

Gladys' "foul mood" brings everyone else down when she crashes the party, since that's something we've all seen happen in real life. Then another scene shows how Sims moods effect each other.

However, Chuck finds his anger an advantage when it comes to working out. Some Sims on the running machines are happy, some are depressed, and presumably their moods affect how effective their workouts are. Here we're introduced to "hothead" Chuck who epitomizes the new emotions system. This was demonstrated in some game-play shown of an in-game gym. It's not clear whether that trait is activated when you choose the goal or when the Sim achieves it, but it's an interesting way to tie their personality into what they want to get out of life. Unlike in The Sims 3, where a standard adult Sim has five personality traits, here each Sim has three plus an ambition/goal that comes with a fourth supplementary trait.

We also got a glimpse of The Sims 4's approach to personalities. This is what is entertaining about The Sims as a series: the developers provide the tools for simulation, and the players use those tools in creative ways. There was a demonstration of Create-a-Sim mode that offers more intuitive grab-and-pull tools to create characters that look like real world people. Each successive expansion pack and game in the series augmented what the player could do with their Sims.Īt this year's E3 show we got to see more of what the new game would offer. Players can either place their Sims in pre-constructed homes or build them themselves. The player creates virtual people called "Sims" and places them in houses and helps direct their moods and satisfy their desires. The games in The Sims series are largely sandbox experiences in that they lack any defined goals (except for some later expansion packs and console versions which introduced this game-play style). In September a new version of the game is being released: The Sims 4. It is one of the most successful video-games in terms of sales and has sold over 175 million copies worldwide. The Sims is a long running life simulation game.
