Speaking with EA’s Charlie Sinhaseni, we asked him what some of the consequences would be from a non-fully open world in The Sims 4 (thanks for the question Max, iLoveBacons).
“I don’t know if you look at it as consequences,” he said. “I think we look at it as a lot of benefits — density of interactions, density of environments, density of sims.
“The player is going to win in every respect here because there’s more to do and more to see and more going on around you at all times. And on top of that, some of the load times have been improved. We chopped down on a lot of them,” he said. “I think that’s beneficial to the player in every respect.”
The more frequent, but shortened load times have allowed Maxis to go for density with the game’s environments. “
In Magnolia Blossom Park, it’s a very large open area, but with lots of sims,” Sinhaseni pointed out. “When we got to the gym, what did you see? Lots of sims already in there working out. I think it’s one of those things that when you see it you understand that we’ve done a lot of work and tuning that these areas feel right and alive.”
The Sims 4 – GameZone interviews Charlie (PR Manager) about Loading Screens
