The Sims 4 was announced today, it will feature offline play. It will also have enhanced online features. It looks like EA may have learned their lesson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBsSKnvzNBo

I also learnt my lesson, no more EA unless it's on GOG.

crap, still need to put more time into Sims 3, I have all but the latest expansion but barely played the last few of them :) "Single-player offline experience" but with social elements.

Let's hope the Sims survives development with that statement actually holding true in a good way.

Yep hurry up EA and bring Command & Conquer here on GOG or other old school games that I am not aware of.

Just as I was starting my Sims 3 collection...

I honestly thought they stopped using numbers for sequels. Maybe the fifth sequel will again bring balance to the force.

Ha! See what I did there?! HAHAHAhahah ha ... huh... bwuhuh [uncontrollable sobbing]

I'd like to see that original Collection released here as well. I haven't personally payed much attention to the series since then, but I recall having fun with it at the time. It would be nice to experience some of the content I missed the first time around.

As for The Sims 4, I just hope it's a bit less buggy than the third installment, and perhaps a little better optimized. I feel sorry for my wife every time she starts the game and has to wander off for 10 minuets while it loads.

Oh, great, another 20 games / expansions to get for my sister.

Yeah, this franchise is EA cash cow. I wanted to like the original Sims, but it wouldn't let me be a serial-killer hehe. If you're going to simulate life, well, simulate it :P

They keep releasing the same things as expansions. All 3 editions so far had vacation-based expansion, university-based, expansion, night life - based expansion, pets-based expansion and so on...

... they intentionally do not merge previously created features... for example, pets introduced in Sims 1 through expansion, into the base Sims 3 / Sims 3 game in order to reintroduce them and sell more copies. :(

Let the re-buying of the same game begin!

Couldn't have put it better.

What a con sims 3 was, they stripped out all the stuff they put into the sims 2 so that they could sell it again. That's not progression of a game, that's just really poor customer service. The game was a burnt out husk upon release until you bought the features they'd previously invented.

Hahahahaa :D so true.

... why am I laughing!? It will still cost me a lot of life points. :(

I hope EA engages maximum troll mode and goes the complete opposite way. Should your computer be connected to the Internet while playing TS4, the game immediately closes and refuses to run until you disconnect from the net.
But I'll wait & see. I've got nothing against The Sims, so we'll have to see what 4 brings to the table.