I was prepared to be disappointed from what I read from others, but my first reaction was "Cool! Excellent for storytelling, finally something gritty!" and next reaction was 'gawd I hope the music is better than this song if there is a new station associated with this!" and next was "They should have called it "End-Stage Capitalisim: The Ouroborus Finally Gets Some Tail!" but that's too long.
So overall it looks excitingly gritty, dismayingly cutesy, and yes...a Capitalist's idea of saving the environment through prettification because as long as it LOOKS nice, it IS nice, right? Group Hugs!
But there are some really cool things in there that make me want to get it: Northern Lights (I have seen them!), did someone say there was worm composting? Because if so, they actually included some real activities of value, and windmills, someone objected to as killing birds...there are such things as bird-safe designs of windmills, but they don't look iconic like the fan-blade ones so of course the game would depict what everyone thinks of...but even if they were fan-blade ones, the thing about that is, the net gain is still there for birds and every other form of life, of that much less carbon emission.
Shipping container houses? Cool. I would love it if bermed houses were also an option. And not just windmills, but solar, tidal, and geothermal...if they didn't include any of that, this really should have been just a stuff pack..because picking up trash is really the most trivial part of change that matters: stopping generating all the trash, fundamentally steering a new course AWAY from the endless fixation on shopping, new stuff, FASHION INDUSTRY (does anyone even care how extremely toxic and wasteful the entire system is of promoting materialism when it comes to clothing? Fashion itself as a concept is just about the most excessive and predatory industry! It's every bit as bad as cubic miles of plastic toys at boxmarts! Yet everyone can't wait to see all those cute outfits and new ways their Sims can have overstuffed closets and homes! And oh, all the LAUNDRY to do! so fun!!!!! (shoot me now!)
The irony is rich and bitter.
Candles are environmentally friendly? Really?!
Well, if it has more than 5 buildable lots, and more of an idea of real change than just how to repurpose our glut of garbage while continuing to manufacture it in the first place and continue to embrace fundamentally hypocritical worldviews of making everything Pretty and Feeling Virtuous while going out and buying all the cute Stuff, great.
At least if it has a realistic ugly side of city life, it will be very valuable for story settings, homeless challenges, that sort of thing.
EA Staff
