Since its release almost 10 years ago, The Sims 4 has been essentially free of timed content, with expansion packs and free additions being obtainable at any point after release. However, that’s changing in a new update that brings a battle pass-style feature to the game’s main menu, and fans aren’t happy.
Today, EA revealed its plan for Events in a blog post, describing each event as a “limited time experience, centered around a fun theme, with free rewards or gameplay that adds new opportunities to your game.”
Come for the vending machine, leave with a brand-new trait! đ¤Š
Events are here in The Sims 4 as limited time experiences with free rewards that adds new opportunities to your game. â¨
Discover more: pic.twitter.com/fZZqynBeIm
â The Sims (@TheSims) May 30, 2024
Each Event is free and offers 8 rewards over the course of 4 weeks, with new rewards being made available each week. This format requires players to launch the game on at least different 8 days to claim every reward.
The first event, titled The Sims 4 Happy at Home Login Event, will become available for all players by June 13 and introduces several furniture items, a few new Sim accessories, and, most notably, a vending machine and a new trait called Practice Makes Perfect.
The blog post clarifies that each event will end in an extra week where players can claim rewards they missed. Still, claiming each reward requires extra commitment, and fans haven’t been happy about it, with many taking to Twitter/X to share their disappointment.
TIMED EVENTS IN THE SIMS 4???
fuck off. no. ur turning this game into a mobile game, this is NOT what we wanted. listen, i hate when people say this, but WHO TF ASKED FOR THIS??? fuck all the way off with this bullshit.
(pics from simscommunity) pic.twitter.com/rnY9c3pqLu
â OakieDokie (@OakSimStudios) May 28, 2024
This isnât it. Players log into games often when they offer engaging GAMEPLAY. The Sims used to do well with 2 EPs a year- they that kept players busy for months. Lately packs canât hold simmers attentions for 2 days before they start asking for the next one. see the issue? pic.twitter.com/NGYpN4A4sK
â đłď¸âđAnotherPlumbobđłď¸âđ (@AnotherPlumbob) May 30, 2024
Other players, including some responding to a post on Reddit, complained about the game’s ongoing bugginess seemingly being ignored to focus on Events. Others speculated that EA was setting up microtransactions for Project Rene.
“It’s clear that this is the way EA are wanting to take the franchise. It’s a shame that EA, a multi-billion dollar company, feels the need to create multiple broken DLC for a high price then think ‘nah, we can still make more money,'” a user wrote. “We deserve better than re-colored items from other packs just so the data shows that player numbers are going up. I wish we were given genuine, original free content or better yet, focus on fixing the damn game instead of modders doing it. Things aren’t looking good for the future of the Sims franchise.”
EA previously confirmed that Project Rene, which most fans are calling The Sims 5, will be free-to-play when it’s eventually released.
The Best PC Games
![<h2>The Best Modern PC Games</h2>
<h3>(March 2024 Update)</h3>]
As we finish the first quarter of 2024 and prepare for another great year of new and promising games, the time has come once again to refresh IGNâs list of the 25 Best Modern PC Games. But what do we mean by âbest?â To be very clear, this is not an attempt at an âobjectiveâ ranking that will indisputably line up with the tastes of gamers of all types. That, sadly, can never exist; when one personâs grand strategy masterpiece is anotherâs boring and impenetrable slog, theyâll never see eye to eye on where that game should rank against others of different genres. Even the personal lists of two people who love the same type of game will rarely line up exactly.
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Instead, this is a list of games that IGNâs crew of self-identifying PC gamers recommend as a group, ranked using our Face-Off tool so that everybody got to weigh in on which games they thought should be placed above others. Itâs presented in the spirit of recognizing games we love, and encouraging others to try them if you havenât.Â
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With only 25 slots to fill, there are tons of amazing recent PC games that didnât float to the top â but that doesnât mean we donât think theyâre awesome, too! Everybody who participated in voting has tons of personal favorites that didnât gain quite enough traction with the group to make the cut, which is inevitable when there are this many games and so many different perspectives.
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Bear in mind that our criteria for this list narrowed the pool down to focus on âmodernâ PC games, which means it only covers games released or majorly updated during the past 10 years â in this case, back to the beginning of 2013. We still love games like the original Doom, Half-Life 2, Portal, Skyrim, StarCraft 2, Mass Effect 2, Minecraft, BioShock, KOTOR, Fallout: New Vegas, Batman: Arkham City, and many, many more, but theyâve graduated from modern to all-time classics. To find those youâll need to check out our list of the Top 100 Games of All Time â or our other lists that strive to capture the best of a given genre.
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Most importantly, remember that this list is just our groupâs perspective and is no more ârightâ or âwrongâ than a list that you create yourself. Speaking of which: if you have your own ranking youâd like to put out into the world, weâd like to invite you to make your own top 25 (or top 100!) list of PC games using our Playlist tool and share it in the comments.](https://assets-prd.ignimgs.com/2022/09/23/top25modernpcgames-slideshow-1663951022529.jpg?width=888&crop=16%3A9&quality=20&dpr=0.05)
We gave The Sims 4 a 7.5 in our original review, calling it “a good start to what may eventually be expanded into a great Sims game.” Since then, it’s received a notable number of expansions and smaller patches, the most recent of which have added vitiligo, sexual orientation, and pronoun options for Sims.
Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun, and they’re currently developing a game called Garage Sale. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.
