The Sims

It certainly is a complex thing to do well! I look at The Sims 3, which was simulating those entire maps all the time, and think of how much is going on in the background. I remember seeing all the individual Sims driving around from birdseye view and realizing they were all doing their thing whether or not my Sims were interacting with them! Switching to the smaller maps in TS4 just wasn't the same. I'm also sad about Life By You, it was the one I had the highest hopes for. Maybe someday they'll make another foray into the genre.

I hadn't realized they added curved walls, I guess that's a good indicator of how long it's been since I've played it! I just bought the base game and one or two expansions before I dropped it. While I've criticized TS3 for putting a few things in expansions that I thought should be in the base game, it was at least reasonably fleshed out without them. TS4 on the other hand felt like it had gaping holes that they were going to fill with DLC later. Going free to play later on pretty much proved that to me, and the features added in the expansions didn't make me want to buy them either.

I'm hoping Vivaland turns out good! I'll be keeping a close eye on it now that I know about it. Expectations are always hard, but we'll see what happens. Hopefully they'll do an early access release or a basic gameplay demo or something. I'm hopeful that since they don't have a massive list of features that we'll maybe get a pretty good game that can be a base for future improvements!