For more than a decade, The Sims games have allowed gamers to experiment with digital realities where anything can happen. After creating a Sim, you are in charge of shaping their evolution and development, as well as relationships and community involvement.

High level of customisation; Installs well and runs good

Camera could be better in spots; Missing features from past games

The Sims – one of the most recognisable series in the industry, and one of the most successful too, has boasted sales of over 120 million copies in total. 2014 marks the franchise's 14th birthday, followed by the 4th instalment in the series; The Sims 4 .

New and interesting mechanics; Very clean; attractive and nicely presented U.I; Build & Buy mode has been lovingly re-done; Wonderful art style; Community sharing is quite fun; Neighbourhoods are busy & feel alive; Lots of new & different career paths; each with unique rewards

Some old features are missing; The new mechanics aren't massively compelling; Not enough 'normal' jobs; such as police officer & athlete; Lighting in houses can be quite dreary; Some excessive load screens; No ability to choose your Sim's favourite's; 2D Map screen is too small

Fast-forward to September 2014, and Maxis has released their fourth version of the game, which was expected to ...

Earlier this month EA Maxis released the much anticipated The Sims 4. Introducing a new Emotion game mechanic and an updated Create-a-Sim and Build-Mode interface, but The Sims 4 begs the questions: are the changes enough to make it a better game than The Sims 3 In short, the answer is no.

- Build-Mode and Create-a-Sim are a good as ever; - New emotion-system and multitask abilities are nice; - Essentially the same Sims game we all know and love

- No pool; - Too many omissions (open-world; etc..; - Essentially the same Sims game we all know and love; albeit with a little less of everything

Ahh The Sims, a game that came back into my life when it launched a few weeks ago. It is a magical game full of character creation, home building and life living. My girlfriend loves it, me…I'm not so sure. It hasn't pulled me in as much as The Sims 3 did.

The Sims 4 celebrates the heart and soul of the Sims themselves, giving players a deeper connection with the most expressive, surprising and charming Sims ever in this single-player offline experience.

Slightly above average or simply inoffensive. Fans of the genre should enjoy this game, but a fair few will be left unfulfilled.

Great art style; Sims able to multitask; improved building tools

Massive amount of missing features; glitchy; lack of career options

Almost a great sequel, but the improvements to the sims are overshadowed by the shopping list of peculiarly random missing features.

Multitasking, moodlets, and the revamped career systems are all great; Much more subtle community integration, and improved house and sims customisation

The missing features will seem obvious even to newcomers to the series, and at times the game feels like nothing but a dumbed down The Sims 2; Some relatively minor AI issues

Haven't sold it to anyone and won't. Don't want anyone else to endure something as terrible and disappointing as this.

It's a new game and the hype was at the "Oh my goodness it's here!" point for Sims fans

Could only stomach about four hours of gameplay before I had to get rid of it; They've changed things only for the worse; They took no advantage of the new mood system and the graphics and smoothness of the game have done nothing but gotten astronomically worse