We have more information on The Sims 4. To start things off, check out this new Smarter and Weirder gameplay trailer.
As you can see in the trailer, the Sims are now smarter, meaning they have new behaviors, based on the combination of their personalities and emotions, and weirder, but how they weird they get is entirely up to you.
Here’s some more information culled from tweets by Gurus Grant Rodiek, Sarah Holding, and Russkii.
The traits that you assign to your Sim when you start out are the same traits he or she will have in his or her lifetime. You can change your aspirations, but the traits you assigned to them will stay the same. Maxis did allow for traits to fit in with different aspirations. Grant hinted that you can pick up more traits within gameplay, of course, like we do in real life.
Speech bubbles haven’t appeared in previews for convenience sake, but they will be in the game.
There will be no supernatural creatures. Apparently Grant is also ruling out the return of The Sims 3’s Supernatural Expansion Pack for The Sims 4, along with supernatural creatures in general.
Sims can be killed. Grant hinted at using cheats, but they ruled out people dying from depression, as it would not be appropriate, or for that matter, fun.
Here’s a sample of emotions that your Sims will have:
· Angry
· Focused
· Happy
· Inspired
· Playful
· Sad
· Uncomfortable
Emotions may hamper Sims from doing certain actions, but Needs are also a factor. Maxis has tweaked this element very carefully.
Speaking of Needs (well, maybe not), one can meet a potential mate and work at being friends with them, as well as forming a romantic relationship with them, separately.
Perhaps moving away from real life, Maxis has not incorporated turn offs in relationships. Relationships will entirely be based on social activities and the other things you do in gameplay.
Search (previewed in buy/build mode) will ship with the game.
We mentioned before how Create-A-Sim can get practically photorealistic. Now Grant confirms that different eyes have different eyelash thicknesses and other choices. The Sims won’t need falsies on that end.
Of course, what that question was hinting at is whether players can make themselves look like anime characters. Russkii explained that you can get there by editing the presets. You won’t get anime eye size proportions, but apparently you can make them look very close.
There will be no limits on how long Sims stay outside their own neighborhoods.
Things like World Management, Edit Town, and Neighborhood View, can be considered the same stuff, at different macro levels.
There will be buttons to view the Gallery in the UI. The actual UI controls included are floor up, floor down, walls controls, camera controls, notifications, and (back to) options. Notifications, BTW, operate here as you imagine; when you do things like improving a skill, you will get a notification.
Sarah explained there are no plans to add the Social Bunny or Tragic Clown, at least not yet.
Sarah agreed that making your own cabinets would be cool, but it’s not going to be in Sims 4.
You won’t be able to put a dress on top of a pair of pants in The Sims 4, but you can do it with tights or footless leggings so you can at least approximate that look.
The wedding arch is a functional object.
Teen Sims still can’t live alone. In fact, before you can leave Create-A-Sim you need to make an adult family member for the home.
There are no pools, but there will still be tubs and showers for the game.
Confirming what was implied in the above trailer, Sims can invent.
Finally, we get a good look at our first baby as they will appear in the game, along with a preteen and a more Senior Sim. It serves as a reminder, of course, that Sims will still appear in all stages of life, and you’ll be able to chart that growth and development. Grant himself hinted at his Sim child taking out the garbage on his own (who he’s rewarding with twice as much food for dinner).
The Sims 4 is coming September 4 to Windows and Mac OS X.
