The Sims 4 For Rent expansion sounds a little too similar to a 7-year-old pack for fans

By Ash Parrish, a reporter who has covered the business, culture, and communities of video games for seven years. Previously, she worked at Kotaku.

You may not be able to get a Plumbob to hover over your head, but you can certainly get one on a shirt.

The next Sims game - currently codenamed Project Rene, even though we all know it’ll almost definitely be called The Sims 5 - will “definitely” have a multiplayer element of some kind, according to its devs. As guidance on what that could be, its team are unsurprisingly looking at the success of fellow cozy life-sim game Animal Crossing, as well as a perhaps less obvious inspiration in murder-mystery argument-starter Among Us.

For the first time in years—since the Tiny Living pack, probably—a Sims 4 expansion feels like it's really for the Build Mode girls. There's a lot of Live Mode gameplay coming in the For Rent expansion too, with tenant revolts and deadly mold and the dubious prospect of becoming a landlord Sim. But for now we're firmly in the anticipatory creativity portion of the Sims DLC cycle, which means everyone is sharing beautiful townhouse builds that I'm going to snag off the gallery immediately.

Maxis showed off a new gameplay trailer for the upcoming Sims 4: For Rent expansion and somehow the vision of evil landlordship just keeps getting more dire. We'd already found out that the new expansion would add «eviction anxiety,» burglary, and neglectful landlords, but it looks like you can be even more actively evil than that.

Tragic Clowns have been a part of The Sims franchise since the very first game, but now you can do more than just summon him: you can become him. Embrace the clown; become the clown.

 Uber Technologies Inc. is launching a mini-pilot program for a TaskRabbit-like service that will let app users hire people to complete various household tasks, part of an effort by the ride-hailing company to expand beyond driving and deliveries.

After the source code for one classic D&D RPG was confirmed to be lost, fans went about creating their own improved remaster with Icewind Dale 2: Enhanced Edition. In the wake of that release, lead designer Josh Sawyer has confirmed that he's not to blame for the missing code.

The Sims 4 has been one of the life-sim series' longest-running and most content-packed entries. However, the upcoming For Rent expansion, which allows players to be property owners with new buildings and tenants to look after, has made waves through the community due to its potential for pushing the Sims in-game community to its limits. In a recent roundup from PCGamesN, the community for The Sims 4 has been buzzing following new information and footage of the upcoming new expansion that lets you be a landlord in a new exotic location.

Xbox and Inworld AI have announced a multi-year deal to develop AI game dialogue and narrative tools. 

The much-maligned and most-wanted zombie survival MMO The Day Before has been beleaguered by another delay in some unfortunate news for console players.

After letting players shoot for the stars as an astronaut, make new discoveries as a scientist or even go full James Bond as a secret agent, The Sims 4 is now letting players become the next best thing: a landlord.