This game came out in 2009 and ran till 2014, so there's not a whole lot of new stuff directly from EA. However what keeps this game alive is the thriving community of modders and cc-creators who make certain that this game goes directions that the developers could only dream of. In some ways, they're doing it out of the "love of the game" and frankly, that's where one's best work comes out.
People like Fresh Prince whose dream cars make our Sims' existence more comfortable. Why bother running around in a Vorn P223 when a Mercedes S-class is there for your Sims to buy.
There are modders like Spherefish whose Hunting Mod has pretty much turned my game into a reign of terror for all the "small pets" that aren't cats and dogs. I've been trying to get Spherefish to add in horses, because they seem to over-populate the game, but well...y'know how that goes with most people. How dare you hunt horses!!!
Sims 3 is one of the best life-simulation games out there. In fact until recently The Sims was the ONLY life-simulation on the market. Sims 3 out of all of them went the "no holds barred; let's see how far we can push our game development". We had open world that we could send our sims scurrying everywhere trying to locate collectibles. Sims 4 may have collectibles, but with loading screens all over the place, the effect is a disjointed mess. Sims 3 sims could go anywhere on the map hunting for gemstones, seeds and other things. That's what kept Sims 3 interesting.
Sims 4 on the other hand took a giant step backwards. Sure the sims may not look like potatoes...
...but they cut out a ton of stuff, opting to play it safe for the parental controls getting rid of burglars and other stress inducing life experiences.
"Oh, ermagerd...burglars are like sooooo terrifying...whatever will we do? We mustn't traumatize the poor kiddies. Everything has to be a pastel colored rainbow of happy..."-infested crock of shit.
I prefer my Sims 3 raunchy and untamed, like Sims 2, but with more freedom to explore.
See that big lovely open space? Your sims could explore every bit of it. And that's why Sims 4 was such a major disapppointment.
