Sims 4

Sims 4 – Get Together

stargrace December 11, 2015 No Comments

Another Sims 4 expansion has been released, this time it’s called “Get Together” and includes a new feature called ‘clubs’. Just like in real life, your sim character can join a club, earn points by doing ‘club things’ together, and even lead their own club if they want to.

I wanted to take advantage of some of the new styles in-game, along with traits, so I decided not to start with my legacy family (more about how they’re doing later). I created a new character and moved her to Windenburg (shake your butt-enburg to the locals). The map is a European inspired world that has ancient ruins, cafes, and discotheques. Unfortunately the game also comes full of bugs, some of them really annoying like the one pictured above.

My character and a bunch of strangers just gathered around this counter and stood there forever. They were talking to one another and just frozen in place. It happened twice before I decided to just automagically send my character home which freed her up. I believe the bug occurs when you have so many people gathered in one location. Hopefully EA fixes it before too long (yeah, right).

My sim browsed through the clubs that would accept her without having a whole range of skills and eventually settled on joining the Garden Gnomes. This is a gardening group – at night. At least I think they only operate at night because any time they have a meeting it’s dark. Their last meet up was at a local park, dead of night, complete with a child playing on the playground (that’s not creepy or anything). The group typically gets together (in the dark) and then performs some group farming rituals over some thriving plants, or goes fishing. Yes, that’s exactly what my sim wanted to do on her Thursday evening, go fishing in the city in the dark.

As you go to these gatherings and complete tasks together you earn club points, and these points can be spent on all sorts of things to enhance your club experience. Clubs come with a few by default, and if you’re the leader of the club you’re able to customize it even more. Secret handshakes, cool outfits and accessories of course.

Besides all the fun club things that comes with the expansion there’s a whole range of new items and skills to play with. I’ve been working on my dance moves and have every intention of trying out the new DJ options one of these days. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the expansion so far – minus the bugs, of course.

The Legacy Continues

stargrace August 2, 2015 1 Comment

I was a bit worried that I had lost all of the progress I made on my latest Legacy family in the Sims 4 when I reinstalled windows after upgrading to an SSD – thankfully that wasn’t the case, I actually saved the files and just put them back when I installed, so I was able to pick up right where I left off. In that time EA came out with another feature pack, this time involving spas. I’m really hoping for a pet expansion before too long. I know Sims 3 didn’t get one until 2011, but I hope EA realizes that pets are an almost universal love. More waiting to see what comes next.

In any case, legacy family is doing well. You might remember I started with Jessica Little, and she met Alonzo, and together they had Emily. Alonzo died shortly after, and his tombstone rests outside the home in the backyard. It’s in a really pretty place, under a tree so his girls don’t forget him, though I am not sure how attached Jessica actually was. Emily is a teenager now, and has started discovering her true calling in life, which centers around art. She’s sold a number of paintings to collectors, and between her art and Jessica’s writing, they are living in a fairly comfortable home worth about $90,000. Neither of them has made much progress on the romance front, for some reason no one seems interested in Jessica (does she smell? Maybe..) and Emily is too young. In 9 more days she’ll become a “young adult” rather than a teen, and my legacy family goal can continue on. Remember the goal of the game is to have 10 generations in one family. That’s a lot of game time on the default settings.

EA also fixed one of my biggest problems. Each time I went to place an item from the menu, my entire screen would turn black. I would have to change the resolution of the game and then swap it back, and somehow that fixed the glitch temporarily, for that session. Now I’m able to swap without having to change the resolution or use some other workaround, which I am incredibly happy about.

The family is in a spot now where I don’t need to send them out every day to  harvest collectables just to be able to afford their next meal. I’m both happy and sad about this, happy because it was a lot of work that left very little room for anything else, but also sad because the game gets much easier from this point forward. Unless of course I donate all their money to charity or some such, which I am likely to do just because I can.

While Sims 4 doesn’t have nearly the same amount of content that I had in Sims 3, I am enjoying myself quite a bit. I’m eager for more content and can’t wait to see what they come up with next.

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

Legacy Family Shenanigans in The Sims 4

stargrace June 21, 2015 No Comments

What’s new in the realm of The Sims 4? Well, they quietly released another ‘stuff’ pack. This one is ‘Perfect Patio’ and costs $9.99. Included is 32 new items, and 12 new outfits. The previous stuff pack was Luxury Party, and included 12 new build items, and 40 new outfit items. It was also priced at $9.99. The game still has a lot of bugs (at least for me). One of them has been around since release, and it’s where my screen goes black every time I try to place anything I buy in build mode. Of course there is a work around (I can change the resolution, save it, change the resolution back, and it fixes the issue for that gameplay session) but I shouldn’t have to do that every time I want to build anything in-game. Of course mine is just one smaller problem with a workaround, where there are many others who have bigger issues (and who have no workarounds). Yes, I bought both stuff packs. There are stuff packs for $9.99, game packs for $19.99 (Outdoor Retreat), expansions for $39.99 (Get to work) and the base game. Right now these are all on sale, too. Unless you happen to be a big fan of the franchise (which I am) I wouldn’t go spending money for anything other than Get to Work, and the base game.

My legacy family ended up bugged in my last session. I threw a party, and everyone who attended that party decided to stay on the lot, forever. I attempted to move to a new lot and move back – bam, people there. I took my Sim off to a little mini vacation, and when she returned, yep, people. Eventually I ended up selling the lot and moving to a new map all together, which IS against the legacy family rules, but I didn’t want to have to start my game completely over. My sim already has a pretty robust history, and is established with her family (or what remains of it).

So Jessica Little lives with her daughter Emily. Her husband has passed on, his grave sits in the backyard under a lovely tree. They managed to save up enough money for a lovely home, and Emily goes to school full time. Jessica hasn’t found anyone to replace her deceased husband, but that’s alright because he rises out from the grave every night to keep the family company when he can anyway. I haven’t gotten very far with my legacy, only on the first round of children, but I’m hoping with a few gameplay sessions I can expand that. Now that they have a comfortable nest egg, it’s time to see who Emily is interested in as a potential mate..

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!