As a Sims player since the Sims1, all of the following games were upgraded, even more fun than the previous versions until Sims 4. It was like returning to Sims 2 with better graphics. All of the advancements in Sims 3 were taken away. If you are totally new to The Sims, you will probably enjoy S4 not knowing what you are missing. But be prepared to spend, spend, spend.
You can tell from the reviews who the old simmers are from the new siimmers. I looked at some of the review comparisons between Sims 4 and Sims 3 and in my opinions and obviously the Facebook Sims 3 group, there is no comparison. We love Sims 3. There is a notable difference in the group conversations of the S3 & S4 groups. All you see in the Sims 4 group is complaints, while there is fun sharing experiences, joking, lots of laughs and overall love of Sims 3 and disappointment and disgust with the total lacking in Sims 4.
It is almost impossible to find anything enjoyable in S4 after playing S3. And the body and face sliders don't make up for the lack of anything to do. The loss of the color wheel allow and having to settle for the stuff they created without being able to control the colors was a disappointment, but also no movies, town hall, no bookstore, grocery store, stadium, graveyard, arboretum. What I do like in S4? I do like the return to the visitable restaurants in S4 that was left out of S3 and the longer days.
But overall those of us that have and love S3 have put S4 on the shelf and returned to S3. What do I blame? GREED. The expansion packs lack adventure. They are simply another boring town with nothing to do, the stuff packs are not worth buying. All in all, they were counting on buyers buying expansion and stuff packs to MAKE the game interesting and even failed to do that. All the places in S3 they divided into expansion and stuff in S4.
I hear there may be a S5 in the making, but EA has LOST THEIR CREDIBILITY with me and I WILL NEVER pay full price again for anything they come out with. NEVER!