The Sims 4 will "explore the gamut of human emotions"

The Sims 4 was just shown off at EA's Gamescom presentation by Maxis' Rachel Franklin, and emotions appear to be the order of the day. "From angry to flirty, from sad to happy, you can now explore the gamut of human emotions all within The Sims 4," Franklin said, showing a scene in which two sims competed for the affections of another. There was flirting, jealousy, anger - the only vital expression missing was 'Delight At Seeing An Amusing Cat GIF', but that can always be added in a patch. The Sims 4 is out in 2014 - stick around for a gameplay trailer.

Perhaps the best bit from the presentation was the new character creation system, which has you constructing your sims by molding and shaping them, as if they were made of clay. For instance, rather than adjusting the 'nose' slider, to create a giant hooter you just grab on the nose and pull it, Pinocchio-style. You can see that below in the following gameplay trailer, along with the aforementioned scene of emotional manipulation.

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Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.