Overview

An unofficial fan-made image, depicting the evolution of the Sims' expressiveness

The Sims 4 is an upcoming simulation game, and the fourth major entry in the worldwide hit franchise The Sims, currently being developed by Maxis Software and set to be published by Electronic Arts in 2014 for the PC and Mac platforms.

The game was revealed on May 6th 2013 in a blog post on the official EA blog, the Beat. Hours later, a second blog post was published to the Beat, wherein it was revealed that "several of the world's top fans" of the Sims franchise had attended a "special VIP briefing" prior to the worldwide announcement.

The latter blog post touted "new and intuitive tools" and highlighted the ability of allowing players to "share their creativity with friends and fans", while also promising the game will feature "the most expressive, surprising and charming Sims ever".

In July 2017, Electronic Arts announced that it would be bringing the game to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 from November 17th 2017. Subscribers to EA Access on the Xbox One will be able to play the game included in their membership from November 9th until release with their progress carrying over to the full title if they purchase it.

New Features

New features include emotions, a new Sim creator, a new house editor, and online sharing features.

Emotions

We've all been there, Ollie

Sims now display emotions. These can be used to greatly impact social situations. Emotions revealed so far include "Confident", "Inspired", "Hysterical", "Focused", "Bored", "Fine", "Depressed", "Sad", "Furious", "Angry", "Cranky, "Flirty" and "Passionate".

Emotions can be manipulated by means of external factors, including music, decoration, or voodoo dolls.

Sim Creator

The new Sim editor, replacing gauges and meters with direct tactile manipulation of a Sim's appearance

The new Sim creator replaces the gauges and meters typical of video-game character creators with an editor that allows players to alter a Sim's appearance by directly manipulating their body.

House Editor

The new, more versatile house editor introduces a slew of new mechanics. One of the new features allows whole rooms to be moved around the house from one point to another, using only a drag gesture.

"single-player offline experience"

Notably, the second blog post described the game as a "single-player offline experience". Given that this has been the case with every The Sims game prior to The Sims 4, and that online-dependent features such as "sharing" are in fact implied in the same post, the statement may have the implicit intent of easing concerns regarding a reprise of the type of connectivity issues that crippled Maxis' previous title, 2013's SimCity, which requires an online connection to be played.

Later, an official FAQ addressed the question "Will The Sims 4 require a persistent online connection?", stating that an internet connection would not be required.

System Requirements

External Links

• Official Website
• Official Facebook page