The Sims 4 adds a cute pocket telescope that can also kinda murder you

Not So Berry legacy challenge screenshots

(Image credit: EA)

The backyard observatory. The goddamn backyard observatory. Sims 4 stargazers will have long lamented this alternative to the series' traditional telescope. It's a garish, hulking thing and looks ridiculous in most normal builds. Now, nearly eight years later, we finally have a much nicer pocket-sized telescope object that actually looks normal on a balcony or in a back garden. Oh, and it can kill you. So there's that.

The small telescope is a free addition to the base game, with a second pocket-sized peeper coming with the Werewolves game pack. Sims can carry it around in their personal inventory with nine lovely colours to choose from. It doesn't quite have every function of the backyard telescope—understandably, you can't WooHoo inside this one and you're unable to nab any of the framed prints—but it's perfectly capable of gazing at the stars or whatever the hell your neighbours are up to.

Oh yeah, the death thing. Using the telescope runs the risk of getting hit by a meteorite. Sims will be appropriately warned of any incoming fiery sky rocks, but fail to get them inside in time and they'll be clobbered by one. Sims who die by meteorites get a pretty cool-looking ghost that has a tiny meteorite burning inside their chest though.

Sims 4 small telescope — (Image credit: Maxis)

Along with the death telescope, the patch has added a new curly beard, striped caution wallpaper, and a veil-free option for the My Wedding Stories hijab. There are some less garish variations for the rainbow wedding dresses now too, which is a welcome alternative. Long-time Sims fans will also be pleased to see a small touch: the return of the "reticulating splines" loading tip. You can read the full patch notes here which I highly recommend—if only to see them take the piss out of the observatory a bit.

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Mollie spent her early childhood deeply invested in games like Killer Instinct, Toontown and Audition Online, which continue to form the pillars of her personality today. She joined PC Gamer in 2020 as a news writer and now lends her expertise to write a wealth of features, guides and reviews with a dash of chaos. She can often be found causing mischief in Final Fantasy 14, using those experiences to write neat things about her favourite MMO. When she's not staring at her bunny girl she can be found sweating out rhythm games, pretending to be good at fighting games or spending far too much money at her local arcade.