The Sims 4 will soon feature a wealth of new customizable skintones, along with improvements to hairstyles and existing skintones, as part of the team's attempt to improve the game's expressive capabilities.

Criticism of its range of hairstyles and skintones has haunted the game since launch, and while the wait for improvements has been a long one, the update is a significant one and seems to be significantly more advanced than calling it a day, adding a few tones to the mix.

The October 6 base game update will improve the appearance of darker skin tones and update two hairstyles if the uncompressed sim texture setting is turned on; a more serious update is planned for December, with at least 100 new skin tones to be will be introduced, with an emphasis on darker skintones.

All skintones will also be customizable, with sliders to lighten or darken the tone. More sliders will be added to makeup as well, and two more improved hairstyles will be added in the December update.

Tiny houses and Star Wars vacations may be fun distractions, but this seems like a more meaningful update. It's odd that we get trips to the Wizard, the Vampire, and Batuu on this front, since in The Sims, everyone gets to make something of themselves. Unlike these packs, however, the skin tone update will be free for the base game, giving all players access to expanded customization options.