[typing]
After an unusually long wait since the previous piece of Sims 4 DLC,
the third game pack to The Sims 4 is here:
Dine Out.
And in a strange turn of events,
I was actually sent an early review copy of this one to cover here on LGR.
I thought it was a joke at first, to be honest. [chuckles]
Are you feeling okay, EA? Did someone screw up?
I've only been doing these videos for, what, seven years now?
Ah, well, I'll take it,
especially since Dine Out is a Game Pack,
not a Stuff Pack.
And, yes, that means that Ralph lives to see another day,
since, once again, it's not a Stuff Pack.
As for Dine Out, it costs $20, like the previous packs,
and content-wise falls somewhere in the middle of a Stuff Pack
and a proper expansion.
As the title suggests, the theme this time is dining.
Out.
You know, just out... places.
You can also go all in and purchase your favorite pre-made restaurants
to run them how you see fit,
or cook one up yourself from scratch.
There are no new neighborhoods, though,
so any restaurants you want to build, or even just visit,
have to be plopped down into an existing lot.
To help you in your quest to comfortably craft the quintessential cafe,
you're provided with a decent assortment of new restaurant-appropriate Build Mode items,
including two magnificent chairs
alongside the expected booths, benches and barstools.
And while you're free to use these items in your home,
chances are you'll want to try owning your own restaurant,
which is done in pretty much exactly the same way as owning a business
in the Get to Work expansion.
Actually, the whole pack feels a lot like an expansion
to that expansion,
so depending on how you liked its way of doing things,
this could be a good or a bad thing.
Personally, I think it's an awesome thing.
And if you've seen any of my previous videos
where I've talked about my love of restaurants in the Sims games,
you'll know why.
There's something about the atmosphere of a
thoughtfully-designed public eatery that soothes the soul.
And the chance to establish your own,
or simply visit one as a character you created,
is fantastic.
The environment is enhanced even more
with the new lighting system they added in the latest patch,
which really looks spectacular.
And going out on the town becomes far more interesting
when you've got impressively-presented bistros, cafes and steakhouses out there.
And heading out on dinner dates is exponentially more interesting
when you have a nice sit-down location to enjoy a meal together.
And if your meal was so salty that it has YOU feeling salty,
then you can make a scene and embarrass your date
by storming into the kitchen to insult the staff.
Really, though, it's in the creation of these delectable destinations
where you'll find the main appeal in Dine Out.
Once you've got your own place
and some starting capital from your home samolean stash,
you're free to name your restaurant,
adjust the markup price,
choose an advertising budget,
upgrade ingredients, make your own menu,
hire and customize employees,
and even set up a patron dress code.
Or you can just do sit-ups on the sidewalk and hope for the best.
Your call.
But yeah, all this customization really pleases me and my play style,
even more so than the retail businesses you could run and get to work.
Customizing menus of food items
just makes my day for some reason.
This is exactly the kind of thing I love about simulation games.
If you want a restaurant that only serves water
and frozen TV dinners, go right ahead!
Or you can choose from more experimental dishes,
like "Free Range Sixam Pit Beast,"
or "Jungle Moss Eggs with Space Tacos,"
because The Sims.
These things can also be made from home, if you learn the recipes,
but you'll need the skills to do so,
and for that matter, so do your employees.
Yet from the start, they're all gonna suck like crazy.
Although one way to make even the worst waiter stand out
is to dress them up in a hot dog suit.
I think we can all agree there.
Speaking of which,
there are an assortment of new Create A Sim items on offer,
with everything from chef aprons to formal attire and new hairstyles
for both male and female Sims.
Heh. Although, thanks to the most recent patch,
that distinction is no longer necessary, is it?
Yeah, genders are pretty much all fluid now,
and it's about freakin' time, if you ask me.
I never understood why you had such a limitation in a game like this in the first place.
People always just modded it out anyway, myself included.
Being able to swap men and women's fashion just makes complete sense
in a game that's all about mimicking whatever the crap you can do in real life.
And the fact that you can freely edit fashion preferences, body and voice types and
even how they pee and if they're sterile or not,
I mean, yeah, bring on more of this stuff!
Customization is awesome.
Like color wheels!
Man, wouldn't that be neat if that was in a Sims...
game... all right....
Well, yeah, back to your employees,
which thankfully get less sucky the more you praise them,
berate them and purchase extra training for them.
It can be super frustrating for a while, though,
especially since crappy staff means crappy ratings,
which your restaurant is constantly judged by.
There's some sort of Sim Yelp system in place now, so
everyone that endures a meal at your restaurant
will then go and submit a rating out of five stars.
Everyone enters your establishment with a neutral three-star rating,
but it'll go up or down depending on how they're treated,
how the food is,
if they enjoy the atmosphere, and so on.
And every so often, you'll see a Sim with a special icon underneath their star,
signifying they're a professional food snob–er, critic.
So you'd better brown-nose them like a madman.
Thankfully, as the owner,
you can go around and dole out special treatment left and right,
like handing out free food and drinks,
speeding up orders,
or simply wishing Sims a pleasant evening.
You can also do a little bit of flirting and verbal manipulation on the side
if your Sim is up to it, and hey!
Every little bit helps when you're trying to avoid your own kitchen nightmare.
Ah, yeah, I really like this aspect of Dine Out,
and keeping up with which Sims are more important than others
and who doesn't matter because they're objectively worth less to your bottom line is...
well, it's kinda messed up, but that's why I like these kind of games.
However, I was also hoping that you could BE a food critic,
like as part of the writing career, or something like that.
Or even have the ability to get a job as one of the waitstaff or one of the cooks or
just about anything other than being the manager of the whole place.
Still, what you get works pretty well,
and it's a lot of fun to chase that elusive five-star rating,
one obnoxious person at a time.
And beyond that, you have restaurant perks to unlock the more you play,
which makes the current place and
any subsequent restaurants easier to manage,
with things like extra workers and more patient customers.
Speaking of customers, I was happy to find out that, for the most part,
Sims stick to what they're supposed to be doing
and don't go all multitasking crazy,
and seeing huge groups talking over each other
is appropriately chaotic for busy restaurant atmosphere.
[Sims talking over each other]
Still, there are a handful of things that fall short in this pack.
For one thing, Sims tend to just want to use chairs that aren't for eating
and wander into places they shouldn't,
so stay on top of seating arrangements and locking all the proper doors.
There's also this strange thing that I've noticed
quite a bit where Sims are provided their meal
they'll stand up to drink their drink,
then sit back down again once they're done with it to eat their food. [laughs]
And a side effect of this
is that you can actually swipe their food out from under them
after they've had their drink, and they won't care!
[Duke Nukem voice] "Hey, if you're not gonna eat that,
then I will!"
There are also some weird little quirks
that bother me about managing the restaurants.
Mainly the fact that you can't set shifts or break times.
And this is a problem because if you lose track of time for too long,
then your employees will hate you,
and maybe even quit from exhaustion.
So you have to close the entire restaurant
every time you want to end a shift, which–
Okay, I know some places do that in real life too,
but I'd really like the option to start another shift
without having to kick everyone out.
The final thing is just a lack of certain food choices for menus.
Sure, there's an awful lot of stuff to choose from–
what's here is pretty great–
but it's largely traditional American.
Where's the ethnic food, or even just like,
American ethnic stuff, you know, like
Chinese food that's not Chinese.
Basic Asian choices, even!
Like, there's no maki sushi, no ramen bowls,
no steamed pork buns.
It's just conspicuous in its absence,
seeing how popular these are.
Or even, like, iced coffee for that matter.
There's none of that either, which is downright bizarre.
But, yeah, while I do have a few qualms,
overall I really enjoy Dine Out.
Combined with the new features introduced in the latest patch,
The Sims 4 got a much needed shot in the arm this month.
There's still a lot of stuff that I feel is missing from the overall game,
but that's not for this video, so
as for the pack alone here, I would say go for it!
Probably no surprise,
since I've been on board with every game pack so far,
but I really like the idea of specialized mini-expansions like this.
You get a respectable amount of new stuff to play with that,
while lacking in several irritating areas,
is still plenty of fun.
I'd say give it a shot if you enjoy the whole owning a restaurant theme,
or just want another reason to get your Sims out of the house.
♪♪
And if you enjoyed this episode of LGR,
then perhaps you'd like to see some of my others.
There's some linked to right here,
as well as new videos every Monday and Friday on Sims
and a whole bunch of other topics
because there's a lot in life that I like
and wanna talk about, so that's what I do here.
And as always, thank you very much for watching.