the sims 4 has a built in MEMORY SYSTEM and i had no idea 

I found this a few years ago, used it once and realized its not attached to the interaction happening, but to the moodlet they felt. Never used it again lol

The Sims 3 does keep all the memories automatically (which is a performance issue essentially since memories are created for the tiniest moments and flood the save with useless data), the button you were clicking is for sharing them online.

I always forget just how superior Sims 2 was in terms of storytelling. I remember being so excited when a new pack would come out, just to see the neighborhood story and go through every pre-made household to figure out their deal. I'd always have that lone farmer in riverblossom hills adopt a toddler and find happiness through making his own family :')

When they brought out nifty knitting and it said that elders would sit in the rocking chair and remember events in their lives, I thought it was going to tie in with this underused feature and was really excited about it. I would love to see photo albums build up over sim's lives and maybe they could make a copy to pass on to their kids.

wait since when did this exist

Totally agree! For me it feels like stories matter less without the memory system from the Sims 2. Nothing feels permanent - past events just seem to go away after the emotion goes away.

I loved the memory system in TS2, it gave incentive to go into every family and and see everyones background, it made it feel like you were continuing their story and it mattered. Whereas TS4 gives you nothing so honestly I haven't even played most premade TS4 families because it feels so empty and meaningless lol. Definitely hoping for a good memory system when 5 comes out

I loved the memories in TS2, I just think they needed to expire depending on what kind of memory it is. Like, the first person your Sim kissed should be remembered for years and years, but the fact that you found roaches in your house surely can be forgotten after a few days. Regardless, I miss having a proper memory system.

I prefer the automatic memory system that we had in Sims 2 and 3, this one is nurturing because to make a specific memory a specific emotion, the sim has to be in that state

I want an automated one like the sims 2. I do not want to do anything manually, but I do want the story to be kept track of. I have adhd, I dunno what I was doing with these sims!

I used to have a screenshot for every moodlet so I could cheat my sims mood - this is before I discovered debug 😍

I used to go on to the sims 2 sometimes and just go through all my Sims and read through their memories. It meant a lot to me

I really don't like that I have to take a picture in order to create a memory, it's too close to what people do irl and i hate taking pics for presh mems irl too 😅 it's neat seeing it side by side with the old versions though! Sims 2 will always reign supreme in my heart for this

For the record, even though you can't add custom memory icons to the memory section in the Sims 2, each household at least has their own photo album, so you can still chronicle their experiences and have them there as reference. And I loved that SO much. It's beyond fascinating seeing the photos that the pre-made sims had to go along with their memories. And it really set the standard when making my won neighbourhoods, cause every family had to have an extensive family tree, bios, memories, and photo albums. Such a huge undertaking.

i think the ideal system would be an expansion to the sentiments, where there were pre-set events that would automatically become memories (eg. getting married, having a child) but you could also make your own. kinda like the sims 2 but you could take your own pics

Sims 2 memory system AND Sims 3 Generations video camera would be ✨ *perfection* ✨

This feature is the only thing they removed from the console version compared to the PC version of Sims 4, it instead uses the camera feature of the Playstation and Xbox to take your screenshots and instead stored on the console but they can't be captioned nor seen ingame. It also doesn't provide any emotions for your sims

I rotate families, so I loved memories not only for looking through existing sims' memories but to remind myself where I was going with the life of a sim I haven't played in a while. The Sims 4 memory system has been there, but I gave up on it when I realized every family's photos are tossed in one big folder. This was just a LAZY way to do it. They're coders for goodness sake! Imagine looking through your entire hard drive to find 1 file 🙄And I gave up on it before I realized how to reminisce on the memories. P.S. The Sims 2 memories/gossip system was LIT! I had a few sims find out they were cheated on through gossip. It gave the interaction an actual purpose. The memory/gossip system with a reputation system would be amazing (you could have a town gossip and a nosey trait). Imagine if Mrs. Crumplebottom was also gathering gossip and sharing it with her hairdresser who was spreading the gossip to everyone else😄

I'm dying with the background full of marriage memories. never have I ever seen a sim so polygamous

I didn’t know that about the Sims 4! I think I miss the Sims 2 method, because that was one of the fun things about adding an expansion, or even just loading up the base game for your first play through, getting to find the backstory easter eggs for the existing characters because you had those memories to look at. It made it so much more immersive and also it kind of gave a foundation for how to continue the stories that you start with. Would love to see some kind of combination of the Sims 2 and Sims 4 method. That seems like something they could add as a part of the generations update…..! 😱 definitely too late for that if they haven’t already included it, but would be fun to check and see!

Slice of Life I think adds a cool memory thing. It's not quite the same as Season 2 memories, but it will like randomly have the Sim remember the time they got caught in a fire or be talking to their love interest and get a "remember first kiss" moodlet. So, it doesn't really let you look back and reflect, but at least your sim does.

I knew about it but it’s so lame that I never used it again, especially comparatively to the old games ugh

A pardon system???? I knew about the cameras but I never knew about the memory bit

Memories and general storytelling is something that will always make me choose sims2 above the other ones. It gives the gameplay so much flavor and it keeps wanting me to get back to playing the game xx

Hey Jesse, currently recovering from surgery and your videos are helping so much, I love your energy and will definitely be watching old videos and new ones throughout my recovery. Thank you so much for being you!

I loved the Sims 2 memories! I looked at them all the time and it really motivated my gameplay! Adding would be a neat addition, but the automatic feels essential to me

One of my favourite parts of the Sims 2 is the memory system. It really fleshed out your own storytelling in a simple way. It’s also a great way to remember where you left off with families that you haven’t played with for a while. A little customisation option and the sims 2 version would be perfect in my eyes.

I used to use the memory system in sims 4 to “score my families”. I had a whole table with how many points each memory would add or take away depending if it was positive or negative. This was long before I knew what a legacy challenge was or anything. I love how it worked in the background and I miss that simple way of saving memories

I've been wanting a Sims 2 style memory system in the Sims 4 for so long!!

I had no idea this existed! Sims 2 memory system was soo good

So it's been there for a while, but I never use it because I have to go in and do it myself and I wish that it knew that if it's a happy moment that I take a picture, that it should just make it a memory. It's there but it just really needs micromanaging 😭

I’ve been playing with memories for at least 2 years. It’s super cute for building relationships when the sims do something bonding over shared emotions

I feel like the new Growing Together Pacl will have scrapbooking!! in the blog post they mentioned elders being in charge of the family memory book or scrapbook! i hope thats happening

i love love love looking at my old screenshots, its like looking thru a photo album watching my legacy progress 😚 so i really do hope that aspect of the game is expanded!

The TS4 memory system was there since BG, but originally you could choose the emotion assigned to each screenshot. It became an easy way to cheat sims into the desired emotion and the devs ended up removing that option, Now you are stuck with the dominant emotion at time of capture, even if it doesn't fit the image at all. Also, TS2 had family/household storytelling albums, on top of the neighbourhood ones and individual text bios for sims on top of the combined one for the households in map view.

I completely forgot that this was in the game. I'm really hoping Sims 5 can improve on wanted features like memories

The Sims 3 does put the scrapbook memories automatically. I have memory notifications turned off but they still fill up the scrapbook to the point that if I’m playing a vampire/immortal sim they often fill up the scrapbook within their lifetime (I think the max is 300?) and you have to manually delete each one to be able to get more

I think if you clean out your screenshots in the sims 4 game folder, it’ll be less laggy and chaotic. Or you can be like me and make a legacy shrine to my sims and fill their homes with a million family photos on the walls 😅

So my computer died and lost my extensive legacy family. I made only one member again on my new computer and she is the only survivor of a fire. I've been struggling because I want to keep track of all of this so I never forget the family that I lost and this is the perfect way.

This inspired me to try to clean up my Sims 4 Screenshots folder. It turns out the folder is taking up over a gigabyte of storage space and contains over a thousand images. My Sims have a habit of building friendships by taking photos of other Sims. Usually around 15-20 photos for each Sim they want to become "best friends" with. Cleaning out this folder may take some time.

One sim of mine disappeared and came back absolutely mangled. He had a cut on his face and looked like sugar honey iced tea, and I had no idea what had happened. I tried to check his memories and realized that was not an option. It will forever remain a spicy tea mystery

To add to the sims 2 section. It also has the scrapbook part like sims 4 with the screenshots. It is mostly just for storytelling purposes but they are still nice to look at and keep up if you're attached to a family. Base game households come with premade scrapbooks to get a better picture of the household. I specifically remember a screenshot of Nina crying at Dina's wedding to Michael Bachelor.

The sims 3 memories look really cute with a scrapbook. What happened to the sims 4 one 😂

i knew about this! i just never used it because it's pretty much hidden and seems super inconvenient, since all of the screenshots are in the same folder

I wish they'd do an update to the photo album and the memories so we can actually use them to keep track of our Sims histories :(

now that growing tgt with milestones is out i realized how much i missed the sims 3 memories, it just makes the history of my sims feel so much more important without relying just on photos. i wasnt going to buy growing tgt but then i saw some gameplay with the milestones and i had to buy it

I found out about the sims 4 memories when my sim went on a date took a couple of pics and made it a memory

i've known about this but could not be bothered. i usually clear my screenshots folder to help with the lag.

You're not alone, I had no idea of this and I've been playing since the day Sims 4 came out (and all the other ones before)

Your hair looks soooo good this colour!!!

I really enjoyed the background music in this video. So calming

It's been in TS4 since the start (or very close to it), as I remember finding it and using it a good amount in my first families. At some point it got buried in the UI, though, and I wasn't able to find it for years. Hopefully Paralives and future Sim games will put more emphasis on it, as I loved memories in TS2!

I thought that the new expansion pack was going to expand on this. The trailer showed a bunch of screen capture type photos on the wall. And I don't think it was taken with a camera, since the kid seemed to lose his tooth when there was no one else around.

Was watching a Trixie Matel video last night and they mentioned you and your picture popped up on the screen, and it made me happy :)

i genuinely have never heard about this before

Ah, I remember playing the Sims2 and always making sure certain people taught toddlers to talk/walk/go potty because it would say who did in their memories! Like, with one particular family I wanted the teen to essentially raise his little brother on his own because their single dad was focused on work, so I made sure he was the one who always finished teaching the toddler skills 😅

i would love an automatic memory system because i'm forgetful af

I had no idea! Used to love looking back at all the memories in sims 3

I would LOVE a scrapbook feature, I mean I sometimes take screenshots and then make a Google Slides presentation version of a scrapbook outside of the game for my Sims

I loved this video, and the backround music was sooooo peaceful ♥

I also miss how Sims 3 also kept statistics of small things, like if you're Sim is a writer it notes which genre your Sims writes the most, I believe also number of pages or words or some such they've written overall, things like that. It's such a small detail but I used to love looking over all their statistics and their family tree, memories, how books you've written will show up in the libary etc. Sims 4 is really missing these little details that make the Sim feel more unique and have an impact in the world

I'd like a memory system kinda like the neighbourhood story system, where you could choose whether a household (or a single sim, but that would be extremely tedious) made memories, and what type of memories were automatically made. Being able to save custom memories would be great too!

That was one of the first things I found out when playing in the sims for the first time

I have no recollection of when the memory system came about, but I noticed my sims getting moodlets from it often. I like that it's automatic, and I didn't know there was a manual way to add "good/ bad" memories. I probably won't ever manually do that, so I like the auto setting. The Sims2 memories took me WAY back, I remember it saying who taught you to walk/ talk, super cute.

Scrolling casually past all of the violent screenshots is the most Sims player thing I've seen

Literally never knew this 💀

I wish they’d just use the current notification function and make most of those memories like in S2. “Sims are having their first kiss” it’s there just find a way to store it on the sim.

I found out about it when DHD came out and I used screenshots more during gameplay, it was a pleasant surprise but also kind of disappointing that all you get is a moodlet and its not specific to your sim or even the household you're playing. Would love to see it more fleshed out!

i vaguely remember it being in the game bc it would show up in notifications any time you did things like get married, woohoo for the first time, etc. there would just be some button to create a memory iirc. i never ever used it lmao

Never knew about this. Thanks. Not sure if I will use it as it appears to be a bit difficult to use.

I've literally never known about this, I did always like sims 2 memories and I always hated they ditched it in later games..

i really liked in sims 2, it added a lot to the story, i wish it was added with the sentiments in sims 4 :(

WHAAAATT ???? >O< this is so wild, why didnt the sims 4 team highlight this?? 😔👉👈 i love memories.. even if they aren't so good...💔💖💕💔

i used to play around with this randomly i cant believe people are just finding this 😭😭

I was just watching some of Jame’s videos of his rags to riches from seven years ago, he was using it.

I had NO idea!! Thanks for sharing love. ❤❤❤

Memories notoriously are among the features that most break old saves. All the same, I do wish there were easier ways to sort, search, and organize screenshots in TS4.

Auto memories in sims 3 were genuinely so solid I miss them so much

There is definitely a hidden memory system running in Sims 4 (at least right now, I don't know how long for as I only started playing when it became free). My latest save has a father with the erratic trait, and after he insulted his daughter, she had a negative moodlet show up when he was near for a short space of time. Not sure how long they last for, but I'm fairly certain it's independent of using the screenshots. There is so much in the Sims 4 that needs better organisation - the screenshots save just being an empty list is typical, you can say the same about the gallery, the cooking options, even the social interactions if you ditch their garbage one for the Sims 3 one... There may be mods for this, but I'd love to see: -Ability to organise your library/gallery. I want to group certain builds together, link a lot with a household... The filtering options just don't quite do what I want -Cooking options nested. I hate clicking Cook and then getting offered everything in one bland list. At the very least, I'd love to have the option to look for certain types like 'party foods', 'desserts', 'vegetarian'... It's so useful being able to do 'Chips and Salsa' if the party wants everyone to eat food as it will leave space if it wants people to eat cake later on. I think there are a few other dishes like that, but you have to find them with trial and error. On a similar note, a lot challenge of 'vegetarian' would be cool, so it automatically restricted any food options when you clicked on the stove or barbecue. - A few more sub levels on interactions options. For example, it would be useful if mischief interactions were grouped by which ones were pranks etc for when a sim has a want/whim to prank someone. It would be cool if you could find compliments easily under the friendly interactions for similar reasons. -Sort friends panel by relationship strength, filter by age group (also in the party set up screen). Often in previous Sims games I would use parties to build relationships with people who were close to being friends, or close to losing that status, and the Sims 4 screen seems to organise by how recently they've interacted. -Maybe something so you could have collectibles in groups in your inventory to save having to scroll through a bunch of frogs -The ability to limit what gets stored in certain containers. A pet peeve of mine is having a chest to store collectibles, and then finding my sims are putting books away in it... Probably more I could go in to, but those ones I keep wanting to see when I play

The memory system actually used to work very differently in the very begging of the games life! You used to be able to choose the emotion yourself when making it a memory in the sims 4 and then after an update it just chooses the emotion your sim was feeling when the screenshot was taken

Plumbella, thank you for doing this video. I miss, The Sims 3 Scrapbook so much. I remember, when my game would slow down. I would look over pages. And enjoy the memories of my sims. I thought, the Sims 4 might have a memory system. But , was never really sure. Maybe, Growing together will update this.

Yep, it was there since the release. I remember not being impressed and letting this feature fall into the pretend-it-doesn't-exist-and-never-look-a-it-again category in my brain 🤷‍♀️

i do remember ts4 memories impacting gameplay a little bit. i remember having a sim get an emotion about a memory they had in their life. im not quite sure how i made that work, but it happened.. i wish it was a bigger feature

Does anyone know if there's a way to use the screenshots in the digital photo frames from moscino stuff?

The screenshot manager in Sims4 doesn't exist for console so I don't think it can count as a feature. I miss the sims 2 memories because they were automatic and let me know the background of premades

Bestie, I'd love to see you trying to accumulate as many memories as you can in the sims 2 as a challenge video!

I remember finding that once like 2 or 3 years ago and I was like "Oh cool" and then I never used it again. They should definitely rehaul it.

Meanwhile my memory thing is always empty because I constantly move and delete my screenshots

Yeah this has always been here or been in here as long as I can remember, but I never use it bc it’s not really integrated into the gameplay

you can also create memories for the scrapbook....did you not know that? and you can decide whether those are positive or negative memories or just neutral

As someone who had played The Sims 4 since it was released, I can say that it not only has been there since release, but was also changed up drastically in pre-Get Together patch (for the worse in my opinion). Before that patch, you were able to see only the pictures attached to your sim as memories in a separate panel. Now you have to find the memories amongst all the other photos you've taken in game (which to someone who takes a lot of is really annoying). In addition, before Get Together patch you could also make photographed pictures into memory pictures. In addition, you were also able to choose the related emotion yourself. Now it's automatic and based on the emotion your sim was feeling during the time the picture was taken. So, if you take the death memory picture too early, it is a happy memory. I think that the memory system should be both The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 style. All memories start off as a simple icon and description (which you can change). You could then attach a picture to the memory, so instead of the icon you saw a picture. I think that would be the best way to improve this system.

I definitely remember this being there from very early on!!! Kinda lackluster but I used to use it all the time anyway

i think the memory system of the sims 2 is the best, it really fleshes out the characters. and even though you can't add your own to the system, there is the family story tab where you can take pictures and add captions etc. i wasn't a big fan of the sims 3 way, and didn't even know the sims 4 had one. The sims 4 one seems messy and lazy, and I don't want to have to take pics and add a memory to them manually, that's too tedious

I honestly did not know that this was in The Sims 4! Might have to go through the screenshot manager and have a clear out! I can only imagine how much memory that's taking up on my hard drive!

Someone has already mentioned that sims 3 stores memories automatically even if you disable the "share" feature, I would also like to add, that some sims do come with memories (I checked this in Twinbrook at least). When I married townies, they had memories like past marriages and job promotions, just without photos. It's a neat detail I didn't expect, because in sims 4 when you add a townie to your family it usually feels like you added a character straight out of CAS. Maybe you didn't have it in your game because memories start recording only after there is some time of story progression? Then I guess they are not predetermined like in sims 2. It's a shame, but also maybe that's because as far as I remember this system wasn't introduced from the very beginning like in the second installment.

Thanks for bringing this to my attention! It does seem to work, kind of. I’m sure someone else has already said it, but it seems to work when you scroll allllllll the way to the bottom of the photo gallery.

Ts4 already does that thing. Recent things that happend will be talked about if the game has the propaly bubble picture. Sentiments help also with some of the reaction sims have to each other but like in RL just becaus your bitter or annoyed anout something doesnt mean you arent friends or friendlie towards each other.

I love TS2 and 3 memory system. Because just like real memories we don't consider them at the time but rather when we look back and reminisce

Now that I'm watching this video, after the reaction to the new pack trailer, I've realised that 'Memories' have so much potential in terms of legacy play. They can even incorporate it so sims can pass on memories about older generations or have albums that a sim can find and learn about past and present families. It may even have a fun element with ghosts comming back to reminisce about their lives So much potential, still probably going to be ignored

Memories aside, the fact that it doesn't sort the screenshots by newest is a terrible design choice, especially when it seems to show you *every single screenshot* you've ever taken in every save. A mess!!