The Sims 4

The slightly awkward controls are a small price to pay for the luxury of being able to play while lounging. If you’ve never played The Sims before, the console version isn’t a great starting place, but if you’re already a convert, then it’s a must-have in your collection.

For the first time, EA has brought a full Sims experience to console, with all of its features intact – even cheats. The Sims 4 doesn't always feel at home on Xbox, though, with clunky menus, confusing controls, tiny text, and a mess of tutorials. But if you prefer to game on console rather than PC, The Sims 4 is still worth the time and effort. The character creation, building, and social interactions are engaging enough to keep simulation-minded players busy for years.

In short, The Sims 4 on consoles is designed to appeal to fans of the series that may not already have a copy on their PC or don’t have a new enough PC to run it. That leaves a limited audience for this game to those who are not hardcore enough to own it on PC, but interested enough to buy on consoles. Add in the fact that EA made very little effort toward making the execution of the game cater to the console audience (and left a considerable amount of bugs un-patched), one begins to wonder how many copies they actually plan on selling. If you can run this game on your PC, save yourself the headache and enjoy it there. If the console version is your only option and you can overlook the multitude of technical issues, the rest of the game does deliver the Sims goodness for which you laid out your precious simoleons.

EA and Maxis' series comes back to console with bright and dark spots. On one side we have a very satisfying simulation with a good technical production, but on the other we get somewhat uncomfortable controls and relatively too little environment and character customization choices.

The Sims 4 lands on consoles with some technical glitches, but definitely still has the essence of the life-simulator par excellence. Enjoy the experience but you'll have to get used to the controller to get the most out of your creativity.

The game plays better with a mouse but this is still the full Sims 4 experience. [Jan 2018, p.80]

If you can stick around after being thrown in at the deep end with the ‘robust’ DLC releases and, quite frankly, awful controls then The Sims 4 is definitely worth it.

The Sims 4 is a relatively solid console port that provides the tools for players to create pretty much any scenario of which they could think. It won't be for everyone, but those drawn to the idea will get hours upon hours of play for their money.

The Sims 4 on Xbox One is a good launch if you have not the oportunity to enjoy the game already on PC, or if you don't have a computer capable of moving it, despite its moderate requirements. The soundtrack is still fantastic and the personality of the sims is here, but the controls are very unintuitive.

The Sims 4 is a beefier and better game with its diverse expansion packs and added content since release, but without much of that being available on console just yet, this feels like a step back from the PC version. Nonetheless, this is essentially the same core experience as the base game on PC, and it’s worth checking out if you don’t already own the game. Although the console version features some dodgy controls, it largely delivers on its promise of bringing a faithful port to the console audience.

If you can get past all the issues that The Sims 4 has on consoles, it’s a ton of fun. That’s a pretty big 'if' though!

Old school warmth for a game which feels from another era.

The Sims 4 is a compelling game with tonnes of customisable options. Sadly, poor attention to the functionality of playing with a controller rather than keyboard and mouse, and a sparse tutorial make this version difficult to overly recommend.

The Sims 4 is not a bad game. In fact, I had a great time with the gameplay of watching my Sim learn, grow, and find love in all the goofiest ways I could imagine. It really felt both simple and deep at the same time, and either way you play it, you’ll find something to keep your attention. Unfortunately, the controls are going to be a chore to use more times than not,and even after getting the hang of them, you may still dislike them. I know I did. If only the controls were as good as the game, I would recommend it in a heartbeat to players looking for that simulation game with some goofiness, but with the controls the way they are, I would suggest sticking with the PC version if you can. If you do decide on getting the console version, be warned, you will need to get used to the controls and even when you get used to them, you will still find them difficult to use.

There’s no question about it: if you want to play The Sims 4, the PC is still the best way to play it – and given that its PC system requirements are fairly low that’s what we’d recommend. Get used to the console controls and it’s still a fascinating town-building game/life sim/virtual soap, but one with a few too many bugs for comfort. If EA cleans those up we’ll raise the score another notch, but right now The Sims 4 console versions could still use a little work.

The Sims 4 on console includes all the free feature updates from the PC version, and while they are good new additions that should have been included with The Sims 4 to begin with, they don’t make up for the performance issues. Most of the problems are minor annoyances, but because save and menu bugs have been so frequent, this version of The Sims 4 is a generally unreliable experience, which is unfortunate since it is a genuinely fun game. And while it is disappointing that the console version is missing some community features from the PC version, I’m glad that at least cheats work.

What makes it really frustrating is that The Sims 4 has so much potential to be great with so many customization options. The game even throws people like me a bone, allowing you to give your Sim clear motivations and emotions, and it tailors the gameplay around that. But, cruelly, it makes doing all those things a massive chore, meaning that unless you really, really like moving your cursor slowly around the screen, you’re not going to get much out of it.