The Sims 4 is adding--no, I'm not kidding--customizable grieving styles, the ability to finally bone the Grim Reaper, and changes ghost needs to important things like 'Goo Waste'

Listen, I understand that The Sims 4 was designed to be a simulation. The name says it all. You can make your virtual friends as similar or as different as you like: change their pronouns and romantic boundaries, their walking style, their life aspirations, their likes and dislikes. One thing I didn't expect to be customizable is the way that my Sims grieve someone.

This will change with a new base game update that should arrive alongside the new Life and Death expansion on October 31. According to the patch notes: Sims "will now react uniquely to other people's deaths based upon traits and relationships." What does that mean? It can be anything from "sobbing at the death of a loved one to retching when a stranger dies."

Now, I'm not sure if I'd start retching myself if I saw someone who I didn't even know had died. Sure, out of the horror of seeing a corpse. I could get a little sick over that. Why does this make me think that the stranger's retching was more out of disgust? Hey, I may be completely wrong, but I am looking forward to other ways Sims will deal with their bereavement.

The base game will also feature a death-themed update. Create-A-Sim can now create ghosts. When Sims die, they can roam around as a ghost (which was the only option until now), or become playable spirits. Ghosts will have new names to describe their needs. For example, bladder becomes "Goo Waste", while energy is "Otherworldly Slumber".

The most important bullet on this list is: "Sims will be able to WooHoo again with the Grim Reaper." I'm sorry again, first of all. My Sims lore is a bit rusty because I don't recall that being that way was possible in any Sims game, without tweaking it or adding a mod. You can get down and dirty in the new update without any mods, household fandangling, or Ctrl+Shift+C.