The Sims 4 Lovestruck expansion looks good, but the free base game update accompanying it looks even better

It's an exciting time for The Sims 4 - not only is the Lovestruck expansion pack coming soon, but a free base game update containing some of our most highly requested features is, too.

As EA's spiciest expansion pack yet approaches, we Simmers have a lot to look forward to. If vibrating heart-shaped beds aren't your thing, perhaps a virtual Tinder-like dating app is - or, like me, you may be most excited for content coming in the free base game update alongside the DLC rather than what's included within the expansion pack itself. For instance, The Sims 4 is finally getting its long-requested polyamory feature - which we now know much more about.

Speaking at Lovestruck's recent digital preview event, EA reveals just how this feature works in-game - as well as some other upcoming big base game changes. "Romantic boundaries expand upon romantic relationships by allowing you to control the conditions under which your Sims become jealous," explains senior game designer Josh Contreras. "There are four separate settings that make up your Sims' romantic boundaries."

These different boundaries let you choose whether or not your Sim gets jealous if a romantic partner engages in non-physical romance, physical romance, and/or WooHoo with others. "Similar to real life," details Contreras, "Sims may have different boundaries in these areas regarding what they find acceptable or even not acceptable in their romantic relationships." The fourth setting determines whether boundaries can ever change or be reconsidered.

Open relationships and polyamory aren't the free update's only hotly anticipated features, though. There are new venue interactions, like showing off your Sims' hard-earned gains at the gym - and we're finally getting curved pools, y'all. "Check it out, everybody," lead producer Joanna Lio says while panning over a simple little pool with rounded edges from one of Lovestruck's new lots. "That is a curved pool. This is a new build-mode feature for the base game."

The new pools function "just like regular pools" and you can do just about anything with the historically oft-requested tool - whether you'd like to build a circular swimming area or mix and match rounded corners with sharp edges. "It's a lot of fun," Lio admits. Gone are the days of needing various Sims 4 mods to play however we'd like, it seems - and that's precisely why these free base game updates might just be a bigger deal to me personally than the Lovestruck expansion.

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