The Sims are back! And better than ever! This would definitely be a great news to those play The Sims, especially since there is a new feature that make Sims appear less robotic and more socially intelligent.
The major improvement in The Sims 4 is the characters’ ability to navigate multiple interactions at the same time. Previously, a Sim would only be able to perform an action after another, with this new added multitasking feature, the character could now flirt while dancing or chat while running next to each other on treadmills at the gym.
Sims will also be experiencing full emotion projections and have a true-life trajectory. For example, the Sim might burn a piece of toast in the morning and upsets himself. Depending on the character’s predetermined personality, the emotion would develop and later prompt the Sim to maybe pick a fight on the street.
In order to make the game more true-to-life, the producers at Maxis filmed employees at a staff party moving between groups, socializing, and responding to awkward situations. Footage was then gathered to build a model human behavior in conjunction with a new software which led to a more realistic virtual world. In order to impersonate the natural human socializing ability, Maxis’s software engineers frame behaviors that mirror how most people behave in personal spaces. Say a Sim might intuitively walk in groups and have casual conversations in a shared personal space, like a bar.
However, the toddler and swimming pool feature is cut off in this version of The Sims 4, which is pretty upsetting. Producer Graham Nardone said to to Kotaku: “It’s easy to look at something and think, ‘That looks pretty simple.’ When you think about a feature like pools upfront, it looks like a square box on the ground and you put a shader on the top surface and have Sims jump in.” “But ultimately, it’s more complexity in terms of what tech’s there and what isn’t there, what we have to build to support this. How do we cut down into the terrain, how do we get Sims going through portals across different levels of pools? There’s so much that’s going on in the background that you don’t end up seeing just to have a Sim go swimming.” Well, I guess the Sim will need to stay with bathtubs or Jacuzzi hot tubs.
To get a sneak peak of the game, check out this official gameplay by the producer themselves!
The trailer revealed plenty of newly added features such as personality traits, mood and emotions that affects the Sim behavior, new neighborhood map, easy travel across neighborhoods and worlds, creations and content sharing by The Sims community in the game itself with the click of the button without any of the hassle we got in The Sims 3.
After watching the trailer, I just can’t wait to get my hands on the game! The release date of The Sims 4 in Asia is scheduled to be on September 2, 2014 but will only be available for PC, with no available date for the Mac release. Nevertheless, get ready for a heck of a long queue!
If you can’t wait to try it out, you can give the Sims 4 demo a shot here and pre-order the game!
