For years, Dead By Daylight has had its roots firmly in the horror genre as one of the most popular asymmetric multiplayer games of all time. More recently, however, there has been a slight departure from the norm with the introduction of the adventurer and professional pot-kicker Lara Croft and the ultimate evil, Vecna from Dungeons & Dragons.
A life simulator, understandably, should let you leave your home to experience the wide-open world. And that’s exactly what you can do in The Sims 4: travel to the rest of the world. Unfortunately, in the fourth installment of the classic Sims series, there’s not that much to see.
The Sims 4 has a bit of a world problem. If you were around for the original release of the game, you remember the disappointment when you first decided to leave your home. There was no open world to explore, and there were so few lots to do anything that it was almost better to just keep your Sim on one lot like you were limited to in the original Sims 1.
As the years have gone on, EA has expanded on the amount of worlds that you can visit with the introduction of numerous expansion and game packs. While no one is psyched about having to pay for even more DLC, it at least gives players new worlds to explore. But these worlds are getting smaller and smaller as they continue to release.
Visually, many of the new worlds are incredibly appealing. Worlds like Tomarang, Sulani, and the latest addition with the Lovestruck pack Ciudad Enamorada, provide breathtaking views for your Sims to enjoy on beaches, in the woods, and on top of towering skyscrapers. Sadly, that’s all these are though. A vast majority of some of the most beautiful locations are simply set dressing.
Take for example, in the world of Tomarang included in For Rent, there’s a beautiful Southeast Asian-inspired temple that serves as the Tiger Sanctuary. What a perfect place to go exploring for secrets of the town, right? But The Tiger Sanctuary is nothing more than a rabbit hole for your Sim to disappear into, with a few pop-ups describing your adventures.
So, not only are many of the stunning spots just there to look pretty, but the lots you are able to go and check out are limited. The original two worlds included, Willow Creek and Oasis Springs, both have a respectable 21 lots. This isn’t huge, and a majority of those lots are taken up by residential homes, but at least it was a starting point. The problem is that the worlds that have been released have been shaving off lots for a while now.
When packs were first released, it seemed like the dev team was trying to make the worlds bigger than before. Windenburg, the world included with Get Together, gave players 14 residential lots and 13 community lots to play with. San Myshuno, packaged with City Living, has 30 lots in total if you count each apartment as its own lot.
However, as more packs have been released, those numbers have been dwindling. Get Famous, released in 2018, has only 11 lots in total. The latest world for players to explore, Ciudad Enamorada, only has 13. Compare this to the largest world included in The Sims 3, Sunset Valley, which had a whopping 92 lots. That’s 79 fewer lots to play with.
It doesn’t help that, unlike previous installments in the series, the map is not editable. You cannot add new lots to the land. While you are able to edit each lot itself, you can’t place a new one next to an existing one, even if that land is blank. The map is instead 2D, with no way to change it.
This has a huge impact on gameplay. Instead of plenty of places to visit, to explore and meet new Sims, players are stuck with the same few places and faces. Playing Sims 4 feels almost like a routine because there’s not much to see and do. Even when new packs are released, you’re able to check out the entire world in just a short few hours of gameplay.
It’s not just the lack of lots, but the lack of variety within them. Each world features the same types of venues, as put by user ContinuumKing on a Reddit post discussing the new features of the Lovestruck pack:
With plenty of upvotes, the sentiment is quite popular. There’s nothing new or exciting to check out in the other worlds because the same activities exist in the world you’re already in. User Big_Stop8917 shared the sentiment:
For fans who love to take their Sims on adventures and journeys that span their entire lifetime, you simply can’t do that with The Sims 4. The coolest places to go are just scenery, the lots that are there are repetitive, and you’ll be able to see it all within just a few days of your Sim’s life. It honestly makes me want to just keep my Sims at home.
We’d love to see a change in this as more DLC releases for Sims 4. Bigger worlds expand the possibilities in gameplay significantly. However, the expansions continue to sell well, so it seems there’s little incentive for EA to fix the problem. The packs will keep rolling out, but hopefully the worlds won't keep this trend going.
The post The Sims 4 has a world problem, and it’s only getting worse appeared first on Destructoid.
Our Sims 4 main menu experience is crowded enough already, but it's about to get more packed. This week players have managed to dig up proof of an upcoming "events" system that will dole out free rewards for logging in regularly. EA hasn't released any public information about the events feature yet, but there is, for now, an unlisted video on The Sims YouTube channel explaining it in full.
The events feature isn't live yet, but a current banner on the main menu screen says "What's so exciting? Come back in 1 week to find out." It could be related to something else, but I'd say it's a fair bet that's this new events system it's referencing.
As spotted by a few different players, including the (unofficial) Sims Community account, it sure looks and feels like a battle pass. It's located on the main menu screen with a horizontal track of rewards that you can claim for logging in a certain number of days during the given event period. Rewards are things like new hair and jewelry for Create-A-Sim, new furniture and objects for Build Mode, and what may be a new Sim trait as well. It looks like you aren't asked to log in every day, with a set of three rewards possible during week one, two during week two, and so on. And though it feels like damning with faint praise to say it, well, at least it's free.
Content creator SatchOnSims has helpfully done a bit of comparison of all the leaked items in the event rewards track to work out that most seem to be new color swatches or slight alterations on items that have previously appeared in different paid DLC kits and expansions. There's a recolor of a hairstyle from the Cats & Dogs expansion, a version of a mini fridge from the Discover University expansion, and so on.
Log in rewards are super common in online games as an incentive to keep concurrent player count strong but it's a weird thing for a singleplayer game to do. It's been a weird first half of the year overall for The Sims 4.
Back in March it added a nagging store button reminding you to think about buying DLC all the time. Just last week EA announced that it had "assembled a team" to better work on fixing gameplay bugs that have plagued the game for years. And yeah, it doesn't feel great that another naggy sort of system is likely going to roll right on out while a major bug fixing campaign seems to be just getting off the ground.
It's been a real mix of things nobody wanted and things everybody's asked for for years. It feels like The Sims 4 is getting pulled in four different directions like it's being stretched on a torture rack. Slapping in battle passes while that fad already feels on its way out of favor in the wider gaming community is just another shackle.
It's unclear whether this system is going to replace or coexist with the current "Sims Delivery Express" system by which The Sims 4 will occasionally add a new free item for all players regardless of when they log in next. And although these "events" look like they're currently free, I can feel everyone getting nervous that they may not always stay that way, if not in The Sims 4 then possibly in the upcoming The Sims 5.
For now though, getting free variants on things like the mini fridge that were previously only contained in DLCs is something I'm generally in favor of, feeling "pressured" to play aside. If I could request a single-tile shower head like the one in Discover University to use in my base game tiny house builds, that would be great, thanks EA.
© Maxis, Electronic Arts
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Still looking for that perfect gift for Mother's Day? How about a curated selection of jewellery inspired by The Sims 4?
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