The Sims 4‘s upcoming expansion pack, Adventure Awaits, has all kinds of new features that I’d love to play around with: summer camp for kids, functional gym equipment, the return of Imaginary Friends, and perhaps most exciting, a reality TV-style competition function that allows Sims to compete against each other for money, bragging rights, and even love. The Adventure Awaits launch trailer even shows off a Getaway lot called “Love Highland,” an obvious reference to the hit reality TV show Love Island.
On paper, this expansion pack is totally my type. But given my recent experiences with The Sims 4, I’m starting to feel a bit mugged off, and I get cold feet when I think about picking up yet another expansion pack that may or may not actually work as advertised.
The last time I sat down with The Sims 4, I had a grand old time exploring everything the game’s most recent DLC, Enchanted by Nature, had to offer. But the day after I’d published my thoughts on the newest DLC, things immediately started falling apart. First, my Sim’s friends came by her home for a pool party, but the festivities were quickly derailed by the return of the White Cake bug, an issue that causes any Sims with free will on the lot to raid the nearest fridge and start making (but never actually finish) White Cake. My Sim’s entire kitchen was covered in half-baked pans of White Cake, and I eventually had to disband the party and send everyone home. Did I mention that every time someone raided the fridge, my Sim’s bank account was charged for the ingredients? Lovely.
But like many Simmers, I’ve dealt with the White Cake bug before. It disappeared at one point, and I could play the game sans cake-based chaos, but the bug is now back with a vengeance. It appears to be connected to the Eco Lifestyle expansion pack, which allows players to select certain initiatives that will decrease their eco footprint when they perform certain activities (like cooking). I figured it was best to keep guest-Sims off the lot, since my fairy-Sim couple had a pair of newborn twins to look after anyway.
Moments later, I noticed I couldn’t get my Sim-couple to interact romantically at all anymore. I was baffled. The two of them were new parents who had recently gotten engaged, but I couldn’t get them to even kiss each other on the cheek. Upon opening Create-A-Sim (CAS), I discovered that somehow, my Sims’ relationship had changed from romantic partners to siblings, and tweaking their relationship in CAS did nothing. A little googling revealed that this, too, is a common bug, and it’s been around for at least two years. I eventually managed to correct their relationship label, but I had to completely reset my Sims and erase their relationship using the MC Command Center (MCCC) mod, which is the only mod I use. I spent the rest of the afternoon speedrunning their romance, before finally repairing their relationship and logging off for the night.
EA recently added a “DLC disabler” to The Sims 4, which allows players to selectively disable any DLC packs they don’t want to use for whatever reason. While this sounds like a solution to my Eco Lifestyle White Cake bug problem, it’s really not. Disabling the Eco Lifestyle pack might fix the bug, but it would also prevent me from using any of the outfits, hairstyles, accessories, furniture, and Build Mode items included in that pack. Even worse, many players have reported that using the DLC disabler has permanently corrupted years-old save files, so I’m not keen on touching it. On the other hand, some DLC packs can corrupt your save file, so frankly, I’m not keen on touching the game itself, either.
EA has addressed the save file issues — notably, it was addressed via the EA Help Forums as opposed to any official Sims 4 social media page, where most Sims 4 news is shared — but players are still having issues, especially with expansion packs like For Rent (released in Dec. 2023) and High School Years (released July 2022). Personally, I’ve also had quite a bit of trouble with the Cottage Living DLC (released July 2021) — no matter what I do, I cannot submit a pie for judging at the Finchwick Fair. So as excited as I am at the prospect of getting to play out a Love Island-style scenario with my Sims, I can’t say I’m particularly confident that I’ll actually be able to engage in the activities Adventure Awaits is bringing to the game, let alone enjoy them.
As a lifelong Sims fan, the introduction of the DLC disabler feels like a bit of a slap in the face. Disabling a DLC pack I paid for isn’t a cure for The Sims 4′s problems, it’s a band-aid. What this game desperately needs is a fresh start, but since EA believes that releasing The Sims 5 wouldn’t be “player-friendly,” it looks like my only option is to wait for EA to fix the boatload of bugs currently affecting The Sims 4, pray that Project Rene lives up to the hype, and anxiously await more news on upcoming Sims competitor Paralives.
I hope I’m wrong about Adventure Awaits, but since EA historically seems to take three to five business years to address game-breaking bugs (if it addresses them at all), I think I’ll wait this one out, and let braver Simmers test the waters before I get my heart broken by an expansion that could introduce more bugs, and could very well destroy my save completely.