Vivaland flew completely under the radar, I haven’t seen any of the gaming news sites covering it! However, I found out about it looking for simulation games. Paralives hopefully will have an early access launch soon to capitalize on the momentum behind it; InZOI PC spec requirements makes me kinda leery about it (I’d have to look on ProtonDB to check if it ran well with Proton enabled). On top of that the AI generated content they are pushing in that game…is ultimately going to make me bounce off of it. I’m concerned that InZOI will be a pretty, but vapid game.
Yeah, I keep half an eye on the genre, and I don’t remember any of the major sites covering it. It looks really good, but I guess we’ll see what the gameplay is like. The idea of co-op, especially LAN co-op, is really interesting! I don’t think anyone else is attempting that.
Had you seen AlterLife yet? No release date yet, but it could be another contender.
I’ll have to see what Paralives is like when it comes out. I initially wasn’t impressed with the art style and the look of the gameplay, but I’ll see what I think when people start releasing long play videos.
My PC should be more than capable of running inZOI, but like you I’ll be waiting to see what Linux compatibility is like. I’m not thrilled about having a separate account just to play the game, and the AI stuff is definitely an anti-feature too. I agree that it’ll probably feel a bit flat, I got that feeling from watching their gameplay videos. I was hoping it was just because it was still a work in progress, but it just felt empty.
I’ve seen AlterLife, but, the art doesn’t inspire any confidence…It feels AI generated to me, the PC specs for that game are wonky AF. It makes me wonder if AlterLife is another slop game; I am getting ‘The Day Before’ vibes and that concerns me a bit. However, I will be keeping an eye on AlterLife to see if the devs actually make a meaningful life sim game!
As for Paralives, that game has been in development for so long, I wonder about the current state of it. The fact that we’ve been given mere glimpses bother me. However, mechanically it seems solid, and the art style is a cute whimsical one that appeals to me. Like you, I am not fully convinced due to the long dev time without a playable test version; I will wait to see first impressions from long gameplay videos. However, if the Paralives devs can keep their promises and make all the features they stated to be base game…My mind will be changed.
I’m excited by the style of Vivaland, it seems to be a blend of The Sims 3 with a bit of whimsy. The co-op element doesn’t appeal to me, as it’s optional, I won’t complain about that. The playable demo had some issues, but, the bones looked pretty solid! My hope is that Vivaland finally releases, and it’s not a mess like The Sims 4 was on launch (still is) to this very day.
Oof, knowing that inZOI needs a separate account, on top of the AI generated content, means I will be skipping inZOI entirely. I’m tired of needing a third party account just to play a game on Steam. I was going to do more searching and reading about inZOI before committing any hype to that game…
I’m going to keep an eye on all of them and see what happens. With the current drought of good life sim games I’m afraid we’ll have some developers putting out some garbage, and I’m sure in some cases some well meaning devs that get in over their heads too. We’ll have to wait and see what it’s like when the dust settles!
Yeah, Vivaland looks a bit like The Sims 3, and I see a touch of TS4 in there too! I’ll admit that I’m probably a bit too excited about having curved walls, my first attempts at architecture will most likely overuse them. I know the multiplayer features probably won’t be a big selling point for a lot of people, but I think my spouse and I could have some fun with it!
Unfortunately the Steam page for inZOI says it requires an external account to play. Which is a shame, because I’m in the same boat with avoiding external accounts as much as possible. It’s one of the reasons (besides the overall money grab nature) that I’ve not played much of The Sims 4. They do claim that it works well on the Steam Deck in a AMA they did though.
Vultures always arrive at the times when a certain niche of games is heavily neglected, they see all the thirsty fans and try to devise a way to swindle them. However, making a dynamic life sim is truly going to be more complex than most games, as you have so many working parts underneath the surface. It makes me wonder if The Sims 4 was given the time and resources it needed to have a vibrant base game like The Sims 3…What kind of awesome and enduring thing could we have had instead of what we got? Life By You is an example of a well-meaning dev team that wanted to make a strong competitor to The Sims 4 but got in over their heads (I’m still sad about it).
The Sims 4 does have curved walls (added to the base game after the release of High School Years), but like most things in that game…The feature doesn’t work as well as it should! I’m hoping Vivaland has gotten that right, since the bar is in hell, if their team can clear that hurdle. Honestly, I see more of The Sims 3 in Vivaland and didn’t notice any touch of TS4 in it, but, that might be my bias against The Sims 4 showing. Even though I have spurts of playing The Sims 4, I still feel sour about the poor handling of the game. Even though EA Maxis gave us the ability to do certain things that I love (like making gay sims). The Sims 4 lacks flavor and the expansion/game packs have felt a bit lackluster.
Back to Vivaland, because I see so much of The Sims 3 in that game, I’ve been making sure to keep my expectations in check; especially after getting to play the build mode. It feels so natural and made me happy to experience that, it let my creativity shine without getting in the way. Like you, I really want to get busy and build some homes with functional curved walls, it’s something that we needed. The multiplayer feature for Vivaland is certainly a niche addition; but it will make some people happy as long as they can get the net code in a solid state.
Yeah, I made sure to re-read the inZOI Steam Page, a bad habit of mine is that I speed read, so the finer details are sometimes lost while attempting to get the gist of a wall of text. As to their claim that it works on the Steam Deck, that remains to be seen, as users will be dropping their impressions after launch. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt; but I can’t get myself to care after learning about the AI generated content and third party account. 😞
It certainly is a complex thing to do well! I look at The Sims 3, which was simulating those entire maps all the time, and think of how much is going on in the background. I remember seeing all the individual Sims driving around from birdseye view and realizing they were all doing their thing whether or not my Sims were interacting with them! Switching to the smaller maps in TS4 just wasn’t the same. I’m also sad about Life By You, it was the one I had the highest hopes for. Maybe someday they’ll make another foray into the genre.
I hadn’t realized they added curved walls, I guess that’s a good indicator of how long it’s been since I’ve played it! I just bought the base game and one or two expansions before I dropped it. While I’ve criticized TS3 for putting a few things in expansions that I thought should be in the base game, it was at least reasonably fleshed out without them. TS4 on the other hand felt like it had gaping holes that they were going to fill with DLC later. Going free to play later on pretty much proved that to me, and the features added in the expansions didn’t make me want to buy them either.
I’m hoping Vivaland turns out good! I’ll be keeping a close eye on it now that I know about it. Expectations are always hard, but we’ll see what happens. Hopefully they’ll do an early access release or a basic gameplay demo or something. I’m hopeful that since they don’t have a massive list of features that we’ll maybe get a pretty good game that can be a base for future improvements!
Vivaland flew completely under the radar, I haven’t seen any of the gaming news sites covering it! However, I found out about it looking for simulation games. Paralives hopefully will have an early access launch soon to capitalize on the momentum behind it; InZOI PC spec requirements makes me kinda leery about it (I’d have to look on ProtonDB to check if it ran well with Proton enabled). On top of that the AI generated content they are pushing in that game…is ultimately going to make me bounce off of it. I’m concerned that InZOI will be a pretty, but vapid game.
Yeah, I keep half an eye on the genre, and I don’t remember any of the major sites covering it. It looks really good, but I guess we’ll see what the gameplay is like. The idea of co-op, especially LAN co-op, is really interesting! I don’t think anyone else is attempting that.
Had you seen AlterLife yet? No release date yet, but it could be another contender.
I’ll have to see what Paralives is like when it comes out. I initially wasn’t impressed with the art style and the look of the gameplay, but I’ll see what I think when people start releasing long play videos.
My PC should be more than capable of running inZOI, but like you I’ll be waiting to see what Linux compatibility is like. I’m not thrilled about having a separate account just to play the game, and the AI stuff is definitely an anti-feature too. I agree that it’ll probably feel a bit flat, I got that feeling from watching their gameplay videos. I was hoping it was just because it was still a work in progress, but it just felt empty.
I’ve seen AlterLife, but, the art doesn’t inspire any confidence…It feels AI generated to me, the PC specs for that game are wonky AF. It makes me wonder if AlterLife is another slop game; I am getting ‘The Day Before’ vibes and that concerns me a bit. However, I will be keeping an eye on AlterLife to see if the devs actually make a meaningful life sim game!
As for Paralives, that game has been in development for so long, I wonder about the current state of it. The fact that we’ve been given mere glimpses bother me. However, mechanically it seems solid, and the art style is a cute whimsical one that appeals to me. Like you, I am not fully convinced due to the long dev time without a playable test version; I will wait to see first impressions from long gameplay videos. However, if the Paralives devs can keep their promises and make all the features they stated to be base game…My mind will be changed.
I’m excited by the style of Vivaland, it seems to be a blend of The Sims 3 with a bit of whimsy. The co-op element doesn’t appeal to me, as it’s optional, I won’t complain about that. The playable demo had some issues, but, the bones looked pretty solid! My hope is that Vivaland finally releases, and it’s not a mess like The Sims 4 was on launch (still is) to this very day.
Oof, knowing that inZOI needs a separate account, on top of the AI generated content, means I will be skipping inZOI entirely. I’m tired of needing a third party account just to play a game on Steam. I was going to do more searching and reading about inZOI before committing any hype to that game…
I’m going to keep an eye on all of them and see what happens. With the current drought of good life sim games I’m afraid we’ll have some developers putting out some garbage, and I’m sure in some cases some well meaning devs that get in over their heads too. We’ll have to wait and see what it’s like when the dust settles!
Yeah, Vivaland looks a bit like The Sims 3, and I see a touch of TS4 in there too! I’ll admit that I’m probably a bit too excited about having curved walls, my first attempts at architecture will most likely overuse them. I know the multiplayer features probably won’t be a big selling point for a lot of people, but I think my spouse and I could have some fun with it!
Unfortunately the Steam page for inZOI says it requires an external account to play. Which is a shame, because I’m in the same boat with avoiding external accounts as much as possible. It’s one of the reasons (besides the overall money grab nature) that I’ve not played much of The Sims 4. They do claim that it works well on the Steam Deck in a AMA they did though.
Vultures always arrive at the times when a certain niche of games is heavily neglected, they see all the thirsty fans and try to devise a way to swindle them. However, making a dynamic life sim is truly going to be more complex than most games, as you have so many working parts underneath the surface. It makes me wonder if The Sims 4 was given the time and resources it needed to have a vibrant base game like The Sims 3…What kind of awesome and enduring thing could we have had instead of what we got? Life By You is an example of a well-meaning dev team that wanted to make a strong competitor to The Sims 4 but got in over their heads (I’m still sad about it).
The Sims 4 does have curved walls (added to the base game after the release of High School Years), but like most things in that game…The feature doesn’t work as well as it should! I’m hoping Vivaland has gotten that right, since the bar is in hell, if their team can clear that hurdle. Honestly, I see more of The Sims 3 in Vivaland and didn’t notice any touch of TS4 in it, but, that might be my bias against The Sims 4 showing. Even though I have spurts of playing The Sims 4, I still feel sour about the poor handling of the game. Even though EA Maxis gave us the ability to do certain things that I love (like making gay sims). The Sims 4 lacks flavor and the expansion/game packs have felt a bit lackluster.
Back to Vivaland, because I see so much of The Sims 3 in that game, I’ve been making sure to keep my expectations in check; especially after getting to play the build mode. It feels so natural and made me happy to experience that, it let my creativity shine without getting in the way. Like you, I really want to get busy and build some homes with functional curved walls, it’s something that we needed. The multiplayer feature for Vivaland is certainly a niche addition; but it will make some people happy as long as they can get the net code in a solid state.
Yeah, I made sure to re-read the inZOI Steam Page, a bad habit of mine is that I speed read, so the finer details are sometimes lost while attempting to get the gist of a wall of text. As to their claim that it works on the Steam Deck, that remains to be seen, as users will be dropping their impressions after launch. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt; but I can’t get myself to care after learning about the AI generated content and third party account. 😞
It certainly is a complex thing to do well! I look at The Sims 3, which was simulating those entire maps all the time, and think of how much is going on in the background. I remember seeing all the individual Sims driving around from birdseye view and realizing they were all doing their thing whether or not my Sims were interacting with them! Switching to the smaller maps in TS4 just wasn’t the same. I’m also sad about Life By You, it was the one I had the highest hopes for. Maybe someday they’ll make another foray into the genre.
I hadn’t realized they added curved walls, I guess that’s a good indicator of how long it’s been since I’ve played it! I just bought the base game and one or two expansions before I dropped it. While I’ve criticized TS3 for putting a few things in expansions that I thought should be in the base game, it was at least reasonably fleshed out without them. TS4 on the other hand felt like it had gaping holes that they were going to fill with DLC later. Going free to play later on pretty much proved that to me, and the features added in the expansions didn’t make me want to buy them either.
I’m hoping Vivaland turns out good! I’ll be keeping a close eye on it now that I know about it. Expectations are always hard, but we’ll see what happens. Hopefully they’ll do an early access release or a basic gameplay demo or something. I’m hopeful that since they don’t have a massive list of features that we’ll maybe get a pretty good game that can be a base for future improvements!