The Sims 4 Gets Awesome Neighborhood Stories Update

The Sims 4 just got an update to Neighborhood Stories that profoundly changes the gameplay experience. With this update, your Sims can now live and even die autonomously without input from the player.

This information comes to us courtesy of Eurogamer. Originally, the feature had a soft launch back in November, but players had to agree to the change. With the new update, the default is complete autonomy to non-active households in your game, but customization options are available if you’d like to take more direct control.

What does “complete autonomy” mean in this case? In short, characters in your non-active households may change jobs, have kids, and move to a different house. In some cases, they might even end up dying in a freak accident!

Don’t want those Sims to die? Don’t worry: the game’s customization options mean that you can turn off certain Neighborhood Stories options for these otherwise autonomous households, including turning off the change of accidental death. If you really want to be a control freak for your virtual world, many micromanagement options are available. However, you can also simply turn off this feature and play the game as you always have.

How will you know what your wacky neighbors have been getting up to? After the update, you can use any mailbox to check on the different Neighborhood Stories. You might be surprised at how much you get caught in the tangle of their lives!