is the Steam version of The Sims 3 notoriously broken or otherwise unstable? I bought it years ago before I knew what I was doing and had a fun time with it earlier this year when I started actually playing it for once but it broke irreparably some time in mid-April and I haven't been able to start it since
It seems to be a simple 00175xcb error, but all of the usual fixes haven't worked and for some reason it only cropped up after I tried to uninstall two DLC packs that I'd already had installed before. Have spent the last 4 months trying every fix I can find and at this point the only one that might have any kind of shot is completely reinstalling my OS, which I am not willing to do in the slightest for many many reasons. My last resort is playing the game on a Virtual Machine, though I'd really rather not since that'd require setting up all my basic mods (mostly just bug fixes or lighting adjustments) and pirating the mountain of in-game Store content AGAIN which would probably take hours because whoever packaged that shit is retarded and didn't do anything besides dump the hundreds of paid-for packs into a zip and call it a day
I've heard The Sims 2 is less broken and i've been considering downgrading to that just to have a Sims game to play again, but it's been giving me issues if I do it digitally (mainly because it needs a working CD-ROM code that I don't have) and I haven't got the time to go find the Ultimate Pack physically. I still really want to try, and if I ever find it in a store I'll snap it up like nobody's business, but I fear I'll be missing a lot of the Sims 3's improvements (namely in regards to Traits, Life Stages, Action Queue, Customization (especially color picking) and such).
The only other option I have is the Sims 4, which is dogshit awful and I really don't want to play it because it'd require reinstalling Origin and paying 1000+ bucks for DLC (which I can't do, and I would really rather not play an unfinished game). I've been considering just pirating the game separate from the launcher (+ its DLC) and loading it up with every mod I can find that makes it more like the Sims 3, but from what I can tell there's 0 way to get as in-depth in the Sims 4 with mods as you can with the base Sims 2 or Sims 3 games, and with every mod I add the game will probably get less and less stable...
I dunno. I'd just wait for Project Rene but I know it'll be manipulative dogshit that I'll hate with a burning passion because it's EA and they haven't been tolerable since before my niece was born so I'd rather not.
Alternatively: are there any upcoming Life Sim games that I can actually be excited for? Life By You is made by Paradox (EA but if it was even lazier) whom I refuse to support, meanwhile Paralives looks like faggy shit appealing to the Sims 4 crowd that were mad about there being no top surgery scars in the Sims 4 until a few months ago. I know of nothing else and I'm more than a little pessimistic considering the fanbase, but if anyone here has found something comparable to the Sims 2/3 that isn't more concerned with fluid gender than it is with enjoyable content then I'll be more than happy to give it a look.