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The Sims 4 team had the chance to take some time out of their busy schedule to show us The Sims 4 City Living festival gameplay and more via livestream today. The broadcast had a 30-minute delay due to rather frustration DDOS attacks hitting many major sites. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to detract from the quality stream that ran for just over an hour.

SimGuruGrant and SimGuruRomeo started the stream with a clear directive: showing off the Spice Festival and GeekCon. Of course, keeping a livestream on schedule always seems to be a difficult task. Here’s more about what we saw.

Finding Festivals

You can learn when a festival is about to take place by checking out the dynamic signs around the San Myshuno streets. Or, if your Sims live in an apartment building, you can interact with the bulletin board in the hallway. These interactions will bring up a dialogue box of which festival is taking place next with a time and types of activities to look forward to. There will be 2-3 festivals per Sims week but which ones are chosen at random.

Getting Spicy at the Spice Festival

Fridays 5:00 p.m. – 1:00 a.m.

The cultural food festival takes place on the Waterside Marble lot neighborhood. Out of the five festivals, this one has the most food carts. It is known for its wide array of cuisine, harvesting fresh produce, purchasing unique spices, and the Spice Challenge. Winning the Spice Challenge will unlock the hidden Spice Hound Trait. Your Sims will be able to brag about winning the Spice Challenge and unlock a new T-Shirt in CAS.

The spices bought from the Swag Vendor will let your Sims customize their food just a little more. Adding saffron, chili, curry spices, etc. to your food to change the moodlet buffs that your Sims get.

The bubble blower is also conveniently located at the Spice Festival. That way, if your Sim gets a bit of a hot mouth from the Spice Challenge, they can go over to the object to chill with the Snow Flurry favor.

Nerds Unite at GeekCon

Tuesdays 10:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

The GeekCon festival takes place in the Planet Honey Pop lot neighborhood. Just outside everyone’s favorite karaoke bar, gamers and space nerds alike will get to have their fill of the latest tech and test their skills. Programming savvy will be able to take part in the Hackathon to compete for prizes such as a brand new computer. Likewise, gamers can aim for the high score in their tournament. Seems like the team enjoys making fun of their Future Cube since that seemed to be one of the lower tier prizes. Thankfully, it’s easy to notice when the contests are going to take place since the computers and 3D gaming rig will glow with a yellow-orange border.

That’s not all for the geeky event. A pre-built rocketship is available to explore space or even to join the 50-mile high club by WooHooing among the stars. Or just work on building one to increase your Sims’ skills since the festival boosts skill gain while it’s active.

You might even see cosplayers wandering about Geekcon which you can take your picture with. Just in case you weren’t geeky enough and wanted to show it off your picture with Princess Leia.

Gremlins, Earthquakes, and Penny Pixies

According to the gurus, the Earthquake lot trait will cause the screen to shake when there is an earthquake. On a scale of 1-10, a variety of shakes will give your Sims different moodlets. But the earthquakes won’t break objects on your lot. That is reserved for the Gremlins lot trait. Penny Pixies was also explained a little more that your Sims household will find Simoleons randomly such as in the couch, under chairs, etc. It wasn’t confirmed if this was an animation or just a fictional excuse for a trickle of income.

Bubbles and Firework Swag

Every festival has a Swag vendor that you can get new spices, fireworks, bubbles, snowglobes, and etc. from.

The Bubble Blower can be placed in build/buy but will spawn with the Spice Festival. It has 8 flavors that will give your Sim a different experience with each one. Since kids can’t use the adult bubble blower, they are also able to purchase small colorful bubbles from the Swag vendor.

The fireworks are rigged together so that when your Sim places more than one down, they will be able to light just one. That will start a chain reaction to light all the others in quick succession making your displays brighter. Just be careful, lighting them can start a fire. Not only that, but it is guaranteed to set your lot ablaze if you set fireworks off indoors.

Different colored sparklers can be purchased from the vendor. Adults can also give a lit sparkler to children Sims.

City Native Aspiration

We got a sneak peak at the City Native Aspiration during the livestream. Although the gurus weren’t sure about it, they said that the final bonus trait was likely one that makes you happy while you’re in the city. Here are the Aspiration goals:

1) Tourist Introduce Self to Someone New in 3 Different City Neighborhoods

Give an Apartment Key to a Friend

Order 3 Times from Food Stalls 2) Inhabitant Achieve Level 3 in the Singing Skill

Light Fireworks at the Humor and Hijinks Festival

Use a Bubble Blower 3) City Expert Donate to a Protester

Kiss Somsone at the Romance Festival

Complete a Mural at the Arts Center 4) City Native Master the Singing Skill

Win a Contest at GeekCon

Live in an Apartment Worth $100,000

Miscellaneous

Other tidbits from the livestream includes:

The new death type from the pufferfish will also have a new ghost type. Yes, you can also make a death restaurant with only pufferfish.

There isn’t any new WooHoo spot in City Living.

The expansion adds 27 new recipes to learn.

Clicking on your active Sim prompts a new interaction to Practice Singing.

The TV has two new stations: Political and Cultural

The video game console has a single player game called Genie’s Curse created with World Adventures from TS3.

Renewing vows at a wedding arch near fireworks will also light them.

There are at least 2 new Hidden Skills – Using Chopsticks and Spice Tolerance.

Build mode has 8 new wallpapers and tons of grungy objects that look dirty.

You can place elevators in penthouses, but won’t be available in other lots.

Tourists wear a fanny pack and Hawaiian shirt.

Also, just for fun, here’s the splash screen for The Sims 4 City Living!

There might be more that we missed, so be sure to check out the replay when you can. Only 11 more days (13 for UK Simmers) until we can play with Festivals ourselves. Let us know your thoughts and what you’re most excited about in the comments below.