Young Sims in Love

This is Memsi and her live-in boyfriend Don Lothario. Don is somewhat of an infamous cad in Sims, and this is clearly even worse in 4, because he's been paying attention to her since she was a little girl. He was an elder at the time, and it kind of squicked me. I knew she liked him though, so I used a cheat to de-age him back to childhood. Then I realized he would be alone in his house, so I moved him into ours. As kids, they were the best of friends. As teenagers, they won't keep their hands off of each other. I keep trying to make them gain skills. All they want to do is go mess around or make out. I have a feeling they're going to be rather unproductive teens. Sigh.

This is Memsi's twin Clara. Clara loathes Don and can't understand what her sister sees in him. Every time she sees them together, she gives me this look, as if she's wishing I'd just kill him off or something. It's possible that I should have, but for breeding purposes, I'd like to see how well his perfect little nose can counteract the nose that Memsi got from her father. I don't think Clara is pleased with this at all, but then again, she likes the nose. While her sister is busy snogging on Don, Clara spends her time learning skills and figuring out a path for her life. I don't know if she'll ever be interested in romantic encounters. Memsi and Don may have scarred her for life.

Oh, there is a point to this. I successfully raised these two kids from babies to teenagers. And, I have to say, even though there are flaws with Sims 4, how they structured childhood is certainly not one of them. Childhood was fun! The children had aspiration goals to work through, which gained them decent levels of points to use for rewards. The aspirations also add depth to their personalities. All of this makes childhood more challenging and complex than in the earlier versions of the game.

In the past, Sim children basically just did homework, went to school, and learned skills. They tended to be pretty generic. I'm playing my game with long life spans, so I was able to do all four aspirations for my kids, but if you play with a shorter span of time, you're going to have to pick and choose. This mean your kids' personalities will be even more geared toward a certain kind of life.

So my verdict on Sims 4 Childhood is that is the best childhood experience so far. And yes, I tweeked a little and altered Don Lothario's life in the process, but it was still pretty grand.