With The Sims 4 releasing an expansion pack they told their community would never see the light of day, now is the perfect time to revisit our expectations and wishes of The Sims 5. I know we’ve all been waiting patiently for the sequel. Most of us also wish it, including online multiplayer, but is that realistic? Well, here is what we know so far about The Sims 5.
In February of this year, the CEO of The Sims, Andrew Wilson, confirmed that The Sims 5 will have online features, with the online multiplayer being a separate version of the game. So whether you want to play alone or with your friends, you will have the option to do both, and that’s a big upgrade. Like with The Sims 4, The Sims 5 will offer better graphics than its predecessor. However, the current release date is unknown. We know that The Sims team is working on the game, but the pandemic has drastically pushed their timeline back.
Due to the release of the Cottage Living expansion pack, EA will likely make an announcement about The Sims 5 in Spring/Summer of 2022. So, we are looking at another year. This has all but been confirmed with no Sims announcements at EA Play on July 22nd.
What we do know, for certain, is that EA is nowhere near finished with The Sims 4 and still has plenty of time left in its life cycle. Yes, this is the longest time between each Sims game, but we are still getting great content, and it’s giving the community time to construct their wishlists.
The Sims 5 Expectations
The number one expectation is for the game to be fully finished before release. Many may not remember, but The Sims 4 didn’t include pools at release. We had to wait 5 months before pools, ghosts, and family trees were implemented. The same thing happened with an entire life stage that wasn’t in the game until 3 years after release. More organisation is definitely needed for the next generation of the franchise.
Open Worlds, or at the very least, Open Neighbourhoods
The majority of my time on The Sims 4 is taken up by a loading screen. Even when my sim is only going to the neighbouring house. I can see a loading screen making sense if you are travelling from Oasis Springs to San Myshuno. However, receiving a loading screen by just heading to adjacent houses is a bit frustrating.
Listening to the Community More
Although this one may be a bit much and is borderline a wish, I labelled it as an expectation. EA expects people to buy their products, so they should listen to the wishes of the community a bit more. The Sims has a huge fan following, and they shouldn’t be ignored as much as they are.
It usually takes massive drama on Twitter for The Sims to even blink an eye. It took over six years for extended skin colours to be added to the game, and this was only introduced after the Black Lives Matter protests. However, there are some moments of light where The Sims makes fans feel heard and accepted. This is when they interacted with the community and involved them in designing new stuff packs, including Nifty Knitting and Laundry Day. The fans know what they want and they understand that EA has a release list. Although, giving the community more of a say or acknowledging their requests, could take the franchise to the next level.
The Sims 5 Wishes
Story Progression
Whenever I play The Sims 4, the townies don’t do anything different with their lives unless I come in and manually change it myself. In The Sims 3, there was story progression. So when you bumped into Bob Pancakes, he would tell you about his new job or talk about baby number five. In The Sims 4, it feels like you meet Bella Goth and become best friends with her; then 10 days later, she’s dead, and my sim is miserable for four days.
Increased Personality Customisation
Currently, every Sim has a life aspiration, three personality traits to choose from 4 categories, and 20 likes and dislikes. Honestly, there shouldn’t be a limit to how many traits you have. Personally, I’m not just a gamer, creative person and dancer; there is more to me than those three traits. Back in The Sims 3, you could select your zodiac sign, choose what your turn on/offs were, and select your favourite food.
Autosave
The Sims 5 would benefit from an Autosave feature. So if I have a random power outage, I don’t lose my progress and have to start all the way back where baby number three wasn’t even born yet. Most games these days include autosave, so there is no reason why The Sims can’t implement the feature.
Height Sizing
Not everyone has the same foot size or waist size. Fortunately, in The Sims 4, you can change those sizes. However, there is no height sizing. Not everyone in my age group is the same size, and that shouldn’t be the case in The Sims 5.
Financial Flare
Bank loans, mortgages, insurance and money transfer are things we deal with in everyday life. This would definitely add some flare to the game, instead of just using cheat codes (motherlode) every time you run low on simoleons.
A Realistic Time System
Currently, Sims spend an hour or two in the shower and two hours eating their cereal. Unless they are making a gourmet cereal, they shouldn’t be spending that long on one task. This makes time management incredibly stressful when you’re trying to have a productive day. Oh, you have to be at work by 9 am, let’s wake you up at 5 am, so you have time to just shower and eat cereal.
#FreeBabies
Currently, in The Sims 4, the babies are bound to the crib they spawn in, only being able to move when another Sim takes them out to feed them or cuddle them. There is no option to put them in strollers and take them for a walk or even carry them to another room and sit down with them. The only way my Sim babies see different scenery is if I go into build mode and manually move their bassinette from the living room to the dining room. This doesn’t feel very realistic.
Bring Back The Colour Wheel
The Sims 5 needs to reintroduce the colour wheel. Although this seems like it would be an expectation, we can see from its absence in The Sims 4 that we can’t expect something as big as this again. Being able to customise separate parts of a bed made the game more enjoyable for both game players and designers. Only having one swatch to choose the bedspread and frame is bothersome and unrealistic. Also is being able to colour the ceiling too much to ask?
Here is our list of expectations and wishes. Do you agree with our list? What would you like to see in The Sims 5 that we haven’t covered?