Just before gamescom, on August 13, the Sims 4 simulation game was enriched with a new item pack created in partnership with an Italian haute couture brand: Moschino. Strangely enough, I was suddenly so busy that I didn't have time to test it at all ... Definitely the first pack since the game launched that I didn't discover until its release! Anyway, as soon as I come back from Cologne and a slew of articles written, I am finally ready to become the new fashion icon!
New interface
When the game is launched, I take this opportunity to discover the new interface. So yeah, that's not part of the pack, we agree. But Moschino being the first big news since the deployment of this free update, this is the occasion to speak about it briefly. In addition to a more modern look, and more differentiable icons, the big notable change is the implementation of a personality form to create your new Sim.
You only need to answer a few questions to generate a random Sim. Note that the traits of the created Sim cannot be modified, you are free to keep it .. or create another!
Moschino vs Les Sims
Moschino being a luxury clothing brand, so it makes perfect sense that the tool Create a Sim offers a wide range of novelties, including earrings, dresses, T-shirts, pants, leather shorts, motorcycle jackets ... There are two categories of items: some belong to the Capsule Collection inspired by The Sims and others to iconic collections of Moschino created by Creative Director Jeremy Scott.
Fashion is a matter of ... taste. Suddenly, for the common people that I am, there are some weird things:
And others frankly pretty:
Men are really not spoiled because, between the Harlequin costume, the classic T-shirt or the rhinestone butler outfit, I admit that I have seen better:
The outfits of biker on the other hand, are successful for both sexes, even if this potentially gives a somewhat "respectable" gender on the part of women. There my Sim wears the pumps added with the pack, but it looks a lot better with taller boots.
Finally, the inimitable swimsuit in the colors of the Sims:
Construction mode items
The pack is poorer in terms of items to add to houses, with only 31 items, presented in two rooms: a living room and a photo studio.
Some objects are only cosmetics : an armchair, a sofa, two tables (pedestal table and TV stand), a light pedestal, a framed photo, a bubble-shaped mirror, books with a bear bookend, a stack of magazines, a created work of art with the lens of a camera, a carpet, a decoration with three intertwined colored tubes, a suspension, neon tubes, a transparent screen and a bookcase. They are almost all there in this corner of my dance floor:
To create your Photo studio, you will be able to enjoy many new objects, which coordinate perfectly with those added in the Hour of Glory game pack: two interactive backgrounds (straight and curved), a straight background, a placement mark, a transport crate, a door - photo accessory, a tripod, a stack of amps, two lights and a rack with clothes and shoes. I use most of these objects in my studio here:
Interactive objects
Most of the objects in the studio are only cosmetic, rare are the novelties in terms of gameplay. The tripod, that fits in inventory, can be combined with a camera and serve as a landmark for taking a photo.
It pairs in particular with the Brand benchmark, which is used to invite any Sim already present in the current scene to position themselves on the location. If necessary, it is possible to hire a model for 100 Simoleons who will arrive after only a few minutes and will comply with the photographer's requests, especially in terms of outfits. On the other hand, the model cannot be selected, which can cause concern for some photos which require special ages or genders.
If the Sim's default outfit is not suitable, the Create a Sim tool is available to choose from among all the outfits in the game.
Unlike the background which is only in 12 fixed colors, the sets are customizable with a dozen effects coordinating between the different elements placed for a rendering of the most beautiful effect. On the other hand, you have to go really far so that the lower bar is not visible in the frame of the photo.
The photo frames are finally good ways to display several photos in the same place. The large gray, on the left, is fixed, with only three slots that simply fill up by dragging a photo from the Sim's inventory to the object on the wall. The two small ones on the right are "digital", with the management of an inventory to add a collection of photos. Every hour (default) the photo will change, but the speed can be slower (3, 6, 12 or 24 hours).
Freelance fashion photographer
Unlike traditional professions, photographer is an independent progression, which is played without the Sim ever leaving the normal world. Once the choice is made to become independent, the domain depends on the agent, being found under the same label as digital artist, author and programmer.
The work itself is then accomplished in the form of small tasks to be retrieved from a special interface, without there being a priori quantity requirement. Unlike odd jobs for example, the pace is very cool, usually with at least 48 hours of delay. I am for example Sunday evening 17:00 pm on this screenshot, and I have until Tuesday morning, 09:00 am, to return my photos.
The level of competence, in this case photography, conditions the tasks. The higher the level, the more complex the task, but also remunerative. However, I had several bugs on these tasks. Usually, you need to take specific photos, then send the photos for approval, before posting the customer's chosen photo on social media. But, between customer approvals that validated even before I sent a photo (presumably the customer's approval from before), approved photos that took forever to reach my mailbox, or still photos that were not taken into account despite following the instructions, I quickly gave up. However, it was a good idea to offer to exploit this photo mode of the game, which offers a multitude of options and filters.
This allows you to take pictures ...
More pictures ...
Always pictures!
Plus, I mentioned it earlier, but this item kit pairs beautifully with the added popularity in Hour of Glory. By taking pictures and selling them to magazines, or posting them on social media, your Sim is promised fame! Well, normally ... if it stops bugging ... Because, for the moment, apart from making him addicted to his cell phone, my Sim is just a new star that no one recognizes in the street ...
Conclusion
Based on an excellent idea, this game pack unfortunately has far too many bugs for the experience to be satisfactory. The problems of missions linked to the profession of photographer make it almost impossible to achieve success in becoming the best photographer insofar as the missions end up repeatedly failed due to objectives that do not validate correctly. Maybe it's just a translation problem? Anyway, when I see that we need to take 5 photos of chic children, and I take 30 of these photos without anything validating, I give up, because regressing because of bugs is no can be more annoying.
So I urge you to wait for a potential patch before investing in what could be one of the best Sims Stuff Kits. The Sims 4: Moschino Stuff Pack is available now for $ 9,99 on PC and Mac at Origin, and will be released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles on September 3.
