The Sims 4the latest expansion pack, Growing Together, it’s about family. Originally announced in February, the DLC offers more storytelling options for Sims families — from family activities like building a treehouse together to new social features to help build stronger bonds between your Sims.
At a press preview event, a lot The Sims 4 team members, including lead designer Scott Dai and lead producer Graham Nardone, walked the press through a number of new features and gameplay mechanics that come with the pack, including family dynamics, the new world of San Sequoia, and a series of of social interactions and aspirations for all. age groups.
Growing Together will open up a multitude of ways to play and explore families in the game, through key choices that will shape Sims’ lives long-term, family dynamics that affect social chemistry, and deeper ways to tell family stories — regardless of family type players create.
New family dynamics and interactions
A big focus of the expansion pack is on multi-generational gameplay through new social elements and interactions. And while the family game is already a key feature of it The Sims 4, Growing Together it looks like it will take family relationships even deeper. A new drop-down menu will be available in Create-A-Sim in household relationships where players will be able to set specific family dynamics between individual family members.
Some of these dynamics include Difficult, Supportive, and Anecdotal. These new dynamics will help shape the relationships between Sims in each household, offering new ways for players to tell stories.
Another new Create-A-Sim addition falls into a “likes” and “dislikes” section. In addition to color, music genre, and activity preferences, players can expect to find Sim characteristics and chat topics. They will be able to select both of these likes and dislikes to help further tailor social interactions. Scott Dai explains that when Sims meet, they’ll be able to see other Sims’ traits, characteristics, and lifestyles, and that these factors will help determine how they interact, further deepening the social system in The Sims 4.
And while there are too many new likes and dislikes to include a full list here, some of the ones I spotted during the press preview include affection, arguments, complaints, funny Sims, high-energy Sims, and nature lovers . These, along with the new dynamic, look like they’ll be a lot of fun during active play and allowing Sims to explore their relationships on their own.
A final major addition is a new feature called milestones. Milestones begin at the infancy stage and are available at all other stages. There are both negative and positive milestones, such as learning to sit up as an infant, getting married as an adult, and even suffering from bladder failure.
Milestones have the ability to leave Sims with a lasting memory that can trigger certain moodlets later. For example, the developers noted that if a Sim suffers bladder damage in a certain location, they may remember it later in life while in that location. This addition from Growing Together looks like it’ll help further expand the storytelling you can do in Sims, whether you’re looking for added drama or looking back fondly on your Sims’ lives as they grow up.
A new world
Along with new gameplay additions, Growing Together adds a new world to life sim. From what I’ve been able to see of the bayside town of San Sequoia, it looks like I have a lot to look forward to – especially when it comes to outdoor things to do. Giving off big California vibes, San Sequoia features three neighborhoods: Gilbert Gardens, Anchorpoint Wharf, and Hopewell Hills. There is a city park with nature trails and a lake with fishing spots. Two locations in San Sequoia that stood out to me are the movie theater and the public play area which will offer additional activities for Sims to do as a family or individually.
And as is usually expected with a new expansion pack, there are new activities for Sims to participate in. Sleepovers were mentioned a few times in the preview, and players can expect to be able to schedule them in the calendar where other in-game events appear. Child Sims will also be able to make friendship bracelets and learn how to ride a child-sized bike. These are small but fun details, especially considering that until now Sims automatically knew how to ride bikes!
Free the babies
While Growing Together it’s full of new content and gameplay for players to dig into, there’s also a new base game update coming in March as well, which is pretty big. As Sims players know, babies were a part of it The Sims 4 since the game was released in 2014. But it was never a playable life stage. The most you could do with them was interact as babies with adult or teenage Sims. But on March 14 that all changes with a new update available to all players that will “unleash the babies,” as Nardone put it.
This new base game update introduces a brand new playable life stage: infants. Before, babies were largely inanimate and confined to a basin. They will now be able to interact with other Sims, crawl, eat and work on their own motor skills. This life stage brings players more freedom (and chaos) in how they play with their families. Babies will be able to bite, explode, and interact with other Sims and animals in unique ways, including being placed in a crib, talking to other Sims, and nursing.
And just as other Sim life stages give each Sim unique quirks, aspirations and desires, toddlers will also have their own unique quirks for players to discover, such as “hates bedtime” and “loves to be held”.
Infants will be fully customizable in Create-A-Sim as well, with new clothing options, hairstyles and new skin details such as markings. And as with any major update, like a brand new stage of life, there’s also plenty of new stuff to look out for. New items to expect include: four types of crib (including a travel crib), three new toys, nursery items, and more.
The Infant base game update will be released on March 14th and The Sims 4: Growing Together The expansion pack launches on March 16th on all platforms.
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