I haven't got the sims 4 yet cos' I'm uk bound but all I've seen recently is bad reviews and people disliking the sims 4 and this has dishearten me and made me less excited for the arrival of my copy so please post what you actually like about the game and let my sense of wonder and excitement come back!

The amount of time it takes to load on my old laptop. Sims 3 use to take 20+ minutes, but Sims 4 takes less than 5 minutes for me

Emotions
Multitasking

Those two things with more heavy handed traits makes interacting with other Sims a lot more dynamic.

Weight gain system
The bills can get you at times.
How active lots are.

Those are the things I really enjoy

I actually like the fact that they got rid of todlers and CASt because tolders are a pain to deal with both in the sims 2 and 3 and i never used CASt so

I'm enjoying the game. I like that different sims respond differently to a given situation. One sim had a really hard time finding a romantic partner--her overtures were rejected by three or four guys in a row. Finally she found someone, but even then he slept on the couch the first few nights. Another sim (different household) had really smooth sailing with her very first attempt, and he follows her around trying to woo her. A friend died in their kitchen (old age) and both sims ran to see, both sims were sad--but the one who was her friend cried and stayed sad for two days. The guy, who had never met the visitor, was sad for a few hours, then got over it. My sims emotions seem a lot more stable than in some videos I've seen, and they seem to be able to focus on their activities for the most part.

I also like the fact that they really seem to enjoy going out now--ironically, I have always played mostly at their homes, but now in this new very limited world, I take them out a lot more because they just seem to have so much more fun and get more out of it. I'm also enjoying all the new interactions and options.

I like that lots of the sims wandering around town, aren't taking up house space. It gives me hope that even if you started to fill the town up, say with a legacy game, there would still be an abundance of non-related sims available to marry and befriend.

I started a thread about this and I'm glad to see someone else picking it up. There are some positives, even if they're outweighed by the negatives (in my opinion).

For my part, I think the multitasking and emotion, as tetchy as they are, add a lot to the interactivity game and the interpersonal relationships. The sims do actually feel a bit more alive in this game and I find myself growing somewhat more attached to them. Combined with in general how well the game runs and I don't feel like playing this game is a chore like the Sims 3.

This makes the game feel like it's more about the Sims than the "stuff." I remember my problem with the Sims 3 and how the sims all felt so...unnatural. They'd get locked into certain activities. You'd invite them over for a party and they'd get stuck playing a video game (in your bedroom -_-) or playing guitar or watching TV and completely disregard you. Now they can do all that stuff and still be interacting with your sim and it feels like they actually put more emphasis as sims on interacting with each other, which is nice. It still feels kind of touchy and weird, but I can't wait to see how it evolves over time.

I think the negatives outweigh the positives, but there are at least some things here that make me feel like this installment won't be a total flop...eventually.

Edit: The more I read about people who are willing to compliment the game, the more I feel this "it's more about the sims than the stuff" is actually true. And that's kinda nice, because the "stuff" is a lot easier to add in later. The sims, their personalities and foibles, generally seem harder to work into expansion packs (though I still hate to use that "there's expansion packs coming out!" as justification for anything).

Though I seem to remember thinking Sims felt more alive in the Sims 3 at first too, but the more I played the more unnatural they felt and the better the Sims 2 looked, so we'll have to see. I'm inclined to believe they're better AI-wise this time (and they better be, considering all the crap they cut out for it)

Yeah but it would be nice to have the option. If you don't like those things you Could skip over it.

Probably the biggest and most important thing for me that i like is that Sims 4 takes like 2 seconds to save a game, and is quick to load. I loved TS3 and all the content, but it was borderline unplayable.

I also like:
Emotions
Multitasking
Sims travel between worlds, not just stay in one.
Building houses seems more fun than I remember. I never used to build houses all that much, but now I do.
Lots are active, which with the new multitasking system the parties actually seem like parties instead of everyone standing around.
Being able to have 5 outfits per category, such as 5 everyday outfits, 5 athletic, etc. That and the sims put on a random one from the chosen category, much more realistic than wearing the same clothes daily.
The updated graphics, sims look better to me than they did in previous sims games.

Those are just a few things.

Or better yet, make them not a pain and improve the life stage >_> I agree that toddlers were really annoying and toned down in the Sims 3, but it would have been nice if they'd made them better rather than just cutting them out altogether.

This remind me of what else I like about this game... All the interaction between kids. They seem to have a lot of animations and options specific to them.

If they do that with toddlers that would be nice. Like 2 toddlers should be able to fully interact with each other

The only thing i liked so far, are the tv programs and the group conversations.

The realism in the food- you gain alot of weight if you don't exercise and eat cake. Like the gourmet cooking think that's really good. Am mixed about the game, I kind of like some new stuff like the multi-tasking and little random things like before my computer broke and it had the blue screen off death thought that was funny. Love the search option in the build/buy mode will make finding things so much easier.

I just miss the open world I do and its sad they didn't build on that, but I love the way the game looks. It really reminds me of sims medieval graphic wise. I guess over time with new expansion packs i will grow to love the sims 4 like the rest.

The game is really not bad at all. Do note that the bigger features that aren't available in it are personal preference, I didn't see anything that annoyed me enough to not pick it up.
I like pretty much like everything, but I'm someone who wasn't that fond of Sims3 so yeah ... thers that.

Since everything has been said I'll just add that it feels a lot more user friendly and streamlined, building is a lot better, faster and less of a headache. Sims are smarter, they have better pathfinding and just function better,however they will immediately obey your command so watch the que if its doing something you don't mind (taking out trash) don't give them a new task because they drop the trash where they stand just to please us users, lol.

In overall after 30 hours I can say I am pretty satisfied, I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that the exp packs will hopefully not kill the performance.

I think the game is focused entirely on emotions and socialising (surprise lol!) and in that respect it is produced well enough. The social mechanics are good, multitasking is useful in some situations and at times the emotional game play can be fun (although it teeters on the verge of manic most of the time). The world "feels" more social and alive compared to previous installments. The game is optimised well so performance isn't an issue compared to The Sims 3 and The Sims 2 when they first launched. There doesn't seem to be much loss in quality if you are favouring performance.

Outside of this emotional/social game play, there isn't much else that I have found to hold my attention, besides the obvious RPG-lite elements like collecting. I haven't played much yet and I still need to explore things like the gardening system and careers properly - maybe there is some fun game play hiding there with opportunities and chance cards that may appear.

I've bought the game out of curiosity, and,though it looks too bare now, and much heavier on the computer than EAxis promised it to be, it does have a few good features:
1) Easy traveling between worlds. Super-small world size is not a problem due to this, because when we get more worlds, they all will be available for playing at the same time, there is no need to squeese everything into one world.
2) Lively community lots. There aren't many sims in the game so far, but the lots are crowded anyway.
3) Group conversations are better than in TS3.
4) multitasking.
5) Nice build mode features, like different wall, foundation,and window heights, individually recolored roof pieces, roof and wall deco, rounded fencing.
6) A lot of contemporary furniture in buy mode, and a lot of useful deco that makes for realistic lived in homes. Also, the way kitchen counters and cabinets behave, TVs that can be placed on surfaces.
7) The way lot surroundings look. Even though there is no open world now, the lots don't looks like they're in the middle of a dull flat field. The worlds are very nicely decorated.
8) the ability to make sims with more angular faces, more natural-looking eyes.
9) very modern and common clothes for sims (many things are in contemporary style in this game, which I like a lot).
EDIT:
10) Rotational play. Oh, why didn't they make the story progression vs rotational play choice possible in TS3?I like the way it designed in TS4. Never used SP, i am a control freak