May the fork be with you

Okay, it's September 2, 2014.  A large portion of the simming community is playing the new release of Sims 4 today and probably staying up pretty late to continue playing.  My copy arrived around 4:00pm today (I prefer getting a disk over just a download, and I needed to get some work done before I could play today), so I've only had a few hours of Sim 4 time.

But, it didn't take long to get my first bonk from the game.  The seated sim in this screenshot is Amy Moore, a sim I created in the Create A Sim demo (and shared to the gallery).  Here she has just told her husband Harvey about the results of their recent woohoo.  It seems he was so excited that he held onto his fork from his most recent meal - it's the white-ish looking thing stuck to his right hand...

I don't know what he intended to do with that fork, but after a few more interactions and another meal or two, he's not holding the fork any more.

That's enough play time for tonight.  I've got work to prepare for, and I'll put together a more complete post later with more detailed thoughts and analysis of the new version soon.

What is your Sims 4 personality?

Earlier this week, EA made the Sims 4 Create a Sim demo available to everyone with an Origin account.  If you haven't downloaded it yet, open your Origin client and grab it.  I was pleasantly surprised at the performance of the demo; it was responsive and there were no lags that I could see on my laptop (which is a couple years old now and a refurbished model at that).

Today there is a new video among all the other teasers that links to a quick quiz...



It's a typical "socially shareable results" quiz that has an oh-so-convenient link to instantly share your results on Facetube.  Rather than posting my result there, I'll put it here where readers are more likely to appreciate it.

Considering that my professional life is now that of a photographer, this isn't too far off for me.  Now how do I create that personality in my simself (which I am fiddling with and will share [my username there is Slmbo42] as soon as I am satisfied)?

Will I be able to run The Sims 4?

There has been a lot of talk over the last month about The Sims 4 since E3 and the presentations and announcements that were made there.  We learned that the toddler life stage and pools will not be included in the base game, and that each neighborhood in the world will have only five lots.  The screenshots that have been shown have been derided for a lack of detail in the hairstyles.  Features that simmers have been asking for over a long period are confirmed as not being included (still no height adjustment for sims).  But there was also talk of classic sim items (the cow plant, grand pianos, etc.) and characters (Bella Goth) returning in the base game as well as a bunch of new features (sims showing their emotions and having interactions that are available only in certain emotional states), skills (growing flowers) and careers (comedian).

One question that I have yet to see definitively answered is whether or not I will be able to run The Sims 4 on my computer.  There was a comment about a year ago when CAS was shown at Gamescom.  I don't remember who said it or where to find it anymore, but the comment was meant to reassure gamers that we would be able to play The Sims 4 on our current hardware.  With that in mind, it's pretty easy to see why some things have been left out and the style changed to be a little more cartoonish.  But that still doesn't really answer my question.

Today I went looking for a concrete answer.  The only place that I could find any mention of system requirements was a placeholder page on the Origin store website.  The page simply says "Coming soon!"  We're now less than 2 months from the launch date, so there isn't much time left to announce the minimum and recommended system specs, so I'm still cautiously optimistic that I'll be able to play it with my current computer hardware.

Another Sims 4 presentation from E3

So yesterday at the EA press conference, there was a presentation about The Sims 4. That part of the presentation was posted to the interwebs last night, and now the rest of us get to see it.

There's not a whole lot that's new, but there is some discussion of The Sims 4 version of the Exchange (where players can share creations from their games) and that a new sim can be dropped into the game on the fly.  Also at the end of the demo they show a new type of death: death from laughter.

More Sims 4 info now that E3 is on!

Now that EA had their press conference at E3 today, there is some more information. TheSims.com has been updated with a release date of September 2, 2014, and there's this new gameplay video...




Some of the more obvious things I noticed were the Mexican wrestler masks and the cow plant. I'm sure all the sim vloggers will have breakdown videos later today or tomorrow, so watch those too. But in the meantime, now we know when we'll get it.

More details on Sims 4 build mode

Here we go again with another official video on The Sims 4…

Sims 4 Build Mode official trailer

This looks way cool.  Some things that I spotted in my first viewing that weren’t explicitly pointed out by the narrator include:

• curved walls!!!
• trees that look like they’re from a swampy area with moss hanging down from the branches
• the streetcar is operational
• skills include grand piano and some kind of crafting at a workbench

Overall, it looks like the default town is based on architecture and styles found in and around New Orleans, right down to a model of the New Orleans St. Charles Line Streetcar.  There will likely be more info at E3, and I am eager to see more.

More about Sims 4 CAS

The Sims 4 team has been hard at work improving and finishing off the new version for this fall's launch. We've been promised that there will be some more info released at E3 this year (coming up in a couple weeks), but today we get another look at Create-A-Sim with this new video...


The teaser mention in this video is that we'll see more about the new build mode soon.

So Bella and Mortimer Goth are back, but I'm still wondering where Goopy GilsCarbo is? He did get writer/producer/director/everything credit for at least one Sims 4 teaser video...

How does this not have more fans?

Now I don’t mean the number of fans of this blog (but I would appreciate seeing a few comments and fan interactions at some point), I mean the number of fans of the official Sims 4 Facebook page.  You’re reading this blog, you’re a Sims fan, go Like the page.  As I write this post, there are only a measly 514 fans (and yes, I am one of those 514).  Go on, add the page to your likes right now; I’ll still be here when you get back.  Why should you go Like the page?  Earlier this week there was a post on there with an update on the projected release date for The Sims 4 – Fall 2014.  Until now, we only knew it would be in 2014, now we know what season, so we’ll have plenty of time to play with Into The Future before we’re all too busy with the new version.

Are streetcars coming in The Sims 4?

So yesterday I put up a nice long post about this week’s live broadcast.  There was a digression in there about rapid transit systems in the game and how I would love to see a streetcar system added to the game.  Today at lunch I was looking at the new The Sims Official Magazine and reading a little more about The Sims 4, when one of the screenshots (admittedly, I had seen it before with the Gamescom coverage) caught my eye.  Here’s a smaller version of it (copied from The Sims official site, where it is labeled as “The Sims 4 Image #3”)…

That sure looks like a streetcar in front of the house, and if you look to the right of the street’s center island, you can see street trackage that continues off the screen to the right.  I absolutely love the look of this streetcar and desperately hope that I will be able to send my sims off to school, work or play via this new (to the game) transportation system.  But if it’s another free-to-ride system like the taxis in the current game, it will detract a bit from my perspective.

The only things missing from this screenshot for the streetcar system are the overhead wire and the trolley pole on the streetcar.  There have been streetcars built using battery or diesel engine powered cars, so a scene like this isn’t completely out of line, but streetcars powered from overhead wires are by far the most common type of systems used worldwide for the last 120 or more years.  I wonder…  Is there a railfan working on The Sims design team?

More details on Sims 4 build mode capabilities

In a word, awesome!  There are a number of new enhancements that are coming in The Sims 4’s build mode.  One of my favorite sim vloggers, TheSimSupply, sat down with SimGuruHouts to talk about some of the new features that we can expect.

I didn’t hear anything about the items on my recent want list post, but what they did tell us with this interview makes me want the new version even more.  Check out the video posted today on YouTube for all the juicy bits!