The day I never thought I'd witness is near – EA is finally introducing an autosave feature to The Sims 4… you know, a good 12 years after its 2014 launch.

How many Sims have I lost to random crashes? How many houses have perished before my eyes due to buggy shutdowns? Too many to count, I'd say – and sure, I could've been more vigilant about saving, but The Sims 4 has needed an autosave feature for well over a decade now.

Some of the best Sims 4 mods (I'm looking at you, MC Command Center) have tried to rectify the issue, but EA hadn't officially addressed it… until now. On July 21, the studio is finally adding an autosave ("AutoSave," as EA calls it) option to the life sim – but that's not all.

As outlined in its latest Laundry List of upcoming fixes, EA says, "This month we're introducing a new AutoSave to The Sims 4, and rolling out Memory Boost to Mac and console players to improve overall performance for more Simmers."

The team is also looking to target "the top-reported issues from players via EA Forums."

The autosave feature is undeniably the most eye-catching tidbit here, though. So… how will it work, exactly? "Quietly in the background, automatically creating save points at key moments while you play," apparently.

"You can customize when AutoSave happens in Game Save Settings, with options like saving after traveling between lots, after a period of playtime, or at important gameplay milestones."

There's another option for Simmers who hate themselves (I kid, I kid). "If you'd rather stay in control, Save Reminders like the friendly (or slightly grumpy) gnome notification… can prompt you to create a manual save at the frequency you choose. Together, these features help reduce the risk of lost progress while giving you the flexibility to save the way you want."

Not bad, EA. Not bad at all. It just took, erm, 12 years.

EA goes into some of its other big tweaks, too, like the Memory Boost system that "improves how The Sims 4 manages memory while you play, helping deliver a smoother experience with reduced lag, improved frame rates and responsiveness, shorter loading times, and a lower risk of memory-related crashes."

It sounds like, all in all, The Sims 4 will crash less – and when it does crash, it'll be far less painful thanks to autosaving.

I don't know about you all, but I think this is a step in the right direction – even if it's coming a bit late to The Sims 4. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some mods to delete…

The Sims 4's microtransaction Marketplace has officially shown me the door after 24 years of Simming.

The Sims is dead. Long live The Sims. The death rattle began in September 2024, when publisher EA officially announced that The Sims 4 was to graduate into an ongoing, Fortnite-like platform. The same announcement revealed there would be no Sims 5 incoming, and that upcoming multiplayer venture Project Rene is set to exist alongside The Sims 4 instead. Whatever wariness I had for the end of the life sim's generational format can't compare with the truth of seeing the thing I love being taken out back and quietly put down.

The Sims 4's future is hanging over it like a guillotine, and in a selfish way, it's a distraction. I can't even enjoy its latest expansion – Royalty and Legacy, something I was so hyped for as a huge lover of The Sims Medieval – in good faith. How can I crown myself princess of the realm when the new microtransaction system cements The Sims 4 as just another live service game?

Not with a bang, but with a "glarch"

The Sims 4 Marketplace is my nemesis. I'm not here to slate battle passes and paid add-ons as a business strategy – what goes on between you and your credit card is none of my business, pal – but rather how and why these premium currencies put me off games as a 31 year-old.

Battle passes, seasonal content drops, and the "exclusivity" factors ascribed to them are there to feed our FOMO in this age of instant gratification, and unfortunately, it's proven to be a lucrative cash grab. Anyone can fall victim to such a siren song. Nickel-and-diming isn't exactly a new phenomenon in the world of gaming.

Premium in-game currencies and microtransactions have been around longer than battle passes, following a proud tradition of shoving quarters into arcade cabinets. And there I was thinking gaming had come such a long way since Pac-Man. Part of the reason you'd stump up the big bucks for something like those massive Neo Geo carts was to get away from the money hungry machines.

Alas, the beast has only transformed. Free-to-play games (FTP) with optional microtransactions, once heavily identified with mobile gaming, have now become the de-facto way to play online with pals across devices, with games like Fortnite being played by millions and the game itself having peaked at 44.7m players as of 2023.

EA took The Sims 4 free-to-play on Steam in 2022, and at the time, I shrugged it off. Despite its obvious positioning as a tempting ground, dangling exciting expansion packs in front of gamers on a budget, The Sims 4 is one of the best free Steam games as long as you can ignore the upselling that has been rampant ever since The Sims 4 adopted a more storefront-like splash page.

But now it's 2026, and The Sims 4 has just received its very own microtransaction system to boot.

Dag dag for now

If Royalty and Legacy really does turn out to be the 21st and final Sims 4 expansion pack, as the rumor mill claims, players will still be able to purchase in-game currency called Moolah using their real-life pennies and exchange it for new build or buy-mode items.

You can buy acne patches with Moolah. You can buy new t-shirts with Moolah. I used to download things like that for free from community modders back in 2007, or at least I would have if pimple patches as fashion choices had been a thing when I was 12. There's nothing about the Sims 4 Marketplace that serves me as someone who's been playing it since launch. I already have all the Sims expansion packs I want, and I'm not going to be buying a handful of acne patch accessories for £5 just because.

The end result is the unfortunate commodification of something that was once the life sim’s biggest strength: its creative community, and all the clever things it would come up with to enhance one another’s Simming experiences through the best Sims 4 mods.

It's confronted me with the fact that the free-to-play business model is precisely that: a money-making business model. In this case, one that caters to the younger end of the admittedly broad age spectrum of Sims 4 players, for whom microtransactions have always been a loud and proud norm in their games since they can remember.

If this is the future EA thinks we want for The Sims 4, it's certainly not the one I had in mind. Maybe it's time I return to The Sims 2 for good. At least it has pizza.

Explore some games like the Sims 4 if you're also on the hunt for your next life sim obsession.

Will Wright blazed through the early video game industry like a comet – he co-founded Maxis, created the very first SimCity, The Sims in 2000, and released the ultimate life sim Spore in 2008. Much more quietly, Wright has spent the last decade on an AI-enabled, psychoanalytic thing with huge ambitions and zero budget, but he's determined to keep it breathing.

"Kind of like Frankenstein," Wright tells Vulture in a new profile. It's called Proxi: Yesterday’s You Tomorrow, and Wright's studio Gallium Studios revealed it at Game Developers Conference in 2018, though the idea of it has been nagging at Wright since 2016. In the years since, Wright has spent millions of his and investors' dollars, laid off his staff in 2024 when the money ran out, and is now retaining a few unpaid developers to make it happen. One day.

Gallium's website advertises a few cutesy shots of its pea-headed avatars, or Proxies, getting married, having sandwiches at a picnic table, and observing a fish fly off a campfire grill and get stuck in a UFO's alien beam. The game part of it is to "experience and share memories" through simulacrum, Proxies of people you know in real life in an effort to "discover hidden connections between your memories" – like the thread between a good, spring day at the park and the time you swear you got probed on Mars, seemingly.

To help you thoroughly analyze all these likely fuzzy memories, Proxi uses an AI algorithm to create and sort your inputs, and players also earn points for adding memories with conceptual throughlines.

Investors don't get it. Even Wright hasn't fully decided on what Proxi should be, 10 years later. He worries about "nested memories, basically" – multiple memories made in the same location – and importing your Proxi into genealogy websites to communicate with your ancestors through AI. The Sims creator has made a real mess. But "I'd much rather have a glorious failure than a mild success," Wright says.

The Sims turns 20: Creator Will Wright reflects on the battle he waged to get one of the best games of all time made.

Just yesterday, EA unveiled that The Sims 4 was getting a new feature – the "Marketplace," as it's so aptly dubbed – to sell what are essentially paid mods and custom content.

As the studio described in its announcement, The Sims 4 Marketplace "is an intentional evolution of a multi-year strategy to support custom content creators" and is accompanied by the arrival of a new real-money currency: Moola.

I, as a long-time Simmer myself, was a bit shocked to hear the news – after spending over $1,500 on DLC (including the fan-created Kits, which sound similar to what'll be on the Marketplace), it was a hard pill to swallow. I feel like sprucing up the base game experience should come in one of two ways, personally: browsing roundups of the best Sims 4 mods to download for free, or exploring updates from EA.

Enough money goes to full, developer-led paid DLC, or so I believe (I mean, come on, the last one just launched last month, and expansion packs release pretty regularly) – and it seems I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Online reactions to The Sims 4 Marketplace have been pretty uniform in structure. Folks are overall not thrilled. Under one Reddit post, they share their thoughts, comparing EA's new feature to Bethesda's own Creation Club – another unpopular service for paid mods in games like Skyrim.

"Soooo it's the Bethesda creation club," comments one player. Another adds, "This is hilarious, they just copied Bethesda." My personal favorite reads, "EA is basically reheating Bethesda's nachos. Remember the Creation Club?"

Simmers are also pointing out that The Sims 4 Marketplace is "basically microtransactions" – and they're not exactly wrong. It feels like a return (none of us wanted) of The Sims 3 Store, except nothing is free. And while it might feel like supporting creators outside of EA, they're not really getting the full cut themselves.

As someone points out in a thread elsewhere, "I really hope all the CC creators who signed up for this Sims 4 Marketplace eventually realize they're being played by EA, only getting 30% profit from your creations is truly a slap in the face and insulting."

Others are just annoyed that this is happening at all. "This isn't Minecraft, which is a stable one-time price game with additional content," a player outlines in a separate post.

"Sims 4 costs 1,000 dollars for many main features, and now wants to pile a Marketplace on top of that. Base game alone is boring and bland, save corruption looms. This is horrible."

In other words, the community is not happy. One silver lining, at least, is the fact that this opens up some new possibilities for console players who didn't have access to mods and custom content before. But, uh, I'm still not excited, though.

The Sims 4's biggest sex mod, WickedWhims, is launched 400,000 times a day according to its creator

I am admittedly frustrated to report that The Sims 4 is getting a new feature that many of us might have preferred to live without – a paid "Marketplace" where we can, you guessed it, purchase custom content and mods from fellow fans.

It's not the thought of paying hard-working players for their work that upsets me. It's the fact that, after spending over $1,500 on DLC (and, yes, you read that right), I will now be able to spend even more to spruce my base game experience up.

The Sims 4 Marketplace, as EA has so aptly dubbed the feature, is pretty much The Sims 3 Store but for the more recent life sim. See some sofas you like? Ready your wallets, they'll cost you.

As EA describes it in a new announcement, "This is an intentional evolution of a multi-year strategy to support custom content creators, expanding from co-developed Kits to Creator Kits and now The Sims 4 Marketplace and the Maker Program. This has all been thoughtfully built over the past few years to expand the reach and celebrate these incredible creatives."

As it stands, Kits themselves are $5 each. Prices on the Marketplace will vary.

It's not set to go live as a feature until March 17, when it'll roll out first on PC and then consoles in the coming months.

EA explains that it'll be fully integrated into The Sims 4 for a more seamless experience while shopping, and will introduce a new real-money currency: Moola. While the developers stress that the Marketplace "does not replace free content" and every purchase supports the creative fans selling their content, it's all understandably worrying.

I'm not the only one concerned, either. Comments under EA's official social media post on the upcoming virtual store prove as much. "BIG yikes," reads one. Another player writes, "Rest in peace, The Sims 4, I knew this was coming."

Others point out that the company will also make money off this, implying it's disingenuous to frame it as a net positive for custom content and mod creators. "I… can't even describe the horror I'm feeling."

The Sims 4 Marketplace is evidently not exactly proving popular with the community – but to be fair to EA, it isn't out yet. There's a chance it'll be okay, and I mean, I guess this does finally allow console users to have a go at downloading custom content and mods.

Hoping to spruce your base game up for free before the Marketplace lands? Browse through our roundup of the best Sims 4 mods available to download.

The legacy of The Sims 2 has always fascinated me. At the tender age of 11 I spent much of 2006 trawling YouTube for Sims 2 fan creations, be it short original movies or narrativized takes on my favorite emo anthems. Almost every 30-something I speak to can relate. It's a unique shared experience that feels fundamentally 2000s, and I've not come across something quite like it since.

Still captivated by the Sims 2 music video subculture and its symbiosis with early YouTube, I wanted to catch up with the scene. Where are its creators now? Could the community still be out there some 23 years later? I put some feelers out on Reddit, expecting more nostalgia than active signs of life. Instead, I found a community more driven than ever.

Long ago...

With a plethora of free, fan-made mods available and with YouTube established a year after The Sims 2's 2004 release date, EA's life simulation game offered the perfect filmset. I haven't managed to track down the first ever Sims 2 music video or Machinima on YouTube but the earliest ones date back to 2006, when the first generation of Sims 2 fan media was born.

Through Reddit, I find Sims fans who share the same core memories – namely, watching fan-made music videos for Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend and Sk8er Boi. "This topic is probably my Roman Empire," Redditor such_a_sweet_sorrow tells me, detailing their first taste of fan-made Sims 2 videos on YouTube in 2008. A number of us worshipped jaydee227's incredible vid-ification of Helena by My Chemical Romance. I can still remember its custom content, including an uncanny recreation of the ballerina from the official video.

"[Helena] was so ahead of its time and I still don't know how some of the shots were pulled off," says creator simthesize. "When I saw it for the first time, my jaw was on the floor. It made me realize that virtually anything is possible in this game."

The slew of fan-made web shows, also known as Machinima, were just as foundational. To find out more, I reached out to Tori, known on YouTube as fenderchick2010, who was most active during that era.

"What made Sims 2 Machinima captivating is that it was largely made by teens, for teens," she reflects. Tori's first video was called Left Behind, an adaptation of the Left Behind: The Kids book series she created for a ninth grade school project in 2006. The video is no longer on YouTube, but Machinima fans might recognize her most popular work: the first episode of Cahuna Beach High, a Degrassi-like high school drama series. "I also made that in ninth grade, but was 14 by that point. It was the first Machinima video I created, other than the brief trailer, that was fully intended for an online audience."

The opportunity to build a strong following and community around a video game – especially at a time before algorithms, content creation, or a glut of social media – speaks to how unique and expansive EA's second-gen life sim was. As Tori puts it: "We went from observing the dollhouse in Sims 1 to living in the dollhouse in Sims 2."

While Tori remains active in the still-thriving Machinima community and is actively pursuing bringing her series to television, simthesize returned in a more casual capacity.

"I was around 12 when I made my first video using The Sims 2," he tells me. He'd been most active in the community between 2007 and 2009. "It was a total incoherent mess made up of random clips recorded in the lowest resolution possible. But I remember the excitement of just being able to do that – record scenes and combine them with some random song playing in the background."

In 2025, simthesize made his comeback with a frame-by-frame recreation of Evanescence's Bring Me to Life, inspired by his favorite FMV, regevaway's Everybody's Fool. "I wanted to see what it’d be like to make these videos as an adult, and it's been so much fun. It's become my main pastime now."

The pastime demands more than stringing clips together and calling it a video. This was (and still is) a cinematic artform in its own right.

Viewers grew to expect a sophisticated level of production as the Machinima community developed, with artsy camera angles, framing styles, and editing techniques raising the creative bar each year. The goal was to make something that made people wonder how on Earth you managed it with such little in-game utility – and most of the time, the answer was software Sony Vegas.

Thnks fr th mmrs

"Pretty much everything I did as a kid [were] random videos I made for fun, so while I remember that period very fondly and I was quite proud of some of them, it's nothing to write home about," says simthesize. "And of course, they were the videos that I cringed the most looking back at. For example, my most watched video ever ended abruptly mid-verse because I just ran out of clips to use and I didn't feel like going back into the game to record more."

Tori shares a similar fondness for her earlier work – specifically Bloom, a series about gifted teenagers in the late nineties. "Bloom Episode 1 is the work I'm most proud of. It's not perfect, but it's the best example of how my filming, editing, and writing skills have progressed over the years," bolstered by the "unique challenge of finding and making custom content for the series" given its 1997 setting.

"Sims Machinima is kind of a dying art, and that saddens me," Tori muses. She notes how technology has grown in tandem with Sims creative communities over the past three generations, with a trend toward Let's Play-style YouTube content and TikToks becoming the norm as of The Sims 4.

"Most 2000s Sims machinima creators never showed our faces: we existed as screennames with a Sims profile picture. Internet safety was drilled into us millennials, but Internet anonymity norms have changed. Younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha Sims fans seem more drawn to Sims influencer personalities than specific series, if that makes sense, and they want to feel like they know the simmer behind the videos."

Tori is holding fast to her roots, though. Bloom took "a few years to write, another year to prep, and months of filming and editing," but her goal for this year is to make the next nine episodes happen. "Bloom is a passion project for me, and I want to finish what I started. I don't think I've ever enjoyed creating a series as much as I've enjoyed creating Bloom."

Much like Tori, simthesize has ambitions to keep growing as a Sims 2 Machinima creator. He might've left some childhood projects unfinished, but his newer work – like Woohoo in the City – is a different story: "By virtue of being an adult I am much more intentional about them," he says.

The Sims-ification of Sex and the City was a much faster, enjoyable job than the Evanescence project. "There was a lot of overthinking involved, as I didn't want to walk away from the project feeling like I did a worse job than a 12 year old version of me would. Or even worse – that I abandoned it."

Dag dag

In the 20 years since Sims 2 took over the digital airways, a lot has changed. Game content creation is everywhere in 2026, and the advent of TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Instagram reels fundamentally changed how we consume it.

YouTube's enforcement of copyright protection played a role in this. By the time it was fully realized by 2009, many of our favorite FMVs were muted and eventually taken down. Though some were eventually reuploaded, the crackdown was enough for the trend to go out of style by the time The Sims 3 fully took off. Attention-grabby clips pulled from long-form Let's Plays are far less labor-intensive for the modern content creator – now a paid job –and require little to no modding, which EA has made harder to implement.

Ultimately, the dawning of new Sims generations slowly led to Sims 2 fading into the background. But despite all that, The Sims 2's role in shaping Tori, simthesize, and avid fans like me is hard to overstate.

"It dawned on me that I've been playing The Sims 2 on and off ever since 2004," says simthesize. "It's actually kind of a constant in my life."

Tori echoes the sentiment. "Sims videos remind fans of their youth, before they had jobs, bills, kids of their own, and more responsibilities. Societally speaking, older Sims videos remind people of 2000s Internet. YouTube was new, full of unpolished homemade videos, and less algorithm-driven than it is today."

"Social media felt simpler and actually social," she continues. "Monetization on early YouTube barely existed, and now, people often associate YouTube with influencers and podcasts. The 2000s were a simpler time in many ways, but I think we all say that about past decades!"

Machina and FMVs remain truly human initiatives, taking the freedom of sandbox gameplay and translating it to a tightly-executed entity of its own, enshrined digitally. I didn't make Machinima or own a computer powerful enough to download thousands of custom content items to make my own My Chem videos, but bearing witness to the rise of fan-made content and the primitive wonders of mid-2000s Internet feels like a reward in itself. Thanks for the memories, Sims 2 – they really were so great.

Still building your collection? Here are the best Sims 4 expansions to pick up right now in 2026!

The Sims 4 is a game about life, and life is about sex – at least in part, right? While sexual encounters in-game are portrayed in a way that would be appropriate for network television, it's little surprise that the game's most notable mod would arguably be the one that makes it all X-rated. The mod's popularity is no secret, but a new interview with its creator puts a massive figure on that success.

"On average, 400,000 people per day" play the mod, according to a machine translated interview of creator Turbodriver from German outlet Taz (thanks, PC Gamer). "That's how often my server is pinged, at least, because someone starts the game and has installed the mod." Some nuance of Turbodriver's comments may be lost in the AI translation, but that figure of "400,000" is impossible to mistake no matter what language you speak.

WickedWhims does much more than simply wipe out the pixelated blur that covers Sims' naughty bits in the base game. It also introduces features like birth control, simulations of menstrual cycles, and STDs. The additional bits of depth these features add to your Sims' sex lives are popular enough to have spun into a separate mod called WonderfulWhims, which comes without the smut.

It's impossible to fully contextualize what 400,000 daily users means in the context of the overall Sims 4 playerbase, because daily active user counts are not publicly provided. EA reported in 2024 that 85 million people total had played The Sims 4, but that includes players on console where mods like WickedWhims are not available.

Similarly, SteamDB reports concurrent player counts ranging from 20,000 to 40,000 depending on the time and the day of the week. But that doesn't give us a perfect insight into the number of daily players. More importantly, it only counts players on Steam – not the EA app, where The Sims 4 was available for six years before coming to Valve's platform.

However it compares to the wider pool of The Sims 4 players, 400,000 daily users is a nearly unbelievable level of success for any mod. "I can hardly believe it myself," Turbodriver says. "But it's true."

"The Sims has always been more than a game": Maxis says its values aren't changing amid EA's buyout as it works on "the next evolution" of the series.

The life simulators working at Maxis have stressed that the developers behind The Sims are still committed to inclusivity, still maintain the same level of creative control, and are still focused on single-player experiences with its "next evolution" as we head into the new year.

The public statement and promises about the future were perhaps motivated by worries around EA's impending $55 billion buyout, which would see Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners (founded by Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner) become private owners, leaving the publisher $20 billion in debt.

As IGN previously reported, several The Sims 4 content creators quit EA's Creator Network in response to the news, citing long-term concerns about the values of the company's soon-to-be owners.

So, Maxis took to its blog to write, "The Sims has always been more than a game. It's a canvas for life in all its unpredictable forms…the chaotic moments, the tiny joys, the big dreams, every identity, every version of you. And, thanks to you, The Sims has grown into something bigger than we ever imagined: a living world bursting with creativity, expression, humor, chaos, and heart."

The studio goes on to say the team's "creative control, guided by our values of inclusivity, choice, creativity, community, and play, has not changed," promising that those values will continue into "the future."

Elsewhere, Maxis emphasized that the series' "foundation" of deep single-player simulations wasn't going anywhere. "We'll continue to deliver content and updates to The Sims 4 and we are committed to improving the experience," it wrote. "Single-player PC and console experiences will always be a part of our future, with more than half of our global development team dedicated to The Sims 4 and the next evolution."

And while we already knew Project Rene wasn't in fact The Sims 5, the team have now confirmed that it's more of a mobile-first game "evolved to focus on social multiplayer play."

The rise, fall, and rise again of The Sims: 10 moments that shaped EA's 25-year life sim legacy

The Sims 4 community is truly going through it right now, as one of the most iconic figures – pirate king Anadius himself – seemingly departs from all social media and leaves his DLC unlocker tool for EA's notoriously expensive game defunct.

If you're unfamiliar with Anadius, he was the creator behind the "Sims 4 Updater" – a tool many players used to pirate all of the expansions (we're talking kits, game packs, you name it) for The Sims 4. It's been around for quite some time now, and although Anadius has a bit of a reputation as a take-no-flak kind of guy, the Sims 4 Updater saved users a whopping $1,449.05 (yes, that's how much The Sims 4 expansion packs cost) in DLC money.

Anadius is gone permanently this time... wtf happened? from r/PiratedGames

Anadius hasn't stepped down without leaving a goodbye message, however. As noted on Reddit, his farewell post reads as follows: "I decided to step down. Don't pester my close friends, till the end I acted like an asshole I am and haven't told them the reason why either." He then explains that, while the "Sims 4 Updater is dead dead," source code for his DLC unlocker tools "is safe with the moderation team."

According to the pirating legend, the moderators can "share it with anyone willing to update them (in case they break)." Unsurprisingly, the Sims 4 fanbase is in shambles. Under the final thread online from Anadius – with him having scrubbed all others before it – players gather to mourn the loss of free, albeit pirated, DLC. "I will forever be grateful for you," writes one sad Simmer. Another says, "Welp. Guess I'm never playing The Sims again."

The debacle doesn't end there, though. Simmerella, a prominent creator of Sims 4 mods, is taking on the hard work of keeping pirating of EA's downloadable content alive, as per her Patreon – but there's a catch. As the community notes in a separate post, Simmerella's DLC unlocker comes with a twist: "...you have to pay for their Patreon to get DLCs on the release day." Anadius's tool was entirely free, and fans had immediate access to expansions on launch.

Understandably, players are now even more upset. "So it basically destroys the whole purpose of what Anadius stood for and what pirating is about," comments one such fan. Another adds, "I had no love for him, but this feels disrespectful to what Anadius stood for as a person." I get where they're coming from as a longtime Simmer myself – although I obviously can't just advocate for piracy outright. But, it's tough out here, folks.

It's especially tough as a Sims stan, from the thousands of dollars of expansions to the fact that we aren't getting another mainline game, as EA admitted in the past that it has no plans for a Sims 5 – and Anadius's departure feels like another nail in the coffin.

The Sims 4 fans left baffled as rumors suggest EA's latest life sim entry could be getting a remaster, despite ongoing support: "What will they be remastering exactly?"

As rumors of a The Sims 4 remaster circulate, its community gathers to question what EA could actually be planning – after all, we're talking about a life sim that's still receiving new expansions to this day, with more yet to come.

The Sims 4 Adventure Awaits literally only just launched in October, with massive updates to the base game following close behind. Shortly before Adventure Awaits, we also saw fairies finally come to the 2014 life sim in Enchanted by Nature. There are also (likely countless) other DLC drops planned for The Sims 4, as EA said in the past that it has no plans for a Sims 5 – with the fourth entry acting as a sort of "forever" game that developers improve over time.

It comes as no surprise, then, that fans aren't sure what to think regarding rumors of a Sims 4 remaster. Although there's no solid source on these, and they're very much still just rumors, discussions have been popping off since Sims Community reported on them a couple of days ago. As one Reddit thread highlights, Simmers aren't sure why a Sims 4 remaster would be coming about now, when not only is EA actively updating the game, but older titles exist.

RUMOR: EA is working on The Sims 4 Remastered 💥 from r/LifeSimulators

"It should've been The Sims 3," comments one such player. A valid assertion, if you ask me – especially as The Sims and The Sims 2 both got their own re-releases recently. Another fan amusingly chimes in, "Sims 3 is the forgotten child at this point." Elsewhere in the replies, someone argues, "Making the base game free, then releasing a remastered version of a game still in active development would be a new low, even for EA."

A separate post on the remaster rumors shows similar thoughts from other Simmers. "I'm just baffled, honestly," somebody writes. "Unless they are remaking the game from the bottom up, what will they be remastering exactly? The graphics are great – the style has helped it stay timeless, and they're still releasing DLCs. Sims 3, I could understand. But you don't remaster a game that is still actively ongoing." They're not wrong.

There's no telling what EA actually has in store for The Sims 4, but as a longtime fan of the life sim series myself, I hope it's not a remaster – unless that remaster is of The Sims 3, that is. Then we'd be talking, and it seems other fans would agree.

Hoping to spice your game up with some free content? Here are the best Sims 4 mods around to explore right now.

The Sims is all about simulating life, and any effort to do that means embracing diversity at a fundamental level. Charles London, who served as art director on the original 2000 game and as creative director on The Sims 2, says that embracing things like same-sex relationships was essential from the start, and says it remains critically important for the series to continue down that path even as the winds of culture shift.

"It's everything," as London tells FRVR, "and I think it's existential for the business, right? It is certainly for society. I think it's incredibly important for there to be a mainstream, beloved brand that says, 'love is love and people are people,' and all the things that I certainly personally believe in, but also I believe it is existential to that business because it is what allows it to be universally appealing, right? Young, old, male, female, gay, straight, other, right? American, Iranian, whatever."

London argues that, with The Sims, "its appeal and its recognition of the fundamental truths of our humanity is what creates the empathetic and emotional connection to that game that makes it so powerful." In that sense, it's "more than a game, it's a medium of self-expression."

The Sims launched with full support for same-sex relationships, years before same-sex marriages were even recognized throughout much of the United States. The Sims 2 launched amid a renewed crusade against violence and sexual content in games, figureheaded by attorney Jack Thompson. For those of us who grew up gaming in that era, it's distressing how easy it is to draw parallels with today's anti-"woke" backlashes and payment processor censorship.

London thinks it's "critical" for games like The Sims to continue embracing diversity "especially at times like now," when we're seeing another "reactionary cycle."

"We will always go through this," London says. "And so when we are in reactionary periods, to have stalwart, beloved brands that are capable of sending this message is critical to society. But it's also critical that those brands keep the faith because, if they don't they're going to stop beind brands. Because the only reason why they're brands is because they appeal to such a wide audience, right?"

The team at Maxis wasn't trying to be a "band of fearless social revolutionaries," as London tells it, but when it came time to decide whether to include same-sex relationships, "We chose the one that was both technically simpler, but also that was the one where we could look at ourselves in the mirror. These were modern people making the game in the Bay Area and we had done everything we could until then to be as true to humanity as possible and what, all of a sudden we were going to tell a lie? It just felt like a lie, right, to do anything but, it would’ve been a lie."

Fears about The Sims' commitment to embracing diversity aren't fully abstract – publisher EA is soon to be bought out in a $55 billion deal led by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, private equity firm Silver Lake, and Jared Kushner's investment firm Affinity Partners. EA's CEO insists that the company's values "remain unchanged," but the idea that the progressive messaging that's defined many of its studios might disappear continues to be a worry for fans and developers alike.

These are the best Sims 4 expansion packs out there.

The latest expansion pack for The Sims 4 just arrived, and fans aren't exactly thrilled with a so-called "feature" included – one that sees hours of their hard work axed at the literal click of a button.

The Sims 4 Adventure Awaits is finally here, bringing some of the series' most nostalgic elements – like imaginary friends – and a plethora of new content to explore. Admittedly, it's a pretty fun expansion pack overall… there's just one issue. This issue isn't minor, either, as it can leave players lamenting over their lost work, and furthermore, it's an intentional feature surrounding the expansion pack's Getaways – outings fans can customize to their liking.

A few days ago, one player noted the problem on the official EA forums: "When I make a Getaway for one Sim and go to another household, open the calendar (just open it), save, and go back to the first household, the Getaway disappears." They add that they don't have any Sims 4 mods installed, so that can't be the reason… but as it turns out, the reason is that "this is the design" – Getaways are supposed to go bye-bye when you swap households.

Screenshots of the message that pops up when you try to prove as much, reading, "Switching to a different household will cancel any current or upcoming Getaways permanently." That's not exactly great news – especially when some players might spend ages planning and setting up a Getaway, only to swap without thinking and lose all their progress. Simmers are calling it out and warning fellow fans about it now, with threads taking off on forums like Reddit.

PSA: All Getaways permanently delete themselves whenever you switch households from r/thesims

"PSA: All Getaways permanently delete themselves whenever you switch households," one player cautions. "You can spend ages customising your Getaway and choosing the location, start and end time, and all the Sims you want to attend… Well, I hope you weren't planning on switching households. Ever. Because the moment you switch households, the Getaway gets wiped. Even if it's scheduled for the future and hasn't started yet."

They continue, saying this applies "even if you switch back to the original household that you planned the Getaway with, or which you already started playing the Getaway with, it is gone and it will not come back." Unsurprisingly, commenters aren't happy to hear it, with many questioning if it's a bug only to be told that no, it's "not a bug, it's a feature!" As one fan states in a response, "I think calling bugs features is going to be more common."

Another says it's indeed "not a bug, but a really crappy design choice" on EA's part, while a bewildered player asks, "This has got to be a bug, right?" Elsewhere, someone suggests that, "Maybe we should start reporting it as a bug" – and although I share in the sentiment, I'm not sure that would work. This feels like one of those situations in which a developer includes a feature that may or may not resonate with fans, but doesn't go on to change it.

Who knows, though – there's still hope Adventure Awaits may stand as one of the best Sims 4 expansion packs yet. It's certainly fun, and even if Getaways might disappear at the swap of a household, they're a blast to create and play.

The Sims 4 stans share just why they find the "record-breaking" $55 billion EA deal "extremely scary," citing everything from "concerns about AI" to potential layoffs and "more microtransactions."

I've spent the past few days binging the latest expansion pack for The Sims 4 (yes, there's yet another new piece of paid DLC – but hear me out here), and it's safe to say my time with it has been wild. Dubbed Adventure Awaits, a title I feel doesn't fully encapsulate the sheer amount of content at hand, this expansion contains a little bit of everything for everyone. From emphasis on Sims' childhoods to customizable Getaways, there's a lot to get into.

Admittedly, I was a bit sceptical when I first heard about Adventure Awaits. To me, its name implied an expansion that I'd just add to my ever-growing list of "vacation" packs. Simmers, you know what I'm talking about… Jungle Adventure, Island Living, Snowy Escape, you name it. While I genuinely enjoy these and the expansive worlds they bring to The Sims 4, nothing has quite scratched that World Adventures itch – but it turns out that's not what I wanted, anyway.

I didn't actually want a plethora of exotic locations for my Sims to travel to. What I wanted was more gameplay – the innovation old packs from series classics like The Sims 3 brought – and features to make the world or components an expansion adds more immersive. Adventure Awaits might not pack a punch of distant lands to visit, but it doesn't need to. Instead, it entirely overhauls gameplay for one of the game's most forgotten age groups and boasts good ol' fashioned fun – the kind I had as an eight-year-old with The Sims 2.

A whole new world

That's right, I didn't even feel like I had to keep my game speed on the max setting – I hardly touched it! I was having fun, and said fun started with the world Adventure Awaits adds. Gibbi Point, as it's called, is reminiscent of the most interesting national parks out there. With soaring trees, glittery waters, cloudy geysers, and more, the new area became one of my Sims 4 faves as soon as I loaded my Sim in (I had to pick fall as my starting season, of course).

I went from being a tad disappointed with the Create-A-Sim additions – although I did love a few of the new hairstyles – to feeling excited about Gibbi Point. A prompt popped up telling me I could run my own Getaway experience, but I wasn't ready to do so just yet. I wanted to see what Wanderwood Wilds, Crystal Valley, and Jellyfish Junction had to offer after moving my Sim into Fletcher's Cottage: a cute little starter home built by KiwiSimsKate.

Walking my Sim around Gibbi Point before cracking into gameplay properly definitely didn't disappoint, with the adorable Plumbird Park in view as I explored, the nostalgia-inducing Camp Gibbi Gibbi sitting in Wanderwood Wilds, and more. I couldn't just remain on the outskirts of each community lot, though. I needed to dig in and set my Sim off on an actual adventure or two – so what do I do? Start her story off at the peak of her childhood.

Childhood dream come true

This is when things start getting a little bit wacky – in the best way possible – starting with all the new hobbies to explore. From archery to papercraft, they're all a lot of fun. I always feel like The Sims 4 is lacking in its selection of hobbies and skills to upgrade, but it's something I see EA working to update with pretty much every expansion. Adventure Awaits is certainly no exception, with one personal highlight being entomology.

Breeding, catching, releasing, and watching bugs – it all feels a bit Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which I love. Caring for a small caterpillar and watching it evolve into a beautiful butterfly (keep an eye out for varieties here – there are so many I didn't expect to see, like the stunning prismatic glass-winged ones and more) isn't just nostalgic to my own childhood, but another wonderfully whimsical way of keeping me locked into what my Sim is doing.

Then there are the new modular playgrounds, which send me right back to 2006 – friends to make, big bubble-y glass windows to look through, and slides to cruise down. The real star of the show, however, simply has to be the imaginary friends… the very same our Sims made in The Sims 3. There's the *checks notes* Pretty Pegacorn (which totally doesn't look exactly like Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony), Lil Monster, Krafty Kid, and Wild Child – and they're completely interactable with.

Love Isla – er, Highland?

The storytelling opportunities don't end with the imaginary dolls, though, or even when a child Sim ages up in Adventure Awaits. I never forgot about the ability to schedule Getaways and make use of the game's new custom venue options as my Sim grew, so of course, the first thing I do when she ages up to adulthood is retreat to Camp Gibbi for a while – and soon after, sneak off to Love Highland, the romantic gameshow that definitely doesn't draw from Love Island).

With Love Highland, Sims that lack romantic connections are eliminated on a day-by-day basis until that Tinder-perfect magic match happens. I like the Survivor-esque Elimination Challenges in Adventure Awaits as well, but Love Highland strikes me as the silly ode to crappy reality TV most of us probably watched (and, ahem, still might watch) that's fitting for a notoriously ridiculous life sim series like The Sims – and it is.

Paired with some Lovetsruck features, Love Highland makes for good fun. Players can adjust the rules of their Getaways as they'd like, too, making everything all the more customizable. The expansion's features, from its more childish moments to its refreshing (and often just as humorous Getaways (I'm looking at you, Love Highland), speak to the fact that Adventure Awaits truly doesn't play like a quick DLC cash grab.

It's an expansion deserving of the title, pulling me in and hooking with its pop culture-y Y2K charm and whimsy. I'd recommend giving this pack a go – it spices Sims' childhoods up even more than predecessors like Growing Together, expands on "vacations" tenfold, and above all, it finally gives us a reason to enjoy the game as it's meant to be at its base speed. No need for any Sims 4 mods with this one, either.

Looking for some new games to play? Check out our favorite games like The Sims 4 if you're searching for a similar experience to enjoy.

EA, the publisher behind games like Battlefield 6 and The Sims 4, is on many a player's mind right now following the $55 billion deal that's seeing the company go private – and it's safe to say that most people seem very concerned about what it means for their favorite titles.

The Sims community is certainly no exception, especially after EA's past news of there being no plans for a Sims 5 later down the line. This is yet another bump in the road for Simmers, sparking new conversations about the future of the series – even going as far as prompting some of The Sims 4's most beloved players, like Kayla "lilsimsie" Sims, to publicly respond to the deal, which reestablishes EA as a private company.

"EA just announced an agreement to be sold to private investors for $55 billion," writes Sims on YouTube. "This kind of private sale is unprecedented in gaming, and it's a record-breaking deal. They will be acquired by PIF (Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia – the country's sovereign wealth fund), Silver Lake, and Affinity Partners (Jared Kushner's private investment firm, Jared Kushner is married to Donald Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump)."

As Sims states, "The transaction is expected to be completed in the first quarter of the 2027 fiscal year." The content creator continues, describing her own reaction to the deal. "This news is extremely scary to me, and it makes me deeply worried about the future of The Sims with EA now being owned by such a conservative group." She then notes, "The Sims has been a very inclusive game for a long time" – and any potential "censoring" frightens her.

Electronic Arts Acquisition Megathread from r/thesims

"Making a change like that would alienate the entire player base of The Sims, and I think it would be an incredibly stupid and shortsighted move from the new investors that would backfire heavily." Such changes aren't Sims' – or the rest of the community's, if I'm honest as a player myself – only concern, though. "This buyout is financed by $20 billion of debt, which they will need to prioritize paying off quickly," as she writes.

"For us, that could mean a push toward even more microtransactions, or budget cuts and tighter deadlines on future content and games (like Project Rene). This could also result in some pretty aggressive cost-cutting, which might mean layoffs at EA. I also have some big concerns about AI, largely about them possibly trying to start using AI to replace artists on EA games." It's a terrifying thought, particularly in the wake of other layoffs at EA.

Earlier this year, the company reportedly let go of "between 300 and 400" people after axing its Titanfall extraction shooter – but that's not all. There were also the BioWare layoffs that came after Dragon Age: The Veilguard supposedly "did not resonate with a broad enough audience," as EA put it. Sims isn't the only worried fan, either. A megathread on Reddit on the $55 billion acquisition proves as much, with Simmers sharing their fears.

Some comment The Sims 4 may "finally die," others accept defeat: "Well, I'm just saying my goodbyes to the Sims franchise. Thank you all for the past 20 years. You've been great." Here's hoping the future isn't so dark – I know I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

Hoping to spice your game up with some free content? Here are the best Sims 4 mods around to explore right now.

It's that time again, folks – The Sims 4 has once more been left a broken mess for many fans following an exciting content-filled patch, and I'm currently terrified to update my game.

Yesterday's update, described by EA on its official website, brings "a handful of new features intended to improve performance and player experience" – although it's safe to say it's done the opposite for many fans. While it does add skin details (including age spots, dark circles, freckles, rosacea, stretch marks, and more) as well as the long-awaited ability to select what packs you play with, much like in The Sims 3, it's also breaking Sims 4 mods and save files.

Most of us in the community are used to busted custom content and mods with each update, but it's exhausting – especially now that EA is rolling them out so frequently with no plans for a Sims 5 to ever release. A recent Reddit thread shines light on fans' tired voices, with its poster begging the new patch not to "break anything" in-game: "I don't trust anything with them anymore, I don't trust the small updates, I don't trust big game expansions, nothing."

EA threatening us :skull: from r/thesims

They continue, admitting, "I'm tired of fixing it." Comments see fellow players agree, with one saying, "I just wish I could disable forced updates…" Others sadly report that, as usual, the update is indeed "bricking your saves" already. "Bravo EA." It's a sad set of replies to read through as a Simmer myself, especially seeing somebody detail how they've "spent all week building a castle, and now my game is broken… hours of progress wasted."

There are countless other posts online highlighting similar complaints from fans, from Reddit to X – and it feels like déjà vu. It's not a phenomenon limited to us common folk in the community either; big content creators like Kayla "lilsimsie" Sims are suffering from the patch's subsequent issues as well. Her most recent stream on Twitch, having aired just yesterday as the new content dropped, was aptly dubbed "Sims update ruined my day."

It's a tale as old as time, I suppose… and while I'm genuinely excited to see requested content come to The Sims 4, like new skin details and pack selection, I can't help but be disappointed.

After 13 years away from The Sims limelight, Katy Perry returns to the community with a live Simlish performance of Last Friday Night that I can't stop watching

In a world of rising game costs, PowerWash Simulator 2's developers are going in a surprisingly rare direction. The expanded sequel isn't using an all-new campaign, much-requested co-op, and adorable kittens as justification for a higher price point. The second PowerWash Sim will instead cost exactly the same as the original first-person soaper.

Developer and now-publisher FuturLab announced as much in a tongue-in-cheek video responding to concerns around whether the sequel would also grapple with an $80 tag, as Mario Kart World and The Outer Worlds 2 did before it (though the latter walked that back), which was always a little bit of a doomy-and-gloomy reaction to an indie sim.

"We've had some questions about our sequel and how much it might cost in this 'changing financial climate'," the deadpan narrator begins, echoing the phrasing of Nintendo and Xbox's recent price hike announcements.

"Considering it has a brand-new campaign, higher fidelity graphics, split-screen co-op, a new home base to decorate, new equipment, new soap, new cosmetics, cute kittens, we have arrived at what we believe is a fair decision," the narrator continues, before an ominous cackle and a hellish red hue leads to the announcement that PowerWash Simulator 2 will cost... $25/€25/£20 - no different from the first game.

"It's the same price. It's simpler that way," the video ends off, while the description pats itself on the back further: "Clean out the dirt, not your wallet."

We're not saying PowerWash Simulator 2 is already GOTY, but we just spent 2 hours using Witcher Senses to find dirt and it was the most satisfying experience of our lives.

Right up there with the Soulslike genre, cozy gaming is a space that's become just a little bit crowded in recent years. That's not a reflection on the quality or appeal of these games generally, but it does make it a challenge to wade through the constant flood of new releases in search of something fresh and unique. There's always a farm to manage, or anthropomorphic neighbors to meet, or fish to catch, somewhere.

Thankfully, Tiny Bookshop landed on my desk today as a serendipitous gift from my editors, and after tinkering around with its demo, I'm sold like a new Sarah J. Maas book.

I do appreciate that a bookshop management sim isn't the most unique idea in the world. It's definitely more original than a farming sim, but yeah, it didn't necessarily win me over with its groundbreaking originality. I'm gonna take off my journalist hat and admit very frankly that I simply cannot not be charmed by a game that lets you make a spooky li'l book store by the beach. My ideal life.

It also helps that Tiny Bookshop is impeccably polished, well-written with a story full of secrets I actually care to learn more about, and pretty darn cute-looking too!

I'm not the only one charmed by Tiny Bookshop. It cracked Steam's top 20 list of best-selling games in just four days, and although it's a little further down on that list at the time of writing, it's still boasting nearly 1,000 reviews with 95% of them being positive. And, if you filter by simulation games, it's the sixth best-selling right behind Civilization 6. I'd say that's pretty impressive for any indie game, and even more-so for a cozy indie game releasing at a time when it seems like every new game is either cozy or very not cozy, i.e., a Soulslike.

Looking ahead, here are some upcoming indie games you should have on your radar.

Forget the T-Pain x The Sims 4 crossover, Katy Perry is once again a Sims icon following her live in-concert performance of Last Friday Night… which she sang in Simlish, not English.

That's right. If you're a hardened Sims stan like I am, then you might remember the 2012 collaboration pop singer Katy Perry did with Maxis and EA for The Sims 3. Not only did she record multiple songs in Simlish, including classics like California Gurls and Last Friday Night, but she also made an appearance on the cover of two expansion packs: Sweet Treats and a special edition of Showtime, two of my personal favorites.

A whopping 13 years have now passed since then, and although Perry hasn't officially teamed up with the developer or publisher for more Katy Perry-themed content, it seems The Sims is still on her mind. As one online post highlights, the singer was recently captured performing Last Friday Night during her Lifetimes Tour entirely in Simlish, The Sims' silly in-game language, just as she did over a decade ago in 2012.

It's an amazing sight to behold, if I'm honest – and it seems I'm not the only Simmer who is excited to see Katy Perry return to the community's limelight.

"This is everything and more, writes one fellow fan. "I want the Sweet Treats or Showtime DVD signed."

Another reply sees a player exclaim, "As a Sims fan, I loved it!"

It's a nostalgia-inducing but wholesome moment overall for Sims stans, and I'm so very here for it.

Will we see Perry come to The Sims 4 in an expansion pack, though? Only time will tell, but I definitely am going to be keeping my own fingers crossed.

Want to spice your game up a bit with some free fan creations? Browse through some of the best Sims 4 mods out there

Sims fans have spent at least a decade badgering publisher EA for The Sims 5 after The Sims 4 released in 2014, but despite teasing a sequel with spin-off game Project Rene, EA has no plans to create another main Sims title, and EA president Laura Miele stands by it.

She tells Variety in a new interview that The Sims 5 is actually a bad idea that sucks. "We put out over 85 content packs over the last 10 years on The Sims 4," she reminds players, some of whom are no doubt crying right now while inbreeding their WickedWhims families to cope. "Resetting that is not player friendly and not a good idea for our community."

"What I wouldn't want to have happen is you to have to start from day zero," Miele continues, "and start from scratch and give up all of the things that you have created, give up all of the content that you've purchased over the years."

She draws players' attention to Project Rene instead, which is, notably, another video game that people would presumably have to purchase and start from scratch. But Miele thinks the online multiplayer might be "one of the biggest growth opportunities for Electronic Arts," and she promises "we also are going to be creating and updating the base technology and the base user experience on the core game."

"So you're going to have this life simulation, you're going to have multiplayer capabilities, we are going to have mobile expressions of this," says Miele. "I see The Sims as a significant ecosystem, and a universe of multiple Sims experiences that we have to build on." But The Sims 5 isn't part of it.

New Sims 4 update prepares the game for fairies but breaks things for another occult, leaving all my vampires starving as every Sim is wrongly marked as "pregnant."

After a long-awaited reveal, fairies have finally fluttered into The Sims 4 with new expansion pack Enchanted by Nature – and… *checks notes* rapper T-Pain has become one?

It's 2012 again, and Katy Perry is partnering with The Sims 3 for exclusive themed content – except this time, it's 2025, and the celebrity working with EA is none other than T-Pain. Yes, you read that right. In a new online post, the musician exclaims that "they made me an actual fairy in The Sims 4," calling it a "magical" moment. Attached is a clip of him on stage dancing with a mid-video transition to him as a Sims fairy.

Sound is playing, too, and it's as hilarious as the video itself. You know that viral "she was a fairy" bit that plays over TikTok videos and YouTube shorts? It's that, but in Simlish. T-Pain also reveals that he'll be going live to play Sims on both Twitch and YouTube this Thursday, July 17 – presumably when we'll finally get to see his fairy-fied Sim self in action. Honestly, this is a collaboration I never knew I needed.

EA has previously teamed up with celebrities, like Katy Perry, to promote The Sims, so it's not exactly ground-breaking stuff – but of all the folks they've had so far, this one definitely has taken me by the most surprise. Recently, a similar stream was hosted alongside Megan Thee Stallion, in which the Enchanted by Nature pack was first unveiled, so who knows – we might even see more celeb crossovers soon.

Only time will tell. For now, however, we have another base game update to look forward to in August, likely packed with some fun free content to enjoy.

Want to learn even more about the new Sims 4 expansion pack? Check out my Enchanted by Nature preview for further thoughts on the DLC.

I accidentally invented supernatural purgatory in The Sims 4. Dead potted plants lurk like hex bags in every corner of this pink fairy cottage, granting persistent red moodlets to all six inhabitants. The odor is matched only by random unwashed dishes creatively placed anywhere but a sink. My mermaid Sim is afflicted with the Luck Magnet ailment, meaning if anyone else decides to use the stove with her nearby, something or someone will be up in flames soon – as is happening right now to our household witch, who just happens to be Chased by Death, too.

Elsewhere, my vampire Sim is either coughing up money, giving bits of her soul to phantoms, or brawling with a burglar like some supernatural pitball. Our two resident ghosts are flirting instead of performing a seance as instructed, and my werewolf Sim is locked in a cupboard while she waits out a rampage. Finally, there's my fairy Sim, diligently mashing herbs in a stone pot to try and make this mess of a situation less chaotic – though I can't remember being this hands-on with a Sims session in years, thanks to the Enchanted by Nature expansion pack.

Charmed, I'm sure

If I take my eye off the screen for even a moment, I know something bad will happen. In a sense, I knew what I was getting myself into when I created a Sims 4 occults-only household.

With one of each creature – a mermaid, spellcaster, vampire, ghost, werewolf, and fairy – under one roof, this was bound to be my most frenzied Sims experiment since the time I attempted the 100 infants challenge and peed myself nonstop.

I have always adored occult gameplay in The Sims. The more involved, the better; I've not made a human Sim (at least not one I'd intended to stay that way for long) since The Sims 2 Nightlife. But I can see why occults are hit and miss for many Simmers, given that some occult types – werewolves, specifically – require a lot of hands-on attention.

On the other end of the extreme lies mermaids, by far the least fleshed-out occult in terms of unique gameplay features, making them a much lower-maintenance addition to any family. Vampires, ghosts, and spellcasters sit somewhere in the middle, more demanding than simply sticking your Sim in a bathtub all day yet not as high-stakes as managing werewolf rage.

For a long time, that was pretty much it. Aside from the smattering of vampire, werewolf, and spellcaster lore added in the Werewolves game pack, there's little in the way of connective tissue here. But fairies are the glitter glue I've been waiting for all this time, bringing Sims together while the expansion pack itself wreaks havoc on everything it touches.

My occult household proved this theory within just a few hours. Playing with six active Sims is not easy mode by any regard, least of all when they all have playable careers. I have a vampire Reaper, a ghost matchmaker, a chef werewolf, and an apothecary fairy – what could go wrong?

Down with the sickness

A lot, it turns out. The Sims 4: Enchanted by Nature introduces not only winged creatures, but the Balance and Luck systems.

As if juggling six discrete occult systems wouldn't be tricky enough, I now have to keep an eye on my Sims' auras and energies to ensure they don't sicken and end up with a nasty spiritual ailment. Ailments clear within a few days, supposedly, but they can also be cured by an apothecary – aka, a naturopathic doctor. It's just as well that I have one at home – my fairy Sim, Louise – since not one but three of the housemates soon falls ill.

As annoying as Josie's Sonic Sinusitis is (and as befuddled as I am that a ghost can catch a respiratory disease), no ailment is more troublesome to me than Luck Magnet. The afflicted Sim acts as a black hole for good fortune, drawing it from nearby Sims and increasing the likelihood of fires, electrocution, and other potentially fatal occurrences.

Willow the spellcaster sets so many fires alight, I spend about 5,000 Simoleons on replacement kitchen furniture alone. An on-screen pop-up has Grim serve her a final warning – she has the Chased by Death trait, after all. I'm delighted to report that Willow has been relegated to a lifetime of cereal and sandwiches.

By the time Louise cures mermaid Harper of her Luck Magnet ailment, my vampire Sim starts coughing up cash – literally. I decide that I can live with the extra income generated through Kyra's Simoleon Fever, as mean as it is to let her suffer. But that's the life of a naturopathic fairy, surely? How am I meant to make money from curing the world of its mystical ails if I cure them all immediately?

No, my favorite thing about Sims 4 fairies right now is how utterly invaluable they are to have around werewolves. As a fairy, Louise can expend some emotional energy to end a werewolf's rampage early with the Soothe Beast interaction, saving a lot of money on furniture damages and preventing Virginia the werewolf from embarrassing herself. This immediately empties her Rage meter, totally resetting her werewolf volatility as if the full moon doesn't exist – and it's something only a fairy can do.

So, the mermaid's in the tub, my vampire literally coughs up dough, my fairy can cure people of all ails… You might be thinking, "hey, all of that doesn't sound so bad after all!" But I forgot to mention one crucial thing: my six test subjects happen to live in a haunted house.

It's just a bunch of hocus pocus

The Sims 4: Paranormal Stuff is the final, accursed layer on this chaos cake. This is meant to be the most occult-y Sims household ever, so why not liven things up even more?

For the uninitiated, Paranormal Stuff is the coolest, most specific Sims pack ever. All those characterful antiques, outfits, and that swaggering New Orleans vibe are a front for some truly spooky happenings, with every Haunted House residential lot playing host to two extra house guests: paranormal investigator Guidry the Ghost, and the evil lingering spirit of a bothersome lady called Temperance.

Temperance loves to break everything in my house whenever she appears, no matter how many Sacred Candles and idols of warding I have lying around – I need these in droves, since my occult Sims (aside from Kyra the vampire) seem especially scared of paranormality. Even Josie gets scared of her own ghostly reflection in the mirror, which really says something about her suitability to the afterlife.

But wait – Temperance is fuelled by extreme emotions, and Sims 4 fairies can simply absorb those. Here I think I'd found another shortcut, circumventing one of the biggest pack-specific gameplay tweaks by getting Louise to absorb Temperance's perma-enraged emotions and maybe end her tirade for good.

Louise attempts this in vain, once Kyra finishes beating up a burglar and giving the vengeful spirit a mouthful of expletives (and simoleons). Meanwhile, the other four members of the household run around and scream, and I can't help but feel like everything just went sideways all too quickly.

I'm still having a blast with my chaotic occult family. I have no time to be bored when I can never take my eyes off the screen, after all, even if I am experiencing something close to supernatural ability overload. Keeping a vampire well-fed while tracking lunar phases, ticking off a ghost's unfinished business, and stopping a spellcaster from overcharging their powers makes The Sims feel like a proper management sim again.

Enchanted by Nature does a great job of adding more complexity to that, thanks to the Luck and Balance systems, while providing the antidote to those situations with the introduction of fairies. To any occult skeptics, I challenge you thus: try to hate playing as a fairy, I dare you.

There are loads of games like The Sims 4 to check out if you're looking to diversify your life sim portfolio in 2025.

I'm somewhat of a Sims stan. I've been playing The Sims series since I was just six years old, starting with The Sims 2 and its wonderfully wacky expansion packs. When I turned 10, I got my hands on The Sims 3 – a birthday gift that went on to define hundreds of hours of my life. I still remember the special plumbob-themed USB stick that came with my copy, and the joy I felt upon playing what I've always considered the best Sims entry ever… until now, that is.

The Sims 4 never really grabbed at my heart like The Sims 3 did, but I still faithfully bought every expansion, game, and stuff pack as they released. I've craved a recreation of the magic I felt when I first explored EA's third Sims game in all its open-world, customizable glory, but I admittedly never found it. I've sought the often silly yet whimsical vibes of old occult DLC like Supernatural. I figured I'd play The Sims 3 forever – but the past few days say otherwise.

I've once again become that fairy-obsessed 12-year-old girl hooked on The Sims 3: Supernatural again, except now I'm 25 and finally feel like I can't get enough of The Sims 4. What could've possibly convinced me to fall in love with The Sims 4 after so long? Enchanted by Nature. I recently dipped my toes into EA's new expansion pack, and it's safe to say I never want to leave the glittery waters of Innisgreen.

A bibbidi-bobbidi-boo-tiful new world

Fairies are the most obvious appeal of Enchanted by Nature, but they aren't the only feature drawing me to the pack. I'm smitten with its lush Ireland-inspired world, quirky inhabitants, beautiful Build and Buy Mode items, nature-focused gameplay, and emphasis on emotions – an emphasis I've previously only really found via Sims 4 mods that make the game feel more meaningful. For me, this isn't just an expansion. It's the expansion.

Innisgreen, the newest region to join the lineup of Sims 4 maps, is downright stunning. Emerald woods, thriving flora, storybook toadstools, and shimmering waters – stepping into this pack feels like making my way through a misty, mystical dream, further fueling the nostalgia I'm overcome with while playing Enchanted by Nature. I already loved Cottage Living for its cozy world, but this takes the charming things I enjoy about it to an entirely different level.

The creativity that went into the existing lots is at a peak I don't think I've ever seen before in any Sims game. It's like a mashup of childhood fairytale homes and Hobbit dwellings in one – a delightful feast for any fantasy lover's eyes, and boy, are mine eating good. As an avid enjoyer of all things Celtic history and mythology, I appreciate the attention to detail given to the architecture – inspiration drawn from Ireland is evident in both build and color scheme.

Interacting with the world is a highlight in itself, too. If I want my Sim to feel in tune with nature or their emotions, I have them visit Everdew and take a dip in Moondrop Springs. I can also adopt a more playful, fairy-esque approach to nature with my Sim, shrinking them down to play with benches or stumps. There's also the potential to live entirely off the land with my Sim – an option that changes the game for challenges like Rags to Riches.

My Sim can hone their Natural Living skill, one new to Enchanted by Nature, and eat, bathe, or sleep outdoors. I wasn't sure I would take advantage of these new features while playing, but I actually adore how in touch my fairy Sim feels with the rhythm of the natural world as they experience life outside. The Sims has always been a dollhouse-like series about choice, after all, and this pack gives players a sense of freedom previously absent from The Sims 4.

A near pixie-perfect experience

Innisgreen is undeniably one of The Sims 4's most remarkable worlds, but the gameplay that accompanies Enchanted by Nature is truly where it shines. I'm not ashamed to admit that I first spent hours in Create A Sim exploring all of the new options. From the nature-tousled hair to the fantastical eye colors, I'm sure I'll be using the expansion pack's additions for years to come. The fairy form was a true treat to customize, too – all those wings.

After drooling over my Sim and the upgrade to fairy creation from The Sims 3 I never knew I'd see (or needed) in The Sims 4, I dive into the meat of Enchanted by Nature – and get absolutely sucked into it. Acting on my inner alchemist by transforming ingredients into charms, cures, and elixirs, balancing my Sim's coexistence with the natural world to ensure good health (both mental and physical), and throwing fairy house parties are just a few highlights of my time with the pack.

Some of it does, admittedly, feel like an extension of older expansions' mechanics, but I don't personally think that's necessarily a drawback – having my packs, especially those related to The Sims 4 occults, work well together is important to me anyway. Combining my witchy Realm of Magic Sims with the new Enchanted by Nature traits makes for one heck of a roleplay experience, and I'm so here for it. Riding a unicorn as a fairy? Yes, please.

Activities that were already present in-game, like foraging and fishing, that I never used to touch, actually feel worth engaging with now as well. Between vampires, witches, horses, and now fairies, I've finally got everything I want in The Sims 4 (sorry, car devotees). I just hope the pre-pack update is patched soon so that I can play to my occult-loving heart's content. How else will I recreate True Blood in-game?

Looking for some new games to play? Check out our favorite games like The Sims 4 if you're searching for a similar experience to enjoy.

Fairies are coming to The Sims 4 tomorrow with new expansion pack Enchanted by Nature, and as usual, EA has prepared with a pre-release patch – a patch that hasn't exactly gone to plan.

While the game boasts plenty of new features now, including some stunning glass roofs and plants to decorate with, there's also a plethora of pesky bugs – the most annoying of which relates to pregnancy. As fans have noted in online threads, Sims are no longer able to take pregnancy tests and are wrongly being categorized by the game as "pregnant." One player's screenshot showcases as much, with her Sim incorrectly labeled as such.

I assure you she is not from r/Sims4

The issue doesn't just stop there, though. It's more than a label – pregnant Sims aren't able to partake in certain activities and interactions. For instance, as the poster points out, their Sim can't "Make a Wish" while pregnant… even though the Sim isn't actually pregnant. That's not all, either. Sims can't "Try for Baby" anymore as the game deems them already pregnant, and vampire Sims can't drink the plasma of any other Sims as they're all "pregnant."

It's a bug I've had to grapple with myself recently, as someone who almost exclusively plays with occult-aligned Sims. I've had to get creative and cheat my vampire Sims' thirst levels to full so that they don't starve and die, and I'm not alone. In other words, the pre-release patch that's supposed to help prepare the game for a new occult (fairies, in the case of Enchanted by Nature) seems to have broken another – the vampire occult.

Announcement regarding new bugs from r/thesims

Thankfully, EA is aware of the pregnancy problem and is on the case. There are bug report threads on the official EA Forums flagging the issue, and an announcement was posted in the game's official Discord server stating that developers are "actively investigating issues related to Sim pregnancy, including missing pregnancy tests, baby bumps, and interactions." Here's hoping the storm of "pregnant" Sims calms soon, and our vampires can once again eat.

Want to spice your game up a bit ahead of Enchanted by Nature? Check out the best Sims 4 mods available to download right now.

Fairies are officially coming to The Sims 4 with new expansion pack Enchanted by Nature – but after weeks of speculation, fans seem more excited about something else in the trailer: the sheer potential it presents for successful challenge runs.

If you're a longtime Simmer yourself, you're more than likely familiar with challenges like Rags to Riches and Runaway Teen, or my personal favorite, the Legacy Challenge. The first two are fairly similar in the sense that they involve a good bit of building your Sims from the ground (literally, in some cases) up to survival, and ultimately, success. How does Enchanted by Nature have anything to do with challenge runs, though?

As per the new trailer from EA, the expansion pack looks as though it'll let Sims live entirely outside in the open – no clever workarounds required. The developers further confirm this in a subsequent blog post. Innisgreen, the new region launching with Enchanted by Nature, "gives Sims the chance to eat, bathe, sleep, and thrive entirely off the land" – Sims can sleep in the grass, forage for ingredients, and eat freshly caught fish.

Bringing the Sims "closer to self-reliance," as EA describes, is precisely what challenges like Rags to Riches and Runaway Teen are all about – hence why players can't wait to truly have their challenge runs' Sims start from the bottom, come Enchanted by Nature. "I just know that Runaway, Legacy, and Rags to Riches challenges are going to have a surge in popularity with this pack," comments a fan on the new expansion pack's trailer.

"I love that they're adding homelessness to this pack," adds one player, "way easier for Rags to Riches challenge." Another says the DLC "seems perfect for challenges where you start from 0," while elsewhere, someone exclaims that "Rags to Riches is gonna go crazy in this world!" As a longtime Sims 4 stan myself, I'm inclined to agree – after all, there's only so much bench sleeping and public bathroom usage my challenge run Sims can stomach.

The boost for challenge players is, of course, only the tip of Enchanted by Nature's iceberg. Between fairies, foraging, Hobbit-style house building, living off the land, potion making, and more, there's so much to look forward to.

Want to spice your game up a bit ahead of Enchanted by Nature? Check out the best Sims 4 mods available to download right now.

The indie Sims-like Paralives has revealed all of the content that'll be available on day one of its Early Access launch, as well as a bunch of stuff that's being saved for future updates.

The delightfully colorful Paralives hits Steam Early Access on December 8, and right out the gate cozy gamers will have plenty to keep them busy... or not busy, if they prefer.

Paralives Studio shared what'll be available day one and what will be added later in a Twitter post. In Live mode, in which players manage the lives and relationships of their Parafolks, will include things like career progression, having children, "aging and death," character autonomy, "doing anything as a group;" shops, restaurants, and museums; bills and house fires (love those), and, curiously, modding tools.

Modding tools? On day one? You spoil us, Paralives Studio.

Updates to Live mode within the Early Access period will include weather and seasons, a calendar and family tree; dogs, cats, and horses; cars, bikes, and houseboats; swimming, story progression for NPCs, gardening and fishing, social events like parties and weddings, town editing tools, and more personality traits.

In Build mode, which does what you think it does, you'll be able to build and move around walls, place roofs and stairs, resize objects, and color everything on day one. Later on in Early Access Paralives will add "advanced" tools for roofs and stairs, basement tools, pools, and more furniture and objects. You'll also be able to place windows on curved walls at some point.

Finally, Paramaker mode, in which you make your Parafolks, will let you adjust height, body, and face to your liking, and you'll be able to have tattoos and layered clothes. There's also a genetics and "asymmetry" system that'll let you mix and match eye colors, socks, that sorta thing. Pets, an outfit management system, and more clothing, hairstyles, and accessories are coming later.

Personally, I feel like things like cats, fishing, and weather are pretty integral to the cozy game experience, so I'll probably hold off on Paralives until those essentials are added. But don't let me stop you from having yourself a cozy ol' time as soon as it hits Early Access closer to the end of the year.

In the meantime, here are some games like The Sims we recommend playing today.

It's an exciting time for fans of The Sims 4, as a brand-new expansion pack trailer seems like it's underway – and between its short teaser and the cryptic hints on EA's website, it appears a beloved Sims 3 feature may finally be coming to the life sim.

The only concrete teaser we have is a clip from a live stream featuring Megan Thee Stallion, Quen Blackwell, and Ebonix. It starts about 33 minutes and 43 seconds into the overall video, showcasing what looks almost exactly like a fairy house from The Sims 3, albeit in The Sims 4, this time. The little house emits a glittery glow and bounces about as if a party is underway inside before text pops up indicating a "new trailer" is dropping on June 12.

What that new trailer is, the video doesn't specify – but judging by the small home's features, how it mirrors the fairy houses and parties in The Sims 3, and how long the community has been asking for fairies, it comes as no surprise that fans are convinced they know what the next Sims 4 expansion pack will include. "Yep, it's definitely fairies! I am SO excited," one such player exclaims under a recent Reddit thread regarding the teaser.

June 12TH trailer for the new expansion 🧚🧚🧚 from r/Sims4

"I'm really excited they're adding fairies (hopefully)," adds another fan. "It better be fairies." The short clip isn't the only insinuation from EA that fair folk are in the works, either – an official teaser website from the developers has been updated a few times now, most recently to show an image and text hinting toward an alchemy-aligned new skill – the "Apothecary skill." This, coupled with the site's past hints, has players doubling down on their theories.

The teaser website has updated again. from r/Sims4

On a separate Reddit post referencing one of the website teasers, the community can be seen speculating what "Mystical Sims" and "Disruptive Sims" may mean, as well as if the mention of "Plant Lovers" might point to a long-awaited PlantSim overhaul – something mods have taken care of in the meantime. "Disruptive and Mystical Sims? Is it possible for two different occults," questions a fan in the replies, "evil and nice fairies?"

That could indicate an even more fleshed-out fairy system than The Sims 3. Other teasers on EA's mysterious website seemingly name-drop the potential expansion pack's accompanying neighborhood, "Innisgreen," a location that sounds as enchanting as the Realm of Magic DLC's own world feels. It's a lot to piece together, but come June 12, we'll hopefully know for certain whether fairies are finally making a comeback or not.

Want to spice your game up now? Check out the best Sims 4 mods available to download.

Just one week has passed since PUBG developer Krafton saw the Early Access release of its new Sims-like game inZOI on Steam, and it's already surpassed a million sales.

There's always room for more games like The Sims 4, it seems, and inZOI is proving just that with its ever-growing popularity. The hyper-realistic life sim has now reached a major milestone, as celebrated by developers in a recent online post, hitting a whopping one million sales after only a week of being available via Steam Early Access. As Krafton writes, thanking fans for their support, "It's a number that still feels unreal to us."

The studio promises to "continue working hard" on inZOI, with CEO Kim Chang-han stating that developers will "actively communicate with players and foster inZOI as Krafton's long-term franchise IP" from here on out. The team also has future updates in store, with new content, including mod support and cities, as well as free DLC planned to drop between now and the game's full release whenever it leaves Early Access.

Feedback is looking solid so far, too, with a "Very Positive" rating overall and over 13,000 reviews describing the new game as both a strong Sims 4 competitor and a good Early Access title on its own. "If you love the life simulation genre but have felt frustrated with The Sims 4's endless DLC model and limitations," reads one of the recent positive reviews on Steam, "inZOI is absolutely worth checking out."

While inZOI is only currently available to PC players using Steam, Krafton plans to launch the life sim on both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S following the Early Access period, too. The game is priced at $39.99 as of now, but that number is likely to go up upon inZOI's full release. Until then, however, all updates, including any DLC, will come to the base game entirely for free.

The Sims 4's most notorious NSFW mod has come to hyper-realistic life sim inZOI

As PUBG developer Krafton continues down the early access path for its hyper-realistic new Sims-like gem inZOI, one prolific Sims 4 modder has stepped up to bring their most famous creation to the game – WickedWhims.

That's right, WickedWhims is officially available to download for inZOI – and no, it's not an April Fools' Day prank. TURBODRIVER, the mastermind behind what arguably stands as one of the most well-known Sims 4 mods ever, reveals as much in a recent online post. "It's happening," celebrates the creator, dropping a link to WickedWhims for inZOI. "Check out the first release of WickedWhims for inZOI, available now for free!"

As detailed on the mod's official website, WickedWhims ticks all the essential NSFW boxes, including "fully animated and interactive sex" longtime Sims 4 stans might be searching for: "Get on a bed, or on a sofa, or the floor, or anywhere you want to get freaky with anybody you want," reads the page. "Experience sex animations from a steadily growing number of creators." And, of course, it's all "fully controllable."

It certainly didn't take long – after all, inZOI only released a few days ago. As a Sims fan and life sim frequenter in general myself, though, I'm not surprised. Assistant director Joel Lee confirmed in a past Q&A about inZOI, the new game only "sort of" features sex, and players "have to assume that's what's happening" rather than seeing any explicit activity, much like how the "WooHoo" action and others work in The Sims 4.

inZOI dev says "highly inappropriate" bug that let you kill kids with your car has been patched out: "We are strengthening our internal review processes"

As PUBG developer Krafton prepares for the upcoming release of its stunning new Sims-like gem iNZOI, game director Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim reveals that it's set to offer plenty of "types of death" to inflict upon Zois – likely much to the delight of many The Sims 4 fans.

Whether you're a hardened expert in the field of pool ladder removal or a fan of placing four walls around a Sim with no door in sight, you might be excited to learn that inZOI developers plan to deliver plenty of death variations to players come the new game's early access release next week on March 28. Kjun confirms as much during a recent online showcase, answering a curious content creator who wonders how many ways Zois can die.

"One of the biggest features of this game is death," Kjun admits, going on to describe how Zois might perish. "In inZOI, we have a lot of different types of death because life comes with death. In inZOI you could go to the bathroom and if you slip you might die. Or if you eat some old food you might have to go to the bathroom and, again, die. And when you fix broken-down electronics, you might get electrocuted, so you need to be careful."

Much like in The Sims 4, however, the chance a Zoi will die while doing mundane tasks is pretty low to make things fair. "I made the chance really low, but actually, electronics can very often break down," explains Kjun. "We have 16 different types of deaths." Of those 16, one stands out as particularly unique to inZOI – death via social status, basically. "One thing that I can say that only exists in inZOI is dying from the need for recognition."

"In the modern world, you find a lot of people feel fulfilled from being recognized by others and this death reflects that," says the director. "For example, in inZOI, let's say I fought with someone, and that rumor spread and came back to me. I could get a text message about it, or a friend of mine could tell me about the rumor and if the rumor is negative then my need for acknowledgement can go down. And if that drops too drastically, then you might die."

Death by embarrassment sounds pretty relatable – but there's more. "I reiterate, we have a simulation and death and this type of thing is a part of the game," Kjun concludes, ending with a warning: "Another thing that I wanted to mention about death is that you could get hit by cars. So you might want to be careful around cars." Honestly, I'll take death via car if it means Zois can actually drive – I'm looking at you, The Sims 4.

The creator of upcoming life sim Inzoi says he was "recklessly brave to even think about creating a game of this scale"

By using The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies cheats you can easily get ahead in this expansion, as there are a lot of additional features to enjoy that would otherwise take time to master. Learning how to run a small business is certainly one of the most prominent additions, as well as getting skilled up in Tattooing and Pottery, or even becoming a mentor to other Sims in the neighborhood. If this all sounds like hard work, then that's most likely why you've ended up here. The Sims 4 cheats are well-known workarounds for any lengthy tasks you face and that statement is no different when it comes to the expansion pack, Businesses and Hobbies.

Fortunately, the developers actively encourage the use of cheats to suit your wants and needs. So from mastering skills to possessing traits, all to ensure your small business is a resounding success, here's The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies cheats you need to know – and how to use them. Pull off the perfect cheat combination, and you could well find yourself completing the Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration in no time at all.

The Sims 4 Business and Hobbies trait cheats

• traits.equip_trait trait_Idealist - assigns your Sim the Idealist trait, which means your Sim makes Dreamer/"good" choices when running their small business
• traits.equip_trait trait_Shady - assigns your Sim the Shady trait, which means your Sim makes Schemer/"bad" choices when running their small business
• traits.equip_trait trait_Beloved - usually only available through completing the Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration, your Sim will run a more successful business and customers will be more happy with your services
• traits.equip_trait trait_Speaker - usually only available through completing the Master Mentor aspiration, your Sim will deliver motivational speeches whilst improving skills and happiness levels
  
  Each trait is also removable using the above cheats codes again by replacing 'equip' with 'remove'.

The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies skills cheats

• stats.set_skill_level Major_Pottery [1-10]
• stats.set_skill_level Major_Tattooing [1-10]
  
  Choose between 1-10 for your desired skill level. If you're looking to master a skill, go straight for 10.

The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies skill mastery perks cheats

• traits.equip_trait AuraActive - Your Sim can help nearby Sims build active skills faster
• traits.equip_trait AspirationalCreator - Your Sim earns Satisfaction Points from crafting excellent quality objects
• traits.equip_trait AspirationalThinker - Your Sim earns Satisfaction Points by spending time with mental skills
• traits.equip_trait AuraCreative - Your Sim can help nearby Sims build creative skills faster
• traits.equip_trait FinalTouch - Your Sim can increase the quality of objects with just one touch
• traits.equip_trait InTheZone - Your Sim can enter into focus mode without having to worry about other needs
• traits.equip_trait AuraMental - Your Sim can channel their experience into an aura that helps nearby Sims build mental skills faster
• traits.equip_trait PigeonholedActive/PigeonholedCreative/PigeonholedMental/PigeonholedSocial - Your Sim can build active/creative/mental/social skills must faster, but finds other skills harder
• traits.equip_trait PowerfulPerformer - Your Sim can build relationships quicker with their audience and make the spectator's happier
• traits.equip_trait SecondWind - Your Sim gets revitalized after exercising, so can keep going
• traits.equip_trait Spice - Your Sim can increase the quality of food and drink with just a dash of spice
• traits.equip_trait Spacebend - Your Sim can bend the fabric of space and time to teleport
  
  Similarly to the traits cheats, you can remove any of these perks by replacing 'equip' with 'remove'. Currently, the cheats for Stellar Stamina, Skillful Sleep and Mental Muscles are yet to be revealed.

The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies small business cheats

There are also cheats for increasing/decreasing your Business Renown and setting your Business Alignment. Once you've enabled testing cheats, you can shift+click your small business-owning Sim and select Pack Cheats then Expansions packs then EP18.

Here you'll find two sub-menus controlling the two small business options. Firstly, there's Change Small Business Renown, which you can increase up to five-star level or decrease if you want to.

Secondly, you can Set Small Business Alignment. The scale ranges from 1-7 with nefarious (Schemer) at the bottom and virtuous (Dreamer) at the top – with neutral at 4. If you're trying to sway which way your business aligns, you can pick any option from the menu and see how it plays out.

Want to know how the Businesses and Hobbies expansion stacks up? Then here's our guide to the best Sims 4 expansion packs to buy right now.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Starting a small business in The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies brings a whole new perspective to work that turns your Sim into their own boss. In real life, starting a small business is no mean feat and in The Sims 4, you'll need to help your Sim to create a fulfilling business for themselves – and one day, they may even complete The Sims 4 Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration.

To craft the business you've always wanted, from a pottery shop to a tattoo parlor, there's a fair few steps you'll want to carry out that'll enhance your whole experience. Fortunately, we've put together everything you need to know from staffing, pricing, and crafting a workspace that'll bring happy customers through your doors time and time again.

Don't want to put the work in? Then check out all of the Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies cheats to get a head start.

How to open a small business

First things first, in The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies you need to register your small business via the till logo in the bottom right corner of your screen, or via your phone. This is the 'Owned Businesses' tab and the first thing you'll see is the option to 'Register Small Business' which costs 750 Simoleons. Note: When you register a small business, all the rooms on the lot are set to Public, meaning customers can access your entire home. You can select any room and change the Area Assignment to avoid this, unless you don't mind.

How to customize your small business

After you've registered your small business and parted ways with some upfront cash, you’ll be prompted to complete customization options for your small business via the 'Owned Businesses' tab. This applies to everything from its name, to what business activities take place, to your staff, to how you'll charge customers and more. Each setting is incredibly important, but it's also important to note that you can change these settings at any time. What you do is not set in stone.

First up, choose a name for your business. You can be as creative or straightforward as you like, but you can always add extra flourish by writing a business description and selecting a logo to show off the services on offer.

Next, you can navigate these however you want, but there's Business Activities, Business Lot Assignment, Entrance Fees/Price Modifier, and Target Customers. For Business Activities, these represent what will take place when your business is finally open. Whilst you can pick up to five activities, there's 100s to choose from – though this number will vary depending on how many expansion packs you have. When you choose certain options, like Pottery Studio for example, the activities list will automatically populate with some relevant options. You can chop and change these, depending on what you'd like your business to look like.

For Business Lot Assignment, you can pick whether your business will run from your residential home or whether you'd like to buy a Small Business Venue lot. For Entrance Fees/Price Modifier, once you've placed a Ticket Kiosk purchased in Buy Mode, you can choose how much you charge for entry. The options are as follows:

• -50%: 11 Simoleons for One Time Entrance Fee or 2 Simoleons per hour for Hourly Entrance Fee
• -25%: 17 Simoleons for One Time Entrance Fee or 3 Simoleons per hour for Hourly Entrance Fee
• +0%: 23 Simoleons for One Time Entrance Fee or 5 Simoleons per hour for Hourly Entrance Fee
• +50%: 34 Simoleons for One Time Entrance Fee or 7 Simoleons per hour for Hourly Entrance Fee
• +100%: 46 Simoleons for One Time Entrance Fee or 10 Simoleons per hour for Hourly Entrance Fee

Finally, you can choose the sort of Target Customers you want to attract to your business. For this, you can pick certain Age, Career, Martial Status, Financial Status, Trail, Skill Level 2+, Occult, Celebrity, and Supervised Customer. So, if you want your business to be more exclusive, this is where you can streamline who your business is for.

How to hire employees for your small business

Before you open, you'll need to hire employees in the Owned Businesses tab in the bottom right corner of Live Mode. This will show you a window to Manage Employees and here you can hire and/or fire up to 3 people. They can be friends, family, or literally anybody you've ever spoken to as long as they're a Teen or older. Handily, you can also rope in anyone who lives with you to complete business tasks without having to pay them a wage.

For your actual employees though, wage, like real life, is important. If you pay them too little, they may just quit. And, if you pay them a nice amount, their sentiment will echo their appreciation.

How to get small business perks

As your business continues to open and hopefully impress, you'll build up Business Renown. As you slowly grow your business, this Business Renown will earn you Perk Points that can be spent on some super helpful Small Business Perks.

Depending on how you've aligned your business, whether you're a dreamer, schemer, or neutral, will sway which Perks you decide to buy from which category as they'll affect interactions with customers and the way your business continues to improve. So, make a living doing what you love in The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies and craft a small business that reflects your Sim's passions.

Do you enjoy running your own virtual life? There here are 10 games like The Sims 4 to try next.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies introduces a whole new way to run a business, including from your own home. And what's a more fulfilling way to run your new small business than by having an aspiration to complete? For The Sims 4 Business and Hobbies, there's an opportunity to become an Esteemed Entrepreneur, aka a business hotshot.

There's four stages that line up rather nicely with the usual progression of expanding once you start a small business in The Sims 4. With each one, you'll be growing your business, becoming a dreamer or schemer and making sure you've got a flurry of happy returning customers. As with any The Sims 4 aspiration, each milestone requires you to carry out tasks, successfully, to achieve it. Here's everything you need to know about completing The Sims 4 Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration in Businesses and Hobbies.

Don't want to put the work in? Then check out all of the Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies cheats to get a head start.

How to choose the Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration

Like any aspiration in The Sims 4, you choose Esteemed Entrepreneur by selecting it in Create A Sim or during gameplay via the star icon in the bottom right of your screen. For this particular aspiration, you'll need to head to Popularity. It'll be the first option under this category.

The tasks in each of the four stages of this aspiration will require your Sim to become wealthier and well-liked. Without these goals achieved, you'll struggle to complete your aspiration. Fortunately, we've outlined everything you need to do below for each milestone.

How to complete the Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration

There's four parts to The Sims 4 Businesses and Hobbies Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration, and for each milestone there's three separate tasks to complete. Firstly, to reach the Friendly Founder milestone, you must do the following:

• Grow your small business to a hopeful hustle: Impress your customers and increase Business Renown by successfully completing business activities, selling goods and services of high quality, setting discounts, and making friends with your customers
• Have 20 customers visit your small business: Increase your Business Renown further by opening your business, talking it up to other Sims, and using small business perks to attract customers
• Acquire a small business perk: When you increase your Business Renown by simply running a great business, you'll earn Perk Points. You can then spend these points on a small business perk. But choose wisely, some of them can affect your alignment (which is about to become important)

For the Popular Operator milestone, you must:

• Grow your small business to a striving startup: Keep earning that Business Renown by opening your business regularly and keeping up with customer reviews to make sure they're happy
• Reach the first level of dreamer or schemer alignment: In your small business menu in the bottom right corner, you can view where you are aligned - a flying duck for dreamer and a purple cat for schemer. Depending on how you want to run your business, you can perform required interactions with customers
• Hire an employee and become friends with them: You can manage your employees under the same small business menu and pick friends or family to run the business with you

For the Honored Home Businessperson milestone, you must:

• Get a happy customer: When you've reached the second level of alignment, you can start getting happy customers
• Grow your small business to a neighborhood gem: Keep on keeping on with running your business in a sufficient and friendly way - this will earn you Renown and eventually level you up
• Reach the second level of dreamer or schemer alignment: Continue carrying out the required interactions with customers to level up and then you'll also get your first happy customer

For the final Esteemed Entrepreneur milestone, you must:

• Grow your small business to a local legend: To reach this level, you need to take your time. Meanwhile, focus on the other two tasks to keep this one ticking along
• Get 5 more happy customers: Interact with customers in a friendly manner, deliver great service and high quality goods and they'll be sure to leave with a smile on their face
• Reach the third level of dreamer or schemer alignment: Carry on with your interactions and the odd moral dilemma will give you an opportunity to level up further, as long as you choose the right alignment option for your Sim

Rewards for completing the Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration

Congratulations, you've achieved the Esteemed Entrepreneur aspiration and now you'll receive a reward for your trouble – the Beloved Brand trait. This means whenever your Sim runs a business, they'll immediately be popular and receive positive reviews. Basically, it'll be a lot easier for your Sim to run a successful business and customers will keep returning to your brand time and time again.

Are you enjoying running your own virtual life? Then here's 10 games like The Sims 4 to try next.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

As EA continues releasing new content for The Sims 4 and hyper-realistic competitor inZOI gears up for its early access release later this month, another colorful life sim begins its hold on my heart – Paralives, an indie spin on the genre launching sometime this year.

The upcoming life sim incorporates some of The Sims community's most highly requested features, including throwback mechanics from EA's older entries like The Sims 3. Paralives' developers show these off regularly online, with their most recent post highlighting something I've been yearning for ever since The Sims 3 introduced me to it: the color and pattern customization tool. Everything in Paralives can be edited by players freely.

The game's items come with fun, premade swatches to choose from, too, just like those found in The Sims 3. It's a nostalgia trip with better, more vibrant visuals.

"We now have premade swatch colors for close to 1,000 items," write the devs, with an attached clip of object customization in action. "Players can also edit their own to customize their builds," they add, showing off the color and pattern changing as well.

It's one of many features I'm excited about that the Paralives team has so far showcased, and there's hopefully not much longer left to wait now until the game's 2025 launch into early access on Steam.

After all, the past couple of years haven't exactly been kind to hopeful games like The Sims 4, with examples like inZOI's delay last year as well as Life by You and its cancelation springing to mind. For the time being, however, Paralives seems safe.

And if you're anything like me and are chomping at the bit to play Paralives, you can wishlist it now on Steam to keep up to date with any news from the devs. There are all sorts of progress updates to browse on Steam, too, from a look at the loft building in-game to a deep dive into the life sim's stunning day and night cycle.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to pour another thousand hours into The Sims 3 while I wait.

"Without any shareholders to please," The Sims competitor Paralives isn't doing paid DLC, because "the money we make from selling the game alone will be enough"

New Sims-like gem inZOI, with all of its stunning Unreal Engine 5 visuals, is underway from PUBG developer Krafton with only weeks left to go now before release – but will it contain some form of sex akin to WooHooing in The Sims 4?

According to Krafton, yes – or, well, "sort of." Speaking in a recent Discord Q&A, assistant director Joel Lee confirms as much after a fan asks if inZOI will include "interactions for the purpose of creating babies." While the life sim will indeed have such interactions, they might not be as visually detailed or fleshed out as some Wicked Whims enjoyers are hoping they'll be. "Our answer is: sort of," explains Lee, going on to describe how.

"There is a feature in the game that you obviously know what's happening, the male Zoi and the female Zoi are together, likely in bed, with the intention of creating babies," says the lead. "How visually apparent is that? That's where you have to go to your imagination. What you're seeing is not what you're seeing; you have to assume that's what's happening. Is that clear enough for everyone?" Bottom line, as Lee puts it: "It's there. Sort of."

But, as stressed by Lee, "Maybe not to the level that everyone would have been expecting." As a long-time Simmer myself, I get WooHoo-esque vibes from Krafton's description of the in-game sex so far – not too graphic or raunchy, but a stylized version of the real deal suited to fit within inZOI. As is the case with Sims 4 mods, though, I'm almost certain that fans will conjure up their own *ahem* Wicked Whims-style animations to download.

While you wait for inZOI, here are 10 games like The Sims 4 to check out right now.

After revealing the upcoming Businesses and Hobbies expansion for The Sims 4, EA went on to release a brand-new update containing burglars and customizable tattoos ahead of the pack – but apparently, not everything that accompanied the patch's arrival was good.

Not good at all, in fact – so much so, that one unwanted addition might even rival the incest bug that made Sims want to date family members. According to players' new reports online, the latest update has brought with it a glitch of sorts that makes child Sims appear pregnant. A recent Reddit thread highlights the disturbing bug, with the original poster sharing a screenshot of an affected child in-game. "Umm guys … My kid is pregnant."

Umm guys… My kid is pregnant… from r/thesims

Fellow Simmers have flooded the comments with their own experiences, showcasing that the bug is, unfortunately, not an isolated incident. "This is not the first post I've seen about pregnant kids after the update, unfortunately," writes one. "It's a base game glitch with the new update," explains another fan. "I have one, too." Elsewhere in the replies, players acknowledge how disgusting the glitch is – a sentiment I'd argue we all share.

"This is an actual nightmare," reads a response. "Sims 4 gets the most horrific bugs." As a dedicated Sims stan myself, I'm sad to say the latter statement is true – and it's not even just The Sims 4, either. Every entry has had its fair share of mind-boggling glitches, from pets walking on their hind legs to children going to work instead of adults. This might just end up being one of the worst Sims 4 bugs ever, though – among plenty.

Want to spice your game up a bit? Here are some of the best Sims 4 mods available now.

After revealing the upcoming Businesses and Hobbies expansion for The Sims 4, EA went on to tease the return of burglars – 16 years after they were last seen in the series when The Sims 3 launched – and the infamous NPCs are finally back now alongside some other goodies.

While the beloved series' new burglars aren't the raccoons in trench coats people speculated they might be, they're here nonetheless – and they're just as silly as they were in the first three Sims entries. A short clip of the NPCs in action showcases as much, with a burglar breaking into an unsuspecting Sim's house to steal her belongings while the iconic robbery-in-progress music plays. Eventually, the two Sims fight – and later fall in love, because why not?

It's a proper throwback to The Sims' golden era, and fans are obsessed. "We love to see it," comments one Simmer, while another writes that "using the original Sims 1 music was a nice touch." Burglars aren't the only new arrival in The Sims 4, however – an accompanying lot challenge, bug fixes, Create-A-Sim mode items, and tattoo customizations can also be found in-game now – right on time for the Businesses and Hobbies expansion pack.

With the tattoo career dropping alongside the DLC next month, the ability to customize Sims' tattoos is the perfect way to prepare before players can do so with the upcoming paint tool for Simoleons. Whether it's a silly snail riding a skateboard (as seen in the expansion's trailer) or a highly detailed floral tattoo, the design possibilities truly feel endless come Businesses and Hobbies – and there's not long left to wait until March 6 now, either.

It seems as though it's a better time to be a Simmer now than ever, between Businesses and Hobbies and EA's other recent surprises like the nostalgia-inducing re-releases of the first two Sims games or The Sims 3 receiving its first update in 10 years. There's also no telling what's next for the fourth installment, especially as EA previously admitted there would be no Sims 5 but rather continuous work on The Sims 4 and the mysterious Project Rene.

I remade Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 in The Sims 4 because I had massive FOMO, and now Henry is a serial frog-napper

Full disclosure: the article you're about to read is not the one I intended to write. I'd hoped to make some direct comparisons between the Legacy Collection versions of The Sims 1 and 2 and fan-patched versions of both games, in order to see how EA's upgrades compared with all the fanmade alterations that have come over the years. The reality is that both the official and fanmade patches offer effectively identical experiences. There are minor pros and cons to each - more on those in a minute - but I find myself unable to definitively call one better than the other.

After a half-dozen hours getting a Sims 2 Legacy Challenge - a popular community ruleset that has you building a multigenerational legacy from humble beginnings - off the ground, I've been impressed with how well the Legacy Collection is working. I've had a couple of odd crashes and interface quirks, but they're few and far between. I only started playing after EA had deployed a few patches to the game, and I was hopeful that these updates had indeed knocked out all the major issues that were being reported in the first days after the game's release. Then I spoke with my colleague Anja, who's still having all the consistent crashing issues she reported in her initial impressions. We're both on high-end PCs. I don't know why our experiences are so different.

But while I'm not here to try and spin these kinds of technical issues as a good thing, there is something appropriate about The Sims feeling like it's being held together by duct tape and good wishes, because that's exactly how I remember the experience of playing these games back in the mid '00s. While the past decade or so has gotten us all used to stable PC games that work consistently across a wide range of hardware configurations, that wasn't the reality for the vast majority of PC games in this era, and The Sims in particular is vast mess of complicated gameplay systems and endless expansion packs building on top of each other to create a uniquely broken experience. I'm starting to wonder if it's even possible to truly "fix" these games.

The real Legacy Challenge

You might have rose-colored memories of your time with the old Sims games, but I'm here to tell you that it was not all sunshine and roses playing these games on the contemporary PCs of the '00s. These were big, complicated games that could bring all but the highest-end machines to their knees, and the casual audience that The Sims attracted suddenly had to become PC gaming experts to keep their games in working order. Each new expansion was like adding another level to a house of cards. By the time I got to Hot Date - just the third expansion pack for The Sims 1 - my load times were ballooning into the minutes range, and I held my breath every time I took a Sim out of the house for fear that this trip would be the one that would cause the inevitable crash.

Both The Sims and its sequel have always been a little broken, and that converts into a lot broken once both games have gotten years worth of progressively more complicated expansion packs. That's just as true with the Legacy Collection and the fan patches today as it was with the original games running on Windows 98 and XP decades ago.

Honestly, it's a little less onerous in the Sims 1 Legacy Collection, which features reasonable load times and solid performance, but I do still have to keep a few of those old breaths held back, especially when I take Sims on vacation, which is probably the most reliable crash trigger I've seen in either Legacy version. That's an issue that, notably, does not occur in the fan-patched version of the game I've tried, but those fan patches have their own problems.

Chiefly there's the problem that, outside of the Legacy Collections, it's effectively impossible to play The Sims 1 or 2 on a modern PC without engaging in some form of piracy. Even if you own the original game discs - and have a disc drive hooked up to your modern PC - pretty much every mod guide you're going to come across will tell you to first of all replace your .exe files with a cracked version, as that's the only way to evade the crashes caused by the original DRM imposed on these games. There are exemptions to the DMCA that could potentially give the OK to this kind of crack, but I ain't a lawyer and neither are any of the modders creating these patches, so you'll have to navigate that legal and ethical minefield yourself if you want to go for the unofficial upgrades.

Beyond those Sims 1 vacation issues, I've found the fan patches and official Legacy Collections to offer roughly equivalent experiences across both games. I think the Legacy version of Sims 1 is slightly more visually appealing, but the fan-patched Sims 2 probably looks slightly better in the end. Fully stress testing both versions of each game is going to take a long, long time given the volume of content in each, and the results of that testing will quickly become irrelevant when another patch comes down the pipe.

Perhaps I'm being too forgiving of the Legacy Collections, but that's easy to do when I'm not experiencing the same issues that other players are. For me, these are now the easiest and most convenient ways to access two of the most significant video games ever created, which is all I'd hoped for from this release. I fear the instability and inconsistency that others have found, hopeful though I am that more and more of it is going to be fixed, might just be the price of Maxis' ambitious legacy.

If you're looking for more games like The Sims, you know where to click.

Everything I have learned about Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, I have learned against my will. I was keen on it at first, thanks to its elevator pitch of being a gritty medieval RPG with realistic combat, period-accurate language, and a colorful cast of characters – but as soon as I heard how testing the opening hours are, I grew hesitant.

There are so many excellent new games of 2025 coming out in the coming weeks that I just don't think I have it in me to sit down and explore Bohemia right now. Still, though, the green eyed monster of FOMO has firmly dug its claws in, and I'm desperate to get in on the action somehow. Then, after reading up on how the first few hours of the game – specifically regarding how tough it is to simply survive – I realized that it sounded oddly… familiar. I've decided to take matters into my own hands and with a little help from The Sims 4 and the Rags to Riches challenge. Presenting: Henry of Henford-on-Bagley.

Simdom Come

First things first: I had to recreate KCD2's protagonist in The Sims 4. This was a little tricky as someone who has never played either RPG, but that's what Google is for. But perhaps the hardest part was to try and find appropriate attire for my medieval hero.

In the end, I went for a pirate costume –the closest thing The Sims 4 has to medieval Germanic villager gear. After fine-tuning his facial features as best as I could, it was time to move Henry into his new digs. I already knew that I would be basing him in the quaint village environs of Henford-on-Bagley, a Sims 4 neighborhood featuring charming cottages, wild foxes, off-grid and simple living house traits for an electronic-free existence, and plenty of space to someday acquire his very own Pebbles. In fact, my journey to getting Pebbles would go on to shape the rest of my experiment, but first, I'd need money.

A key component of the Rags to Riches challenge is to start on a large vacant lot with 0 household funds. You can make money however you like as long as you remain unemployed. I'd thought about giving Henry a potion-making aspiration in line with what I've heard about what to do first in KCD2, at least as far as making money, but decided to make use of the Kleptomania trait instead. This allowed me to lean more on the thievery side of things, especially given that only Spellcasters can brew potions and that is a little more high fantasy than Bohemia is known for. Sadly, there were no lutes to pilfer in the Gnome's Arms pub. There was, however, a sofa. One successful swipe later, I made my first 500 simoleons from selling it.

The most lucrative money making strategy I found? Catching and selling frogs. I discovered this by accident upon a visit to the local park, initially with thoughts of food-pilfering in mind to sate my hero's empty belly. An accidental click on a pond nearby the picnic tables brought up an interaction menu – including the option to "look for frogs".

Rolling in it

As soon as I sold my first leopard frog for a cool 30 simoleons, I was hooked. I sat Henry by that pond for hours, filling his activity queue with "look for frogs" and promptly selling them all. Countless ribbeting friends later, Henry was sitting on 600 simoleons. It was time to finally build a semblance of home.

Henry's starter home was a humble affair: a hay bed, a wooden tub (no more showering in the rain!), and a single chair. A gas lamp in the middle of the space offered the only source of light, enough to keep that pesky Tense moodlet from rearing its head as a consequence of living in the dark. In lieu of an expensive toilet, I opted for a nice bush in the garden to pee in. Proud though I was of having racked up enough money to afford all these luxuries in a short space of time, the whole thing felt a little bit lonely. It was time to rack up enough dosh to acquire Pebbles the horse, at last.

I learned of Pebbles through my colleague Heather. I thought I'd messed up at first – it would certainly have been easier to make Pebbles from scratch in Create-A-Sim – but after doing some research, it actually sounded like a more authentic experience to cough up the cash and travel on foot to "retrieve" – in this case, spend 1,000 simoleons on – my horse. After another lengthy frog-catching session and napping on another park bench until the equestrian center opened, I was able to select a Pebbles-like to purchase. Unfortunately for Henry, he is not a very good rider – but at least now he has a friend to accompany him on many more acts of thievery.

I'm enjoying my Sims-ification of Kingdom Come massively at the moment, though I can't help but feel like the frog thing was a bit of a cheat. Essentially, though, there's nothing more medieval than living off the land – even if that land is public property, and even if I have to hurriedly cancel Henry's every attempt to play games on his mobile phone. Perhaps I should have given this a whirl in The Sims Medieval instead?

Could Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 become one of the best RPGs of 2025?

After revealing the upcoming Businesses and Hobbies expansion pack for The Sims 4, EA is posting new sneak peeks of the DLC – and one might just point toward the return of an NPC known well by longtime fans of The Sims series.

It's an exciting time to be a Simmer between EA's nostalgia-inducing re-releases of the first two Sims games, The Sims 3 recently receiving its first update from EA in 10 years, and The Sims 4 teasing its upcoming hobby-related expansion pack. The new DLC channels some of the series' most iconic moments with its Sims 2-esque Open for Business vibes, and it seems there might be more content reminiscent of past titles' own to come.

In a cryptic post online, EA writes "wait… what actually was that?" Alongside the text is a short clip of The Sims 4 showing a mysterious masked, tall figure dressed in a lengthy coat and hat. The strange "person" – if you can call them (it?) that – rummages through a garbage bin before quickly walking away. A bushy gray tail can be seen sticking out of the figure's coat, implying that this is, in fact, not a person at all.

As fans speculate in the comments under EA's post, the figure appears to be a few raccoons standing upright on top of one another inside of a trench coat. While that's a cute thought on its own, it's the deeper implication that has the community excited – raccoons are associated with theft in pop culture, those shown in the clip seem to be stealing from Sims' trash, and there's a new burglar-aligned aspiration coming to The Sims 4.

Burglars! Did you notice this? from r/Sims4

With all of the "raccoon things," as players describe, highlighted in Businesses and Hobbies teasers coupled with the aspiration, Simmers are theorizing that "burglars are coming back" and loving "The Sims 2 vibes." At the least, fans certainly hope it's the case, with one simply writing "pls bring burglars back" and another admitting EA "not bringing burglars back would straight up be incredibly sad" – a sentiment I agree with as a Sims stan myself.

I don’t think we’re getting burglars in the new expac, maybe scam artists instead? from r/Sims4

Elsewhere, players wonder whether the trench coat "Sims" are actually scam artists rather than the series' more traditional burglars. A recent Reddit thread sees fans discussing the possibility of con men, explaining that it could all be" related to the 'Schemer' business alignment" dropping with Businesses and Hobbies. Only time will tell for sure what EA is cooking up with its raccoons or trench coat burglars, though – and I can't wait.

Need something to play while you wait? Here are 10 games like The Sims 4 to check out now.

The Sims 3 recently received its first update from EA in 10 years, igniting (likely) false hope of more patches to get the game running properly on modern computers in the hearts of many a fan – but until (and if) such patches drop, this clever fan has compiled every fix under the sun in just one video.

Madi, known online as "acottonsock," spent hours putting a guide on every possible Sims 3 fix together so that players can actually enjoy the 2009 life sim on newer PCs. Her video, which she rightfully dubs a "definitive guide," covers just about anything and everything fans have spent years suffering through – from issues related to graphics cards to those caused by modern CPUs – and is unsurprisingly over an hour long.

It might seem daunting to sit through so much content, but Madi has added handy timestamps to make the guide more bite-sized for folks looking to find specific fixes. Her video includes some must-have mods, too, as well as fan-created patches. This isn't Madi's first impressive Sims-related roundup, either, with her "masterlist" of over 200 Sims 2 mods dropping just days prior following EA's re-releases of the series' first two games.

If there's one thing the Simming community is good at, it's cleaning up areas of The Sims that have gone overlooked for years and enhancing the games with all flavors of creative mods. There's no telling whether EA will address The Sims 3's issues itself anytime soon, especially as work cracks on with The Sims 4 and its upcoming hobby-related expansion pack, but fans can safely look to Madi's thorough guide for answers until then.

Hopping back into the game now to fix it? Here are the best Sims 3 cheats for a solid start.

The Sims 2 cheat codes allow you to have even greater control over your Sims, their environments, and their worlds. And thanks to The Sims Legacy Collection, a re-release of The Sims 1 and 2 to celebrate the franchise's 25th birthday, we're blowing the dust off the ol' cheat sheet for a new generation.

The Sims 2 was the first game in the series to introduce the motherlode money cheat code we still use in The Sims 4, but this is just one of the many useful cheats available in The Sims 2. Whether you want to force a twin pregnancy, kidnap neighbors for your household, or even control aging, The Sims 2 Legacy Collection cheat codes allow you to further mold your virtual experience to your liking.

Our guide below lays out every cheat code we know works with The Sims 2 Legacy Collection (we've tested them), alongside some handy cheat tips to make the most of them. Just picked up the re-release? Check out our guide to The Sims 1 Legacy Collection cheats, too.

How to enable The Sims 2 Legacy Collection cheats

To enable cheats in The Sims 2 Legacy Collection, press Ctrl, Shift, and C on your keyboard – this method is the same as every other The Sims game on PC. This brings up the cheat console text box in the top-left corner of your screen. To enter a cheat, type it in as below, then press Enter. If the cheat is successful you'll see your changes in the game, but if it's typed incorrectly or isn't a working code, an "Error in cheat" message appears in the text box.

To expand the cheat console, input "expand" and press Enter; to close the console, input "exit" and press Enter.

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection Money Cheats

• Kaching - Adds 1,000 Simoleons to your funds
• Motherlode - Adds 50,000 Simoleons to your funds
• FamilyFunds [family name] [value] - For example, "familyfunds cordial 100000;" sets your household's funds to a specific value
• FamilyFunds [family name] [+/-][value] - For example, "familyfunds cordial +10000;" adds or subtracts from household's funds

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection Sim and Household Cheats

• AddNeighborToFamilyCheat [on/off] - When on, you can add neighbors to your household by clicking on them. This doesn't work on service NPCs while they're working or special NPCs like the Grim Reaper. Allows you to add more than the usual eight-Sim household limit
• AgeSimsCheat [on/off] - When enabled, you can select a Sim and "Set age" to Toddler, Child, Teen, Adult, or Elder
• Aging [on/off] - Turns Sim aging on or off
• AspirationLevel [0-5] - Sets the aspiration level of the selected Sim, five is highest and zero the lowest
• AspirationPoints [0-100000] - Gives your selected Sim the inputted number of aspiration points. We found you can comfortably go to 100,000, but this cheat can bug if overused or you go above that, resetting the points to zero and disabling you from adding any points with the cheat
• Forcetwins - Select a pregnant Sim and enter to turn pregnancy into twin birth
• DisablePuppyKittenAging [on/off] - Enables and disables puppies and kittens aging
• PlumbBobToggle [on/off] - Plumbob above Sims head disappears when on
• LockAspiration [on/off] - Locks and unlocks the aspiration score of Sims on the lot
• MaxMotives - Maximizes motives of all Sims on the lot
• MotiveDecay [on/off] - Enables and disables motive decay for all Sims on the lot
• StretchSkeleton [number] - Stretches Sim; the higher the number the longer the Sim and the smaller the shorter (1.0 is default)
• ShowHeadlines [on/off] - Hides all thought bubbles and speech balloons
• UnlockCareerRewards - Unlocks all career reward items for a Sim

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection Neighborhood and Lot Cheats

• DeleteAllCharacters - Deletes all characters in the current neighborhood; only works when in neighborhood view
• ChangeLotClassification [low/middle/high] - Changes classification of current lot
• ChangeLotZoning [residential / community / greek / dorm / secretsociety / secretvacationlot / hotel / secrethobbylot / apartmentbase / apartmentsublot / secretwitchlot] - Changes lot zoning type
• ClearLotClassValue - Clears lot class value and overrides flag
• TerrainType [Temperate / Desert / Dirt / Concrete] - Changes neighborhood terrain type; use in neighborhood view
• DumpNPCCount - Tells you the number of service NPCs in the current neighborhood per type
• ModifyNeighborhoodTerrain [on/off] - Toggles neighborhood terrain modification; when enabled, select terrain with cursor, and then use use P, /, and \ to adjust
• PrintLotClass [low/middle/high] - Prints lot class
• Boolprop displayLotImposters [true/ false] - Setting to false removes house graphics from neighborhood view
• Boolprop displayNeighborhoodRoads [true/false] - True shows roads in neighborhoods, false hides them
• IntProp maxNumOfVisitingSims [number] - Use in neighborhood view increase number of guests a lot can have
• Boolprop lotTerrainPaints [true/false] - Setting to false removes terrain paints from lot
• Boolprop displayNeighborhoodRoadsWithModel [true/false] - Setting to false removes neighborhood bridges
• Boolprop displayNeighborhoodFlora [true/false] - Setting to false removes neighborhood plants and trees
• Boolprop displayNeighborhoodProps [true/false] - Setting to false remove's neighborhood props
• boolprop lotWater [true/false] - Lot water (like ponds) is visible or invisible
• SetLotLightingFile [filename.txt/clear] - For example, "SetLotLightingFile Downtown_Lot.txt;" override some lighting parameters and uses lighting of the specified lot or you can use clear to reset it

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection Build Cheats

• DeleteAllAwnings - Remove all awnings
• DeleteAllFences - Remove all fences
• DeleteAllHalfwalls - Remove all deletable half walls
• DeleteAllObjects [doors/windows/stairs] - Deletes all of specified object
• DeleteAllWalls - Remove all deletable walls
• RoofSlopeAngle [15-75] - Slopes roof angle in degrees (45 is default)
• BoolProp snapObjectsToGrid [true/false] - When enabled, snaps objects to lot grid
• SetHighestAllowedLevel [3-255] - Allows you to build more floors, enter in neighborhood view (can crash game if you add too many)
• SetQuarterTilePlacement [on/off] - Turns quarter tile placement on or off

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection Visual and Filmmaking Cheats

• BoolProp enablePostProcessing [true/false] - This must be set to true to allow the following cheats to work
• Bloom [R G B X] - For example, "bloom 0.3 0.1 0.0 0.7;" changes screen visual color, RGB controls colors red, green, and blue, and X controls bloom amount
• FilmGrain [X] - Adds film grain to screen visuals, X is the film grain value (0 is default)
• LetterBox [0.0-0.4] - Adds black borders to top and bottom of screen (0 is default)

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection Miscellaneous Gameplay Cheats

• SetHour [0-23] - Sets time
• AutoPatch [-on/-off] - When enabled, your game checks for available patches; ensure you use the hyphen before on or off and leave a space between "patch" and the hyphen
• BugJarTimeDecay [on/off] - When disabled (off) bugs can live forever
• Expand - Makes cheat console bigger or smaller
• Exit - Exit cheat console
• Help - Shows a list of working cheats
• FaceBlendLimits [-on/-off] - Enables and disables facial blending limits
• Moveobjects [on/off] - When enabled you can move objects you usually can't, like mailboxes, trash cans and Sims; you can use this to delete, too
• Vignette [X, Y, Z] - For example, "vignette 100 100 100;" adds vignette/blur to visuals from specified center, X is upper left, Y is lower right and Y is amount of blur
• Vsync [on/off] - Setting to off improves game performance at the cost of graphics
• Slowmotion [0-8] - Higher number makes game slower (0 is default)
• TextDebugging [true/false] - Toggles text debugging
• Boolprop testingcheatsenabled [true/false] - Opens up more cheat options, but can cause a lot of issues

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection Cheat Tips

• In some cases, if you start typing in a cheat code, you can press Tab and the console will fill in the rest. You just need to add the "true/false" or "on/off" to relevant cheats.
• Use the Move_objects on cheat to delete bills, trash, and more. You can even use it to delete Sims, but unlike The Sims 1, this doesn't boost their mood and you need to leave the lot and return for the Sim to come back.
• Be aware that using The Sims 2 cheats can cause in-game issues, especially if you use a lot, so be cautious.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Sims 1 cheats allowed us to make Maxis' (often punishing) life simulator much easier, but little did we know we'd be dusting off some of these classic cheats over two decades later thanks to The Sims: Legacy Collection, a re-release of the first two games to mark the franchise's 25th birthday.

If you spent countless hours with The Sims 1, you likely remember some cheats through sheer muscle memory. The Rosebud money code, which quickly increases your funds (AKA Simoleons), remains imprinted in players' brains, while other classic codes, like move_objects, are great at dealing with pesky things like bills and trash. Don't worry; you won't need to remember them all, because our The Sims 1 Legacy Collection cheats guide lists the cheats we've confirmed work with the re-release – as some original cheats aren't valid with this version. So, whether you're new to The Sims 1 or a returning player, these cheat codes give you even greater control over the life sim.

How to enable The Sims 1 Legacy Collection cheats

Just like in the original The Sims 1 game and more recent releases, you can access the cheat console by holding Ctrl and Shift, then selecting C on your keyboard.

A text box appears in the top-left-hand corner of your screen where you can now input your cheat code. Press Enter to confirm the cheat code and, if it's successful, you'll see your relevant changes in-game. If your cheat code is entered incorrectly, you'll get a pop-up that says, "Sorry, no such cheat!" In some cases, the pop-up may prompt you for more detail, like a number, indicating that the cheat code is right, but perhaps the format isn't.

If you want to input more than one cheat at once, simply insert a semicolon (;) between each cheat code and press Enter when you're done. To repeat the last cheat you entered, without typing it out again, type an exclamation mark (!) into the text box and press Enter.

The Sims 1 Legacy Collection Money Cheats

• Rosebud - Gives you 1,000 Simoleons (every ;! after it adds another 1,000 Simoleons)
• Rosebud;!;!;!;! - Gives you 5,000 Simoleons
• Rosebud ;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;! - Gives you 10,000 Simoleons

The Sims 1 Legacy Collection Sim Cheats

• Interests - Shows interests of selected Sim
• Sim_speed [-1000 to 1000] - For example, "Sim_speed 1000;" alters Sim's movement speed, with -1000 super slow and 1000 super fast
• Autonomy [1-100] - For example, "Autonomy 100;" controls level of free thinking, with 100 giving your Sims the highest level of control over themselves
• Bubble_tweak (number) - Sets, in pixels, how far a thought bubble appears from a Sim’s head
• History - Saves your family history file, which you can find under FamilyHistory.txt
• Sim_log begin - Starts Sim logging
• Sim_log end - Ends Sim logging

The Sims 1 Legacy Collection World and Environment Cheats

• Set_hour [1-24] - For example, "Set_hour 23" to set to 11pm; sets in-game time
• Move_objects on - Enables free object movement, letting you delete trash, bills, and more
• Move_objects off - Disables free object movement
• Genable objects on - In-world objects (like radios, lamps, etc) are visible
• Genable objects off - In-world objects are invisible (but still exist)
• Genable default - All Genable settings return to default
• Genable terrain on - Terrain is visible
• Genable terrain off - Terrain is invisible (but still exists)
• Genable walls on - Walls are visible
• Genable walls off - Walls are invisible (but still exist)
• Genable floors on - Floors are visible
• Genable floors off - Floors are invisible (but still exist)
• Genable people on - Sims are visible
• Genable people off - Sims are invisible (but still exist)
• Genable clear/full_draw/static/old_clear/static rows on/off -(No visible in-game changes)
• Genable all on - All the above are visible
• Genable all off - All the above are invisible (everything disappears, but still exists)
• Genable status - See genable status of all houseviewer models
• Rotation [0-3] - For example, "Rotation 3;" rotates camera, 0 is normal
• Prepare_lot - Scans your lot and tells you if you are missing any key items, like a mailbox, and tries to repair any issues; this won't replace objects deleted with move_objects on in our experience
• Draw_all_frames on - Enables draws all frames
• Draw_all_frames off - Disables draws all frames
• Draw_floorable on - Enables floorable grid
• Draw_floorable off - Disables floorable grid
• Map_edit on - Enables map editor
• Map_edit off - Disables map editor

The Sims 1 Legacy Collection Miscellaneous Cheats

• Nessie - The Loch Ness Monster appears in the water when in Downtown, Old Town, or Vacation neighborhood view
• Log_mask [number] - Sets event logging mask
• Route_balloons on - Enables routing debug balloons
• Route_balloons off - Disables routing debug balloons
• Sweep on - Shows in-game bottom bar
• Sweep off - Hides in-game bottom bar
• Tile_info on - Tile information visible
• Tile_info off - Tile information hidden

The Sims 1 Legacy Collection Cheat Tips

Armed with the cheat codes above (and years of experience), here are some of our top cheat tips for The Sims 1.

How to refill your Mood bars (or just delete your Sim)

In The Sims 1, you could use the move_objects on cheat to simply delete a Sim through Buy or Build Mode. You can't outright do that now, but there is a way around it to get rid of a pesky Sim or to give your Sim a serious mood boost. Have the Sim sit on a chair, then delete the chair; this deletes the Sim and the chair. To bring your Sim back, click their portrait, and they'll return with full Mood bars. This is a great way to get promotions quickly.

How to delete bills

Enabling the move_objects on cheat means you can delete annoying bills via the Buy or Build Mode. To avoid bills completely, delete your mailbox.

How to avoid missing work

This tip also utilizes the move_objects on cheat. Place an object in the middle of the road, to block the way ahead for your carpool. The car won't be able to go anywhere and you can jump in, even if you're a little bit late. Just delete the object when you're done, so the car can move off as normal.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

After posting a cryptic teaser featuring what looked to be a tattoo artist job in The Sims 4, EA has unveiled its full trailer for the life sim's Businesses and Hobbies expansion pack - a pack that might remind long-time fans of the series of Sims 2 DLC.

It's an especially exciting time to be a Simmer right now, between The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 re-releases on PC and The Sims 4's celebratory update featuring more than 70 items – but that's not all. The rumors of a possible expansion for the fourth game focusing on activities and jobs floating about on social media recently have turned out to be true, with a new trailer revealing a Businesses and Hobbies pack arriving next month.

The pack instantly strikes me as The Sims 4 version of The Sims 2's own Open for Business expansion, boasting long-awaited features like multi-type lots in which Sims can both work and live. As for the showcased hobbies and jobs themselves, the video highlights all sorts of activities for Sims to engage in, from running an entire candy shop to training and operating as tattoo artists with fully customizable tattoos.

Yes, fully customizable – players can draw their own tattoos without restrictions to place on Sims' bodies – whether that's for better or worse. As a Simmer myself, I can already foresee the whacky ink the community is sure to come up with, and the trailer's inclusion of a snail wearing a cowboy hat atop a skateboard likely doesn't even scratch the surface of what silly designs fans will create come Businesses and Hobbies' launch.

The trailer shows other hobbies and jobs in action, too, including pottery – one that aligns especially well with other packs' such as Nifty Knitting. There's no telling what else is to come with the Businesses and Hobbies expansion just yet, however, until it launches on March 6. If you're like me and you already can't wait to play, you can pre-order the pack now on the official EA website for $39.99 and score some extra goodies.

The Sims is back after 25 years, and it's teaching Sims 4 players a lesson in retro life sim difficulty: "Damn this game is hard"

According to The Sims mastermind Will Wright, the original life sim had to be dumbed down as Sims' autonomy was simply "too good" to be enjoyable.

Speaking in a recent interview with The New York Times, Wright discusses the conception of The Sims – a title that "everyone in the room hated the idea of" but arguably revolutionized the simulation genre. "In early versions of the game," admits the developer, "the autonomy was too good." So good, in fact, that the Sims actually managed to outplay the players in a way. "Almost anything the player did was worse than the Sims running on autopilot."

There's no fun in a life sim without any "sim" elements, so to speak – so what did Wright do? He stirred some chaotic energy into the mix and got the game's Sims to a comfortable, much more user-reliant stage in which controlling them felt rewarding. Suddenly, things could take a turn for the worse very quickly. A grilled cheese sandwich could morph into a killer fire, and a pet guinea pig's bite could leave Sims with a deadly disease.

According to Wright, the ridiculous and often nonsensical way Sims approach problems is a deliberate inclusion on the devs' behalf. All of us long-time fans of The Sims have witnessed it firsthand: a fire breaks out, and Sims react by flailing their arms around wildly while yelling rather than extinguishing the flames themselves. It's what makes the series so wonderfully whacky, though, and it gives players a sense of godlike purpose.

The difficulty of managing everything isn't for everyone, however, and recent reactions to EA's The Sims and The Sims 2 re-releases on PC prove as much. In fact, the original game seems to be teaching newer fans of The Sims 4 a lesson in retro life sim difficulty, and as a hardened Simmer myself, I get it – my own Sims 2 re-release preview discusses how much harder (and more rewarding) the series used to be.

The rise, fall, and rise again of The Sims: 10 moments that shaped EA's 25-year life sim legacy

Update: EA has just revealed its new Motherlode roadmap confirming that the trailer coming is indeed a first look at new DLC for The Sims 4 dubbed the Businesses & Hobbies Expansion Pack, with three kits to follow later down the line.

The Sims 4 just got a massive update in celebration of the life sim series' 25th birthday, with more than 70 items and a nostalgic new event – but the good news doesn't end there, as EA is seemingly teasing yet another expansion pack.

It looks like EA is wishing The Sims a very humple borpnah, between the Legacy Collection re-releases on PC and the new Sims 4 update – but it's not done. In what appears to be a teaser for a full trailer coming Thursday, February 6, a Sim is seen lying atop a massage-style table with an uncomfortable expression across his face. A tattoo is clearly visible on his arm, and what looks to be tattoo ink-esque art adorns the wall.

The attached caption also sounds oddly tattoo-aligned: "That's gonna leave a mark." Could a tattoo artist career be in the works for The Sims 4? Rumors of a possible expansion themed around hobbies and jobs have been floating about social media recently, and EA's short clip might point to there being some truth to them. Fans are already speculating that the coming trailer will showcase just that – another pack that's all about careers.

"GET TO WORK 2.0 WE WON," comments one especially enthusiastic Simmer. "I'm so ready for The Sims 4 Open for Freetime Expansion Pack," jokes another. There's no telling just yet whether that's what the teaser is truly leading up to reveal, however, or if the rumors circulating online will ring true. For now, though, the community has over 70 colorful clothes and items to explore as well as the new Blast from the Past event to play through.

The Sims is back after 25 years, and it's teaching Sims 4 players a lesson in retro life sim difficulty: "Damn this game is hard"

Everyone has to start somewhere, and for The Sims, that somewhere was a Windows PC in your parent's attic. Its humble beginnings were off to a good start, with EA and Maxis riffing off the success of SimCity and SimSafari to tighten its scope, look to the suburbs, and embark on a potentially risky pivot into unknown territory.

But 25 years later, with The Sims 4 still going strong, it's no doubt that EA struck gold by swapping to life sims. As one of the longest-running, best loved game franchises ever, you'd be hard pressed not to find someone with fond memories of it – past or present. But how did we get here from the days of Windows 98? I've picked out my top 10 standout additions to the game across its history that now stand out as milestone moments, each a stepping stone from risky venture to genre titan as we celebrate 25 years of Simming.

10. The Sims (2000)

Many credit The Sims' 2000 launch with birthing the life sim genre as we know it today, refining and reframing more holistic management tools as seen in the best city builders to put a new challenge before players: to build and manage a digital life.

It's a simple enough premise, but it's one that stuck. The Sims gamified the normalcies of life with an oddly therapeutic touch, turning mundanity to intrigue as players navigated not only their own Sim families but those of resident townies and NPCs, uncovering existing world lore while creating their own stories and changing the landscape of the neighborhood – literally, too, thanks to Build Mode. The Sims provided the raw sandbox tools and let our creativity run wild with them, paving the way for the series' second generation.

9. Preset narratives (The Sims 2, 2004)

The Sims 2 improved on its predecessor in many ways, but one that stands out is the introduction of preset stories in pre-made households. From map view, players could hover over base game families to read a short blurb about each of them, painting a Desperate Housewives-like portrait of their scandalous domestic dramas.

From them, we can learn that Don Lothario is wooing both Caliente sisters. Daniel Pleasant is having an affair with his housemaid. The Monty and Capps of Veronaville are constantly at one another's throats, much like their Shakespearean namesakes. Not only did preset narratives encourage more interactivity between player-made families and pre-made ones, it opened up the door for The Sims 2 as a narrative devising platform, with the ability to edit each blurb in accordance with the player's own influence on each household. Sadly, these preset family biographies were nixed in follow-up games, but The Sims 2 is when the franchise really started feeling like a story-led experience as well as a management sim.

8. The Sims 2: Seasons (2007)

Who knew a little thing like snow could make such a massive difference? The Sims 2: Seasons stands out as a momentous release in franchise history, proving the power of subtlety over kitsch when it comes to immersion factor. Seasons brought weather to Pleasantview and beyond, as well as functional outerwear and holiday celebrations to create a stronger sense of time passage in the lives of our Sims.

The implementation of seasonal weather also had knock-on effects for many other gameplay systems. A rainy day called for coats and boots, with Sims popping open an umbrella when stepping out in stormy weather. Neglecting to wrap up during winter meant your Sim could freeze to death in their swim suits, or die of heatstroke in the summer months if they didn't stay cool. Many expansion packs have made the jump between generations, but Seasons became such an intrinsic part of The Sims 2 that it's now seen as a must-have for The Sims 3 and 4 respectively. If that's not a milestone, I don't know what is.

7. Open world, open life (The Sims 3, 2009)

Ask anyone what they miss about The Sims 3, and it's likely they will say the open world format. Doing away with the loading screens between neighborhood view and individual lots, The Sims 3 was the first time we could watch our Sims stroll around town with a pram, drive their cars around, or visit rabbit hole lots on foot.

The Sims 4 did retain the open world view, but it never quite caught up to The Sims 3's unbroken sense of immersion. Not to mention, the newest iteration of the game is still markedly lacking driveable cars. Guess bikes and horses will have to do for now, but if there's one thing I hope to see from EA now that there's no Sims 5 on the horizon, it's the return of cars – and fewer loading screens, please.

6. Bye bye, landlines (The Sims 3, 2009)

With the advent of The Sims 3 came one of the most important markers of modern tech being represented in the game: the mobile phone. Every teenage and older Sim came equipped with their own cellphone in their inventory, doing away with the necessity for the all-important wall or tabletop phone cradle that featured so heavily in Sims 1 and 2.

I remember being appalled by it at first, especially given how many self-imposed challenges I liked to embark on at the time that restricted my Sims' use of tech – the Decades Challenge, for example. But soon, I struggled to remember life before my Sims could play games on their phone while using the toilet, giving their Fun need a nice little buff in the process. Phones would become much more useful in later instalments, as I'll mention further down the list, but here's a shout out to one of The Sims 3's most daring improvements.

5. Hair to stay (The Sims 3: Generations, 2011)

When body hair was added to The Sims 3, giving players the option to make their Sims look more like real actual people, it didn't feel like as much of a paradigm shift as it turned out to be. But really, we wouldn't have the more realistic Sim bodies and families we know and love in 2025 if not for The Sims 3: Generations championing the basics.

Inclusivity has become the lifeblood of modern Simming. Putting acne cream on teenagers in The Sims 2 was one of the more immersive, realistic gameplay elements of its era, but Generations upped the ante by offering not only more ways for players to see themselves represented in the game, but more ways to tell stories. All that shaggy body hair would also lead quite nicely into another Sims 3 era milestone that loved to howl at the moon…

4. Occult frenzy (The Sims 3: Supernatural, 2012)

Much as I love the Victorian gothic vampires in The Sims 2: Nightlife, my occult-loving heart truly felt seen in The Sims 3: Supernatural. While zombies and ghosts had been around since 2000, Supernatural adding werewolves, reworked vampires, witches, and fairies into the life state mix allowed players to put a hint of the unusual into their sleepy suburban towns – and boy, did it work a treat.

Werewolves turning at the stroke of midnight on a moonlit night, marking the first time lunar phases were added to the franchise. Fairies sleeping in their treehouses after shrinking down to the size of glowbugs. Vampires that hide in plain sight, no longer dressed head to toe in velvet gowns and ornate diadems, skulking around nightclubs in search of prey. Witches quietly passing down the art of magic to the next generation, more Charmed than Hocus Pocus. The Sims 3: Supernatural stands out as one of my favorite expansion packs in franchise history due to how cleverly each of the occult types is presented, doing away with the kitschy extremities of The Sims 2 to present a more refined take on how these beings might live among us in peace – or cause chaos, if they so wish. Sims 4 Werewolves, eat your heart out.

3. Love app-tually (The Sims 4: Highschool Years, 2022)

With the introduction of smartphones well established by the time The Sims 4: Highschool Years was released, there was only one thing left to do. Mirror the youth of today and give Sim kids more reasons to doomscroll!

The Trendii app allows teenagers and older Sims to thrift and sell their own outfit creations, giving highschoolers another way to earn a little money on top of their part time jobs and potentially pave the way for a future in fashion. We also have social media apps added, with Sims able to create their own profiles, gain followers, and carve a road to influencerdom. It sounds bizarre, but by giving teen Sims so many ways to utilize their mobile phones, Highschool Years might be the first time my teenage Sims felt like… well, teenagers. It was just the beginning; 2024's Lovestruck followed suit with the addition of a dating app, and with so many app options out there ripe for the reimagining, I don't imagine Cupid's Corner will be the last.

2. Teething problems (The Sims 4: Growing Together, 2023)

We do not speak of the darkest time in The Sims 4 history when toddlers were markedly absent from the game and babies would age into 7-year-old children overnight. But perhaps Growing Together is an apology for that, proving a milestone achievement on EA's quest to deliver expansive gameplay opportunities at every stage of Sim life.

Infants were added as an interim age group between babies and toddlers in one of my favorite Sims expansions of 2023. They don't do very much except poop, cry, and try to waddle about, but there's something special about seeing realistic infancy in a game that has always put immersion at the heart of its intentions – whether or not it followed through. Having a chance to watch babies reach their milestones is made all the more worthwhile for the knock-on effects to their toddler stage, allowing them to become more confident and developed young people who don't need half as much help using the potty or learning to talk. No more "grew up poorly" traits for you, then.

1. New beginnings (2024 – ?)

This might not be a milestone moment in a Sims pack, but it has changed the course of the series as we once knew it. As we enter 2025, The Sims is embarking on an exciting, albeit strange, new adventure. EA announced last year that The Sims 4 is to exist in perpetuity for the time being as the central Sims product, with no plans for The Sims 5 in the pipeline.

What does this mean? Well, for now, it means we won't have to fork out another few grand for new expansion packs for a brand new Sims generation, because The Sims 4 seems here to stay. EA has fought long and hard to get the game up to scratch, even if it took a few years to catch up to the community's expectations. All that's left to do is look ahead to the 25 years stretching out before us, and wonder what could possibly come next. Hint: cars, please.

Could inZOI finally beat The Sims at its own game?

EA has carved a true legacy over its 25 years with The Sims. From humble beginnings to the behemoth experience that is The Sims 4, it's almost too easy to forget all the smaller offerings we've enjoyed along the way.

I'm here to remind you of the best Sims spin-offs in franchise history, dating back to the Game Boy Advance, DS, and one particular PC game that still holds up brilliantly in 2025. Alas, most of the games below can only be played on the original hardware, but there are one or two that you can still pick up and play today on more modern tech. Ready for a nostalgia trip that only EA could provide? Here are the best ever Sims spin-offs for the ultimate trip down memory lane.

8. MySims

Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, mobile

The latest old-school Sims spin-off to land on modern tech, MySims has actually been around for years on classic Nintendo handhelds and consoles. The cozy base builder is different in every way from the mainline Sims games, not only in its more chibi-like cartoonish art design but in its mechanics as well. Rather than create a family, you help a small town rebuild itself to former glory. It's not my favorite Sims spin-off of the bunch, purely down to personal taste. But if you're looking for a game like The Sims that's still markedly different from it – and one you can play on your Switch to boot – then look no further than MySims.

7. The Sims 2: Apartment Pets

Platform(s): Nintendo DS

Playing off two of the mainline game's most popular expansion packs of the generation, The Sims 2: Apartment Pets is a sweet albeit simple Nintendo DS game. It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like: you own an apartment, and you live in it with a furry friend. The thing that makes Apartment Pets one of the best Sims spin-offs is less the content of the game itself, but the way it makes use of the DS's model specifics to make the experience somehow incredibly engaging. It's one of those games that immediately makes me pine for the days when two screens were king, and if you have your old DS knocking about, it's well worth a try.

6. The Sims 2: Pets (Console)

Platform(s): Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, PS2, Game Cube, PSP, Nintendo Wii

Riffing off the last suggestion but with a little more to it, The Sims 2: Pets saw myriad console and handheld translations. My personal suggestion is the Nintendo DS version, where your Sim works as a vet and must examine, diagnose, and treat a range of animal maladies. It's a fun change-up from the life sim norm, playing more like a management sim with base building elements as your vet builds their reputation, works to inpatient treatment deadlines, and cuddles a lot of cats and dogs along the way. Each iteration of The Sims 2: Pets is slightly different, so whichever one you go for, know that it'll be a wholly unique experience.

5. The Sims 2: Castaway

Platform(s): Nintendo Wii, PSP, PS2, Nintendo DS, mobile

What if The Sims 2 had a baby with 2004 TV show Lost? That seems to be the premise of one of my favorite Sims spin-offs, Castaway. Your Sims can thrive in the safe cushy comfort of Pleasantview, but how will they fare on a desert island? The form of a survival game is an oddly perfect fit, using the key Needs management components of The Sims to hone in on the basics of food, water, and shelter maintenance. This is another spin-off where the content varies depending on your platform of choice, but the broad strokes are much the same – which means I recommend you try them all.

4. The Sims 2 (Console)

Platform(s): Nintendo DS, PSP, Game Boy Advance, PS2

We're getting down to the nitty gritty, but it wouldn't be a best Sims spin-off list without pretty much every console iteration of The Sims 2. Unlike how The Sims 4's PS5 edition is identical to the original PC format, The Sims 2 offered unique experiences to all Nintendo and Sony console owners. There's the hotel manager-meets-mystery solver machinations of The Sims 2 for DS, the PSP and PS2's bizarre alien antics, the chance to go undercover in Strangetown on a secret reality show in one of the best GBA games… The Sims 2 really was the king of bonkers spin-offs. It's a testament to EA's boundless creativity when it comes to drawing upon the series' wackiest themes, and I still hold each of them in the highest regard in 2025.

3. The Sims Bustin' Out

Platform(s): Game Boy Advance, PS2, Xbox, Game Cube

I can only speak for one of these editions, but The Sims Bustin' Out – for Game Boy Advance specifically – is a silly-good time. This narrative-focused adventure game sees us exploring new towns never before seen in the world of The Sims, though some faces might be familiar to anyone who's played the other Sims spin-offs on this list. In Bustin' Out, it's all about the grind – which means plenty of Simoleon-boosting minigames on top of winding stories to unravel. There's the requisite Needs management to factor into things as well – this is a Sims game after all – but Bustin' Out put a fresh and streetwise spin on the franchise that walked so our next entry could really run.

2. The Urbz: Sims in the City

Platform(s): Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, PS2, Xbox, GameCube

Ah, The Urbz. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't think The Urbz is one of the top two Sims spin-offs of all time, and that's all down to its striking maturity. All grown up and in the big city, our Urb is out to be the king or queen of Urbania. From getting a job as a piercer in the game's opening missions to choosing your rep group and fighting for their street cred, The Urbz opened up Sims players to a whole new realm of opportunities. The Game Boy and PS2 versions are very dear to my heart, a moment of bravery as EA decided to take a leap forward into more sophisticated territory by challenging its players to make it big outside suburbia for a change.

1. The Sims: Medieval

Platform(s): PC, Mac

Come on, are you really surprised? The Sims Medieval is the pinnacle of Sims spin-offs, reigning supreme over them all. Chaptered instalments allow you to play as everything from a monarch, an apothecary, or a religious figure as you take on quests to explore, control, and grow your kingdom's territory. It's the perfect blend of quasi-RPG mechanics, the life sim genre, and elements of base building to create a unique experience that sits more than comfortably as top dog of EA's off-shoot entries. It's really been no contest in the 14 years since its launch – and with a surprise new patch that dropped just weeks ago, The Sims Medieval's crown shows no sign of tarnishing.

Check out all the best games like The Sims if you're looking to branch out from EA's offerings.

The Sims and The Sims 2 are back with re-releases on PC, but EA's recent celebratory launch of the two iconic life sims hasn't exactly gone smoothly as mixed reviews regarding problems with bugs and crashes pile up.

Thankfully, however, EA is listening to fans' feedback on the game-breaking issues and might have updates in store to resolve them. Writing in a recent announcement on the official Sims forums, one community manager reveals that the company is aware of the problems players are facing with the retro re-releases. "We recognize some fans are currently experiencing various issues with The Sims: Legacy Collection and The Sims 2: Legacy Collection."

The lead continues, explaining that EA is looking into the reported issues: "We are currently investigating these issues and hope to have more information on fixes soon." There's no solid confirmation of upcoming patches or updates, but the statement certainly seems to imply they're underway or at least planned. To speed the process up, EA encourages fans to send in reports with "screenshots, videos, dxdiags, and (for TS1) vulkaninfo.exe files."

There's no telling when EA will release fixes, but as a fan myself, I hope they arrive sooner rather than later. I discuss some of the issues players are facing more in my own Sims 2 re-release preview, where I experience one too many crashes. For now, at least, Simmers can look to mods for quick resolutions. The community has been fast to round up the best, with one fan going as far as compiling a "masterlist" of over 200 Sims 2 mods.

The Sims is back after 25 years, and it's teaching Sims 4 players a lesson in retro life sim difficulty: "Damn this game is hard"

The Sims and The Sims 2 are back with re-releases on PC, but more modern players used to the ease of The Sims 4 might just be in for an unpleasant surprise as it turns out the original 2000 game is no walk in the park.

Now that the original Sims game has returned to the limelight thanks to EA's celebratory 25th birthday re-releases, both old fans and newcomers alike are experiencing the pixel-y chaos of the life sim series' first game. It hasn't all been positive, however, with a steep learning curve – more than two decades have passed since The Sims first launched, after all. As one player writes in an online thread on the difficulty, "The Sims 1 is VERY challenging."

The poster goes on to discuss the ways in which The Sims 1 differs from newer titles, noting how hard needs, jobs, relationships, skills, and other mechanics are. "The Sims 1 is the opposite of The Sims 4 in that sense, where it focuses heavily on gameplay and very little on storytelling," they conclude. "It's fun if you want a strategy game with Sims-like mechanics." Other players seem to echo the same sentiment – The Sims isn't easy.

"I forgot how hard this game is," shares another Simmer. "I'M STRUGGLING." Attached to their post is a telling screenshot of The Sims 1 showing their Sims standing atop a pool of water while cooking, their needs all dangerously low. Elsewhere, a well-known Sims 4 stan jokes that "Sims in Sims 1 are too depressed to do anything most of the time" alongside pictures of pop-up messages in-game referring to various depressed Sims.

One Sim is "too depressed to even look at myself," while another is "not in the mood to churn cream into butter." Relatable, honestly – maybe a bit too much, as most players are seemingly looking to escape the difficulties of real life. These aren't the only firsthand accounts describing just how hard The Sims is, either. "I've been trying to make this girlie famous," reads another such online thread, "but damn this game is hard."

The frustrated poster continues: "She is in the trenches, broke, and only made it to two stars after over four hours of gameplay. I keep selling furniture to pay the bills. House constantly filled with flies and roaches." As a longtime lover of all things Sims myself, I get it – my own Sims 2 re-release preview discusses how much harder (and more rewarding) the series' older entries are. It's nothing a little rosebud or two can't fix, though.

Playing EA's re-releases? Check out this fan's "masterlist" of over 200 mods for The Sims 2.

The Sims 2 has officially returned to PC after over a decade of no official support from EA, which means that longtime fans and newcomers alike are scouring the web for mods – but it looks like they won't have to search far, with one Simmer sharing a "masterlist" of over 200.

It's no secret that a game with 25-year-old roots isn't as fleshed out as modern-day releases. The Sims 2 isn't The Sims 4, with all its shiny DLC and ongoing updates, but that doesn't mean the re-release has to feel empty. Madi, known online as "acottonsock," proves as much with her handy collection of 200+ mods for The Sims 2. Revealing her list of downloads in a recent post, she breathes a virtual sigh of relief – "I did it. I actually did it."

After "scouring the internet for mods from 2006," with "some embedded DEEP in forum posts," Madi has come out with a so-called "mods masterlist" that might just stand as the most thorough collection to date. "My fingers are RAW," she jokes. "BUT IT'S DONE." Her efforts aren't going unnoticed, either, with thousands of bookmarks and various comments expressing thanks for the list: "You are an essential part of the Sims 2 ecosystem."

The Sims 2 mods included in Madi's roundup range from near-necessary game fixes to silly additions that fit perfectly within the life sim's already whacky atmosphere. Are you looking to overhaul Create-A-Sim? Check the list. Are you hoping to romance Bigfoot? The list has you covered. As a fan myself, browsing the mods honestly feels like entering a time machine and reliving The Sims series' wildest era – and I'm so here for it. Madi notes that it's not guaranteed that every mod will work with the new re-release, but fans are already working on a spreadsheet to test out which ones are.

Madi's mods don't just bring new features or interactions to the table, though. Many of them also address some of the old game's biggest problems with convenient fixes – and as I write in my own Sims 2 re-release preview, the recent Legacy Collection is sadly no stranger to the original's issues. From the often-broken attraction system to wonky animations, the list boasts resolutions for just about everything there is to address.

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