People waiting impatiently for The Sims 5: you have sinned against Simming and must do penance. In your temerity and ignorance, you have cried out unto developers Maxis and publisher EA for another sequential helping of the cuddly/sociopathic neighbourhood-building game - a "sequel", if you will. Know ye not that we live in the time of Disrupted Models? Sequels are archaisms devised by the old gods in their dotage. Let us all join hands and set forth into the sunny uplands of the Connected Cross-Media Cross-Platform Universe.
]]>The latest free update to The Sims 4 will let you "define the conditions under which your Sims become jealous". That's handy. The new feature, called "Romantic Boundaries", will give you some settings to tweak that determine whether a Sim will be bothered when they see their partner flirting with the neighbour, or kissing the neighbour, or getting into bed with the neighbour, or becoming a blur of obscene pixels with the neighb- okay Cindy, stop! I'm not comfortable with this. When I said we could open up I didn't mean with Nigel.
]]>The Sims 4 is continuing its efforts to represent all the worst parts of modern living. The last expansion added predatory landlords and mould-soaked apartments. The next expansion will add the ability to create dating app profiles for your sims. It's called Lovestruck and it'll launch on July 25th.
]]>The Sims 4 is fast approaching its 10th birthday this September, a fact that genuinely instilled me with the crushing sense of time marching relentlessly on when I checked its release date a moment ago. That near-decade has brought a whole heap of additions, expansions, packs and updates to the enduring life sim game, to the degree that the underlying tech serving as the foundation for dozens of later mechanical and visual elements can sometimes look a bit wobbly these days.
]]>The Sims 4 is nothing if not a teetering jenga tower of updates and add-ons and DLC packs, and the latter half of 2024 will be no exception for EA's life sim king. Yesterday saw the release of an update to the base game's swimwear, kicking off the updates teased in the recently-revealed new roadmap, Season Of Love. The roadmap video's vibe is that it and its partner saw you from across the bar and wondered if you'd be interested in joining them, and it kind of weirds me out.
]]>As any fool knows, the age of girlies bulk-buying silver wire and making their own crystal jewellery at home is over, but EA always arrives precisely when it means to. This weekend saw the release of the Crystal Creations Stuff Pack, a DLC for The Sims 4 that takes the ability to find crystals (already in the game) and straps on your Sims making them into semi-precious, semi-magic jewellery that can be charged up by the moon. What I find more interesting is that this launched with some official IRL Sims plumbob jewellery that you can buy and wear around your own precious, swan-like neck.
]]>A new update for The Sims 4 has added options to give characters vitiligo, the autoimmune disorder which causes patches of skin to lose pigmentation. Rather than a handful of preset full-body patterns, The Sims 4's vitiligo impressively comes as loads of patterns for separate bodyparts, so you can create a wide range of effects. And no, you don't need to buy an expansion for it.
]]>Squashed as it was between The Game Awards, a dozen or more game announcements, and the release of The Finals and The Day Before, you can be forgiven for missing the release of the latest expansion for The Sims 4 on December 7th. For Rent adds multi-family lots to the aging dollhouse 'em up, and with it the ability to be a landlord or renter within apartnment buildings.
]]>The Sims 4 has long offered millennials the unattainable fantasy of owning their own home. On December 7th, it'll instead offer something much closer to reality. That's when the For Rent expansion will launch, adding multi-family lots so you can construct apartment buildings, rent out your spare basement, or have an authentically terrible time as a tenant.
]]>The Sims 4 is getting two new Kits - the small-ish pieces of DLC which add new items, and no new mechanics, to the construction toybox. The Poolside Splash kit adds new "brght and playful" swimwear and poolside floaties, while the Modern Luxe kit adds expensive décor for use in posh homes. Both kits launch later this week on September 7th.
]]>Where is the cave in The Sims 4 Horse Ranch? From time to time, The Sims 4 team like to keep us on our toes by including a secret area in the latest world added with a new expansion pack. The infrequent tradition makes a return in The Sims 4 Horse Ranch, although the "secret" of Dreadhorse Caverns didn't stay secret for very long.
Nevertheless, knowing that the secret cave exists and knowing how to find it are two very different things, since secret areas in The Sims games are often surprisingly hard to locate. Read on below for directions to Dreadhorse Caverns in The Sims 4 Horse Ranch, as well as information on what to expect once you get there.
]]>Want to know where to get mini goats and mini sheep in The Sims 4 Horse Ranch? The Sims 4 Horse Ranch adds more animal companions than the title might suggest, with mini goats and mini sheep an unexpected yet adorable first-time addition to the Sims' world. However, upon starting the game, it's not entirely obvious how to expand your fuzzy family to include these cute mini ruminants.
Read on below for everything you need to know about adopting goats and sheep in The Sims 4 Horse Ranch, including a few words on why you might want them (aside from the obvious) and how to take care of them once they arrive.
]]>Horses are trotting their way into The Sims 4 as part of the game's next expansion, with leaks sharing some specific details ahead of its full reveal. The official Sims Twitter account did show a short teaser trailer earlier this week of a Sim imagining a life out in the desert, promising a "rootin' tootin' expansion, two bold kits," and a Behind the Sims presentation. You can check out the full trailer for that when it debuts later today, but leaks regarding the expansion were shared on the Sims Community fan site after details and screenshots were mistakenly shared on Steam earlier this week.
]]>Can I get the free Sims 4 bundle from Epic if I own the game via another store? This week's Epic Game free game is a The Sims 4 bundle containing three pieces of DLC. Epic's exclusive "Daring Lifestyle Bundle" includes the Jungle Adventure Game Pack, the Luxury Party Stuff Pack, and the Fashion Street Kit.
The Sims 4 base game is available via the Epic Games Store, however, many people will probably own it already on the EA App (formerly Origin). I have tested it myself and it is possible to redeem the free bundle from EGS and install its contents even if you're an EA App user, but it gets a bit complicated. Read on below for everything you need to know about how to get your free Sims 4 DLC from Epic.
]]>The Sims 4's next two Kits represent two very different parts of the home. The Greenhouse Haven kit is all about giving you new options for how you design your garden, while the Basement Treasures kit lets you cram your subterranean hovel with "lived-in furniture and sentimental decor." Both will launch on April 20th.
]]>The Sims 4 recently spawned infants into its life sim sandbox via a free update, and the substantial Growing Together expansion. At launch, Sims would go from nascent babies to walking, talking kids, skipping the infant years that teach them, for example, how to talk in Simlish, although that does sound like baby talk too. The new expansion adds a lot to Sim’s life stages, but the real show stealer here is a pesky bug that elongates babies. Yes, you read that correctly.
]]>The Sims 4 has now birthed its free Infants update, which takes the runtiest part of your digital doll's lives and expands upon it. Sims during those pre-walking years now have full needs and wants, which means the Sims around them will need to spend more time caring for them lest they grow into maladjusted adults.
]]>Last week, I attended a hands-off preview for The Sims 4's upcoming Growing Together expansion pack and its supporting free base game update. This was obviously a real treat for me as RPS' resident Sims fanatic, but I'll admit I went in with my expectations parked in neutral. After all, the theme of this new-content duo is young families, and that just isn't part of the game I engage with too much these days.
]]>The Sims 4's will add infants in a free update on March 14th, but just two days later the Growing Together expansion will arrive. It aims to expand lifetime milestones for more than just children, as well as adding new complexity to relationship dynamics. You'll find a trailer explaining exactly how it all works below.
]]>What are the best mods for The Sims 4? The Sims 4 is a sandbox life simulator, a game where the very idea is to do what you want. While The Sims series might be famous for its cheat codes, mods are another extremely popular way to tweak the game to suit your desires. Mods can go a lot further, too, enhancing the vanilla game until it's potentially almost unrecognisable.
The makers of The Sims 4 are well aware of the importance of modding in their game's community, to the point that they actively provide a degree of in-game support for mods on PC and Mac. Below we've put together an easy-to-follow set of instructions on how to install and run mods in The Sims 4, as well as our selection of the 15 best mods (from tune-ups to total tear-downs) to enhance your game right now.
]]>Now that The Sims 4 has babies and toddlers, the family unit is complete. Perfect timing too, as the game’s next expansion is all about growing up with family. The Sim 4’s Growing Together Expansion Pack is out March 16th and it’s planning to expand the way your Sims change over time and relate to other Sims
]]>The Sims 4 didn't have toddlers until they were added in 2017, and sims' early years will continue to telescope when March comes around. That's when infants will finally be added to the game, turning babies into full sims.
The latest update also offered news on Project Rene, the eventual successor to The Sims 4. The key takeaways: it's not an MMO but it will have multiplayer as well as singleplayer, and it's years away from release.
]]>Guides work is a very strange beast, and one that we don't talk about as often as we maybe should. By its nature, we here in guidestown can feel a bit isolated from the rest of RPS. Our guides aren't very visible to our regular readers. No one hops onto a website like this and says to themselves, "Well now! I wonder what guides have been written today that I can spend my time reading through!". The vast majority of people who read our guides come straight from a Google search into something specific like "Can I romance Yennefer and Triss at the same time?" (spoiler alert: you can, but it may not end well for you).
Because we operate so much behind the scenes, it's easy to miss some of the amazing stuff that the team did in guidestown this year. It ain't easy, writing a walkthrough or how-to that's useful for the reader while simultaneously appeasing those nebulous and mercurial SEO gods. But 2022 has been a stonkingly good year for guides, and I'd love to take a little bit of time to shine a light on some of the things we're most proud of having achieved this year - and to toast what will hopefully be another smashing year for guides in 2023!
]]>At this point, I'd consider the wacky bugs continually introduced to The Sims 4 as more of a feature than a bug. For example, a recent update turned previously placid Sims into moody, argumentative jerks who were constantly scrapping with one another. That sounds great to me, although if you disagree there's bad news. EA Maxis say that their fix, intended to release this past week, has been delayed until early December.
]]>The Sims 4 is getting two new pieces of DLC next week on November 10th. The Pastel Pop Kit includes colourful '60s-inspired home decor, while the Everyday Clutter Kit will let you pepper your Sims house with the kind of junk that litters your real one.
]]>EA held their first Behind The Sims Summit last week, revealing plenty of Sims updates, including a very early look at the next game in the series, Project Rene. Despite this big news, discussion around the event has focused on EA’s lack of community representation, as they only included one “black simmer” onscreen during a stream full of other content creators. Black content creators have been a significant part of The Sims' online presence for years, creating custom content, mods and more.
]]>The Sims series has always had a vibrant modding community, but for the first time Maxis are taking steps to make it easier. In today's Sims Summit stream, they announced that they were partnering with CurseForge to create a "moderated, curated space" for The Sims 4 players to download mods and custom content.
]]>The Sims 4 is now a free-to-play game - and yet somehow this isn't today's biggest The Sims news. That's because, during today's Sims Summit livestream, Maxis also announced that the next The Sims is in-development. Currently codenamed Project Rene, it's a few years away, although we saw some early footage of its creative tools in action.
]]>The Sims 4 always gets a few fun bugs to investigate in and around new content coming out (which is all the time), and The Sims 4 Werewolves is no exception. The laundry list of issues that the team are investigating this month has a raft of fun werewolf-centric bugs like humans being able to sniff each other, and a wolf getting mad that he's the bottom (of the pack) even though he's the alpha. The High School Years update from July is also facilitating accidental sibling incest, still, after one method of sibling highschool be-sandwiching was fixed in August. It appears to be an entrenched problem. Those kids must really like House Of The Dragon.
]]>EA and developers Maxis have revealed today that The Sims 4 will be going free to play from October 18th. You’ll be able to grab it on Steam, Origin or the EA app. There had been rumours circulating online earlier today that an announcement was incoming from EA on this, and those were evidently legit. More information on the future of The Sims will be coming on October 18th too, EA said, at an event dubbed the Behind The Sims Summit.
]]>The Sims 4 received patch 1.90.375.1020 today, which has a short set of patch notes. One of the included bug fixes is that "The 'Ask to be Girlfriend/Boyfriend' Want now targets appropriate Sims", which sounds innocuous enough. In reality, this is fixing a bug Rebecca reported on last week which was causing Sims to want to date their siblings.
]]>How do wants and fears work in The Sims 4? Patch 132 for The Sims 4 supports the High School Years expansion, but it also brings some of its biggest features to the base game for all players. Since The Sims 4 launched in 2014, Sims' short-term desires have been governed by "whims" — small optional goals heavily influenced by their immediate context, which grant a handful of reward points upon completion. But High School Years and Patch 132 overhaul and even rename this system: it's now called "wants and fears", harkening back to the equivalent feature as it appeared in The Sims 2.
However, it's not a straightforward remake of The Sims 2's wants and fears system. Instead, this latest version of the feature adapts a few familiar aspects of The Sims 4's Simology into something a little bit new. Confused? Read on below for a full explanation of how wants and fears work in The Sims 4.
]]>How do I customise a Sim's gender and sexual orientation in The Sims 4? The Sims franchise has always been considered something of a pioneer of LGBTQ+ representation in gaming, but even so, The Sims 4 has come a long way since its initial release in 2014. Significant updates to the base game have made it the first generation of the franchise to allow for the creation of trans and gender non-conforming characters, and later the ability to change a Sim's pronouns. And recently, another update made it possible to define your Sim's sexual orientation.
Customising your Sims' sexual orientation, gender identity, and pronouns is fairly straightforward, but understanding what all the options actually mean in terms of gameplay can be a little more complicated. On this page, I'll explain both how to customise your Sims and what impact your choices will have on the way your game works.
]]>The Sims 4 High School Years is launching today, but its release looks set to be overshadowed by a couple of major bugs introduced by its supporting update, Patch 132. The patch came out on Tuesday and, if you've played The Sims 4 since then, you'll have automatically downloaded it unless you've been playing offline. While the patch's release coincides with the High School Years expansion and supports a number of its features, it also added several new elements to the ever-evolving base game. These include long-time fan requests like sexual orientation customisation, body hair options, and the return of a wants and fears system in the style of The Sims 2.
]]>The next free update for The Sims 4 will add options which let you define the sexual orientation of your Sims. That includes support for straight, gay and bi Sims, as well as those who are asexual or aromantic. In a blog post about the feature, design lead Jessica Croft also detailed the system's limitations and said they consider it "a version 1.0".
]]>Where is Greg in The Sims 4 Werewolves and what does he do? The Sims 4 Werewolves is one of the most lore-heavy add-ons to hit the gargantuan life sim in a good long while. Not only does it do an impressive job of overhauling what we've come to expect from The Sims 4's occult-themed DLCs, but it actually ties together the lore behind Werewolves with that of the Vampires and Realm Of Magic game packs, too, retrospectively giving them better stories in the process. Sparkling stuff.
Every character in the werewolf hometown of Moonwood Mill has a story to tell, but perhaps the most interesting — and certainly the most elusive — is Greg. No last name, just: Greg. This new NPC was teased heavily in promotional materials prior to the pack's release, but although he does appear in the game itself, he's a tricky wolfman to track down. There's nothing like a mystery to get Sims players rallied around a pre-made character, so on this page we'll be sharing all the good Greg gossip, including where to find him, details about how he behaves in the game, and why your Sim might want to make the effort to track him down.
]]>How does my Sim become a werewolf in The Sims 4? The Sims 4 Werewolves is the latest in a long line of supernatural-themed game packs for The Sims 4, and for my money it might be the best of the lot. Becoming a werewolf brings with it a whole host of interesting perks and unique interactions that are well worth checking out. If you've ever wanted your Sim to be able to pee freely anywhere in the world or eat literally every single item of furniture in their house, lycanthropy is definitely for you.
The Sims 4 usually gives you a few different paths towards occult transformation, and becoming a werewolf is no exception. Below we'll outline all the different methods you can use to make your playable Sims into werewolves.
]]>It turns out that school won't be out for summer this year, because The Sims 4's next expansion pack High School Years is set to release on July 28th. The first full expansion since Cottage Living launched a year ago, High School Years is set to do exactly what it says on the tin, massively expanding gameplay options for Sims in their teens.
The pack promises to introduce staples of high school life like attending classes, getting detention, going to prom, and graduating, all as on-screen activities that the player can guide their Sims through. While there's a fair bit of overlap with the series' established college-themed expansion packs like The Sims 4 Discover University, giving this treatment to high school-aged characters is a franchise first, and something that's been on the fandom's collective wish list for a very long time.
]]>I don't tend to be biased towards games just because they're new, so I feel it carries some weight when I say that The Sims 4 Werewolves Game Pack has immediately become one of my favourite add-ons for The Sims 4. Having been a fan of the Vampires and Realm Of Magic (a.k.a. wizards, basically) game packs since their respective releases, I can safely say that Werewolves has done an excellent job iterating and expanding on what worked from those previous supernatural outings.
]]>Pop your collar because EA and Maxis have confirmed that the next expansion for The Sims 4 is growing a bit hairy thanks to the return of werewolves on June 16th. The Sims 4: Werewolves is the 12th game pack released for the ever-growing life sim so far, and will add the new world of Moonwood Mill, which is simply heaving with the canine monstrosities. Howl at the trailer below.
]]>Earlier this month, Maxis teased a trio of DLCs for The Sims 4 that would each relate to the nighttime. Two of those DLCs have now been revealed: the Moonlight Chic Kit, which adds evening clothing items, and the Little Campers Kit, which offers new ways for Sims to enjoy their back gardens.
]]>EA have provided a few scant details of the coming roadmap for The Sims 4, which includes a game pack and two kits coming in May and June. The three are all themed around nighttime, with heavy hints that the game pack will bring werewolves back to the series.
]]>The Sims 4's My Wedding Stories expansion launched back in February, but plentiful bugs have meant the trip down aisle hasn't been a smooth experience for players helping their sims tie the knot. Now a new patch has released which fixes some, but not all, of the issues. At least the patch notes are a delight.
]]>Welcome back to the third edition of The RPS Time Capsule, a monthly feature in which the RPS Treehouse puts their hivemind together to pick their favourite, bestest best games from a specific year to be preserved until the end of time. In the spirit of keeping you on your toes, this time we've set our sights on the best games from 2014. Which games will make the cut and ascend to the realms of the PC gaming elite? Find out below.
]]>EA will now release The Sims 4's upcoming My Wedding Stories expansion in Russia, reversing a decision supposedly made due to concerns that it would run afoul of an anti-homosexuality law. Many fans were unhappy with this. Now EA say oh, they've checked again, and it turns out they don't need to censor anything. So the expansion will come to Russia too, but EA are delaying the launch one week so they can get their ducks in a line and launch simultaneously worldwide.
]]>The Sims 4's My Wedding Stories game pack will launch next week, introducing the "romantic world" of Tartosa and a suite of new wedding-themed items and events to the storytelling toybox. Today, EA Maxis announced that the pack would not be released in Russia, however, where homophobic laws would have required developers to compromise "the values we live by."
]]>Developers offer free weekends with their games all the time, but it feels more like a trap when the game is The Sims 4. Become immersed in EA's dollhouse creation kit and what awaits you is a world of costly DLC.
But then heck, I like the game and I've only bought a handful of content packs because I liked the look of the kitchen cupboards. So play The Sims 4 for free on Steam this weekend, and buy it at 88% off if you like it.
]]>How do you complete the New Year New Hustle Scenario in The Sims 4? Since Scenarios were launched in The Sims 4 late last year, we've seen a mix of permanent and time-limited challenges added to the game. New Year New Hustle is the fourth time-limited challenge launched and, appropriately enough, will be available to begin between January 10th and February 2nd, 2022.
]]>How do Neighborhood Stories work in The Sims 4? Patch 121 for The Sims 4 base game introduced a new core mechanic, called Neighborhood Stories, which has now been expanded upon with the release of Patch 125. Hailed by some players as the long-awaited story progression feature that will allow NPCs a degree of autonomy, this feature was in fact something of a prototype when it first rolled out in November 2021, although with the March 2022 version now live, it feels like we're starting to see something closer to the intended final product. With the patches installed, certain non-player characters will experience major life events not directly connected to the active household, and comprehensive story progression in the style that we enjoyed back in the days of The Sims 3 is starting to come to fruition.
Read on to learn exactly how Neighborhood Stories work in The Sims 4 and — crucially — how it will affect your existing and new saves.
]]>I've always seen The Sims series as the ultimate life-meddling games. It's one of those, well, sims, where it's all too tempting to recreate friends and family you know in real life and send them on a path you've chosen. Right now in The Sims 4, players are limited to making life choices for these Sims they've created, doomed to watch Neighbour Sims do their own thing. But on November 30th, the Neighborhood Stories update will let you influence what these NPCs do, from starting families to changing careers.
]]>Like many people, I became a plant guy during the pandemic. I don't know the names of the plants, I don't know what they need except sporadic watering and moderate light, but they're green and I like them.
The Sims 4's Blooming Rooms kit feels designed for me. It's one of Maxis's new micro-DLCs, and it lets you pack rooms with flora without the need to keep the alive through knowledge or effort.
]]>How do Scenarios work in The Sims 4? There have been fan-made Sims challenges for as long as there have been Sims games, but now the makers of The Sims 4 have introduced Scenarios into official gameplay.
]]>A lot of people play The Sims 4 by pursuing community-created challenges, whether they're about building particular types of homes, having a particular number of babies, or many more. Next week a free update for The Sims 4 will add these kinds of challenges to the game itself, beginning with two new scenarios.
]]>Fashion Street and Incheon Arrivals are two new paid kits for The Sims 4 offering up some excellent looks based on Indian and South Korean fashion scenes. The former is inspired by Mumbai's very own Fashion Street, adding henna tattoos, wrap skirts and more. While the latter comes from Seoul's "airport style", offering the sorts of outfits celebs would be snapped in coming off an airplane. But also, they're the sorts of outfits I kinda wanna wear! Everything looks comfy and long, and I have a sudden need for a jacket that sweeps below my knees.
]]>Oh rejoice, a Sims 4 update that's all for me. Maxis have just dropped a free update which they say their art team totally took over by whipping up around 1200 new color swatches for 149 different Buy and Build Mode objects. There are tons of new window drape colors, new countertop swatches, wood furniture choices, and even plants. That is a lot of new color choices for a lot of items and oh boy I will probably use them all. Fellow builders, this one is for us.
]]>The Sims 4 has gotten a heck of a lot of DLC game packs and expansions over the years and now Maxis are going back to give some extra love to one of them. One of the earliest game packs, from back in 2015, was Spa Day which added things like yoga, meditation, and massages. Maxis have doubled down on the relaxation with new wellness aspirations, the ability to earn money in wellness gigs, and, for the first time, actual nail art. Here's everything that's being added to the pack, and some bits for the base game, next week.
]]>Animal clothing is a cute and quirky feature of The Sims 4 Cottage Living, allowing you to dress up both farm- and wild-animal friends in a variety of adorable little outfits obtained from the Creature Keeper and other NPCs. Given that there are only so many animal character models in the game, it can also be a useful way of telling your critters apart.
A variety of clothing options are available for the residents of your barnyard — chickens, cows, and llamas — as well as for a couple of the wild animals in the area, namely rabbits and foxes. All five species have several sets of clothing specially designed to suit their number of limbs and general aesthetic.
]]>The Sims 4's latest expansion Cottage Living has just recently launched, bringing with it a free base game update. In among all the new additions is the Pond Tool, which some folks are using to build lovely water features outside their idyllic countryside homes. Others are making monstrous, flooded disaster lots. Which is a thing that the pond tool does apparently let you do.
]]>Brightly coloured animals and produce featured heavily in the trailers for The Sims 4 Cottage Living. But now that the pack's out, you might be wondering how to turn your undeniably cute but still ordinary-looking chickens, cows, and llamas into the amazing technicolor fantasy creatures you were promised.
In this Sims 4 Cottage Living animal and produce colours guide, we explain how to buy farm animals in this new pack, as well as what you need to do to change their coat and produce colours.
]]>The Sims 4's next expansion is the ridiculously idyllic version of British countryside living. Electronic Arts revealed the Cottage Living expansion last month and they've now called up a local llama to give you the details. Why the llama? Well he's more English than I am, so I trust he knows more about the affairs of the new Henford-on-Bagley neighbourhood than I do. Here's Harold in a new trailer to show off livestock, canning, local fairs and more.
]]>You can tell summer is coming: sun's out, guns out, and taps aff, and a car drove past my flat blasting Len's 1999 monster summer jam Steal My Sunshine at full volume. That reminded me EA made a Simlish version of Steal My Sunshine for The Sims 4's Seasons expansion, and now I've fallen down a terrible hole of breaking my brain with incomprehensible versions of familiar summer jams. Please help. The Simlish translation of "Girl I think my butt gettin' big" in Nelly's Hot In Herre is killing me.
]]>I grew up in a 200 year old weaver's cottage, but it had very little in common with the life depicted in The Sims 4 Cottage Living expansion trailer. I didn't get to hug any llamas, for one, but they play a prominent role in the trailer below, alongside farming, foxes, and a quaint village setting.
]]>Interior design is great fun. It can be expensive and an awful lot of effort to do in real life, however, so I think I'll stick to doing it virtually for now. The latest Sims 4 pack should help with that, because it adds interior decorator as a new in-game career. Out now, the Dream Home Decorator expansion will have you picking out cool furniture for other sims, and prettying up their homes to satisfy their requests.
]]>The next game pack for The Sims 4 might get me to actually unpause the game. The Dream Home Decorator expansion adds interior decorator as a new in-game career, letting you design rooms and homes for other sims to meet their requests. Since designing rooms and homes is what I typically play The Sims for, rather than all that interpresonal drama, this looks fun.
There's a trailer below, and the pack will launch on June 1st.
]]>The Sims 4 is getting bunk beds and that's rad. Folks, including me, have wanted stacked sleepers in the grand life sim for a long time because they're fun, functional, and cute. I watched as the The Discover University expansion pack came and went without them as did the Tiny Living stuff pack, both of which seemed like a perfect time for bunks. Although waiting was painful, there is a bright side. Bunk beds are being added to the base game in a free update tomorrow. No purchase necessary.
EA teased the upcoming bunks a week ago and now we've got a proper, if brief, look at them. Stacked beds are pretty darn cute, as made abdundantly clear by these kiddos in their adorable room full of other kiddie furniture. Thank goodness they've even have a proper ladder climbing animation too.
]]>The Sims 4 already receives regular new content via expansions, Game Packs and Stuff Packs, but now EA Maxis are also selling Kits. Kits are smaller purchasable packs that add new features or items to the long-running life simulation game, and there are three available as of today.
They add '90s athleisure, country-style kitchen cabinets, and dust, respectively, and each will set you back $5/£5/€5. There's a trailer below.
]]>The Sims 4 appeals to me because it lets me build the kind of Pinterest-worthy homes I'll never live in in real-life, so I'm often more excited about the game's Stuff packs than its game-changing expansions. This time is no different: the Paranormal stuff pack arrives later this month and as well as adding a new career and bringing back Bonehilda, it also adds some sweet looking desks.
]]>Pack your bags, wrap the presents, put your scarf around your neck. And then sit down because, I'm sorry, you're going nowhere. It's bad, yeah. Even yours truly, a respected list goblin of note, could not make it back to his family in time for the holidays due to the ongoing vengeance of mother nature. But listen. What if I told you: "video games"? They have always had something for us in the past. What wonderful surrogate families can we join in this time of loneliness and separation to ease our troubled minds? Here are the 10 most wholesome families in PC games you may look to in this hour of need.
]]>Earlier this year, Maxis told players that they would expand the character creation tools in The Sims 4 to help create more diverse Sims, specifically focusing on darker skin tones and textured hairstyles. That effort has produced results today in a free update that massively expands your ability to choose skin tones and makeup colors along with a couple hairstyle improvements.
]]>The last couple of years have been pretty good for management games, but only the select few have made the cut for our list of best management games you can play right now. If you're looking for something to sink into over the holidays, check out our picks below.
]]>A slopes getaway isn't in the cards this winter but hey, The Sims 4's new expansion Snowy Escape is out today to virtually cart you off to the mountains. The new expansion pack adds a new world with three neighborhoods, Lifestyles and Sentiments systems, and a lot of new building objects and clothing choices.
]]>This year for my holidays I was going to go on a road trip around a European country before it became too late, but then this summer became a bit of a write off. Enter the latest DLC for EA's blockbuster life sim The Sims 4, a combined winter wonderland and chill hiking holiday. Snowy Escape is set in the "Japanese inspired" Mt. Komorebi, and the headline is that your Sims can do loads of winter holiday stuff. Having had access to a preview build, I have already shared my thoughts that Snowy Escape may actually be the precursor to Skynet, so this time I will ignore that sinister aspect of it and just share some holiday snaps.
]]>The latest chunk of DLC for The Sims 4 is arriving on November 13th. Entitled Snowy Escape, it's a wintery-themed one this time, so is very seasonal, and I got to play a bunch of a preview build. Snowy Escape adds a new world, Mt. Komorebi, with three neighbourhoods - one of which is the mountain itself where your Sims can ski and snowboard and climb to their hearts content (or at least until they really need a wee).
It also gives your Sims the capacity to nurture deep, bubbling hatred that they remember over time. I fear this spells doom for us all.
]]>As the nights draw ever closer, and the windows of the local Tesco grow ever more pumpkiny, I have been burrowing into blankets, putting a hot water bottle on my feetsies (because we don't want to turn on the heating yet) and wallowing in some classic scares. But I have found this harder to do with games. Most games are, obviously, a very interactive experience, and when the scares are happening to you, rather than someone you are watching, it is less conducive to comfortable toasty-toe Octobering.
At the same time, I have been pootling around in The Sims 4, restlessly starting and canning new builds in a fit of pique. But then I realised that my two interests can be combined: I can indulge in some classic horror, play a game at the same time, and I don't even have to do any work because other Sims builders have already done it! That's my favourite kind of work! And lo and behold, there are loads of recreations of famous scary buildings knocking about on The Sims 4 Gallery. I've linked a few of my favourites that I found below. Sure, you could search the gallery for them yourselves, but the gallery UI is the worst thing in the entire world, so this will save you time.
]]>EA have partially revealed the newest expansion pack for The Sims 4 - showing a modest glimpse of shoulder, if you will. But friends, it is a cold shoulder. The expansion is called Snowy Escape, and until a trailer is revealed later today, that's pretty much all we have to go on. That, and a screenshot collage of cheery Sims doing winter sport activities like they're all in an advert showing how being on your period doesn't have to stop you living your life to the max.
]]>How do I use cheat codes in The Sims 4? Cheating in The Sims series is as much a traditional part of the game as building a wall around the pool and watching your Sim slowly drown. Our ultimate guide to The Sims 4 cheats will tell you all about how to enable cheats, and which cheats will give you loads of money to spend, let you build anywhere in the game, or just kill whichever Sims you don't particularly like. No judgement from us.
]]>Long term readers of my constant Sims 4 Simsposting will know that by far my favourite custom content maker right now is Ravasheen. Imagine my delight when I found out that, after three months of work and collaboration with another creator, Panda Sama, the pair have produced an extremely adorable tiny play kitchen for toddlers and kids.
Further long term readers of my work may also know that I am not the biggest fan of children (and in the game!), but in this case I will make an exception, because I tested some of the custom animations out with a sweet little toddler and he wore a little chef's hat and everything. I also got in touch with Ravasheen to ask her about her cc process, and how she got into making it in the first place, because I am obsessed with her work.
]]>Maxis have given some new details on their commitment to fixing dark skin tones in The Sims 4. An October update will address existing graphical issues with darker skin tones while a later update in December will add one hundred new skin swatches and additional customization controls for Create-A-Sim.
]]>Captain's log, stardate 74156.3. We've encountered an entity calling itself 'Electronic Arts', which demonstrates godlike powers and treats human lives as pawns in a game for its own twisted enjoyment. It tells us we are its latest toys, and our homes, our heroes, and our decor shall join the fantasy it calls The Sims 4, declaring our imprisonment to be a 'game pack' named Star Wars: Journey To Batuu. Worse yet, the entity claims that our very lives are not real, that we're mere props from an attraction at Universal Studios, a theme park in 20th century Earth. From how enthusiastically it stokes fires in our kitchens and sabotages our electrical appliances, I fear we may prosper but not live long.
]]>The Sims 4 is once again courting (mild, predictable) controversy, this time because of the upcoming Star Wars(TM) Journey To Batuu game pack. The DLC itself doesn't arrive for another few days (coming to stores near you on Tuesday the 8th), but Simfluencers like Plumbella have posted preview impressions of it that aren't glowing.
This has not improved the mood of a vocal section of Sims fans, who were already unenthusiastic about Journey To Batuu on the basis that they didn't want it as much as they wanted something else. EA clearly felt the situation had reached some kind of crisis point, because a statement has been put out addressing the "community feedback" the developers have received. Sims players being annoyed at The Sims 4 is frankly pretty business as usual; EA actually responding to it is less so.
]]>Electronic Arts left Steam nine years ago to do their own thing with Origin, but over the last few months their games have been returning. Now, their subscription service, EA Play, is on Valve's platform, too, allowing you to play games like the Dragon Age series, Battlefield V, and more on Steam for a monthly or yearly fee. It's not just the old stuff EA are letting Steam have though, because you'll be able to access some of the publisher's new releases through the service as well.
]]>The newest game pack for The Sims 4 has been officially revealed at Gamescom Opening Night Live, and it is the Star War. The Sims 4 Star Wars (TM): Journey To Batuu is coming out on September 8th, just over a week from today, and will allow your Sims to just, like, go to a Star Wars planet and see the Millennium Falcon and everything.
There's a fairly extensive look at all this in the new trailer, which also appears to show someone getting arrested for asking a Stormtrooper out on a date. Play stupid games, as they say. Importantly, it is confirmed that you can create both your own lightsaber and droid.
]]>Electronic Arts have rebranded their Origin Access subscription service to EA Play, and announced that it will launch on Steam on August 31st. As before, it lets people play many of EA's games for as long as they pay, with a pricier tier giving access to their newest games. However, it seems only the basic version of EA Play is coming to Steam - EA are keeping their Pro tier to their own platform, Origin, for now.
]]>Have I told you lately, reader, that I really, properly, stonkingly love how weird each and every single one of us are? Even if we manage to keep it on the quiet (which we may not: recently, my predilection for eating dry, buttered Weetabix for breakfast was shared at a company-wide meeting), we all have strange and specific depths. And when weird worlds collide, the weirdness refracts and becomes something else even more precious and strange. Like true crime and The Sims 4, for example.
]]>The Sims series has a reputation for being inclusive and always striving to let players create Sims that represent themselves. For years though, Black players have been pointing out that The Sims 4 could really stand to do better with its dark skin tones that look desaturated compared to the skin of actual people. Thanks in part to a Twitter hashtag and a petition, Maxis have agreed to fix the current options available for dark skin tones and add more this year.
]]>The Sims 4 has always kind of been The Truman Show as god game, hasn't it? You make your little puppet people, you control every aspect of their lives and personality from birth until death, you make them get in the pool and then remove the ladder. I am become Ed Harris, destroyer of worlds, right? And now, thanks to an incredible build creation shared by Sims community member "Simoniona", your Sims game can be The Truman Show both metaphorically and literally.
She's created a version of Truman's neighbourhood from the movie, so your Sims, too, can wish their neighbours good afternoon, good evening and good night. And, even more impressively, there are two versions of it. One is the street from, as it were, Truman's point of view at the start of the movie - a suburban paradise. The second is when the scales have fallen from his eyes. The lot is bordered with big movie set surrounds, a light has crashed onto the set, and we even have the iconic steps and door for your tiny Trumans to make their own escape.
]]>The Sims 4 seems to be pivoting toward content that is, firstly, tailored specifically to my interests, and, secondly, designed to allow the creation of strange and reclusive weirdos. Whilst EA's attempt at a new reality show about playing The Sims rumbles on in the background, and after the Eco Lifestyle expansion pushed me towards creating a stinky, trash-gobbling Oscar the Grouch, here comes new Stuff Pack Nifty Knitting.
Stuff Packs are sort of mini-expansions, and Nifty Knitting is all about, well, knitting. Somehow - whether by bugs that are not yet smoothed out, or by design - the Nifty Knitting Stuff Pack has perfectly recreated the slide from "oh, knitting is kind of cool", into the creation of wool mailbox covers and jumpers that have scarves built in. I played for a few hours, and in that space of time my Sim evolved naturally into a hunched yarn hermit, rocking incessantly on her new chair and eschewing everything in favour of more knitting. Including food, sleep and conversation. It is the closest The Sims has yet come to allowing me to create myself. And it is too real.
]]>We are half way through the inaugural season of The Sims Spark'd, a reality TV show based around being well good at The Sims. If you hadn't heard, 12 Sim fanatics have been whisked away to... some studio, where they're competing to win $100k by proving they are the bestest at The Sims 4. The first episode premiered last week on TBS, with the episode appearing on the BuzzFeed Multiplayer YouTube chennel the following Monday. Yesterday saw the second episode go up on YouTube as well. EA are as yet only dipping their toe in the murky sea that is reality TV, however, since Spark'd will only run for four episodes total.
Spark'd actually has all the ingredients that I love about terrible reality TV shows, plus it involves The Sims 4. On paper, it should be amazing. And indeed, there are already minor Twitter beefs between fans, and contestants complaining about the broadcast edit not showing the full truth. All classic stuff! But it's clear that Spark'd will never achieve greatness unless EA loosens the apron strings enough to let their reality TV baby become a hot, hot mess.
]]>"Are you ready for your new knitting obsession", EA asks, knowing full well it is the height of summer. Nevertheless, the next The Sims 4's stuff pack is, indeed, Nifty Knitting - adding a full wool wash worth of knitted goods for your Sims to weave, wear, and (eventually) monetise, all from the comfort of their sturdy rocking chair come July 28th. Just, maybe stick to knitted vests instead of sweaters, aye? It's still sweltering out.
]]>Electronic Arts today announced The Sims 4 is spawning a reality TV show, The Sims Spark'd. No, it's not about strangers trapped in a swimming pool without a ladder. The four-episode series actually sounds kinda cool, challenging twelve Sims players to build characters, places, and stories in The Sims 4 and maybe win $100,000 (£78k). I'm so impressed by so many of the things players make so sure, I'll give this a go when it starts this month. Anything to interrupt the six seasons of Ink Master I have so far watched during lockdown.
]]>Alrighty, so as you may or may not be aware, about a month ago The Sims 4 got a massive update ahead of the Eco Lifestyle expansion. As well as adding firefighters, ladders, and Sims peeing fire (which was apparently a bug and not a feature), it added some new Mac makeup for CAS (aka Create a Sim, where you make your digital puppets).
The community reaction to the new makeup was, err... mixed at best, and in particular, people did not like the Sperm Eyeliner.
]]>If you're a fan of The Sims 4, or you know someone who is, or even if you just follow people who occasionally retweet simsposting into your timeline, you've probably seen something about Paralives by now. It's... a life simulator? A Sims-like? (I know The Sims can't be the only game of its type, but it's dominated the market for so long that the only other one I can think of is that weird adult one where the entire point was having sex.) It, by which I really mean the teeny tiny dev team, is being funded on Patreon.
Simthusiasts like myself have been quietly aware of Paralives for a small while now, mostly because of the very cool nature of the in-progress video clips that surface on a fairly regular basis. A few weeks back, though, there was a flurry of new interest when a new character creation video was released. After bunch of Sim YouTubers like lilsimsie did reaction videos and hyped it up, Paralives ended up with a lot of eyes on it, and I, in turn, hungered to know more. So I reached out to Alex Massé, who we might term the lead developer, to ask him some Para-centric questions.
]]>Ahead of their big notE3 stream tonight, Electronic Arts have casually dropped The Sims 4 and its expansions onto Steam, no big deal. How criminal that one of the best management games has been locked in EA's tower. Titanfall 2 is here too. Steam's page does note that Sims 4 will install and use Origin, mind, so evidently you can't have everything.
]]>Following the massive patch to The Sims 4 prior to the release of the Eco Lifestyle expansion, players almost immediately started having problems with their games. Many reported their games crashing, lost saves, and, for some reason, their Sims peeing fire. This has now been confirmed as a bug, not a feature, but everyone seems to be enjoying it still.
Last night, though, the devs pushed through a hot fix that will hopefully address the most serious issues (as well as changing one of the patterns on a sweater).
]]>To support the ongoing protests against police brutality and systemic racism, the Rock Paper Shotgun video team is amplifying Black streamers in an effort to raise money for the great organisation that is the NAACP. Last Tuesday we all watched as Tianna Mercedes put us all to shame by playing a blinder in Call of Duty: Warzone. Today, we've got the excellent NNESAGA on to show us her skills in The Sims 4. She'll be kicking off at 5pm BST.
]]>A while back politicians in the UK identified the environment as a key battleground to fight over, and all started riding around on those tiny bikes you can fold up and carry around London to prove they cared about trees. Not to be outdone, EA have, ten years later, released their latest expansion to blockbuster tiny-person life simulation series The Sims 4 along a green theme. Eco Lifestyle adds a new world with three neighbourhoods, a bunch of new Create-a-Sim and build items, and the requisite personality traits, aspirations and skills to go along with being an eco-warrior. The bits that are there are very fun - possibly the most fun I've had with The Sims for a while - but it also feels like parts are missing.
]]>I am working on my review for The Sims 4's newest expansion pack, Eco Lifestyle, in which you can choose to live carbon neutral or carbon positive, but so far, it is fun. Fun but difficult. I'm trying out various different new things in the new neighbourhoods added with Evergreen Harbour, but so far I can say that living in an eco-friendly way is hard, especially if you're off the grid.
I made a pair of Sim eco warrior roomies called Britta Horace and Nigel Sneed, along with Britta's small and lazy mongrel dog Graham. They moved into the off-the-grid shipping crate home in Port Promise, which is an industrial port area in a terrible state, and promptly became abjectly miserable. The Sims get sick even going outside because the air quality is so poor. They are constantly dirty and unhappy because they shower in brackish, room temperature water, and on their first night a huge thunderstorm destroyed their dew collector, so showers may soon become a thing of the past. But there is one thing that makes Britta happy. And that is crawling through other people's filth.
]]>Ahead of the Eco Lifestyle Expansion Pack releasing tomorrow - more on that as I play it myself - The Sims 4 got a big update yesterday. This happens semi-regularly, often timed around DLC releases, so let me preface all this by saying that the game screwing up a bit after a patch should not surprise anyone at this point. It's a 6-year-old game that's had loads of new stuff crammed into it, and this particular update is a biggun that changes a load of stuff.
Nevertheless, the update has caused a kerfuffle in the community. Most significantly, many people are reporting crashes on specific save files. Some households are failing to load, and there is anguish and gnashing of teeth as people have lost access to massive mansion builds they've spent hours on, despite attempting to restore saves or reverting to older ones. Most hilariously, multiple people are reporting that their Sims are peeing fire.
]]>Listen, we're not having a pop at the base game version of The Sims 4, but you have to admit that it doesn't offer everything you might want. It would be impossible for it to service every whim and desire you asked of it for! But still, sometimes you'll be fooling around in build and buy mode, or Create A Sim, and just wish that you had more space gubbins to wear or cool plants for your kitchen. Or bunk beds! Lord almighty, if only there were bunkbeds.
Well, it just so happens that there are, if you know where to look. And that place is 'at custom content'. There are some amazing creators out there making simply fabulous cc sets to make every Sims game your best version of it. And cc is all free! How amazing is that? That's why we've rounded up all our favourite cc sets in one place, for ease of use to you the reader. Read on for more.
]]>My guess is that when you were a kid, right, you were one of two types. You either used your action figures to play out imaginative (if potentially weird) stories, or you picked one of them up and went "I bet I can make Lion-O's legs go in the splits so far that they fall off", before proceeding to test your hypothesis.
Players of The Sims can broadly be divided into these two categories as well. And as far back as the first in the series, the latter set have been pushing the game to its tensile limits by introducing play challenges. In these, you create a Sim, or a family of Sims, and then play their lives out according to a set of very prescriptive and often torturous rules. Now, in the age of The Sims 4, these challenges have been refined. Sub-rules have been added. Players try to complete even the most difficult ones in a 24-hour span. It is compelling. And also frightening. Let me introduce you to some of my favourites.
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