Welcome to Oasis Landing #TS3 #TheSims3

Screenshot-473I held off purchasing the latest Sims 3 expansion, Into the Future, because I knew that shortly after I bought it for full price, it would go on sale. It happens every single year, and every year I get mad at myself for paying full price. So I waited.

I didn’t have to wait too long, thanks to the black friday sales. I picked up the game on Thursday and am incredibly happy with it so far.

Into the future adds a LOT of extra game play. I decided to start with a fresh game, and I actually had to look up some guides to figure out how things work. To get started it is pretty simple. Your sim will be hanging out in the present, and a portal device will land on the lot. When you go and interact with it, a time traveler will pop out and introduce themselves. They will ask for your help with collecting some power cells, and once you’ve completed that challenge they’ll give you a little book / device that you can access from your inventory screen (it’s located beside your phone) as well as the ability to use the portal.

You will then be whisked away to Oasis Landing, the futuristic city where your sim and their descendants live. That’s right, I said descendants. You can go and meet members of your family in the future, and how you live in the present (your money situation, your job, who you’re seeing, etc) will affect those people and their future lives. It’s awesome.

There are also a lot of new technology bound items in game, as well as skills and jobs. You get a jetpack and learn how to fly around using it. There are new modes of transportation, and you can create bots that are equipped with trait chips so they can specialize in certain functions. I ended up using “Carl’s the Sims 3 Guide” to figure out the finer details of things because there’s just so much content to learn this time around.

You can pick future timelines. It can be a Utopian or Dystopian timeline, or the regular default one you start with. There are rewards and achievements for unlocking each one. There’s a big section on legacy statue requirements, and how to achieve that. There is a bot arena career, an astronomy career, there’s nanites to be found, the new advanced technology skill, how to make bots, and much, much more.

Overall this expansion has not let me down at all. I’m very glad I picked it up and I think it was well worth the cost. It added so much besides new house items and outfit choices. I can’t wait to see what happens next!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Legacy Family 2.0 Moving On Up #TS3 #TheSims3

Screenshot-445BBIt has been a while since I posted about my adventures in Sims 3, but I am still playing. I started my legacy family over some time ago because I had (inadvertently) broken a bunch of (self imposed) rules like moving lots (and entire towns in my case). I don’t mind starting over but it did take some time to get my family back to the point where there was more to life than simply finding flowers to be able to afford another wall to the house.

Blesse and Jack (the elder she eventually married) gave birth to a baby boy named – Teddygirl. An interesting story behind this name, I happened to be streaming my legacy family on Twitch for the Extra Life benefit when my sim went into labor. Those who were watching shouted out whether they thought the baby would be a boy or a girl, and I named the child after the first person to guess correctly. Congratulations again, Teddygirl, although this baby boy may have a rough time when he heads to school.

Jack is in the military and makes a pretty good salary since he’s almost ready for retirement. Blesse is a school teacher, not very far into her career. I’ve managed to build a modest home for the family along with a basement (after todays session) that includes their first washer and dryer. They own a very ancient television and an exercise machine (mostly for Jack).

They also have a pet kitten, Mushi, who just turned into an adult. I’m excited about Teddygirl aging up so that there are more interactions besides ‘eat, sleep, and poop.’ I purchased him a really awesome UFO tree house and a swing set that he’s too young to make use of yet (although certain adult activities can be done in the tree house, and adults can also use the swing sets).

Hopefully Teddygirl can find himself a nice lady to settle down with, and progress the legacy forward. We’ll just have to see!

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.

Legacy Family 2.0 – Starting Over #TS3 #TheSims3

Screenshot-391I went back to the post I was using as a guideline for my legacy family and then noticed some of the rules (that I wanted to adhere to just for my own game style).

Legacy House: The lot initially moved into by your founder. You may not move the family to another lot during the entire challenge. All heirs must be born in this house (or rather, born from sims living at this house, even if they use the hospital to give birth) 

Since I up and moved my legacy family to an entire new neighbourhood not to mention left half their family behind, I decided to start over. I was growing bored of that game anyhow, and that’s never a good thing! So I’ve started over with Blesse Reveur, pictured above. As you can see, she’s already got her one room shack standing on her enormous lot. She took a job as a scientist to start with but for some reason it affected her in a very negative manner, so she switched jobs to a substitute teacher. Blesse has the ‘eco friendly’ trait, which means a whole lot of things make her sad. She would rather carpool, taking the taxi makes her cry, so the first thing I bought after I managed this one room shack, was a bicycle and a bike rack outside her house. Now she can feel a bit better. She also wants to do a lot of gardening as her lifetime wish, so I got that under way.

Love department is going poorly. She has the flirty trait and the first guy she picked up (in the library none the less) had the not flirty trait. Needless to say the two just didn’t work out.

In the mean time, it’s nice to start fresh. Maybe I can bring this legacy family to 10. The last one stopped after 3 generations.

What Are We Playing? #MMORPG

ScreenShot_00361I would really like to request a do-over for this week (and even last weekend). Instead of dwelling on all of the negativity that is currently all over my gaming streams lately, I’m going to just do a brief post on what I’m playing these days.

FFXIV – Usually in the morning and daytime hours, I’ve been trying to level up a White Mage. My little falafel is great entertainment. I really like the animation the characters do when they jump. I suppose it’s a bit silly of me, but I can not help but squee as I run around. You can find me on Diabolos as Blesse Reveur.

Wurm Online – I recently purchased a new deed on the Pristine server, and have been working on trying to find iron somewhere on my deed. No luck yet but as with everything in Wurm, I am patient. I also started a house, and have a little garden going. I’m hoping that as soon as I find iron things can start moving forward, I can’t wait to show off some before and after pictures. I also still own a deed on Exodus, I’ve been creating a farm there to tend, and I found a chicken which I named Henry (get it, hen? chicken?) who has been eating most of my grain (hence the farm).

The Sims 3 – My legacy family relocated to Isla Paradiso, and I’m having a lot of fun with the change of location. Ginger is now a teenager, and even got a part time job as a receptionist at a spa. Bob is still alive, it appears that my sims live well beyond what I had banked on.

Guild Wars 2 – I’ve taken a break from it this week because I needed something lower key, more relaxing. Rushing all over to do Clockwork Chaos was causing me some stress in game. I DID manage to work my armorer to 400 skill, it was one of three crafts that I did not have at 400 yet. The two remaining are weaponsmith and leatherworker. Those are next on my list. I also logged in for the one year anniversary reward. I instantly leveled up an alt to 20 and thought it was a nice gesture.

Vanguard – Yep, still playing Vanguard and still one of my favorite games. I’ve been taking things slow and working on diplomacy, which is very relaxing. Also one of my favorite things about Vanguard (and probably one of the least explored by the general population). I’ve also been crafting, now that my mineralogist is 55 it’s time to level up the next class. I’m not sure which one yet, I’ve got one of everything (of course I do). Suggestions?

So those are the games I’m playing, more often than not. I’ve taken a little break from Civilization V, but am still enjoying the game quite a bit. I just don’t have enough hours in a day!

What game do you find yourself playing these days? Let me know in comments!