paralives and life by you: my thoughts

working on a platinum trophy guide for a game that takes 30+ hrs to plat is hard so i think i will make smaller posts like this detailing my thoughts in the meantime. 

so, life by you and paralives, huh?

yeah, i know this is a sims blog but it's about damn time that EA had some decent competition in the life sim genre. with the new trailer and info for lby, i figured this would be a good time to talk about this. which is why we're gonna talk about paralives first!

so, paralives is an indie project with a very small team of people working on it. i don't remember exactly when it was announced, but it's been in the community's eye for a few years now. and it looks really good. the art style is adorable, the para creator and build and buy modes look absolutely fantastic - there's so much customisation here. i feel like all the hard work and love the team is pouring into the game is really going to pay off, but im hoping to god that the gameplay will be as good as the customisation. i am optimistic that it will be, but the whole 'catering to builders and cas players' is the exact issue i have with the sims 4. though i do think i wouldn't mind just building in it tbh.

life by you is MUCH more recent. the initial announcement trailer dropped just 2 weeks ago, with a livestream showing more footage and such a few days ago. and the game's coming out this september. i am a bit mixed on it, the ui and overall visual style is kinda... hm. it's not great. i didn't mind it at first but it's bugging me the more i look at it, and having a people-focused life sim where your people don't look good will definitely turn a lot of people away. realistic graphics can absolutely look fantastic, but with the way lby looks, it's already not aged well. i still have hopes for the game, though, the gameplay looks fantastic and its fully open world. and more importantly, rob humble is working on it. yknow, the guy who most  famously worked on the sims 2? so, even if the graphics are wonky, i am betting on the gameplay being great. 

both of these are very ambitious projects, im really optimistic abt both but im keeping my expectations in check. 

anyway's i'll be getting both when they release and i'll give my full thoughts then.