"The Sims 4: City Living" Expansion Pack Review

“The Sims 4: City Living” expansion pack is teeming with new content and experiences. It seems that EA have Built this City for the fans and if you love Bright Lights in the Big City you are going to have a lot of fun with it when it arrives in Australia on November 3rd!!

Straight away, I could tell this expansion pack was going to be ground-breaking. The intricate details of the new content is amazing — everything from the range of fashion and objects, the hustle and bustle of a live city, new aspirations, sim’s traits and the new lot traits for your houses and apartments. (OMG love!!) Even the realness of the neighbours, down to the interactions and personalities of the people living in this magical city. These are just SOME of the breathtaking new features included in “The Sims 4: City Living” expansion pack.

San Myshuno is the newest world in the new expansion “The Sims 4: City Living” and it is made up of 4 main areas which have their own style, activities and celebration. There is the Arts Central, Fashion District, Spice Market and Uptown. The details in this new world are visually stunning. I felt like there are a lot of influences from different cities all over the world which makes me so excited to explore the San Myshuno City Limits. I dare you not to get lost in that skyline….

I started off with checking out the cheapest apartment to get a feel for the new city life “experiences” this pack has to offer. Noisy, messy, rude neighbours, invasive vermin, faulty and smelly utilities. Ahh, just like home. My poor self sim had a four-legged intruder on her first night and we found out the hard way how these guys can make for a very uncomfortable sim. Can’t wait to move into the penthouse!

But… how does a sim afford such a luxurious lifestyle in Paradise City? Climb the ladder of one of the new career opportunities, of course! EA have added a new feature with your work reminder; an alarm sounds with a pop up box to let you work starts in an hour and you can select one of three options — go to work, work from home and take personal day. When you work from home, your boss will give you tasks to complete in order to get paid for a days work. I love the new tasks involved when you select “work from home” such as “go to nightclub and check in on social media” or “gain 100 followers” for the social media career. Dream job, much??

My favourite part of this pack so far is the absolute immersion of culture. Aside from gaming, music, movies, Disney…. another passion of mine is “adventure”. I just love to visit new countries and experience the food, language, culture and customs and the individuality of the destination. I feel like “The Sims 4: City Living” has completely won me over in this aspect. There are many new festivals and events, but personally, the Spice Market festival is my favourite. The details are incredible — it makes me feel like I am actually in a market place in Southern Asia with the street food, musicians, vendors and the decorations. Just these details are enough to whisk me away. Tantalise or torment your sim’s taste buds with the new food options from street vendors selling flavours from Japan, China, Vietnam, Mexico, Morocco, India, America and the Philippines. My advice would be to perhaps get a bit of practise using chopsticks and spicy food. Or not, because watching the hilarious animations is the best part. If your sims prefer it to be Hot In the City, you can purchase spices, ingredients, fireworks and other various souvenirs from the Festival Vendors.

I don’t want to give away too much more, but let me just say this — if you have The Sims 4 and you are still waiting for that special “Sims” feeling to remind you of why we all love playing, this might be the one.

My opinions are based on the fact that I was lucky enough to receive early access to the new expansion pack for The Sims 4 from the team at EA Games Australia. I cannot thank them enough for their support over the years. Congrats on an amazing expansion pack guys! Can’t wait to see what’s next in the pipeline.

The Sims 4: City Living Expansion Pack is available for download on Origin and in stores in Australia from November 3rd 2016.