I suspected as much - they sent out PR packages with 3 tarot cards for marketing purposes.

As they appear to be trying to actually market this pack to influencers, I will assume it’s at least a degree more sizable than Lovestruck was.

Hopefully, it will include content for everyone, not just those who want to be a reaper.

I feel like I’m spamming, but EA Italia accidentally spoiled a few details.

- A New Spectral World
- Explore Crypts
- Spectral Skills To Master
- Testaments? (I assume Wills)

This sounds very out there and not grounded at all.

Whatever they add, I’m hoping they sprinkle in a new build feature or tool, or the ability to make something in a new way.

Edit: The blog dropped. It’s actually an expansion pack.

Interesting...so this pack expands on ghosts as an occult state. I feel like this would have been a good opportunity to introduce zombies, but I guess going back to improve an existing one isn't a bad thing (mermaids weep quietly in the corner).

Also more festivals so spam us with, more traits, more lot traits, more whohoo spots and a funeral event that's probably going to be as broken as Marriages. Oh and for some reasons stuff that would have fit in Paranormal and Magic Realm. When I hear about the stuff that they're adding I just... shake my head. There's too much stuff already in the game. I can just imagine how the Sim Panel will be even more of a scroll with these bucket lists and souls journey stuff. It sound a lot like lifelong ambitions from Sims 2 to me. Just with more steps... and some mid-life crisis thing thrown in.

^^^ Aye, "My Funeral Stories..." The "grim" prospect of that. Ouch.

And for the prospect of a Grim Reaper career? Nah, just some kind of grim's-little-helper, part time, short term apprentice until objectives are complete. Did anyone really think Maxis would make the Reaper totally redundant, and the sim a player makes to replace the job would be the sim who turns up at every death thereafter? Too big an "undertaking."

With perhaps a Netherworld to go to as Grim's apprentice, to go find souls and maybe bring them back to resurrect the dead sim? A rabbithole, chance card event, surely?

And what about those players, like myself, who just do not allow death in their games in any regular fashion. What's this pack going to mean to them? Making the odd sim whose sole purpose is to die just to see what this pack has on offer. Then, within a week, back to normal play where death is banned. Geez, that's gonna be a shorter run than the frikken five weeks of Battlepass Grim Events. And at least I don't have to pay for those... kinda.

Ahh, another wishing well too. What's it called? The Well of Deja Vu. Maybe I'd use that one more than the other when the novelty quickly wears off. And that would be zero. "Be careful what you wish for, while remaining wishful for what you care for, but does it really matter in Sims 4, as we've seen it all before."

And a Halloween release. Quite apt, though not for the theme of the pack itself. Because there is a genuine scariness about it that will be frighteningly relevant on the day that will have most shaking in their boots. THE PATCH!!! Be afraid. Be very afraid. In cyberspace, no-one can hear your game scream.

It means I won't be buying it!
The trouble is I already have full page intro interruptions promoting death "rewards", drop down messages about death, two permanent flashing icons reminding me about death plus a "cute" death icon, conversation choices about death, mail about death, texts about death, who knows what else once the pack is released and patched about four times.
And that's when I'm NOT buying it!!!

I didn't buy Lovestruck but my game appears to have constant conversation options for weddings, always the awkward conversations, a lot more flirting and romantic actions all day. So much so I was getting my flatmates emotionally settled and ready to go out and while I focused on one couples chat the other three lots had all ran off for woohoo

I don't mind these options for those that want them, but where is the off switch for those who don't want these things?

Not exactly an Off switch, more of a Sit Down Protest to get that annoying Grim Events panel off our game screens pronto, maybe this will be of interest to you for the next five weeks - https://simsasylum.com/tfm/index.ph...ext-five-weeks/

Given what they showed, I’d say it’s more of an expansion than their most recent offerings since growing together as it actually contributes to the simulation.

Wills, Customizable Funerals, and Bucket Lists are great additions. Missing (so far) are a few oddities, like new bucket list activities, or LIFE INSURANCE, purely for fraud.

They’re also still very mum on new objects as well. This would be a great opportunity to add new “old world” gameplay items and activities: Train Sets, Rocking Horses, Sculpting… oh well.

Also, I saw a bird cage, so if we can get pet birds, not just crows/ravens, which should be in another pack but whatever), that will be a very obscure omission.

Edit: We need the ability to dramatically knock the casket over so several Sims can pass out and get a mass relationship loss for the offender. The very height of daytime drama.

I don't think it is any more of a expansion pack compared to what they've been pushing out lately.

Maxis pulled from My Wedding Stories for this pack. Since they have yet to actually fix that, I suspect there will be lots of micromanaging of funerals as well. Musical chairs, sims not listening, doing push-ups, ect... The rest of it is leaning into the Paranormal pack with a twist.

As usual, this trailer should be taken with chunks of salt. Maxis loves to sell illusions leaving it to the community to play a game of "What I bought vs what I got" when the pack releases.

Watching the trailer it doesn't even look like it's for an expansion. It looks like someone made a machinima with the existing game and a few custom animations. Yet it seems like everyone wants to buy it based solely on the story shown in the trailer (the illusion), without questioning the (lack of) content they're getting for $50. Read the comments on Youtube and you'll see what I mean.

EA should just cut the crap and introduce a Sims 4 story-mode. Give us a few re-occurring characters to drool over and sell episodes periodically in place of expansion packs. I reckon most Sims 4 players would lap it up in droves and wouldn't know the difference.

I know what you mean. Every time a new pack comes out I say the same thing; buyer beware. Wait until there are game play and review videos. I get grumped at because I'm being mean and don't understand. Then the coin flips when people spend $40.00 for a pack that turns out not be to anything like the trailers.

Why do I bother at this 10 years in? I don't know. The only reason I can come up with is I don't like companies ( or their minions / influencers) lying to me. If people want to dump money into this game when they know how Maxis is, that's a choice, but they're not allowed to come at me when they know I'm right.

More of, but not quite there. The scale of this is much bigger than Lovestuck. I can't help but feel like something is actively missing. I think it's gameplay objects. They've slowly moved towards an interaction and checklist gameplay model, and lots of the gameplay is stuff behind the scenes. The days where we got random items in packs is long gone. Skeeball has nothing to do with the core gameplay loops of Showtimes - at all. It doesn't fit any of the clubs or community lots, but it's a great addition. There's no new playground equipment, but two swing sets?

Sure.

Like ai said, gameplay be absent as long as minimum packs will be tolerated. This is an expansion pack right? Just 40$ to get funerals? All it’s missing them to throw a ‘funny’ eastern egg on how they “killed” TS5 and still do with this franchise.

Critizing them for said gameplay object absents as long we continue to buy stuff packs that are renamed as expansion packs we can expect them to continue with the trend. I can already foresee more EPs becoming and turning into skwewed packs like Lovestruck and Life & Death where the premise is just around…. party/event scheduling?

Good thing I grew out of gaming, because I’d be pissed just thinking about this.

Eh. By Maxis' own admission, they know stuff is missing.



Not even 5 seconds into their own trailer, tiny text appears warning people that not all that they see is actually in the game. This is nothing new. This warning appears for every "expansion" pack.

I tried watching Pixelade's video about this pack; I fell asleep. I don't have a beef with Pixelade except for maybe his over the top video titles, but spending $40.00 to click boxes off a checklist isn't my idea of a good time. If TS3 was this way, I would have ditched the game years ago if I started playing it at all. I don't play sims to have Maxis or other people in general chirping in my ear about 'to-do lists'. I have enough of these kinds of lists rolling around in head, I don't need a game version of one too.

Life & Death INSANE New Gameplay! (Funerals, Wills, Souls, Grief System, & More!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFmgyG8QpYE

TS4 cannot handle another 10 years of stuff being piled on to it, so this is what they're doing. If people are okay with this, so be it. I let go of the idea of the sims franchise being what I've always known it to be a long time ago. Knowing this, it is still a strange time for the sims community.

It used to be when new content came out, people would be happy and would play with said new content for months before making noise about wanting the itch for new content to be scratched. Now that time takes less than 48 hours in many cases and yet, people are scratching their heads wondering why EA wants all mobile games with lots of micro transactions. I'm confused by all the confusion.

Instead of getting content in chunks, people will be able to get a constant flow of new stuff in a slow drip with a price tag to go along with it. Supply and demand, baby! I'm not defending EA / Maxis behavior, but this whole concept didn't just appear from out of the blue. They're watching what people do and how they behave, all the time. It is creepy AF, but here we are.

Watching all of this go on is more interesting than the game itself...

The game being bloated but hallow is why they make the choices they do.

There are features presented I can appreciate, and as a theme, this is actually new. We haven’t had a pack so dark before as a crossroads between death and being an occult and the complications of being deceased.

The background systems sound fine, but it’s the content leading up to being deceased, being a ghost, planning a funeral, etc. is light. Tarot cards and being a mortician/funeral director /reaper.

Years ago, a pack like this would be ripe for new items, like an Ouija Board or multiple new death types.

A bucket list is a great idea (because life is more complex than having a singular focused ambition, and more long term than having passive wants). It adds middle desires to flesh out Sim life, but where is the new content to support a bucket list? We can’t keep saying “Buy Snowy Escape for mountain climbing to get the full effect of doing something daring to complete a bucket list goal.”

It’s heavily late game, unless someone dies - which is why I suggested life insurance. It adds to the chaos. Take out a policy on someone, feed them some poorly made puffer fish.

“I don’t know what happened, it was all so sudden...”