Sims4News

The Landgraabs are back, still living it up as the richest family and staking their claim in Oasis Springs. We’ve brought Malcolm back during those awful awkward teen years, complete with a dastardly snobby attitude. Though Geoffrey is trying his best to be the good natured father Malcolm needs, will Nancy’s scheming ways lead Malcolm down a darker path? Either way we’re sure this historic family will provide lots of fun and mischief in The Sims 4.

Then we have the Caliente household with our two favorite sisters Dina, Nina, and their mother, who has been re-imagined as the attractive and vivacious Katrina. Katrina has ignored her better judgment and let the infamous womanizer Don Lothario mooch his way into her house and quite possibly her heart. Don’s eyes are on Katrina for now, but how long will it be before Nina and Dina are lured in by his charm? Will Nina decide to steal Don away from her mother? Will Dina finally earn enough money to get her own place and get away from all the craziness? All we know is that it won’t be long before sparks start flying!

Johnny Zest is an ambitious new character we like to introduce. Disowned from the Landgraab family when he dropped out of school, he now hopes to find his own fame and fortune as a standup comedian. He’s learned the hard lesson that when the Landgraabs cut you off, they cut you off all the way! Living in a trailer, blessed with the Landgraab looks but without the name or the money; will he make it to the top to show mom and pop he had what it takes all along? We’ll leave the fate of this black sheep in your capable hands.

Finally we’ve got a new batch of youths known as the Roomies. Your typical sitcom setup with ‘J’ (Jameson) the body building hunk, Gavin the gentleman muser, Mitchell the couch potato bro, and Zoe, that girl next door who is actually right where she wants to be, having fun with the friend-zoned boys.

No matter which familiar face you play with, we are convinced this cast of characters will add a quirkiness to your game that only The Sims can bring!

-Sim Guru Zephyr

REQUIRED: Internet connection required for product activation. 

OS: Windows XP (SP3), Windows Vista (SP2), Windows 7 (SP1), Windows 8, or Windows 8.1 

PROCESSOR: 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, AMD Athlon 64 Dual-Core 4000+ or equivalent (For computers using built-in graphics chipsets, the game requires 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.0 GHz AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-62 or equivalent)

MEMORY: At least 2 GB RAM 

HARD DRIVE: At least 9 GB of free space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games 

DVD-ROM: DVD ROM drive required for installation only 

VIDEO CARD: 128 MB of Video RAM and support for Pixel Shader 3.0. Supported Video Cards: NVIDIA GeForce 6600 or better, ATI Radeon X1300 or better, Intel GMA X4500 or better 

SOUND CARD: DirectX 9.0c Compatible 

DIRECTX: DirectX 9.0c Compatible 

INPUT: Keyboard and Mouse

Hi Simmers! I am here to tell you more about the vibrant worlds where you and your Sims will be creating your own unique stories in The Sims 4.

We start out in Willow Creek which is very green, bountiful and should feel a little familiar to longtime fans. We wanted to pair Willow Creek with something completely different and that world is Oasis Springs. Oasis Springs packs a little visual punch with rocky landscaping, evoking those fond memories for players of Lunar Lakes and Lucky Palms. You’ll find it’s not just the landscapes that are distinct, even the home styles are unique to each world.

You’ll find objects available in Oasis Springs that you can’t find in Willow Creek and vice versa. Let’s say you want to make a tasty vegetable soup; you’ll find carrots in Oasis Springs but you’ll have to venture to Willow Creek for onions. To achieve the perfect dish you’ll have to visit the different worlds to bring your ingredients together, and it’s easy to do.

Willow Creek and Oasis Springs have five neighborhoods each. New homes or even venues can be built on each lot within these neighborhoods, allowing you to personalize the world to fit the stories you want to tell. There are also public spaces within these neighborhoods where Sims can explore, socialize, play, and even host a lovely cookout. Each world will have two neighborhoods already set up with venues, so as soon as you get into the game, you can take your Sims out for a night they won’t soon forget.

We’ve made the neighborhoods much livelier, populated with more Sims, all with their own unique personalities. You never know what is going to happen. You can be fishing in the neighborhood creek, when suddenly the lovely Bella Goth jogs by with Don Lothario conveniently not far behind. You might also find Malcom Landgraab passed out on a park bench after a night of terrorizing the locals, while the local children enjoy a good laugh in the nearby park! These curious little stories tell themselves and really help to make your Neighborhoods come alive.

The Great Outdoors

Parks and outdoor spaces are also really important to how you tell your stories in The Sims 4. The park in Oasis Springs has scenic valleys with lots to explore, including an absolutely gorgeous desert landscape perfect for a BBQ amongst the picnic benches and grills. In fact, the park is so big, we had to add another bathroom so your Sims didn’t suffer from Bladder Failure and ruin a good grilling time!

The desert isn’t all about food, frolicking and sand. Amongst the rocky edges you may even find an old water pump, long forgotten, but brimming with unexpected life. With so many unique things to do and explore it’s a good thing you now have the ability to seamlessly jump back and forth between worlds.

Travel With Ease

If you remember, in The Sims 3 you couldn’t take your Sim from one world to the other or have relationships with Sims living in different worlds. Now if you’re living in Willow Creek but your Sim wants to visit the mischievous Malcom in Oasis Springs you can do that just as easily as seeing your neighbor down the street. Say you like more of a dry heat and want to move to Oasis Springs? No problem! Your Sim’s relationships, skills and jobs will go along with them. It’s a completely fluid experience.

So there you have it; new worlds and wide open spaces. With so many new possibilities you now have the power to create your own unique stories. We hope you will have as much fun exploring Oasis Springs as we had making it!

-SimGuruZephyr

There appears to be an advertisement in the new gameplay video that reads, “The Sims 4 Premium. Save on new packs with early access and exclusive items. Become a Premium member to get early access to three new packs, with exclusive items. Your Sims can throw a spooky costume party, camp in the great outdoors, and toast to the new year in style.”

How do you guys feel about this? Would you pay extra for exclusive items and early access to store packs?

All you have to do is provide your email (the one linked to your Origin account) in The Sims 4 Create A Sim Demo box on the home page.

Spots in the early trial experience are limited and not everyone will be invited in. If you are selected to participate, you will receive an email invitation with full instructions at some point in the next two weeks.

Good luck everyone!

"The Sims 4 Create A Sim Demo will be available later this summer for absolutely everyone to play. We are currently rolling out an early trial experience and invitations are going out very soon to a limited number of fans to help us test it. After that, you’ll all get your hands on it and see firsthand the depth, personality and emotion that are part of your new Sims.

And another thing - we were thrilled that more than 1200 people came through our E3 demo room last month to see The Sims 4 in action, but we want all of you to see it as well. We’ll be releasing over 15 minutes of in-game Live Mode footage (with complete UI) in the next two weeks. We can’t wait to hear what you think.”

-Rachel Franklin

Rachel also elaborated on the decision to boot toddlers and pools from the base game in a new blog…click here to read it!

UPDATE: SimGuruRusskii has confirmed that players can upload Sims created in the CAS demo to The Gallery to be downloaded when the game launches! Hopefully we can download other Sims via The Gallery in the demo as well!

Graham Nardone has confirmed that, "If you want unplayed families to continue beyond their current generation, you’ll need to try for a baby with them or play as them." Families will no longer spontaneously move away, form relationships, get promotions, or have children.

When you choose a family to play in Willow Creek, all of the NPCs, neighbors and townies in the world will age up with your Sims. However, Sims like Bella and Mortimer Goth would age and die without having children unless you manually controlled their household and got Bella pregnant. This must be done with every family in the world, for every single generation, or the youngest generation will eventually age up and die without having children and a new, randomized family will move into their home.

This means that by the end of one Sim-lifetime, every family in the world will be completely gone (and replaced with a random, new family) unless the player manually impregnates a female in each family.

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