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The Sims franchise has accompanied thousands of people throughout their lives for two decades. Although it ranks among the top-selling PC video games, there has been some controvery among older fans about the franchise's latest release.

The Sims 4 was released in 2014, five years after the release of The Sims 3. The game featured a brand-new graphic style and a few new features, but some players still felt that it was a major downgrade from The Sims 3, and even The Sims 2.

Most people who were unsatisfied with the new Sims 4 game claimed that it was boring and redundant, and simply lacked too much of the content available in The Sims 3. However, many of these players owned many or all of the expansion packs that were released after the initial base game. Expansion packs such as Generations, Island Paradise, and Pets were extremely popular and enhanced the gameplay by leaps and bounds. For these players, the dry base game of The Sims 4 was simply too much of a backwards jump from the multilayered gameplay of The Sims 3.

Another issue many Sims 3 players had with The Sims 4 was the lack of an open world. One of the most beloved features of The Sims 3 was its open world, where you could travel from location to location without ever seeing a loading screen. While the open world feature was certainly a lot of fun, it was also the reason why many Sims 3 players experienced endless frustrating and painful lagging and glitching. Presumably, the game developers removed the feature to allow for a smoother and faster gameplay that even players on laptops and older computers could enjoy.

There were also many minor details older fans of the franchise simply did not agree with. While the new Sims 4 game boasted greater customization for the players' sims than ever before, the removal of the clothing and furniture option was met with an outrage. In the past, players were able to customize clothing and furniture with patterns and colours to their liking. Unfortunately, like the open world, it also caused a lot of lagging and glitching, which led to its removal by the game developers. Some fans also didn't find the new graphics as appealing as the older ones. The Sims 4 came with a much brighter, more cartoonish style than its predecessors, and the graphics, according to some, were too unrealistic for their liking.

So, six years later, after the release of numerous expansion packs and countless patch updates, what do people think of The Sims 4?

For the most part, it seems that the vast majority of players have succeeded in making the transition from the older Sims 3 game to the new Sims 4 game. The release of expansion packs allowed those who were used to the extensive gameplay of The Sims 3 to experience a similar, if not better gameplay in The Sims 4. In fact, most of the expansion packs bring some of the exact same features to The Sims 4 as some of the expansion packs from The Sims 3 did. Of course, until the next sims game is released, players can continue to expect new updates and expansions, so there's still plenty to look forward to.

In terms of the open world that some were unhappy with, most players have managed to accept the new changes. In its more recent expansions, The Sims 4 has moved towards a larger space and a slightly more open area between each loading screen. Each lot is carefully designed and although it is no longer an open world, the game developers have made sure that it doesn't take away much from the gameplay. For many older fans, it was just a matter of getting used to.

Since the inital release of the base game back in 2014, the modding community has worked tirelessly to try and make up for the features that the community deemed lacking. For those who preferred a more realistic style for their game, custom content creators have provided the option of Alpha custom content; in other words, realistic-looking custom content. With the lack of gameplay before the release of expansion packs, some of the more experienced modder have created their own. For example, prior to the release of The Sims 4 Discover University, there was a modder than created his own university gameplay. There are also modders that create content that the game developers simply cannot be expected to release. These mods include some of the more mature content, with things like drugs and violence involved. 

Overall, over the course of six years, The Sims 4 has done a pretty good job of redeeming itself, and has proven that the Sims franchise is still going strong, and isn't going anywhere anytime soon.