This week sees the release of The Sims 4 Get Famous, which will allow your Sims to reach for the stars and live the celebrity lifestyle. Previous Sims games have included packs on a similar theme, so I couldn’t wait to find out how EA had made this pack stand out from the earlier games.
Luckily, EA hooked us up for this one with a preview of the game as part of the Game Changers program for this review, so huge thanks to them as always!
CAS & Build/Buy Mode
If you’ve been keeping up with the live streams, you will have seen most of this already. By and large, the new clothing is based around costumes, but of course you’ll also be able to find some glamorous clothes for your rich and famous Sims.
These new style options for your Sim including a couple of new favourite hairs, and some particularly colourful feminine hairstyles. If you really want to see everything in CAS, check out my video preview below (about 20 mins):
Much like the CAS items, the new build/buy mode items are largely split between items which will be useful for sets, and items which your rich and famous Sim will want to complete their home.
But the biggest “new” thing to do with build/buy (aside from terrain tools which of course came in a free patch for all Sims 4 players earlier in the week…) is creating sets. There are loads of items to choose from which you can use to start creating a futuristic set, a wild west set, a pirate boat, even a castle, and then behind it all you can just drop a huge green screen, adding a backdrop which you can choose. Once you’ve created your set you can add some tape marks on the floor to mark the locations for your Sims to act out various scenes.
Fame and Infamy
Get Famous introduces a new mechanic in the fame and reputation systems. These systems interact but are also independent. Your Sim will be able to be incredibly famous but have a terrible reputation, and vice versa. Your celebrity level is measured from 0 – 5 stars, and you’ll be able to see your progress to the next star in the interface.
When you encounter a celebrity in the wild, your “ordinary” Sims will be able to “attempt” an introduction. When I selected that option I kind of expected my Sim to quite coyly and modestly introduce herself. That is… not what she did…
Act cool, she’s a celebrity!
You can of course also bug the celebrity for an autograph, or to take a picture, or a selfie. However, if your squealing fangirling introduction was successful, the celebrity will wave back to you and you can start to chat to them. You’ll find your social options are limited compared to other Sims when it comes to interacting with Sims more famous than you – though of course if you work on the relationship, your friendship can overcome your differences in fame.
When it comes to building up your own fame and following, you’ll notice that various actions in the game, some of which already existed and some of which are new, are now marked with “+ Fame” and a little star icon. The quickest way I found to get started is to head to a local karaoke bar with your streaming drone and start asking real celebrities for hugs and selfies. While your drone is following you there’s a few other interactions that will specifically grant fame and followers, like practicing singing. I’m not sure it helped but I found it really amusing to go for the lowest common denominator.
One way to increase your fame is by asking famous people for hugs while streaming the whole thing from your drone. Clothes optional, and nudity is amusing but not helpful.
As your Sim gains fame and becomes a one star celebrity, they’ll receive a fame point. They’ll be able to use these fame points to unlock perks. For example, your Sim can unlock a perk which will allow them to more easily socialise with higher level celebrities, which could help them to become even more famous themselves.
Becoming an Actor
Another way you can find your way to fame and fortune is through the new acting career. Like the Get To Work careers, these are active careers where you can follow your Sims to their workplace and direct them through their day. But there’s a bit of a difference – acting is definitely not a 9 to 5 job! Instead, you’ll have to check what gigs are available to you – the more famous you are and the better your talent agency, the better your gigs will be. First you’ll need to go to an audition, and there will be a recommended skill level which will help you to land the part. The audition is “rabbit-hole” style – your Sim goes off the lot and comes back later having either landed the part or not. If they’ve landed the part they’ll now have some things to work on ahead of their performance. Working on these items will enable them to pull off the “risky” options during their performance.
After landing the Salty Suds commercial, my Sim had to work on his acting and charisma skills to really nail the part.
The acting skill, much like the charisma skill, can be improved by practising in a mirror.
On the day of his big acting debut, my Sim first had to get his hair and makeup sorted, then get into costume for his scene. Finally, he had to tell the director he was ready to go before he could begin his performance. There was a pirate-themed set, though I did have the option to change the green screen backdrop, and my Sim steered the ship, swabbed the decks, and finally, of course, told us all just how great Salty Suds are.
Ahoy, Simsies! … what was my line again?
Simply completing your active work day as an actor will grant you some fame as well as your pay.
Style Influencers
Get Famous also introduces a new Style Influencer career, in which your Sim will be able to write about fashion and ultimately become a trendsetter. This career is more similar to the ones introduced in City Living, where you can optionally work from home and be assigned some tasks. Completing these tasks often comes with a fame reward, for example, writing and submitting articles grants a small amount of fame. From the career menu on the computer, you’ll also be able to optionally write a fashion blog, which increases your fame too.
And like any self-respecting influencer, you can set yourself up a social media profile, and updating your status will grant a small amount of fame. But the coolest new thing for influencers is that they can stream videos. You don’t have to be a Style Influencer to upload videos either – any Sims can get in on the action here and upload their videos.
The drone I mentioned above is one way to live stream, and it follows you around doing almost anything (much to my disappointment, it does not follow you when you go to the toilet). Working on your skills or meeting famous people is a great way to get followers. But there’s also this really cool desk which is set up specifically for streaming. You can’t use the computer on this desk for anything else – it’s just your video editing and streaming computer.
The streaming desk with the basic camera set-up.
The basic desk comes with a really simple camera, microphone and lighting set-up, but you can purchase better versions of all of these. If your Sim has a high enough handiness skill, they can also make some modifications to further improve their set-up.
The streaming desk with the improved camera, mic, and all of the lights!
From this station, your Sim can record or stream various vlogs and review videos for their fans. This works really well with the style influencer career because you can record fashion and beauty tips vlogs. There are also various options to vlog about your mood, including a “happy” vlog, so however your Sim is feeling, they can tell the world!
No matter what your Sim’s mood, they can share it with their fans!
Once you’ve recorded your vlog, the video goes into the inventory of the desk itself – you’ll then need to open that inventory up and upload the video. This wasn’t immediately obvious to me so for a while I was just recording the videos and wondering why there was no feedback or reaction! Once you do upload your videos, you’ll get a bit of fame and hopefully gain a few new fans but more importantly if you want to upgrade those lights and cameras, you’ll start to earn royalties from your videos.
That’s a wrap?
On this occasion I’ve only had a really short time to look at the game but so far I’m really enjoying everything that it’s added. I really want to explore the actor career all the way through, which I’ll be doing this evening and tomorrow. I’ll switch our stream on so you can watch me playing through that career on Twitch – keep an eye on our Twitter for updates on that!
The thing I’m most looking forward to is seeing what the really creative builders will do with the sets, I think they’ll be able to make some really incredible backdrops and share them as rooms on the library. Then it’ll be really interesting to see what kind of videos we can create using those sets!
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