Here’s a secret about me: I’m in love with the franchise, but I would never buy a Sims game on release day.

Now, it’s not because Maxis titles are typically released with more bugs than a summer in Virginia. It’s not even because I’m waiting for patches or mods. Instead, it’s because Sims games are ridiculously expensive. Maxis is pretty infamous by now for shilling downloadable content (DLC)  — shiny, irresistible DLC — and if I hadn’t waited for the base game price to be slashed, I would have paid $70 for a vanilla game missing classic Sims features from toddlers to aliens. The game went on sale in September of 2014, and was met with widespread outrage from fans.

Now, the release of the $40 “Get to Work” DLC last March and “Get Together” DLC in December has brought the franchise back into the limelight, and the pressure is on EA to sell more base game copies by reducing prices on their PC platform, Origin. The game frequently goes on sale. And with a price reduction of 50%, only now can I finally recommend the game in good faith — over a year after its initial debut.

My sister and I have been hardcore Simmers since the game’s second installment. There’s something immensely appealing about playing in a virtual dollhouse, building up custom Sims from nothing into town plutocrats. I share a copy of the game with her, and we each run our own households in the town. Eventually, we paired the eldest sons in our main households off with each other, the way royal families used to arrange marriages.

The game is still missing a couple of key features from previous installments, such as the toddler life stage and Create-A-Style (which allowed for custom textures in The Sims 3). With that said, I think the improvements now make up for the losses. The Sims themselves have a snazzy, stylized look. You can sculpt features directly instead of using sliders,
which means making doppelgängers of friends and celebs is far easier. Building is more intuitive, and the new emotion system makes Sims feel less robotic. They’re entertaining to watch. The game even allows for taking a screenshot and designating it as an embarrassing/happy/sad memory, which can lead to hilarious results if you get… inventive.

In my opinion, the Sims 4 is on track to be a PC staple, and kudos to EA for listening to players’ requests to patch in missing features like pools, ghosts, and repairmen. Monthly patches to the base game, such as the recent addition of wreaths and holiday sweaters, also prove that some part of EA’s cold corporate heart does care about adding content. Still, oftentimes good things come to those who wait. In fact, I’m going to be watching Origin in the next few weeks, waiting to snipe “Get to Work”… the next time there’s a sale.

Yeah, still not paying full price.