EA has announced new updates for The Sims 4, set to release on April 20th. The updates will introduce new items and structures to the game to help players create a tranquil and relaxing environment for their Sims. These updates will be centered on two locations: the greenhouse and the basement.

The greenhouse is a new feature that players have been asking for, and it will allow Sims to grow all kinds of plants inside. Players can build a serene greenhouse in their home and organize their perfect planting workspace, take in serene greenery, and live out their gardening fantasies. The Sims 4 Greenhouse Haven Kit will provide Sims with a peaceful and versatile gardening decor.

On the other hand, the Basement Treasures Kit is a set of gear that will feature “forgotten favorites and hand-me-down gems” with wear and tear from lots of use and love. Players can create a classic hand-me-down basement room with grungy and aged decor, and Sims can walk down memory lane with a milk crate of vinyl records, old trophies and family photos, worn trunks, and more. The Sims 4 Basement Treasures Kit encourages players to deviate from the pristine and embrace the imperfect with grungy and aged decor.

These updates are coming to all platforms and will cost around $5 each. So, players can look forward to building a tranquil retreat for their Sims in the greenhouse, and creating a comfortable basement with worn-out furniture, old trinkets, and grungy decor to add a little history to their Sims’ home.

Here are few screenshot to give you a peak of what is coming up.

To all Resident Evil 2 / Resident Evil 3 users on Steam ⚠️

We're aware of an ongoing issue with the raytracing option not appearing in the graphics menu and presets. We'll have this addressed in a future update and apologize for any inconvenience! pic.twitter.com/hGkOey65mQ

— Resident Evil (@RE_Games) April 18, 2023

Last week, game developer Capcom released a seemingly minor update to the Steam versions of the Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 remakes. However, players soon noticed that the update had caused the disappearance of the option to enable ray-tracing and 3D audio support within the games’ menus. Initially, some fans speculated that the removal of these features was intentional. However, Capcom later issued a statement acknowledging that the modes had been inadvertently affected by the update, and apologized for any inconvenience caused to players.

Capcom has stated that it will address the missing ray-tracing option and presets in a future update. It is unfortunate that another update is required to restore features that were already present in the game. However, this is a common occurrence in the world of game development and support.

Interestingly, this is not the first time that the Resident Evil franchise has faced issues with these specific features. In 2022, Capcom had forcibly updated the PC versions of Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, and Resident Evil 7 with ray-tracing and enhanced 3D audio. This caused concerns among players that the updates would make the games unplayable on their systems. After receiving backlash from the community, Capcom quickly reverted the changes, offering both the enhanced and previous versions of the games to players.

It seems that the Resident Evil franchise is facing issues with balancing the addition of new features with the ability of players to access them without compromising their gameplay experience.

Gary Bowser, a member of the hacking group Team Xecuter, was sentenced to 40 months in prison in February 2022 for his involvement in running a business that earned over $300,000, making him a long-time target of Nintendo’s legal team. However, Bowser is about to be released and sent home to Canada thanks to time already served and good behavior in prison. On the eve of his departure, he sat down for an interview to discuss his imprisonment and impending freedom.

While Bowser will be released, he will be punished for the rest of his life. He was ordered to pay Nintendo $10 million in damages at the time of his sentencing, and given the magnitude of this amount, he will likely never be able to make good on it. Nintendo can take 25-30% of his income for the rest of his working life, which they have already started doing. While he was in prison, Bowser was able to work a job and make payments of only $175.

Bowser confessed to being the “salesman” for Team Xecuter and reportedly made $320,000 over seven years of work. He was one of two men arrested in connection with the hacking group, while the other, French citizen Max Louarn, allegedly the leader of the operation, has so far avoided deportation to the US to face charges. Team Xecuter was known for developing and selling illegal devices that enabled players to run pirated games on Nintendo consoles.

Progress on the game was very slow, especially when it came to creating workable game levels. We had another game in development with SEGA at the time, Alpha Protocol, and SEGA (understandably, IMO) shelved Aliens in favor of AP.

— Josh Sawyer (@jesawyer) April 16, 2023

In the past, the Alien franchise has had a strong association with shooter games. However, in the 2000s, Obsidian Entertainment attempted to change that by developing Aliens: Crucible, an early Onyx engine game published by Sega. The game was touted as “Mass Effect but more terrifying,” but unfortunately, it was eventually shelved with little explanation. Recently, Pentiment director Josh Sawyer spoke about some of what he described as the “dysfunction” surrounding the project.

Sawyer explained that he worked on the Aliens RPG for SEGA from 2006 to 2009. During that time, Obsidian didn’t have directors, only leads who were considered peers. This led to a lot of dysfunction, particularly when the leads didn’t agree on how to handle certain aspects of the game. Despite having a lot of cool ideas in the works, progress on the game was slow, and as Sawyer put it, “you don’t ship ideas.” One idea that has been described elsewhere was that squadmates could get impregnated, and the player would have to decide whether to mercy kill them, put them in a sleep chamber and use them sparingly, or simply let them pop.

Sawyer’s biggest takeaway from the experience was that if you don’t have playable levels, you don’t have much of a game. As a result, Obsidian moved on to develop Alpha Protocol, a secret agent RPG that still has a small but fervent fanbase to this day.

After spending two decades with the Halo series, Frank O’Connor, the longtime franchise director, has departed, as confirmed by Xbox in a statement to Axios. Microsoft expressed gratitude towards O’Connor for his significant contributions to the Halo franchise and wished him the best in his future endeavors.

Fans began to speculate about O’Connor’s departure when they noticed that his LinkedIn profile no longer listed him as a Microsoft employee. O’Connor first joined Bungie as a content manager in late 2003, where he wrote the Bungie Weekly Update. After Bungie split from Microsoft in 2008, he joined Microsoft Studios, allowing him to continue working with the franchise. O’Connor was a well-known figure among Halo fans, appearing in Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn as Beamish the Janitor and co-authoring Halo: Evolutions – Essential Tales of the Halo Universe. He eventually rose to the role of development director on Halo 5 and Halo Infinite, often serving as a spokesperson for the franchise.

O’Connor’s departure follows Joseph Staten, who joined Halo Infinite in 2020 to prepare the troubled project for launch. Staten announced that he is leaving to lead the development of a AAA game at Netflix Games. As for O’Connor, his next destination remains unknown, as his last tweet was in January, and he gave no indication of leaving Microsoft.

With much of the old guard departing Halo and Halo Infinite struggling to meet its high expectations, the future of the franchise is unclear.