The first time my Sim protested in the Spice Market, I couldn't help but laugh out loud as he shouted at disinterested Sims walking by and went home upset nobody listened to him. The daily task is often successfully promoting a cause, which in itself is easy, but forces you to go outside into the neighborhood. The politics career is hard! Like any job with a charisma requirement, it’s not very much fun to watch your Sim practice in front of the mirror for hours. ‘The Sims 4: City Living’ San Myshuno Interactive City Map Released.
If you choose work from home, you’ll get work assignments to complete before the start of next shift. Like the Get To Work careers, you’ll get a call about an hour before your shift time asking whether or not you’d like to go into the office or work from home. Going to work with your Sim is fun, but ends up being 10 minutes of clicking ations and fast-forwarding. The new options don’t function like the Doctor and Police careers added in Get To Work. The social media, critic and political careers add new dynamics to the long list of traditional Sims careers. I haven’t had a chance to fiddle with non-residential penthouses yet, which is another feature to look forward to after completing each new career track and fulfilling the new City Native aspiration. The modern and complex designs of Torendi, Landgraab, Alto and Spire in Uptown are breathtaking. And when it does, like the Salt House, it still feels so much different than a lot in Windenburg. I love that City Living doesn’t give me that option. I’m usually the player who bulldozes premade lots and never takes advantage of already furnished rooms. What better way to balance out waking up to cockroaches every day than a nice breeze? Finding an apartment in the city doesn’t come without trade-offs. The new lot info panel is much more intuitive and the lot traits give each apartment a unique feel. The lot traits are one of the key changes incorporated into the base game. A steamy shower helps, but the bugs don’t go away even if you call the landlord, who by the way, does not seem to leave the apartment unless you tell them to. Be prepared for your Sims to always be tense because of them. On the downside, the cockroaches in Culpepper are extremely annoying. I threw in a larger window and knocked down an inside wall to turn the master bedroom into an art room with a graffiti garage door and mural on the floor. Unlike the outside walls, the side window and door to the patio are adjustable in build mode. I really fell in love with my small back patio, the perfect size for a basketball hoop. Even though my Sims started advancing in careers, I just couldn’t bear the thought of trading in my Culpepper two-bedroom for a nicer place like Jasmine or Zenview. Three lots in particular have won me over: Culpepper, Torendi Penthouse and The Old Salthouse. Depending on what you’re looking for in rent prices, you have the option of moving to the Spice Market, Uptown, Fashion District or the Arts Quarter. Part of the reason San Myshuno feels so big is because there are four new neighborhoods to live in.
It’s obvious there was a lot of thought behind even the most obscure background details-Sims walking down the street, taxis racing down city blocks, rumbling from the subway passing by and ambient noise from the cars crossing the bay on the San Myshuno bridge make City Living the most comprehensive expansion pack released for The Sims 4. It’s a vast city built with impeccable precision. It takes hours to get your bearings, in a good way. The sheer scope of this city is quite daunting. When you take San Myshuno and put it up against Bridgeport from TS3, it’s amazing to see how far The Sims has come, aesthetically speaking. A Sim living downstairs in Culpepper came up to hang out because he was lonely.
A neighbor came to the door of my penthouse to ask for food in exchange for her good company. There’s a human element in City Living that doesn’t exist in previous expansions. It’s the complexity that makes this expansion pack a must-buy. San Myshuno takes you along for a ride, just like a real city would and a good game should. But City Living roped me back into the story. In the Sims 4, I’ve been a builder - and a strong advocate for the motherlode cheat.