The Sims will be teaming up with the legendary drag icon, Trixie Mattel, for a Summer of Sims Pride celebration! You can join Trixie Mattel on Twitch for the Summer of Sims block party stream on June 21st, 5pm PST.
Simmers can also participate in the celebration by uploading their best LGBTQIA+ Sims to the Gallery with the hashtag #SoSBlockParty!
Last week on Twitter, I asked for your unpopular opinions that went against the grain. Many were refreshing to read and some made me chuckle. Some were downright scandalous!
I took some of the best of the bunch and here they are! The community’s most unpopular opinions!
I love occult gameplay and enjoy the lack of realism in the Sims. If I wanted realism I'd play a Building Sim, a Driving Sim, a Business Sim, Second Life, etc. I love that vampires randomly show up. I love that spell casters are flying around. I love that aliens are everywhere.
We recently shared five cottage builds that you can download from The Gallery, but knew that we couldn’t just talk about cottages. Many Simmers are excited about being able to have their own small farms with chickens, cows, llamas and more as well as creating their own farm themed builds. While we wait for The Sims 4 Cottage Living to be released, here are five farm builds that you can download from The Gallery now!
With The Sims 4 Cottage Living right around the corner, why not get into the mood by checking out one of the builds featured in this post or over on The Gallery. There are so many fantastic builds to discover!
Don’t forget to share your Cottage Living inspired builds with us by sharing your Gallery ID’s/Build names in the comments below or over on social media.
We’ve showcased some amazing cottagecore-inspired builds lately. Now it’s time to shine a light on some talented Sim and pet creators in the community! Let’s fill all those cute cozy cottages with families!
None of the households featured in this article use any CC so anyone who owns the required packs can download and enjoy them!
I immediately fell in love with this adorable couple as soon as I saw them in the Gallery! Pam likes to garden and Haley likes to cook which seems like a winning combination right there! Plus their cat and dog are just as adorable as their owners.
Spellcasters and cottages just go together, amirite? Here’s a beautiful cottagecore spellcaster named Dayana and her trusty feline familiar. I wonder what kind of potions she’ll brew with the ingredients from her garden.
This fantastic little family looks like they came straight out of a fairytale storybook, which is exactly what the cottagecore aesthetic aims to achieve. I can just picture them enjoying life on their little farm where they grow and raise everything they put on their table! Amazing job!
I thought this Sim was absolutely stunning when I came across her in the Gallery! Her beautiful warm skin tone and kind facial features make for a heartwarming addition to any rural countryside town. Since she is a single-Sim household, there’s a lot of versatility for the player to create her own story.
This granny and toddler duo made me smile right away when I found them! What could be more cottagecore than a grandparent watching their young grandchild frolic and play on the farm that’s been in their family for generations? Their names suggest they might have some magical fae-like qualities about them as well! Just storytelling, of course, since we don’t actually have faeries in The Sims 4, but I love the thought and creativity that went into this household.
What a delightfully British Sim with her feline companion! That sweet cardigan and brimmed hat adorned with flowers takes me right to a European fair on a sunny day. This household would fit right in with the townsfolk of the new world, Henford-on-Bagley, coming with the Cottage Living expansion next month.
I love playing with big families in The Sims 4 and I especially love families with rich stories. This amazing cottagecore-inspired household by Jill4ChrisRed ticks all my favourite gameplay boxes. The story about their teenage son moving away to become a musician, their young daughter dreaming of city life, and their newly-single sister-in-law moving in make me want to dive in and explore them more.
Pet moms rule! Especially this one! I am quite jealous of her cozy oversized sweater and ankle-length floral skirt. It’s giving me major whimsical dreamland vibes. I would love to sit on a countryside porch with her and chat over a cup of tea. She seems like an interesting Sim to be friends with. Her adorable pets are a nice bonus!
This young cottagecore couple and their friendly golden retriever have a lot of potential for many different storylines. They’re an open book with so many possibilities! Will they have a large family to help them work their farm or will you stir up drama? Maybe a little bit of both?
This handsome big brother in charge of taking care of his rambunctious little brother while their parents are away for the weekend just melts my heart! How cute and creative! What’s more fun than a cute little toddler bonding with his big brother in the quaint countryside? Another example of a well-thought-out household with an imaginative back story!
What are you waiting for? Go download some of these amazing households right now! Remember to give the creator a follow, too, and leave a nice comment to say thanks!
Today, we would like to introduce to you The Sims Community Challenges!
This will be a monthly community challenge based around a particular theme. We might challenge you to create your own build following some specifications that we set, or it might be a shell challenge. We might ask you to create a family with a backstory focusing around a theme that is given, or it might be a story telling challenge. There’s a few different options, and we have lots of ideas.
The aim of these challenges is to have fun and get creative in the game! Maybe explore themes you haven’t explored before and to try something different. It can be hard sometimes to know what to do in The Sims and that is something most of us can probably relate to.
For each month, we will have a post with all the details that you need to know for the current challenge. Unless stated, all challenges have been created for The Sims 4 and is open to all players regardless of which platform you play on.
Once the end date has passed, The Sims Community Team will choose a selection of the entries to showcase in a spotlight post here on our site and share across our social media!
We really want to showcase just how many creative, talented and incredible players there are within our community, and we can’t wait for you to take part in these Challenges and see what you create!
Stay tuned for our first The Sims Community Challenge that we will be revealing soon!
If you have any more questions or want to keep up to date with The Sims Community Challenges, head over to our Official Discord server!
The Sims is known for being one of the original sandbox life simulation games but since its inception back in 2000, many other games have followed in The Sims‘ footsteps. Some of those titles have enjoyed almost as long a history of success, such as the beloved Animal Crossing series. Animal Crossing was first released in 2001 in Japan and did quite well but didn’t start making huge waves worldwide until the release of Animal Crossing: Wild World in 2005. Now the latest installment, Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Nintendo Switch has become one of the world’s most adored idyllic sandbox games. Similarly, The Sims 4 is the most financially successful title in The Sims franchise to date!
We decided to take a closer look at these two games to see what they have in common that makes them so special and unique in the gaming world.
It’s a sandbox world where the only limit is your imagination
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The Sims is well-known for being the ultimate sandbox experience (and one of the pioneers of the sandbox simulation genre). While spinoffs and some DLC packs have put more of an emphasis on story-driven gameplay, The Sims remains, at heart, a gamer’s personal sandbox to do whatever they desire. Animal Crossing is no different in this respect. Part of its charm and popularity is due to the amount of freedom players have to develop and explore their little world however they want with no strict deadlines or predetermined path to follow.
Both feature long-running and beloved characters that are iconic for the series
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Long time fans of both series are familiar with the faces of the Goth family from The Sims and characters like Isabelle from Animal Crossing. The Goth family has been an iconic part of The Sims in just about every version of the game across PC and consoles alike and they have rich and fascinating lore attached to them. Seriously, just search up Bella Goth’s profile on The Sims Wiki and you’ll find yourself falling down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories and mystery. As for Animal Crossing, it just wouldn’t be Animal Crossing without Tom Nook trapping you into a lifetime of debt and Isabelle’s cheerful daily announcements. Our emotional attachments to these well-known characters are part of what makes both The Sims and Animal Crossing so special.
Customization options for just about everything are almost endless
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I don’t know about you but I have definitely put many hours of my life into customizing both my Animal Crossing home and my Sims’ homes. Both games offer an immersive and downright delightful building and decorating experience that’s easy to get lost in. From raiding Nook’s Cranny for the perfect accent piece to display in your kitchen to clicking through every swatch in Build Mode looking for the exact right colour curtains to match the rest of the room, both games understand the appeal of being able to truly make your virtual space your own.
Making friends with your neighbours can lead to unexpected surprises
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People are social creatures and fostering relationships comes with benefits in both The Sims and Animal Crossing. It pays to make a point of gifting all the villagers on your island every day in Animal Crossing because these generous souls will always have a little something on-hand to give you in return as thanks. Sometimes they can give you some really cool stuff… or at least something you can sell for a few extra bells. In The Sims, getting to know others can lead to all kinds of opportunities, from invites to exclusive parties to surprise confessions of love! You never know what might happen if you just stop to say hello to people every once in a while.
Gardening is a relaxing and rewarding pastime
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The subtle art of flower breeding is something Animal Crossing fans take quite seriously. It can take years to breed every colour of every type of flower and the daily task of watering your colourful fields is an almost meditative experience. The calm and simple joy of finding a new colour of flower pop up in your garden after weeks of careful planting and watering is something only The Sims can compete with. With its wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and flowers to cultivate and a detailed and immersive gardening system with fertilizers and plant quality, an agricultural Sims life can be just as rewarding an experience as raising flowers in Animal Crossing.
You’re in charge of how you want to spend your time in the game
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In a world where everyone is bound by deadlines and stressful schedules, the freedom to be able to sit down and do whatever you want for a few hours each day is something you can’t put a price on. You can let go of all the baggage of the day and just sink into an idyllic experience where you’re in charge of how you spend your days. That big city office job getting too demanding for your Sim? No problem. Quit and become a dragon fruit farmer, instead. Tired of scraping up bells to pay off your insurmountable loan from Tom Nook? That’s okay! Take a break and go on a museum tour. No one tells you what to do in your virtual world and for many, that’s a therapeutic release of daily stress.
A lack of quests and linear goals make for a very freeing and calming gaming experience
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Your virtual world is your oyster. There are no limits. No rules. No quests or goals or predetermined story to follow. Just you and a big wide world of fun and relaxation. Six hours of doing nothing but watching your character lounge by the poolside can feel just as fulfilling as six hours of grinding for bells and simoleons. Do everything! Or nothing! No one’s going to judge you either way and there’s no such thing as failure or falling behind. The popularity in both these games lies in the freedom and escapist relaxation it offers players in a less-than-ideal real world full of strife and struggles.
Travelling to new destinations is an exciting break from the daily routine
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For many of us, vacations are a luxury we seldom get to experience for ourselves. I haven’t been on a vacation in fifteen years and a global pandemic has made travelling more complicated than ever. That’s why being able to travel to exciting new destinations in video games like The Sims and Animal Crossing feels like such a treat for most of us. We may never see the wild jungles of South America for ourselves or fly to exotic, uncharted islands full of mystery with a talking dodo but these things and more are always possible for us. All we need to do is boot up our consoles or computers and we can travel the world from the comfort of our living rooms.
Completing collections gives us a sense of accomplishment
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Collecting is a huge part of both The Sims and Animal Crossing. In The Sims 4, players have a wide variety of collections they can complete and display in their own private museum. Some collections are more challenging to complete than others but it’s always an accomplishment to have a completed collection on display. Blathers the owl manages the museum in Animal Crossing and although there aren’t as many types of collections to complete as The Sims, it’s always worth a trip to the museum to admire all of your fossils, bugs, fish, and artwork in a truly beautiful, atmospheric setting. I could stay there for hours taking pictures and enjoying the sights.
Activities like fishing and bug catching are great money makers
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Don’t you wish getting rich was as easy as just walking around catching bugs all day long? Me too. It may seem like a silly way to earn a living but being able to spend your days catching bugs, fishing, and picking up seashells along the beach (and completing some of those collections, too, while you’re at it) offers players a more relaxing alternative to financial success than a traditional career. In fact, neither you nor any of the regular villagers on your island in Animal Crossing have jobs! Why would you need one in a place with such abundant resources that haven’t been taken over by corporate greed? Pure paradise in your pocket.
Are you a fan of both these timeless games? What else do you think Animal Crossing draws from The Sims or vice versa? We’d love to read about your favourite The Sims and Animal Crossing experiences in the comments!
The Sims Team has published the latest Laundry List for The Sims 4. The laundry list addresses some of the most important bugs and issues in the game that the community have reported and that the team has prioritized to fix in time for the next game update.
Hi Simmers!
Welcome to the Laundry List where we’ll share a list of the top community concerns that we’re currently investigating and hope to have resolved in the upcoming patch.
These concerns were reported by players who help us continue our work of improving the user experience on a regular basis.
Please note that some topics can be tricky and require an extended investigation on our end, so even though we are actively investigating it’s not a guarantee that we’ll have an immediate fix for it in the upcoming patch.
Also note that this is just a list of the “top” concerns. There are more topics that we saw reported by players that are not listed and being worked on.
So, without further ado, here is a list of the top community concerns we’re currently investigating:
Thanks for all your patience and valuable help! Please continue telling us about any issues you’re experiencing on Answers HQ, we’ll continue to work on improving our transparency, and together we can make this game the best that it can be. Happy Simming!
We’ve all debated the topic for years but now we will finally get a definitive answer! It’s time to decide who is the best The Sims 4 townie from the game packs! Will long time favourite vampire hunk Caleb Vatore be the King of Darkness or will Vlad creep up from behind for a sneak attack? Maybe a completely unexpected underdog like George Cahill will surprise everyone and snatch the win. The only way to find out is to cast your vote!
Think carefully because you are limited to 4 votes for 4 Sims! One vote per pack represented; however, you can vote for multiple Sims from the same pack if you like. Voting will be open all week. Stay tuned for more polls until we have a winner from each Sims 4 poll. Those winners will face off against each other in the ultimate showdown!
Since The Sims 4: Paranormal Stuff is the only stuff pack to ship with premade Sims, we’ve included it in this poll even though we are aware that it is not a game pack.
Remember to click the text and not the image when casting your vote!
Even though The Sims 4 has been out for nearly seven years now, the thought of building can sometimes feel overwhelming. I guess you could say that it really comes down to what kind of build you are wanting to create.
I’ve never been the best builder, in fact I hated building in earlier The Sims games and would just add random shapes to already built houses until something would work. I have memories of some very abstract looking builds from The Sims and The Sims 2 era. Thinking about them now makes me laugh, but also feel a little embarrassed if I’m truly honest. I do wish I had some pictures that I could share with you, but you can probably imagine or relate to this yourself.
When I first started building in The Sims 4, I followed a similar kind of pattern. I would just add more square rooms to the pre-made lots in game in the hope that something would work together. Eventually I got fed up with my own builds looking boring and mismatched and decided to take to YouTube to watch a number of tutorials and speed builds to help me.
The build below is one of my earliest builds that I have saved in my Library from when I first started trying to learn how to use the Build Mode in game properly. My aim was to create a very simple starter home to a budget of $20,000.
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It’s still very blocky and also had minimal furniture, but it was a start. The terrain painting, well let’s not talk about that. This was around the same time that I also started to use the MoveObjects cheat for the first time. It wasn’t much, but it was a start.
A couple of months later and after some more practice I made a little woodland themed cottage, and I was starting to feel a bit more confident with how my building skills had developed. I wasn’t just thinking about the shape of the build or the interior and the different rooms, but also the landscaping. I even ventured into creating some custom fountains to double as a pond. There wasn’t these big vacant spaces or mismatched rooms, but instead everything seemed to flow together more than before.
Looking back at the build now, there are definitely things I would change, but I can see the progress that I made.
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I found myself pushing myself more and more out of my comfort zone, but still gaining more confidence in what I could do using the Building Tools in The Sims 4. I tried to create more than just residential builds and tried to create café’s, parks, schools and libraries a real mixture of different builds. I can’t even begin to think about how many hours I spent just experimenting with different ideas.
I actually dug through some files on my old external hard drive in search of some screenshots from earlier on in The Sims 4’s lifetime. I found a variety of different gameplay screenshots, but not so many builds. The ones I did find brought back memories, and it was kind of strange seeing them again after all this time, but also seeing the progress I made as a Builder.
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It was around the time that The Sims 4 Get Famous was released that I finally felt happy with where my skills in building were. I started developing my own little style and found myself creating more modern builds and more recently tiny homes thanks to The Sims 4 Tiny Living Stuff Pack. Even now, I still surprise myself with some of the things that I do, and I’m always learning from other creators and players.
Throughout all the years of building in The Sims 4 I always reminded myself that when I was building that I wanted to have fun. There will always be challenges along the way, things won’t work or go together as expected and that is completely okay you’ll figure them out!
Looking back over my older builds and thinking about the progress I’ve made has been fascinating and has actually got me excited about jumping back in and building with more recent packs as well as the upcoming The Sims 4 Cottage Living.
Before I round off this post, firstly thank you for reading this post. It’s been fun exploring and writing about something a little different. Secondly, I want to leave you with a few Tutorials that I found helpful when I wanted to improve my building skills. Some links will be for individual videos, whereas some will be a part of a bigger playlist that you can follow. This is not a definitive list, as there are so many videos out there that will provide you with a variety of tips and techniques for building.
Building is about having fun and creating a variety of different builds from Tiny Homes to Spectacular Fantasy Castles and everything in between. There is so much you can do when it comes to building that the possibilities are endless!
Don’t forget to share your latest builds, tips, tricks and tutorials with us over on social media or in the comments below!
Even though The Sims 4 Cottage Living looks like it’s going to bring a lot of fun and idyllic charm to the game when it launches for PC and consoles on July 22nd, many players had their hopes and dreams crushed when it was revealed that horses would not be included in Cottage Living. SimGuruRomeo took to social media to explain that horses would have required a lot more resources to do them justice and would have come at the cost of cutting out the other animals. Since horses are not essential to the farm-to-table lifestyle, they opted to focus on byproduct-producing animals instead, like llamas, cows, and chickens.
While this explanation does make a lot of sense, it doesn’t make us miss horses any less. Thankfully, the talented modding community has come up with ways to have an equestrian experience in the game. There are even solutions for console players thanks to talented creators who can turn a regular cat or dog into almost any animal!
Severinka is a very talented CC creator in the community and has been sharing her amazing work on The Sims Resource and her own blog for many years now. She has made some beautiful, realistic-looking horses for The Sims 4. The horses are just decorative statues but they make for great pose props and set dressing for storytellers! The full set comes with seven different horses in various positions and each one comes in white, piebald, chestnut, and buckskin coat patterns.
I was so impressed and inspired by Severinka’s amazing horses that I just had to make my own pose pack with them. The My First Pony Pose Pack comes with 9 different poses for all ages and features a family enjoying a day of bonding with their new horse. While poses are not the same as real equestrian gameplay, I still have a lot of fun telling my stories with these poses and I think other storytellers will, too. They are available on my Patreon for free!
SrslySims makes some of the best content out there for The Sims 4 and she was kind enough to convert the riding helmets from The Sims 3 for my pose pack! No horseback riding scene is complete without a good riding helmet and any horse person will tell you how important it is to protect your head when out riding because you just never know when an accident might happen. Horses are animals that act on instinct, after all. You can grab these helmets on her Patreon for free.
Farmland Mod Pack by Arnie
We’ve featured this amazing mod on our website before but it’s worth another mention here because the extremely talented modder, Arnie, has an amazing farm-themed mod coming out soon and it will have horses! Real, actual horses you can interact with and ride! We are pretty impressed with this level of skill and dedication and horse lovers everywhere are rejoicing! Watch the heartwarming trailer above to get a glimpse of the horses coming with this mod pack. The Farmland mod pack will be released for early access on June 24th.
Gallery Horses (No CC or Mods)
Console players and people with computers that can’t handle mods or CC are usually left out of all the creativity the community has to offer but not this time! Players who own the Cats & Dogs expansion pack can have their very own living, breathing horses in their games thanks to talented creators like PugOwned who have the ability to turn regular cats and dogs into any animal using just the in-game CAS tools! A quick search for horses in the Gallery using the pet filters will bring up hundreds of horses to choose from! I also have a piebald horse available in my catalogue.
Of course, these Gallery horses will sound and act like large dogs in-game because that’s what they are but I always find myself forgetting that they’re dogs when I’m playing with them. Just build them a cozy barn with a pet bed and food dish in each stall, give them a nice paddock with toys and obstacle course equipment and they really are almost like having real miniature horses!
We can’t wait to see what the community comes up with next! Send us your pictures of your Sims 4 equestrian gameplay on social media or tell us all about your favourite farm-themed playthrough here in the comments!
With all the excitement for the upcoming The Sims 4 Cottage Living expansion pack, we decided to take a look at five cottage builds you can download from The Gallery! Each of the builds showcased in this post are perfect for your Sims who might be looking to leave the busy city behind them and move to something a little more cosy and homey. You might have Sims looking to start a family in the countryside, and a cottage might be the perfect family home for your Sims.
Each of the builds featured in this post are available to download from The Gallery right now!
As I was searching through the gallery I came across this next build and I couldn’t miss including it in this post. If you have a Spellcaster Sim or live in the world of Glimmerbrook, this would be a perfect little cottage inspired by Sylvan Glade to have your Sim live in.
With The Sims 4 Cottage Living right around the corner, why not get into the mood by checking out one of the builds featured in this post or over on The Gallery. There are so many fantastic builds to discover!
Don’t forget to share your Cottage Living inspired builds with us by sharing your Gallery ID’s/Build names in the comments below or over on social media.
If you’re a fan of The Sims 2 then you might want to take a moment to check out this brand-new custom content Stuff Pack from Simsi45. However, before you scroll down to the trailer, I want you to cast your memories back to November 2007. Yes, you read that right, 2007!
With fifty new items across a mixture of Gothic, Thrasher and Socialite inspired themes, your Teen Sims had new ways to express who they were and create their dream rooms!
Take a look at the original trailer for The Sims 2 Teen Style Stuff below!
Below you can find the trailer that Simsi45 has recreated and includes the song Adolescence which you can listen to here.
When I first saw the trailer for Simsi45’s new pack, I was super excited. The Sims 2 Teen Style Stuff was one of the first Stuff Packs I picked up for The Sims 2 and spent countless hours creating my Sims ultimate dream bedroom. Mixing and matching the different styles and making other Sims envious of the amazing rooms my Teen Sims had.
Once I had the pack installed in my Mods folder, I jumped into the game to start building a few new rooms, and there was a distinct feeling of nostalgia as I was playing. I could vaguely recall a few rooms I designed back in The Sims 2 but not every little detail. It was good fun taking the time to essentially re-explore the Teen Style Stuff pack again but in The Sims 4.
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I had great fun coming up with these three different rooms. It was interesting incorporating items from the various The Sims 4 packs that fitted with each of the different themes. For example, with the Goth themed room I used a handful of items from the Vampires Game Pack as well as the Paranormal Stuff Pack. They just fitted perfectly together. I used a few items from the Parenthood Game Pack in the rooms for smaller details but if I was being honest there is something from every pack and even base game that you could use with The Sims 4 Teen Style Stuff to create the perfect room for your Sims.
So, if you are looking for a little trip down memory lane or just more choice and variety when it comes to creating the perfect room for your Teen Sims then take a look at Simsi45’s The Sims 4 Teen Style Stuff Custom Content Pack!
Note: The Sims 4 Teen Style Stuff Pack is Base Game compatible however, to use the vanity table you will need The Sims 4 Vintage Glamour Stuff Pack. Full details can be found in the Tumblr/Patreon posts linked below.
You can find out more about Simsi45 and how to download the pack by visiting the links below.
I was spending some time a few evening ago downloading some new Custom Content for The Sims 4. While I was browsing through different creators, it got me thinking about how I first discovered custom content back when I was playing The Sims and how blown away I was that it even existed in the first place.
Even now, I can still remember some of the sites that I used to use, so I decided to have a look and see if any of them still existed! To my surprise, a number of the sites that I recall are still going strong even today and I discovered some new sites too!
The first piece of custom content that always comes to mind for The Sims is the Rejuvenation Chamber from Homeslice. Essentially it is a shower that replenishes your Sims needs, which at the time seemed a lot easier than constantly trying to queue interactions for your Sim just to ignore or by trying to cheat them.
You can still download Homeslice’s creations here including Slice City, Mabel the Chicken, the Typewriter and the Harley Fixer-Upper II!
Around The Sims was another site that is still up and running today and was the first site that I had ever used to download custom content. There was one occasion where the majority of my custom content was from Around The Sims. I loved it as it just helped fill those missing gaps in my Sims homes be it an Architect’s Office, a laundry room or downloading skins or Build mode items.
Revisiting the site for the first time in a number of years felt nostalgic, and it reminded me of all the different homes I tried to build using custom content.
SIMcredible Designs was another site that I would visit often. I don’t remember many of the pieces of custom content that I had, but I remember having a selection of bedroom, patio and a selection of more miscellaneous items too.
Of course, over time many of the sites I can remember have closed down as we have moved onto newer instalments of The Sims games. I tried to search for a few of the sites I could remember, but sadly the hosting for those sites had stopped.
The last site that I had a few memories from was a site called Sim Freaks, and it is still going pretty strong even now in 2021. Not only could you download a variety of custom content, but there was also tutorials and guides should you be looking to create your own custom content as well. I’m pretty sure this is where I found the guide to help me try and create my own custom content for The Sims, but that is a story for another day.
Fellow Sims Community Staff SnarkyWitch has a brilliant guide on how to install mods and custom content for The Sims as well as a handy list of resources for the game too. Click the links below to check them out!
Do you have any memories of sites you used or pieces of custom content you used to have in The Sims? Let us know in the comments or over on our social media!
Yesterday SimGuruRomeo clarified a few things about The Sims 4 Cottage Living on his Twitter profile, including information about the Ponds Tool coming to The Sims 4 Base Game for free!
Yup, beside the fact that he confirmed that the Pond Tool will be a free addition to The Sims 4 he also clarified some things regarding how the Pond Tool functions and what you’ll be able to do with it.
Can my Sims swim in ponds?
We wanted to provide players with as much flexibility in customizing the looks and shapes of their ponds. Because of this, Sims will not be able to swim in them. However, we wanted to make sure there was fun gameplay associated with ponds. You can find Sims splashing in the ponds edges, catching fish that you have stocked in the pond, as well as decorate your pond with brand new objects and VFX.
Beside answering this important question he also answered plenty more over on Twitter regarding how they work. Here are the most important facts about the Ponds Tool!
It will function in conjunction with terrain tool. You will use the terrain tool to dig the hole you want, and then you will use a separate water tool to fill said hole to your desired height.
Sims will be able to splash and play in the shallow edges of the pond.
What you see here is the Bagley river from the new world. The new world of Henford-on-Bagley will have various locations Sims can swim off lot.
Ponds will freeze in the winter. For the same reasons Sims are unable to Swim, Sims are unable to Skate on ponds.
Ducks are one of the many Pond VFX that players can place using the new Pond Tool. The Pond Tool will also be a free base game update for everyone when Cottage Living drops.
Hi. I’m Dina Caliente. You may remember me from such titles as The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 Barnacle Bay.
I’m here today to tell my story. No, not that story. I had nothing to do with the Goth woman’s disappearance and I refuse to say anything more about that without my lawyer present! I mean the story that happened after all that unpleasantness. The story of my fresh start in the most unlikely of places. The loving arms of Death himself. Oh, you’ve never heard that story? Probably because no one ever wants to hear my side of things. Maybe if I wore a red dress and dyed my hair black, I’d get some attention around here!
It all started on a beautiful summer day in Oasis Springs. I’d decided I’d had enough of living in my sister and my mother’s shadow and that Don was only going to keep bringing me down. I mustered up the courage to kick them all out of the house so I could turn over a new leaf. Well. I tried, anyway. That Don Lothario somehow always manages to sweet talk his way back into my good graces and he did exactly that. I thought one more romantic night by the pool couldn’t hurt, could it? I agreed to let him stay one more night for old times’ sake.
Don and I were having a lovely time by the pool until I decided to fetch some drinks for us. When I looked at the clock in the kitchen, I realised my favourite TV medical drama was having an all-day marathon today and I was missing it! Needless to say, I got a little distracted. By the time I realised six hours had passed and went outside, Don was… Oh Watcher, don’t make me say it! My poor, dear Don had tragically drowned!
Hm? What’s that? What do you mean, “How did that big fence get in front of the pool?” How should I know?! Ahem…
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That’s when I saw him. The most alluring otherworldly being I’d ever laid eyes on had come to retrieve poor Don’s soul. My heart fluttered in my chest like it did when I met my first husband… whom we won’t speak any more of on the grounds that I may incriminate myself. Falsely, I might add.
I knew his job was to just collect his soul and go but I couldn’t say goodbye. Not without at least trying to get to know this mysterious figure. I introduced myself and the sparks flew instantly. I couldn’t believe how effortless our conversation was. We stood there over Don’s all but forgotten tombstone (Watcher rest his soul), laughing and enjoying each other’s company for hours. When he reluctantly grabbed his scythe and floated off to go to his next appointment, I had a moment of panic. What if I didn’t see him again until my own demise? I couldn’t wait that long. My soulmate was about to leave me alone for the rest of my life!
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I called out to him. He turned around. “Would you like to stay?” I asked him. “Here. With me. Forever.”
With a slow nod, my love returned to me. He confessed that he’d been considering retiring and letting his apprentice take over the tiring job of reaping souls. That he longed to settle down with a house and a family and live out eternity as a mortal Sim but finding love as the Grim Reaper was difficult. Most people screamed and ran at the sight of him or were too busy mourning their lost loved one to contemplate a romantic evening with the reaper who took their soul. How rude. I was the first person to see past the intimidating exterior and get to know him.
Grim, as I affectionately called him, moved in that very day. He loved doing everyday mundane things like cooking and cleaning the house in his bath robe and I loved watching him do all the house work for me. We were simply meant to be. I couldn’t say I was surprised when he got down on one knee and proposed to me not even a week later. Why wait? When you know, you know.
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The wedding was an elegant affair, if not sparse. Not many people understood my love for Grim. They thought it was “creepy” and “morbid” but they know nothing of eternal love like we do. At least my mother and sister attended. I’ll never forget my mother’s words to me on my wedding day. “I guess this one can’t die on you like the last one, so that’s something.” Indeed, Mother. Indeed.
The night I became Mrs. Dina Reaper, Grim and I got started on having a happy little reaper family of our own. Did we move fast? Maybe, but I’ve always liked to live life like a roller coaster ride and my husband had waited long enough to raise a family. Several thousand years, in fact!
You might think the Grim Reaper wouldn’t have a nurturing bone in his skeletal body but you’d be wrong. Grim was the picture perfect father-to-be… until I went into labour and he panicked but you really can’t blame him for that. His job is the exact opposite of bringing new life into the world, after all!
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Once our darling little Carolina Reaper was born, Grim was all smiles again. I think. I’ve never actually seen what’s underneath his hood and I’d rather not know. The mystery of it is exciting! She grew so fast, too. When she started to walk, we knew we had a Baby Reaper on our hands. Little Carolina left a trail of black smoke everywhere she went and she inherited her father’s eerie echo of a voice. Isn’t she just precious?
So that’s my story. The story of Dina Reaper and how I got my happily ever after straight out of the afterlife. They won’t tell you this story in any of the Sims titles but it’s the truth. I’d like to thank Don. Without him, none of this would have been possible. Rest in peace, Don.
Mrs. Reaper’s lawyers would like to add to the record that nothing in this memoir is an admission of guilt and that the contents of said memoir are absolutely not admissible evidence in a court of law. Any apparent connection to any deaths and/or disappearances is purely coincidental and Mrs. Reaper claims no liability for any of the tragic events mentioned in the above memoir.
Want to learn how to have your own family with the Grim Reaper in The Sims 4? Go to the next page for a tutorial! No mods required, just a few in-game cheats.
