If it's anything like the gameplay videos, I'm sure it's still going to be a good game. Shortcoming, but not trash.
In all honesty, this is true.
It is a huge downgrade of features from previous titles, but it does bring it's own share of things to the table.
The hybrid neighborhood will most likely mean better in-game optimization, additionally - the Sims 3 open world was /extremely/ empty, and you can't deny that. The only place Sims 3 open world exceeded was exploring for ores/bugs for a tiny tiny share of cash, or in World Adventures. World Adventures was the only expansion/place in Sims 3 where it genuinely benefited from open world, outside of that, the neighborhoods and everything felt extremely empty and lifeless inside the Sims 3. I would rather in the end have my Sims teleport to a already populated location than have to make them run/drive/cab there in order for it to be populated afterwards and even then feel lifeless. The consistent loading screens would be an issue, however I would like to hear some input on how long they take, if they load quicker than ever before, that'd be a good thing in the end.
About the graphics, about them being more cartoonish / worse than even TS3, I don't know what you're talking about, they look great in this style and it fits the whole universe/theme of the game very well.
I think the best bet for anyone at this point is not to buy the game and just wait for some actual reviewers to have a look over it.
Caring over the house was also downgraded, but in favor it was made so that you have more care for your sims. While you don't have many collections of customization in the CAS about the personality, in-game the Sims can gain bunch of stuff and there is a way bigger amount of Skills your Sim can gain compared to any other game (Except WooHoo now). For instance, artistic skill is now split into art/musical etc. If you are a master a painting you no longer can perfect a guitar instantly, which makes more sense.
The game seems to lack in medieval/old furniture/building options, and I personally love that. The base Sims games before came with a very poor/ugly selection of modern/contemporary furniture and decorations but now in TS4 there seems to be a bunch of them.
People are complaining about babies being objects, and about toddlers being removed from the game. Please don't tell me anyone actually enjoyed those stages, they were tedious and annoying in all instances.
Floor limitation while being silly, I doubt it will have that much impact on creativity and general game enjoyment. It will limit the excessively artistic creativity with really silly designs and stuff like that, but we are talking about houses here, not buildings. Houses generally don't have more than 3 floors, and there's generally not a need to have that many to begin with. I am sure the limit will be raised when we will receive a building expansion pack, like it has in TS3.
No story progression? "Sims age, but do not get married, divorced, move, change jobs etc.". This was not in any of the Sims. A TS3 mod "fixed" progression and it does what is used there, however there is no excuse for using that as a argument, a mod is a mod.
The reasons to be genuinely upset about the game are the features which are to be released within DLCs, like pools, since the claims why they can't put them in the base game ARE bullstuff. And maybe the custom texture/coloring CAS, that's also a really big loss. And also no height slider/all age groups have the same height (which is indeed very silly). And some certain nitpicked removals that only certain people enjoyed.
