper, so when my hard drive died a year ago, I just never reinstalled Sims 4. Good luck.

I agree with pretty much everything you said, ESPECIALLY about the build and buy! As a console player, I would really appreciate getting furniture that matches. We always get such random pieces of furniture that hardly match anything else in the game.. I don't understand why they just don't make sets of matching furniture for the packs? It would really make building and decorating easier. Also, I'm very bummed that we didn't get any new kitchen counters AND matching cabinets (can't forget those lol) in the EP.. I always use the same 2 kitchen sets because 90% of our other kitchen sets don't have any matching cabinets or just look tacky. Anyways, as a builder, I'm not impressed at all with the items in this pack. Oh! More wallpapers and flooring would have been nice! I really hope that they add half-wall baseboards, crown molding and spiral staircases to the game one day but I'm not holding my breath..

Honestly I’d never pay the full price for an expansion. I’ve a lot of them, all bought with at least a 50% discount 😂 I’ll wait for this one..

@@g.e131 agree!!!

Try clearing your EA App cache. You will find the option in the top left corner (3 dots).

@@voxnihili4960 Cleaning cache all day and I did even removed the EA APP and made a fresh installation. By now I tried everything suggested on the EA Help site but nothing works. It did work after the Infant patch until yesterday. Since the new pack is out? I have no access but I guess I need to see if this issue persists until Monday. Right now I'm unable to play my game and we have weekend. 🙄😒

Basically means that: I fail in my classes but I like others who get good grades?

I was going to say this and I think it makes sense. I made a sim and although she isn't ambitious, her husband is, so I made her like ambitious sims. It adds to the depth of gameplay and I'm happy Sims don't auto like other sims who are exactly like them.

i think he meant it the other way around. if your sim is active but hates others who are active it clashes a little maybe!

​@@dark_quEEnisCringe yeah, and? It's pretty realy

@@Summer-lq1hw I mean maybe the person is a douchbag and hates others being fit.

It's so sad that there aren't other life sim games like The Sims. I'm REALLY hoping that Life By You is amazing. Won't hold my breath, but I'll definitely be tuning in on March 20th.

@@metalbabee Truly. The style of Life By You isn't really my style from what I've seen, so I am betting my hope on Paralives. I am really stoked both of them are on the horizon, even if far, because boy do EA need to sweat a bit.

@@metalbabee Yeah, I was excited to hear it was a former The Sims producer! So cool. Even if it is early dev it seems they're going into more of Sims 3 direction (hopefully better tho), a bit more realism styled, while I am more into the more cartoony style of Sims 4.

@@littlejoh713 yeah TS3 graphics are a little too realistic for my liking, but it's fun to play! TS2 graphics is the perfect mixture of cartoony and realistic imo, but it's my favorite Sims game, so I'm obviously biased haha. TS4 is lacking too many fundamental elements for my play style though, so even though it's really pretty, I'm just a builder and sometimes go to CAS because they did those really well! I can get over graphics, but I cannot get over bad/lacking gameplay!

@@metalbabee Honestly understandable. I think in terms of just playing the game I was so in love with Sims 3, but I absolutely hated the art style. I still play Sims 4 religiously because I just like that type of game but I have a good amount of mods and I have to make up for the shortcomings of the game by "pretending" a lot on my end.

You should also check out TheSimYin. She's good too! Look her up, you'll enjoy her videos as well! 🙂

The mod community might be part of thr problem, ironically. Like if modders are going in and easily fixing things, what's the point of the devs doing their jobs in the first place? I appreciate modders, truly, but they kind of encourage laziness. 😅

@@BrightWulph Modders only exist because Sims 4 lacks personality and love 😬 There’s a reason why there’s so many mods for relationships, babies, family dynamics, etc. These simply do not exist in Sims 4 and if they do (this pack), it’s not worth paying $40 just for these functions. It’s better to download mods for them and arguably the mods are better than the official Sims version most of the time.

I have not played for a while, but I did think that this was very similar to mods I used in the beginning.

@@llmtxll3654 both ea and modders feed off of each other

Rabbit holes are good in adding depth while not being too resource-heavy to develop, so they often come out much more bug-clean. I think it's a nice middle ground between players wanting the most gameplay out of their penny and devs being limited by budget and time

Yeah, I agree. If the gameplay isn't particularly interesting, I don't mind having it abstracted into a rabbit hole experience. And the point about bugs is spot on. For example, it's much quicker in Sims 3 to go to a restaurant rabbit hole rather than try to have a sit-down dining experience. Same with movies. I'd rather just send them in the rabbit hole than have routing issues and stomping/complaining.

I think this is the problem with EA, they’re so lazy that consumers rather have something rather than nothing or glitchy gameplay which is wrong… EA should give us both gameplay and gameplay that works, like that should just be the standard

I agree it’s good to get multiple perspectives but I don’t think it’s fair to say other simmers are lying. Players who play a lot of legacy challenges and family gameplay, this could be genuinely be their favorite pack. If that’s not your jam, then it might not appeal to everyone. You can have a different opinion without assuming everyone who likes it is lying.

@@ShannonRose99 agree with your sentiments here, but this is not the whole truth. A lot of reviewers leave out many of the great criticism made in this video. Everything looks nice on the surface, but as soon as you look into it in a more detailed way you realize how much is missing/ doesn't work right. And all this valid criticism is never included in most game changers reviews. Many actually sugar cote things majorly. You see just how much, when they review packs they already reviewed in the past again nowadays. All of a sudden they can mention shortcomings and faults in the pack that they completely left out in the past. 🙄

Honestly, they’re not lying. It’s two sides of the same coin. They highlight the positives and whisper the negatives and Satch highlights the negatives and whispers the positives. I think you need both to be objective. I mean I played both Sims 2 and Sims 3 lately and when they came out and they are nowhere near as seamless as everyone keeps saying they are. It’s easy to hate on the current and remember fondly the past. Though there are a lot of Sims 4 flaws, we will see how everyone feels when Sims 5 comes out.

I definitely feel you but I’m a normal person who paid for the pack and I really enjoy it because family gameplay is my main type of gameplay. I don’t think they’re lying, I think it just varies by person. I do agree the world is EXTREMELY underwhelming

@@kennedae I completely agree!

Yes. Because milestones are only part of the pack. Basically if you want to teach your infant to support their head, crawl and stand, you need the pack.

@@kpoppy9635 I have the pack and still having this issue

Yes they figured since they already experienced it prior to the pack it automatically comes up, adults will have their own milestones put in aswell

@@LukeAlexander so basically, whatever infant you have created and played before installing the pack will automatically have those milestones, because if you only have the update without GrT infants instantly learn those things. You need the pack for infants to be taught to do those things. Basically why the infants update was lackluster.

If you made the family before the pack was installed or played a little infants and other ages will already have milestones in place from achievements

honestly! get famous really wasted a lot of opportunities with the location…it’s so sad

Really? The base game has a carrier now? I thought that was exclusive

@@amandaham7571 didn't say it was base game, just said it wasn't CAS. it's a game mechanic in GT, but some leaks implied that the carriers would be CAS items

I'm gonna make up my own mind if I wanna buy the packs or not. Because other people's opinions are just other people's opinion and I can think for myself. Just because they dont like the packs that comes out, doesnt mean I dont have to like it? If i like the pack im gonna loke the pack im not a follower lol

Im still gonna watch the reviews but with my own opinion

As a follow up comment since I've had another thought about the pack since I posted my first comment - the milestones/memories!! They're locked behind a pack now? They were BASE GAME in 2&3, and now you have to purchase a pack for them?? That's suuuuch a rip off. I'm happy to have them now don't get me wrong but that should have been part of the base game update.

Uhm no most of these werent in the sims 3 basegame either. They either came with generations or you had to buy it in the sims 3 store imao

@@BeautyQueen2023X notice I said MOST. not all. So you're wrong.

Milestones/memories were base game for Sims 2& 3. That was my point for the follow up comment

I think that's kind of why I'd like the option to have it more. It's a new thing and would reflect the modernity of this game. Of course, knowing EA it would probably be just as poorly done as other events but I think it would be neat. Like it could be a way to find out whether you're having a boy or girl or twins etc without waiting until they're born or using cheats.

@@sheerechoes It's not modern to me because it's not a thing here and if it's chaos in the game it would just represent the irl stuff since they've caused fires and such catastrophes. Expanding on a doctor's career would have been nice, like a midwife career so we could have sims go there and find out about their pregnancy. It's like the daycare career he mentioned and I agree there should have been more careers with the expansion.

@@lochpearled just because some gender reveal parties have gone wrong doesn’t mean it’s okay to classify them all the same way 🤣 I mean don’t you think terrible shit has happened in regular parties or concerts or festivals?

@@lochpearled wasn’t that only one gender reveal party? There are a lot of shootings and stabbing and other crimes that happen at birthdays way more frequently that gender reveals but it doesn’t mean we can’t have them in game plus the idea of gender reveal parties may be new and modern but the gender of the baby has always been an exciting part of pregnancy since the beginning of time not because of the gender but because you find out more about someone that you’re yet to know and other many other cultures other than America have embraced gender reveal parties so it would be cool to have them in game

Also traits can change with this pack and your lazy sim might become active from admiring active sims and being around them all the time. This is the kind of gameplay this game has needed for a long time.

Is that mod already fixed?

@@alexasalas6189 no. They have released a temporary fix today for people who want to keep playing with their pre-update saves, so that their sims with more traits don’t glitch or smth. However, we still cannot add more traits in CAS for newly created sims like before. We have to wait and hope they can find a solution. As far as I understand the problem, EA made 5 traits in CAS paywalled with this new pack, so the modders need time to find a workaround. It’s shallow from EA to just add a long-existed feature from a free mod to their game as a new paid feature 🥺

@@Kyokka paywall? As far as I understand Growing Together doesn’t allow you to have 5 traits. EA changed a LOT of code in the update, some for the better, some not so much. It’s currently just a struggle to get the mod to work with the new code.

Console players can't mod so I don't see this as a negative for sims as a whole

@@BaeCat872 yeah, I’ve finally got to CAS and see there are still only 3 traits for a new sim… Waiting till the amazing mod creators fix it. I hope they will

I couldn‘t contain myself and bought it immediately, but when you can wait I would suggest you would get it on sale. Like Satch said, it isn‘t really worth the money and it angers me that they picked the most expensive pack for this one, since it doesn‘t come with that much. They just knew it would be a best seller and wanted the money.

@@sophie9984 I'm new to the EA app so hopefully it goes on sale half off it's the only time I get expansion packs

yeah!! i've been noticing and INSANE amount of sims just... breaking. like everything LOOKS great, and when it works it's really fun! BUT i wish my sims could just... walk lmao

​@@yuckymushroomss it had me bamboozled when I seen it for the first time because literally since the pack has been out I just been building. Imagine my surprise when I tried to get the sim to pick her baby off of the concrete and she doesn't move. Then I look to the side and her kid is just hovering whilst doing a jumping animation. But at the same time you can hear noises as if they are doing things.🥲😂

If you have any mods in the game, it may cause issues since the update and pack were quite big, would be worth to turn mods off for a bit and see if it changes anything 🤔 I have only CC and the game have worked well so far with the new update and pack.

@@krisse23 unfortunately i've been playing without any mods or cc :') my pc hasn't had any issues since wedding stories, but honestly i think it's just an issue that'll fix itself!(i had this same issue with wedding stories after the update and it ended up just kind of... going away??)

I know mods can be doing that, but even some people were having issues cause of cc too

Had a conversation about how we're seeing more and more games being released incomplete, with much less content, and lackluster gameplay because these triple A companies are like "oh we'll just fix it/add it in an update" or "get this DLC to have what should've already been in the game". We shouldn't have to pay full price for games that are worse than their previous iterations and DLC shouldn't cost nearly as much as it does.

@@metalbabee I agree, it seems to be a recurring theme. ESPECIALLY for EA..

Here’s a helpful tip to avoid that glitch: don’t bathe them

@@nicoley8844Then they shouldn’t of put it in the pack 🤷🏻‍♀️

@@Marzanooox333 Then people would complain they couldn’t bathe their infants 😂 Hope it’s fixed but you have to see the irony of the situation 😂

@@Marzanooox333 read my previous comment over and over again, until you realize I was being facetious

​@@nicoley8844 ok weiss ifykyk😂