The Sims 4 Can Be Just as Weird as its Predecessors, And Here Are The Pictures to Prove It

Janine "Iris Ophelia" Hawkins' ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

A Sims game isn't officially a Sims game until weird stories start leaking out across the internet. I'm not just talking about glitches and bugs (though there are plenty of those) but rather those strange little twists of fate and circumstance that lead to bizarre encounters and, ideally, more than a few ridiculous screenshots. 

I've had a few particularly weird situations arise in The Sims 4 since its release last week, proving that things can still run off the rails even when every system in the game is working as intended. Here are a few of my favorites:

The Eager Streaker

My sim, an aspiring criminal mastermind, found herself with a faithful BFF in spite of all the mischievous and decidedly unfriendly interactions they would have. She seemed to take every joy buzzer, every fake party, every lie and exaggeration in stride. The same went for the multiple occasions when my sim suggested her "friend" streak across the neighbourhood. 

She seemed to be having a great time, so who am I to argue?

The Buff Mommy-to-Be

My aforementioned sim was pursuing her criminal career along the path that requires a high degree of physical training. She kept a punching bag in a cramped little room just off from the entryway of her house, and whenever she had a spare moment she'd be in there training. Even hired muscle can fall in love, though, and soon enough she was married and expecting. Now I've had pregnant sims before, and I've had buff sims before, but I'd never seen the two intersect. In hindsight I'm not sure what I expected it to look like, but it definitely wasn't this. 

Frankly, I'm just impressed.

The Unlucky Housekeeper

Brace yourselves, because this might be one of the most tragic things that I've ever seen happen in a Sims game, ever. I snapped up a perk for my sim that allowed her to call up a housekeeping service to tidy her house without having to pay them for their time afterwards. Naturally I wanted to make use of this as much as possible, so I had her make an appointment. The assigned housekeeper (an elderly man) arrived, took all of three steps towards the front door, then dropped dead on the front walkway.

To add insult to injury, the Grim Reaper got stuck on the house's stoop, so the man's body was laid out for hours for passersby to gawk at before I finally managed to debug his spirit into the great beyond.

If you though that was the end of the story, just wait. There's one final twist of the knife that I only discovered after I was going through my screenshots the next day. It turns out I'd snapped this poor virtual soul's picture a few days before the incident. He was crossing the street looking very sad, in an equally sad-looking panda hat. I'd paused the game, framed the shot dramatically, and saved the scene because it was the most ridiculous thing I'd seen up until that point.

Little did I know...

Considering what's happened in my game already, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what other strange stories will come out of The Sims 4 player community in the future. And, of course, if you experience any for yourself, don't hesitate to share them in the comments below.

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Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart on Twitter, Iris Ophelia in Second Life) has been writing about virtual worlds and video games for nearly a decade, and has had her work featured on Paste, Kotaku, Jezebel and The Mary Sue.

Comments

[Issa Heckroth]

The buff mummy tummy is going to give me nightmares for weeks! :/

[Iris Ophelia]

@Issa If you really want nightmares, Google what really happens to abdominal muscles during pregnancy like I was inspired to do. D:

[Julia Benmergui]

Sounds like they are on the right track. These sort of stop in disbelief moments are indicative of the type of unexpected fun that can be had from virtual worlds.

Weird but interesting.

I think I'll get that on a T shirt.