As The Sims 4 developer gear up to release its spiciest expansion pack yet later today, EA looks to its recent free base game update - and all of the issues that accompanied its arrival. This week has been a whirlwind for Simmers - Lovestruck is finally almost here, and the free update preceding the expansion pack dropped just a couple of days ago. The patch adds some of the community's most highly requested features to The Sims 4, from curved pool tools to polyamory - but it also comes with a side of game-breaking bugs.

Fans are calling the update a "total mess" so far, citing relationship-ruining Sim behavior and crashes galore. A recent thread on Reddit highlights such issues, with many players expressing annoyance as they feel that "9/10 times when EA puts out a new update it doesn’t go well." One writes how "This happened when For Rent released too" - a debacle I remember myself.

"This happens literally every time," another commenter chimes in. Other fans question when EA will work on fixing the bugs, especially those causing Sims to "be rude to each other" randomly. Thankfully, it looks like EA is well aware of the community's frustration.

"We are aware of and are currently testing a fix that resolves the crashing and visual issues with the Simology panel that began after yesterday's base game update," the developer explains in an announcement . "We've prioritized investigating issues with neighborhood stories & overly mean Sims to provide a resolution as soon as poss.