The new Sims 4 start screen is by far the best it’s had in a decade

As part of a handful of 25th anniversary updates, The Sims 4 start screen just got a big overhaul. My first instinct was of course to recoil in the face of a major visual change, because even small tweaks to social media feeds activate the human fight or flight response—and this redesign in particular initially had me thinking I should be asking the squad where we’re dropping. But after deactivating my amygdala, I think this start screen is a major improvement over every Sims 4 start screen we’ve had in the past decade.

If you’ve forgotten how things changed over the years (I did) the Sims Community fansite has a helpful refresher on several old Sims 4 start screens. Sat next to each other, it’s a little unnerving how the list of packs you own just kept encroaching on the menu over the years until 2020 brought us the panelled look that gives me Windows 8 flashbacks. Lest we forget already, this is what we were rocking as of last week:

It was awful, sorry. It looks like a game launcher trying to cram in the latest update news while enticing me to make purchases, for starters. Somehow there are three different buttons on that screen that want me to try out the scenarios system, which makes no sense. The Sims 4 start screen had gotten pushier than door-to-door pesticide service salespeople.