Sims 3

I’m on a (House)boat! #TS3 #TheSims3

stargrace June 25, 2013 2Comments

I was under the assumption all this week that the Sims 3 Island Paradise expansion was not due out until June 28th (turns out that’s the UK release date) so imagine my joy when at midnight last night EA emailed me to tell me the game was ready for download. I had planned on making it an early night and actually catching up on that thing called sleep – but a new expansion called to me.

The download was smooth, I haven’t really had any issues with Origin and getting my products. I pre-ordered so I got the shipwreck limited edition version. I was hoping that I had ordered in time to get Barnacle Bay as an add on, but I was one day too late. Ah well. Installation was smooth and before I knew it (is it just me or does the game finally load faster) I was ready to move into my tropical paradise home.

I bought a cheap house boat – you can sail them all over, apparently. I haven’t tested that feature yet. I also joined a career as a lifeguard, although my lifetime wish is to have an amazing blog, go figure. I started up a blog called ‘I’m on a boat’ where I post pictures of my nautical living.

The map to the Island Paradise is larger than most. A lot of it is also unexplored, leaving you some mystery. One thing I did notice is that there’s not a lot of night life bars etc around, there are some resorts, but I may add in a few custom buildings from other expansions just to tweak it a tiny bit.

The lifeguard career choice is a lot of fun. Unlike other jobs your sim doesn’t run completely automated. You survey up and down along a beach, or you can sit on your lifeguard chair, and watch the waters for drowning sims.  Eventually you’ll notice some sim out there flailing about and you’ll swim out there to rescue them. You’ll escort them on land and they’ll swoon and pass out, meaning it’s time for CPR.

Thankfully I’ve managed to bring everyone back to life so far. You get paid per sim rescued, as well as a weekly stipend. That’s where I had to end it for the night because before I knew it, it was 2am and I should have been in bed two hours ago. I’m very happy this expansion released earlier than I thought it would, and can’t wait to explore underwater, and sail my houseboat around.

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

Legacy Family #TheSims3 #TS3

stargrace June 24, 2013 0Comment

A few times now I have heard friends of mine talking about a “legacy family” in the Sims 3, and I had absolutely no idea what this was or what it meant, so of course I looked it up. It turns out a legacy family is a player challenge, and there are all sorts of them. It also looked like a lot of fun, especially because we all know how much I love the Sims 3. I took to the forums and found this post from 2009 that explains the basic rules, and I created Ellithia Reveur, my legacy sim.

The rules are basic. You create a new family, a single founder. They have to start off in a specific lot that only leaves you with $1300 to build a house. You can’t use money cheats (or any cheats). The overall “goal” is to live through TEN generations and to lead your family to fame, fortune, and success over the course of those 10 generations. There are a few other specific rules mentioned in the post which I linked above, but that’s the jist of it. For your starting sim you pick the sex, age, and have full choice over their looks, colours, and clothing. Your legacy family has to remain the active family. You can’t resurrect dead sims. You can’t use ambrosia. You can’t consume life fruit. You can only age up your sim when the game prompts you to. You can’t ward off death.

Pictured above, my legacy founder, Ellithia, rummaging through the junk yard to try to gather enough scraps to sell to afford a sleeping bag. I managed to build a 6×6 house, purchase a door for said house – and eventually afford a $100 sleeping bag. I hung her diploma on the wall, and she’s set. She doesn’t even know what greatness she’s going to be heading into. Once I was able to afford a sleeping bag she headed out to find a job, eventually finding one as a dishwasher. She’s in a pretty posh neighbourhood, so she made (tentative) friends with the neighbours and used their shower as well as ate some yogurt from their fridge, she can’t actually afford to cook anything in someone else’ house at the moment. After some yogurt and a shower she used the washroom before the neighbours told her she was acting inappropriate and she should leave. So she headed home to spend the next few hours sleeping in her incredibly comfortable sleeping bag.

Couldn’t afford floors or walls or anything yet, so for now, this will have to do.

A University Way of Life #TheSims3

stargrace May 22, 2013 0Comment

Ah university life. Staging protests against death (pictured above), doing street art, attempting to go to class, juice pong… These are our days, right?

I purchased Sims University when it released, mostly because I’m a huge sucker for everything Sims related. In fact I can’t wait until Sims 4 is released next year, even though Sims 3 has only been out a short while and they seem to put out a new expansion every month (or two). This expansion is a LOT of fun, and it gets your sim off the usual map, which is great if you’re a bit bored with your current family.

So Ellithia (my genie from previous posts) is off getting a degree in the arts. She spends lots of time exploring the various social groups too which is hilarious and bad all at once. They are your stereotypical groups, jocks, nerds, rebels – but what did you expect from the sims, the entire game is made up of stereotypes and generalizations. That’s where the humor comes in.

You can even get dares – the one pictured above is me going dumpster diving. I walked away with a little extra cash which is really important while you’re off at university (especially if you don’t use the motherload cash command). You attend classes, take exams, and go to a lot of parties. I haven’t been playing this expansion as much as I would have liked yet (there are still 8 days left before finals) but I’m having an absolute blast. A few things of course make it all easier. My sim (as I mentioned) is a genie, so I can instantly clean the dorm I’m living in, myself, and any friends. This saves me a LOT of time that I would otherwise be spending in the bathroom. The dorm is disgusting, constantly. I can also conjure food, so I save time cooking. It may look like ‘cheating’ but since they’re built right into my Sims everyday functions I don’t see them that way.

When she’s done at university I expect she’ll go home and take up her singing career again, but we’ll just have to see. Maybe she’ll change her mind altogether and become a doctor. You just never know, and whatever happens during a play session is random and unique to that encounter – one of my absolute favorite things about this game.

The Sims 3 Mods, Skins, and Fun #TS3 #TheSims3

stargrace February 4, 2013 0Comment

Someone asked me if I used any mods for The Sims 3, and at the time I used absolutely none (no real reason, I just didn’t have a use for them) so I decided to look into them a bit. One of the most popular ones is NRaas Industries, which is actually a whole lot of mods depending on what you want to adjust in your game. There is the ever popular decensor which removes the mosaic from your naked sim bodies, as well as Mastercontroller which does a number of interactions to manage the population of your town. I decided to install a few of them and see how enhanced my game play was. There are even mods that help take care of generally known bugs that EA hasn’t gotten around to fixing. Installation went smooth, you just need to read the installer section and it’s pretty simple. I started up the game, and it recognized that I had mods, and loaded without any issue.

Mods are not required to play, but they sure do make things easier. There’s also a difference between mods, cheats, and skins. All of which can enhance your Sims 3 gameplay.

Once I had installed the mods I wanted to try out I decided to go searching for skins. Not the ones that are hosted in the exchange on the Sims 3 web site (there are a lot of great ones there) but at Sims fan sites like Mod The Sims. Of course as always when you install 3rd party mods or skins into your game you’re going to want to make sure it comes from a reliable source known for having a clean record, you don’t want to accidentally install a virus while downloading these. I picked out a few skins that caught my interest and went back to playing the game, while I count down the days until Sim City releases (which I am oh so excited about).

I still haven’t used the built in game cheats yet to give my sims any money or the like, but it’s easy to see how the Sims community helps make the game better.

A Genie in Starlight Shores #TS3 #TheSims3

stargrace January 31, 2013 1Comment

The Sims 3 is such a large game with so many expansions that it’s quite easy to ‘miss out’ on some aspects of it. I have a steady family I normally play, but last night I was in the mood for something different, so I created Ellithia Reveur, a genie.

The genie race is quite unique. If you don’t have a lot of time to cook or clean, they’re also perfect. You can summon meals from thin air. This was exciting to me – you’re given a drop down list of every single food item in game, and you can summon anything you want, at perfect quality. My genie is a vegetarian so that left a lot of things off of my personal menu, but it was still fantastic to see food I’ve never gotten to try before.

You can also instantly clean the house, or your sim – or any other sims you happen to be around. So why not go make your town a cleaner place!

I’ll admit, I can be a bit.. predictable, when it comes to creating my households. My female sims are almost always writers, or photographers. This time I decided to explore an entirely new career choice. I became a ‘sing-a-gram’ novice.

This meant that I was self employed, basically. It’s a profession rather than a career in the games choices. While I was out and about during the day I’d get a random message that so and so had just earned a promotion, and how about I go deliver a sing-a-gram to them. Then a few minutes later I’d get another message saying that so and so was feeling down, how about I go cheer them up.

Doing these sing-a-grams would give me experience towards the next level of the career, where I’d get more options. There are also events called ‘SimFest’ where people put on acts like magic, singing, acrobatics, and juggling. You can stand around and watch these shows, or when you’re good enough at a skill you can participate. The crowd judges you! It was awesome. I even got to go up on stage during a magic show and the magician cut me into a bunch of little pieces and then put me back together. Talk about thrilling.

I’ve applied to a few gigs, and was booed off stage after my first hour of a two hour show. Not exactly great for my ego, but hey that’s alright. Eventually I’ll show them. I’ll show all of them! Then they’ll be sorry that they ever booed me.

You also get to create a stage name for yourself. My stage name is ‘Sugah Sugah’ – and you can change it at any time should inspiration finally strike. As a professional singer you’ve also got the option to just randomly break out in song, or to sing for tips. So I’ve been heading to the lounges and setting up my microphone and trying to earn a few dollars from random passers by.

Being a genie has certainly helped cut down the mundane tasks that my sim would be burdened with, and given me the ability to explore some options of the game I’ve never played with before. So far, it’s a lot of fun. Ellithia has been to the Summer Festival twice now, and performed once. I’m still doing a few small sing-a-grams on the side but I’m getting gigs.

When your house hold is two or more sims, and you’ve got the talent, you can also use the SimPort to bring your sims to perform at other peoples cities! On that same note you can use the SimPort to request performers to come to your cities, and these are all requests done through your friends list. So if you happen to be on my Sims 3 friends list (you can find me there as stargrace) please come visit my city and perform!

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