The Sims 4

Regular readers will know that I play a lot of The Sims 4 these days, although I don't actually play the game where you puppet a tiny person. I just build homes. My current project is building an ideal home for each of the RPS staffers, having started with a ferny cottage for Alice 0. I've mostly been using the restrictions provided by the Tiny…

Tagged with Electronic Arts, feature, Maxis, Tiny Build-Off, The Sims 4.

I get that if the last instalment in your long running game series came out a whole six(!) years ago, you need to remind new potential consumers that it exists. Especially if it runs on a games-as-a-service sort of a model. Enter, then, a new ad campaign? Branding? Thought experiment? for the Sims (and, more specifically, The Sims 4) called Play With Life.

Tagged with Electronic Arts, feature, Maxis, Play With Life, The Sims 4.

The Sims 4 liker has logged on again. This week she (I) was poking around for some nice potted plants to download for some ongoing build projects, and found a list of recommended custom content makers by Ravasheen, the creator from my first 'custom content of the week' post. Ravasheen recommended NynaeveDesign for great plant work, and lo - Nynaeve does great plants. I was…

Tagged with Custom Content of the Week, Electronic Arts, feature, Maxis, pokemon, The Sims 4.

Currently I am working on building a home for Sin in The Sims 4, much like I built a home for Alice 0. This means I've been looking for a lot of plant and outdoor bits and pieces, because Alice O is well into plants, and for Sin's home I am taking a little inspiration from her natural Minecraft hermitage. Unfortunately, the UK has been…

Tagged with Custom Content of the Week, Electronic Arts, feature, Maxis, The Sims 4.

As I continue to build stuff in The Sims 4, I am going to start highlighting some of the amazing work being done by custom content creators. This week, one of my absolute favourite creators, Ravasheen, released a new bedroom set - the That's What She Bed bunk bed series (one of the reasons Ravasheen is a favourite of mine is that all of their…

Tagged with Custom Content of the Week, EA, Electronic Arts, feature, Maxis, The Sims 4.

My love for building stuff in The Sims 4 continues. I saw today that, in the space of about a month, my custom content folder has hit a gigabyte in size. Whoops. But this is all in service to a greater goal, which is building nice houses. After I showed everyone my tiny desert concrete block, Alice0 said she would like a house with more…

Tagged with Alice Simsposting, EA Maxis, Electronic Arts, feature, Tiny Build-Off, The Sims 4.

Happy Birthday the 'The Sims' series! You’re 20 years old today, which means you’re finally old enough to throw an old boot full of soup right at a cop’s head, and be totally immune to prosecution (seriously, it’s true! If you didn’t know about that lil trick, you should try it). You’re also old enough, apparently, to have released an unfeasible number of spinoffs, ports,…

Tagged with EA Maxis, Electronic Arts, feature, The Sims, The Sims 2, The Sims 3, The Sims 4.

I did not expect that I would ever Google something like "will Big Ben bong?" in service to an article for RPS, and yet here we are - and it turns out it will not. The big B day has arrived, not with a bong but a whimper. It's a sore subject for a lot of us (stuff disappearing off of Netflix; my partner is…

Tagged with Brexit, feature, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Europa Universalis IV, Everybody's Gone To The Rapture, Football Manager 2020, Papers Please, Proteus, The Sims 4.

Management games have been enjoying a bit of a renaissance in recent years, meaning there are now even better, more efficient ways to direct trains, corral visitors, lay down conveyor belts and profit, profit, profit than ever before. To that end, we've put on our builder hats and constructed a list of the best management games you can play on PC in 2020. Whether you…

Tagged with Bestest Bests, feature, Anno 1800, Banished, Cities: Skylines, Dungeon Keeper, Dwarf Fortress, Factorio, Frostpunk, Megaquarium, Oxygen Not Included, Planet Coaster, Prison Architect, RimWorld, Slime Rancher, Stardew Valley, Surviving Mars, The Sims 4, Tropico 6, Two Point Hospital, Zeus: Master of Olympus.

Put the 9mm down, for crying out loud. Not every game is about shooting your enemies in the shin bones. Honestly. Give me that, here, take this trowel. Now, follow me, through this tranquil landscape of blooming daffodils and perfectly arranged stone paths covered in happy moss. Yes, that’s it, you want a turn around the garden. A bit of soil on your fingers. And…

Tagged with feature, One Off The List, Eastshade, Everybody's Gone To The Rapture, Mutazione, Quiet as a Stone, Stardew Valley, The Sims 4, The Talos Principle, Untitled Goose Game.

You may have noticed, because of all the Simsposting lately, that I am well into The Sims 4 now. Brace yourself, because it is not going away soon. Anyway, like someone who has only just got into something but is into it hard, I am talking the talk even if I don't yet walk the walk. I am throwing around terms like 'Maxis match' and…

Tagged with Electronic Arts, feature, Maxis, Tiny Build-Off, The Sims 4.

Tension is ramping up in the RPS office, as we approach the release of The Sims 4's new Tiny Living Stuff Pack, and thus the editorial Tiny Build-Off between me and Graham. My tactic so far has been to practise a lot at home, so I am familiar with the build controls. Graham's has been to undermine me at the office, and try to prejudice…

Tagged with Electronic Arts, feature, Maxis, Team Alice, Tiny Build-Off, The Sims 4.

When I was a kid I was really, really into The Sims. The first one came out around the same time that my big brother went to university, which meant I got to move into his room - the big room, which had the computer in it. I stayed up way past my bedtime making versions of the adult my 11-year-old self wished to be…

Tagged with Electronic Arts, feature, Maxis, The Sims 4.

Earlier this week, EA revealed the new Tiny Living Stuff Pack for The Sims 4. It allows players to build cosy little homes, limited to just 100 floor tiles in size, and adds new little home items like a bookshelf that has an inbuilt TV. Plus: cosy knits! All very lovely. But the creativity of The Sims' community has never been confined by size -…

Tagged with Electronic Arts, feature, Kalonica, Kevin McCloud, Maxis, Pol Clarissou, The Sims, The Sims 4.

When half the town was gone, an interloper appeared in an empty house. His name was Whitely and I still don't know where he came from -- he just arrived. Perhaps he saw an advert in the local paper for a house sitting vacant: "Previous tenant spontaneously combusted. Ready for immediate move-in. No questions asked." He needed to be dealt with. This is the final…

Tagged with EA Maxis, feature, Motherlode, Simento Mori, The Sims, The Sims 4, The Sims, The Sims 4.

While playing through this second instalment of Simento Mori, an exploration into the limits and meaning of death in The Sims, I nearly swallowed a fly. I had casually taken a sip of my drink, only to feel the sensation of some foreign object (decidedly solid) making contact with the inside of my teeth. I had to extract its carcass from my mouth with my…

Tagged with EA Maxis, feature, Motherlode, Simento Mori, The Sims, The Sims 4.

 "Family is all", a wise man once said. And then he half-drowned his nephew in a bucket of ice water, but let's forget about that bit. The sentiment is what's important. Families can be good and bad, dysfunctional or helpful. This is as true in videogames as in life. So that's what we're podcasting about this week. The brothers, mothers, aunts and cousins we…

Tagged with feature, Podcast, The RPS Electronic Wireless show, Children of Morta, Gears of War 5, Tekken 7, The Sims 4, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint, What Remains of Edith Finch.

Six months ago, The Sims inspired an existential crisis. I say this with no particular gravitas, but to say it: The Sims is an undeniably powerful force. You can read about that existential crisis here, but suffice it to say that I have both a deep admiration for, and significant vendetta against, Maxis property The Sims. Perhaps sensing this rage/respect combo for The Sims, I’ve…

Tagged with feature, Motherlode, Simento Mori, The Sims, The Sims, The Sims 4.

We've been drowned by E3 2019 this past week, but maybe you only waded into the river of game reveals and new trailers up to your ankles. If you didn't get your hair wet, there might be some gems among the flotsam and jetsam that you missed. That's what this post is for: we've rounded up our picks for the best games of E3, based…

Tagged with E3 2019, feature, American Truck Simulator: Washington, Baldur's Gate III, Carrion, Cyberpunk 2077, Deathloop, Doom Eternal, Evil Genius 2, Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy VIII Remastered, Microsoft Flight Simulator, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Psychonauts 2, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Starmancer, Telling Lies, The Sims 4, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, Watch Dogs Legion.

Brendan: We are in Los Angeles, Matt! And we are doing a fun new thing. We're going to liveblog the heck out of these press conferences, but with a twist. One of us can only be enthusiastic, positive and cheery, no matter what comes up. And the other can only be snarky, grumpy and critical. Who would you like to be today? The cheerer or…

Tagged with E3 2019, Electronic Arts, feature, liveblog, The Cheerer and the Jeerer, Apex Legends, FIFA 20, Madden NFL 20, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, The Sims 4.