There’s a New Sims Game in Town: The Rise of Paralives & Life by You
Hello everybody and welcome to Bull Technology. On August 6th of this year, I posted a video outlining some of the issues I, and many others, have with the direction the Sims franchise has taken in recent years. Apart from the video’s resounding success, given my channels humble size, the other thing that really surprised me was the sheer number of comments mentioning both Paralives and Life by You (two upcoming life simulator games that aim to take on EA’s Sims franchise)… while I was aware of these games’ existence, I hadn’t realized the incredible amount of interest in them, and it is for this reason that I make this video. Today we examine where The Sims 4 falls short, and where Paralives and Life by You aim to do better, and we will also look at the feasibility of these two games and what they’re possible success may be.
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If you'd like to follow the development of Life by You:
www.paradoxinteractive.com/ga...
If you'd like to follow the development of Paralives and support the game:
www.paralives.com/development
/ alexmasse
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Love that EA is just murdering it's own IP with greed. Hope they keep losing top positions in all genres until they learn to respect their audience and release stable games without greedy monetisation.
EA really is a blight on gaming it feels. My favorite game is dragon age origins, by Bioware. And they are another studio owned by EA and over the years that company is just becoming more and more a shell of its former self. Pretty much every bit of news that has come from them has been negative over the last 7 or so years. Maxis and sims seems to be the next studio to face the pain
@@jereboy2005They literrally killed every game I liked. I hope they will be in a excrutiating stress and bankrupt eventually. I hope ceos and board memebers will end up penniless losing the most beloved thing they have ,money.
Bruh EA is a meme in monetisation
They're cooking their golden goose.
@@exosproudmamabear558 just remember it's your tax dollars that bail big business's like that out from bankruptcy, unfortunately i dont see EA or any of the other horrible game companies going anywhere. the best thing we can do is keep supporting indie companies and help them grow to make more and better games.
You know it’s bad when an indie game developer does a better job than a big company
Indeed...
Crazy the difference when people care to do the job right
@@lance9249 not sure what you mean. I think the developers that work on the game do genuinely care about it and frankly do a great job but EA are the ones saying what they should do and ultimately is responsible for all the problems, not the developers
I've been thinking about this a lot lately, thanks to the release of BG3. I think companies get big and successful thanks to the efforts of their founders. But time takes its toll and the founders eventually have had enough and move on. They sell the company and now the company isn't owned by founders who have vision, it's owned by investors who want profit. Not just the kind of profit the company previously earned by releasing successful games, they want to really "monetize" the company's IP. That's when you start seeing a string of bad games which were made for profit instead of being made for player enjoyment.
LOL literally
I like the aesthetic of paralives. I’m past the point of wanting games to look super realistic. Now I just want atmosphere.
Indeed and Paralives certainly delivers in that department! It's immersive and atmospheric in a way that makes me grin ear to ear
Realistic graphics are a glorified goose chase due to the fact technology keeps improving and what we think looks "great" today will, almost invariably, look outdated tomorrow. Artistic graphics allow a game to age more gracefully. Moreover, the latter can sometimes result in better performance, too.
I prefer paralives aesthetics too!
@@ivoryowl Which would be true if it wasn't for the Sims 4 graphics looking WORSE than those in the Sims 3. They decided to make people look like cartoons rather than more realistic than in the Sims 3. That was a deliberate decision and now it makes the game seem more dated.
The sims 2 was my favorite because it wasn’t realistic.
I think the main take away is that Sims has had NO competition and now will. Both Paralives and Life by You arent targetting the entirety of the Sims audience. But they are quite surgical in their aims. To me it seems like Paralives targets the slightly more casual audience of the Sims audience while Life By You the slightly more hardcore. This will leave Sims with not much of an audience since both demographics will just leave to games that better cater to their needs due to their focus. Not at the start sure, but they'll have something that focuses on their needs.
Competition really has been the issue. I somewhat agree with your analysis on Paralives and Life by You. I feel like you hit the nail right on the head with Paralives. It does indeed seem to fill a niche, and target the more casual life simulation player. Life by You may be for the more hardcore Sims fans that feel disheartened by EA's recent decisions, but it seems as if they have an opening to really pick up where TS3 left off. I don't think that LBY will ever have the one-game-monopoly that EA has with The Sims, but they could either put pressure on EA or carve out their own space in the genre.
I disagree on the casual vs. Hardcore thing as it seems to want to degrade a certain type of player. Life By You seems more focused on the Sims 3 audience. People fully interested in development and building and customization of whole towns. Right now Paralives seems like people more interested in intimate cozy play. Knowing their their creations, family play, raising digital kids, etc. Not a lot from Life By You seems like cozy play. A lot of Paralives does. Both styles of play have pretty hardcore fan bases who invest the same amount of time/money in life sims.
@@TheDawnofVanlifeThat's not even remotely the case. Hardcore as a fanbase and hardcore as a player are two very, very different things. Trust me. I have no idea what term best to describes it. Maybe medium level of technical competence but that's more of a sentence than a word. Because I have seen "hardcore" say fifa fans try to play god of war. Which is to say they played worse than my 6 year old nephew. Life By You seems like a game that requires a certain level of technical competence to get EVERYTHING out of it. Which is not something everyone has, nor everyone wants. That's not a good nor bad thing, its just a thing. In that sense LbY looks like a game that even without DLC can have absolutely everything a player would want and if not, a player can make or find in the community. Which is a god send. But for a more cozy and relaxing niche thats what you have Paralives for. This is great, and I can see myself jumping between the two depending on my mood.
@@DivinityOfBLazeI take hardcore as dedicated. There are Sims 2 fans 13 generations in who play their towns rotationally. You can't tell me the type of person who micromanages on that level isn't 'hardcore'. It seems like hardcore to you is a certain type of play style or dedication to what you feel has more 'value' at least that's how it feels and I don't agree that fully encapsulates when the only opposing view you offer is 'casual' as someone who drops in, does something amusing for awhile and leaves the game. What we are talking about is the wide range of Sims play styles. Like I am not a builder in Sims, like barely, but I am dedicated to family trees and story building. The LBY build tools seem a bit overwhelming tbh. Like I can't just play, I have to make all these well throughout choices before characters reveal to me who they are...not a fan. But I have a detailed excel spreadsheet on my Sims 2 rotation to keep the generations lined up (Sims 2 IS my favorite because I can micro manage this, I know, seems insane) and I very specifically and precisely work my way through each generation. Why I love it, I don't know. But I certainly wouldn't call how I play casual considering all the details I make in my choices through the generations. My towns update through the needs of story play. So there might be a day I decide for who lives in the town now, building an arcade may be a good idea before I jump into rotation because I want a new teen hangout. I wouldn't call that casual just because I don't want to spend hours in modding tools before I just start playing characters. Heck, Sims 2 is so good as a game made by the publisher you don't need to make any characters and could just rotate through the premades. And that is the mark of a good game to me. But to rotate through them with precision and have your town age up the way you want is about as micromanage as you could get. That type of play isn't for everyone, which is why people like story progression. But I certainly wouldn't call it casual considering the hours of dedication involved.
@@TheDawnofVanlife EXTREMELY well said. This is how I play The Sims4. And it's rather insulting to keep calling our type of gameplay 'casual' when we also put in a lot of time developing lifestyles, families, homes, worlds, and stories. Just like you said, not everyone wants to spend 4 and 5 hours custimizing, modding and developing a city before actually playing the game. And it has nothing to do with intelligence...but more control. Some gamers want more control over their game without limits...and it seems Life by You will offer that. I am not attracted to all the options Life by You offers. I just want to play the game as soon as possible. And hours and hours of customization is not gameplay to me. It tends to get very tedious and stressful after a while.
One correction: Paralives‘ current team size is 11. Likely more team members to come later in development with more support through more Patrons once they show off live mode features. It started out with just Alex Massé who is still Lead Dev.
I was unaware of this. Thanks for pointing it out 👍
@@bull_technology There's a lot more you missed. Paralives will have editable lots, editable similarly to their furniture - any size, any shape - that's actually a feature that Life by You doesn't appear to be offering.. Go back and see some of their earlier videos.
I think this feature fits Paralives perfectly, as LBY is introducing a retail shopping system where you will purchase different furniture/items rather than edit it instantly. I think both styles of play will be welcome in the community.@@fransmith3255
@@fransmith3255 "Will have" is something that is echoed by allot of companies. Paralives is still FAR from being finished, and hasn't shown anything of substance. While I'm rooting for them, I have always been annoyed by Paralives fans who overhype the F out of a product that doesn't exist yet, and promises that haven't been met yet. The game started almost 4 years ago, and it garnered hype off of an idea. People thought it would be out by now, but it isn't, why? Because it was literally in the IDEA stage in the beginning, people thought it was somewhat developed, but it wasn't. They bought assets and animations, not a game, an amateur can do that in a few weeks. And now, 4 years later, what do they continue to show? Animations and assets. Path-finding, the easiest parts of game development. I guess if it worked 4 years ago, it should work today, so people keep falling for it. You can also loosely build concepts in a game engine easy, want one character to talk to another? Cool, want someone to grab something out a fridge, done. Trying to make it into a GAME is different. People need to chill until the game is ACTUALLY worth discussing.
@@fransmith3255 oh right you could make custom lot sizes and they are not cube shaped. that said am not sure what the status on how the game will run sims 4 style of neighborhoods or sims 3 style of you know complete worlds. sims 3 Bridgeport (that is all one map) vs sims 4 city that is 3 smaller map + that one massive park
For me, both Life by You and Paralives have a right to exist. I look forward to both. I think the two games will be different enough to coexist.
Indeed, they both serve a purpose and have a good space carved out for both!
I think Paralives will work well for more casual players who want to zone out for a few hours, load up or create a family and chill. And there are tons of is Sims players like that. Life by You seems to be aimed at people who want to micromanage every detail of their worlds. People who want to get into the weeds of curating everything like you can do in the Sims 3 if you use create a world and mods like NRAAS Master Controller. I fall very much into that camp and thats why I'm ecstatic for that game to be coming out. With that said, both Paralives and Life by You seem to be aimed at a more mature audience. The Sims franchise has become more infantile with every passing year with the advent of Sims 4. Their news streams even look like a Barney- Sims spinoff show now and I think both competitors are working hard to stay away from that.
Is it satisfying getting really into the gameplay of it? I want to be able to play sims like that where I plan out my sims backstories and personalities, make stories and towns etc but I don't really have the energy to do that. Also I don't think I could do that with the sims 4, I really like sims 2 though and it's really engaging there are always weird things happening in ts2 that catch me off guard and make me laugh. Anyway, I've moved away from my original point a bit sorry. I think I'll try sims 3 in the future when I have a good stationary pc set up. Currently have a laptop that is good performance wise, but the battery is ass (could probably replace the battery actually)
I don't want to micro-manage everything, but LBY does have have a few options that does interest me, like the actual conversation feature. I also hope there will be a tie-in with Cities Skylines 2. I hope to like both Paralives and LBY for different reasons. Not each game as a whole, but based nuggets of features.
i really agree with you, since im the first type of player and im absolutely STOKED for paralives.
"Barney- Sims spinoff" is hilarious & highly accurate 😂
I imagine EA must be an extremely frustrating place for a game developer to work at. I imagine there are all of these talented developers with big ideas only to be told by the profit hungry shareholders to stick to what sells. EA have seen the success of Roblox and thats exactly how it seems the Sims Franchise is going. Life by You seems to be giving what us simmers who grew up on the sims from The Sims 1 - 3 have been aching for since the Sims 4 was such a big disappointment. We need that escapism back!
Exactly, and what’s crazy is the audience has grown up with the franchise and has the money to spend but we keep getting less and less for more money. Such a shame.
The day the life sim genre becomes just as diverse as farming sims or even other genres outside of the sims, is a day I pray for. I’m dying to have the option to completely step away from the sims but still have plenty of games to satisfy that people life sim urge. I really do feel this genre will grow. There’s probably a game being developed right now but their choosing to announce the traditional way, closer to official release. Wishful thinking but it feels nice to think about.
I can completely relate. I too wish for a day when we are swamped with tons of life-sim games to play
Life sims actually had a brief boom in the early to mid 2000's, may I remind everyone of Second Life?
yes it really sucks how The Sims basically has a monopoly on life sim games. some games have life sim elements but very few fill the name niche as the sims, being a fully interactive life simulator with full customization
As a person that grew up playing The Sims 2 and 3 and is a massive fan of those games, Life by You seems to hit that spot that was missing after the launch of The Sims 4. You can clearly see that the game is being developed by a former Sims developer that worked in the best titles of the series. He clearly understands what fans loved about those games and wants to create a game that offers exactly what they want. I hope everything goes well in the development of the game, and honestly when it comes to dlc it depends. Life by You seems like it's launching with tons of content and if the DLCs are quality then I don't mind buying them, just like prior Sims titles. The majority of the expansion packs were quality and offered tons of things to do, they were actually worth buying, in The Sims 4 tho, well that's another story...
Indeed. LBY does have a nostalgic feel with many updated features. I also wouldn't mind paying for DLC if it actually added valuable content to the game and was priced reasonably.
Agreed! When it comes to 'Life by You', one thing that makes so much promising is the fact Rod Humble is leading this project. He is someone who worked in both sims 2 and 3, which in my opinion are the best games in the franchise. He understands that the reason why many players love the sims 2 and 3 is due to the autonomy and flexibility the games provide to create our own world and stories. A reflection of this is the ability to change dialogue as we like and the customisation tools they are advertising. As for Paralives, I'm less certain. Graphics and design wise, it looks better than Life by You, but my unpopular opinion is that the gameplay features other than build mode don't look any different than the sims 4.
I don't know, My favorite sims is sims 2, but life by you didn't hook me at all. the only thing it has going for it that is interesting to me is the ability to control your character. I'm not a fan of customising to the tiniest detail of the conversation, it removes a bit of the randomnmess that makes playing sims game entertaining outside of building. There seem to be too much micromanagement into one character to me, but that's just my preference. I'm the type who changes everything in the game to make it fit , so having this much freedom to the tiniest detail like the text, would be exhausting and burn out inducing, because I would end up having to change it too, instead of imagining a conversation. It's too early in development to judge it's visuals so i won't talk too much about that, but that was also a point that i didn't like, especially when paralive came right after in this video and was looking phenomenal.
This is pretty much exactly word to word what I would have said. All I'd add, is that while I'm not massively keen on how many DLCs Paradox is likely to push out, my issue with that is more to do with eventually having to pick and choose which DLC to use at the same time for game performance rather than having to pay for them. I have fairly high hopes for the DLC adding things to the game that I *really want* and being somewhat reasonably priced having been a player of Paradox games for a long time. All in all, Paradox, while perhaps a bit greedy, feels a lot less predatory in their approach than EA.
You summed up exactly what I was thinking. Finding out that a former Sims 2 and 3 developer was leading the efforts in Life by You really got me excited to see and hear. I just hope they don't follow too much of the Sims marketing with overcrowding of DLCs that could've been all in one pack or price gouging.
To answer your question: many loyal simmers are eager to jump ship because ea has treated us too bad for too long. We are so totally loyal, yes, but to the franchise, which is better represented by Mr. Humble than by ea. However, it still may happen that Sims 5 will be a great success because it will be a freemium game for children, very much like roblox, fortnite, Disney's Nightmare Valley, Diablo Immoral or Sims mobile
“Loyal simmers”? You guys aren’t loyal, most of you pirate the game or spend all day attacking it online. You’re a cancer on the community, nothing loyal about you guys lol
Humble to Will Wright's legacy - "Bish I got this."
You mean Disney's Dreamlight Valley.
@@NibbleBiscuit64lmaoooo!
it's free to download, not free to play. You need EA Access (something like PS+) to play the game
I really hope the life sim genre gets the farming sim treatment. We need to have different games that offer their own art and gameplay styles. I think it would even do the Sims some good to have competition because then they would have to keep up with trends and have to put effort into adding things that make it stand out from other life sims. At the same time, I hope everyone remembers Paralives is aiming more to be the Stardew of life sims. So not trying to beat the Sims but instead is a game from the same genre who is a fan of the Sims.
Indeed. I often get comments from people accusing me of "hating the Sims," but I want the game and the genre to do better. It is for this reason that I am critical.
I know that the Paralives team doesn't have the intention to be better than the sims 4, but still, i want them to be better than ts4 because ts4 is really a bad and empty game.
@@lilithkinomoto2075 That's fine and all but please be respectful to both developmental teams even if you don't like the Sims. Besides the Sims gurus b ing humans if everyone critiques the Sims team by taunting them using other games it might cause a legal battle between the para team and EA
I don't think people will always be faithful to the sims franchise as it has already lost so much and I am seeing a growing number of people getting back to play sims 3 bc TS4 is just not delivering what we want anymore. More and more people are hyping Life by You and I think it's going to be awesome...
What I meant in the last section is there will always be people to buy Sims games, but-yes-people are clearly jumping ship left and right. I too find it awesome that there are finally competitors to The Sims... is a new era for life simulation games!
I’ve been recently playing the Sims 3 and forgot how great it was. The interactions are so much better than Sims 4
@@shannong6211 Same. And there is so much more content, it shocks me, I didn't remember...
There's also a lot of people playing the Sims 2 still. I'm in that camp, as I got back into playing the sims 2 earlier this year. Tons of 4to2 cc conversions on tumblr, which just look beautiful with the sims 2 style, imo.
@@tryphenarose384i wish i could play sims 2 but the sims 3 is still great but when i watch sims 2 content i feel like im really missing out
I want Life by You and Paralive unite like Barbie and Openhimer😂
Paralives By You?
It would be cool if they would have some crossover reference in the game, like an item or character. They are competitors for sure but they are distinct enough to have their own nieche. I think both will be fun to play in very different ways.
No, I want healthy competition, not another monopoly. Paralives is also too clean and American for me
@@ida6950 me too. we need more variety in life sim games like them. i don't want any merger of any sorts
@@ida6950Well, Paralives is developed in America, so it is expected. Better to stick what they know than explore cultures they do not have deep knoledge and became a bad approach. Those can be added later by asking the community what they want. But with Life Simulation games spreading, maybe other countries end up developing their own games on the genre
I was in my 20's when the first Sims came out, and I really loved it and bought 2, 3 and 4, along with a lot of dlc (yeah, I will totally admit that). Thing is, I will totally give "life by you" a chance and I think the look of "Paralives" is totally adorable and it's been growing on me month by month. Note, however, my age. I really don't feel that the Sims cater to older players at all, and this I've felt the most with Sims 4 (weird toilet interactions, the cupcake machine, the walks, the telescope, that whole "bro" thing). That, and there are absolutely no consequences, in the end, all sims are the same, inside and out, and that makes it a wee bit boring to play. I'm ready for something new.
Indeed. I think we are all ready for something new 👍
I think for me both Paralives and Life by you look very interesting. But what i really always liked with the Sims, especially with The Sims 1 and 2 was the kind of wacky humor the games had in so many aspects. For that reason im kind of unsure since Life by you looks more realistic. Hopefully EA wakes up and we can have more competing games in the future pushing each other to deliver quality games.
Same, paralives and life by you seem pretty boring and realistic, I want a funny and affordable game
that’s true. there’s an entire culture based on the sims & whole inside jokes
If "sims humor" is important to you, you need to stay with the Sims. "No" game will copy exactly the humor of a different franchise, and why should they? They try to be their own games, not clones
yep, I think the lightheartedness of the branding is quite attractive and at this point, I think it could be done better than TS4 is currently doing it. from a marketing perspective, it's not a unique branding decision but that doesn't mean that not taking itself seriously isn't a really.. calming? fun? nice? way to operate. because I'll be honest.. I understand how early it is and far from release, but life by you looks like a very grumpy potato catching a busted bus, stopping off at a thrift store on their way to San Andreas. shit doesn't look fun ngl
@@Thyana-ig5no - ...or they could just wait and see if those games have their own humour or style that gives them the same enjoyment as sims humour? Have you never gotten a recommendation based off your likes? Different products can share similar niches *and* fulfill people despite differences. They're on the fence, not asking for the sims repackaged.
I am indeed ready to jump ship from the sims to something that actually functions
Same here. It seems as if most Simmers are ready to jump ship
@@bull_technology Yeah I think it’s just human instinct to jump from a sinking ship lol
Im on both ships
I was literally about to comment this exact thing lol
The Sims franchise has only managed to hold onto me because there isn't anything else close to it yet, the second there is I'm jumping ship, EA lost my loyalty years ago. Id love to see paralives succeed, life by you looks like I'd need a expensive computer to be able to run it so I'm on the fence
I’d say I’m on the fence too. That’d be my biggest reservation with LBY-the performance. Only time will tell how well it’ll run on mid to low range PCs
The thing I've loved about The Sims is the quirky, supernatural, fantasy type element and the strange humour. Unfortunately I don't see any of that yet in the competition, and I personally think to stop a life simulation game from feeling a bit cheesy, it needs the humour element.
Rod Humble's involvement was literally the selling point for me. If you weren't aware, if you have TS2 Apartment Life, Rod shows up and leaves a free PC for your Sims on their move in day. I ordered on the first official day you could, but was refunded when the delay was announced (a decision of Epic, not my own). I wasn't even put off by the delay. Back in March of 2004 TS4 was delayed by 6 months just one week before its announced release. I'm sure Rod had a part in that decision, and it was a good decision. TS2 shipped as a very enjoyable and relatively bug free base game. And yes, I can still enjoy the base game only. Paralives looks so cozy to me. When I first saw it spoken of on another channel, I was still new to TS4 (I was really late to the party, lol) and couldn't imagine adding in another game. Now I'm highly interested and will likely get it on release day. Legit, some of the decisions EA has made has forced me to evaluate whether or not I want to continue having a relationship with them. The free model that has been hinted for Project Renee (TS5) is setting up for being even more expensive than TS4. You've already laid out the cost of TS4 US$1094. TS1 was $240 and TS2 $390. Some would argue "inflation" but as I see it that's not as huge in technology as it is elsewhere. My gaming rig in 2003 was $1500 and my new rig 20 years later by the same company was $1800 and is significantly more powerful. I do understand development costs and paying the workers, but EA has a horrible reputation as an employer of its creative staff (many of whom are scraping to make ends meet because they are barely paid minimum wage) while fat cats in the company are making 7 figures.
Here here! Great comment and thorough commentary. Rod Humble's involvement has me very excited and hopeful for Life by You as well. EA's abuse of The Sims brand has been gross, but hopefully the competition will apply some much needed pressure.
I am interested in these. I especially like the aesthetic in Paralives. I have zero loyalty to the Sims, I have negative loyalty to EA. However, I don't give the Sims money anyways either because they're asking for outrageous amounts. My main concern with both of these games is that the Sims has a unique sense of humor I've come to really enjoy while playing it. It adds a certain charm and quirkiness and I'm skeptical if these other two games will be able to develop their own style that stands out and makes them recognizable, iconic, and most importantly, that their players enjoy and appreciate. Price isn't a concern for me when it comes to the Sims as I stated earlier (because I'm not giving them the ridiculous amount of money they've asked for), but it will be very interesting to see if they are forced to make some changes in how they are doing things. Competition is desperately needed and Paralives & Life by You may just end up being the best things that ever happened to the Sims.
Agreed. Part of the issue is people are loyal to EA/The Sims name. I can totally see how "charm" could be an issue to you because indeed part of the Sims games are their unique quirkiness... and only time will tell if Paralives/LBY can replicate this on a similar level.
I think Paralives will be fine even if it lacks humor due to it leaning into the more cozy aspect of life simulation. I am slightly worried about Life by You though because while the game definitely seems vast and expansive it also seems to lack character but that may show up more after its release so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Sims don't try to simulate reality but are really more like a child's idea of what life is - and that's what made them so successful in my opinion. I think a lot of players enjoy the game because of this, and because of this they feel a lot more free to experiment, use their imagination. Sure you can be the person you wanted to be, and live your life vicariously, but you can also go and be a playboy vampire living in a discotheque that hosts neighborhood cookoffs, who is terminally in love with the local maid - and it still feels coherent with the world. Life by You feels sterile, and feels like it would end up like second life once people started getting goofy. ParaLives feels much more promising, hopefully it can find its humor, space, identity, because Sims need competition.
I don't fundamentally have issues with dlc, but they have to feel fully fleshed out and a lot of new features and items. Sims 3 started making that feel a lil thinner and sims 4 made it feel like you were paying for things that should've been in base game or a previous pack/expac. Like cottage life, horses, cats and dogs, etc should all been into 1 thing, not cut into 4+ portions and make you pay for all the air gaps in between. You would think with the money they have that each pack should have 100s of items and dozens and dozens of new hairstyle options. Dying of thirst and there is only a single droplet of water in the bottom of your glass.
I did mentioned in my own video that Paralives and Life by You seem to "get" how Sims should grow from there and add on the features they deemed improving the simulation game. In other words these two games look more like Sims sequels than EA's Sims 4 or 5. Sims 4 doesn't improve much and in fact it goes backwards in terms of improvements somehow. I am currently looking forward to both games more than whatever EA tried to do now.
Honestly, I'm glad both Paralives, Life by You, AND The Sims 5 are in development. You can truly call Life Simulator games a real genre now. People still play both Sims 2, Sims 3, and Sims 4 in 2023. These games are very very different from one another and the fact that they still all have a playerbase shows that there is space in the genre for multiple games and different takes on it.
I too am glad for all three, and it is possible-not likely but possible-that EA may clean up their act with the added competition.
Paralives currently has around 7-8 employees working on the game as they continue to higher more team members as their patreon grows and new goals are met
Just so you know Paralives at one point was said to have plans for an open world and world edit tools. No clue how it will actually work but I recall there being footage of a prototype lot editor that released early on. That was four years ago so idk if they scrapped that plan or not since they had very little game at that point.
I like how these two competitors are embracing mods to offer a more open-source experience that'll allow the most dedicated fans to _contribute_ to the game's experience, rather than just be constantly screwed over by a deliberate lack of content and need to purchase additional DLC.
Ja DLCs mit bugs und abstürze werde es eh nächstes Jahr löschen auf ps5 wegen GTA 6 und dan nie wieder spiele von EA anrühren
I’m looking forward for Paralives, for sure! It looks amazing, it gives me a sensation that I’ve been looking for a while. The indie thing gets to me
Me too! The graphics, build-mode, and Paramaker mode are really impressive for a mostly 1 person dev team.
@@bull_technology I'm an extra sucker for great UIs with a clear vision, so Paralives is currently the one calling for me.
EA had a version of Life By You's direct control feature in the PS2 version of the Sims 2
The Sims 4 also has a first person mode that seems to be forgotten. I mean it’s mostly broken anyway but what isn’t in that game LOL
First person view is cool, but for people who suffer from motion sickness it’s awful. So I like that they will have direct control that’s not necessarily first person view.
I've been a sims fan since the original. When 4 came out I stopped playing for nearly 8 years. I preordered Life by you as soon as I heard about it. Paralives looks interesting, but unlike a lot of fans, I'm not enamored of the cartoony style.
😂 don’t get me wrong. I like the sims, but lately sims has been going down hill. I’m actually happy that two companies are challenging EA and their greed. I’m not gonna lie the sims team needs to move away from EA, before they kill the sims team
Here here
The SIMS 2 on PlayStation 2 have the third person control feature. it's a feature that has been missing from the sims games ever since. I'm so glad that life by you will have that
Commenting for the algorithm! Currently playing TS3 for fun so more competition will be hot 😂
Hey thanks! The competition is indeed looking hot 👍
I started with sims 4 and recently went to sims 2 and boy, the difference is actually insane.
To me visually Paralives is much more appealing for regular players, I feel like LBY graphics could be a little overwhelming in the long run it really reminds me of SL with all the commands it starts to feel like a job. If paralives could get it all the way together I’d love to play it I like he graphics a lot it’s much easier on the eyes for longer gameplay.
Like idk LBY looks like a psp game or something … something about it seems very guyish; made to be functional but not very “pretty”. But I know the effort and work put in is something I can’t do as of now and I do really respect it regardless. Both seem great!
It’s exciting to know that with these games coming into the life sim genre, we will finally have more options and EA will have to do better if they want to stay in the competition. I’m a life-long fan of the sims franchise, but the level of mediocrity and greediness that EA has been able to get away with has lasted way too long and is inexcusable for a company of their size.
Indeed! EA's treatment of The Sims has been utterly appalling
EA will not do better, same thing happened with sim city. cities skylines came in, slam dunked sim city and we haven't heard anything from EA about sim city since
@@pieeater957 add command and conquer to the mix, with tempest rising already successfully catering the hype of veteran Command and Conquer players even before its release If this trend keeps up, EA will only have NFS and its repetitive Sports Games
Paralives has a wonderful aesthetic. It’s cartoony enough to be cute, but realistic enough for building. The LBY aesthetic is a bit too reminiscent of Cities Skylines imo. Works better for a city sim.
I feel like both these games, at least currently, lack the novelty or quirkiness of the sims, which I feel like people are forgetting is a big reason why the sims is popular and how it got there - it’s not a life simulation, it’s a fun game of random stuff you can do that isn’t like real life! Yes these games look super impressive, but if I was playing them, I think I would get bored of just re-enacting real life without the quirky stuff that makes the sims a fun and different game… so with people saying it’s targeting a different audience, I completely agree.
Я невероятно рад, что в мире симуляторов жизни появится хоть какое-то разнообразие. Мне нетерпится попробовать Paralives и Life by you. Очень интересно взглянуть на симулятор жизни под другим углом, глазами других студий
I remember someone saying MM Sims players will go to Paralives and Alpha players will go to LBY honestly I like that lol edit: My problem with the sims is how everything is expensive in fact 50 usd is actually 78 aud which is like a 3/4th of 100 aud and I personally cant afford it and not because im young either its also that my parents are struggling (my mum is a travel agent and doesnt get much) (and boy my father has been working overtime and getting like 3 hours of sleep and he is always grumpy and he now thinks my mum is doing something she isnt and I am now getting involved w it bc its getting bad) another problem with the sims is the mens CAS I cant find anyone hot other than that 1 vampire OR that 1 dude in city living and thats because they got some nice clothing unlike every other male sim and its because the other males look ugly because of male CAS another problem is how buggy some packs are like dine out, horse ranch and wedding stories ANOTHER PROBLEM IS THE GODDAMN EA APP IT ISNT CHANGING MY PFP ANYMORE AND ITS BUGGY AF Should of kept it as origin and replaced the icon to EA at least 1 other thing you need to rely on mods just to not get bored of the game which proves how bad it is
lol me a maxis mix player being stuck in between😭😭
So done with The Sims, ready to try something new. Be aware I've been playing sims since 2000 and have bought every expansion until more recently. While neither may be exactly what we want we have to admit it wouldn't take much to be better than 4, and 5 scares me with the direction they are going. I am so excited for new options. I've been watching both of these for a while, in fact I've been following Paralives for a couple years.
DLCs are Paradox Interactive's favorite money maker. See Europa Universalis, Stellaris, and other franchises besides Cities Skylines. With that, we can expect Life By You to have DLCs that spike its price by 10 times in maybe 5+ years.
Life by You looks promising but I'm also afraid it ends up being just too much. Like too complicated. I had played games like Sim City 4 and Tropico before and I really liked them so I bought Cities Skylines along with a bunch of its DLC's last year... only for the game to make me feel like I need an engineering degree to make a semi-decent city. It felt overwhelming.
I’m surprised we haven’t seen an anime styled life simulator with more leanings towards fashion and stories, without losing the actual life simulator play. I can see why Paralives has hit that spot for a lot of people. It certainly has for me. Especially with the emergence of the Cozy Game genre. Paralives looks great and if it has everything it says it will, it’s definitely going to do well. I’m disappointed it doesn’t have even an early release beta date, but considering the small team, that’s understandable.
describing the worlds in the sims 4 as "puny cartoon towns" sent me because its spot on. Exactly how i feel, its probably my personal biggest gripe with s4
Since The Sims is such a big franchise, production-wise and historically, it'd be hard for even a medium-sized dev to replicate all aspect of gameplay into a contained singular game that The Sims franchise essentially pioneered. So I'm sensing a fork in how future life sim developers would evolve the genre: one that focuses on detailing character relationship system and/or the character creation system, and one that prioritize world-building sandbox.
Hard to replicate? Sure, but it could also be a gradual progression of another game slowly whittling down support from EA. I have hope yet for competitors to the Sims.
I have a lot of faith in life by you. Rod humble was mostly responsible for how good sims 2-3 were. I believe he use his experience with these successful titles to make the ultimate life sim game we all been wishing for for years! So far they are doing amazing with communication, answering questions regularly and making gameplay review video every other weeks. Cannot wait to play early access!
It would be nice to have some replacements for the Sims but I hope they don't forget that these are also games. How you get people hooked is to make them fun and have charachter. For most people it is not about realism but something you want to get invested in to. Otherwise it would be just about painting house and looking it for few minutes before you move on to next game.
I don't think that this kind of loyalty from the sims community will stand for long... Like come on man, How long are these guys willing to play a game with so much problems??
Here here
Something I loved about The Sims 2 that we increasingly lost was the ability to create a whole host of varied neighbourhoods so you could roleplay different sorts of worlds, I'm glad it looks like Life By You at least lets you place lots where you want, we'll see how many neighbourhoods and styles you can have Basically I like my life simulator to be a creativity tool, which The Sims 4 lost a long time ago
I randomly stumbled onto Life By You via a City Planner Plays Cities Skylines 2 dev diary video. Never even knew of it until then, and was immediately excited for it. Its very clear its going to be infinitely superior in just about every way. This video is the first time I've heard of Paralives.
I think I can speak for a lot of older Sims game players (OG/2 specifically). A lot of us have already jumped ship or are still playing the older games and hate the Sims 4. So a new, different franchise will be happily welcomed. What EA gas done to the Sims franchise honestly depresses me. If I do ever get the itch, I am either booting up the original Sims, Sims 3, or one of my beloved early 2000s Sims console games
My biggest issue with life by you is the graphics I wanna be able to play the game just fine on my laptop without it lighting on fire
That may be an issue. It's hard to say how the performance of the game will be, but at least they've provided the recommended PC specs of the game on their steam page.
I don t know, sims 2 is still the one to beat to me. creating and owning your entire city is quite amazing. and the aspiration mechanic was a blast. how time suspended when switching characters... no mods, I wanted no bugs. all expansions. even the graphics are still looking good for me. I d pay $20 to have it now. I d be playing for months for sure, doing it all again. it d be much easier and quicker now with my experience. I admit that driving cars would be great. I ll check videos and we ll see if it s as exciting. good show bro.
Hey thanks 👍
A 3rd part to this very strong series is... how it transpires that EA is aware of this. Some (minor) features announced by Paralives a couple of years ago have been recently added to The Sims 4, for instance. There is no doubt that "Project Rene" is also going to share/borrow features from Life by You too (which admittedly I follow less closely). It'll be more and more interesting to see how EA reacts to that threat. I don't have time to go through hundreds of comments, so someone might have pointed it out already... but it should be noted that Paralives is currently developed by a studio of about 10 people (it fluctuates, but overall this isn't a one-person studio anymore). Their crowdfunding income has been relatively stable too, I haven't kept a precise record of the numbers, but basically they have always collected between 35 and 40K a month. Sure, 5K is a big deal, but the fact that crowdfunding has been going on for years and hasn't much declined, even in this economy, says something. Like you said, us Paralives enthusiasts are loyal :)
Thanks for the thorough and informative comment! When it comes to a part three in this series... your suggestion sounds like a great video topic. I'll have to look into it, but I certainly have seen the countless patches to TS4 that are basically features announced by Paradox for LBY. I completely agree that EA's reaction is going to be something that's worth studying! Indeed I made an error when referring to Paralives. Several comments have highlighted this, but it appears as if the game development studio isn't a one-man operation anymore.
@@bull_technologyI'm curious, what are some of these features that the Sims 4 has "snatched" from LBY? Excuse my ignorance as I haven't been following these games much, but greatly looking forward to them as a long time fan of the Sims - TS2 was my childhood.
what i like about the sims 4 is the cartoonish style that isnt TOO cartoonish like it has a touch of realism. However for me Life by you s style is way to realistic for me and Paralives s is too cartoonish. It might just be bcs i ve been playing sims 4 since i was 8 lol
The Sims games prior to TS4 looked more like Life by You and not cartoonish at all. Paralives has its own brand of graphics that I find charming, but LBY is clearly taking a more realistic approach-much like older Sims games.
Sims is what we're used to. It might take a while to get used to other styles.
sims 3 was better
I have my issues with paradox... they are even more DLC focused that both EA and Bethesda combined... and i am sick of them
I'll gladly play all of them +TS5 when they all come out. There can never be too many simulation games for me.
I've been a Paralives patron since 2019 and I'm only just learning about Life by You NOW! I'll still be supporting Paralives but BRB gotta go preorder! 😄
I believe life by you should aim to be as good as the sims 3, because as it allows mods the community can help a lot the game and make it that next step that should have been the sims 4.
Yes! Mods are very nice to see as an inclusion. Knowing the game devs, I'm sure LBY will have full Steam Workshop modding support like Cities Skylines.
Exciting! Catch your video when it becomes available. Enjoy your Saturday night!
Hey you too! If you're available tomorrow at premier time I'll see ya!
I miss the chemistry (lightning bolts) and turn ons/offs that were in the Sims 2, I hope that Paralives or Life by You bring it back. It's a big reason why I stopped playing the Sims 4 and I'm still playing the Sims 2.
Life by you is really reminding me of the sims 2 pets on the ps2. One of my favourite sims games, you can be your aim. I.e control them directly running around etc or go into birds eye view mode like most pc sim games. I really love the early sims and feel ita gone in a weird direction now. These two games, life by you and paralives look really promising!!
like thirty seconds into the description of Life By You's features and I'm already sold.
Indeed! When I first did my research on LBY, I was already on board.
life by you looks like sims 3 which i looove. hope they dont focus too much on the "realistic" aspects of simulation and bring in more fantasy style stuff
I recently just got back to playing sims 3 again. I realized just how easy it is to mod the game to works as I want (and how much better it is). While sims 4 mods is more of a fix of existing features, most of the time it doesn’t work or just a hassle to play with because of the limitation of the game. Sims 3 mods on the other hand enhances the features that’s already in the game. There’s fixes for sure but for small things. It’s easy to mod and play with since the modding community is “pretty old” but active. To the point there’s not many things to be mod. If it does it’s usually a specific mod that adds or alters a specific gameplay mechanic to suit a specific playstyle. Trust me, most of the time you will find the mod you’re looking for. Heck, some times a youtube tutorial and a little bit reading through online forums is enough to solve your issues. Graphics wise, some hate it some love it. Im not a fan of the lighting, but a mod actually does it for me. Is the game choppy? some contribute to lag. But personally for me, it’s 3 out of tenths of mods that alters the gameplay experience. Some mods actually helps the game to run faster. You might be thinking that, “you don’t have that many mods”. Yes because the game is already good. But cc wise, i had tons of it. “But the game takes 5-10 minutes to load”. Those 3 mods that I mentioned before contributes to longer loading times. It’s small mods and makes really small difference in my gameplay experience so I don’t give a damn If I dont have it in my game. Does it load faster without it? Yes. But still takes 5+ minutes to load. Small price to pay for a great time you will love ahead. The modding community have such big contributions to make the game even more flesh out that it feels like it’s 2-3 times bigger. Mind you it’s already big and there’s a lot of thoughts put into the game since the beginning. It’s the butter on my bread and I can’t express enough of how good it is. I do agree that it’s pricey (I play with EP and SP). But it’s the EA we know just before their money hungry era.
I doubt either of them will "kill" The Sims, but I do see both of them muscling in on The Sims territory. Either way, EA won't be happy about it. Personally I already jumped ship from The Sims years ago when The Sims 4 launched so I'm more than ready for both of these games to release.
Like I said in the conclusion, people will always buy Sims games, but I do indeed see both of these games carving out their own space in this genre.
Life by you gives me ps2 sims bustin' out and 2 vibes
Hoping Paradox Interactive won't absolutely stone their game to death with DLC is like hoping EA Games won't absolutely stone their game to death with DLC. They're basically EA Games wannabes
As a sims player for 20 years I love there is competition out there ready to shake up the market. I'm not a fan of Life by you graphics, but Paralives stealing my heart more and more with every update they post.
Paralives does look positively adorable
If Rod Humble doesn't appear within Life By You as an invincible NPC cameo as soon as you move a character into a lot with a welcome present of some kind then Imma riot
What I miss in these games is realistic face movements like smile lines...etc
Add "Tiny Life" for this collection. Basically, a 8-bit isometric "The Sims 1".
I've heard a few comments on Tiny Life. I'm going to definitely have to give it a good look over... and it may make it into a possible future video.
Sorry, Tiny Life is cute and I've played it, but it's not an actual competitor. It's more like a "Sims 1 but a bit more features" It has its right to live, but it's very niche and extremely limited
Life by you looks like a Unreal engine asset flip tbh. Paralives looks actually promising
I've been following Paralives for quite a bit now, had no idea Paradox was makin their own thing. I worry about performance though even Cities Skylines the simulation can slow. Paralives ultimately looks like it'll perform better on lower tier hardware, but its important the devs dont lose stride though and keep at it, and the community keeps that patience. I hope both products succeed, as we still have yet to see any sort of ACTUAL competition in the Life Simulation genre, at least on this level.
I personally am not worries if Life by You had DLC, I may be wrong but from playing Cities Skylines the DLCs appear purely optional and I don't own any because of it. Another thing is that their DLCs go on for a great price at sales, (I own cities skylines and Crusader Kings 2) so if Life by You did have DLC I would hope that they are an optional feature to the game that costs around a fiver or something.
I agree that Cities Skylines's DLC isn't nearly as bad as the Sims, and it is much much more reasonable in price. I'm just not a fan of DLC and paid content for retail games.
Paradox is an incredible company but their specialty is city building. I’m worried that the story building aspect might not be that great in Life by You. Im pumped for Paralives though!!
you can create a story building with your own and your language in life by you because it is Life by You
Paradox didn't develop Cities Skylines, Colossal Order did and Paradox published it. Paradox are famous for developing Grand Strategy map games, Cities was just that one of game they decided to publish.
Original sims fan here. Just came to say I cant wait for BOTH games! Been keeping an eye out on the development and am so excited that EA finally has some real competition. I LOVE Cities Skylines so I'm expecting big things from Paradox!!
As someone who is obsessed with paradox games I have so much hope for Life by You
All sims 3 had to do was make major bug fixes and major performance optimization so that the game doesn't destabilize every single time once you have played enough time, then make slow and smart improvements to the architecture tools and character creation to keep this money pri ter going. The series has paid for itself who knows how many times over.
I will never buy a game in early access lol. Love the art style of Paralives.🥰
Early access has certainly been abused my many many developers. I too love the art direction of Paralives 👍
Both LBY and Paralives will have Early Access, in case you're not aware
I just saw your previous video on EA destroying The Sims and it made me search Paralives - great to see I can watch this too:)
Aw thanks 👍
Paralives had a rocky start to me, devs said yes and maybe to nearly everything asked about. Scared to say no or simply lack of any foresight and planning.. But they've grown and learned a lot. While I don't think it will put a dent into the hold EA has over this genre, I do believe they'll put out a lovely niche product. If anything, it will be aesthetically pleasing at the very least - which can't be said about Life By You so far. Which both graphically and UI-wise does not look underwhelming, but it's still in development. However, LBY focus seems to be on the freedom and moddability/changeability. Something I personally much appreciate and want from a life sim. It's gonna be interesting to see how both games do once they release and if they'll have the opportunity to continue working on the game for years after release. I truly hope both do well enough to continue development, whether it's with free updates or paid expansions doesn't matter to me.
I doubt Paradox will be much better than EA, because both companies are known to release featureless standalone games and a ton of paid dlc that add features and cosmetics.
I've been a huge simer throughout my entire childhood yet when sims 4 released almost 10 years ago, I felt uninterested and have been ever since. It became clear that EA took a huge way turn, trying to milk the sims audience as much as possible with tons of DLCs for basic game features. Furthermore, the game itself always felt so dead and boring unlike sims 2 for instance. I see these two adversary games as a possible downfall for the sims franchise if EA doesn't come out with a life-changing sims 5 whose core basis is not to monetize all aspects of the game.
Here here
The fact that The Sims 2 STILL has a dedicated mod community really speaks volumes over how unpopular Sims 3 and 4 is.
I hadn't heard of paralives before this video, but I was very excited about Life By You's announcement. Paradox, has their own issues, but they've helped publish the simcity killer City Skylines, so I'm hoping LBY can be the same. However I find its art style a little too realistic, and not sure if it can be as goofy as the Sims is without being too uncanny. Paralives on the other hand looks stunning and I'm very excited to see how it will develop, although I'm slightly concerned it might be a little too ambitious for an indie project. Seeing the hight slider, and sliders for furniture, I can only imagine how either 1. It will take an insane amount of work to get everything animated without clipping, or 2. there will be a lot of animations clipping through objects or people. Either way, competition is a great sign, and hopefully EA will feel threathened enough to put all their effort into Sims 5 and actually release a finished game with most of the gameplay features from previous installments. I think if they don't, they might see their audience move to competitors
Although having different options for simulation games is nice, the Sims will always be THAT girl and no one can replace her. There's truly nothing like it
Sims 4 is completely dead and unplayable at this point... what about that makes it "that girl"? The legacy of the sims is untouchable for sure, but that doesn't mean that EA will continue to be successful pumping out piles of garbage.
@@freethegays well first and foremost this is my opinion...hope that helps. Dead and unplayed, yeah sure? Then why are so many people still continuing to play it? It's really not that deep
While I agree with you, I think The Sims is more like that crazy ex that you can't help but love
@@thearchitect8908 okay very true! that's a great analogy
EA's gonna finally wanna do something once their competition has the upper hand.
Indeed. As many many pointed out, EA has actually patched-in features to the Sims 4 over the past few years that Paralives has hinted at in their most recent dev videos
For sure there will be DLC. It's just the nature of Paradox, but I have a feeling with Rod Humble in the top seat and this being a new IP for them that they're starting off in EA, I have a lot more hope and calm expectations that what DLC they do make will be much more content filled and more worth the price.
I'm excited for paralives. The build mode seems way better than the sims. The curved walls looks very interesting, also being able to edit the furniture. Can't wait till that game comes out!
Same here!
at this point... Sims is now only for new players...The OG Simmers are now tired of the repeating Concepts and even a downgraded system of the franchise... Myabe its time to let go and move on.. It is sad but thats life... 😢
It is sad. The Sims really does take me back to my childhood... and I have fond memories of the previous games: but you summed it up pretty well, The Sims as it stands today is really only for new players
The fact that they repeat the same concept over and over again is not even the biggest problem for me. If it was at least executed properly, it wouldn't be so bad. The problem with Sims 4 is that they take their proven concept, but split the DLCs from before into several DLCs. And on top of that, they manage to make these DLCs come across as empty and meaningless.
Let's not forget how Paradox works; Ship minimal viable product then sell a sea of DLCs. And since it's Paradox you KNOW it's going to be a buggy mess, heck Paradox & Bethesda competes to release the most buggy product and Paradox always were able to 1-up Bethesda (yes even Fallout 76), granted With CK3 they've been a bit less buggy but they've still managed to carve out base gameplay from CK2 to sell as DLC. Yes, it's the EA way- sell the same Madden game every year, Sell the same DLC from a former game for the next Sims game with even less features. And let's not forget EA made a DLC to their DLC (pet life -> dust and whatever it was). The point of this rant? Paradox is know for bare-bones and buggy releases, don't expect anything else but a competitor to EA when it comes to the Sims franchise. Sims 5 is in the works and will probably borrow/steal good ideas. Neither of these two multi million dollar companies (no Paradox is not an INDIE studio) are know for quality products. Just because a self driving car doesn't drive you off a cliff but instead aims for your granny everytime it backs out the driveway doesn't make it a good product.
Wonderful video, thank you!!!!! Love the intro jingle 🎉
Hey thanks! I really do appreciate it!
Discovered the channel through the Sims 4 video and became a subscriber right away, surprised you don't have that much subscribers considering the quality of content you're putting out. Hopefully you blow up soon, keep up the good work mate 👍
Hey thank you so much 👍 I really do appreciate it
9:20 "The rumored sims 5" it's not just rumored, project rene is the sims 5
It's been officially announced
Paralives isnt even out yet. Cant compete if people cant even buy your game
I'm so excited for paralives. I remember hearing about it several years ago and the progress it's made from then has me giddy. It's so close to already outshining TS4 for me, and as someone who owns literally every ts4 DLC and probably has spent thousands of dollars on SIMS content in the past 20 years, that's saying something. I'm not sure what exactly it's saying, but it's something!
Wow, I knew about Paralives, but not Life by You! Been following Paralives' development for a few years, but the fact Life by You is so close is exciting :o
Life by you looks hideous… A good design is needed to live in these worlds.