We're not sure there will ever be a time when The Sims 4 fails to continue to expand, and today we see it continuing to grow even more. This time it's all about showing your love and commitment to your Sims, with the My Wedding Stories expansion.
It's been a long engagement for EA but after no small amount of controversy and a short delay, The Sims 4: My Wedding Story's big day is nearly here. The newest addition to grace The Sims 4's ever-expanding library of game packs, My Wedding Stories offers players the chance to celebrate their love and culture with lavish wedding ceremonies, lively receptions, and several other new additions. Earlier this month, GameSpot got the chance to attend The Sims 4 My Wedding Stories preview event and spend a bit of time with the upcoming game pack. Overall, the pack adds a lot of love and a greater sense of inclusion to the eight-year-old game, but a lack of quality-of-life changes and push for greater immersion might keep players away from their happily ever after.
According to The Sims team, the game pack was designed to primarily help players accomplish four things: find their marital bliss, prepare to party, bring their vision to life, and create moments that last a lifetime. To help achieve these goals, the team first created the ultimate romantic getaway: Tartosa. Inspired by the charming towns that line the Mediterranean coast, Tartosa is a new location filled with jaw-dropping vistas, hot wedding destinations, nine lots your Sims can move onto, and a few small shops. The Sims team says Tartosa is the most intricate town they've ever rolled out, and even comes with in-game lore regarding its establishment.
However, Tartosa is only a small part of the heightened wedding experience My Wedding Stories offers. While the pack, unfortunately, doesn't add any new ways for sims to pop the question, it does enhance the events that follow. Rather than your sim's engagement period being a short lull until the big day, there are now a number of events you sims can host to celebrate their upcoming union. These events include an engagement dinner, wedding rehearsal, "bach" party (a gender-neutral take on bachelor/bachelorette parties), and family gathering.
While each activity is exciting in its own right, the family gathering is particularly interesting and comes as part of The Sims team's attempt to celebrate different cultures around the world in "an authentic and respectful way." The event is intended to act as a "catch-all" that allows players to pay tribute to certain wedding rituals unique to their own heritage, such as Chinese tea ceremonies or any of the many elaborate Indian ceremonies. As you can imagine, all of these events--as well as both the actual wedding and reception themselves--require quite a bit of planning. Luckily, My Wedding Stories also adds quite a few options to these areas as well, making each union feel one-of-a-kind.
For starters, you can now give your friends and loved ones assigned roles in your wedding, such as sim of honor, ring bearer, flower pal, and officiant. These sims will then be able to participate in your wedding, granting you the option to send them down the aisle when the ceremony begins. There are also new actions sims can perform, allowing them to gush about their upcoming nuptials, share their concerns, slow dance with others, perform group dances, and more. You can also purchase cake to serve to your guests--complete with a unique topper--and flowers for your blushing bride to hold as they walk down the aisle. However, it should be stated that despite being featured in the trailer, there are no unique events or methods for buying flowers, cakes, or wedding apparel shopping. All of these remain tied to simple stalls you merely walk up to in Tartosa or just lead you to Create-a-Sim mode, which is a bit disappointing.
However, a major way you can insert a bit of choice and excitement into your wedding celebrations is by planning what activities will take place at each event. You are able to do this when first scheduling the event by selecting what traditions are most important to you from a pretty lengthy list of options. Available activities include dancing, giving toasts, sharing a meal, giving speeches, cutting the cake, walking down the aisle, sharing a first kiss, drinking tea, exchanging vows, throwing rice, performing a first dance, having drinks, blowing bubbles, and more. Whichever activities you select will ultimately pop up as a sort of to-do list on your big day, though The Sims team emphasized weddings are not goal-oriented events and therefore there will be no penalties if all these tasks aren't accomplished. According to the team, they want each day to feel special rather than perfect.
Choosing a venue and its decoration remains the same as it was prior to the game pack, though My Wedding Stories does add a substantial amount of new items, new venues (including ones crafted specifically for Chinese, Indian, and Hispanic weddings), and the ability to get married anywhere. Other additions to the game include a lot of new formal wear, the ability to assign sims as "fiance" in CAS, and new moodlets specific to events that can occur in My Wedding Stories. However, for those you who were hoping the pack might inject a bit more "spice" into your betrothal or wedding ceremony, be warned that there are no new woohoo locations, cheeky bach party activities, changes to divorce, or even an option to interrupt the ceremony with an infamous "I object!" included.
The Sims 4 My Wedding Stories
However, following your sim's drama-free big day, another sweet and special event unlocks: a vow-renewal ceremony. This allows sims who have been married for some time to reaffirm their love to one another and celebrate with their loved ones all over again, making the pack last beyond your sim's short engagement period.
Considering My Wedding Stories is a game pack rather than an expansion, the breadth of options and robust amount of features it adds to the game is rather impressive and makes it one of the more valuable packs introduced thus far. However, you might find yourself a bit frustrated that the pack doesn't fix certain issues around weddings and events that have existed for some time--such as NPCs refusing to participate in the events they way you might like them to. While you can now somewhat direct people to the next activity--requesting they take a seat, or move onto the dance floor-- it's still tricky to get them to actually do it. This extends to even sending your wedding party down the aisle in proper order or ensuring food is served.
Furthermore, there's a real issue with the choices you make not feeling particularly meaningful or immersive. While there's a lot to choose from, cake-tasting, hearing your friends' toasts and speeches, saying "yes to the dress," and all the small parts discussed above that truly make the wedding experience are simple button clicks rather than experiences. Considering how much the pack adds and accomplishes--especially in terms of representation--My Wedding Stor
ies is a lovely pack to help celebrate a lovely time in your sim's life, even if it is a bit imperfect.
Following criticism from members of the LGBTQ+ community regarding The Sims 4's newest game pack, My Wedding Stories, being exclusionary, The Sims team has announced the add-on will be coming to Russia. The team shared the news in a blog post published earlier today, writing that while they "believed that our team could not freely share the storytelling of same-sex couple Cam and Dom in Russia," they have since realized they will be able to release the pack, "unaltered and unchanged" on February 23.
You can read the full letter below:
An Update on My Wedding Stories
To our Simmers,
Last week, we shared the below update about our upcoming game pack “My Wedding Stories.” At the time, we believed that our team could not freely share the storytelling of same-sex couple Cam and Dom in Russia and decided the best way to uphold our commitment to sharing their story was to not release this pack there.
Since then, we’ve been listening to the outpouring of feelings from our community including both support for our decision and concern for their fellow community members. It’s equally important for us to stand by our values, including standing against homophobia, and to share stories like this with those who want and need it most.
With this in mind, we’ve reassessed our options and realized we can do more than we initially believed and we will now release The Sims 4 “My Wedding Stories” Game Pack to our community in Russia, unaltered and unchanged, featuring Dom and Cam.
We want the entire Sims community to be able to celebrate together, so we're pushing the global release of "My Wedding Stories" to February 23 - including in Russia.
Love is love, and The Sims community will continue to be a safe space for those who want to see a world where that is true for everyone. We are thankful for the support of our team and our values even when it is hard. Thank you for being a part of The Sims.
The Sims Team
The news comes a week The Sims team published an open letter on The Sims 4's official blog stating that, due to federal laws, The Sims 4: My Wedding Stories would not be sold in Russia. Following the announcement, several members of both the Russian and LGBTQ+ Sims communities expressed frustration and outrage at EA's decision. Fans claimed there was no reason the game couldn't be released in Russia (which has received every prior Sims 4 add-on, albeit at an 18+ rating), and the company was "excluding the ones that are being affected more than others."
To accommodate this change in plans, The Sims team has announced they are pushing the release date of My Wedding Stories from February 17 to February 23.
An expansion pack for The Sims 4 that was previously announced as not coming to Russia due to restrictions on LGBTQ media content will be released in Russia after all following a community outcry.
We’ve been spoiled with The Sims 4 expansions lately. We weren’t sure that last year’s Cottage Living and Dream Home Decorator could be beaten, but here we are. The Sims 4‘s latest Game Pack, My Wedding Stories, is all about planning the perfect Big Day. Every little girl’s dream, they say. And with a brand […]
