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

Becca Hartwell: Hey, welcome back to The Plumbob Report. I'm Becca. Danny Reyes: And I'm Danny. Sul sul, and also what the heck because EA just dropped something wild. Becca Hartwell: So first up, Tanya Fedak's piece says Mean Girls and Clueless kits are landing in The Sims 4. Danny Reyes: Fetch Fashion finally official. Becca Hartwell: Right? But wait till you hear what Callum Bowyer says the community's been doing with their own closets for years. Danny Reyes: Oh, we've got thoughts on that. Becca Hartwell: Then I'm walking us through this mod from SimMattically stitching every world into one map. Danny Reyes: One map, no loading bubbles. I've had complaints about those since- Becca Hartwell: Mm-hmm Danny Reyes: ... 2014, honestly. Becca Hartwell: Noted. Danny Reyes: And Callum Bowyer's also got insider leaks on this mysterious Project X thing. Becca Hartwell: Some of it holds up, some of it's just fan wish casting. We'll sort which is which. Danny Reyes: Exciting. 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 Hartwell: And by the end, we want your life Sim picks too. Danny Reyes: Drop them in the reviews, seriously. Becca Hartwell: So many life Sims, so little time. Danny Reyes: Grab your snacks. Becca Hartwell: Let's start with the fashion drama. Danny Reyes: Say less. Becca Hartwell: We 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 Reyes: Okay, wait. EA actually did the Pink Wednesday thing? Becca Hartwell: They really did. Two new kits, Mean Girls and Clueless, and it's official. Danny Reyes: Wait, both movies? Same drop? Becca Hartwell: Same announcement. Tanya Fedak broke it on Variety today and Callum Bowyer over at Sims Community had the full item breakdown within the hour. Danny Reyes: I caught Ashley Claudino's piece on Polygon too. She's calling it, "Rule the high school halls energy." Becca Hartwell: That's giving Sims 2 in the best way, honestly. Remember when packs were just tiny theme drops, all vibes and clothes? Danny Reyes: Okay, but hold on. What's actually in the box? New lots, NPCs or just- Becca Hartwell: Just closets. Gavin Sheehan at Bleeding Cool put it perfectly. It's fashion and vibe, not characters and settings. Danny Reyes: So no Regina George Sim, no Cher's dad, just clothes. Becca Hartwell: Just 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 Reyes: Isn't accurate, the whole internet riots. I know Becca Hartwell: Exactly. And kits usually sit around five bucks, so if the tailoring's off, that's a real complaint. Danny Reyes: Okay, real talk though. This community's been building Cher's closet for what? A decade? Becca Hartwell: In CC for free, easily. Creators have done full Clueless capsule wardrobes since like 2015. Danny Reyes: So EA is catching up to what a modder did for free 10 years ago and charging for it. Becca Hartwell: I 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 Reyes: Fair. I'll take the convenience. Still funny EA's out here discovering what the community already built. Becca Hartwell: It's less discovering and more licensing what people already wanted, which fine, that's a business. Danny Reyes: Sure, but it makes you wonder who's actually building the stuff fans want first. Becca Hartwell: Right? Because official, it's a $5 kit. Danny Reyes: And unofficial, it's free and sometimes better executed. Becca Hartwell: Ooh, them's fighting words. Danny Reyes: I stand by it. And speaking of modders quietly outdoing EA's whole design team- Becca Hartwell: Oh, I know exactly where you're going with this Danny Reyes: Wait 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 Hartwell: Barely. Danny Reyes: There's a mod that just dropped and honestly, it might matter more than anything EA's shipped all year. Becca Hartwell: Okay, 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 Reyes: Break it down for the people who haven't seen the screenshots. Becca Hartwell: So 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 Reyes: The autonomy really said choose violence every time your Sim tries to just walk next door. Becca Hartwell: Exactly. There's no actual geography connecting Willow Creek to Oasis Springs. They just exist near each other conceptually. Danny Reyes: Which is wild because that's been the complaint since 2014, day one. Becca Hartwell: Right. 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 Reyes: Wait, so if I build a house at the edge of one neighborhood- Becca Hartwell: You could theoretically see the next one across the water. That's the scale we're talking about. Danny Reyes: No 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 Hartwell: Polygon 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 Reyes: Okay, but here's my question. GamesRadar said the guy did a ton of research to pull this off, right? Becca Hartwell: Yeah, that's a direct line from the article. Danny Reyes: So one person in their spare time solved a structural problem EA sat on for a decade? Becca Hartwell: To be fair, the engine limitations are real. Rebuilding worlds without breaking every pack that references those lot IDs is hard work, honestly. Danny Reyes: I hear you, but the modding community keeps doing the impossible thing for free while the Simmer expectation is just lowered. Becca Hartwell: It's the same conversation as the CC closets, just with map data instead of jeans. Danny Reyes: TikTok'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 Hartwell: Reddit's split. Half the thread's celebrating, half asking why this needs a mod instead of a patch. Danny Reyes: Motherlode energy right there, and EA didn't even have to spend it. Becca Hartwell: Fair. Danny Reyes: So genuinely, what's stopping EA from just buying this guy a coffee and licensing the idea? Becca Hartwell: Money, historically. Probably confidence that most players won't notice bubble world seams if the loading's fast enough. Danny Reyes: Except we clearly notice since half the internet is talking about a fan patch instead of Pack 7. Becca Hartwell: And that demand for one connected world, keep it in your back pocket. Danny Reyes: Why? What do you know? Becca Hartwell: Because the Project X leaks floating around this week are apparently promising exactly that kind of world for the next game. Danny Reyes: Okay, now I need details. Becca Hartwell: Get 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 Reyes: Callum 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 Hartwell: Right. That's insider claims from Callum Bowyer's reporting. EA hasn't confirmed anything publicly about a next Sims game. Danny Reyes: An insider's basically the same thing though, right? Becca Hartwell: It'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 Reyes: Fair. So what's actually solid? Becca Hartwell: Project X exists as an internal code name according to Callum Bowyer's sourcing tied to franchise performance data EA is reportedly reviewing. Danny Reyes: Performance data on which packs? Becca Hartwell: The leak doesn't name titles publicly. Past that, I'm treating the rest as fan math. Danny Reyes: Fan math built on real frustration, though. Remember that map mod? Becca Hartwell: Same 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 Reyes: So which half are we in right now? Becca Hartwell: Too 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 Reyes: So the wishlist writes itself. Seamless worlds, better build tools, fix the overlap issues while they're at it. Becca Hartwell: Careful, that's your wishlist talking. The leak's thinner than that. Danny Reyes: I know. I just wanna believe. Becca Hartwell: Believe cautiously. I mean, next Sims game rumors resurface every year since Sims 4 launched, and most fizzle out. Danny Reyes: Sims fans really chose optimism anyway, huh? Becca Hartwell: Every single time. Danny Reyes: Speaking of games actually shipping while we wait on rumors, other studios aren't waiting at all. Becca Hartwell: Oh, huge segue. Wait till you hear what's landing on shelves right now. Zooming out from Sims for a sec. Danny Reyes: Ooh, where are we going? Becca Hartwell: Have you seen Seed? Josephine Watson wrote about it for TechRadar, and she called it Sims-on-steroids. Wait, steroids? Danny Reyes: How? She said she became mayor, witnessed the rapture, and built a metropolis Becca Hartwell: with total strangers. Wow. Danny Reyes: Wow. Becca Hartwell: All massively multiplayer. Danny Reyes: Okay, that's unhinged in the best way. Regular Sims energy but with 300 randos running the town council. Becca Hartwell: Right? It's early access now, but it's exactly the shared world thing modders keep begging EA for. Danny Reyes: The universe said, "You want one map? Here's a whole civilization." Becca Hartwell: Speaking of games not waiting around, Starsand Island just launched. Danny Reyes: Oh, I heard about this. Cozy anime farm vibes? Becca Hartwell: Yeah, and Anubhav Sharma at Notebookcheck says it's topping Steam's new release charts with an 88% positive rating. Danny Reyes: Not bad for launch week. Becca Hartwell: It's also 20% off right now. $31.99 down from $39.99 per that same piece. Danny Reyes: Push Square called it My Neighbor Totoro, which honestly, sold. Becca Hartwell: I need that energy in my life. Danny Reyes: Okay, but the one that got me, Aether Wizard Life. Becca Hartwell: Oh my gosh, yes. Danny Reyes: Brian over at Nintendo Everything confirmed it for Switch, and Sal Romano's got it landing on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC too. Becca Hartwell: You play an apprentice mage in a haunted town called Starfall living in a customizable walking castle. Danny Reyes: A walking castle growing magical crops. I'm sold already. Becca Hartwell: It's giving cozy chaos. Danny Reyes: But Ben Lyons reported this thing doesn't drop until fall 2028. Becca Hartwell: Oh, that's so far away. Danny Reyes: That's not a release date. That's a hope and a prayer. We'll have flying cars by then. Becca Hartwell: I'll believe the castle walks when I see it walk. Danny Reyes: Fair, but between Seed, Starsand Island, and whatever this wizard thing becomes, the competition isn't sitting around waiting on EA's loading screens. Becca Hartwell: Finished games people can actually buy today versus leaks and CAS kits. That's the pressure worth watching. Danny Reyes: So if you're playing something scratching that life sim itch that isn't Sims— Becca Hartwell: We 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 Hartwell: Because 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 Reyes: From pink Wednesdays to a mod that glues every world together. Becca Hartwell: Yeah, SimMattically really did what EA wouldn't. One map, no more loading bubbles. Danny Reyes: No way that's still not native, right? Becca Hartwell: Someday. Someday. Danny Reyes: Meanwhile, the community's had Cher's closet on lock for years. EA's just catching up. Becca Hartwell: Honestly, the modders and fans carried this whole episode. Danny Reyes: So if you're deep into Seed, Starsand Island, whatever, tell us. We want your life sim rabbit holes. Becca Hartwell: Seriously, hit us up at Plumbob Report with your builds, your fails, all of it. Danny Reyes: Excitedly subscribe. Leave a review. Helps other Simmers find the show. Becca Hartwell: Thanks for hanging with us, Danny. Danny Reyes: Always. Sul sul, Simmers. Catch you next time.