[SIMply jazzy music plays]
Hmm, The Sims 4 is still a thing huh?
Let’s see, have I missed anything groundbreaking...
Bust the Dust kit?
No.
Dream Home Decorator?
Nah.
Country Kitchen kit, no.
Courtyard Oasis, nope.
Throwback Fit, uh-uh.
Paranormal Stuff.
Not for me.
Star Wars: Journey to Disneyland Advertising,
oh c’mon are you kidding?
Oh okay, a full new expansion pack, finally.
So yeah, The Sims 4 Cottage Living is a thing.
A thing that happens to be TS4 expansion pack number eleven, which now ties The Sims 3 for
total number of expansions.
A record that no doubt will be broken within a year, because EA has no chill.
Still, despite my cynical view of the company itself and a lack of interest in the game
in general anymore, I still catch trailers for new stuff they’re trying to sell.
And this $40 Cottagecore pack didn’t look awful judging by the teasers.
A pack where you’re raising chickens and canning veggies in a virtual English countryside?
Sure, why not, let’s do this!
The Sims 4 Cottage Cheese kicks off with a new world to explore: Henford-on-Bagley.
A quaint little village nestled into rolling green hills
with drystone fences dotting the landscape.
Pleasant, comfy, unique regional architecture.
Looks like the setting of a Cornetto Trilogy movie.
Noice.
I quickly went through my usual routine of re-purposing the same sims I always do with
some of the new clothing, hair, and accessories on offer.
As usual there’s plenty for adult sims and very little for youngins, and overall it’s
inoffensive decent-looking apparel tailored to the pack’s theme.
There’s a couple new traits as well: animal enthusiast and lactose intolerant.
And a new aspiration: country caretaker.
Naturally these tie in directly to the core cottage gameplay going on here, which revolves
around managing a small ranch and partaking in some Dr. Dolittle roleplay.
Y’know, raising livestock, growing crops, and talking to animals in plain Simlish so
they become your allies and happily do your bidding.
Totally normal stuff in the UK from what I gather.
On that note, the main thing that drew me to this pack were the chickens,
cuz chickens are fun.
I raised hens and roosters myself for years, and honestly I still would if I had the option.
And in this pack, the way it works is you simply buy a coop and order some birds,
either chicks or fully-grown.
And then care for them as hands-on or hands-off as you like.
Chickens generally don’t need much beyond food, shelter, and basic hygiene.
But you do have the option to get pretty close to them too,
by socializing and befriending each individual bird.
You can name them, talk to them, play with them, take them around in your pockets and
wander around town with them.
You can even enter chickens in local fairs and win sweet prizes.
Something I also have experience with, one of my Golden Polishes actually won best in
show for its breed at a fair in the ‘90s.
So yeah, it’s minor, but this is an especially nostalgic addition and I approve.
Of course, gathering up eggs is a big part of raising poultry too, and those can be used
either as ingredients in recipes or sold to a vendor in-town.
You can’t eat the chickens themselves by the way, or any of the other animals.
Although you can “trade them for meat,” which in a way equates to the same thing?
Kind of?
You can also have them reproduce by looking out for hatchable fertilized eggs, providing
you’ve got an open coop slot.
Heh, and I sure do wish an 8-bird coop was as easy to clean in real life as it is here,
where you just pick up a small bag of trash and that’s it.
No wiry scrub brushes, garden hoses, or smells of warm droppings here.
Chickens are gross.
And quite free-spirited, the birds often wander off on their own and roam around the lot.
So keep an eye on them if you’ve got foxes around, and chances are you will, especially
on lots where they’re more likely to spawn.
It should be noted these wild foxes are also distinct from the “fox” dog breed in
Cats & Dogs, being much more fox-like than that pack’s weird dog-fox variants.
And no matter what they say, foxes are delighted to kill smaller animals on your ranch, and
they’ll even sneak in and steal eggs if given the chance.
Unless you can chase them off or repel them in some way, or convince each fox not to steal
by talking to it long enough to reason with them.
Some... how.
Yeah with or without the animal enthusiast trait, sims can converse with all the new
animals and even form somewhat complex relationships.
Like to the point where animals eventually bring your sims daily gifts
and provide services to your ranch.
The rabbits for instance, they spawn at these rabbit hole stumps and typically hop around
just bein’ bunnies.
But if you talk to one enough and exchange the right gifts according to their preferences,
they’ll eventually join your staff as unpaid interns, keeping weeds out of your gardens
by eating them.
Same goes for wild birds, which spawn at their own tree stump thing and come with their own
gift preferences and skills.
You can’t befriend individual birds, but once a sim befriends a flock, you can have
them chase insects away from crops instead of relying on bug sprays.
Ah The Sims 4: even when it’s not a fantasy expansion, it’s still a fantasy expansion.
Finally, there are cows and llamas, with llamas in particular being notable since they’ve
been the Maxis mascot since the early 90s, going back to SimFarm and SimCity 2000.
And yeah, both llamas and cows are a little more grounded, in terms acting like actual
animals and not Disney cartoon characters.
Don’t expect them to bring you gifts, sing songs, or clean the house or whatever.
They’re plain old livestock purchased at animal sheds, with only a small preset area
where either a llama or a cow can live in each stall.
You can’t have more than one in a stall and they can’t wander outside,
so that’s unfortunate.
Free range chickens, totally, but when it comes to larger livestock forget it.
Other than these bovine sprites straight outta Doom II, cows and llamas are forever restricted
to living inside their sheds.
At least it’s also a woohoo location, because of course it is.
Nothing like a little after-hours plowing.
[barnyard woohoo commences]
And sims aren’t the only ones getting milked in the barnyard.
Cows can naturally be milked for milk with a milk bucket, and the type of milk you get
depends on the cow’s comfort level.
Brushing them, keeping their stall clean,
and socializing with them keeps them happy and productive.
And if you’re feeling extra generous you can go cow tipping.
Hunhh, get it?
Cow "tipping," nyeh-heh.
Affecting livestock even more directly is the food you give them,
or more specifically, the treats.
Animal treats are things sims can now buy or bake that work like magic potions.
Some of them accomplish generic stuff like filling their needs, increasing lifespans,
or upping relationship levels.
Other treats do things like flavor cow’s milk with chocolate or strawberry,
or make them produce plant... milk.
Uh-huh.
So wait, if cows can produce plant milk then what do cow plants -- y’know whatever,
I don’t wanna know.
And with llamas, well they produce wool.
So treats can change their color and make them grow specialized wool.
That can then be either sold, like everything else, or used as crafting material for knitting
with the knitting pack, or with the new cross-stitch hoops.
Cross-stitching is a minor 5-level skill where sims can choose from a selection
of pre-made patterns at first.
And eventually Stitch By Reference, where sims can craft unique patterns from a screenshot.
A welcome addition indeed.
As is the new canning feature, functioning the same as other recipes, just with more
twine and mason jars.
If a sim has the right ingredients, they can can cans, making for a well-preserved snack
to munch on later or sell for a tasty profit.
Truthfully I’m just glad canning doesn’t require yet another stupidly oversized piece
of machinery like half the other side activities do.
So uh, let’s see, what else is here.
I guess picnic baskets are a thing again, returning from The Sims 3 and functioning
basically like glorified lunch bags from the Parenthood pack.
Older sims can now teach child sims to cook, which is pretty cute and whatnot.
Making meals in general has been expanded with group cooking options, along with a fitting
assortment of traditionally English dishes.
You can also order groceries and have them sent to your sims homes, and that’s rad
since there’s now a greater emphasis on fresh ingredients,
especially with the Simple Living lot challenge.
There are also specialized NPC sims wandering around town which act as quest-givers, distinctly
called “residents” instead of “townies.”
So like, the Crumplebottom ladies for instance, they’ve got a buncha rewards to hand out
if you spend your time running errands for them.
As if you didn’t already have enough 24/7 busywork with your ranch.
Oh and yeah, growing stuff, obviously that’s been expanded on a bit.
Including a handful of new crops that grow in dedicated squares of soil.
But while it’s neat that you can now grow giant pumpkins, watermelons, lettuce, and
eggplants using copious fertilizer?
I didn’t find it any more engaging than the existing gardening options.
Tedious, sure, but not engaging.
Properly maintaining your ranch is understandably time-consuming, especially when you take into
account all the animals’ daily needs.
But if you were looking for an in-depth farming expansion, this ain’t it.
I’d actually recommend checking out the Farmland mod pack instead, which adds a ridiculously
impressive amount of new content for a free download, including plenty of features I’ve
wished were included in The Sims for years.
And lastly, there are two lonely new chairs.
Unless you count a stool, a mushroom, and a bale of hay,
and in that case there’s a grand total of five.
So yeah, that’s the Cottage Living pack.
In terms of content and new gameplay it’s really not half bad.
But I mean, it costs 40 dadgum dollars, man.
It is admittedly quite charming at times and it easily keeps your sims busy as balls
with caring for crops and critters.
And I love chickens dude, but c’mon.
This is the 11th forty dollar pack for a game from 2014.
If you’ve seen my reviews before then you know my stance.
I cannot and do not recommend paying full price for any of these packs.
As is tradition, it feels like this one should’ve either cost less upfront and been labeled
a game pack, or included more substantial gameplay additions
if it’s gonna be a full-on $40 expansion.
And that’s what it comes down to.
I may be amused by the chickens, but the price
is somewhat foul.
[SimDuke chuckles] [‘cha-ching’ sound plays]
[upbeat beats] [chickens clucking]
And if you enjoyed this pack review, sweet!
I don’t plan on covering many more of them at this point, and instead I’ll only do
the full expansion packs when it comes to The Sims 4.
I couldn’t care less about all the other stuff EA is dumping out in between.
That said, I do plenty of other videos weekly here on LGR,
so check those out if you’d like.
And thank you very much for watching!