More Sims 4 info

[dicreasy]

So, I stumbled across Edenstyle's write ups of the Sims 4 masterclass at Gamescom yesterday.  They're quite interesting to read and give a little bit more information than the video released by EA, so I recommend you look at them.  Some things that jumped out at me:

From the CAS page:

• "Male Sims have facial hair, while female Sims have make up options" I hope that male sims will also have makeup options.  I personally don't put much make up on my male sims (apart from wrinkles and face shading, all of which I re-categorised the other month to show under full face makeup because my blush category was overflowing), but if someone wants to, then I don't want the game limiting that.  It all comes down to customisation and playing the game how you want to again.
• "You can set 4 different walking styles (default, perky, snooty and swagger)." So, only four styles of walking (at the moment), when this was touted as being a brilliant way to show your sim's personality through the way they walk.  I'm not feeling encouraged.  Also, is it just me, or will having a sim swagger all the time  get old really quickly?
• "The game is still in development and CAS is not complete yet. However, we have been able to see that there are 5 different ages." I mentioned this in some replies to people in my last post, but I wonder what they are.  TS2 has 6 ages, TS3, 7.  Is the game going back to the TS2 style ageing?  Or is there going to be TS3 style ageing, but two age groups you can't make in CAS.  If so, what are they?  I understand babies, but if they've taken toddlers out of CAS, I will be very disappointed.
• "[Y]ou can now set the hairstyle and THEN the hat" This sounds AWESOME.
• "There's no Create a Style, only pre sets." YES!!!!!!  Sorry, but I hate that tool with a passion.  No CASt is a good thing as far as I am concerned.  Maybe, it'll have recolours in the style of TS2, where you can recolour whatever part of the mesh you want, with whatever pattern you want, not having to be constrained to the channels EA and creators give you, outside of the game, and then pop it in for easy access to it.
• It looks like there are going to be traits rather than personality points, which is really disappointing actually.  I'm hoping that they have overhauled them from TS3, so that they do actually show real personality, and not just quirks or ticks.

From the Emotions page:

• "You can clearly see if a character is sad because he'll start to walk in a certain way, will show a sad face and will interact with items, sims and the environment accordingly. " Erm. Pretty sure I've seen my TS2 sims do similar things already.  I mean, who doesn't love the angry stalking they do?  Or who hasn't had a sim say they don't feel like doing something when they're motives are low?  I know it's not quite the same, but if this means that the game play will expand on that from the the previous games, then I like it.  I'm looking forward to seeing what it can add to the game.
• "The violin is one of the new musical instruments of The Sims 4."  I know all my lovely Mac owning friends out there, can't have it, but violins aren't exactly new to the franchise. The fact that they are going to be in the BG though, is awesome.
• "[A] certain picture on the wall could make you flirty and a nice dress makes you feel cool." Hrm, this is still feeling a little shallow to me.  I want the emotions to be more indepth and influenced by more than what painting is on the wall, or what a sim is wearing.  Let their experiences and how they interact with other sims drive them, please.
• "A Sim could be so furious to die because of that." Oh dear.
• "We asked if there’s weather and if it could influence Sims emotions, but it seems they are not planning to add it to the base game." so, another Seasons EP then?  I'm not surprised, since those are very popular EPs (it's my favourite TS2 one, and I also really like it in TS3), but I am a little disappointed weather is not going to be BG.

Apparently the building features are under embargo at the moment, so it looks like we will have to wait for more information on those.

Well, having read the articles I can't say I'm more excited that I was.  I'm certainly more interested in this than I was in TS3, and I'll probably post more things I come across because of that.  There's a lot of potential with what I'm reading, but I'm not going to form a concrete opinion until I know more, or I get to see the gameplay properly.