Ignoring the lack of updates if the game is buggy, games back then were also more focused on quality and make gamers replay the game with unlockable features based on skills, not money. I can’t count the number of times I played Metal Gear Solid games over and over to unlock new features playing the hardest difficulty and with handicap features, and also to find Easter eggs. Speaking of Easter eggs, you’d lose a number of hours exploring every nook and cranny finding them!
Yeah but expansion packs back then generally actually had content.
nowadays it seems an expansion pack is more of a minor add-on, something that should have been base game, or a cosmetic only. The simulation field being by far the worst offenders of it. (Staring at you EA and Dovetail Games)
Thankfully with Sims 4 it does seem like they have realized that they are misusing the term expansion pack and they’ve downsized the categories of them(kits, game packs etc) so not everything is listed as an expansion pack, which hopefully it will show promise for Sims 5 whenever that launches but being as the current road that they’re going down is add less for more to their packs itself, I have my doubts.