Adventure Awaits is the latest The Sims 4 Expansion Pack from developer Maxis, introducing new features, ample skills and activities, as well as new interactions for the whole family.

In keeping with other recent packs, the focus here is really on rounding out gameplay mechanics, but there’s plenty to like about this new adventurous expansion. For one thing, its new Getaways feature brings more structure to traveling away from your home lot, and much like the addition of custom holidays and traditions back when Seasons released, there’s a lot of room to customize and configure your own.

The fun doesn’t end there; imaginary friends are back, and your child Sims get some great new features and social interactions. Formative Moments give you yet another avenue to buff your younger Sims and set them up for success in adult life, and the new custom modular playgrounds and pool accessories really bring life to both public and private lots.

Plus, a selection of new skills and collections make for a nicely rounded pack; but does it rank among the best Sims 4 Expansion Packs? Here’s everything you need to know.

Let's leave today, let's getaway

The core mechanic here is Getaways. Vacationing in The Sims 4 has existed for a while now through packs like Jungle Adventure and Snowy Escape, but Getaways mixes things up by establishing some more structure to your day. In four-hour chunks, you can assign different activities to your guests – or just choose one of the three preset Getaways to get you started.

You can also host your own Getaways as a relatively easy money-earner, and assign Sims to a range of roles to keep things running smoothly. I had a great time toying with this feature; one of the preset Getaways whisks your Sims away to Love Highland, a romantic gameshow where the Sims with the fewest romantic connections are eliminated each day.

You can tweak the rules of your trips a decent amount, though I think they could have afforded to be a bit more granular here, as there’s not a whole lot of elimination criteria; just skill and relationship gain-based.

I would love to see really specific options, or the ability to configure rules with dropdown menus; minutes spent doing an activity, amount of food consumed, number of artworks created – perhaps there will be some more options when the pack is paired with others, but more complexity would make Getaways a must-have for me.

As it stands, Getaways are still good fun, and I can’t wait to see the creative ideas people have for these once the pack releases.

Think of the children

Outside of Getaways, there’s another big theme in the pack: children.

For a long time, The Sims 4’s child state was pretty middling, with limited aspirations and skills to give your kids much character. More recently, however, EA has really gone the distance to make children fun to play with, and Adventure Awaits is a prime example. It’s definitely one of my new favorite packs for family playthroughs, second only to the obvious choices of Parenthood and Growing Together.

Kids get a load of new content, from competitive interactions to new objects, and it’s never been more fun to unleash your children on the local playground to find new pals. Now, child Sims can challenge each other to games like Rock, Paper, Scissors and Hide and Seek, though the latter was very glitchy for me.

The new competitive trait is really fun to play with, as if Sims don’t keep their ego in check, they’ll start to become prone to rage when faced with defeat – and nobody wants to play with a sore loser. Forming strong relationships with your childhood friends and family also unlocks Childhood Sentiments, which carry through into your adult relationships with those Sims.

New modular playgrounds mean the backdrop for children’s adventures can be a lot more dynamic, but for me, the headliner here is the reintroduction of imaginary friends. Simply purchase your child Sim an ImagineMe! Doll and choose from four personalities (Goofball, Competitive, Creative and Evil), and have your Sim build a relationship with the doll until it eventually transforms into an imaginary friend only they can see.

This was one of my favorite The Sims 3 features, and I was really excited to see it come back in Adventure Awaits. I’m far from disappointed, but as with many things in The Sims 4, it’s let down a little by the game’s low difficulty. It only took me five in-game hours to befriend, animate, and become best friends with my imaginary friend, which makes it less rewarding to eventually transform them into a Sim in my household when my child ages up. Still, I really like the designs for the dolls and think there are heaps of storytelling opportunities with imaginary friends, and I can’t wait to add them to some of my favorite saves.

In the end, it was the new Formative Moments feature that won my heart. Your child Sims will encounter situations that inspire a Formative Moment, which you can choose to activate in the Aspirations tab. You’ll have a few goals to meet, and then you benefit from that Formative Moment’s buff later in life. It’s a great way to encourage more varied play for kids, and a very welcome addition.

Adventure has no age limit

All ages benefit from other new features, including the four new skills: Archery, Diving, Entomology and Papercraft. Archery definitely stands out, unlocking bow fishing at level four and offering some fun interactions. Archery competitions, however, were a little buggy in my preview build, but it seems like a small enough fix that may even be in place by the time of release.

Entomology will see your Sim exploring Gibbi Point to find butterflies and moths which can be bred, studied and housed in various locations around the world and at home, but I wish there were more butterflies to collect – again, perhaps having access to more expansions will bring different species to existing packs. Diving and Papercraft are both fun, but didn’t massively catch my attention, though some of the papier-mache creations make for adorable decor.

There are some new watersports, too, with the addition of Kayaks and Diving Boards, plus the classic The Sims pool slide. It only took them 11 years, but they’ve finally given me everything I’ve ever wanted. Jokes aside, I’m always happy to see water and pool-based additions, and they feel very at home in this pack without encroaching too much on Island Living’s territory.

The world itself encourages you to get out and explore, and I really like how different map locations are laid out. You can go on a quest to learn the secrets of the Plumbirds, experience weekly events around communal areas and trade Collectibles with locals; there’s plenty to see and do in Gibbi Point.

All-rounder, or rounder-upper?

Yes, Adventure Awaits brings some great new additions to the game, as well as some beloved features from older games in the series; but more than anything, it feels like a swan song to one of The Sims 4’s earliest packs, Outdoor Retreat, revisiting the camping and collecting themes with a little more depth and complexity.

Now, I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing; Outdoor Retreat is now ten years old and, as a game pack, doesn’t compare in terms of rich features. Plus, let’s not forget how clay-made some of the early game content looks in contrast to the detailed, characterful assets newer packs like Adventure Awaits include.

I think they could have pushed the needle a little further, though. Though there are ample new activity-based objects, in terms of home furnishings, it’s broadly just rustic cabin furniture, and we do have lots of similar items in different packs at this point. Some of the men’s create-a-sim objects are amusing to me as someone with many mustachioed, North Face-wearing millennial friends, but overall, the clothing is pretty mid this time around.

Some features do feel like they belonged in other packs, or should have perhaps come much sooner in The Sims 4’s lifetime *cough cough pool slides cough*, but I think a lot of players will get their money’s worth with this pack, and I know it’ll be frequently in rotation for me.

That being said, I really enjoyed my time with the pack, and I’m hoping it will shine even brighter when combined with the rest of the expansions.

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It’s been a month since The Sims 4 Enchanted by Nature released, and there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s one of the best Sims 4 Expansion Packs yet.

It’s packed with excellent features that can enrich the gameplay experience of all kinds of players, from challenge lovers to life simmers, and though the ailments and luck mechanics can be a little imbalanced at times, there’s a lot to love.

Of course, gameplay is just one part of the package; Create-A-Sim assets are fun and full of whimsy, especially for kids and fairies, but personally, I hadn’t been inspired much by the build-buy items.

However, I’ve had a change of heart since I sat down with interior designer-by-trade, simmer-at-heart Eva Rotky about how she’s been using the pack in her builds, her favorite ways to play, and her creative process in-game. Here’s our full interview…

TechRadar: What is it that drew you to The Sims specifically as a way to exercise that home design itch that you have?

Eva Rotky: I think I quite like the aspect that it's usable; the builds that I create, other people can use. They're not just for aesthetics and pretty to look at; there's real use to it, there’s life – players bring life to the build. I also really like how versatile the build mode is. I think The Sims 4 build mode is the best one so far, and they keep adding to it and making it better. It's been out for over 10 years now, and there's so much stuff that you can build with and let your creativity run free with. That’s so fun and inspiring.

TR: How do you plan out your builds, and what tips would you give players wanting to improve their builds?

ER: My number one tip is always detail, because the more detail you add, the more it comes to life. Otherwise, for people who are just starting to build, it can be really daunting to just sit in front of like a big empty 50 x 50 lot – I know that feeling! I always try and map out where rooms would go, what would go in them, and I like to work with concept imagery, so I have an idea of what I’m trying to create. Also, I find it helpful to map out furniture inside each room, or for some people, it's super helpful to look at floor plans online and see what they like in a house on sale, for example.

TR: We’ll get to Enchanted by Nature shortly, but what are your favorite packs to build with?

ER: I am obsessed with the Castle Estate kit for the exteriors, and another pack that I always go to is Cottage Living for any landscaping. Interiors-wise, I tend to use a lot of the new kits and new packs just because obviously the quality has changed since 2014. Businesses and Hobbies is my style to a T.

TR: And you even created one of the world builds for Businesses and Hobbies, right?

ER: Yes, yes, I'm totally not biased!

TR: Do you ever build with a specific character or Sim in mind?

ER: I try to include as much variety as possible. I don't tend to theme a build in the sense that “this will be a person who only likes books and will never watch TV” or something like that –I would just include as many as possible in terms of activities. I do for kids, they're more themed, but I don't really have personalities in mind, it's more what gameplay do people want regularly, what's new, what can I include.

TR: So, do you spend much time playing your builds?

ER: I go between phases; on Sunday, actually, funnily enough, I picked up gameplay again. Sometimes, I really feel the urge to build, and then sometimes I feel the urge to play.

Building in Enchanted by Nature

TR: So what are some of the things that you like most about the Enchanted by Nature pack?

ER: It has two build-and-buy styles. There's a whimsical, more fairy-tale and fantasy-esque style in the windows and exterior features, and then it also features more realistic Irish-inspired objects; I like that there's variety in it. With the fantasy objects, all of the little details like the moss on the window sills really bring that fantasy to life. I like how many features they've brought in to make it as whimsical as possible, and that makes fantasy builds so much more fun.

TR: A lot of your builds I saw on YouTube are more rooted in reality; lots of townhouses and apartments, and some that gave me some inspiration for my very messy real-life apartment. How did building in Enchanted by Nature challenge you or push you to design differently?

ER: I think it frees constraints that I put on myself when I build my realistic builds because everything has to look realistic, whereas [with Enchanted by Nature] I was just completely creative and let my imagination run wild, and just imagine how a fairy would live. I don't often do fantasy builds, but when I do, I like to go all out and make them as cute as possible. You can kind of create your own little world and reality, and in that sense, you're not bound by any restrictions.

TR: So, for Enchanted by Nature, you did your treehouse build during your pack preview. Could you tell us a little bit about that process?

ER: For the treehouse build, I only had access to the base game and the new pack. So I had to focus on Enchanted by Nature, and I do quite like that because it also limits how long it will take to build; otherwise, I get overwhelmed with options! It’s also because you can explore every single part of the pack and use as many objects from that pack as possible, and I quite like that. There's so much, from window planters to all the new plants; it just came together really easily. I didn't even really plan; I just had the idea of a tree house.

TR: Are there any packs that you're particularly excited to combine and mix and match with Enchanted by Nature, now that you’ve got access to all of your packs?

ER: I think the Realm of Magic pack would be really fun – they are slightly different styles, but it's still got that whimsical, creative aspect to it. I also think it works well with Cottage Living; you can have your little farm with the gardening features, and then the apothecary skill.

TR: What about your dream pack? What's the missing piece of the puzzle in The Sims 4?

ER: Do you know what I really would like? Hotels. I think hotels would be so fun. I remember The Sims: Vacation, which came with the winter holiday hotels; I was obsessed. In general, I think there's so much already that's out there that’s more modern and in the style I like in terms of build and buy. Businesses and Hobbies was the pack that I wanted before, but now we have that!

Enchanted by Nature offers a bit of something for everyone, it seems, cementing itself as one of the very best Sims 4 Expansion Packs to date, and there's a lot to choose from at this point!

You can check out Eva's full fairytale treehouse build on her YouTube channel, along with the rest of her fantastic projects from The Sims 4.

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The Sims 4 may now be free to play, but you're only scratching the surface with the base game – the best Sims 4 Expansion Packs are literal game-changers. From new gameplay to deepened lore and wider customization options, these game add-ons will make you want to yell "whippna choba dog!"

Nowadays, there's nearly 100 packs available, from cheap and cheerful Kits to more fleshed-out Expansion Packs, and if you've not been building out your DLC library over the ten years since the base game launched, that can make choosing the best pack pretty tricky; and even if you remove Kits, Game and Stuff packs from the equation, there are still 19 Expansion Packs to choose from. We've whittled it down to seven options featuring the best of the best for a wide range of The Sims 4 playstiles.

We have considered a range of factors that might make one particular Expansion Pack the most worthwhile for you. In addition to exploring what we consider to be the best Sims 4 Expansion Pack overall, we also have some great options for those who prefer to spend their time building, picking out clothes and hair for their Sims, or engaging in hands-on gameplay.

 Best Sims 4 Expansion Packs in 2025

The Sims 4 Seasons is our top choice when it comes to the best Sims 4 Expansion Pack overall. We consider it to be an essential expansion given the sheer amount of compelling new content that it brings to the table. As the name would suggest, The Sims 4 Seasons focuses on introducing various real-world seasons into the game, with different weather events and a rotating array of activities available during each one.

While the sunny spring and summer seasons offer the perfect chance to get to grips with the new gardening career and skill set, it’s also ideal for those who like watching their Sims unwind in the sun. Brief storms can impact the well-being of your Sims in exciting ways, with those scared of the thunder cowering inside while others can enjoy splashing around in puddles. The arrival of fall and winter then transforms maps with an attractive layer of hazel leaves or a light dusting of snowfall, offering the chance to build (or destroy) snowmen and, of course, get into snowball fights. The ability to design separate outfits for different temperatures adds a welcome extra degree of customization, giving you more opportunities to experiment with looks and means that your Sims will dress realistically depending on the weather.

Outside of these new mechanics, The Sims 4 Seasons has plenty to offer in terms of build mode items, clothes, and hair. Seasonal decorations can add a lot of flair to your builds, and the abundance of versatile clothing options themed around both hot and cold weather massively expands your wardrobe. You get the option to ‘Woohoo’ in a leaf pile, too, which we think is well worth the price of admission alone.

Life and Death feels like a continuation of the ghostly foundations set in the Paranormal Stuff Pack with some of Growing Together’s focus on household affairs, and it’s a rock-solid combination. Life and Death is full to the brim with excellent gameplay, fantastic create-a-sim and build mode additions and funerals with fun and functional event challenges. Pigs really do fly.

Ghosts see a huge upgrade in this expansion, gaining new abilities and interactions and some small tweaks to existing mechanics that make having a ghost in your home feel like less like a holding pattern so you can quest to reanimate your favorite Sim. The new Reaper career is great fun and finally lets you take the stage as the arbiter of life and death, and at the very least serves its purpose as a less gruesome path to romancing everyone’s favorite sinister sweetheart.

Plus, world-building is fantastic; Ravenwood is laden with lore, feels lively despite its otherworldly denizens and there’s plenty to explore and collect, including the new Tarot cards. Create-a-sim and build mode additions are very usable but carry the theme of the pack well, and many new features (including will-writing, grief, soul’s journey and funeral planning) are fantastic quality-of-life (no pun intended) improvements.

Broadly, this is one of the best expansion packs for The Sims 4 hands-down, but it especially earns its kudos for being the most functional expansion out-of-the-box for a while.

The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle stands above the rest if you’re after the best Sims 4 Expansion Pack for building. Sustainable living is the main theme of the pack, which introduces the new world of Evergreen Harbor and challenges you to live environmentally. The overall look of the world reacts to your eco-footprint, becoming grungy and unpleasant if you let the trash pile up or use lots of electricity. It’s an engaging mechanic, but we think the best part of this pack is easily its build mode items.

The Sims 4 Eco Lifestyle includes a range of new furniture options inspired by modern designs. Its new windows and doorways are incredibly useful, while the new chairs and shelves look much slicker than those of the base game. Environmental elements like solar panels or portable generators can help add character to your creations, whether you’re trying to create a fancy apartment building or a self-sufficient underground bunker.

The clothes and hair included in the Expansion Pack are fantastic additions, too. There are some stylish modern hairstyles for both masculine and feminine presenting Sims in here, plus a good selection of eclectic patched-up blouses, shirts, and jeans that are perfect for that upcycled look.

One thing to bear in mind, however, is that this pack introduces Neighbourhood Action Plans that are passed by vote across the week, and some (like one that forces all Sims to wear an ugly paper bag on their heads at all times) can be pretty annoying. Thankfully, there is an option to disable NPC voting, which stops it from becoming an issue.

Hands-down, this is one of the best Sims 4 expansions EA has released. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that Enchanted by Nature is the first and only must-have occult packs for The Sims 4, balancing excellent gameplay features with a well-rounded world, whether or not you fancy frolicking around as a fairy.

If you do enjoy a dalliance into the occult, you won’t be disappointed. Fairies are well-rounded, and really feel like the culmination of EA’s decade-long quest to crack occult sims. There’s an enjoyable and diverse skill tree and ample unique interactions with the wider world, blending the excellent occult customization experience of Island Living’s Mermaids and the Werewolves game pack with the more immersive gameplay experience of Realm of Magic’s Spellcasters and the Vampires game pack. They are, however, incredibly easy to play; with no hunger or toilet need bars and emotional force being effectively nerfed with free refills in fairy houses, there’s little challenge to these flitting critters.

Non-fairy gameplay is what makes this pack such an excellent all-rounder, though. Ailments offer an expanded experience to Get to Work’s sickness mechanics, and while the excessive frequency and annoying path to a cure can feel a little imbalanced, there’s a good deal of complexity in how they work, and they’re broadly pretty fun, especially if you’re playing as a Naturopath.

It’s not perfect; the create-a-sim and build mode additions are fun, but there aren’t nearly as many as I’d expect for a full-blown expansion. The Naturopath career is effectively a work-from-home doctor re-skin from Get to Work, Fables work the same as Cottage Living’s Favors and almost all of the new features, as we expect now from late-stage Sims 4 packs, throw the balance of some game features wildly off-kilter. The Natural Living skill and interactions are fantastic, though if you regularly play challenges like Rags to Riches, the new Luck mechanic means it’s pretty easy to cheese your way through the challenge’s early stages. Still, it’s a great pack, especially if you tweak some settings to balance out the newer features.

The Sims 4 Get to Work is our recommendation for those looking for the best Sims 4 discounted Expansion Pack – provided, of course, you find it when it's on sale. Thankfully, as one of the older Expansions, it frequently is discounted as low as $10/£15, so if you can wait a little and afford to keep an eye out for a price drop, it's well worth the money. Centered around improving the experience of sending your Sims to work, The Sims 4 Get to Work introduces three active careers (Detective, Doctor, and Scientist) that give you loads to do. Rather than seeing your Sim vanish off into the void for a few hours every day, active careers offer full control of your Sim while they are at the workplace.

We’re particularly big fans of the Detective career, which plays out like an off-beat crime drama as you travel to crime scenes, collect witness statements, and interrogate suspects. Doctor and Scientist offer a similar level of depth, and it is hugely enjoyable to discover everything that each new career has to offer. Some of the clothes, hair, and furniture options included as career rewards are very compelling, too, giving you an extra incentive to get to grips with each of them.

The Sims 4 Get to Work adds the ability to set up your own retail business, too. Although this isn’t quite as fleshed-out as the full-blown careers, creating your own cute bookshop or charming bakery is a pretty alluring prospect. The new build mode items are predominantly mainly focused on these retail settings, so this is a pack to avoid if you’re purely searching for new ways to decorate your homes.

Bizarrely, this pack also adds alien Sims that you can encounter in the wild or during your career as a scientist. Alien Sims sport bright green skin and the ability to disguise themselves as regular Sims. With the option to create your own Alien Sims, this is a fun little bonus for those keen on experimenting with supernatural life states.

We think that The Sims 4 Cottage Living is comfortably the best Sims 4 Expansion Pack for clothes and hair. Predominantly themed around a countryside vibe, the selection of cozy baggy sweaters, rustic cardigans, and fashionable dungaree shorts here are perfect for almost any setting. They work well across all age groups, too, with a good set of choices for masculine and feminine presenting Sims. Some standout favorites include the adorable strawberry earrings and a pair of stylish octagonal glasses, which both wouldn’t feel out of place on a viral fashion-inspo Pinterest board. There are plenty of good hairstyles here, too.

The pack’s world, Henford on Bagley, is another highlight. It’s inspired by small English villages and is not only a treat to explore but also makes for the perfect backdrop to show off your new looks. The small handful of very old-fashioned build mode items in the pack are also a blessing if you want to create more traditional European homes.

In terms of mechanics, The Sims 4 Cottage Living introduces farming, which sees you raising livestock like cows and chickens or growing vegetables to sustain your Sims, as well as entering oversized crop growing contests during Henford on Bagley’s village fair to win celebratory ribbons.

Thanks to the wide appeal of its central theme, The Sims 4 Cats & Dogs is the best Sims 4 Expansion Pack for beginners. The option to add both cats and dogs to your family is brilliant if you’re eager to recreate your real-life pets. They can also be fully customized in the Create-A-Sim menu, with a range of breeds to choose from and even the option to draw their unique coats by hand. Like Sims, cats and dogs have their own personalities and can develop strong bonds with their owners if you take the time to get to know them.

Brindleton Bay, the new world included with the pack, is perfect for beginners, too. It’s a decent size with 16 lots, including a fair few blank ones for building. The coastal theme lends it a unique aesthetic that feels very distinct from the worlds of the base game. Brindleton Bay is also home to a range of locations designed specifically for your Sims and their pets, like a dog park and a vet clinic. This latter location also allows you to begin a career as a vet, treating local pets.

The build mode items here are mainly focused on the pet theme and range from automatic food bowls to fish tanks. There are still a few good items for builders, though, including porthole windows that can really help sell the town’s coastal look. The clothes and hair on offer are a similar story, with the majority of items geared towards the pets themselves, with a couple of options for human Sims thrown in.

Best Sims 4 Expansion pack: FAQs

How we made our best Sims 4 Expansion Pack list

Lots of us at TechRadar Gaming have experience playing The Sims 4. This list was first assembled by our most dedicated Sims 4 player, who has spent literally hundreds of hours of hands-on time getting to grips with every single pack and addon that is available for the game. This means that you can be sure that we are well-equipped to guide you through the options that would be best for you.

Furthermore, our writers have spent quite a lot of time in the online community surrounding The Sims 4, giving us even more insight into what players want. This list is also kept up to date, offering you the most accurate information available. As The Sims 4 is still receiving plenty of additional content, you can expect to see new arrivals added to this list if we think that they’re the best.

For more games like The Sims 4, see our guides to the best free games and the best single-player games.

For Rent is the latest in a long line of paid downloadable content (DLC) expansion packs for The Sims 4, the hugely popular life simulation game first released for PC back in 2014 before coming to consoles in 2017, and it introduces a whole host of new content centered around the theme of rental living.

While previous additions, like the popular City Living expansion pack, have brought rented apartments for your Sims to live in, For Rent turns the tables by allowing you to create your own bustling rental properties complete with unruly tenants to manage. This comes alongside the arrival of a new playable world, Tomarang, which features architecture inspired by Southeast Asia and is easily one of the most visually striking locations we’ve seen yet.

As a long-time The Sims player intrigued by everything on offer in this expansion pack, we sat down with Rebecca Doyle, lead producer on The Sims 4, and Jessica Croft, senior game designer at developer Maxis, to find out more.

Around the world

With a selection of worlds inspired by various parts of East Asia and Europe already in the game, I was interested to discover what kind of research went into the creation of Tomarang. “We do extensive research and work with consultants to make sure we are properly respecting and elevating that region,” explains Croft. 

“We worked with Jason Chu, who is an activist that is very involved in the region. So that was a really valuable resource to double-check what we wanted to do and make sure we're on the right course and there's certainly a lot of decisions that his feedback was very valuable in creating [the world].”

In addition to their work with external voices, the team was also able to use some of their own knowledge of the region. “A lot of our team is from Southeast Asia and we were able to draw from our own lived experiences,” Croft continues. “I'm Southeast Asian and Vietnamese and being able to speak to things I saw in my childhood, things that I grew up with, was so very satisfying. I do want to emphasize that anyone's lived experiences are ultimately very narrow because it's one person's life. That's why working with internal consultants and external consultants like Jason is really valuable.”

While the authenticity of Tomarang may be pleasantly nostalgic for some, I was curious as to how the team were approaching the theme of property ownership at a time of economic uncertainty where many are dealing with concerns about housing insecurity. 

“The team is very aware that there is ongoing anxiety about things like cost of living and the relationship between landlords and tenants. I think the thing that's really important for us is to make sure that we are paying the proper amount of respect to those real-life concerns,” says Croft. “We've had many, many, many discussions at every turn of this pack to try to make sure we're delivering a pack that really recognizes that these are things that people are dealing with right now.

I think ultimately, the Sims is a storytelling game and it is our job to provide you with the tools to tell the stories you want to tell. Within our own content, we try to tell more optimistic stories, the story of what it looks like to have a great landlord. We try to incentivize being a good landlord, but we also want to leave the door open for people who want to tell other stories too.”

“People can play their lived experiences,” adds Doyle. “Being able to provide that variety and that range is very important.”

Given the similarities between some of the ideas in For Rent and City Living, I was also keen to learn the team’s thoughts on what makes this specific pack more than what we have seen before. “The thing that sets For Rent apart is our Build Mode, the new residential rentals have such a versatility of being able to build whatever you want,” says Doyle.

“Whether you want to say like, ‘Hey, I'm renting out this room and this bathroom and that's what you get’, or ‘we have two townhomes next to each other’, or ‘it's an apartment building’. There's so much versatility and so much ability to build what you want in terms of how you want to set up your residential rental.

It’s really exciting to see what players are going to build. We build, but I think players are just fantastic. And I can't wait to see all of the things they make.”

For Croft, on the other hand, the distinction comes in the kinds of scenarios that players will encounter. “I think City Living and packs like it are telling very specific stories. It seemed like it was very much about living in a Manhattan highrise; it's about living in this really luxurious kind of penthouse apartment. It's a very, very downtown lifestyle whereas this pack is more about building communities.

It's about those more grounded multi-unit stories,” she continues. “This pack is also about a vibrant new world and a region that we've never been to, it's a number of new features like being able to actually snoop on your neighbors and find out their secrets too.”

Little touches

Although DLC for The Sims 4 generally focuses on major mechanics or items, I always find myself appreciating the smaller, sillier additions that some packs bring. The likes of the mysterious Greg from Werewolves or the aliens in Get to Work are a real pleasant surprise so we talked a little about some of the more whimsical and exciting features waiting in For Rent. 

“One thing that's not initially obvious until you play the pack is that when you are getting tenants for your multi-unit property we have made a whole tonne of tenants that might move in all with their own stories, I think there is something like 20 or 30 of them,” says Croft. “They're all very much characters in and of themselves and I'm not gonna spoil who might show up, but you're gonna get some fun surprises.”

The introduction of a new “cringe” trait is one source of amusement for Doyle. “Cringe sims are really fun because there's just a lot of fun interactions and like buffs that come with it,” she explains. 

Cringeworthy sims can even be left wondering “‘oh, am I cringe? Oh, no’, you know, they're embarrassed. Then there's, like, a [stage] that can come after that's just like, ‘you know what? I love being cringe, this is awesome.’ And then there is another interaction [where your Sims can] spout memes and that one is really adorable.” The animation for this new interaction is filled with allusions to internet culture, too. “I love that some of the community has found them and shown off like, ‘hey, this is what it's referencing!’”

I’m excited to try and decipher some of these references for myself and see what else The Sims 4 For Rent has to offer. It is available now for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 in addition to Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility.

If you’re searching for more to play, see our guides to the best free games or the best single-player games for our top recommendations.

The Sims 4 recently released its newest expansion pack: For Rent. Within this pack, players have the opportunity to develop closer tenant and landlord relationships, explore a new lot type, and introduce an entirely new map for you to explore. All of this is incredibly exciting for an avid Simmer. 

However, while the vast majority of this sounds fine, the realities of rental properties were also translated into the pack. Sims can now face eviction anxiety should they mistreat their property, and malicious mold can now affect the health of your Sims if exposed for too long - arguably two things you don't want to deal with in what is usually a fairly light-hearted simulation game. However, one developer had a good explanation as to why the pack was created in the first place. 

In an interview with PCGamesN, a senior member of the team stressed that the pack wasn't designed "to be edgy." Senior Sims 4 designer Jessica Croft stated: “I think it’s important for us to be able to approach topics that are a little raw. These are relatable experiences for a lot of folks."

So when approaching the content of the For Rent pack, Croft expressed how the team aimed to "navigate that with caution and respect" rather than continuing The Sims 4's clumsy humor into a serious matter. With that said, this process wasn't entirely easy either, and the team struggled to find an "optimistic lens through which we can portray that story."

As most expansion packs do, The Sims 4: For Rent builds upon the base game to help make a more immersive experience for players. While it touches on a few topics that do feel more "raw" for players, it also helps introduce the reality that many may be unaware of - earning itself the title of one of the "most impactful" releases for The Sims 4 from Croft. So if you do want to bring slightly more realism into your save, then it's a pack worth considering for that exact reason. 

We've got a list of all the best free games if you're looking for other ways to stretch your cash. We're also bringing you all the best Nintendo Switch games for those who are looking to make the most of their handheld console while they're out and about. 

Lyndsay Pearson, VP of franchise creative for The Sims at Maxis Studios, confirmed on Tuesday that The Sims 5 (currently titled Project Rene) will be free to download across all platforms when it launches following a since removed job listing published in June that stated the title would be free-to-enter. 

In a Behind The Sims video, Pearson stated: “We intend for Project Rene to be free to download, and that means that when it’s ready and fully open to our players, you’ll be able to join and play and explore Project Rene without a subscription, without core game purchase or energy mechanics.” The full video can be seen below: 

Although the base game will be free to download, much like The Sims 4, the release of further expansion and content packs is expected following the game's release. Pearson explains later in the video, “Beyond regular updates to the core game, we will sell content and packs, but we want to change that mix a little bit.”  

Pearson continued to say that Project Rene won’t be as fully featured as The Sims 4, but the team aims to offer all-new content and packs that The Sims 4 may not have in the works. The full extent to which packs will appear is yet to be detailed, but we expect more information about these to come to light as more information regarding the development of Project Rene is unveiled. 

Although we don’t have a release date for Project Rene, Behind The Sims is providing valuable insights for the upcoming game to drum up excitement. We’ve got a lot left to learn, but knowing the game will be free to download across all platforms is worth getting excited about in itself. 

If you’re looking for games to tie you over until we learn more about Project Rene, then you might want to check out the best simulation games for something more realistic. Our list of the best single-player games may also offer adventures you might miss otherwise. 

The Sims 5 is the name that many gamers have been using to refer to Project Rene - EA Maxis' upcoming simulation game which it has described as "the next evolution of The Sims." For fans of The Sims who've been waiting years for a brand new game, it's certainly one of the most exciting upcoming games in the works, even if much of it remains a mystery at the time of writing.

However, from what we do know, Project Rene is shaping up to be very promising for fans of simulation games. Even though The Sims 4 has received an enormous amount of customization options, new expansion packs, and ways to create Sims over the years, Project Rene's developers have teased that this customization will be better than ever in the upcoming game. Not only that, but it's set to feature cross-platform compatibility, too, which will allow players to seamlessly switch between playing on PC and mobile.

If you want catch up on everything we know about Project Rene / The Sims 5 so far, you're in the right place. Here, you can check out all the information that's been revealed about Project Rene in one handy place, complete with screenshots and the latest footage.

The Sims 5: cut to the chase

• What is it? The next generation of The Sims
• When does it come out? TBC
• Which can I play it on? PC and mobile confirmed so far
• Who's making it? Maxis Studios (EA)

The Sims 5 platforms

The Sims 5 will be available on PC and mobile, according to EA Maxis. It's not been confirmed if it will eventually come to PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, despite it being a "next-generation Sims game". Historically, main entries in The Sims series have been released on PC first and then are reworked slightly for consoles and other systems. 

The Sims 5 trailers

The latest teaser for The Sims 5 was released on June 27, 2023 and provides a behind-the-scenes look at Project Rene. You can watch it below:

The video shows early concepts for Project Rene, including customization of hairstyles, a look at lighting, as well as prototypes for Sims' behavior out in the world. We also got a look at how the team is fine-tuning animation and expressions, watch it below.

The Sims 5 gameplay

Thanks to a Behind The Sims video which was released in January 2023, we were given a better understanding of what The Sims 5's gameplay could look like. In the video, an interview with Project Rene's game director, Grant Rodiek, suggested that cross-platform compatibility, multiplayer, and greater customization will be critical. However, it's worth noting that this video has since been unlisted on YouTube, so therefore the information within it should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt.

With cross-platform compatibility, "you can now play The Sims, wherever you are without barriers, without restrictions," Rodiek said at the time. Playing across different platforms will be fluid as you can instantly switch between PC and mobile. However, the experience on a PC will be "the true rich experience you're used to."

What was shown of the in-game footage amounted to a short demo showing furniture and other objects being edited. There appears to be much more freedom this time around, with furniture able to be placed close to other objects, and sometimes at diagonals to other large pieces of furniture. 

Patterns and color palettes have many more options too, with individual pieces of furniture having separate selections for different components, like the headboard on a bed, for example. This all points to a much more robust editor when compared to what we saw in The Sims 4, so hopefully it all ends up coming to fruition when The Sims 5 does eventually launch.

Prototypes have been shown off for character interactions and animation, as well as scripting for the schedules of individual Sims. These are super early in terms of development footage, and don't yet reveal much about the action that will be showcased in The Sims 5.

The Sims 5 multiplayer

The Sims 5 will have a greater emphasis on multiplayer rather than just single-player. "We think we could be both", Rodiek said. However, "one thing to keep in mind is that Project Rene is not an MMO [massively multiplayer online game]".

At present, it's unclear just how many multiplayer options will be available to players when The Sims 5 does launch. At the very least, the development team is clearly considering multiplayer, and the game will have some functionality to interact with your friends.

The Sims 5 latest news

Project Rene will be free to download
In September 2023, it was confirmed in a blog post (and explained in another Behind the Sims video) that Project Rene will be free to download when it launches. The blog post explained: "When Project Rene is ready and fully open to players, you will be able to join, play and explore it without a subscription, core game purchase or energy mechanics. We want playing to be super easy for you to invite or join friends and experience new features, stories and challenges."

Project Rene won't replace The Sims 4
In the same September 2023 blog post mentioned above, it was also revealed that Project Rene will "coexist" alongside The Sims 4. "We will continue to support both at the same time and will plan to bring more exciting content to The Sims 4 community for the foreseeable future," the post explained.

Project Rene will be regularly updated with new content
The September 2023 blog post also confirmed plans to sell content and packs for Project Rene, as well as adding regular updates to the core game. The post reads: "We want Project Rene to be strong and cohesive from the start. While it won’t begin with everything you have in The Sims 4, we plan to add new experiences and content to Project Rene over time."

The Sims 5 will include multiplayer
The vice president of franchise creative on The Sims, Lyndsay Pearson, has confirmed that the team "definitely wants to introduce multiplayer" in the upcoming game, which is supported by the initial announcement suggesting players will be able to come together to design certain areas and houses rather than the entire experience being solitary. 

Will it make use of AI technology?
A patent filed by EA back in April 2020 and approved in October 2021 reveals AI technology could be used in The Sims to turn pictures of people into in-game characters.

Reported by Sims Community, the patent discusses the AI technology, explaining that it will allow players to upload photographs of themselves or characters, which can then be converted into an accurate Sim. 

EA owns the patent outright, so we’ll have to wait and see how and if they’ll implement the tech. It also isn't clear if this will be implemented in The Sims 4, which is expected to have fresh content churned out for a few years yet, or if development is far enough away for The Sims 5 to be where it makes its debut. 

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If you're a fan of The Sims 4 and still have some expansion packs to add to your collection, then you're in luck.

Black Friday 2022 may still be a few weeks away, but that hasn't stopped Amazon from slashing 50% off the price of a host of The Sims 4 expansion packs for PC, making them just $19.99. (Not in the US? Scroll down for deals in your region).

The expansion packs discounted include Cottage Living, Snowy Escape, Get to Work and City Living. But, the expansion pack we would recommend picking up most is Seasons, which adds dynamic weather and, well, seasons to The Sims 4. It's a genuine game-changer.

While some of these expansion packs are at the lowest prices they've ever been, we've seen others drop lower previously. We would still highly recommend scooping up as many expansion packs as possible, especially if you're a newbie, as The Sims 4 is now free to download for everyone meaning you can pick up some expansions for what would have been the price of the base game alone. 

However, it is worth noting that The Sims 5 (aka Project Rene) is now in development. Recently revealed at The Sims Summit, we're still not entirely sure whether this next generation of The Sims will make The Sims 4 redundant. It could be that it's simply an evolution of what's already there, with The Sims 4 going free-to-play to pave the way for that. But it's also possible that it could be an entirely new game that will require you to buy new expansions. Right now, we don't know.

While EA Maxis has assured fans it will continue to support The Sims 4 for the foreseeable future, and it's likely we won't get our hands on The Sims 4 for a while, it is worth considering this before dropping cash on a lot of expansions.

More The Sims 4 expansion pack deals

No matter where you live, you'll find all the lowest prices for The Sims 4 expansion packs around the web right here, with offers available in your region. 

• Make your game even better with the best The Sims 4 mods

The Sims 4 is currently the wild west of romance: an update has had the unintended consequence of revealing that sims have secretly wanted to bump uglies with family members all along.

You no longer need to rely on The Sims 4 cheats to create weird and entirely inappropriate pairings. This week's High School Never Ends update has done all the hard work for you. Wants & Fears has rolled out in the game, replacing the previous whims system. And the Sims really want to go full Targaryen. Maybe they're just super hyped for House of the Dragon. 

A bug in the patch has resulted in sims trying to WooHoo their own family members. They're also aging incredibly quickly, which could be the source of their desperate attempt to get it on with literally anyone before they die of old age. Posts on Reddit (spotted by PC Gamer) illustrate just how icky the bug is making things. Twitter users are also sharing their run-ins with the bug, like the one below.

Incest is on the way out-cest

Thankfully, the devs are already on the case. Sims 4 quality designer, @SimGuruNick on Twitter, says "I just wanted to acknowledge that the Want to date a family member is something we know about."

They add that they've reproduced it themselves and are working on a fix. So keep your sims away from any family members that are too sexy for their own damn good for now. You can also use The Sims 4 cheats to mess with relationships, if that's your thing.

The aging bug is also on the devs' radar, with the official The Sims account offering a workaround in a tweet. Apparently, the bug is prevalent in saves using short and long lifespans. So for now, the advice is to temporarily play in or create a new save with the default 'normal' lifespan. At least until they get it figured out.

Bugs resulting in incestuous sims aren't new by the looks of things. From as recently as four months ago to as far back as three years, it's popped up every now and then. But this is much more widespread. 

At least you won't have to feel horribly uncomfortable watching your sims making eyes at their relatives for long. Although shout out to this person from Reddit who can finally live the sim-cest dream without having to employ mods. I hope that, wherever you are, you've stumbled into this bug and are living your best sims life.      

• Remember P.T.? Someone made it in Halo Infinite's Forge mode

Even seven years after its launch, The Sims 4 continues to be one of the biggest PC games ever made. After a bit of a rocky start, with long-time franchise fans (known affectionately as ‘Simmers’) complaining when it first released that it was smaller in scope, and with fewer features, than the previous games.

However, things have turned around, and The Sims 4 is one of the most popular entries in the series. While the team at Maxis could have ignored the fans and doubled down on its changes with The Sims 4,instead they embraced the community, and with the Game Changers initiative, even got players and content creators to help add new content to the game.

To find out just how much the community has helped shape The Sims 4, and its latest DLC pack, Cottage Living, we chatted to Sims 4 Assistant Producer Morgan Henry, Tracey King, Lead Environment Artist and World Builder in Cottage Living, and UK Game Changer HeyHarrie.

A dream come true

As you can imagine, getting to work on The Sims is a lot of fun, especially when you’ve been a fan of the franchise. “It's my dream job,” Morgan Henry tells us. “I'm somebody that's played The Sims since I was a child… and it's always been one of my favorite games. So, I'm often at work like a little bit in awe that I get to work on it every day.”

Of course, with such a vibrant and dedicated community, there’s a weight of responsibility working on the franchise as well. “It's cool knowing that there's so many people out there in the world that this game affect them the way it does, or has had such an impact on them,” Henry continues. “We always love sharing those stories around the office of hearing how The Sims affects people, because you are a bit of a shared community with everyone in that way.”

While Henry, like many people at Maxis, are long-term Sims fans, Tracey King was relatively new to the game when she joined. “I grew up on SimCity,” she tells us, “and that was pretty... transformative for my life. I am an environment artist, I build worlds for a living, and that is exactly what SimCity is: building worlds. So, I could definitely say that has had an impact on my life.”  Still, the expectations that comes with working on The Sims was not lost on her. “There’s so much there to learn and get to know. You have to know the community, and it's impressive and exciting and joyful. I really love working on this team.”

Care in the community

You can’t talk about The Sims without talking about its fans. Because of its global appeal – many people who may not think of themselves as gamers will pour hours into this game – and focus on creativity, throughout the years The Sims has cultivated an immensely engaged, dedicated and vocal fan community. So, how important is this community when it comes to planning new features for The Sims?

“I mean, very, very, hugely important to us!” Henry exclaims. “I think we think about the community almost every step of the way. It does impact what packs we want to make, knowing what the community is interested in and what they've been asking for.”

While a fan community that’s very vocal when changes are made to the games that they don’t like can be difficult reading for teams, if you take on board their points and work with the community to improve the game, like The Sims 4 team has, it can make for a much better game.

“One of the really nice things about it being such a long game,” Henry tells us, referring to how long The Sims 4 has now been running for, “is that you have this amount of feedback and player interaction where you can learn and discover what players are interested in.”

This level of passion has been the lifeblood of The Sims 4, and has helped inspired the team to match the expectations of the fans. “They keep it alive. It's really cool whenever you release a pack and seeing what people make with it, specifically with lots.”

Lots in The Sims are parts of the world where the bulk of the game takes place, and are where you build the homes where your Sims live. Sometimes these are empty lots for you to start from scratch, and sometimes they come with pre-built homes for your Sims to move in to.

“When the pond tool came out,” Henry continues, “we were all sharing pictures and looking to see what players have creatively imagined in ways that we never even thought [the tool] would be used in that way! Like filling the houses with water. That was crazy, but really cool to see how creative people were with what we made.”

The unique way Sims players interact with the game, the rest of the community and even the devs is what sets the game apart from others. “The Sims people make, and stories that are told… there's a lot of different ways the community and gives feedback, and they give back as well with what they're making and it inspires us, so it's just a really nice exchange.”

King agrees that the community is vital in shaping The Sims. “It informs what we include and don't include in the world building… What do we have that we can include? What can we think about making moving forward? It's always with the player in mind with everything we do.”

Moving to the country

This close relationship with the fans, especially when it comes to knowing what they’d like to see in the game, has had a big impact on the latest DLC pack for The Sims 4, Cottage Living, which brings a whole new neighbourhood, new lots, items and more, and is heavily influenced on rural countryside life.

“There had been an ask for farming for a really long time,” Henry tells us, “where players were really interested in that. And that would include a lot of types of content that might be a little bit unmanageable for a [career] path. But it got us thinking what's the heart and soul of that? And trying to really implement things players want like chickens and cows.”

As Henry points out, the things fans want may not always be viable, but by taking inspiration from their requests, the team can come up with something that works in the game and pleases the fans. “It felt like it was touching the cottage... aesthetic that's really popular. You see a lot of that with what players are creating, before the pack even came out. So, we knew that it would be something that players would like, and Cottage Living was definitely a pack that we were trying to reflect and give players what they were asking for the whole time.”

“And, as far as like choosing the location,” King adds, “we definitely try with each pack to go somewhere we haven't gone yet, specific to The Sims 4.”

So, when a new location is picked as inspiration for The Sims, do the environment artists and world builders do a lot of research?

“Most of it, I would say, is from research,” King explains about Henford-on-Bagley, the new location in Cottage Living. “I personally have been to England and Scotland, and it's just absolutely beautiful there! So, I had some personal reference to draw from, but yeah, the first part of production for world building is just pure reference gathering. So, we watched TV, looked at blogs, we Google Image searched. We also looked at other players’ builds to see what they have done. Things like that.”

Changing the game

Part of the success with The Sims is that its open ended nature has meant that the way people play the games has evolved over time. Has the changing ways Simmers play affected the overall direction of The Sims over the years?

“I think so,” says Henry. “It's one of the ways we get our feedback from players, watching how they play and seeing what is regularly streamed.”

One of the most popular new ways of playing the game are challenges. These are player-made challenges that rarely have any in-game benefit, but offer new ways to play the game. One of the most popular is the 100 Baby Challenge, where players have to make a Sim (known as the ‘matriarch’) give birth to as many babies as possible in as few generations as possible.

“We're all very aware of the challenges the community has made,” Henry continues, “like the 100 Baby Challenge or legacy challenges, and we're always thinking of ways we can do things to support that, like adding the randomize button in CAS (Create a Sim) for supporting legacy challenges or small things here and there.”

As a Sims-playing streamer, HeyHarrie has seen first hand how the game has changed. “I think it's evolved so much... I started playing the game in 2000, so I didn't think that this would ever be my full time job. I just thought it was a hobby. It's probably the only game that I've had from that age all the way to the age I am now, and I can still find new ways to play it.”

Like so many gamers, HeyHarrie grew up with The Sims, and that intimate connection with the game is one of the key reasons why the community is so invested in the franchise.

“I think it's just kind of one of those ageless games that progresses no matter what stage in life you are,” she tells us. “It just always seems to progress. So, I started off doing gameplay, but now I'm predominantly into building and basically doing interior design in The Sims!”

So, what does HeyHarrie think gives The Sims this timeless appeal? “I think it's because it's so open ended. There is no real goal, and you can play it however you want. So, if you play in a certain way, and you kind of get tired of that you can always reinvent another way to play the game. So, it just keeps growing, and of course more content is added into it, so there's always going to be new ways to play the game.”

Game Changers

One of the ways The Sims is adding new content is through the Game Changers initiative, started up by Maxis’ parent company EA, and which gives players and creators a way to get even more involved.

“The Game Changer initiative has been really great for us, in a lot of ways,” says Henry. “They get earlier access, so we're able to get feedback from them earlier on, and it's also good for their channels, so it feels like a symbiotic relationship to me, where they're able to give us information help us inform the decisions were making, and we have that close knit relationship where we're actually able to talk to them and ask questions and learn from them.”

While Game Changers is an EA-wide initiative, Henry explains that Maxis does things differently. “I think we do something a little bit different with the lot building, where they're in the credits and actually part of the game making process… So it's a little bit different than being just a normal 'Game Changer', as they are contracted and working with us to build lots. But that's been an even closer relationship, in my experience, where they're seeing things even earlier and working with us even earlier, and that's been really fun and good to see.”

King agrees. “We try to incorporate the feedback with every activity,” she tells us, “but having Game Changers take over lot building just stepped our product up to the next level.”

Lots are arguably the most important part of the game, as it’s where you’re going to be spending most of your time as you build your Sims’ homes. It’s also the first place new players head to when they begin playing.

“Traditionally, lot building fell on world builders, and there was never enough time to do it justice,” explains King. “No one knows our game like players do, and it's almost a job within a job, and we could never do it justice. And I think that having players build these lots is... I wish we were doing it from the start! I'm glad we're doing it now at least. It gives so much more time dedicated to each lot, not just like the layouts and using build layouts and making cute houses, but knowing the way that players interact with these houses or venues, whatever they are, just bringing that insight into it. It is... oh my gosh... it's a game changer!”

“Working with the Game Changers on lot buildings has been pretty inspiring and exciting for the team,” adds Henry. “Whenever we get new lots in, and we do the review meetings where people would look them over, and people would just be 'oohing' and 'aahing' and getting excited and be like, 'oh, I can't wait to see the new lot updates whenever those come in' and waiting for new builds to see them. Which is, I feel, like a new level of excitement for seeing things going in the game, which is pretty cool.”

Usually, it’s players who get excited to see what the developers add to the game. With Game Changers, it seems like it’s also the developers getting excited about what the players add to the game, and that’s pretty awesome indeed.

“I do also think it brings the community even closer to the game itself, and the studio,” adds HeyHarrie. “Being able to see some of your favorite Simmer's builds already in the world, and the whole excitement surrounding that... I think it's just been a great addition. It helps, of course, that Game Changers can then give feedback when they're building the lots. We just build so much in the world that I think that's a great source of knowledge. And I don't think before this, the team was able to get that kind of feedback so quickly, during the process.”

“No, it always came after the pack was out,” Henry says, “and we'd be like, 'Oh, man, I wish we had thought of that!'”

The future of The Sims

In a recent EA earnings call, CEO Andrew Wilson got people’s attention when he mentioned how “Maxis continues to think about The Sims for a new generation across platforms and a cloud-enabled world, you should imagine that while we will always stay true to our inspiration, escape, creation, self-improvement motivation, that this notion of social interaction and competition – like the kind of things that were actually present in The Sims Online many years ago.”

Obviously, that got a lot of us thinking about The Sims 5, or whatever comes next. While Henry and King wouldn’t be drawn into any speculation about what that could mean, Henry explained that “As always, we're working on new expansions and game packs and stuff packs for the Sims. And Sims 4 has been a really awesome iteration of the Sims. And we're all still really excited to be working on it and seeing it grow.”

So, it still seems like The Sims 4 will be the main focus for quite a while yet. “We have this whole program that's focused around diversity, equality and inclusion,” says King, “so, you can expect to see more of that content coming starting in January.”

It seems like Game Changers will be a big part of that future as well. “We have had a lot of success with working with the Game Changers to build lots. I do know, that's something we're really interested in still exploring, and doing more of going forward,” says Henry.

“Yeah, I think the plan moving forward is to always have game changers build lots for at least expansion packs, and probably for game packs as well,” adds King.

“Well, I wouldn’t say ‘always’, just in case!” Henry points out quickly. “But it’s been really great for everyone, so we’d love to do it as much as we can.”

It certainly seems like this partnership between The Sims team and the fan community is really paying off, allowing players to help The Sims 4 become the best game it possibly can.

“Yeah, it feels like a really special thing to be able to do,” agrees Henry. “And it's exciting seeing other people be excited to get to work on it. When I try to imagine myself in their shoes, before I worked at Maxis, if I had got to build lots for The Sims, I'd have been so excited. I'm still excited when I get to work on things that actually go into the game! When I make a Sim and it goes in, I'm like 'I made that!'  So it's been really cool [for Game Changers] to have that opportunity.”

• Welcome to TechRadar’s PC Gaming Week 2021, our celebration of the greatest gaming platform on Earth. Despite the global pandemic and ongoing GPU shortages, PC gaming has never been more vibrant and exciting, and throughout the week we’ll be reflecting this with a selection of in-depth articles, interviews and essential buying guides.

Ah, the 2000s – a decade where Boy Bands expertly rose from bar stools in white suits, and the gaming world collectively mourned the loss of Lara Croft to the tombs she raided. While us 90s babies were singing Destiny’s Child songs about bills we didn’t have to actually pay for yet, collecting them soon became part of our daily lives as Maxis’ iconic PC game, The Sims, flew into our disc drives into the early millennium. 

The Y2K panic may have been over, yet unsupervised Sims around an oven certainly replaced that fear. Back in the late 80s, Will Wright created SimCity – a city simulator which allowed players to create and run their own metropolis. SimCity became its own successful franchise, however when Will Wright decided to take a look at the people inside the office blocks and power plants, The Sims was born.

Sure, there had been other simulation games on the market; you could argue that Bullfrog’s Theme Hospital widened its focus to people in some aspects, but it still dealt primarily with the building and running of a hospital. Yet, The Sims gives you complete control over individuals, helping to shape their lives, loves and futures. It also brought in a new audience to PC gaming and made its mark on pop culture with a generation understanding in-game references, even if they hadn’t played it.

Over an incredible 21 year period, the franchise has been catapulted onto many different formats: from your old school flip phone to the PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS and more, and The Sims took the world by storm. However, the best way to play God is still on PC.

Even now, many Simmers play the same; three fingers hovering over ‘1,2,3’ on the keyboard and the other hand on the mouse, ready to dart around the screen and queue commands for your Sims to follow.

As the disc whirred, you were greeted with the familiar jingle upon start-up. With a smile, you hit play and watched the loading screen whizz by with witty side scrolling messages, and were soon (depending on the speed of your PC) welcomed into the neighbourhood with the iconic sounds of The Sims’ Bossa Nova soundtrack. 

Six of the ten lots in the base game’s neighborhood were pre-built homes ready to move into, and staring at the lush greens and the roaring waters of the town served as the backdrop for one of the best-selling and iconic PC games of all time.

Welcome, Newbie

A glowing red arrow pulses over 7 Sim Lane at The Newbies abode, inviting you ‘to learn how to play the game’. You’re somewhat welcomed with a belch from Bob Newie, patting his stomach as he stands in his kitchen. You move through the tutorial by following the instructions, while you command both him and his wife Betty to perform various tasks in their home.

§20,000 Simoleons (the in-game currency) were given to every player for you to either buy or build and furnish the house of your dreams. If there wasn’t enough in the kitty for you to buy that heart-shaped hot tub, everyone’s favourite cash-grabbing cheat could be entered by pressing Ctrl + Shift + C  with a smug smile. Ten points to you if you can remember the original cheat; and no, it’s not ‘Rosebud’ - you’ve all been lied to. 

How the word of The Sims cheats swept through schools with minimal access to dial-up internet at that time, we’ll never know, however we’ve been eternally grateful ever since. Yet playing without a helping hand offered a challenge if you had an expensive taste; suits of armour to adorn your halls weren’t exactly cheap in this game.

For younger players, The Sims demonstrated responsibility and consequence. If your Sim’s Plumbob, the icon above their head, changed from green to red, there was a specific reason. A glance at the needs bar would illustrate what your Sim required; whilst the ‘Bladder’ bar could bring both incontinence and embarrassment, abusing the ‘Hunger’ bar could lead your Sim to an early grave; just two of many elements that can still be found within the franchise today.

Skills that pay the bills

Of course, needs weren’t the only danger within the neighborhood. The Sims introduced a few antagonists from the get-go; and they weren’t always human. With public enemy number one typically being a pesky burglar wanting that flatscreen TV, other adversaries could simply be put down to your Sims’ lack of skills. 

We quickly learned that even the most basic of tasks posed a threat. Cooking without any of the appropriate skill points would soon set the entire kitchen ablaze, while repairing the TV without the mechanical skill could send them into a flurry of sparks. The first evening within any household would typically show a Sim with their head buried in a book to learn some new skills - as accidents could get pretty expensive.

Gaining skill points would help your Sims further their careers as some promotions could be obtained with the more they studied. Expansion packs began to be introduced, with Livin’ It Up being released that same year, and each one brought new career paths along with many new items, skins and locations.

However, when Superstar, the penultimate expansion, was released in 2003, the spotlight was turned on some of the skills you may have neglected while playing the game. 

Spending time honing your Sim’s creativity and charisma skills after a cringeworthy performance in front of Christina Aguilera in Studio Town would turn their vocal cords from a bag of cats being swung violently in an alley, to a voice that could make the strongest of people weep with ‘Thonsivee’, a true ballad for the ages. And no matter how much you try to kid yourself, you’ll still be able to sing ‘Glabe Glarn’ word for word to this day.

‘Sul Sul!’

One of the most iconic parts of The Sims was its unique language of Simlish. Using the English language would cause Maxis to run into a few problems; mainly repetition. With so many hours expected to be sunk into the game, it simply wasn’t plausible to record thousands of phrases, especially as in those days the game came on CD, with limited storage space. To save both gamers' and developers' sanity, Simlish was created to distract from overuse of the same sentences.

The main voices in the game were from Stephen Kearin and the late, and exceptionally great, Gerri Lawlor. The duo improvised in the sound booth, using their talents to make a fictional language sound conversational. A language that’s surprisingly understood within The Sims community.

The Sims was a sure-fire hit, and a cultural milestone as well, so it was inevitable that a sequel would be in the works. A mere four years and seven expansion packs later, The Sims 2 burst onto our screens, so we said 'Sul Sul' (Simlish for goodbye) to the original game.

Out with the old, in with the new

Long gone were the days of expressionless conversation, builds on two floors and hybrid graphics - with The Sims 2, we had more control over our Sims than ever before.

We were now able to view our Sim’s environments in full 360 degrees, and we also got free zoom, as opposed to the three preset zoom controls and four 90 degree fields of view that we’d been limited to with the first game. Being able to place a door or window on a diagonal wall was a thought that players could only ever have dreamed of only four years prior, but The Sims 2 introduced that ability as well, to the excitement of many players... look, it was a simpler time back then, OK?

Sims were now also generational; in the The Sims 2, a lifespan could be seen through right from birth to death; families could now become pregnant and have babies - both human and alien. Elders could become grandparents and you could attempt to carry on the family name for as many generations as you could.

The Sims 2 also blew us away with full customisation. We could now select body types, we had more variety in skin tone and every feature on your Sim’s face could be altered. It was certainly a far cry from cycling through different heads and outfit skins in the original.

Wants and needs were added as another new feature to the game, humanising your Sims that little bit more. With so many changes made, Maxis continued to blur the line of fantasy and reality. Once selected, it was time to create a new life for yourself in more ways than one.

The pitter patter of little feet

An expanded selection of items were not the only new features on the block; shock swept through MSN messenger as your Sims were now able to WooHoo and not just to create new life. 

Some Sims made sure their needs were fulfilled in more ways than one by having said activity in their wants bar. If you heard bells after an awkward cinematic of your Sim’s bed rocking, it signified that a little bundle of joy was coming.

Then, in just over three Sim days, the expectant mother clutched her swollen belly and with a spin found herself with a baby or two in her arms - if only it were that easy in real life. However, in true Sims style, alien abduction was featured as an alternate way for male Sims to get pregnant. Naturally.

A new sign of life

Three neighborhoods were available to choose from in The Sims 2: Pleasantview, Strangetown and Veronaville, a town that was inspired by Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’, and they all held unique stories, characters, aliens and elements that the original game could not offer. 

Pleasantview’s opening cinematic left us itching to settle into our new neighbourhood. Stories took place 25 years after the original, with developers offering an abridged version of events that had occurred, introducing new families with complex backstories and referencing some original families from the first game. The Goth family and their mysteries are arguably the most notable in Sims history; will we ever know the truth about Bella Goth?

Meanwhile, Maxis introduced a brand new set of expansion packs for The Sims 2 and witnessed the birth of themed ‘Stuff Packs’. Previous players felt that some expansions ran parallel to ones for The Sims. While packs like Pets and Bon Voyage almost mirrored Unleashed and On Holiday, The Sims 2: University introduced another life stage.

The expansion allowed your teens to blossom into young adults as they had a taste of college life, while Seasons allowed you to customise the weather in your neighborhood. If you want it to snow all year round, so be it. Having interchangeable seasons added another layer of immersion to the franchise, others such as The Sims 2: Nightlife allowed your city slickers to drive their very own vehicles... however it also gave us vampires.

More packs led to more music; with the score and music from Jerry Martin, Marc Russo and countless others being such a hit in the first games, The Sims 2 featured popular artists covering their own songs in Simlish. Paramore, The Pussycat Dolls and Lily Allen were some of the first artists to do so, and this has become a regular occurrence in future games.

Where to next?

2009 saw the departure of original co-creator Will Wright and, just five years after The Sims 2 base game was released, The Sims 3 hit shelves and reignited the love for the franchise once more. This iteration pushed the goalposts even further with only one loading screen on initial start up. Your Sim could now leisurely walk to a neighbour’s house with no waiting; unlike the grey wasteland from The Sims’ original release, you’d have the ability to see every piece of scenery around you.

The backstories of The Sims’ residents took a different turn this time around as the game took you back in time. We were able to see the iconic character’s origin stories, with The Sims 3’s lore serving as the true origin story for the franchise.

A new feature that caused a stir amongst the community was the use of Rabbit Holes. These types of lots would differ from your average lot, as Rabbit Holes typically were incredibly large buildings that your Sims could perform certain activities in, yet you were unable to see just what they’d get up to inside.

Many fans became divided on this topic; it felt confusing as to why Maxis made the decision to take this view away from players, and made it feel as though they were trying to save time and energy in not allowing us to see what our Sims were up to.

Same old, same old

In 2014, The Sims 4 arrived. This era has become the longest running in Sims history and the phase with most downloadable content to date, with a whopping total of 43 packs.

Throughout the franchise, there has often been criticism of why the expansion packs across the series have felt so similar and their content regurgitated. Over the years, many have questioned why basic features cannot be introduced as a base game standard, making players feel that recent iterations of the beloved franchise have been just another cash grab.

This game appeared to be met with the most criticism so far, as many felt that this generation took away previous features from The Sims 3, rather than adding more from the get-go. 

Neighborhoods were now cartoon-like, removing its 3D vistas and not allowing players to pan around their chosen cities like they had before. Lots were now the only 3D features on the map, with each neighborhood offering minimal empty lots for players to build on without destroying pre-built locations. Expansions offered new worlds, yet none were as vast as those in previous games.

The Sims 4 has divided players around the globe; building appears to have overshadowed playing in Live Mode, however it could be argued that players that have grown up with the franchise have altered their interests, potentially due to age. Even 21 years later, we’re still trying to achieve that dream home; but let’s face it, Simoleons are far easier to part with in game, than in reality.

What the future holds

The Sims 5 has been teased for years, however it’s unclear where the franchise will head next. Developers have hinted that a game is in the works and the possibility of an online multiplayer option could be included, yet the question amongst Simmers remains: where do we go from here? 

With the latest expansion, Cottage Living, released in July, bug fixes and new, yet long overdue, updates regarding the whitewashing of many characters, The Sims 4 doesn’t seem to be dovetailing off any time soon.

Thousands of us have been hoping for The Sims and its original expansions to come to Origin; we got our hopes up on the 20th anniversary and were given an in-game hot tub - so we’re not holding our breath for the 25th, that’s for sure.

Present day, we’re unsure of where The Sims 5 may take us; we can only hope for more base game inclusions such as weather, pets and driveable cars once again. One thing is for certain, however; there will never be another franchise quite like it. 

• Welcome to TechRadar’s PC Gaming Week 2021, our celebration of the greatest gaming platform on Earth. Despite the global pandemic and ongoing GPU shortages, PC gaming has never been more vibrant and exciting, and throughout the week we’ll be reflecting this with a selection of in-depth articles, interviews and essential buying guides.

With much of the world on lockdown, there's never been a better time to rediscover The Sims. Visit bars, discover a new career, find love, and maybe steal your neighbor's grand piano at a dinner party.

The Sims was the brainchild of developer Will Wright, who co-founded games developer Maxis with investor Jeff Braun in 1989. The company had great success with the SimCity series, where players designed and built a city by assigning different zones (residential, industrial and commercial), building water and transport infrastructure, and managing taxes.

The tiny occupants of the city were called Sims, and in the early 90s Wright had the idea to take a closer look at these tiny people, inspired by the need to rebuild his own life following a devastating fire.

The idea wasn’t an easy sell though. "The board looked at The Sims and said, 'What is this?’” said Braun. “’He wants to do an interactive doll house? The guy is out of his mind,”

The game's reception proved him right, though, and three sequels, console versions, various expansion packs and spin-offs followed (including an ill-advised partnership with Katy Perry).

I first discovered The Sims through the pages of PC Zone magazine, and in fact it was the reason my family got our first dial-up internet connection. Before then, I’d take a collection of floppy disks to the local library to download custom wallpapers and outfits for my Sims.

I was hooked, but I (wisely) uninstalled the game while revising for exams, and then gradually lost interest as my own life started to pick up pace. Career, marriage, a home – these things are surprisingly time-consuming.

Now though, with only occasional trips to the supermarket and a daily run to look forward to, the virtual dollhouse began to look more and more appealing. Eventually I caved, and I think you should too.

Choose your own adventure

But which one should you go for? The earlier releases might not look too good, but the gameplay has held up surprisingly well, so you’ll soon become totally absorbed in whichever one you pick.

The Sims 4 was released in 2014 (EA is expected to announce the next instalment in the series any day now), but I decided to pick up 2009’s The Sims 3 instead. It’s a little less quirky than The Sims 2 (you can’t play rock, paper, scissors with the Grim Reaper, or receive a visit from the terrifying Social Bunny if you’re too lonely) but its character creation is deeper than that of The Sims 4, allowing you to create more rounded little characters.

Each Sim can be assigned five traits that define their personality, plus a lifetime wish to aim for. Expansion packs give you more traits, plus extra furniture, outfits, career options and cities to play in. I grabbed the Late Night and Showtime expansion packs, which introduce the ability for form a band and play concerts, visit bars, learn mixology, and move to an analog of San Francisco called Bridgeport.

I initially tried experimenting with user-created hairdos and outfits too, but one faulty download meant all my adult male Sims began strolling around with their hair in fetching pigtails (it’s a well documented issue) so I ended up purging it all and splashing out on the Diesel Stuff Pack instead. Expensive jeans for all!

The ballad of Smelly Hippie

The joy of The Sims is that, with only temporary goals defined by the game, the storyline is entirely up to you.

My first couple of weeks were spent running the life of a kleptomaniac rockstar vampire. This unusual setup worked very well for my sim, who spent her days in ‘vampiric slumber’ earned a living by performing the occasional show, and visited the homes of other celebrities at night to steal their cars, light fittings and side tables. Sorry, Matthew Hamming, but you would leave your garage door open.

It was all a little too easy, so I left her to her life of nocturnal crime and created a new household containing a single sim: Smelly Hippie – a simple man with dreams of moving the countryside and growing his own ginseng. I assigned him the character traits good, green thumb, vegetarian, loves the outdoors and slob (a negative trait always makes life more interesting).

Smelly’s budget was limited (no rosebud or motherlode money cheat for him), so his humble abode was a grim basement apartment. The slob trait meant he didn’t care though, so he settled in the squalor. He spent a few days hermit-like developing his guitar skill, then ventured outside to busk for cash in the subway – a surprisingly lucrative pursuit, and one that suited him much better than working for The Man.

He donated a fair chunk of that cash to Save the Earthworms, squirreled the rest away for his garden fund, and pimped his pad with furniture salvaged from the city’s dumpsters. These efforts yielded a surprising number of chairs and park benches , but most of his trophies were bugs, which he took into his apartment, named, and then tearfully released into the wild. God speed, Mildred the moth.

Accidental fame

Unfortunately for him, his eagerness to talk to anyone and anything, together with his guitar skills, meant he soon drew the attention of local celebrities, and despite his plans, somehow gained B-list status himself.

“No way! Smelly Hippie?! Welcome, welcome,” exclaimed the bartender at exclusive vampire club Plasma 101. “No no, you won’t be paying full price today.”

Er, okay then, if you insist.

Can Smelly resist the glitz and glamor (and cheap drinks) of his accidental fame, or will he remain true to his dream of a simple life of organic horticultural bliss?

None of this was written, or even particularly planned – it just happened, and that’s the joy of The Sims. While you can decide when they clean the toilet or talk to themselves in the mirror, their lives will take some unexpected turns that are out of your control. And when your own life is so limited, this is the perfect time to explore those possibilities. Go on – Sunset Valley awaits.

• The best PC games of 2020

EA has announced the latest Sims 4 expansion pack – The Sims 4: Get Famous. 

In a similar vein to the Sims: Superstar, Get Famous allows players to embark on an all-new acting career with their Sims working their way from a broke wannabe to a rich and famous celebrity.

Sims can audition for commercial and television roles to land their big break, before climbing the ladder to feature film parts. Being the modern age, celebrity Sims can even cement their roles as an influencer, livestreaming their every moment in the new world of Del Sol Valley.

Get your Sims to celebrity status and they're on the fast-track to exclusive parties, signing autographs and riches.

Check out the reveal trailer below:

“With The Sims 4 Get Famous, players can achieve their wildest dreams of becoming a celebrity and all of the perks that come with fame in The Sims 4. From rubbing elbows with A-list celebrities at the studio, to star-studded VIP parties in the hills, Sims can now have it all,” says Grant Rodiek, Sims 4 senior producer. “The development team has added a slew of fun, humorous, and lavish new gameplay content to ensure that fans, and their Sims, can experience the luxury lifestyle as they play with life, this time in the spotlight.”

The Sims 4: Get Famous will be available on November 16 for PC and Mac. But in the meantime, you can still conquer your game with the best of The Sims 4 cheats.

• The best PC games of 2018 (so far): 10 titles you need to own right now

For as long as I can remember, The Sims has made me feel bad about my computer. 

When the original game was released and I had that first unbeatable taste of controlling another human being (I totally get the appeal, non-specified deity)  I begged for it as a gift. 

When it was finally mine I was disappointed to find that my family computer wasn’t quite up to the task of making my micro-management dreams come true (minimum running requirements weren’t something I was particularly au fait with at that point in time). 

Gaming gatekeeping

The game ended up gathering dust for some time until we purchased a new computer that was capable of running it. Then The Sims 2 was released. This time I understood that I had to wait. And wait I did. Eventually, a little bit after the initial release, I upgraded my Sims experience.

When The Sims 3 came along my laptop was, once again, not really up to the task of providing a satisfying Sims experience but by this point I was so determined not to wait I was willing to put up with the occasional burn on my legs and system shut down to enjoy that sweet open neighborhood experience. 

I think it was to the relief of everyone that when The Sims 4 was released I had stopped trying to keep up with the latest releases and was quite content to plod along with The Sims 3. I did at one point last year consider purchasing The Sims 4 but decided my laptop didn’t deserve to be put through the technological equivalent of the ten labors of Hercules.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: why not just get a newer and better laptop? Well, laptops are expensive and as much as we all wish it was, the motherlode/rosebud Sims money cheat is not a real thing. Don’t think I haven’t tried. 

Given that I do most of my gaming on consoles, buying a better laptop for The Sims isn’t really something I can justify. It can handle browsing and the point-and-click games I play ad nauseum (as long as they’re installed one at a time) and that’s quite enough. If it ain’t broke, don’t make yourself broke.

I’m sure I’m not alone here but my gaming console was the best way for me to keep up with the latest game releases. Unlike our family PC, it was entirely mine and for years at a time it was able to run the latest releases without asking anything of me in terms of upgrades or system requirements. As such I’ve come to rely on console gaming. This has, however, meant I’ve missed out on some greatness.

Ghosts of console games past

There have been console releases of The Sims over the years but they never matched up. Yes, I know most of The Black Eyed Peas songs in Simlish better than I know them in English but, as hard as they tried, releases like Urbz and Bustin’ Out never had the same depth or control as the PC versions. 

Think how happy I was, then, when it was announced that The Sims 4 would be coming to consoles on November 17 with almost all of the functionalities of the PC version. It was finally happening.

So, is the console version of The Sims 4 everything I wanted it to be? Well, yes and no. 

It is indeed the most PC-like Sims experience I’ve ever had on a console and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it thus far but some compromises have had to be made. 

I wonder if a lot of the issues I have with the console version of The Sims 4 is that, despite many years away from the franchise, I’m still largely used to the PC controls and UI.

There’s a sense of minute control that comes from using a mouse and keyboard that you just don’t get from a console controller.

While in the game’s Live Mode, I loved the freedom the controller joysticks gave me over camera distance and angle but when trying to engage in the more detailed constructive Build and Build A Sim modes I struggled slightly more. 

As someone used to the PC controls, I felt like I had a little less cursor control with the DualShock 4. The PS4 version of the game certainly didn’t feel like it ran noticeably worse but it felt a little more unwieldy. 

For example, it’s somewhat disconcerting that an accidental twitch from your thumb on an overly-sensitive stick while building a Sim could make their cheekbones three times as wide as their chin. 

A temporary drawback of the console version of the game is that you won’t have immediate access to all of the PC expansions that have been released over the last three years. It’s the expansions that really make The Sims great – they add variety to gameplay and a degree of customization so without them the game feels somewhat bare-boned. 

Mod madness

It has, however, been promised that far more of these expansions will come to the console version in time as DLC. 

It’s also somewhat unfortunate that the console versions of the game won’t support mods at all. Mods have been introduced to games such as Skyrim and Fallout and they’re a massive reason The Sims 3 community on PC continues to thrive. 

Whether they’ll come in the future or not is unclear, but given that they’re such a massive part of the PC Sims experience for many it seems remiss not to support them in some form. 

If you can run the PC version of the game with no fuss, I’m always going to recommend that you do so. It’s always going to be the best experience as the sense of control that comes from PC gaming really does lend itself to the granularity of The Sims. Plus, at the moment the PC version has far more content on offer.

If, however, you can’t play the PC version of the game for any reason but you really want to enjoy the wish-fulfillment and vicarious living (what do you mean the loo roll never runs out?) The Sims 4 on console is still worthy of your time. It's even able to handle all The Sims 4 cheats you can expect on PC, in case you just have to get your cheating fix.

Yes, it has a learning curve for those accustomed to the PC experience but it’s nice to have the ability to access that experience through another means. It has the feature we all really want most anyway: the cheats. 

Sure, I still feel bad about my laptop but at least now I’m not locked out of the wish fulfillment. My Sim has an amazing multi-computer setup in her mansion with its three pools and fully-stocked fridge. 

• Looking for some console greats? Check out our picks of the best PS4 games

Ooh be gah! The Sims are officially coming to iOS and Android devices in a brand new game developed by EA, who claims it will be the most in-depth Sims experience we've ever seen on mobile devices. 

This isn't the first Sims mobile game. The Sims Social was a Facebook title while The Sims Freeplay is currently available on iOS and Android, but neither of those titles offer the same experience at the original PC games.

Whether this new mobile game will get closer to the original experience is currently unclear,  but we’ve taken a look at the trailer to breakdown what you can expect from the new title.

There is a disclaimer on the trailer that says "image does not represent actual gameplay", which may mean some of this is subject to change.

In-depth house builder 

Rather than having a limited house builder option, the new trailer for The Sims Mobile suggests it will give us a similar amount of options as the full game.

It’s unlikely you’ll be able to use everything on day one though – unless you have the 'motherload' cheat for more in-game money – but it does look like there is an option to build your true dream house if you earn enough cash.

Lots of customization options 

Part of the fun of The Sims is recreating yourself, your friends and your family in great depth. You can spend hours making sure you've got the nose right.

The trailer shows that there are lots of customization options on The Sims Mobile, so you should be able to build your face quite easily and even create some new kinds of ugly monsters to play the game with.

Pay to boost hobbies 

The trailer says you can 'boost hobbies'... that’s not something we’ve heard of before in any other Sims game, so this suggests it will be a new option for the mobile title.

That may mean you can spend money in The Sims Mobile to be able to up your skill levels.

Online multiplayer

We really don't know how this one is going to work. The trailer says you will be able to play The Sims Mobile with friends online, but how exactly is currently unclear.

In the trailer you can see one Sim visit another and by the end of the conversation they are ready to move in together. How this will work in the final game is very unclear.

Lots of micro payments 

This one was inevitable, but a disclaimer on the trailer reveals micro payments will be the way you pay-to-play The Sims Mobile.

It may mean the game is free on day one though, so if you want to just play a short amount of The Sims Mobile it may suit you well.

You can watch the full trailer for The Sims Mobile just below: 

• Assassin’s Creed Empire: will the series go back to its origins in 2017?

Via Engadget

Things I am excited for this Christmas: free stuff, endless food, climbing inside boxes and pretending to be a space-lady. Things I am not looking forward to: being too old to be fawned over but still too young to be taken seriously, getting practical presents rather than Polly Pocket sets, being told to get out of the box.

In many ways, I'd rather just be sitting at home, in my pants, in my unheated flat, with nothing but the ladybird infestation for company, playing video games to keep myself warm over the long festive period. Family are great - they have heating and free food and they don't mind me using it for free - but really, don't video games offer a more picturesque version of the same thing?

Let's look at the evidence.

First (and most important), we have gifts. People often mutter things like "Remember the true meaning of Christmas" and while I haven't actually looked it up yet, I'm pretty sure it's presents. But surely video games can't replicate the joy of getting a really, really nice blender from your parents. Oh ho ho, my friend. Of course they can.

Take Harvest Moon, where you'll celebrate Christmas by the giving and receiving of gifts. Not only is this incredibly adorable, but for a budding farmer there's much more to play for here than in real life. Will you get that shiny new hoe you've been hoping for? Will the sweet gal you've been courting appreciate your offering of chocolates and also marriage? It really is the most wonderful time of the year, although that might be because the rest of the year is taken up by the growing and harvesting of turnips

Or how about Animal Crossing, which has a much more pragmatic approach to gift-giving. In real life, receiving an unwanted present means putting on a fake grin and saying thanks while you secretly work out how long you can keep said gift in your possession before flogging it on eBay. We don't want to hurt other people's feelings, do we?

But in Animal Crossing, your villager friends are so dense that they won't notice if you resell your presents. In fact, some of them might even buy them back. For money. That you get to keep. Why can't we do this in the real world, again?

You also don't have to worry about picking the wrong presents for other people. In Animal Crossing: New Leaf you actually get to dress as freakin' Santa Claus and deliver each villager their perfect gift, meaning you get that warm fuzzy feeling over and over again.

What is missing from video games is your family and friends, of course. But is that really as bad as it sounds? After all, Christmas is that special time of the year where you rediscover just how terrible some of your family members' political, religious, and ideological views are. You'll realise that your grandparents treat the Daily Mail as gospel and your cousin's new job is drowning kittens.

Skip all that, I say. Spend your Christmas in the warm embrace of The Sims, where everyone is nice because you control them like the AI puppet master you are. Uncle Frank on another rant? No problem, just send him outside and delete the doors for an hour. Ahh, that's better.

So that's presents and family sorted - what about decorations? Enter Fallout 4's festive Diamond City makeover. It might be a bit more "radiation green" than white, but it's still damn colourful. You can spend the season chilling with fun friends like Takahashi the broken noodle bot, the mayor who hates you for some reason, and your sexy synth partner in crime, Nick Valentine. Well, maybe not crime, on account of him being a detective.

Ah, but one thing's missing: snow. Here's where things get really good, because many of us don't even get snow on Christmas day. Yet again, enter video games to show reality how it's done. Why not boot up Rockstar's fantastic Bully: Scholarship Edition, where you can delve into Chapter 3's Christmas mission and meet drunk homeless Santa before taking part in a huge snowball fight. Or, alternatively head over to a festively-themed Minecraft Christmas world. Sure, there are creepers… but at least they're not racist.

I could go on, but here comes the disclaimer: I am spending Christmas with my family. I fully expect disagreements over the table, and at least one person calling me a "leftie" or similar. I guess, in a lot of ways, video games are just trying to replicate the most Christmassy thing of all - being surrounded by people you love.

Still, I'm looking forward to virtual reality Christmas next year.