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The Sims 4‘s newest expansion, High School Years, hits PC and Mac July 28–just in time for all you folks headed back to school this fall to pour a few dozen hours into it before your own class schedule calls. GameSpot recently got the chance to participate in a hands-off preview of the game and found it to be an impressive addition that introduces quite a few new features while also overhauling some out-of-date systems.
At the center of the expansion is Copperdale High, a Middle America-style high school inspired by CW shows, Euphoria, First Bite, and ’90s teen comedies. You will now be able to follow your teen sims as they attend the school in a manner similar to Back To Work’s active careers, with the added bonus of being able to control multiple sims while away.
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Now Playing: The Sims 4 High School Years: Official Reveal Trailer
While on campus, your sims can personalize their locker, attend classes, mix-and-mingle with their fellow teens and teachers, and even plan our their “promposals.” Your sims will also be able to join various after-school activities, including the chess club, computer club, cheerleading team, and football team–all of which will help them get better university offers upon graduation. You’ll also be able to raise quite the ruckus as well, with options to pull pranks, initiate rivalries, and even ditch class. Be warned, however, as all these actions have consequences, ranging from a little after school detention to being unable to graduate. If your sim is unable to graduate, you’ll be forced to get a high school degree online as an adult, and will be locked out of university and certain career paths until you do.
Away from school, your teen sims will be able to further develop a new type of relationship–crushes–and battle with their parents and hormones. Sims can also now sneak out and visit the DLC packs two new locations, Plumbob Pier and ThrifTea. At the pier, quite a few new “mess around” and “WooHoo” spots are available to your sims, including the Tunnel of Love, a haunted house, and a photo booth. However, if you get caught, you could very well be banned from going on the rides for a long, long time. In fact, this could even lead to your sims developing fears, a new feature that makes your sims hesitant to do certain things based on their past experiences. Particularly fearless sims can test out the Bloody Mary urban legend, though it could very well be the last thing they ever do.
To help guide your young sims through all this turmoil are four new teen-only aspirations: Live Fast, Drama Llama, Admired Icon, and Goal Oriented. Sims “living fast” aim to be renegades and rule-breakers, while drama llamas live for break-ups, shake-ups, and make-ups. Admired icons strive to be popular and influential, while goal-oriented sims seek to use their high school career to get ahead later in life, and put a lot of emphasis on good grades, extracurriculars, and raking in cash.
Your teen sims can earn money through two new “side hustles” that have been added to the game: Simfluencer and video game streamer. Simfluencers are popular sims who can earn quite the chunk of change selling their outfits at the game’s new thrift store/boba spot ThrifTea, and have a powerful social media presence. Video game streamers can set up the ol’ LED lights and hop on their computer to stream games to their loyal subscribers, and can even carry the career into their adult lives as well.
A streaming career isn’t the only addition coming to adult sims. The in-game social media platform, Social Bunny, will be available to all sims once they become teenagers, as well as a more modular-looking cellphone. Sims will have access to the “socially awkward” trait, be able to enable hair growth–including arm, leg, back, and torso hair–and alter their fashion preferences in character creation. However, the most important addition might just be the massive sexuality update headed to The Sims 4 base game once High School Years launches.
Once implemented, sims will be able to choose what genders they are romantically attracted to, what genders they are sexually attracted to, and if they are interested in exploring their sexuality further. This allows players to create sims that are firmly straight, gay, bisexual, aromantic, and asexual or, if they select they are still exploring their sexuality, malleable sims whose sexuality will be impacted through social interactions. As such, inactive sims will now be able to perform relationship-altering interactions on your sims, including asking members of your current household to be their partner and even breaking up with them. Right now, the attraction feature is limited to a gender binary due to the “mechanical limitations” of the game, according to the Sims team. However, the team assured journalists this “isn’t the finish line, but this is a very important version one.”
Only a few short weeks are left until all these features hit The Sims 4, allowing us to live out our our Riverdale and Euphoria dreams. You can purchase The Sims 4 High School Years for $40 USD when it hits PC and Mac on July 28. Until then, be sure to check out our recreation of Twilight using The Sims 4 Werewolves.
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