Memina11 posted scans of PC Gamer’s new issue that includes The Sims 4 Preview. Make sure you take a look at all the screens and read the text!

Click on the pictures below to see them in higher resolution!

Why we love gaming’s reality playground (and you should too) by Chris Thursten

CAS
“The only strict limitation is character height—every Sim in any given age bracket is approximately the same size, a restriction imposed by the animation system.” 

“You can “lock” particular parts of your appearance and randomize the rest, in which case the game will do its best to pick complementary body shapes and coherent fashions.” 

“The only sliders you’ll need to adjust affect your Sims weight and musculature, variables that will also be affected by the activities you choose to pursue in the game itself.  

These don’t just change the dimensions of your character, but the textures they’re actually drawn with—a fitness—crazed Sim will look more muscular than an otherwise-healthy Sim of the same shape who does not work out.” 

SEARCH FEATURE
“I appreciated the new sorting filters; you can filter the catalog by style and color. “Pick “red” for example, and the game will display every piece of clothing with red in it—from dinner jackets to argyle sweaters.  

This system is also used when you are picking wallpaper and flooring options. Across the board it’s much easier to pull together a look that you’re happy with.” 

GENETICS
“Once you’ve created a single Sim in a household, it’s now possible to genetically derive their relatives. You can do this up or down the family tree.

Unlike the Sims 3, where you could only derive children from their parents, you can now derive parents from children and brothers from sisters and so on.” 

THE GALLERY
“Online sharing of Sims house and rooms is now integrated into the game proper, enabling players with an internet connection to upload their own designs and download ideas from other people. You can also store local copies of anything you’ve made for later use, which is both a handy convenience feature and a sign that Maxis has learned an important lesson regarding players who want to play without an internet connection.” 

GAMEPLAY/TRAITS
“I was worried that despite the variety of emotional responses on offer, Sims would be essentially similar in their preferences—that the world would be built of absolute emotional correlations. Traits upset that.

Despite having performed the same action, each character’s underlying traits fundamentally changed the nature of the action that followed.” 

“I like the idea that I will be able to create Sims that clash with one another, that don’t all need to do the same things in order to fulfill their needs—because that’s how people really are.” 

CONCLUSION
“The only thing dampening my enthusiasm for the game in the months before the release is concern about its stability. The version I was shown was alpha software, so problems are to be expected—but there were none the less prominent crashes and the odd overlong loading screen.” 

“The game seems remarkably complete, content wise—Maxis promises more stuff to do on day one than any prior Sims launch—so perhaps there’s time to get on top of the issues I saw. I hope so, because what I’ve seen of the Sims 4 has rekindled my affection for the series.”

Source: jimmysnan, Honeywell

“In a way, it’s sort of like building three or four games at the same time,” says The Sims 4 lead producer Lyndsay Pearson, who’s been with the franchise since the beginning. “There’s always things that we want to do with The Sims that we are never able to realize at various points or things we couldn’t yet figure out what to do… Making The Sims to continue to be more believable, more dimensional, and to have more nuance to their behaviors is something we always strive for.” 

One step forward is tweaking the routing system, or the way Sims navigate. “Ever since The Sims 1people have complained about the behavior of Sims,” says Peter Ingrebreston, a software engineer on The Sims 4. After researching human social behavior, the developers made Sims less awkward and more believable. “It’s that subtle polish,” Pearson says. “Now we can say ‘Sims can now walk through doors without getting stuck,’ but it’s actually extremely difficult to make that happen. “ 

This image visualizes the potential routing outcomes for a Sim changing posture in The Sims 4 

Read More

GamesTM published their 149th Issue of their Magazine, and with this release they included a very special Preview of The Sims 4!

There’s one sentence in this article describing a possible second world: ”We spot a drawing on a nearby whiteboard..” probably in Maxis’ office, ”..of a humble rural shack, surrounded by rolling farmland, livestock and mountains in the distance. Could the American frontier be another location in The Sims 4? Truong and his colleagues refuse to comment.”

Read the full article below!

Thanks Honeywell for providing these photos!

The Sims Facebook Page published 3 new The Sims 4 Create a Sim Screens!

SimGuruGraham confirmed on twitter that Public Spaces in The Sims 4, who connect several lots in a single neighborhood and contain some of the objects (both decor and interactive ones) cannot be edited.

Canard’s PC Magazine included some new info and a new Concept Art in their Latest Issue. Check out all the important tidbits they mentioned about The Sims 4 and take a look at Willow Creek’s gorgeous Concept Art:

1. You can class clothes by color, style or even research “by text”.
2. New walk style : happy.
3. If a gourmet sim eats a hot-dog he’ll be unhappy but will be able to eat and to cook a “tournedos”.
4.To relax a stressed sim you can make him take a relaxing bath to calm him.
5. You can put pictures on the wall without being in build/buy mode. 
6. A happy sim will paint a “happy” picture; the mood of the sims who will watch the picture afterwards will feel happy too.
7. A cause will always have the same effect.
8. Each emotion has its own little music.

Thanks SimCookie for the find and Honeywell for translation!

Click on the render below to download it!

Create a Sim Demo has been released! Check our Home Page for updates.

Please note this before reading the post below:

• Our intention is not to spread false rumors since that won’t do any good to our website.
• We won’t name an Electronic Arts website that leaked this logo. We don’t want to get us or anyone else in trouble for this.
• If you don’t believe us, that’s fine, but don’t post hate comments since we are making this post all for you and your anticipation for Create a Sim Demo.
• There is a small possibility that this logo is not refering to Create a Sim Demo (as a downloadable Demo game).

A trusted Electronic Arts website posted The Sims 4 Box Art in .psd (Adobe Photoshop file), and inside of that .psd file there’s a multi-language logo in Adobe Illustrator’s .ai file extension. If you take a look, there’s nothing new in this picture.

But, it appears that a certain layer of this logo is hidden. After I have revealed the hidden layer, this appeared:

Translation: The Sims 4 – Create a Sim Demo

This doesn’t entirely have to mean that there will be Create a Sim Demo game coming our way, but there’s also no other point to include this text into a .psd box art for The Sims 4.