Sims 3

The Life of my Sims

stargrace June 16, 2010 No Comments

A Full House in Sims 3

stargrace November 28, 2009 No Comments

Sims 3 has been my ‘game of choice’ this week before deadlines hit me hard for work and I’ll barely have time to do anything else, and I’ve had a blast playing. It started out simple enough. I created one Sim and started working on her career. When she was established in that, I started getting her out and involved with the community and meeting other Sims. She eventually fell in love and (thanks to the fertility goal) had twins, two baby girls.

Things started to get complicated after that, and it was actually the first time in any of my sims adventures that I controlled a whole household instead of just one sim. Much like others out there, I enjoyed making the decisions so much in day-to-day activities that I decided it would just be easier to control one sim and let them do their thing, instead of actually raising a family.

Having four sims to control was actually turning out to be a LOT of fun. I do allow them to have a mind of their own and so from time to time they do their own thing, but the majority of the time I’d say it’s still me who’s controlling what they’re doing. Watching sims interact with one another has been especially fun – and I have to say the way children are handled in the game are amazing. The sim children develop traits from both the mother and father, as well as appearance qualities. If you don’t raise them ‘properly’ and give them the qualities they need in life (like walking, talking, and potty training) they can develop bad traits. One of the sim babies had a particularly horrific upbringing, so she developed the evil trait, and takes sinister baths and cackles randomly. The other sim child had an ok upbringing and she turned into a vegetarian. I forgot this, and called the family to a meal of hotdogs. Woops. That poor sim spent more time in the bathroom getting sick then my mother sim did when she was pregnant with the twins.

Even the pregnancy of a sim is involved. You have a choice of giving birth at a hospital or at home. You watch your sims body change, watch them get morning sickness. They get a few days off work and you watch their back cramp in pain. Nothing like the real thing of course, but it’s fun to see just how detailed everything is.

When the twins were just newborn sims things were really complicated. Especially since all they did (literally) was eat, sleep, cry, and poop. As they’ve ‘grown up’ and developed a personality and traits it’s slowed down some what, and it’s a comfortable pace for a game (for me in any case). I couldn’t see myself having any more then two at a time though, it just gets too complicated with the decisions and choices that have to be made. As the sim children grow the quality of their homework will determine any other negative or positive traits that they’ll inherit. I can take a look at my family tree, and I like watching it grow. Eventually my two adult sims will grow old (and eventually die) while their two girls will carry on the line.

Another aspect I love to sims is how open it is with the ‘family’ concept. It doesn’t matter if you’re gay, live with 5 women or any other combination of sims. You may not be able to get pregnant from your sim partner but you CAN always choose the ‘adopt’ choice from the list of services available. The game really is all about choice, and that’s fantastic.

You’ll have to excuse my messy house in the picture above, heh. Still teaching the sim kids how to clean up after themselves. Oh. Be careful with the ‘tinker’ ability, too. It’s been known to kill the president.

Sims 3 – World Adventures

stargrace November 27, 2009 3 Comments

Being a big Sims fan, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I picked up their latest expansion – World Adventures. I had heard a lot of negative comments about this expansion, mostly about bugs. Basically it allows your families to plan vacations to three locations (for a cost of course). Once you start playing with it, it’s a lot more involved. You can invite foreigners to visit and learn about their country. You can learn songs and foods from them. You can choose the length of your stay in these locations but you’ll need visa points if you want to stay for any length of time. You can eventually also purchase a vacation home in one of these posh locations.

My first trip was to China (pictured above) and not only can you visit, but there are adventures for your sim to take part in. You stay at what is known as “home base” which is basically a hostel, it includes beds, food and bathrooms as well as lots of other visitors to get to know.

You can pick up an adventure from a huge sign outside, and then you’ll want to stock up. You’ll want to take some rations with you as well as a tent and maybe a few other odds and ends. My first adventure sent me to an ancient tomb, the vacation was only three days long and cost my one sim (he left the family at home) $1600 or so.

Unlike previous versions of the sims, the adventures are like little mini quests – and I had a LOT of fun doing them. It was like playing EQ2, but sims version. My little sim had to find keys to unlock doors, wander through a tomb and complete puzzles to move onto the next stage. He had to explore tunnels, get rid of rubble, dive under water and swim through caves, all to find fame and treasures. You can earn ancient coins which are used in special markets to pick up relics for your home, and there’s a LOT to do. I did experience one bug when I first loaded up the zone, but once I restarted the game it ran just fine.

I haven’t figured out how to work the whole visa points / upgrade system yet, nor could I figure out where to purchase a tent for the adventure (my sim ended up sleeping on a bench outside the tomb for the night, he was just that tired) but I had an absolute blast playing. Of course now that the vacation is over he’s got to get back to his regular job so that he can afford the next one. I’m going to try to bring the family along next and we’ll see how that goes. Maybe Egypt.

My sim family has grown by leaps and bounds since I reinstalled windows 7. I started from scratch, with one little sim woman who eventually got married and had twins. Oy. Don’t pick the fertility goal just as a heads up.

The twins (Jessica and Emily) are growing up and are in elementary school now, since both my parent sims work and the children have school a lot of time is spent sleeping, and working on homework. Why on earth I would be amused with a video game that replicates real life I have no idea, but I’ve been playing it fairly steady the last few days. I guess it’s a nice representation of a “dream world” where you can make $1000 an hour and work three days a week.

Oh yeah, and the graphics are absolutely amazing. Every time I play I’m astounded and amused by some little tiny detail that I didn’t notice before. Like when the twins were growing up, they frequently picked their nose and squealed in delight as they flung it some where in their cribs.

Ha.