Mean Girls, Clueless, and the Mod That Fixed The Sims Map

Becca HartwellHey, welcome back to The Plumbob Report. I'm Becca.

Danny ReyesAnd I'm Danny. Sul sul, and also what the heck because EA just dropped something wild.

Becca HartwellSo first up, Tanya Fedak's piece says Mean Girls and Clueless kits are landing in The Sims 4.

Danny ReyesFetch Fashion finally official.

Becca HartwellRight? But wait till you hear what Callum Bowyer says the community's been doing with their own closets for years.

Danny ReyesOh, we've got thoughts on that.

Becca HartwellThen I'm walking us through this mod from SimMattically stitching every world into one map.

Danny ReyesOne map, no loading bubbles. I've had complaints about those since-

Becca HartwellMm-hmm

Danny Reyes... 2014, honestly.

Becca HartwellNoted.

Danny ReyesAnd Callum Bowyer's also got insider leaks on this mysterious Project X thing.

Becca HartwellSome of it holds up, some of it's just fan wish casting. We'll sort which is which.

Danny ReyesExciting. Plus, we're leaving Sims behind entirely. Seeds multiplayer chaos, Starsand Island topping Steam, and a cozy wizard game landing way out in 2028.

Becca HartwellAnd by the end, we want your life Sim picks too.

Danny ReyesDrop them in the reviews, seriously.

Becca HartwellSo many life Sims, so little time.

Danny ReyesGrab your snacks.

Becca HartwellLet's start with the fashion drama.

Danny ReyesSay less.

Becca HartwellWe wanna hear from you. Submit questions via the web form in the description or give us a call at seven four seven six seven seven one zero three seven and leave your question. Don't be shy. Our AI assistant makes it super easy.

Danny ReyesOkay, wait. EA actually did the Pink Wednesday thing?

Becca HartwellThey really did. Two new kits, Mean Girls and Clueless, and it's official.

Danny ReyesWait, both movies? Same drop?

Becca HartwellSame announcement. Tanya Fedak broke it on Variety today and Callum Bowyer over at Sims Community had the full item breakdown within the hour.

Danny ReyesI caught Ashley Claudino's piece on Polygon too. She's calling it, "Rule the high school halls energy."

Becca HartwellThat's giving Sims 2 in the best way, honestly. Remember when packs were just tiny theme drops, all vibes and clothes?

Danny ReyesOkay, but hold on. What's actually in the box? New lots, NPCs or just-

Becca HartwellJust closets. Gavin Sheehan at Bleeding Cool put it perfectly. It's fashion and vibe, not characters and settings.

Danny ReyesSo no Regina George Sim, no Cher's dad, just clothes.

Becca HartwellJust CAS items, which I get the side eye, but the team really understood the assignment on the actual clothing details. If that plaid skirt or the yellow argyle sweater-

Danny ReyesIsn't accurate, the whole internet riots. I know

Becca HartwellExactly. And kits usually sit around five bucks, so if the tailoring's off, that's a real complaint.

Danny ReyesOkay, real talk though. This community's been building Cher's closet for what? A decade?

Becca HartwellIn CC for free, easily. Creators have done full Clueless capsule wardrobes since like 2015.

Danny ReyesSo EA is catching up to what a modder did for free 10 years ago and charging for it.

Becca HartwellI mean, kind of, yeah. But official assets mean everyone gets it without hunting six CC sites and praying the mesh doesn't break your game.

Danny ReyesFair. I'll take the convenience. Still funny EA's out here discovering what the community already built.

Becca HartwellIt's less discovering and more licensing what people already wanted, which fine, that's a business.

Danny ReyesSure, but it makes you wonder who's actually building the stuff fans want first.

Becca HartwellRight? Because official, it's a $5 kit.

Danny ReyesAnd unofficial, it's free and sometimes better executed.

Becca HartwellOoh, them's fighting words.

Danny ReyesI stand by it. And speaking of modders quietly outdoing EA's whole design team-

Becca HartwellOh, I know exactly where you're going with this

Danny ReyesWait till you hear what one modder just did to the entire map. Think EA could ever ship that? Okay, moving past the plaid skirts for a second.

Becca HartwellBarely.

Danny ReyesThere's a mod that just dropped and honestly, it might matter more than anything EA's shipped all year.

Becca HartwellOkay, so this is the SimMattically map project, and I've been obsessed with it since Anna Koselkes's piece went up on GamesRadar Thursday.

Danny ReyesBreak it down for the people who haven't seen the screenshots.

Becca HartwellSo right now, every neighborhood in Sims 4 is its own lot file. You click a house, loading screen. You're in a bubble. Click again, another bubble.

Danny ReyesThe autonomy really said choose violence every time your Sim tries to just walk next door.

Becca HartwellExactly. There's no actual geography connecting Willow Creek to Oasis Springs. They just exist near each other conceptually.

Danny ReyesWhich is wild because that's been the complaint since 2014, day one.

Becca HartwellRight. And per GamesRadar, SimMattically basically stitched every world together into one continuous map with what Koselkes's article calls a seamless layout. One coordinate system, actual distances between towns.

Danny ReyesWait, so if I build a house at the edge of one neighborhood-

Becca HartwellYou could theoretically see the next one across the water. That's the scale we're talking about.

Danny ReyesNo way. That's giving Sims 2 in the best way, honestly. Back when neighborhoods at least felt like they existed on the same map screen.

Becca HartwellPolygon covered it too. Ashley Claudino's piece calls it a big map and says it makes travel actually feel real instead of a menu selection.

Danny ReyesOkay, but here's my question. GamesRadar said the guy did a ton of research to pull this off, right?

Becca HartwellYeah, that's a direct line from the article.

Danny ReyesSo one person in their spare time solved a structural problem EA sat on for a decade?

Becca HartwellTo be fair, the engine limitations are real. Rebuilding worlds without breaking every pack that references those lot IDs is hard work, honestly.

Danny ReyesI hear you, but the modding community keeps doing the impossible thing for free while the Simmer expectation is just lowered.

Becca HartwellIt's the same conversation as the CC closets, just with map data instead of jeans.

Danny ReyesTikTok's already got clips of people driving cars, well walking, we don't have cars, straight from one world into another without a black screen in between.

Becca HartwellReddit's split. Half the thread's celebrating, half asking why this needs a mod instead of a patch.

Danny ReyesMotherlode energy right there, and EA didn't even have to spend it.

Becca HartwellFair.

Danny ReyesSo genuinely, what's stopping EA from just buying this guy a coffee and licensing the idea?

Becca HartwellMoney, historically. Probably confidence that most players won't notice bubble world seams if the loading's fast enough.

Danny ReyesExcept we clearly notice since half the internet is talking about a fan patch instead of Pack 7.

Becca HartwellAnd that demand for one connected world, keep it in your back pocket.

Danny ReyesWhy? What do you know?

Becca HartwellBecause the Project X leaks floating around this week are apparently promising exactly that kind of world for the next game.

Danny ReyesOkay, now I need details.

Becca HartwellGet comfortable. Okay, flip that modding energy into rumor mode. I've got Project XT, and it's spicy. Oh, no, the whisper voice. Here we go.

Danny ReyesCallum Bowyer dropped new insider leaks this week about Project X, and it's the sales numbers on past packs that got me sitting up straight.

Becca HartwellRight. That's insider claims from Callum Bowyer's reporting. EA hasn't confirmed anything publicly about a next Sims game.

Danny ReyesAn insider's basically the same thing though, right?

Becca HartwellIt's not. I lived through this exact cycle before Sims 4 even leaked. Fans built whole timelines off forum whispers that turned out completely wrong.

Danny ReyesFair. So what's actually solid?

Becca HartwellProject X exists as an internal code name according to Callum Bowyer's sourcing tied to franchise performance data EA is reportedly reviewing.

Danny ReyesPerformance data on which packs?

Becca HartwellThe leak doesn't name titles publicly. Past that, I'm treating the rest as fan math.

Danny ReyesFan math built on real frustration, though. Remember that map mod?

Becca HartwellSame pattern as University rumors, City Living rumors, all of it. Half the wishlist came true eventually. Half was just fans dressing up random screenshots as leaks.

Danny ReyesSo which half are we in right now?

Becca HartwellToo early to say, but players already proved with mods they want one connected world. So if Project X really is the next game, that demand's loud.

Danny ReyesSo the wishlist writes itself. Seamless worlds, better build tools, fix the overlap issues while they're at it.

Becca HartwellCareful, that's your wishlist talking. The leak's thinner than that.

Danny ReyesI know. I just wanna believe.

Becca HartwellBelieve cautiously. I mean, next Sims game rumors resurface every year since Sims 4 launched, and most fizzle out.

Danny ReyesSims fans really chose optimism anyway, huh?

Becca HartwellEvery single time.

Danny ReyesSpeaking of games actually shipping while we wait on rumors, other studios aren't waiting at all.

Becca HartwellOh, huge segue. Wait till you hear what's landing on shelves right now. Zooming out from Sims for a sec.

Danny ReyesOoh, where are we going?

Becca HartwellHave you seen Seed? Josephine Watson wrote about it for TechRadar, and she called it Sims-on-steroids. Wait, steroids?

Danny ReyesHow? She said she became mayor, witnessed the rapture, and built a metropolis

Becca Hartwellwith total strangers. Wow.

Danny ReyesWow.

Becca HartwellAll massively multiplayer.

Danny ReyesOkay, that's unhinged in the best way. Regular Sims energy but with 300 randos running the town council.

Becca HartwellRight? It's early access now, but it's exactly the shared world thing modders keep begging EA for.

Danny ReyesThe universe said, "You want one map? Here's a whole civilization."

Becca HartwellSpeaking of games not waiting around, Starsand Island just launched.

Danny ReyesOh, I heard about this. Cozy anime farm vibes?

Becca HartwellYeah, and Anubhav Sharma at Notebookcheck says it's topping Steam's new release charts with an 88% positive rating.

Danny ReyesNot bad for launch week.

Becca HartwellIt's also 20% off right now. $31.99 down from $39.99 per that same piece.

Danny ReyesPush Square called it My Neighbor Totoro, which honestly, sold.

Becca HartwellI need that energy in my life.

Danny ReyesOkay, but the one that got me, Aether Wizard Life.

Becca HartwellOh my gosh, yes.

Danny ReyesBrian over at Nintendo Everything confirmed it for Switch, and Sal Romano's got it landing on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC too.

Becca HartwellYou play an apprentice mage in a haunted town called Starfall living in a customizable walking castle.

Danny ReyesA walking castle growing magical crops. I'm sold already.

Becca HartwellIt's giving cozy chaos.

Danny ReyesBut Ben Lyons reported this thing doesn't drop until fall 2028.

Becca HartwellOh, that's so far away.

Danny ReyesThat's not a release date. That's a hope and a prayer. We'll have flying cars by then.

Becca HartwellI'll believe the castle walks when I see it walk.

Danny ReyesFair, but between Seed, Starsand Island, and whatever this wizard thing becomes, the competition isn't sitting around waiting on EA's loading screens.

Becca HartwellFinished games people can actually buy today versus leaks and CAS kits. That's the pressure worth watching.

Danny ReyesSo if you're playing something scratching that life sim itch that isn't Sims—

Becca HartwellWe want to hear about it. Send us your cozy game recs

Danny Reyes... seriously, hit us up. We're always chasing the next obsession.

Becca HartwellBecause apparently mayoral rapture simulators are just a thing now, and I need to know more. Okay, that's a wrap on today's chaos.

Danny ReyesFrom pink Wednesdays to a mod that glues every world together.

Becca HartwellYeah, SimMattically really did what EA wouldn't. One map, no more loading bubbles.

Danny ReyesNo way that's still not native, right?

Becca HartwellSomeday. Someday.

Danny ReyesMeanwhile, the community's had Cher's closet on lock for years. EA's just catching up.

Becca HartwellHonestly, the modders and fans carried this whole episode.

Danny ReyesSo if you're deep into Seed, Starsand Island, whatever, tell us. We want your life sim rabbit holes.

Becca HartwellSeriously, hit us up at Plumbob Report with your builds, your fails, all of it.

Danny ReyesExcitedly subscribe. Leave a review. Helps other Simmers find the show.

Becca HartwellThanks for hanging with us, Danny.

Danny ReyesAlways. Sul sul, Simmers. Catch you next time.