Author: Mike

This is it, everyone! We’re almost up to the release of The Sims 4. In this official launch trailer we find out several things: Babs and Ollie have kids, Gladys has been getting some action, June Kay and Steve Fogel are newlyweds, and we’re still not quite sure if Pancake Bob did stay up past midnight.

We’ll have several articles up in time for The Sims 4; it will explore some of the gameplay and casual modding aspects of the game. Furthermore, we’ll focus on news for other simulation games as well. Stay tuned!

Afternoon Simmers! Today we got an extended look at Live Mode footage from The Sims 4. Producers Ryan Vaughan and Graham Nardone presented a live walkthrough of how emotional states change your Sim’s behavior.

Ryan and Graham loaded up their Sims at Magnolia Blossom Park in Willow Creek. Ryan Vaughan, an active Sim with the Bro trait, was feeling “Very Angry” from a previous altercation. The emotional states your Sim receives are driven by the various moodlets that appear based on their personality, and the effects of the interactions they had. Ryan’s “Steaming Mad” moodlet kept him in an angry state. This unlocked further interactions that allowed him to perform “Peeved Push Ups” and “Sit Ups of Fury.”

Now he can channel all his anger into performing exercises that build his athletic skill faster than if he was in a good mood.

Graham, another Sim with the Bro trait, instead felt “Energized!” This was due to both his “Brisk Shower” moodlet, as well as his Bro personality trait which activated the “Hangin’ with Bros” moodlet.

With his energized emotional state, he can do unique interactions like “Give Pep Talk” or “Hip Bump.” When he shifted over into the “Happy” emotional state, he could “Brighten [the] Day” of another Sim or give a “Heartfelt Compliment.”

One neat thing is how you can see their emotional states through their expressions and animations without clicking on them. A Sim who’s sad will walk slouched over with their head hanging low, clearly signifying that something is wrong.

So far we’ve talked about emotion based interactions, so let’s dabble into personality based interactions. For these kinds of interactions, a little icon depicting the Sim’s personality will display next to the name of the interaction. So for example, a geek Sim can “Debate Game Strategies” (controller icon), while a bro Sim could perform a “Bro Bump.” Sims can also perform interactions outside of their personality traits to Sims that have them. For example, Graham’s Sim, who is pretty much a computer nerd, could “Discuss Fitness Techniques” and “Show Off Muscles” to Ryan.

Though it may appear like a menu system here, traveling to different locations is done via a world map menu.

1st up – there is a full world map, it simply wasn't in our E3 build. When traveling you choose a lot from the map, not from that list.

— Graham Nardone (@SimGuruGraham) July 19, 2014

Ryan and Graham traveled to the local Gym to see who could level up their fitness skill the fastest. But Ryan gained a bit of an advantage by calling over a Sim who has high fitness skill to mentor him during the workout.

A combination of Ryan’s angry emotional state, his physically active personality, and the mentorship his friend provided enabled Ryan to workout faster, building up his athletic skill in no time!

Well that’s the end of this article. Stay tuned for part two where we’ll talk about “The Gallery,” where you can upload and download Sims and more!

Rachel Franklin, executive producer of The Sims 4, kicked off the E3 festivities by introducing us to new gameplay footage. It’s apparent that the focus on The Sims in this iteration are their varying personalities and emotions. Are they ambitious and perfectionist? Or are they clumsy and hot headed? These are just a few of the personalities you can explore in The Sims 4! These personalities don’t just exist in a bubble, they may even influence other Sims to respond in particular ways.

For example, Rachel introduced a hot-headed, active bookworm Sim named Chuck. One day he was reciting poetry to his eccentric neighbor Gladys. Due to his low skill levels, his poems were terrible, and Gladys hated them so much that she attacked him.

After losing the fight, Chuck got so mad that the next day at the gym, he was enraged, pushing his workout to the limit.

In another scenario with the same two Sims, Chuck is having a house party, schmoozing with the guests. Gladys (who’s still mad from the previous day) stopped by and crashed the party. In this situation, her foul mood made the party guests feel uncomfortable, some of them face palming at the horrid turn in events.

One very notable aspect of The Sims is how expressive their emotions are. You can see the differences in the way people work out when they’re happy, depressed, or energized.

Sometimes these emotions can take a turn for the worse, where a Sim can die literally from laughter. Lyndsay Pearson, senior producer of The Sims 4, stated that there are multiple types of emotion-based deaths. This doesn’t seem to be sitting well for the fan community, but hopefully we’ll have more information soon on how we’re able to avoid it

The Sims 4 will be releasing on September 2nd in North America, and September 5th in Europe.