The much lamented loss of pools and death-by-drowning in the Sims 4 has been rectified with a free update from EA.
In an announcement on the official Sims 4 site, the ability to build pools has been added to what should have been the crowning game for the Sims franchise, but has since become a poster child for what could have been. Many die hard Sims fans that have been with the franchise since the beginning have struggled with the juxtaposition of a graphically and musically gorgeous new game that lacks many of the components that made previous titles such an utter time sink. We can check pools off the long list of things still missing, but it’s a small step in the right direction, anyway.
In addition to simply adding pools and the necessary swim wear for Sims to be able to use said pools, the building mechanics have been tinkered with to allow players to easily incorporate this much-longed-for addition with ease. Building ground level pools are simple, and we can even build pools on higher floor levels, so that rooftop cabana you’ve always wanted is now a reality. Virtual reality, anyway.
Since the ability to swim in pools is back, the ability to die in them has also. The Grim Reaper has the potential to make an appearance for the Sim that is a little too careless around the poolside, so the sadistic little voice in all our heads can have fun removing the pool exists and watching the mayhem. Oddly, Sim spirits will show an aversion to water if they’ve been unfortunate enough to have been drowned by it, though I’m not too sure why it would be such a big deal for the spiritually inclined. After all, a ghost can’t drown, so once we’ve brushed off all our living Sims from the mortal coil, we should be seeing some pretty awesome, ghostly pool parties.
The 
update will occur automatically when you log into Origin (assuming you have auto updates checked, that is), and you’ll be ready to build those swimming death-traps in no time. Along with pools, additional hot fixes have been applied to help with crashes and overall performance issues that have hindered Sims 4 since launch.
While the addition of pools is a welcome one, I don’t think it’s quite enough to make Sims 4 into what it should have been. Heather wrote about Sims 4 back in September and, frankly, EA is going to have to do a lot more before giving the Sims community the game that they really wanted to play. It’s nice that EA is doing something, I’m just not sure it’s enough.
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