It really does feel odd to think that it’s already been 4 years since The Sims 4 was released. It seems like only yesterday I was marveling at how much amazing new stuff was included in The Sims 3! Unfortunately, when the newest installment of the franchise was released, people started complaining about the opposite: there were a lot of things missing from the game. While it’s hard to tell if some of these features were considered dur▨ing the development of the game and then cut, it’s obvious that a lot of things that were in previous games were deleted from The Sims 4.

For instance, when the game was first released in 2014, there was an outcry💯,🗹 as toddlers and swimming pools were excluded from the game. Considering how much richer toddlers made the gameplay and how Simmers love ending their poor Sims in pools (don’t lie, we’ve all done it), it’s hardly surprising that EA eventually put these deleted features back into the game.

There are lots of other features that were deleted and will probably never see the light of day, however, and some are more puzzling than others. Of course, I’m well aware that not everything from the past installments of The Sims series could have made it into The Sims 4; the game would have been incredibly difficult to run and taken forever to develop had EA tried to do that. Still, here are 25 great things that were deleted in The Sims 4.

25 😼 No Create-A-Style

This is probably one of the features that was present in The Sims 3, but then deleted in The Sims 4, that players miss the most. With Create-A-Style, you could customize absoluteꦐly anything, from your Sims’ clothing to their floor and their dining ro😼om table.

The worlds you could play in were unequivocally yours because there was almost nothing you couldn’t personalize.

Compared to that feeling, The Sims 4’s world felt very restrictive, and for some players,🎃 incredibly f♔rustrating.

24 🌜 No Open World

Talking about being restricted… Another feature that was deleted in The Sims 4 was the open world. Sure, we traded it for faster loading times and technically, smoother gameplay, but there’s no denying it was aggravating to lose the freedom of movement we had in The Sims 3. Just imagine how incredible The Sims 4 could have been if EA had kept that feature! It’s one of the many reasons some simmers snubbed The Sims 4 and kept playing The Sims 3 instead.

23 🔯 No Usable Vehicles

This is a feature that was present in earlier Sims games, but deleted in The Sims 4. It may seem unimportant, but vehicles were one of the ways The Sims felt more realistic. If your Sims didn’t have a car, they would get picked up and carpool to work, and take taxis to communal lots. If they did, they could drive it around town, and, in The Sims 3, even become friends with their car. In that sense, it was not only a realistic touch, but also a humorous addition that would have been very welcome in The Sims 4.

22 ꦆ 🏅 No Story Progression

Alright, granted: story progression never worked very well, so it’s not entirely surprising EA did away with it in The Sims 4. But if you think about it, wouldn’t it have been amazing if they had tried to improve on the system instead? Sims from The Sims 4 are meant to have more complex emotions and relations to other Sims than in previous games, which would have made story progression amazing. EA chose to focus on other aspects of the game, but story progression would have really helped The Sims 4 come alive.

21 ℱ ൩ No Rabbit Holes

The Sims 3 introduced “rabbit hoไles”, buildings such as schools, hospitals, restaurants, etc. that your Sims would go into during parts of the game when the player doesn’t control them—such ꦺas work or school.

In The Sims 4, the rabbit hole mechanism was deleted along with the open world.

Your sims simply disappear from the world when they go to work. The thing is, rabbit holes gave you additional, sometimes amusing interactions, such as exploring a mausoleum or going to a football game—and it’s something that would have been great in The Sims 4.

20 🍌 No Automatic Roof

This may seem like a very minor feature; you’ve probably never really thought about it until you actually had to build a house without it. The automatic roof feature was present in The Sims 3 and deleted in The Sims 4, and it’s a shame, because it really made our lives easier—especially for simmers like me who aren’t the most patient builders. It seems like an odd thing to omit too, considering EA tried to make build mode in The Sims 4 easier to use…

19 🌃 Beloved Traits Were Taken Out

While lots of amazing things were added to Create A Sim, some aspects that players had come to expect𓆉 after pla💙ying earlier games were deleted.

For instance, you can now choose only three traits for your Sims, and many beloved traits were taken out.

Sure, other interesting traits were added (I’ll admit, the “bro” trait is pretty funny), but overall, it feels like we as players have fewer options to customize our Sims’ personalities. Three🉐 traits are just not enough!

18 🦂 🅠 No Grocery Shopping

Another feature that made previous installments of The Sims feel realistic but was deleted from The Sims 4 was grocery shopping. It may seem trivial but there’s a big difference between getting Sims to go to the store and choosing which groceries to buy and buying your groceries automatically when you select a recipe for your Sim to make. Sure, you can still collect resources and fish but it’s just not the same… It really is surprising that this was taken out of the game, considering even The Sims Medieval has a form of shopping!

17 No Bikes

Just like cars, bikes are among the deleted Sims 4 features that we all miss. Bikes in the Sims 4 could have been really fun! The neighborhoods in the game seem to be fairly eco-friendly, with one of them boasting a (sadly decorative) streetcar system, so bikes could have made sense. Not to mentio💯n, these new neighborhoods are small, so while it may make sense that your Sims don’t need cars to get around, bikes would have been a great way to add more dynamism to the game!

16 🐠 No Trash Compac൲tor

Another seemingly random object that’s missing from The Sims 4 is the trash compactor. Sure, it’s not like you can’t live𒀰 without it, and you can definitely download a mod if you really miss it, but it seems lik▨e an odd feature to take out. Were trash compactors really that hard to put into the game? Just like the auto-roof feature, they really would have made our lives easier. At least a patch was released in 2015 to add dishwashers to the game! Unbelievably, they weren’t part of the base game at first.