The fourth major game in The Sims franchise was released in 2014. Even though The Sims 4 is still getting new expansions, game packs, and stuff packs released all the time, fans are still wondering what's on the horizon for the series and what The Sims 5 will have in store.
There are a lot of features that The Sims 4 has brought into the series that fans are hoping will appear in the next game. However, there are also many features from past games that were left out of The Sims 4 that fans are hoping will be making a comeback.
To see 10 things from past and present that we hope will be a part of The Sims 5, keep reading.
Updated By Helen Ashcroft January 30, 2020: As The Sims 4 approaches its 20th anniversary at the end of January we've thought of some more entries for our Sims 5 wishlist.
While 2020 looks set to bring us some great things for The Sims 4, including a new community-created Stuff Pack, we still crave these new additions. Many of these just won't be practical without a base game reboot so here's hoping it comes before too long.
15 Pools In The Base Game
While pools are a ton of fun and definitely a staple feature of the homes of many Sims, they weren't always a part of The Sims 4. This home luxury has gotten some major improvements over the years, particularly with Island Living finally giving us functional pool floats, but how many Sims fans knew they weren't originally in the base game for The Sims 4?
When the game was released, it had no pools. They were added in during an update sometime later. While we're glad we got pools at all, we hope that The Sims 5 will have pools already in the game instead of making us wait.
14 Cars
A huge want for the current game is cars but somehow we just can't see it happening and are hoping Sims 5 will come to the rescue. Cars are such a huge part of life for most people that their absence feels odd. While we do have npc cars as background, we miss having our own.
We aren't asking for much either, just the ability to buy and place a car in a garage and an animation to get into it and drive off before we hit the loading screen is perfect. We have the tools to build beautiful garages and are bored with scaling up tiny toy cars!
13 A Better Time System
A huge part of playing The Sims involves time management. Being able to take care of all your Sim's needs and still get them to work on time is pretty tough! But the fact that the time system in the game is really not that great makes it a little more difficult.
One thing we hope is greatly improved for The Sims 5 is the time system. It should really not take four hours for a Sim to toast up a grilled cheese and two for them to finish eating it.
12 Open Neighborhoods
While many want to take this a step further and bring back open worlds, we'd be happy with open neighborhoods. The Sims 4 is designed in small chunks, with houses often grouped together with no more than 4-5 lots in one area. The newer worlds even truly separate and name these neighborhoods.
While we can explore the areas on foot, we want to be able to visit those neighboring houses without a loading screen breaking our immersion. We can deal with a wait to travel further afield but getting one when we want to go next door is annoying.
11 An Autosave Function
We've all been there. We get way too into playing, make a ton of progress with our Sim's life, forget to save...and it's over. Our game crashes. All that work is gone. While there are mods that can add an autosave feature into the game, we really shouldn't need a mod to do this.
Hopefully, The Sims 5 will add an autosave feature into the game itself so we never have to worry about losing our progress again.
10 Dating Preferences To Come Back
In older Sims games, most notably The Sims 2, players had a lot more ways to really customize their Sims' personalities. Although The Sims 4 has a ton of traits to choose from, selecting things like our Sims' turn-ons and turn-offs was a lot of fun.
In past games, Sims would be either completely attracted or unattracted to other Sims based on their traits and appearance. Players could set their Sim to be turned on or off by things like not having a job, having a high cooking skill, or wearing makeup. We hope this makes a comeback in The Sims 5 because it was so much fun!
9 Small Interactions
Small interactions add a huge amount of realism to the game and there are many which we miss. Who would like to see the return of cuddling in bed for instance? Most of these interactions are cute, wholesome and tiny but add so much.
While we love the little buffs we get as reactions in Sims 4 we miss the little interactions. Things like a cuddle in bed helped give the game more dimension and its something we dearly miss.
8 Zodiac To Return
Not everyone believes that their zodiac sign plays a huge part in their personality, but there are some people that seriously do. Past Sims games would determine the zodiac sign of our Sim based on the attributes they had.
They were able to do this because the traits weren't definite, but sliding scales. Players could set a certain number of points toward being either active or lazy, neat or messy, and totally serious or very playful. While we love the way traits work in The Sims 4, we hope that we can at least choose a zodiac sign for our Sims in The Sims 5.
7 Messy Houses
There are a few different ways that Sims' houses can become messy or in need of repairs. Appliances can break down, clothes will be left on the floor if they have a washer and dryer but no hamper and counters get pretty grimy.
While it's a fun and realistic addition to the game, we think that The Sims 5 could take the messy house even farther. It makes the game super realistic to have our Sims clean up dishes after a meal and wipe down counters and sinks every now and then. Adding in something like floors that get dirty and need to be vacuumed would be a fun addition.
6 Different Heights
There are so many ways to customize our Sims in The Sims 4. Did you know you can change the size of your Sims' feet? You do now! While there are all these details that we have total control over, there's one thing that we can't change about our Sims that makes them all the same—their height.
Every Sim in the same life stage is the same height. Even though we can customize so many other things about our Sims, we just can't make them different heights. This is something we seriously hope is added into The Sims 5.
5 Free Babies
In The Sims 4 babies are the most frustrating life stage. They don't do anything and can't even be moved from a crib. They are literally bound to the bassinet they spawn in, never being able to move more than an arms-length away for a cuddle or feed.
Babies deserve better! While we'd love to be able to take babies on walks in a pram and have them fully fleshed out like toddlers, even just the ability to leave the room with them in our arms would keep us happy. Babies deserve to see the world or at least the house they live in.
4 Toddlers At Release
One thing that any fan of The Sims 4 will definitely know is the fact that toddlers haven't always been in the game. Fans spent quite a while after release wondering when this life stage was going to be added to the game before it was introduced in a surprise update.
Toddlers are such a fun and adorable life stage that we just can't imagine playing The Sims without them now. Because of that, we hope that toddlers are included in the game right when it launches instead of being a later update.
3 More Staircase Options
The Sims 4 has a ton of different tools and options for building the perfect home for our Sims. This is great, but we have to admit that there are some things missing. Although there are a lot of different styles of stairs, the game is notably missing different types.
When The Sims 5 is released, we hope that more types of stairs are released with the base game. Things like spiral staircases, ladders, and more than just the typical straight staircase would be so nice for everyone who loves to build.
2 More Customization Options
In The Sims 3, there were a ton of ways to customize literally everything in the game, from your Sim's hair color to the pattern of their bedding.
The Sims 4 definitely has a lot of really cool patterns and colors for every item, but that doesn't mean that we don't miss all the options that these tools gave us. It was nice to be able to customize patterns and colors on different items, based on our Sims' personalities and style.
1 Separating Swatches
While we accept that some of the customization options we listed above may be unrealistic (cough, color wheel) we'd be happy to settle for separate swatches. How much better could our designs be with this simple addition?
Furniture such as beds, chairs, desks and other items could have a base color, chosen from a swatch of black, white or 3-4 wood types, then the accent colors could be changed separately. Imagine not having to make a room a specific color to match the wood patterns together and not clash with the chair or bedding? Such a simple thing could make a huge difference.