I agree with so much of what you’ve said. I do understand the improvements that Sims 4 has made with some aspects of building and gameplay being less laggy. I was the same as you where I didn’t really experience much lagging or crashing with Sims 3 until my laptop got older, but I knew it was an issue for others.
I love love love Island Living, it gets a lot of bad rep for various reasons but the world itself is closer to what I was expecting Sims 4 to be like. When the university pack came out I was so deadly disappointed with the world and the layout they chose. I played sims 3 university constantly, it was basically the sole reason I was still playing sims 3 through my late teens (that and the pets expansion). Sims 3 university worlds were full of so much stuff, bowling alleys, bars, food places, full halls, the fact you could go to classes and sit in on them was such a great aspect of the uni life. There’s really just not a lot of reason to live on campus in Sims 4 and it’s sucks because it takes away from the young adults “going away” to uni if living on campus is more of a hassle than living in a different world. The bikes make me sad too because I really tried to make them work but they’re a bit buggy and pointless in a closed world. That being said I like using bikes in the pets expansion world.
Since my original post, I’ve tried adding some more stuff packs to my game, I’ve bought every expansion, all but two game packs (not keen on vampires or Star Wars packs), but I still only have a few stuff packs because from reading up on which ones offer the most and the least, a lot of them really don’t do much for the gameplay. The ones I have bought have been slightly disappointing too, I like the stuff you get for building but even having hamsters in sims 4 is more of a hassle. Like I don’t want my hamsters jetting off into space and sending me postcards every night???
I currently play on a Mac too because I needed a Mac for uni courses irl and I do find it sad that I can’t play sims 3 anymore. I think I would go back to it like you said if I do get a gaming computer one day (not that I have any money lol).
I’ve been playing sims 4 every now and then when I’m bored and I do enjoy playing it still but just nowhere near as much as I did with sims 3. I have been out of The Sims loop in terms of the new expansion though, I haven’t heard any details but I’m assuming it’s based on the survey we did a few months back? I do hope the new expansion is a ski resort pack and if that’s the case I really want it to be like Island living but with a few more activities that you can actually interact with. I SOOOO want holiday resorts to be playable too like sims 3, I loved owning a hotel and employing people!
Thanks for everyone’s input on this post too, I can’t reply to everyone because I’m packed with work right now but it’s cool seeing the discussions since I posted this so long ago!
