A Sims 4 bug once again has Sims wanting to date family members, regrettably just in time for the romance-themed Lovestruck expansion

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Who needs Wicked Whims?

The Sims 4 Lovestruck gameplay reveal trailer showing a young couple taking a close-up selfie while making silly faces
(Image credit: EA)

The Sims 4 gets its spiciest expansion pack yet in just a few hours, but fans are still grappling with EA's recent free base game update and all of its bugs - including a very NSFW one.

Lovestruck is finally almost here - the expansion pack centered entirely around love and all of its quirks. The DLC is arriving a couple of days after The Sims 4's latest update, a patch that many fans looked forward to for its long-awaited contents. From eyelashes to polyamory, the update's features were some of the community's most oft-requested - but first impressions haven't exactly been great.

Players have dubbed the update a "total mess" so far, citing everything from constant crashes to game-breaking bugs ruining Sims' relationships (ahead of a love-themed expansion, too). It hasn't all gone unnoticed by EA, either - the developer acknowledged fans' reports of issues following the patch earlier today, addressing the "overly mean Sims" and other problems. The team didn't, however, discuss one of the update's more eye-catching bugs: incest.

That's right, Sims are trying to get frisky with family members as a result of the patch - no Sims 4 mods like Wicked Whims involved. In an official bug thread highlighting players' reports, one fan describes how two of their Sims are now "tagged as siblings, sweethearts, and partners." Another explains that their Sim is dating his own mother. "How do I make it stop," they plead with EA.

The incest-causing bug seems to appear when the "Romantic Changes" option is activated in Neighborhood Stories, but dev is still "looking into this issue with priority." This isn't the first time an update has sparked unwanted (and illegal) love between Sims - two years ago, players noted Sims inappropriately asking family members out. Hopefully, it's resolved soon this time around so related Sims don't match on Cupid's Corner, the upcoming fully functional dating app for Sims.

Here are 10 games like The Sims 4 to explore while awaiting bug fixes from EA.

Anna Koselke
Anna Koselke
Staff Writer

After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.