Ever wanted to invite Barack Obama bartend at your house party? Face off against luchadores in a chess game? Maybe go stargazing with Fidel Castro? If you answered yes to any of these questions…then you’ve probably already done all of that in The Sims before, but The Sims 4 has a pretty good twist on EA’s formula. Now you can adjust your Sims’ personalities to your heart’s content, making it much easier to replicate those real-life counterparts, and get your hands on cool mods the easy way by downloading them from within the game itself.
The Sims 4 allows for a level of customizability that even this series hasn’t yet seen. You can adjust your Sims’ physical features as always, with even more options and tactile manipulation to adjust your Sims down to arm thickness and eyebrow arch. What The Sims 4 really brings to the table though is personality, allowing you to customize your Sims’ swagger, values and ultimate life goals, combined together to make your Simdom more organic and alive than ever before. This also brings in your Sims’ emotions into play, allowing them to improve certain skills faster depending on what mood they’re in, giving the whole affair a lite strategic feel too.
The Sims 4 Preview by GamesRadar
The Sims 4 Quick Impressions – E3
GameSpot has released a video showing us their first impressions of The Sims 4 at E3.
The Sims 4 Preview by Jostiq
Checking out the Sims franchise early at any major event is like watching someone else play with your dolls … I mean, action figures. You watch the presentation, listen to the salient bullet points and all you want to do is push the guy off the computer and just play the game.
The Sims 4 is another refresh of the 14-year-old franchise that includes a little something new, something old and adds stuff that makes the Sims blue.
For content creators, The Gallery is the big update for the game. Players don’t need to leave the game anymore for new content. A browser is built into the game that allows folks to find the specific content they are looking for and import it. For example, say you want a well-designed living room for your Sims. You can now import it and easily overlay it within the house. It’s very efficient.
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Official Q&A for The Sims 4 is updated!
SimGuruHydra updated The Sims 4 Q&A Forum Post, with some new information about upcoming The Sims 4 info!
Sul Sul!
Hey Simmers – we hope you’ve enjoyed what you’ve seen so far of The Sims 4!
We know you all have many questions and we’re listening. Send them through to this post and we’ll do our best to respond as often as we can. Just know that we’re not quite ready to spoil all surprises yet, so keep an eye out for more information to come.
For now, here’s a list of some commonly asked questions that we wanted to share with you today.
Q: What is The Sims 4?
A: On September 2nd we are introducing a new generation for The Sims. The Sims 4 is the only game where new Sims with unique personalities open up deep, rich, and sometimes weird possibilities in the stories you create. For the first time, it’s not about WHAT they are, it’s about WHO they are, and they come to life through our brand new creative tools that are powerful, tactile, and easy to use. And, brand new to The Sims 4, players can share their creations with other players directly in the game with our all-new Gallery. The result is a stimulating new gameplay experience that powers a new era for The Sims.
Q: When will The Sims 4 be available?
A: The Sims 4 will be available for PC starting September 2.
Q: What will The Sims 4 be rated?
A: The Sims 4 is not yet rated by the ESRB and PEGI. We will update the website once we’ve received our rating.
Q: Where can I go to find the latest about The Sims 4?
A: You can visit www.TheSims.com to stay up to date with the latest information.
Q: What is the Gallery?
A: The Gallery lets you browse, share, and download new content without ever leaving your game. Get inspired by rich content created by The Sims 4 community and add new experiences to your game.
Q: Will The Sims 4 require a persistent online connection?
A: No. You will not require a persistent online connection to play The Sims 4.
Q: What are the minimum hardware requirements for The Sims 4?
A: We are working to make The Sims 4 accessible to as many players as possible. We will let you know once we’ve locked in the specs.
The Sims 4 Preview by LazyGamer
Don’t even try to deny it – I don’t care how “hardcore” you are as a gamer, you have probably been addicted to The Sims at some point. The latest version of the game boasts a bunch of improvements, but it’s the emotions that might get you fired up.
The Sims 4 features three main changes: new, more believable sims; faster more intuitive tools; and an integrated gallery.
During character creation, the sliders and horrible sub-sub-sub menus are gone. Players can highlight any part of the body to adjust and then simply drag as desired to customise. Even the walk styles can be customised, adding personality and flair to the way your Sim moves around the world.
Speaking of that world, players can explore their environments, go fishing or even cut plants from local parks and plant them in their own gardens. The world is much more dynamic and full.
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The Sims 4 – Preview by BILD
German site BILD interviewed Rachel Franklin about The Sims 4!
Big thanks to ZoraGraves for translating this article and Honeywell for providing it!
BILD: In “The Sims 3” I had my worst game experience. The social worker took the firstborn son away after just a few hours of playing. I’ve never seen him again.
Rachel: I really don’t know how this could have happened. You probably didn’t take care of him enough. That’s why there’s social workers.
BILD: The new Sims are said to be much more emotional now. For example, they can literally laugh themselves to death or get depressed. Are they able to commit suicide as well?
Rachel: There’s a clear boundary. We do want the players to test out the game to the maximum and to experience unexpected and crazy situations. But we don’t want it to be morbid. “The Sims” should be fun and not dive into the dark sides of life.
BILD: “The Sims 4” will be rated 18+ in Russia because of the option of building homosexual relationships. What do you say about that?
Racel: The Sims is a game where the players have the free choice of everything. We want them to experiment – also in regards to different relationships. When a local government sees a problem with that it’s their decision.
BILD: Electronic Arts presented “The Sims 4” last year at Gamescom in Germany. Is there a special bond between the German players and the Sims?
Rachel: We love our German fans. They’re very important for us. I know that the German Sims players try out the creative possibilities of the game more than those from other parts of the world. For example they build extremely detailed houses and get excited about even the smallest pieces of decoration for their buildings.
BILD: What’s the most important new feature of The Sims 4?
Rachel: It’s the Sims themselves. They get a real personality now that is reflected throughout and influences the whole game and that unlocks entirely new gaming options. And when two of those very different Sims meet, the possibilities even add up. Personally, for me the simple building of stylish estates is very important. When I create something in the game, I’d much rather go with new Sims. (Yes, that is contradictory, but it also was like that in the original text…)
BILD: The Sims will have a better “memory” now. What does that mean?
Rachel: You could experience wonderful moments with your Sims earlier as well, but there was no connection to the Sims’ full biography. A Sim might be good with some skills and not as good with other stuff because of their personality. They get frustrated in certain situations because of this condition. This might have one impact or another but basically this attitude persists throughout their life. That’s something that’s never been like this before.
BILD: What is going to change about the in game world?
Rachel: It’s all about the neighbourhoods again. In the game you focus on the direct environment of your Sims and the neighbours with their quirks. That’s almost like a reality show.
BILD: Will the players be able to purchase additional content inside the game? Or will there be the usual expansion packs?
Rachel: I can’t answer this at this moment. Right now we concentrate on finishing the base game itself.
BILD: EA emphasises over and over again that “The Sims 4” is going to be an offline game.
Rachel: Yes!
BILD: What did you think then “SimCity” got bashed for its always-online concept?
Rachel: “SimCity” is an entirely different, also very wonderful game. The online mode for us only implements the option to share your own self-made rooms, objects and Sims. By the way, this is very popular. In “The Sims 3” there were more than 500 million downloads. But basically it’s very relevant for our players to play offline and as single players.
The Sims 4 – Fansite Kit
EA US sent us a special .zip file that includes all the latest Assets from The Sims 4!
You can use these on your site, Facebook, Twitter or any other social media!
Updated Game Boxes
Logos
Renders
Web Banners
The Sims 4 Preview by Game Revolution
The Sims carries a strange stigma, as if a hardcore gamer like myself can’t like the series without having my peers glare at me with a sort of “oh, so you like that dollhouse simulator, huh?” Oh, yes, please bathe me in your judgmental stares. I feed off them. Okay, I lied. My peers don’t really care. They just want me to stop playing fake life and go outside where real life apparently exists. Escapism, our collective ass.
But really, The Sims 4 hits my guilty pleasure spot. Though the demo Electronic Arts showed was still in alpha, the smoothness of the character creation and the user interface was even more incredible than the two prior trailers showing the two. Seeing is believing, after all, and being able to sculpt a brand-new Sim like clay, just by pulling on its cheeks, shoulders, and legs without having to enter any numbers is the very definition of user-friendly.
Autosave feature will be included in The Sims 4!
SimsVIP confirmed that the Autosave feature that we’ve seen in newer EA games will also be included in The Sims 4. This means that, in case your game crashes or your power goes off, your in-game progress will be saved!
The Sims 4 Preview by GamaSutra
The Sims 4 is due for release this fall, and aims to build on top of the previous installments in the franchise in various meaningful ways.
Apart from the extensive Create a Sim and Build Mode additions, Maxis is looking to really put emotions and personality front and center, with each Sim receiving their own unique trait and emotion combinations, which can lead to specific actions and animations.
Gamasutra caught up with Ryan Vaughan, producer on The Sims 4, to find out what exactly this injection of emotion even means. Is it all marketing buzzwords, or has the team really hit upon the next generation of AI in video games?
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The Sims 4 – SimGuru Render
The Sims posted a render of SimGuru’s that are attending this year’s E3 convention. Can you recognize any of these gurus? 😀