If you're someone who likes to let your Sims live out a natural life, dying due to old age or an unfortunate accident, congratulations, you're a monster and we can't be friends. I get far too attached to my creations and turn their aging off entirely, but for those of you who prefer to let nature take its course, there is some life after death in Inzoi.

As spotted by PCGamer, director Hyungjun "Kjun" Kim took to the game's Discord server to explain some of its upcoming early-access features: "We want to keep the playability of ghosts fairly limited so it doesn’t overshadow the main gameplay, but we also want to make sure the experience is engaging enough when it does happen."

InZOI has a karma system, and if your Zoi has enough, it'll make its way to a peaceful afterlife when it dies. If it doesn't, it'll hang around after death as a ghost that you can "encounter at set times under certain conditions." They won't be playable right now, but that is planned for later on. "Any further development for ghosts will have to come after the release," Kjun says.

Although the ghosts won't be playable yet, InZOI is implementing Nvidia Ace, the company's generative AI that features text-to-speech capabilities meant to make NPCs more life-like. It calls these NPCs "Smart Zoi," and in the video shared by publisher Krafton they sort of just seem like regular NPCs that react to the world around them. I saw the tech used at an Nvidia demo last year (not for InZOI), and wasn't very impressed, but maybe it'll be implemented in a creative way for InZOI.

To get a better idea of what this Sims competitor will look like, check out our InZOI preview. You should also check out other games like The Sims if you're a fan of the genre.

The Steam Idler Fest is live right now and runs through February 10. As always with the storefront's genre-specific celebrations, you could lose hours just scrolling through everything that's had its price tag slashed, so here's a few recommendations from moi.

Rusty's Retirement is probably the one that most people are familiar with. It's essentially a Stardew Valley that plays itself, so, no surprise it's racked up over 10,000 overwhelmingly positive Steam reviews. Rusty lives alone at the bottom of your screen and it's your job to help him develop a flourishing, automated farm that becomes ever-complicated (and profitable).

Sticking with the 'lonely animals that farm' vibes, we have Ropuka's Idle Island, which sees an isolated frog-person repeat a chill Groundhog Day. Ropuka lives on a floating island and does nothing but cut grass, nap to recharge stamina, and repeat. It's quite horrifying when you think about it for too long. So don't think, because Ropuka's an otherwise great companion and you can decorate his adorable little home with the grass he gathers. Plus, the lo-fi beats oozing out from the island are perfect if you're looking for something to help you focus - he's sweating away while I bring you this very news, in fact.

I'd also recommend My Little Life, which is a largely condensed management game that came out on the very same day as The Sims re-releases and features a lot of the same quirks. You can't trap your little digital friend inside four walls, delete the door, and watch as they slowly die, sadly, but you can help them progress through the happier stages in life. Decorating a home. Finding companionship. Working through a sustainable career - and that's almost as fun as summoning the grim reaper.

Not all idle games exist on your desktop, however. Chillquarium has you collecting fish and selling them to turn a profit, while Chonkers makes you adopt cats, feed them until they're laughably chonky, and then find them a good home. Then, for all the Baldur's Gate 3 lovers, there's Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms, a management RPG featuring characters from across the D&D canon.

Steam Idler Fest has discounts and/or highlights all of the above, plus so many more, and also has a page for upcoming idlers you might want to wishlist. Check it out.

For more, keep an eye on the upcoming indie games of 2025 and beyond.

The Sims 2 was the first game in the series to introduce the motherlode money cheat code we still use in The Sims 4, but this is just one of the many useful cheats available in The Sims 2. Whether you want to force a twin pregnancy, kidnap neighbors for your household, or even control aging, The Sims 2 Legacy Collection cheat codes allow you to further mold your virtual experience to your liking.

Our guide below lays out every cheat code we know works with The Sims 2 Legacy Collection (we've tested them), alongside some handy cheat tips to make the most of them. Just picked up the re-release? Check out our guide to The Sims 1 Legacy Collection cheats, too.

How to enable The Sims 2 Legacy Collection cheats

To enable cheats in The Sims 2 Legacy Collection, press Ctrl, Shift, and C on your keyboard – this method is the same as every other The Sims game on PC. This brings up the cheat console text box in the top-left corner of your screen. To enter a cheat, type it in as below, then press Enter. If the cheat is successful you'll see your changes in the game, but if it's typed incorrectly or isn't a working code, an "Error in cheat" message appears in the text box.

To expand the cheat console, input "expand" and press Enter; to close the console, input "exit" and press Enter.

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection Money Cheats

• Kaching - Adds 1,000 Simoleons to your funds
• Motherlode - Adds 50,000 Simoleons to your funds
• FamilyFunds [family name] [value] - For example, "familyfunds cordial 100000;" sets your household's funds to a specific value
• FamilyFunds [family name] [+/-][value] - For example, "familyfunds cordial +10000;" adds or subtracts from household's funds

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection Sim and Household Cheats

• AddNeighborToFamilyCheat [on/off] - When on, you can add neighbors to your household by clicking on them. This doesn't work on service NPCs while they're working or special NPCs like the Grim Reaper. Allows you to add more than the usual eight-Sim household limit
• AgeSimsCheat [on/off] - When enabled, you can select a Sim and "Set age" to Toddler, Child, Teen, Adult, or Elder
• Aging [on/off] - Turns Sim aging on or off
• AspirationLevel [0-5] - Sets the aspiration level of the selected Sim, five is highest and zero the lowest
• AspirationPoints [0-100000] - Gives your selected Sim the inputted number of aspiration points. We found you can comfortably go to 100,000, but this cheat can bug if overused or you go above that, resetting the points to zero and disabling you from adding any points with the cheat
• Forcetwins - Select a pregnant Sim and enter to turn pregnancy into twin birth
• DisablePuppyKittenAging [on/off] - Enables and disables puppies and kittens aging
• PlumbBobToggle [on/off] - Plumbob above Sims head disappears when on
• LockAspiration [on/off] - Locks and unlocks the aspiration score of Sims on the lot
• MaxMotives - Maximizes motives of all Sims on the lot
• MotiveDecay [on/off] - Enables and disables motive decay for all Sims on the lot
• StretchSkeleton [number] - Stretches Sim; the higher the number the longer the Sim and the smaller the shorter (1.0 is default)
• ShowHeadlines [on/off] - Hides all thought bubbles and speech balloons
• UnlockCareerRewards - Unlocks all career reward items for a Sim

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection Neighborhood and Lot Cheats

• DeleteAllCharacters - Deletes all characters in the current neighborhood; only works when in neighborhood view
• ChangeLotClassification [low/middle/high] - Changes classification of current lot
• ChangeLotZoning [residential / community / greek / dorm / secretsociety / secretvacationlot / hotel / secrethobbylot / apartmentbase / apartmentsublot / secretwitchlot] - Changes lot zoning type
• ClearLotClassValue - Clears lot class value and overrides flag
• TerrainType [Temperate / Desert / Dirt / Concrete] - Changes neighborhood terrain type; use in neighborhood view
• DumpNPCCount - Tells you the number of service NPCs in the current neighborhood per type
• ModifyNeighborhoodTerrain [on/off] - Toggles neighborhood terrain modification; when enabled, select terrain with cursor, and then use use P, /, and \ to adjust
• PrintLotClass [low/middle/high] - Prints lot class
• Boolprop displayLotImposters [true/ false] - Setting to false removes house graphics from neighborhood view
• Boolprop displayNeighborhoodRoads [true/false] - True shows roads in neighborhoods, false hides them
• IntProp maxNumOfVisitingSims [number] - Use in neighborhood view increase number of guests a lot can have
• Boolprop lotTerrainPaints [true/false] - Setting to false removes terrain paints from lot
• Boolprop displayNeighborhoodRoadsWithModel [true/false] - Setting to false removes neighborhood bridges
• Boolprop displayNeighborhoodFlora [true/false] - Setting to false removes neighborhood plants and trees
• Boolprop displayNeighborhoodProps [true/false] - Setting to false remove's neighborhood props
• boolprop lotWater [true/false] - Lot water (like ponds) is visible or invisible
• SetLotLightingFile [filename.txt/clear] - For example, "SetLotLightingFile Downtown_Lot.txt;" override some lighting parameters and uses lighting of the specified lot or you can use clear to reset it

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection Build Cheats

• DeleteAllAwnings - Remove all awnings
• DeleteAllFences - Remove all fences
• DeleteAllHalfwalls - Remove all deletable half walls
• DeleteAllObjects [doors/windows/stairs] - Deletes all of specified object
• DeleteAllWalls - Remove all deletable walls
• RoofSlopeAngle [15-75] - Slopes roof angle in degrees (45 is default)
• BoolProp snapObjectsToGrid [true/false] - When enabled, snaps objects to lot grid
• SetHighestAllowedLevel [3-255] - Allows you to build more floors, enter in neighborhood view (can crash game if you add too many)
• SetQuarterTilePlacement [on/off] - Turns quarter tile placement on or off

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection Visual and Filmmaking Cheats

• BoolProp enablePostProcessing [true/false] - This must be set to true to allow the following cheats to work
• Bloom [R G B X] - For example, "bloom 0.3 0.1 0.0 0.7;" changes screen visual color, RGB controls colors red, green, and blue, and X controls bloom amount
• FilmGrain [X] - Adds film grain to screen visuals, X is the film grain value (0 is default)
• LetterBox [0.0-0.4] - Adds black borders to top and bottom of screen (0 is default)

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection Miscellaneous Gameplay Cheats

• SetHour [0-23] - Sets time
• AutoPatch [-on/-off] - When enabled, your game checks for available patches; ensure you use the hyphen before on or off and leave a space between "patch" and the hyphen
• BugJarTimeDecay [on/off] - When disabled (off) bugs can live forever
• Expand - Makes cheat console bigger or smaller
• Exit - Exit cheat console
• Help - Shows a list of working cheats
• FaceBlendLimits [-on/-off] - Enables and disables facial blending limits
• Moveobjects [on/off] - When enabled you can move objects you usually can't, like mailboxes, trash cans and Sims; you can use this to delete, too
• Vignette [X, Y, Z] - For example, "vignette 100 100 100;" adds vignette/blur to visuals from specified center, X is upper left, Y is lower right and Y is amount of blur
• Vsync [on/off] - Setting to off improves game performance at the cost of graphics
• Slowmotion [0-8] - Higher number makes game slower (0 is default)
• TextDebugging [true/false] - Toggles text debugging
• Boolprop testingcheatsenabled [true/false] - Opens up more cheat options, but can cause a lot of issues

The Sims 2 Legacy Collection Cheat Tips

• In some cases, if you start typing in a cheat code, you can press Tab and the console will fill in the rest. You just need to add the "true/false" or "on/off" to relevant cheats.
• Use the Move_objects on cheat to delete bills, trash, and more. You can even use it to delete Sims, but unlike The Sims 1, this doesn't boost their mood and you need to leave the lot and return for the Sim to come back.
• Be aware that using The Sims 2 cheats can cause in-game issues, especially if you use a lot, so be cautious.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

If you spent countless hours with The Sims 1, you likely remember some cheats through sheer muscle memory. The Rosebud money code, which quickly increases your funds (AKA Simoleons), remains imprinted in players' brains, while other classic codes, like move_objects, are great at dealing with pesky things like bills and trash. Don't worry; you won't need to remember them all, because our The Sims 1 Legacy Collection cheats guide lists the cheats we've confirmed work with the re-release – as some original cheats aren't valid with this version. So, whether you're new to The Sims 1 or a returning player, these cheat codes give you even greater control over the life sim.

How to enable The Sims 1 Legacy Collection cheats

Just like in the original The Sims 1 game and more recent releases, you can access the cheat console by holding Ctrl and Shift, then selecting C on your keyboard.

A text box appears in the top-left-hand corner of your screen where you can now input your cheat code. Press Enter to confirm the cheat code and, if it's successful, you'll see your relevant changes in-game. If your cheat code is entered incorrectly, you'll get a pop-up that says, "Sorry, no such cheat!" In some cases, the pop-up may prompt you for more detail, like a number, indicating that the cheat code is right, but perhaps the format isn't.

If you want to input more than one cheat at once, simply insert a semicolon (;) between each cheat code and press Enter when you're done. To repeat the last cheat you entered, without typing it out again, type an exclamation mark (!) into the text box and press Enter.

The Sims 1 Legacy Collection Money Cheats

• Rosebud - Gives you 1,000 Simoleons (every ;! after it adds another 1,000 Simoleons)
• Rosebud;!;!;!;! - Gives you 5,000 Simoleons
• Rosebud ;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;!;! - Gives you 10,000 Simoleons

The Sims 1 Legacy Collection Sim Cheats

• Interests - Shows interests of selected Sim
• Sim_speed [-1000 to 1000] - For example, "Sim_speed 1000;" alters Sim's movement speed, with -1000 super slow and 1000 super fast
• Autonomy [1-100] - For example, "Autonomy 100;" controls level of free thinking, with 100 giving your Sims the highest level of control over themselves
• Bubble_tweak (number) - Sets, in pixels, how far a thought bubble appears from a Sim’s head
• History - Saves your family history file, which you can find under FamilyHistory.txt
• Sim_log begin - Starts Sim logging
• Sim_log end - Ends Sim logging

The Sims 1 Legacy Collection World and Environment Cheats

• Set_hour [1-24] - For example, "Set_hour 23" to set to 11pm; sets in-game time
• Move_objects on - Enables free object movement, letting you delete trash, bills, and more
• Move_objects off - Disables free object movement
• Genable objects on - In-world objects (like radios, lamps, etc) are visible
• Genable objects off - In-world objects are invisible (but still exist)
• Genable default - All Genable settings return to default
• Genable terrain on - Terrain is visible
• Genable terrain off - Terrain is invisible (but still exists)
• Genable walls on - Walls are visible
• Genable walls off - Walls are invisible (but still exist)
• Genable floors on - Floors are visible
• Genable floors off - Floors are invisible (but still exist)
• Genable people on - Sims are visible
• Genable people off - Sims are invisible (but still exist)
• Genable clear/full_draw/static/old_clear/static rows on/off -(No visible in-game changes)
• Genable all on - All the above are visible
• Genable all off - All the above are invisible (everything disappears, but still exists)
• Genable status - See genable status of all houseviewer models
• Rotation [0-3] - For example, "Rotation 3;" rotates camera, 0 is normal
• Prepare_lot - Scans your lot and tells you if you are missing any key items, like a mailbox, and tries to repair any issues; this won't replace objects deleted with move_objects on in our experience
• Draw_all_frames on - Enables draws all frames
• Draw_all_frames off - Disables draws all frames
• Draw_floorable on - Enables floorable grid
• Draw_floorable off - Disables floorable grid
• Map_edit on - Enables map editor
• Map_edit off - Disables map editor

The Sims 1 Legacy Collection Miscellaneous Cheats

• Nessie - The Loch Ness Monster appears in the water when in Downtown, Old Town, or Vacation neighborhood view
• Log_mask [number] - Sets event logging mask
• Route_balloons on - Enables routing debug balloons
• Route_balloons off - Disables routing debug balloons
• Sweep on - Shows in-game bottom bar
• Sweep off - Hides in-game bottom bar
• Tile_info on - Tile information visible
• Tile_info off - Tile information hidden

The Sims 1 Legacy Collection Cheat Tips

Armed with the cheat codes above (and years of experience), here are some of our top cheat tips for The Sims 1.

How to refill your Mood bars (or just delete your Sim)

In The Sims 1, you could use the move_objects on cheat to simply delete a Sim through Buy or Build Mode. You can't outright do that now, but there is a way around it to get rid of a pesky Sim or to give your Sim a serious mood boost. Have the Sim sit on a chair, then delete the chair; this deletes the Sim and the chair. To bring your Sim back, click their portrait, and they'll return with full Mood bars. This is a great way to get promotions quickly.

How to delete bills

Enabling the move_objects on cheat means you can delete annoying bills via the Buy or Build Mode. To avoid bills completely, delete your mailbox.

How to avoid missing work

This tip also utilizes the move_objects on cheat. Place an object in the middle of the road, to block the way ahead for your carpool. The car won't be able to go anywhere and you can jump in, even if you're a little bit late. Just delete the object when you're done, so the car can move off as normal.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

It's an especially exciting time to be a Simmer right now, between The Sims 1 and The Sims 2 re-releases on PC and The Sims 4's celebratory update featuring more than 70 items – but that's not all. The rumors of a possible expansion for the fourth game focusing on activities and jobs floating about on social media recently have turned out to be true, with a new trailer revealing a Businesses and Hobbies pack arriving next month.

The pack instantly strikes me as The Sims 4 version of The Sims 2's own Open for Business expansion, boasting long-awaited features like multi-type lots in which Sims can both work and live. As for the showcased hobbies and jobs themselves, the video highlights all sorts of activities for Sims to engage in, from running an entire candy shop to training and operating as tattoo artists with fully customizable tattoos.

Yes, fully customizable – players can draw their own tattoos without restrictions to place on Sims' bodies – whether that's for better or worse. As a Simmer myself, I can already foresee the whacky ink the community is sure to come up with, and the trailer's inclusion of a snail wearing a cowboy hat atop a skateboard likely doesn't even scratch the surface of what silly designs fans will create come Businesses and Hobbies' launch.

The trailer shows other hobbies and jobs in action, too, including pottery – one that aligns especially well with other packs' such as Nifty Knitting. There's no telling what else is to come with the Businesses and Hobbies expansion just yet, however, until it launches on March 6. If you're like me and you already can't wait to play, you can pre-order the pack now on the official EA website for $39.99 and score some extra goodies.

The Sims is back after 25 years, and it's teaching Sims 4 players a lesson in retro life sim difficulty: "Damn this game is hard"

Speaking in a recent interview with The New York Times, Wright discusses the conception of The Sims – a title that "everyone in the room hated the idea of" but arguably revolutionized the simulation genre. "In early versions of the game," admits the developer, "the autonomy was too good." So good, in fact, that the Sims actually managed to outplay the players in a way. "Almost anything the player did was worse than the Sims running on autopilot."

There's no fun in a life sim without any "sim" elements, so to speak – so what did Wright do? He stirred some chaotic energy into the mix and got the game's Sims to a comfortable, much more user-reliant stage in which controlling them felt rewarding. Suddenly, things could take a turn for the worse very quickly. A grilled cheese sandwich could morph into a killer fire, and a pet guinea pig's bite could leave Sims with a deadly disease.

According to Wright, the ridiculous and often nonsensical way Sims approach problems is a deliberate inclusion on the devs' behalf. All of us long-time fans of The Sims have witnessed it firsthand: a fire breaks out, and Sims react by flailing their arms around wildly while yelling rather than extinguishing the flames themselves. It's what makes the series so wonderfully whacky, though, and it gives players a sense of godlike purpose.

The difficulty of managing everything isn't for everyone, however, and recent reactions to EA's The Sims and The Sims 2 re-releases on PC prove as much. In fact, the original game seems to be teaching newer fans of The Sims 4 a lesson in retro life sim difficulty, and as a hardened Simmer myself, I get it – my own Sims 2 re-release preview discusses how much harder (and more rewarding) the series used to be.

The rise, fall, and rise again of The Sims: 10 moments that shaped EA's 25-year life sim legacy

It looks like EA is wishing The Sims a very humple borpnah, between the Legacy Collection re-releases on PC and the new Sims 4 update – but it's not done. In what appears to be a teaser for a full trailer coming Thursday, February 6, a Sim is seen lying atop a massage-style table with an uncomfortable expression across his face. A tattoo is clearly visible on his arm, and what looks to be tattoo ink-esque art adorns the wall.

The attached caption also sounds oddly tattoo-aligned: "That's gonna leave a mark." Could a tattoo artist career be in the works for The Sims 4? Rumors of a possible expansion themed around hobbies and jobs have been floating about social media recently, and EA's short clip might point to there being some truth to them. Fans are already speculating that the coming trailer will showcase just that – another pack that's all about careers.

"GET TO WORK 2.0 WE WON," comments one especially enthusiastic Simmer. "I'm so ready for The Sims 4 Open for Freetime Expansion Pack," jokes another. There's no telling just yet whether that's what the teaser is truly leading up to reveal, however, or if the rumors circulating online will ring true. For now, though, the community has over 70 colorful clothes and items to explore as well as the new Blast from the Past event to play through.

The Sims is back after 25 years, and it's teaching Sims 4 players a lesson in retro life sim difficulty: "Damn this game is hard"

But 25 years later, with The Sims 4 still going strong, it's no doubt that EA struck gold by swapping to life sims. As one of the longest-running, best loved game franchises ever, you'd be hard pressed not to find someone with fond memories of it – past or present. But how did we get here from the days of Windows 98? I've picked out my top 10 standout additions to the game across its history that now stand out as milestone moments, each a stepping stone from risky venture to genre titan as we celebrate 25 years of Simming.

10. The Sims (2000)

Many credit The Sims' 2000 launch with birthing the life sim genre as we know it today, refining and reframing more holistic management tools as seen in the best city builders to put a new challenge before players: to build and manage a digital life.

It's a simple enough premise, but it's one that stuck. The Sims gamified the normalcies of life with an oddly therapeutic touch, turning mundanity to intrigue as players navigated not only their own Sim families but those of resident townies and NPCs, uncovering existing world lore while creating their own stories and changing the landscape of the neighborhood – literally, too, thanks to Build Mode. The Sims provided the raw sandbox tools and let our creativity run wild with them, paving the way for the series' second generation.

9. Preset narratives (The Sims 2, 2004)

The Sims 2 improved on its predecessor in many ways, but one that stands out is the introduction of preset stories in pre-made households. From map view, players could hover over base game families to read a short blurb about each of them, painting a Desperate Housewives-like portrait of their scandalous domestic dramas.

From them, we can learn that Don Lothario is wooing both Caliente sisters. Daniel Pleasant is having an affair with his housemaid. The Monty and Capps of Veronaville are constantly at one another's throats, much like their Shakespearean namesakes. Not only did preset narratives encourage more interactivity between player-made families and pre-made ones, it opened up the door for The Sims 2 as a narrative devising platform, with the ability to edit each blurb in accordance with the player's own influence on each household. Sadly, these preset family biographies were nixed in follow-up games, but The Sims 2 is when the franchise really started feeling like a story-led experience as well as a management sim.

8. The Sims 2: Seasons (2007)

Who knew a little thing like snow could make such a massive difference? The Sims 2: Seasons stands out as a momentous release in franchise history, proving the power of subtlety over kitsch when it comes to immersion factor. Seasons brought weather to Pleasantview and beyond, as well as functional outerwear and holiday celebrations to create a stronger sense of time passage in the lives of our Sims.

The implementation of seasonal weather also had knock-on effects for many other gameplay systems. A rainy day called for coats and boots, with Sims popping open an umbrella when stepping out in stormy weather. Neglecting to wrap up during winter meant your Sim could freeze to death in their swim suits, or die of heatstroke in the summer months if they didn't stay cool. Many expansion packs have made the jump between generations, but Seasons became such an intrinsic part of The Sims 2 that it's now seen as a must-have for The Sims 3 and 4 respectively. If that's not a milestone, I don't know what is.

7. Open world, open life (The Sims 3, 2009)

Ask anyone what they miss about The Sims 3, and it's likely they will say the open world format. Doing away with the loading screens between neighborhood view and individual lots, The Sims 3 was the first time we could watch our Sims stroll around town with a pram, drive their cars around, or visit rabbit hole lots on foot.

The Sims 4 did retain the open world view, but it never quite caught up to The Sims 3's unbroken sense of immersion. Not to mention, the newest iteration of the game is still markedly lacking driveable cars. Guess bikes and horses will have to do for now, but if there's one thing I hope to see from EA now that there's no Sims 5 on the horizon, it's the return of cars – and fewer loading screens, please.

6. Bye bye, landlines (The Sims 3, 2009)

With the advent of The Sims 3 came one of the most important markers of modern tech being represented in the game: the mobile phone. Every teenage and older Sim came equipped with their own cellphone in their inventory, doing away with the necessity for the all-important wall or tabletop phone cradle that featured so heavily in Sims 1 and 2.

I remember being appalled by it at first, especially given how many self-imposed challenges I liked to embark on at the time that restricted my Sims' use of tech – the Decades Challenge, for example. But soon, I struggled to remember life before my Sims could play games on their phone while using the toilet, giving their Fun need a nice little buff in the process. Phones would become much more useful in later instalments, as I'll mention further down the list, but here's a shout out to one of The Sims 3's most daring improvements.

5. Hair to stay (The Sims 3: Generations, 2011)

When body hair was added to The Sims 3, giving players the option to make their Sims look more like real actual people, it didn't feel like as much of a paradigm shift as it turned out to be. But really, we wouldn't have the more realistic Sim bodies and families we know and love in 2025 if not for The Sims 3: Generations championing the basics.

Inclusivity has become the lifeblood of modern Simming. Putting acne cream on teenagers in The Sims 2 was one of the more immersive, realistic gameplay elements of its era, but Generations upped the ante by offering not only more ways for players to see themselves represented in the game, but more ways to tell stories. All that shaggy body hair would also lead quite nicely into another Sims 3 era milestone that loved to howl at the moon…

4. Occult frenzy (The Sims 3: Supernatural, 2012)

Much as I love the Victorian gothic vampires in The Sims 2: Nightlife, my occult-loving heart truly felt seen in The Sims 3: Supernatural. While zombies and ghosts had been around since 2000, Supernatural adding werewolves, reworked vampires, witches, and fairies into the life state mix allowed players to put a hint of the unusual into their sleepy suburban towns – and boy, did it work a treat.

Werewolves turning at the stroke of midnight on a moonlit night, marking the first time lunar phases were added to the franchise. Fairies sleeping in their treehouses after shrinking down to the size of glowbugs. Vampires that hide in plain sight, no longer dressed head to toe in velvet gowns and ornate diadems, skulking around nightclubs in search of prey. Witches quietly passing down the art of magic to the next generation, more Charmed than Hocus Pocus. The Sims 3: Supernatural stands out as one of my favorite expansion packs in franchise history due to how cleverly each of the occult types is presented, doing away with the kitschy extremities of The Sims 2 to present a more refined take on how these beings might live among us in peace – or cause chaos, if they so wish. Sims 4 Werewolves, eat your heart out.

3. Love app-tually (The Sims 4: Highschool Years, 2022)

With the introduction of smartphones well established by the time The Sims 4: Highschool Years was released, there was only one thing left to do. Mirror the youth of today and give Sim kids more reasons to doomscroll!

The Trendii app allows teenagers and older Sims to thrift and sell their own outfit creations, giving highschoolers another way to earn a little money on top of their part time jobs and potentially pave the way for a future in fashion. We also have social media apps added, with Sims able to create their own profiles, gain followers, and carve a road to influencerdom. It sounds bizarre, but by giving teen Sims so many ways to utilize their mobile phones, Highschool Years might be the first time my teenage Sims felt like… well, teenagers. It was just the beginning; 2024's Lovestruck followed suit with the addition of a dating app, and with so many app options out there ripe for the reimagining, I don't imagine Cupid's Corner will be the last.

2. Teething problems (The Sims 4: Growing Together, 2023)

We do not speak of the darkest time in The Sims 4 history when toddlers were markedly absent from the game and babies would age into 7-year-old children overnight. But perhaps Growing Together is an apology for that, proving a milestone achievement on EA's quest to deliver expansive gameplay opportunities at every stage of Sim life.

Infants were added as an interim age group between babies and toddlers in one of my favorite Sims expansions of 2023. They don't do very much except poop, cry, and try to waddle about, but there's something special about seeing realistic infancy in a game that has always put immersion at the heart of its intentions – whether or not it followed through. Having a chance to watch babies reach their milestones is made all the more worthwhile for the knock-on effects to their toddler stage, allowing them to become more confident and developed young people who don't need half as much help using the potty or learning to talk. No more "grew up poorly" traits for you, then.

1. New beginnings (2024 – ?)

This might not be a milestone moment in a Sims pack, but it has changed the course of the series as we once knew it. As we enter 2025, The Sims is embarking on an exciting, albeit strange, new adventure. EA announced last year that The Sims 4 is to exist in perpetuity for the time being as the central Sims product, with no plans for The Sims 5 in the pipeline.

What does this mean? Well, for now, it means we won't have to fork out another few grand for new expansion packs for a brand new Sims generation, because The Sims 4 seems here to stay. EA has fought long and hard to get the game up to scratch, even if it took a few years to catch up to the community's expectations. All that's left to do is look ahead to the 25 years stretching out before us, and wonder what could possibly come next. Hint: cars, please.

Could inZOI finally beat The Sims at its own game?

With a release window planned sometime within the first quarter of 2025, The Planar Danse's enchanting new management gem is just around the corner, and it looks like the perfect clash of Hogwarts Legacy's whimsical wizardry and The Sims 4's more strategic decision-based sim gameplay. In The Fool's Apprentice, players are tasked with stepping into the shoes of a so-called "benevolent professor" and running a wizard academy.

It doesn't seem as though it'll be your run-of-the-mill management sim either, but rather a wonderfully whacky experience in which you can cast spells on your own students to "gently nudge them in the right direction" – but between all the mind control and disintegration The Planar Danse describes, I'm personally not sure how they're defining "gently" here. It's more survival of the fittest for this academy's students, I'd say.

To produce the best and brightest wizards, you'll not only cast spells on them but also work to construct an "ideal Conservatory." This part plays more into the strategic side of The Fool's Apprentice, but it's not all mental math. You can decorate to your heart's content, too, just as you do the Room of Requirement in Hogwarts Legacy. There's a more narrative-driven part of the game to follow as well for all of us lore lovers.

If The Fool's Apprentice sounds like it'd be right up your alley, you can learn more about the sim on Steam and wishlist it to stay atop any future news. You can also explore the free demo to get an early taste of The Planar Danse's game before its upcoming release on PC. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some very important spell-casting to do and some very unruly students to discipline – if you can call it that.

The release of Hogwarts Legacy has been the subject of criticism and debate due to J.K. Rowling's public stance on gender identity, which continues to challenge the inclusivity at the heart of the Harry Potter community. Here is our explainer on the Hogwarts Legacy controversy.

I'm here to remind you of the best Sims spin-offs in franchise history, dating back to the Game Boy Advance, DS, and one particular PC game that still holds up brilliantly in 2025. Alas, most of the games below can only be played on the original hardware, but there are one or two that you can still pick up and play today on more modern tech. Ready for a nostalgia trip that only EA could provide? Here are the best ever Sims spin-offs for the ultimate trip down memory lane.

8. MySims

Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, mobile

The latest old-school Sims spin-off to land on modern tech, MySims has actually been around for years on classic Nintendo handhelds and consoles. The cozy base builder is different in every way from the mainline Sims games, not only in its more chibi-like cartoonish art design but in its mechanics as well. Rather than create a family, you help a small town rebuild itself to former glory. It's not my favorite Sims spin-off of the bunch, purely down to personal taste. But if you're looking for a game like The Sims that's still markedly different from it – and one you can play on your Switch to boot – then look no further than MySims.

7. The Sims 2: Apartment Pets

Platform(s): Nintendo DS

Playing off two of the mainline game's most popular expansion packs of the generation, The Sims 2: Apartment Pets is a sweet albeit simple Nintendo DS game. It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like: you own an apartment, and you live in it with a furry friend. The thing that makes Apartment Pets one of the best Sims spin-offs is less the content of the game itself, but the way it makes use of the DS's model specifics to make the experience somehow incredibly engaging. It's one of those games that immediately makes me pine for the days when two screens were king, and if you have your old DS knocking about, it's well worth a try.

6. The Sims 2: Pets (Console)

Platform(s): Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, PS2, Game Cube, PSP, Nintendo Wii

Riffing off the last suggestion but with a little more to it, The Sims 2: Pets saw myriad console and handheld translations. My personal suggestion is the Nintendo DS version, where your Sim works as a vet and must examine, diagnose, and treat a range of animal maladies. It's a fun change-up from the life sim norm, playing more like a management sim with base building elements as your vet builds their reputation, works to inpatient treatment deadlines, and cuddles a lot of cats and dogs along the way. Each iteration of The Sims 2: Pets is slightly different, so whichever one you go for, know that it'll be a wholly unique experience.

5. The Sims 2: Castaway

Platform(s): Nintendo Wii, PSP, PS2, Nintendo DS, mobile

What if The Sims 2 had a baby with 2004 TV show Lost? That seems to be the premise of one of my favorite Sims spin-offs, Castaway. Your Sims can thrive in the safe cushy comfort of Pleasantview, but how will they fare on a desert island? The form of a survival game is an oddly perfect fit, using the key Needs management components of The Sims to hone in on the basics of food, water, and shelter maintenance. This is another spin-off where the content varies depending on your platform of choice, but the broad strokes are much the same – which means I recommend you try them all.

4. The Sims 2 (Console)

Platform(s): Nintendo DS, PSP, Game Boy Advance, PS2

We're getting down to the nitty gritty, but it wouldn't be a best Sims spin-off list without pretty much every console iteration of The Sims 2. Unlike how The Sims 4's PS5 edition is identical to the original PC format, The Sims 2 offered unique experiences to all Nintendo and Sony console owners. There's the hotel manager-meets-mystery solver machinations of The Sims 2 for DS, the PSP and PS2's bizarre alien antics, the chance to go undercover in Strangetown on a secret reality show in one of the best GBA games… The Sims 2 really was the king of bonkers spin-offs. It's a testament to EA's boundless creativity when it comes to drawing upon the series' wackiest themes, and I still hold each of them in the highest regard in 2025.

3. The Sims Bustin' Out

Platform(s): Game Boy Advance, PS2, Xbox, Game Cube

I can only speak for one of these editions, but The Sims Bustin' Out – for Game Boy Advance specifically – is a silly-good time. This narrative-focused adventure game sees us exploring new towns never before seen in the world of The Sims, though some faces might be familiar to anyone who's played the other Sims spin-offs on this list. In Bustin' Out, it's all about the grind – which means plenty of Simoleon-boosting minigames on top of winding stories to unravel. There's the requisite Needs management to factor into things as well – this is a Sims game after all – but Bustin' Out put a fresh and streetwise spin on the franchise that walked so our next entry could really run.

2. The Urbz: Sims in the City

Platform(s): Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, PS2, Xbox, GameCube

Ah, The Urbz. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't think The Urbz is one of the top two Sims spin-offs of all time, and that's all down to its striking maturity. All grown up and in the big city, our Urb is out to be the king or queen of Urbania. From getting a job as a piercer in the game's opening missions to choosing your rep group and fighting for their street cred, The Urbz opened up Sims players to a whole new realm of opportunities. The Game Boy and PS2 versions are very dear to my heart, a moment of bravery as EA decided to take a leap forward into more sophisticated territory by challenging its players to make it big outside suburbia for a change.

1. The Sims: Medieval

Platform(s): PC, Mac

Come on, are you really surprised? The Sims Medieval is the pinnacle of Sims spin-offs, reigning supreme over them all. Chaptered instalments allow you to play as everything from a monarch, an apothecary, or a religious figure as you take on quests to explore, control, and grow your kingdom's territory. It's the perfect blend of quasi-RPG mechanics, the life sim genre, and elements of base building to create a unique experience that sits more than comfortably as top dog of EA's off-shoot entries. It's really been no contest in the 14 years since its launch – and with a surprise new patch that dropped just weeks ago, The Sims Medieval's crown shows no sign of tarnishing.

Check out all the best games like The Sims if you're looking to branch out from EA's offerings.

Thankfully, however, EA is listening to fans' feedback on the game-breaking issues and might have updates in store to resolve them. Writing in a recent announcement on the official Sims forums, one community manager reveals that the company is aware of the problems players are facing with the retro re-releases. "We recognize some fans are currently experiencing various issues with The Sims: Legacy Collection and The Sims 2: Legacy Collection."

The lead continues, explaining that EA is looking into the reported issues: "We are currently investigating these issues and hope to have more information on fixes soon." There's no solid confirmation of upcoming patches or updates, but the statement certainly seems to imply they're underway or at least planned. To speed the process up, EA encourages fans to send in reports with "screenshots, videos, dxdiags, and (for TS1) vulkaninfo.exe files."

There's no telling when EA will release fixes, but as a fan myself, I hope they arrive sooner rather than later. I discuss some of the issues players are facing more in my own Sims 2 re-release preview, where I experience one too many crashes. For now, at least, Simmers can look to mods for quick resolutions. The community has been fast to round up the best, with one fan going as far as compiling a "masterlist" of over 200 Sims 2 mods.

The Sims is back after 25 years, and it's teaching Sims 4 players a lesson in retro life sim difficulty: "Damn this game is hard"

Now that the original Sims game has returned to the limelight thanks to EA's celebratory 25th birthday re-releases, both old fans and newcomers alike are experiencing the pixel-y chaos of the life sim series' first game. It hasn't all been positive, however, with a steep learning curve – more than two decades have passed since The Sims first launched, after all. As one player writes in an online thread on the difficulty, "The Sims 1 is VERY challenging."

The poster goes on to discuss the ways in which The Sims 1 differs from newer titles, noting how hard needs, jobs, relationships, skills, and other mechanics are. "The Sims 1 is the opposite of The Sims 4 in that sense, where it focuses heavily on gameplay and very little on storytelling," they conclude. "It's fun if you want a strategy game with Sims-like mechanics." Other players seem to echo the same sentiment – The Sims isn't easy.

"I forgot how hard this game is," shares another Simmer. "I'M STRUGGLING." Attached to their post is a telling screenshot of The Sims 1 showing their Sims standing atop a pool of water while cooking, their needs all dangerously low. Elsewhere, a well-known Sims 4 stan jokes that "Sims in Sims 1 are too depressed to do anything most of the time" alongside pictures of pop-up messages in-game referring to various depressed Sims.

One Sim is "too depressed to even look at myself," while another is "not in the mood to churn cream into butter." Relatable, honestly – maybe a bit too much, as most players are seemingly looking to escape the difficulties of real life. These aren't the only firsthand accounts describing just how hard The Sims is, either. "I've been trying to make this girlie famous," reads another such online thread, "but damn this game is hard."

The frustrated poster continues: "She is in the trenches, broke, and only made it to two stars after over four hours of gameplay. I keep selling furniture to pay the bills. House constantly filled with flies and roaches." As a longtime lover of all things Sims myself, I get it – my own Sims 2 re-release preview discusses how much harder (and more rewarding) the series' older entries are. It's nothing a little rosebud or two can't fix, though.

Playing EA's re-releases? Check out this fan's "masterlist" of over 200 mods for The Sims 2.

It's no secret that a game with 25-year-old roots isn't as fleshed out as modern-day releases. The Sims 2 isn't The Sims 4, with all its shiny DLC and ongoing updates, but that doesn't mean the re-release has to feel empty. Madi, known online as "acottonsock," proves as much with her handy collection of 200+ mods for The Sims 2. Revealing her list of downloads in a recent post, she breathes a virtual sigh of relief – "I did it. I actually did it."

After "scouring the internet for mods from 2006," with "some embedded DEEP in forum posts," Madi has come out with a so-called "mods masterlist" that might just stand as the most thorough collection to date. "My fingers are RAW," she jokes. "BUT IT'S DONE." Her efforts aren't going unnoticed, either, with thousands of bookmarks and various comments expressing thanks for the list: "You are an essential part of the Sims 2 ecosystem."

The Sims 2 mods included in Madi's roundup range from near-necessary game fixes to silly additions that fit perfectly within the life sim's already whacky atmosphere. Are you looking to overhaul Create-A-Sim? Check the list. Are you hoping to romance Bigfoot? The list has you covered. As a fan myself, browsing the mods honestly feels like entering a time machine and reliving The Sims series' wildest era – and I'm so here for it. Madi notes that it's not guaranteed that every mod will work with the new re-release, but fans are already working on a spreadsheet to test out which ones are.

Madi's mods don't just bring new features or interactions to the table, though. Many of them also address some of the old game's biggest problems with convenient fixes – and as I write in my own Sims 2 re-release preview, the recent Legacy Collection is sadly no stranger to the original's issues. From the often-broken attraction system to wonky animations, the list boasts resolutions for just about everything there is to address.

Need something to look forward to now? Here are the biggest new games for 2025 and beyond.

My Little Life had the unfortunate luck of coming out in the shadow of the The Sim Legacy Collection, but it's faring much better with 93% of user reviews leaving a thumbs up on Steam for blending Maxis' life sim progression with the joys that come with having a little Tamagotchi friend.

Essentially, you'll have a character that lives on the bottom of your desktop and needs a little bit of help fulfilling their day-to-day needs. At first, they'll need a toilet to poop in. Then they'll need a career you can choose and equipment to help them do it - a canvas if they're a painter, a computer if they're a tech whizz. From there, you can use their hard-earned cash to keep expanding and decorating their house, improving their stats, and finding friends/neighbors to keep them company while you're busy pretending to do work or surfing for Steam sales instead.

What starts as a simple affair about upkeeping a single four wall house soon expands - after a few hours the bottom of your screen looks more like an ant colony housing multiple rooms and little inhabitants all grinding for cash and skittering about. It's cute, it's chill, and there's lots of room for personalization.

There's a 10% introductory offer going right now or you can grab it in a bundle featuring another idle sim that I've been hooked on recently: the one about a sleepy frogman that does nothing but nap and farm all day. You won't regret dropping $4 on it. I promise!

Keep an eye on the upcoming indie games of 2025 and beyond for more unexpected hits.

Ropuka's Idle Island is exactly what the name suggests. Ropuka is a sleepy frog person who lives on an island of grass. His home rests idly anywhere on your desktop while you chill, play other games, get sucked into internet rabbit holes, watch anime, pay taxes, or do work. He's even waving his green hand up at me while I write these very words.

It's not entirely automated, though. Ropuka takes constant naps to recharge his stamina, at which point he'll get up to cut grass that serves as the game's currency. You can use it to upgrade his stamina bar, improve how efficient his naps are, and raise the quality of the grass, just to name a few examples. Or you can trade greens for gold that can then be exchanged for loot boxes that dish out random cosmetics, like a floral crown for dear Ropuka, different trees for his island, and other lovely stuff. When you stop to think about it too hard, all you're doing is decorating his tiny little prison. 10-second naps followed by 10 seconds of farming - what kind of life is that? But, just, don't think about it too hard, okay? It's cuter that way.

I've never really been sucked in to the various idle games that populate PC storefronts nowadays, but I'm properly in love with Ropuka's Idle Island. As someone whose attention span is in the gutter - I struggle to get more than an hour of work done without being distracted by something on the wall - the game is sort of a life saver. Mentally, I tell myself that all I need to do is X amount of work or admin before I can afford the next upgrade for my little frog friend, which helps me stay on track. His lo-fi beats don't hurt either. 

You can entrap the little guy on Steam right now. Surprise, surprise: 98% of reviews are also positive.

For now, don’t miss a single exciting release with our new games of 2025 and beyond release calendar.  

This new version of The Sims 2 includes compatibility for Windows 10 and 11 and a handful of technical improvements, like out-of-the-box support for widescreen and high resolutions, according to the official release notes. But this isn't quite a full remaster, and the day one rollout has left something to be desired for many fans.

The current Steam review reception for The Sims 2 is sitting at "mixed." A handful of the critiques aren't really relevant - an early version of the Steam page said that the game included the controversial Denuvo DRM, but it actually doesn't - but it's tough to argue with the amount of people who are suffering crashes.

Regular crashes seem to be the big problem with this release of The Sims 2, and while some users don't seem to be experiencing any problems at all, it's a common thread in both the negative Steam reviews and other reports on social media like Reddit. Crashes also plagued The Sims 2 during our pre-release time with the new version.

I'm happy that the classic Sims games are back on digital stores, but I'm disappointed that these megaliths of PC gaming - again, some of the most popular and influential games ever made - couldn't rate better than a thin upgrade to modern PCs. I've no doubt that the task of getting these games with all their expansions and extra content running reliably is a monumental task for developers, but if anything deserves that level of attention it's The Sims. Here's hoping EA and Maxis are at least able to fix the worst of the crashes - that's a part of 2004 PC gaming I'm not eager to relive.

If you're looking for more games like The Sims, you know where to click.

The brief teaser video shows a truck move from a dirt roadside stop area beside what appears to be a corn field. Behind the truck, a sign for US Route 66 is revealed. The obvious implication here is that Illinois - which hosts the final stretch of Route 66 not yet in the game - will be the next DLC state, after the respective releases of the previously-announced Missouri, Iowa, and Louisiana.

As an icon of the US road system, Route 66 represents a major milestone for American Truck Simulator. The game originally launched in 2016 with the states of Nevada and California, the latter of which featured the eastern end of Route 66. Over the years, more and more pieces of the road got added alongside further state DLC packs - first with the free Arizona DLC later in 2016, then with New Mexico in 2017, Texas in 2022, and Oklahoma and Kansas in 2023.

Route 66 will continue with the Missouri DLC sometime in the hopefully near future before reaching its end point in Chicago. We're now nine years out from the game's original launch, and Illinois will likely mark its 18th state DLC, by which point the total cost of those DLC packs is certain to stretch past $200.

That'll be an eye-watering number for anybody just getting curious about ATS here in 2025, but for those of us who've been picking it all up piecemeal over the past decade, this is just another major milestone in the game's continued eastward expansion, though certainly a big one.

By now, the game's covered nearly two-thirds of the geographical US, and while it once seemed impossible that this little simulator from a small Czech studio would actually make good on the dream of covering all 48 contiguous states, it now feels almost inevitable.

I've waited 8 years for American Truck Simulator to recreate my hometown and I wasn't prepared to see the 200-year-old tree my entire university mourned brought back to life.

Hoople borpna to The Sims – it's the series' 25th birthday, and EA is celebrating big with a re-release of the first two games and all of their DLC on PC. Fans can purchase both The Sims and The Sims 2 as part of The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle for $40 or opt to buy just one of the two separately from the collection. The re-releases are available on the EA App, Epic Games Store, and Steam – but are not currently on console.

The Sims and The Sims 2 are dropping as Legacy Collections with all expansions and packs included. For the first game, this means Livin' Large, House Party, Hot Date, Vacation, Unleashed, Superstar, Makin’ Magic, and a special kit for The Sims 4 – the Throwback Fit Kit. Similarly for the sequel, the Legacy Collection boasts all The Sims 2 DLC as well as a Sims 4 goodie thrown in with the Grunge Revival Kit.

It's certainly exciting, but it's important to note that these are re-releases and not remasters or remakes by any means. I discuss this more in my own Sims 2 re-release preview, where I find that while ultimately fun and nostalgic, the Birthday Bundle falls short of some expectations fans might have. It's still very much the same janky 32-bit experience as before, but it's also the only way players without disc copies can (legally) enjoy the series' two most timeless entries.

Need something else to look forward to now? Here are the biggest new games for 2025 and beyond.

My earliest memory of The Sims 2 sees that same six-year-old girl crowding around her friend's PC alongside other curious children, craving just a few minutes of gameplay. I had to tell my brother and mother about it immediately, and whether it was wise of them or not, they caved and gave me my very own copy of what might just be the most revolutionary entry in EA's beloved series of 25 years. These memories are still dear to me today.

When I was offered the chance to play The Sims 2 again to preview EA's exciting re-release, you can imagine I jumped at the chance. Getting in-game has instantly transported me back to 2006 – although this time, I have a much better PC and, perhaps unfortunately, the ability to detect the jankiness six-year-old me didn't care about. Despite all of the bugs and the crashing, though, I'm one happy camper with The Sims 2 back in my library.

Sul sul!

The silly intro. That's what strikes me first about the re-release. It's a minor feature from The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 that The Sims 4 lacks, yet its impact is anything but small. Hearing that "sul sul" at the start genuinely made my heart flutter. Then the music – oh my god, the music. This really is the same Sims 2 I've loved for so long, for better or worse. Even when I'm not actively in-game, I can still hear Mark Mothersbaugh's banger tunes on repeat.

After embarrassingly jamming out to loading screen music, I find myself finally selecting my neighborhood. I pick Strangetown, of course, because if I'm going to experience The Sims 2 again it's only going to be with all of the wild little things that set the sequel apart – alien abductions, craters, and UFOs included. I scatter a few decorations around the map before entering Create-A-Sim, prepared to tackle one of my favorite parts of every Sims game.

I'm blasted back to the early 2000s, an era in which crop tops, mini skirts, and zodiac signs were just so in. The overall customization isn't great compared to The Sims 3 or The Sims 4, but its simplicity is what makes it so great. The choices I do have are enough – I mean, what more could a girl need than some hot pink lipstick, a bright blue bikini, and a disgustingly tight dress adorned with a thin fuzzy scarf that screams Y2K?

I make my household – a small family with two sisters, a cat, and a dog. It's time to find a house they can afford now, and as always, my go-to is Tidy Tudor. No, it doesn't fit well in Strangetown, but yes, I'm going to customize the ever-loving hell out of it to make it work. The Nightingales, my little family, move in and I set out to work on their ill-fitting home. As I enter the build-and-buy modes, I'm blessed by nostalgia-inducing music once more.

This isn't The Sims 4, so there aren't a billion expansion packs' worth of objects to use while decorating. This is, however, The Sims 2, which means that everything present in-game is more than enough for me. I mean, come on, just look at Teen Style Stuff – that colorful gaming PC and boombox are all I really need. I never feel overwhelmed by choices, but I do wish things were easier to navigate after being spoiled by more modern entries.

I also wish my Sims had more money, but that's nothing a motherlode or two can't solve. I'm happy to report The Sims 2 cheats we all know and love are still intact, and you bet I'm going to use them. Suddenly, the Nightingales are 50,000 Simoleons richer – and I can decorate to my heart's content. But no cheat code can save me from the real problem The Sims 2 still suffers from decades on: how damn broken it feels sometimes.

O vwa vwaf sna!

I try to use the redesign tool, and I crash. I open my game again, and all of my settings are gone and my progress on Tidy Tudor has fallen back to square one. No bother, I'll just redo everything – oh no, I've crashed again. I figure out what inputs seem to trigger the crashing and avoid them, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't all a nuisance. I should be able to use the tools the game has to offer without worrying about losing saves.

What annoys me the most, however, is that even when I do everything "right" and avoid the supposed triggers, I still crash at random intervals. It's fine, I guess, I tell myself – I'll save every few minutes and crack on. I finally finish the Nightingales' house, saving constantly out of paranoia, and dive into the whacky live mode. This is what I've truly been waiting for, and I absolutely will not allow The Sims 2's jankiness to get in the way.

I'm glad I don't, because it's amazing. Awesome, as six-year-old me would describe it. There's an alien on my lot, rotting newspapers on my lawn, and random Sims dipping in and out of my pool. This is the Sims 2 I've adored for almost two decades now. I search for jobs via the news, employ both my Sims and their pets, and flirt with just about every stranger visiting the revamped Tidy Tudor – weird alien neighbor guy included, of course.

Dag dag!

Everything is so ridiculous, and I love it. It's all ten times more difficult than The Sims 4, an entry that has arguably watered down so much of the series' identity. It takes ages to build a relationship with another Sim and every decision matters – every decision, y'all. One of the Nightingale sisters works in the medical field, and I'm thrilled when I make the right choice that leads to a spontaneous promotion on her first day on the job.

I'm not so thrilled a few days later when I opt for the wrong choice and she's fired. Fired, just like that! It's brutal, but I'm so here for it. The Sims 2 makes decisions feel like they actually matter, just as it does with interactions and relationships. Even though the wants and fears system is less advanced than it is in newer Sims games, it also seems far more impactful. I truly care about my Sims' desires and strive to avoid what sets them back.

I simply can't get enough of it – the chaos, the charm, the downright simulation wilderness that is The Sims 2. Whenever I crash, I immediately boot my game back up and resume playing. I'd recommend any longtime fans of the original give the re-release a go, honestly, despite its performance-related quirks. Newcomers might not enjoy it as much, but that's okay – I'd say this re-release is launching with us hardened Sims 2 veterans in mind anyway.

Need something else to look forward to now? Here are the biggest new games for 2025 and beyond.

"Butters personally recommended this game to me," says a review with over 300 "helpful" ratings. "He's a true gamer, and I got to say, his recommendation was spot on. 10/10, definitely pick this one up."

"Butters was right," agrees another review. "My friend Butters enjoyed this," chimes in another. "Butters my beloved," yet another review announces, "your prophecy has been fulfilled."

Butters – the most innocent child in South Park – unintentionally shares a crystalline vision of the future in a 2006 episode. While all the other boys in town are working on their World of Warcraft builds, Butters decides the MMORPG isn't for him.

"You said you're on your computer all the time," Cartman scoffs in front of all their friends.

"Yeah," continues cutie Butters, "but I'm playing Hello Kitty: Island Adventure." The room is silent.

It took nearly 20 years, but developer Sunblink eventually avenged Butters – though, Sanrio first teased making an Island Adventure game in a 2008 April Fool's joke. Either way, fans can now honor Butters by grinding coconuts on Apple Arcade, or Switch, or PC.

"I don't play World of Warcraft," one Steam review with nearly 150 "helpful" ratings says bravely, "but I'm playing Hello Kitty: Island Adventure."

Animal Crossing's "obscure references" were all "localized out completely" before its debut in the West, as Nintendo felt it needed to "change everything."

The official website for The Sims has been updated with an image that shows a Sims 1 character with a Sims 2 interaction wheel in the background, as noted by Sims Community. This comes as Maxis and EA gear up for what they're calling "Nostalgia Week," which a roadmap tweet says will take place between January 27 and January 31.

So what does this teaser image mean? Series fans are certainly hoping that it indicates remastered versions of Sims 1 and Sims 2 are on the way. While both games remain among the most popular and influential titles ever released, neither have been available for purchase for a very long time. Even if you track down the original game discs - or choose to indulge in piracy - they're both notoriously difficult to get up and running on modern PCs.

Modernized versions of these games that'll actually run on a contemporary desktop PC have been at the top of my own wishlist for years, and I've got my fingers crossed that the wait is coming to an end. EA has already graced us with remasters of the old MySims spin-offs, and there'd be no better way to cap the series' ongoing 25th anniversary celebrations than with a return of the games that started it all.

After waking up to the first Sims 3 update from EA in 10 years, all fans can think about is the potential for more: "So it begins"

"As you say, [in] the previous games, people were coming to those establishments with a particular problem that needed solving, right? Or they wanted to learn a specific thing," says lead designer Luke Finlay-Maxwell when we talk about the series' evolution tackling different business types. "Whereas with Museum, we wanted to make sure that the player has quite a lot of agency in how they're shaping the guest experience."

Rate and review

Which isn't to say guests don't have needs. They'll still leave you negative ratings if they have the gall to be unable to wait ten minutes to use the loo after chugging your deliberately overpriced soda. They'll still have preferences for what they want to see, be it prehistory fossils or haunted artifacts. But it's up to you to choose what to display, and how to guide guests through that experience. "There's still things the player has to cater for, but there's a much bigger emphasis on how the guest sort of looks at your creation," says Finlay-Maxwell. Enticing players is something the team are consciously aware nods to the likes of Theme Park World.

What you have available to place in your exhibits, and when they show up, all revolves around Expeditions. This vital new addition has you sending your experts off periodically to explore, encounter random events, and bring back something exciting. "The very first prototype was just a timer, and you just click the timer and you'd get something," says Finlay-Maxwell. "Then we started looking at, you know, how can we make more impacts on the museum? So then, naturally, that led to things like events, so your staff members can get mucky feet [...], or they can even go MIA."

In practice, it becomes something like a second half of the game that comes in waves alongside your chase for star ratings for each museum you're managing. "We didn't want the expedition system to feel like it was just this completely separate thing," says design director Ben Huskins. "You've got what happens to your team that you send on an expedition, like they come back injured or with a curse or something like that, and that has a real, tangible effects on, you know, then back in the museum, might stop them from being able to do other jobs or go off on another expedition."

But it also adds a whole complimentary progression system. "As you explore those maps, you will encounter interesting new things that you need to think about, whether it's your team needing to be qualified in certain things, or certain cargo items that you can take on the expedition," says Huskins. "And you get to a point where actually at least some of the locations on the maps, you really want to put a lot of thought and preparation into the expedition beforehand, which I think adds that nice level of strategy to the game."

But the somewhat random nature of the expeditions adds a layer of creativity as well. Each area on the map you choose to focus on can pull from one of several possible finds, which can have slightly different details depending on luck. "That was a big part of it, trying to get that player expression through how they make their museum and what they're interested in," says Finlay-Maxell.

It's the kind of randomization that can enhance how personal each players' museum will feel to them, building on top of the more detailed tools Two Point Museum offers for things like crowd management, how guests will flow through the exhibits you present (and, hopefully, right into the jaws of the gift shop). "That was another core pillar for us, making sure that people are having different experiences when they're playing this game. Trying to basically make this game a bit less linear. You know, going from [Two Point] Hospital and [Two Point] Campus," says Huskins, be it where you choose to explore, to how you construct your space.

"All of that is built around different players having different experiences," says Huskins, "and being able to share interesting stories about what happened in their game and show off cool screenshots of: 'look what I did with my museum!', 'Oh, where did you find that thing?', 'Oh, I really want to be able to find that thing.' Yeah, that's definitely something we wanted to get out of this game."

Check out our best simulator games list for more games that put you in charge!

Despite having announced Haunted Chocolatier back in 2021, Barone talks about Stardew Valley like it's still very much his baby. He confessed in December that he just can't "let go" of Stardew Valley "to work on something that isn’t already established and meaningful to people," which certainly does make a lot of sense. The farming sim phenomenon is one of the most successful indie games of all time, and with Barone as its sole developer, well, you can probably imagine he's living pretty comfortably thanks exclusively to Stardew Valley.

Speaking to NPR, he assured fans he's nowhere near done with Stardew despite his admission that "a game can have too much content."

"I ultimately want Stardew Valley to be the best game it can be," Barone said. "So if I feel like it's starting to become kind of overwhelmed with content to the point where it's detrimental to the game's entertainment factor, I would stop at that point.

"I do want to make more than one game in my life. Including the development time, I've been working on Stardew Valley for over 12 years now. But I don't want to definitively say that the book is ever closed, because I think I will always have a desire to come back and maybe add a thing or two. You know, maybe even 50 years from now, I might add something."

This isn't the first time Barone has suggested he'll work on Stardew Valley for the rest of his life, but it sounds to me like he'll eventually taper off development and periodically drop new updates here and there. I would also be willing to bet the success of Haunted Chocolatier will be a huge determiner in how robustly he continues developing Stardew Valley.

"I like creating things," he said. "I don't think I'm ever going to retire. I think it would be funny to release an update when I'm, like, 90 years old — if I live that long. Let's hope."

I went into Aloft expecting a Stardew Valley meets Studio Ghibli experience, but I left impressed by its whimsical take on the survival genre instead.

"inZOI captures the essence of life by developing a community simulation where Zois communicate and form relationships," Kjun tells GamesRadar+, describing its essence as "a game for those who seek realistic life simulation with deeper levels of immersion." Complete with photorealistic graphics, Krafton's heightened focus on building a more responsive, relatable digital world will be bolstered by one huge thing: you, the player.

Personal touch

Perhaps the biggest draw for the life sim community is the ability to mod your game. It was certainly a promising highlight of Life By You before its unfortunate cancellation last year, and the litany of Sims 4 mods out there are proof of how players thrive on crafting a true sandbox of their own. This genre convention is something Krafton is keen not only to harness, but innovate on.

When inZOI launches into Early Access on March 28, the game will be "equipped with on-device generative AI that allows players to easily create their own interactions, characters, furniture, and anything they can imagine," as well as an AI textile generator that "produces images from user-input text, allowing players to create their own unique patterns and apply them to clothing, furniture, and more." The studio's push toward a more personalized experience has already shown promise following a recent character creator demo. A key lesson it learned from the process? How much players crave "diverse and realistic character faces."

It's true that games like The Sims can lean too heavily on the fantastical, but inZOI's championing of realistic and believable human beings seems front and center. "Diversity and inclusion are key values to the development team at inZOI, striving to provide a space where every player can fully express themselves," Kjun says, with "more realistic body type options" also added after player feedback. "We also plan to offer additional customization options like freckles, piercings, and tattoos, as well as accessories like watches, rings, and necklaces," adds Kjun, all presented through stunning, hyper-realistic fidelity.

Still, Krafton acknowledges that there's more to creating a realistic life sim than simply looking good. That's why on top of controlling our own Zoi, players will oversee "the collective lives of an entire city through a comprehensive community simulation."

Team player

inZoi's cities sound far more ambitious than anything offered in any Sims game. With more to be added during the Early Access period, each city will be "made up of up to 300 Zois, each interacting with each other and forming relationships of their own free will based on their innate traits," says Kjun.

"Zois can influence the communities they live in by spreading rumors, setting new fashion trends, and even catching or transmitting the flu." On top of that, inZOI will offer customizable buildings, weather toggles, and the ability to "modify the state of the city as [players] roam freely, allowing them to have some control over the city as a whole." As a consequence, "unexpected events and diverse life stories" emerge from each decision you make, as the Zois react instinctively. They can even steal the furniture you put up for sale, Kjun hints. This autonomy system sounds like a far more nuanced take on The Sims 4's Neighborhood Stories, a base game update that allowed players to start influencing the lives of NPCs through the currently played household.

Sometimes, though, you just don't care to tell Brandi Broke that she should get to know Vladislaus Straud a little better. If inZOI succeeds at making its world feel like a well-rounded, responsive digital space, it could well achieve something no other life sim has done before: light a fire under EA's 25-year legacy and give it some healthy competition. Time will tell, and with just two months to go until inZOI launches, all that's left to do is wait and see.

Check our picks of the most anticipated games for 2025 we can't stop thinking about

They say that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but in the case of my unexpected three year hiatus from Maxis' life sim, it's really allowing me to appreciate how far The Sims 4 has come since I've been away.

Playing in Pleasantview

The Sims has always been such a big part of my life, from the core series to stellar off-shoots like The Sims Medieval and The Urbz. Like so many people in their early 30s, I grew up playing The Sims. I was at just the right age when the first game launched in 2000, and it felt like a dream come true that only got better over time. Bringing in memorable expansions like Hot Date, Vacation, Superstar, and Makin' Magic, it soon became my everything. Fast forward a few years later, and I can still vividly remember when The Sims 2 was first announced, promising a shiny new incarnation that blew my tiny mind.

One of my fondest memories was when I got my hands on the The Sims 2 CD-Rom when it launched in 2004. My heart raced with excitement as I waited for it to install, studying every inch of the game's box and manual to distract myself from the progress bar on my computer screen. I got just about every expansion going for the second entry over several birthdays and Christmases until The Sims 3 came around. Just like the games before it, the third installment consumed me, with its more open neighborhoods, the introduction of cars, and a myriad of new expansions that always take me back to my late teens and early 20s.

Given my longstanding history with The Sims, you may be questioning why I'd take such a long break from The Sims 4. Well, my PC unfortunately kicked the bucket in 2022, putting a stop to any Simming goodness I could have had until this past Christmas when my dad worked his magic, bringing the machine back to life at long last (thanks, dad). But even before my PC called it quits, my enthusiasm for The Sims 4 had admittedly already started to ebb.

I picked it up at launch in 2014, and it initially felt very much like it was taking me back to square one in a shiny new coat. I'd gotten accustomed to The Sims 3's more open neighborhoods, and with so many expansions and additions, its predecessor instantly felt more restrictive and bare bones. Back in the day, the base game didn't even have the toddler life stage, but over the course of several updates, I started to enjoy it more and more.

Despite its many improvements over the years, The Sims 4 signaled a big change in my relationship with the series. I used to feel like I was so embedded in the Sims community – always staying up to date with the latest additions and news, and investing in just about every expansion going for each entry. But gone were the Sims 2 and 3 days where I had more free time and fewer responsibilities, and as life pulled me away, I fell behind on all things Sims 4-shaped. I started to feel like I would never be able to catch up, and when I lost access entirely, the prospect of stepping back into it was overwhelming to say the least.

Returning to Willow Creek

But it felt wrong, almost alien, to be so out of the loop on a series I'd played for most of my life, and when I couldn't play it anymore, it felt like there was a Sims-shaped hole in my life that nothing could really fill in quite the same way. With every expansion, update, and pack that was announced, the FOMO would only build. I felt like I was an outsider, watching over a series I could no longer be a part of. Out of desperation, I even gave the free console base game a whirl, but just couldn't click with the controls.

So, as soon as my PC was back in action, the first thing I did was download The Sims 4. I'm still very behind in terms of expansions, with Discover University being the last addition I spent money on before life got in the way and my unfortunate PC mishap drew everything to a halt. But it's been a real treat to discover all of the ways the base game has changed in that time. Alongside the suite of new options in create-a-sim, there's also interactions I'd never seen before, with small talk grouping conversation starters like "Get to know", "ask about career", and "brighten day", while the romantic interactions have been separated out with affection marked out from actions of physical intimacy – a nice touch that feels more mindful of the way people may want to play or develop relationships.

There are lots of little changes like the above that just make the base experiences of The Sims 4 feel more user friendly, welcoming, and better overall. Being away for a long stretch of time has given me a unique perspective on how far it has come in just three years, and while I still have a lot of catching up to do – especially in terms of expansions – it really does feel good to be back. I may not be as involved in the world of The Sims as I used to be way back when, but all of the updates I've missed have made The Sims 4 a game I want to keep on revisiting in the future.

Looking for more to play? Check out our pick of the best games like The Sims.

In a new excerpt on Polygon taken from Boss Fight Books' recent book on Animal Crossing, the gap between the original game's Japanese version and its localized release in the West is explored in depth. "It's standard for a game to tone down or change cultural references in the localization process," reads author Kelsey Lewin's text, "but the original Dōbutsu no Mori is painted especially thick with Japanese elements."

There were so many Japanese elements, in fact, "that even its own Japanese players might not catch all the references." Lewin highlights various examples, including clothes like the Static Shirt and Painter's Shirt which originally referenced traditional Japanese textiles and styles. "These are obscure references," continues Lewin, "so it makes sense that they were localized out completely." Localizing was a big task, however.

"I'll never forget [producer Takashi Tezuka] coming to us and saying, 'If we're going to [sell the game outside of Japan], you guys have to change everything,' because they had designed it so specifically for the Japanese market,'" said Leslie Swan, former localization department head at Nintendo, in an interview for Lewin's book. She then recounts an older 2014 Kotaku interview in which director Katusya Eguchi spoke.

"When we first started working on Animal Crossing for N64, we really [...] weren't even thinking about having it localized […] for an international market," stated Eguchi. As Lewin explains, "It wasn't just a matter of changing the names of clothing. Animal Crossing is so saturated with Japanese culture - everything from holidays to little jokes in the dialogue - that translating the text would hardly scratch the surface of the work to be done."

She describes it as "the most daunting localization project that Nintendo of America had ever taken on" - but it seems to have been well worth it. From the tedious translating to changing around details that Western fans might not get like the swap from Animal Crossing's shrine in Japan to the wishing well in the West, I'd say that Nintendo's work has paid off. New Horizons' sales alone prove as much, and as a longtime fan myself, I am incredibly grateful.

Looking for something new to play? Here are great games like Animal Crossing to check out.

During the week of The Game Awards 2024, I played studio Ivy Road's Wanderstop, which sees a weary warrior take an unexpected break from fighting to help fix up and run a tea shop. Along with learning the ropes of being a shop owner, I also spoke with Wreden about how his experience with game development and subsequent burnout formed the basis of Wanderstop's peculiar but relatable take on a cozy experience.

A relaxing brew

Players take on the role of Alta, a famed warrior who has fallen on hard times after several defeats in battle. After a particularly crushing loss, she finds herself lost in a magical forest and uncovers a safe haven with an isolated tea shop in need of fixing up. With no way to leave by conventional means, Alta begrudgingly takes a break from engaging in fights to help the shop's owner with getting the place into top form – all the while, she figures out a way to escape the cozy purgatory that she finds herself in.

Most cozy games often have protagonists that feel right at home with the cozy setting, but Wanderstops flip that by placing a character who seems trapped in the wrong game. Having a warrior set aside their sword to pick plants, make tea, and fix up a shop feels like an usual set up for a comedy game, but for Wreden, that intentional mismatch hit at the heart of what Wanderstop's main narrative is all about.

"I realized how difficult it would be to just remake Animal Crossing and to attempt at making it better, and I sort of slowly started to get more interested in putting a more personal story into the game, one that had more to do with burnout and also dealing with obsession and perfectionism," says Wreden. "That's had a big impact on my life and my work, and this is why it took a long time to make. We took a long time to realize that that sort of story was, in a lot of ways, the core of the game, and also we still had to actually make a cozy game as well."

Much like other cozy games, players will engage in chores involving gathering crops and making food, and participate in social interactions with the community. However, the protagonist Alta is very much not into the whole cozy vibe, and the main part of the narrative deals with her wrestling with the fact that she has to make the best of the situation. That plays out with Alta having to perform tasks that seem ill-suited for her skills, which only ends up annoying her.

Wanderstop has many of the familiar features that are found in games like Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing New Horizons, and Palia. However, the focus on its main narrative, with the protagonist who very much has their own mind made up about the 'cozy' setting and is very much at odds with the idea of trying to fit in makes for a really interesting dynamic at work. It's not a takedown of the cozy game genre, but rather it focuses more on examining that familiar loop of a cozy game through the perspective of a different type of protagonist.

"When I started working on this, there weren't nearly as many cozy games as there are now. So I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing, but I think there's still room for growth for sure," says the creative director. "What I hope for is that this game is an indicator of a space that cozy games have not really explored very much, which is for the game to actually be about something – something that's very human and very real."

"Like imagine you have a protagonist in a game like Animal Crossing or Stardew Valley, and you then feel this character is like a real person who maybe did not actually want to be there very much, and what would that be like, and how would she respond, and how would that character deal with being in this environment? I think it's interesting in ways that I haven't seen any other game quite tackling that subject matter."

The main appeal of cozy games is that they offer players an environment to build up something and form a community with other characters or players. To have a cozy game focus on the story of a character who is not interested in community or finding some downtime is certainly relatable in our present times, and given that Wanderstop still features some solid crafting and building gameplay in its own right, this particular cozy game packs a bit more emotion for its main story. I'm looking forward to seeing more of what's to come with this self-aware cozy game.

For more, check out our round up of the most hotly anticipated new games for 2025 and beyond.

A patch out today, January 14, brings a refreshed main menu for The Sims 4, designed to remove the "clutter" and better prioritize some key buttons. "New Game / Resume Game has moved from right to left, as have a few of the other navigation options," an EA blog post explains. "Home, Events and Store can be found at the top, along with the Options panel in the far right."

Here's another nice detail in the revised menu: "The Sims in the center are your last played household Sims, all of them!" Look at them go.

Today's update also brings miscellaneous memory and performance improvements as well as a refresh of the base game homes. Townie Homes in Willow Creek and Oasis Springs have been "updated and renovated," but you can still use the "Legacy" versions if you want via My Library. New games using these homes will automatically use the updated versions, and you can update your existing saves by manually placing the new homes via My Library.

Another update scheduled for February 4, the series' anniversary proper, promises a "huge" batch of content headlined by over 70 new in-game items which will be free to all players. The collection covers hairstyles, clothing, and accessories for a wide range of Sims, from toddlers to adults, per a separate blog post.

February 4 will also kickstart a limited-time "Blast from the Past" event packing additional items "inspired by iconic items from the 2000s, like a milk carton, telephone, alarm clock, triple-tiered birthday cake, and inflatable chair and loveseat."

Additionally, an interim patch of sorts coming Thursday, January 16 promises three new Kits: "The Secret Sanctuary and Casanova Cave Kits, which will include a mix of Build Buy and Create a Sim items inspired by iconic Sims characters, plus the Comfy Gamer Kit, created in collaboration with lilsimsie!"

After waking up to the first Sims 3 update from EA in 10 years, all fans can think about is the potential for more: "So it begins."

Anime Life Sim isn't at all what it sounds like. It's not an anime-themed game featuring some fan-favorite protagonists or settings, but rather a series of ideas drawn substantially from Animal Crossing - from the gameplay detailed on its PlayStation Store page to the colorful visuals, Anime Life Sim screams New Horizons through and through. It features no mention of Nintendo's own title, however.

"Create your perfect anime life in this charming social simulation," reads the eerily similar project's description. "Build your dream home, befriend quirky animal neighbors, and live out endless adventures in a vibrant world inspired by your favorite life sims." In other words, it plays like New Horizons as much as it looks like it - it's all about bug catching, building, crafting, collecting, fishing, and befriending animal-esque villagers.

Anime Life Sim also isn't the first controversial title to come from developer and publisher Maksym Vysochanskyy, who trades under the alias "IndieGames3000." Just two months ago, eagle-eyed Monster Hunter fans spotted a suspicious game on the PlayStation Store dubbed "Monster Hunters." A post on Reddit highlights the now-removed Monster Hunters and its clear similarities to Capcom's legitimate, long-standing series.

They’re not even trying to hide it being a ripoff from r/MonsterHunter

Upon browsing through Vysochanskyy's library of releases on PS Deals, it becomes obvious that pretty much every single game operating under his name is a near-identical clone of another title.

It's all questionable, to say the least. Anime Life Sim likely won't come to fruition and launch in 2026 as it's supposedly meant to, however, judging by the fate of Monster Hunters. After all, it's not as though Nintendo takes such situations lightly. Palworld and the lawsuit filed against its developer Pocketpair for infringing "multiple patent rights" prove as much - and Palworld is arguably much tamer in comparison when considering similarities.

Looking for something new to play? Here are great games like Animal Crossing to check out.

The Sims 3 has long stood the test of time now as one of the series' greats, but one problem in particular has plagued its stellar reputation as the creative pinnacle of EA's life sim gems - the game's inability to run properly on newer PC builds. And by newer PC builds, I'm talking about any computers coming from the last seven or eight years. The Sims 3, perhaps most infamously, offers no 64-bit support, but things could finally be looking up.

Just today, the EA App version of The Sims 3 received a minor patch. It doesn't do much, but it does address a long-standing issue that prevents players running on builds with more recent Intel processors from playing. The Alder Lake problem, as it's known, stops fans from getting into the game - now, thanks to the patch, users with higher-end Intel CPUs can play. While the update itself is minor, its effect on the community certainly isn't.

Longtime Simmers, myself included, are understandably excited by the potential now that an update has dropped after an entire decade of silence. Could a 64-bit version be in the works? Could better optimization for The Sims 3's stunning open world be underway? As beloved content creator and modder SimMattically writes himself in an online post on the patch, "so it begins" - or, more realistically, so we all hope that it does.

There's no telling what EA has in store just yet, or if there's anything more coming at all. It's surprising that the developers didn't release any official patch notes alongside the new build, which bumps the game to version 1.69.47.024017. While it might boil down to the update simply being too "minor" to warrant any notes, the ever-hopeful fan within me is choosing to look forward to what may never come - other changes and fixes.

Hopping back into the game after a decade? Here are the best Sims 3 cheats for a solid start.

"My Summer Car is the ultimate car owning, building, fixing, tuning, maintenance and permadeath life survival simulator," the game's Steam blurb says. "You start the game with hundreds of loose parts and assemble both car and engine. Not only you need to maintain your car, but yourself as well. Sausages, beer and sleeping will do just fine... Not only you have access to one car, but also several other cars and vehicles which you can use."

The loop sees you spending hours in first-person on the tiny little details that go into a fixer-upper, only to have whatever car you've built derail into a tree within its first five minutes on the road, at which point you'll need to trek on foot to the nearest shop to grab some beef jerky with the only cash you have left. A real Finnish summer, then.

My Summer Car's mix of super intricate car simulation and wacky life sim stuff already made it a hit when it entered early access in 2016, but after eight years of updates, the game's courted over 77,000 user reviews and a whopping 94% of them are positive.

"Really silly car game and the dev actually acknowledges the reality of how painful it is to do anything," one player writes. "Took nine hours, finally got engine to run. It blew up 5 min later and I got ran over by a bus," another says. (Both left positive ratings, by the way.

See what else is coming out this year with our new games of 2025 and beyond release calendar. 

"Built with NVIDIA ACE, inZOI introduces Smart Zoi, Co-Playable Characters (CPC) that are more reactive and realistic than anything you’ve seen before," as explained in an Nvidia blog post. "Players will experience a comprehensive community simulation, where every ZOI in the city acts autonomously, driven by their life goals, and reacting to their environments and the events happening around them, leading to deeper levels of immersion and complex social situations."

The video above highlights situations like an empathetic character "purchasing" food for a hungry man, or an "appreciative" character helping hype up a street performer. These characters will reflect on their actions at the end of each day to shape a unique personality over time.

That all sounds neat, but is it an earth-shatteringly massive advancement on the personalities and preferences system that The Sims has had from the start? The most notable thing here is a plain language description of 'thoughts' that occur to a Smart Zoi that appears to be generated through a language model, but the video's not even clear on if that's the case or how that system works.

Nvidia's promise of the "profound impact of cutting-edge on-device [language model] technology" might be overstating it a bit. Or maybe I'm just cynical about it - but it's difficult not to be cynical about AI content generation when it's done little so far but make browsing the internet more annoying. In fairness, inZOI's AI-driven "3D print" feature is a fun little magic trick, but there's a lot of work to do in convincing an already AI-weary gaming community that the tech is actually adding something meaningful.

A whole new wave of life simulations are on the way, but here are some games like The Sims to keep you occupied in the meantime.

That's a huge chunk of change for developer ConcernedApe, who has worked on the game mostly by himself. He's contracted people here and there and had help porting it to other platforms, but as of March, 2024, his net worth is estimated at $45 million.

According to the official Stardew Valley website, 26 million copies of the game have been sold on PC and 7.9 million on the Nintendo Switch. The game is also on PS5, Xbox Series X, and mobile, so you can play the game anywhere. I myself have it on PC and Switch, but I prefer the ease of use of the PC version.

My girlfriend has gotten into it in a big way over the holidays, which has delighted her sister who has hundreds of hours in it across PC, mobile, and Switch. This is pretty wild to me as my partner is not a gamer at all, but she's spent hours each day in it and they've managed to complete the community center in under a year on a shared farm. Find out how to play it co-op here and see if you can do it faster than them.

Stardew Valley is still popular to this day because it just keeps getting updates. 1.6 is the latest and our own Heather Wald writes it's "brought a sense of excitement and discovery back to Pelican Town, and I'm losing myself to it all over again."

ConcernedApe, real name Eric Barone, has another game in development, Haunted Chocolatier, which is currently "getting dusty on the shelf." But he says: "Stardew Valley is a big and popular game, and I have a lot of attachment to it. I also feel a strong sense of duty and obligation to all the people who have bought Stardew Valley over the years, granting me this rare opportunity to be an indie game developer. So it’s hard to 'let go' of Stardew, even temporarily, to work on something that isn’t already established and meaningful to people." His commitment is being well rewarded, clearly.

He's also been "in a trance" playing Balatro, as have we all, so that probably hasn't helped his productivity.

If you're looking for new ways to play, check out the best Stardew Valley mods that you can use to spice up the game.

As if I wasn't already obsessed with Mirthwood enough when it dropped in November, I'm ready to hop back into the sim thanks to the new Night of Falling Stars update. Just in time for the holiday season, the patch brings some Yuletide festivities to Mirthwood along with a mysterious masquerade with secrets to unravel, a map expansion to explore, fresh crops to grow, a plethora of recipes to cook up, and more.

Accompanying the masquerade is a collection of fancy new cosmetics to dress up with - and a Magic Mirror that allows players to change their appearance. Whether it's hats or hairstyles you're itching for, Mirthwood now has plenty to boast alongside its new helmet vanity slot option. For those looking to spruce up more than just themselves, Night of Falling Stars adds a good few decorative items to place about, too.

As for the more farming sim-aligned features, beekeeping is now available in-game as well as long-awaited items like the fish creel. When not tending to bees and crops or fishing away, players can conjure up some tea or cook away with the new recipes - one of my own favorite money-making methods in games like Stardew Valley. With the recent combat rework from Bad Ridge Games in mind, this all adds up to a near-perfect update in my opinion.

If you're as excited as I am but haven't yet had the chance to explore Mirthwood yourself, you can snag the game on Steam right now for 15% off in celebration of the update's release. It's not the end of the road for the sim after the Night of Falling Stars patch, either, as Bad Ridge Games has a lot more in store including DLC, marriage and family, pets, a massive morality system overhaul, more festive events, and even co-op support.

Here are some of the other most exciting new games this year and beyond to keep an eye on.

16 years have passed since Spore launched in 2008, and legendary Sims designer Will Wright has stayed out of the limelight since. He's making a return soon with a new project, however, and it's an ambitious AI life sim called Proxi. Wright discusses Proxi in a recent stream on Twitch, highlighting some of the game and emphasizing what Gallium Studios' mission is: "to create digital human beings that live, care, and grow with us."

The game actually uses players' own real-life memories to shape experiences, allowing for almost unbelievably personal playthroughs. If it sounds like a challenging feat to develop, that's because it is - but Wright feels confident that Proxi's personalized approach to the life sim genre is the correct path to take, and his years of expertise back as much. "I found myself getting continuously closer and closer to the player," says Wright.

"Kind of a saying I've lived by," he continues, "which is that no game designer has ever gone wrong by overestimating the narcissism of their players." He's not wrong - we live in an era of extensive customization and personalization. There are millions of Sims 4 mods that serve as proof, and hyper-realistic character creators such as rival life sim inZOI's own to boot. Of all the ways to tailor a player's experience, though, using memories might take the cake.

By using memories, Proxi populates its "mind world" or in-game environment with familiar faces for players to interact with. They represent real people from users' school, work, or any other flavor of memorable circumstance. They're not meant to replace them, however - the project aims to "enhance, not replace human-to-human interactions." Think digital pals, but a lot more advanced than beloved virtual pets like Tamagotchis or Webkinz.

I'm not sure how I feel about it all myself just yet, as I don't want to become invested and not see it come to fruition in the end as was the case recently with Life by You. Considering EA's new plan for The Sims 4 and Project Rene, though, I'm desperate for something bigger and better than ever before - and Proxi sounds like it could be just that. Now all I need to do is get out, touch grass, and make memories so that come Proxi, I can game-ify them.

Need something to play while you wait for Proxi? Here are 10 games like The Sims 4 to check out right now.

Earlier this month, developer SCS Software revealed a few screenshots of their digital recreation of Cape Girardeau, and they're beyond perfect. They've recreated the brick streets through the downtown area, and the old city hall building that overlooks it. They've got the mural that stretches across the floodwall at the edge of the Mississippi River, and a near-exact recreation of the parking lot that sits next to it. They've even got the beautiful old B'nai Israel Synagogue that stands in the shadow of the St. Vincent De Paul Catholic Church next door.

But the part that really surprised me was this image of the Southeast Missouri State University River Campus, a satellite location for the local university that sits overlooking the Mississippi. I could squint a little and mistake it for a picture of the actual location - it's a beautiful recreation of both the converted seminary building and modern campus building that house much of the university's art and theatre classes.

It's also clear that the devs have recreated the exact hillside by the campus where I spent a lot of my afternoons as a student. If you zoom way in on the right side of that picture, you'll see a very large tree. I'm pretty sure that this is meant to evoke the 200-year-old state champion beech tree that once stood on the campus grounds.

That tree eventually developed a fungal infection and started decaying from the inside, leading to its removal from the campus in 2023. It was quite a sad occasion for those of us who'd spent years hanging out in the tree's shadow, and my wife and I made sure to pay our last respects to the old beech in its final days.

It's possible American Truck Simulator's version of that hillside is meant to be showing some other tree. But there's no tree there today that stands as tall as the one shown in the screenshot since the beech was cut down, and the devs did make their research trip to Missouri in 2023, potentially before the tree was felled. I wasn't prepared to get weirdly emotional browsing American Truck Simulator screenshots today, but it does my heart good to see a little piece of history preserved in this cult transport sim.

The trucking company hiring drivers through American Truck Simulator says the game is making better truckers.

Checking my inventory is like opening presents on Christmas morning. I'm met with the sight of some moss and colorful new seeds I've just pocketed from cutting down curling leaves and shrubbery, and I'm positively giddy about it. Moss and seeds might not sound particularly exciting on the surface, but the simple act of discovering something new absolutely is. After all, I've spent hundreds of hours in Pelican Town, and nothing beats experiencing new events and coming across fresh finds in a place I've come to know so well.

This rainy morning is all thanks to the Stardew Valley 1.6 update, and it's just one example of many new additions that have pulled me right back into the pixelated farming sim on Switch. I've entirely lost myself to it again, because not only is it giving me a renewed sense of purpose by introducing more goals to work towards, but it's also packed full of little additions that have been bringing me no end of joy.

Squid game

Actually, it's all of the little things that have really made the Stardew Valley 1.6 update for me. I mean, what could rival putting a paper hat on my dog Rhubarb? Or finding out you can adopt more pets – including a big purple turtle that costs the hefty sum of 500,000G? If ever there was a reason to save my pennies, that is certainly it. With such an extensive changelog of new additions in the update, it's been such a delight to set out each day to see what else I can discover. From major add-ons with questlines and seasonal events, to the introduction of new equipment and upgrades, right down to minor quality of life tweaks, every feature I've come across is making me fall right back in love with farm life all over again.

Take, for example, the day I discovered a new cosmetic machine in Willy's shop that let me change the bobber on my fishing rod. As an avid angler in Stardew Valley, being able to customize my bobber to look like a little rubber duck means that whenever I cast a line and see it, a big smile spreads across my face without fail.

Plus, the addition of a sonar item to add to my rod that lets me see what fish I'm catching is proving to save me so much time when I'm after a specific catch. In fact, it was particularly handy when I took part in the new SquidFest event that saw me try to catch a certain amount of tentacled friends to earn myself some prizes.

From seeing the residents of Pelican town wrapped up in coats, hats, and scarves in the wintertime, to finding mystery boxes and looting power books - that give my skills a boost or unlock helpful perks - there's been no shortage of new things to discover since I returned to the pixelated lands of my farm.

The green rain was really only the beginning. Ever since I stepped back into Stardew Valley, I've been constantly surprised by the sheer amount of additions 1.6 has introduced, and each and every one I've come across has surprised and delighted me in equal measure. Who knows what the next morning will bring, but I certainly can't wait to see what else is in store for me.

For more, check out our pick of the best farming games.

Speaking in a recent update on the official Haunted Chocolatier website, ConcernedApe first admits that he's "been a little sad to see Haunted Chocolatier getting dusty on the shelf," but says he can't just easily "let go" of Stardew Valley "to work on something that isn’t already established and meaningful to people" yet. That doesn't mean that the long-awaited new sim isn't ever going to come to fruition, however.

ConcernedApe describes himself as having "a strong desire to make more games," namely Haunted Chocolatier - and he knows his fans can't wait to play, too. "I know many people are excited to play Haunted Chocolatier," he writes, "and may be disappointed to hear that it will still take a while, or that I took time away to work on Stardew Valley." He understands, but he also states there's a good reason it's taking longer.

"I understand. I will be very happy when the day comes that I can finally release Haunted Chocolatier," says the creator. "However, as with Stardew Valley, I will not be doing any 'early access,' crowdfunding, or pre-orders, so I don't feel a ton of external pressure to finish the game on a timeline." The biggest reason he feels "pressure" is actually of his own doing - it's because he "announced the game kind of early."

This "built up excitement, meaning that if I take a long time, people might become sad" - but, regardless, ConcernedApe "will not release a game unless it is complete and I am very happy with it." He assures the community that if he doesn't post updates on Haunted Chocolatier's progress for a while, "it doesn't mean I've abandoned the game." According to the solo dev, he simply prefers to share "when I have something complete and worthy."

He'd rather post updates that way "than share a bunch of stuff that is unfinished, and therefore not in accordance with the final vision." Despite his lack of public sharing and continued work on Stardew Valley, however, one fact remains for certain. As ConcernedApe himself puts it, fans should "know that the game will eventually be finished and come out" - and I, for one, can't wait until that day finally arrives.

The first part of the huge Baldur's Gate 3-themed Stardew Valley mod is complete, and "it won't be long now" until its release

Of course, Barone announced his new project Haunted Chocolatier back in October 2021, but we've only heard crumbs of information and the odd screenshot in the years since. Well, in a new blog post specifically about Haunted Chocolatier, Barone revealed he's struggling a bit with how to balance development on new projects while keeping Stardew fans fed.

"It’s been a little sad to see Haunted Chocolatier getting dusty on the shelf… but this is the reality of my situation," Barone said. "Stardew Valley is a big and popular game, and I have a lot of attachment to it. I also feel a strong sense of duty and obligation to all the people who have bought Stardew Valley over the years, granting me this rare opportunity to be an indie game developer. So it’s hard to 'let go' of Stardew, even temporarily, to work on something that isn’t already established and meaningful to people."

The rest of the blog very much reads like a commitment to still deliver Haunted Chocolatier at some point, with the substantial caveat that that undefined point is probably a long ways away. While Barone said he's done "a ton of work" on Haunted Chocolatier, he also admitted that it still needs a whole lot more before it's ready for release.

In the meantime, brush up on these Stardew Valley tips for making money, avoiding sleep, and growing the best darn farm you can.

After announcing the new Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp app, Nintendo clarified that there would be differences between the paid version and its free predecessor. Now that the game is rolling out, players are experiencing some of these differences firsthand - and not all are impressed. There aren't any pesky microtransactions to worry about anymore, which my own wallet is content with, but there's also no way to play with friends now.

As players discuss in a recent Reddit thread on the matter, things are feeling pretty lonely in the new Pocket Camp. "I get sad when I see the empty spaces the other players used to hang out in," writes one fan. "I wish there was still an option to visit their campsites and vans, at least." Another describes how even though they're happy to decorate, they're "just alone with all the cool stuff I've always wanted to brag about."

Ah yes, the together event. The together event for a now single player app. The app that specifically had the multiplayer removed. The single player multi player together event... That together event. from r/ACPocketCamp

"I'm feeling both overwhelmed and underwhelmed all at the same time," admits a player - and as a fan myself, I personally understand where they're coming from. When it comes to games like those within the Animal Crossing series, getting to visit your friends and share designs makes up a good chunk of the fun. One suggestion amid the replies speaks to me most: "I wish we could 'invite' our friends if we had their QR code to our campsite… I want some people to hang out with."

It's not all doom and gloom, however. For just "10 bucks" while Pocket Camp is half off until January 31, as a player puts it, you get "everything with no microtransactions." Aside from the loss of online functionality, it's also almost entirely the same game - and if you're like me and have spent an embarrassing amount of money on the old app, everything you bought via leaf tickets carries over into the new version.

Looking for something new to play? Here are great games like Animal Crossing to check out.

Of course, this also puts pressure on my janitor team, as they've been struggling to keep up with toilet demand as it is. After all, if I don't place a litany of fizzy pop vending machines every few paces for museum visitors to chug, how will I make money? As a result, the janitors are demanding more money or threatening to leave, and at this point I'm only making a little bit of money every week as I try to build a better reputation

Callously, I'm tempted to let my Toilet Terror expert go… but I already spent a hefty sum training them to learn the Survivalist specialist in order to brave even worse conditions from Expeditions. Not to mention my other favorite Expert is already about to quit. The reason? "Broken face". (That's a whole other story). Don't they realize they're putting too much strain on my budget which otherwise needs to be freed up to employ a whole legion of Assistants to maintain the gift shop and its dozen or so cashier tills?

This is, somehow, Two Point Museum at its most normal, always bouncing you between dealing with the fallout of these absurd situations as you try to build the museum of your dreams, and mastering that silliness as an ultra capitalist in order to eke out money as efficiently as possible from the guests enjoying the fruits of your (well, fine, your staff's) labor.

Ticket to ride

While Two Point Museum's predecessors, Two Point Hospital and Two Point Campus, were also about making as much dough as possible, Two Point Museum is a breath of fresh air in how it approaches your relationship with your institution's visitors. In the other games you were providing services to cater to specific needs – curing illnesses or teaching courses – but in Two Point Museum you're enticing visitors to, simply put, show them a good time, selling tickets and encouraging extra spend on top. It immediately feels much more freeform, coming closer to the likes of classic games like Theme Park World with its ride-based attractions.

"The game loop having some overlap with something like a Theme Park game was definitely something that we talked about," says design director Ben Huskins. "We knew that exhibits were going to be the heroes of this game, and obviously with this being a Two Point game, we were going to make them larger than life – things you wouldn't necessarily see in a real world museum, but mixing with that stuff you would expect, like the fossils and dinosaurs and things. We knew that was going to be a really important part of the game, and they're almost like the rides in the theme park."

Some of these are even interactive exhibits that have to be crafted by specialists before they can be placed, and then actually have people queue to use them, be it a dinosaur model for kids to clamber on or a seance simulator. "There's lots of interactions with the exhibits, which is cool," continues Huskins. "Even though, to some extent, we emphasize like 'oh, guests are getting their grubby hands on your exhibits, and now your experts have to restore them'. We intentionally built lots of cool animations and interactions into a lot of them, because that just felt like it'd make it a lot more fun, and alive, and interesting. And there's so much opportunity for humor there as well."

The aforementioned seance simulator is a standout, with different group combinations lining up to have very different experiences. "That's got so many animations," says executive producer Jo Koehler. "It looks amazing! I could just watch that, and get drawn into watching the interactions between the visitors and the children."

Who you gonna call?

Wait, wait, wait, a seance simulator in a museum? Yep. While we earn our training wheels earning a single-star in Memento Mile, which, while geared towards Pre-History fossils at the start, can house pretty much anything, that's not the case for the other museums we get to go hands-on with in our demo. Each new one will onboard you to a new type of specialism, which you can then incorporate into your main museum later on, while giving you a playground centered on certain exhibit types all of their own.

Wailon Lodge is the next one I take on – a former haunted hotel, its dead owner still knocking around to give us advice on all things supernatural. Though finding room for standard features like a staff break room, training area, and workshop are a must, the different exhibits here immediately add a distinctive flavor. Haunted dolls and mannequins form the bulk of my first display area, and as they can come with their own mysterious curses these also affect the way I gear up. The doll, for instance, causes more litter to accumulate nearby its display, so I have some janitors on hand to give the area spruce up at a moment's notice.

But that's not as strange as this former hotel gets. It can still take guests… but only of the deceased variety. In the context of building a truly spooky museum, actually being haunted by the departed is a massive plus, and each new ghost who wanders in can be placed into special ghost rooms with one-way mirrors – becoming special exhibits themselves. Grouping up poltergeists from the same era of history makes them feel more at home, as does adding correct decorations, like antique fireplaces and gramophones. And you'd better keep them happy or they'll break containment and cause chaos for your guests.

"So we had the aquarium system, and we thought that was quite interesting the way the dynamics were there," notes lead designer Luke Finlay-Maxwell when we ask about coming up with the concept. "A clown fish is a clown fish is a clown fish, right? [But] a ghost, that's a whole new person. They have a life – or they had a life – and treating them more individually and [when you're] thinking about their needs and Buzz bonuses and things like that they do feel distinct."

I only got to play with the more basic elements in this museum, but Finlay-Maxwell does add that "eventually you come across more famous spirits that are even more fussy". Some of them, we're teased, will even reference some figures established in previous Two Point games, just as some of the ailments Experts and other staff and visitors can come down with are informed by Two Point Hospital features. Everything is connected.

Gift horse

That aquarium formed the backbone of the third museum I got to play with, and it's one where I really started to get into aesthetics of the museum. In the previous games, I've always prioritized efficiency first due to the nature of hospitals and schools fitting that mold. But here, as I try to entice visitors to spend, I want to make these spaces worth spending time in. Which also means directing the flow of people through these spaces which, compared to those prior entries, are also a lot more open (though it's completely up to you to organize walls and guide-ropes how you please). Later tour functions even task you to think specifically about that movement experience as you put together the best routes that will excite.

But Two Point Museum also has you think about how to use that space space, and most importantly that natural flow of visitors, to your benefit. With staff doors to maximize movement of your crew, and one-way doors to funnel visitors through certain directions, can I make sure they spend big in a gift shop that takes up nearly a third of the whole museum (the answer is: yes). Can I funnel groups of guests through choke points to ensure security guards can pick up any ne'er do wells? Can I ensure members of the public don't accidentally cut themselves off from being able to loop back to a bathroom (that was one time – please reconsider that star rating, sir).

These are all tasks you think about while also juggling an optimal stream of expeditions to actually get new exhibits to display. While the star-rating system is still the main goal you're chasing, you're also prompted to tick off other objectives to unlock new parts of the map to send expeditions, in turn unlocking new exhibits you can use to adjust your layout. It's an incredible feedback loop as more and more elements come together, all giving you more to play with. Which is to say there's more to work towards than ever before, with more exciting rewards, all while mastering a whole new type of visitor behavior (and how to best squeeze 'em for cash). To get to the point, Two Point Museum is as Two Point as ever, but fresh enough to be worth a visit – while exiting through the gift shop, of course.

Want to manage something without having to wait? Check out our best simulator games list! Or would you rather command the lives of individuals more closely? Then our ranking of the best Sims 4 expansion packs may prove of use!

The creator of Garry's Mod, Garry Newman, recently shared on the social media site formerly known as Twitter some sales stats for the toolset since its release with an interesting anecdote. As it turns out, Newman admits that he almost decided against putting it on sale in the Steam marketplace and all.

Thanks to Valve's insistence on putting the game on Steam, Garry Newman found considerable success with Garry's Mod, which, as of the tweet posted, had sold 25,560,290 copies. Along with further updates to the sandbox game over the years, Newman also founded an independent game developer, Facepunch Studios, which released the popular survival game Rust and found its own considerable success.

First released in 2006, Garry Mod's is a sandbox game and toolset that leverages assets from Valve's source engine, particularly pulling from games like Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 – this basically means you can make the G-Man or Resistance Fighter from Half-Life 2 into the star of their own experience. Garry's Mod allows players to pull any asset like characters, items, and locations into a sandbox and create whatever scenario or sequence they can from the tools available.

The more popular results are machinima videos such as Skibidi Toilet or, my personal favorite, Full Life Consequences. Still, it's also gone on to inspire several game modes that have taken on a life of its own such as the popular Prop Hunt game type, which is a take on hide-and-seek that has a team of players disguise themselves as objects on the map.

So far, Garry's Mod's popularity is still growing, with younger users playing the game to share their own bits of amusement with friends. The toolset also seemingly inspired other games to feature their own sandbox modes, such as Fortnite, PUBG Mobile, and, of course, Minecraft.

As of 2024, Newman's development studio is still cranking out updates for Garry's Mod and Rust, but Facepunch has also been working on a new game called Sandbox. This game is evidently the successor to Garry's Mod, but there hasn't been many updates for it in some time.

For more open-ended sandbox games with lots to do, check out our list of the best open-world games to play right now.

But after a week spent in an irradiated hellscape for my Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl review, Fruitbus has been the perfect way to unwind. An adorable food truck simulator is such a brilliant concept for a game that it feels obvious in hindsight, but Fruitbus' added road trip adventure and customizable van make for a smooth cruise to flavortown.

Apples and oranges

Despite the simplicity of Fruitbus' cartoonish visuals, running the titular Fruitbus means keeping several plates – or to be more specific, bowls – spinning. Your ultimate goal is to reunite your late grandmother's friends (and ex-friends) for one last feast, using her former van to bring culinary joy to the Gustum archipelago's inhabitants. But keeping the kitchen-on-wheels chugging along means ensuring it's got enough fuel in the tank, there's plenty of dinnerware to serve food on, and you've got ample ingredients to cook with.

That last point is arguably the most important. During the game's first stage, driving from a gorgeous coastal resort to a less tourist-y town inland, you're mostly confined to making fruit salad. I spent more time walking along the seafront, yanking apples from bushes and jumping from cliffs to pluck lofty bananas, than actually serving any of it up from the truck. Trekking further afield turned up zesty lemons to mix into my salad, and I eventually saved up enough money from hawking diced fruit to buy a shovel capable of digging up carrots.

When it comes to cooking it all, you can pull the Fruitbus up to anywhere with people milling about, announcing your business with a lever that rolls up the shutters and plays a catchy jingle. As locals form a queue, each will approach the window in your van and say what they're after – some will stick to the menu listed on the van's exterior, but others have their heart set on finer dining. Customers can also ask for a vague meal like a salad, but specify that it needs to have a set amount of ingredients in it. It's not as simple as smushing four chilis into a bowl though, as your pay for each meal depends on how tasty it is – one ingredient may complement another, for example, which leads to some very satisfying moments when the 'score' of someone's snack adds up and converts to lots of lovely money.

Shelling out

It's a questionable economy, but Gustum's harsher business realities mean some of your hard-earned money needs to be reinvested in the Fruitbus. Driving between towns means stopping at gas stations for fuel, though it always pays to have a full jerry can for longer treks. Meals use up disposable dinnerware, which need to be replaced at stores where you can buy a mix of essentials and… er, not essentials. The latter includes plants and decorative mods for your van, and you best believe I bought googley-eye headlights before a single practical upgrade.

I did redeem myself by buying a blender immediately afterward (if only to make a carrot smoothie for one veggie-loving botanist), but the real pièce de résistance will be an extension to the interior's tabletop I'm currently saving up for. Making meals on the cramped one-square counter you start with is both awkward and painfully relatable – I don't know when this happened, but wanting to expand my cramped kitchen in the real world has become the biggest fantasy of my late-20s. Living that dream out in Fruitbus is probably the closest I'll come to cooking in spacious peace, but it's currently on my (non-existent) shelf as I've spent every penny of profit on houseplants, a hammer, and said googley-eye headlights.

Even if I'm not being particularly sensible with my money, or organizing grandma's final feast as diligently as I perhaps should be, I'm having a blast just driving around as a nomad caterer. There's something delightfully gratifying about coasting through Gustum and setting up shop wherever catches your eye, or pulling over to run into the jungle and hunt for new ingredients on foot. I'm savoring every morsel of Fruitbus – which is a fancy way to say I haven't finished it yet – but I'm loving every second, and look forward to getting my hands on more and more elaborate recipes as my adventures through Gustum continue. Bon appétit!

Fruitbus is out now on PC. To see what else we've been enjoying this year, head on over to our Indie Spotlight series.

From the developer behind the endearingly daft Goat Simulator, this factory simulation game has been cooking since it entered Early Access in 2019. However, this year's full-fat release has been worth the patience, with Satisfactory picking up the reward despite sitting in fine company. The sim beat out competition from the likes of Balatro and Frostpunk 2 to win the reward. Check out all the nominees for PC Game of the Year below:

• Animal Well
• Balatro
• Frostpunk 2
• Satisfactory (winner)
• Tactical Breach Wizards
• UFO 50

This year has been one with plenty of momentum for Satisfactory. Following the simulation game's big 1.0 launch, strong reviews that landed with an aggregate 91 score on Metacritic led to a surge of players. In fact, over on Steam, Satisfactory hit a concurrent player count record over five times larger than its Early Access peak.

"Before this week our highest CCU [concurrent users] on Steam was 34K," the official Satisfactory Twitter account said at the time. "I can't tell you how crazy this is to me. Thank you everyone!"

Initially launched in 2019, the first-person open-world factory-building game offers a blend of exploration and combat that can be enjoyed alone or with a few pals. Explore alien planets, create a factory – it's all up to you. The core pitch has largely remained the same, though various tweaks and updates over the years have led to the award-winning game we know today.

More? Our list of all the winners at the Golden Joystick Awards 2024 is right at the link.

At the time of writing, only 24% of Flight Simulator 2024's reviews are positive, giving it a 'Mostly Negative' rating. This follows a launch where many players were grounded, stuck watching lengthy initial loading screens instead of taking to the skies. The devs acknowledged this in a tweet, pointing to the large amount of server requests caused by the number of players all initializing the simulator at the same time, but that wasn't where the problems ended. Reviews on Steam criticize it for being "a buggy mess"  and "an objectively inferior experience with clunky controls, questionable performance, a user interface that would have been acceptable had it been 2012 and not 2024," amongst other complaints. 

Needless to say, players aren't generally having a fantastic time, but at least the game's rating has risen slightly from what it once was. As pointed out on Reddit, it temporarily dipped to a 16.85% positive rating, which comes in significantly below Overwatch 2's all-time rating of 21% and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's 20%. Those aren't the absolute worst-rated games on the storefront right now – according to third-party site Steam 250, that title goes to War of the Three Kingdoms with an overall rating of 9% – but it's still far from a good start for the new Flight Simulator game. It also briefly went toe to toe with EA's 2010 real-time strategy game Command and Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, which still holds onto an overall rating of 16.76% according to SteamDB. 

Even though facing a launch like this is far from ideal, hopefully developer Asobo Studio will be able to improve the situation over time. After all, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 is still rated very positively on the platform – perhaps because fans were so eager to dive into the new installment that its current issues feel even more obvious. 

For more games like Microsoft Flight Simulator, be sure to check out our roundup of the best simulator games.

The Sims has a near constant presence throughout my life. I've talked in the past about how well The Sims Medieval holds up to this day, and reflected on the benefits and drawbacks of the mainline series' generational format – including how it complicates the future of The Sims 4 as a legacy product. But with 2008's MySims soon to be landing on Nintendo Switch, I decided to revisit two iconic Sims 2 handheld reimaginings that I feel deserve to be brought to the modern console next. Sorry in advance to any PSP truthers out there, but the GBA and DS versions are the ones I'm championing today.

Yee ba hey

I traded in my pearlescent pink DS classic for a swanky Guitar Hero DS Lite back in 2008, and it still lives in my bedside drawer. Sure, the screen calibration is far less reliable, and my keen little jaws have done a number on its stylus in the years since, but I can't bring myself to scrap the neat little handheld for two reasons: Sims 2 DS and Sims 2 GBA.

Having ready access to both versions via the same little machine has its advantages, even if I only pop in to experience them once or twice a year. It's a reminder of the weird and wonderful Sims spin-offs that have captured my imagination and affection in equal measures over the years, not to mention the welcome distractions they proved during long plane journeys or when my siblings jostled me off our shared PC as a kid.

The irony is that my little sister is the one who had a Game Boy Advance at the time, and despite how much I loved my DS version of The Sims 2, we both found ourselves arguing over the little rectangle cartridge. Eventually my mother gave in and bought me my own (perks of being a middle child), meaning we could do a little back and forth trading to give us both a taste of each. Years later it's still hard to pick favorites, but if I had to choose: Sims 2 DS has the best mechanics, story, and mission progression, but Sims 2 GBA is a clear winner for novel concept and worldbuilding.

Set in the arid dustbowl of Strangetown, The Sims 2 on Nintendo DS forces players to take up the mantle of hotel owner extraordinaire, building it up from a ramshackle ruin to a five-star establishment with themed suites, a casino, and multiple bars and lounges. Oh, and did I mention a top secret lair belonging to a dormant superhero? Constructing all of this requires plenty of Simoleons, earned from hotel guests paying for their stays in full upon a pleasant visit. The likelihood of happy customers increases with the cleanliness, quality, and environment of the guest rooms and facilities available, so it's a matter of completing side jobs on top of the main quests to build up those coffers. The time-honored money-making tradition of creating and selling paintings is still a staple here, with paintings either sold at the art gallery or used to decorate rooms and suites for a little aesthetic boost.

It's a hotel hustle I would love to see on modern platforms. Condensing the two-screen experience to just the one would probably take a little tinkering, but if MySims can make the jump to the Switch, I don't see why Sims 2 couldn't follow suit. The main snag is that Nintendo's latest does not sport the built-in mic of its double-screened predecessor, putting my dreams of playing the vacuum minigame on the backburner. However, the Switch's touch screen is its saving grace. It's a much wider used mechanism in the game that can be given greater focus in a port. Tapping dust bunnies is just as effective and blowing on them, after all, and making a masterpiece worthy of gallery perfection – a single dot on an otherwise blank canvas, of course – could be as fulfilling on the Switch as it was the DS. Plus, who doesn't want to do shady missions for high-baller penthouse guests, even if it means offering gourds to a strange old statue and bringing a mummy back to life? Ah, nostalgia.

Lights! Camera! Glarch!

And then we have the ugly duckling of the Sims 2 handheld spin-offs: the Game Boy Advance version. Framed as a reality show, the player must complete a series of mission-based episodes to create drama among the people of Strangetown. Think The Truman Show, only you are the only one who knows that you're in a TV show. 

Meddling in the lives of unaware citizens turns out to be a blast, moral quandaries aside, and you even get a sweet, customizable motorbike to jet around the town on. Episodes cover a variety of topics, from a cola craze to missing Sims, and no one is none the wiser that your character is in on producer Daddy Bigbucks' nefarious schemes. As a kid, I loved how both the DS and GBA Sims 2 games share a similar cast of characters, from Al Capone-like Frankie Fusilli to Kayleigh Wintercrest and the devious likes of intruder alien Emperor Xizzle. There's an implied shared aspect connecting the two games that makes them feel linked somehow, and maybe that's why they both occupy a similar space in my nostalgic memory.

Nintendo Switch has seen a number of old-school games being ported across, but until Sims 2 on DS and GBA makes the jump, it will always feel incomplete to me. It's a shame that younger gamers might not get to experience the zany magic of The Sims' most off-kilter handheld experiences purely because the hardware is scarcer by the year, so if MySims does well, I'm hoping Nintendo is willing to dig deeper into the annals of Sims games past to deliver some true gems worth uncovering.

Check out the best Sims 2 cheats (aside from the hallowed motherlode) that can be total gamechangers.

Fields of Mistria offers a unique blend of Stardew Valley charm and Sailor Moon magic with its whimsical features and foundation as a farming sim. It's managed to keep me occupied for countless hours, and I'm about to pour a whole lot more in when the game's first major update drops on November 18. While its Early Access roadmap previously provided a glimpse of what's to come, the patch packs a few surprises, too.

One of these surprise additions is mounts and boy, are they downright adorable. As revealed in a recent post from NPC Studio, "Mounts are coming to Mistria!" The new mounts "can be summoned anywhere outside" and will come with their very own skill perks to snag. They're so cute as well - just look at that pink cow. It looks like it was plucked straight out of an old Harvest Moon game, and I'm personally so here for that.

Mounts aren't the only exciting feature coming with the patch in a few days, either. The devs have also teased new festivals, home upgrades and decorations, and finally, heart events with romanceable characters. It's great news for us cozy game stans, and as per the roadmap, more is yet to come after this initial update. I can't wait for marriage and children, fresh biomes, and of course, Steam achievements to show off my unwavering devotion. 

Can't get enough of virtual rural life? Check out the best farming games around right now.

Speaking in a recent interview with Nintendo Life, ConcernedApe discusses what his favorite games are and what he's been up to outside of his seemingly eternal work on Stardew Valley. "There's a lot of good games that I've played," he admits. "Recently I got way into Balatro." He then describes just how addictive the smash-hit roguelike can be once it's opened: "Hours have gone by. You really lock in, you like zone in, you're in a trance."

He goes on to praise the soundtrack: "Oh, the music's great. I love the music." As a fan of both games, it's exciting to see ConcernedApe so invested in Balatro - especially after he worked on collab art for the fellow indie title last month. It's not the only game he's been playing, however, as he cites a couple of other bangers after talking about Balatro. "What else? I recently played Outer Wilds for the first time."

ConcernedApe then says Outer Wilds is "good," calling it "one of those games that everyone needs to play once, you know." Aside from Balatro and Outer Wilds, he's also "played the Riven remake" and "grew up" with the original, a title he sees as "one of the best of those genres of games ever." As for what he's been playing alongside other devs, ConcernedApe confesses that, while "a little controversial," they sometimes play Fortnite together.

Craving a new cozy adventure while you wait for even more updates? Here are our favorite games like Stardew Valley.

"A new Stardew Valley patch for the Switch is out, please update your game," reads a tweet from Barone. "You can put hats back on pets now. It also fixes the bomb crash, disappearing chickens, and more. There will be further patches on console to fix additional bugs and get it in sync with where PC is at."

Just in case you're a reasonable person and are confused by the whole coyote thing, let me quickly explain. There was a bug in Stardew Valley last week that was causing chickens to disappear, and Barone went above and beyond to create lore to explain it, telling players a coyote had been running rampant and killing the chickens that were really disappearing due to a bug.

There was also a bug that was impacting performance, and Barone's solution was for players to remove hats from their pats because of "a strange rash" that was making their li'l ears itchy. Again, this was just improvised lore Barone created as a fun explanation for a bug, but still, it was a bummer to see all those hatless pets.

Now, chickens are safe from the maws of coyotes and pets are free to wear as many hats as they want, which is the only kind of Stardew Valley world I want to live in.

"I accept the blame": Stardew Valley creator ConcernedApe address broken mods after recent patch, says he will "release fewer, large patches" in future.

Stardew Valley fans have been eating good the past couple of weeks with patch 1.6 coming to consoles and 1.6.9 arriving on PC. The latter wasn't all smooth sailing, however, as players reported broken mods upon the update's launch. Addressing the matter, ConcernedApe says he's sorry. "I'm sorry to everyone whose mods broke," he writes. "While I only work on the base game (and not mods or mod frameworks), I accept the blame for this one."

Continuing, the dev explains his usual process when releasing updates and ensuring that mods aren't subsequently broken. "Normally, I coordinate with SMAPI to release our updates at the same time, then once you update SMAPI you should be good to go with your mods on the newest patch. However, I stupidly released the update last night without coordinating. There should be a SMAPI update soon which will fix things for most people."

Important announcement regarding mods and patches from r/StardewValley

The creator then details how he will "address the issue going forward," offering solutions and stating he "will release fewer, larger patches" as 1.6 is finally "stable" now. ConcernedApe says that he generally tries "as much as possible to consider modded players" when it comes to updates, and hopes that his currently planned fixes will "help to settle things down for modders and make the experience smoother going forward."

ConcernedApe is undeniably dedicated to Stardew Valley - he previously admitted that he still thinks he could "keep working on the game forever" and "could work on it for the rest of my life" while discussing the farming sim, after all. Although it means Haunted Chocolatier has been on the back burner, the creator's upcoming game will receive new updates "in time" and I'm personally thrilled to see so much devotion poured into Stardew Valley years on.

Craving a new cozy adventure while you wait for even more updates? Here are our favorite games like Stardew Valley.