The summer season comes to stay.. at least until September. Today we open the summer we like so much, the time of year that allows us to dine on the terrace, drink cold drinks with friends, make our annual trip to the beach and enjoy impossible hobbies at other times of the year. The Sims 4 is our virtual representation so after last year we were delighted with the four seasons, it was to be expected that summer life would be expanded allowing us to interact in the sea as promised that we will be able to do in The Sims 4: Island Life, the last expansion of the game, announced just a few weeks ago, during the EA Play prior to E3 2019.

If you’re reading this analysis is that you are a good follower of the saga

At these heights sure you already know that The Sims was raised in a principle as a game of architecture. The then beardless and youthful William Ralph Wright, Jr. he used his programming skills to create what seemed to be something of an expansion of SimCity, The Creator’s other great success that had reached personal computers more than ten years earlier. Will wanted to add more depth to the game, making users have the opportunity to create the houses where SimCity residents would spend their lives. I’m sure he didn’t imagine that eventually that project would become the best-selling PC video game in history.

And insurance that would not have been as well if Maxis, now owned by EA, would not have put the effort and dedication that he has put in over these nearly two decades since its release. Converting a video game into an icon is not achieved overnight or by a stroke of luck. The hours of work invested in pubg mobile hack since its launch with the eagerness to make the game something bigger and more fun with each expansion have paid off. So today it’s time to put on our suntan lotion, throw in the towel on our shoulder and dive into the final installment of this popular game. Welcome to the island.

The Sims 4: Island Life takes us to the new neighborhood of Sulani, a paradise enclave that is the simlish version of Hawaii. In this new destination, which unlike what we have seen in other similar expansions is permanent housing, we will be able to carry out some of our dreams by turning our character into a fortunate one who is about to live an eternal vacation fulfilling his new aspiration of homonymous name to the expansion, island life, and who will ask us to meet the island’s own requirements to make our character a happy sim.

Because the possibilities that Sulani offers us all revolve, as it could not be otherwise, around the summer life

The island -or the whole of islands, if we speak with property-will allow us to carry out various activities hitherto unpublished in this version of The Sims. Although some of them, very funny as bathing in hides with other sims, we already knew them, there are new things that could not be missing in an expansion of this type. From unleashing our creativity by making sculptures in the sand, which will improve as we practice until we sunbathe in the sand, always with the caution of putting on protective cream if we do not want to end up like any Englishman on a Magalluf Beach. In addition, we can go a little beyond the shore to practice surface diving or even for the first time in the saga, use vehicles to take a boat ride while contemplating those idyllic landscapes at sunset, or if we are into the strongest emotions, we can dedicate ourselves to doing pirouettes on a jet ski.

But it’s not all relax where it’s already our favorite enclave. Also we can, and must, be involved in the maintenance of the island and become activists cleaners who will fight relentlessly to maintain cleanliness on the beaches, collecting ourselves of the trash accumulated by the herd of sims that have used the facilities t-shirts during the whole day, and surely they are tourists little connected with the ocean life to those who do not care to leave everything in fact disgusting. In addition to becoming better people and earning us a piece of heaven, these good deeds will bring us a better connection to the island and the nature around us. One of the additional benefits is that it will cost us less work to make friends with dolphins.

If you have seen the video presentation of this expansion you have already seen that one of the main additions is the possibility of interacting with these creatures. It is true that since the expansion that allowed us to have pets with us the relationship with animals in The Sims 4 had improved a lot, but although we are not allowed to adopt one of these dolphins as a pet in itself, having a good relationship with them will give us access to unique interactions that include taking a walk on their loins. Maybe on one of these trips you’ll get lucky and meet another of the great additions of this expansion, a mermaid or a newt with which you can also interact in a unique way.

If you prefer to feel directly like Ariel and create a character with these characteristics, know that you will find a new need, hydration-replacing hygiene-that you will have to watch very closely. It is obvious that if you are a mermaid you will have to spend a lot of time in the water, and in order not to forget Maxis has provided these characters with that New need that adds to the usual eating or sleeping among others. As marine inhabitants we have certain advantages. The most obvious are to swim faster and start our relationship with other sea creatures at a better level. But we also have unique interactions with other humans, such as delighting them with our wonderful voice or invoking other companions.

Beware of this, that not all creatures that we find in the sea are as peaceful as dolphins and we can end up attracting with our songs some shark or other, so if in the distance you see the dorsal fin of a dolphin approach with caution, its teeth may not be as nice or friendly after all.

One of the new features for the solar that we will find in this expansion is the possibility that it will lack supplies

This means that the house we live in he not will have neither electricity nor running water, so that our contact with nature is much more direct, especially in meeting the need of the bladder, and that we will find some difficulties when you cook or store food. Playing this way presents us with new challenges to keep our sim happy, as the only options we are given to cook is to use a barbecue or a bonfire without electricity, and the little trick we can use is to use a portable refrigerator to keep our food fresh. The mystery of getting ice maybe we can figure it out another day.

The truth is that this new way of playing adds interesting options that we already know, and will make us pull our imagination to solve everyday situations. In fact, if you’ve already taken a walk through the jungle with the corresponding previous expansion of the game, you know that shrubs serve much more than to decorate the paths. Once you get used to living from what you catch in this Hermit way of life, the emotional rewards you get are very grateful. There are few sensations better than savoring a freshly caught fish while a spectacular sunset bathes the whole ambarino Orange environment that shows us one of the best and most accomplished lighting effects of the entire saga.

In addition, as usual the expansion has a good handful of objects for the way to create a sim and so many others for the way to build that will make our delights if we are of those who want to spend hours making our environment and our Sim the most personalized experience possible. Of course all the setting is classic Hawaiian, but it must be said that it is one of the expansions that most contents of clothing, furniture and various objects bring. And some of them, like towels and sun loungers, have new interactions of their own.

Summary

Island Life is ultimately an expansion that adds a good handful of attractive content and that will prolong the life of our main game with new and fun features. Whether your plan is to spend the summer lying in the sun or to explore the dangers of the nearby volcano, this expansion will fulfill all your summer needs. It may not be the expansion that gives us the most options, especially if we compare it to the big one last year, the four seasons, but it is certainly one that adds a good handful of hours to our game by putting us through a lot of new and fun moments, keeping our base game more alive than ever. And that’s all you can ask of an expansion. Summer is coming.

Akamatsu’s sense of video game design was very deep,’ says Sonna Yuumi, who worked at Konami during the 1990s.

Sonna Yuumi worked in Konami in the 90s and was under the guidance of Hitoshi Akamatsu . He is responsible for the original Castlevania series (or Akumajō Dracula) for NES.

In her personal Twitter account, Yuumi shared a series of tweets where she shared the interesting and curious perception that Akamatsu had about the design of video games (via shmuplations ). For example, Akamatsu said the whip was the main weapon of the saga because he was a fan of Indiana Jones and the movie In Search of the Lost Ark . In addition, he defended the difficulty of Castlevania comparing it with Super Mario Bros. , where the player dies after being hit.

The vision of Akamatsu

” Akamtsu’s sense of video game design was very deep, ” Yuumi wrote. “In Castlevania , the knife appears first so that the player can get used to the subarms.” With a stopwatch, he determined that you could get used to the attacks of the enemies , then he made appear more powerful elements, like the cross and the holy water. And that’s how he determined the order in which the elements appeared for the player. “

“Once I mentioned the fight with Death , and how incredibly difficult it was, he told me: ‘The idea of ​​the game design was for the players to understand how to use the subarms of the cross and the ax . the whip, that means you’re really good. ‘”

Next, Yuumi adds: “He told me that his difficulty standard was based on the fact that he was able to overcome the game by himself .”

Regarding the musical and visual aspect of the game, Yuumi told him about the sonic facet of the saga , a detail that is very applauded by the players. “When I told Akamatsu how great he thought music was for Castlevania , his response was: ‘That’s because both the images and the music were created by people who consciously wanted to do something cinematic .’ , for its part, tried to add interesting gameplay to the title . “

An unrewarded genius

Despite the quality of the Castlevania saga and its positive reception from the community, it seems that Akamatsu was not rewarded for his efforts properly. The sequels, apparently, were not sold as expected and Akamatsu was demoted to work in one of Konami’s gaming rooms .

As expected, Akamatsu resigned , citing his dissatisfaction with the way Konami had treated his creative talents, Yuumi points out. “According to Akamatsu, Konami positioned profits above everything else , and developers who were not creating money-making games were finally eliminated one by one, and several of them did a great job at Square Enix.”

Since then, Akamatsu seems to have completely disappeared from the videogame industry .