The Sims 4: Cats & Dogs’ latest patch adds silly hats, and removes uncontrollable pet terror

The Sims 4: Cats & Dogs

One of the greatest things about games that attempt to simulate reality with any kind of accuracy is the patch notes. There’s just a certain kind of magical surrealism to reading a list of bizarre errors in reality that some digital god is hurriedly fixing.

As such, the latest patch notes for The Sims 4 are a must-read, following up on the recent Cats & Dogs expansion, a few things went amusingly wrong with our fuzzy friends and needed putting right.

Things are looking a little more stable in our list of the best PC games available right now. Well, not counting Skyrim.

As with so many Sims patch notes, I wish I could just toggle ‘fixed’ problems on and off. For instance, the Detective profession previously had an issue where leaving and returning to work the next day would see prisoners standing outside their cells, before returning to their assigned places, giving the wonderful impression that ‘Prisoner’ is just as valid a career, and they have to clock in and lock up at the end of the day, same as anyone else. Sadly, this is now fixed in the current version.

Getting your pet their vaccination shots will no longer put them in a lifelong state of perpetual fear, thanks to this update. I think my real-world life needs this patch, too. I’ve got a continually pampered yet eternally nervous cat sitting behind me right now. The patch notes also mention that dogs will remain in their correct configuration and not warp into hideous eldritch monsters when trying to pick up a toy from their box.

Talking of monsters, it’s easier than ever for Vampires to travel now, as they won’t lose their powers then crossing over state lines. I can only imagine that there’s some very strange local laws at work here. Then again, this is a series where the grim reaper himself could get stuck outside buildings, unable to claim the souls of the fallen. Sometimes you’ve got to get local government involved when personified cosmic forces are goofing off on the job.

This is all about par for the course for Sims patches, of course, and so long as they keep on adding content on top of their already slightly wobbly engine, it will continue, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Sims 4: Cats & Dogs is available now, but at the price of £35 for an expansion, I might wait just a little longer for an all-in-one edition, even if it isn’t quite as hilariously bugged.