With the recent release of The Sims 4: Highschool Years, I couldn’t help but think of what else the developers could bring into the gameplay to spice things up. This is what I found was lacking while playing the base game that I think should be included in the Sims 4 from the get-go without modding.
5. Set the babies free
When you have a baby in the sims, the poor thing is glued to its bassinet. Apart from a few cuddles and a feed, the babies are never animated further to be taken for a stroll in their buggies. No play dates, no baby-centric TV, nothing. You’re forced to go through the motions, and because the baby is stationary, I often forget about it and am threatened by Sims Social Services. I was so bored within the first five minutes of having a baby in-game that I decided it was toddler time, and I aged the baby up. At least with a toddler, you can see it try to climb backward down the stairs and you remember it exists.
They call babies a bundle of joy, not a bundle of please don’t call CPS. I’d like to see pram strolls, tummy time, sensory TV — just regular baby stuff. Pretty please, devs?
4. Body variety
It’s a great thing that the Sims can be of any race. size, sexuality or even occult, but where’s the diversity in bodily appearance? I want birthmarks, amputees, wheelchairs, walking aids, disability representation, and other things that affect bodily appearance. Anything and everything from Henna, customisable tattoos, a wide spectrum of hair colour and tones and highlights, crazy facial hair, costumes, etc. I just want my Sim to feel like me, but also have the possibility of fully customisable changes that push it further than the base game does.
3. Strangetown
Strangetown was a ready-made town in The Sims 2; it was adjacent to another town’s storyline — Pleasantview.
In the Sims 4, we see an unassuming character in her family of tall, dark, and handsomes: Bella Goth. This little lady had been abducted in the Sims 2 and was plopped into Strangetown by aliens. In Strangetown’s map, there’s a massive hole in the ground with a spaceship in it that many speculate was the one Bella escaped from or survived a crash in on the way back to Pleasantview where she was initially taken from. Usually, we see our sim being abducted at random times but they usually come back either probed or pregnant. Bella however never came back.
The lore of Strangetown is insane and I’d love to explore it in Sims 4 graphics!
2. Multiplayer
For what seems like aeons, Simmers have been crying out for multiplayer. I’d love to be able to see what nonsense my friends or family and I can get up to when we drop into each other’s worlds for a visit. Who’ll be abducted by aliens, who’ll join a vampire cult, or become a famous comedian or mad scientist? There’d be so many funny memories to recall over dinner and I think it’d be hilarious, personally.
What havoc could we wreak? I wish we could find out.
1. Transport
There used to be an animation in The Sims 2 and 3 where you could be driven to work in a car that would exit a stationary screen, as well as owning and driving your own car. Modders have resorted to upsizing a toy car or two from the baby toys to put outside just to fill an aesthetic need, but it would be such a quality of life upgrade to just zoom to and ‘fro.
Speeding tickets, a hunk of junk car breaking down and needing repairs, everyday things like that would be such an improvement. Interactive prompts for taking a bus, taxi, etc would also be very cool. You realise you don’t have enough simoleons for the journey so the driver kicks you off, you meet a colleague on the bus to work and develop your friendship through prompts, etc. It’s not a lot to ask for developmentally for the game and I think we’d all benefit from it.
