What I have been doing this Summer, Part I: The Sims 3
What I haven’t been doing is watching TV. That may have changed last night with the season premiere of Top Chef, though. I did watch it and I may watch Project Runway tonight.
So, here is a ridiculously long post about one of the things I’ve been doing instead.
This is probably what I’ve done the most of this summer. Since the game came out in June, I’ve played almost daily. Guess I’m really getting my money’s worth out of it!
Whatever you do, don’t bother with the Prima Guide. I wouldn’t ordinarily say that. Prima Guides have served me well in the past. But this one is so inaccurate and misleading that it can cause some problems with gameplay. Also, (and this may just be a matter of personal taste) the way it is written is just ... stupid and awful and kind of condescending and very prima-guide-writer centric. I don’t know if I’m describing that clearly, but it’s just kind of smarmy and made me end up really disliking the woman who wrote it, though I’m sure she’s actually a very nice person.
If you need a guide/walkthrough, Warfreak’s is not too bad, though it also contains a few minor inaccuracies and leaves a few blanks unfilled in. I think, however, that it is your best bet and if combined with a read-through of some of the posts on MATY’s Suggestion/Faq board you should have answers to all Sims 3 questions.
I enjoyed Sims 2, but I never really got into it the same way I got into Sims 1. The wants/aspiration aspect of the game drove me crazy. I just want to play with my dollies. I really don’t want my dollies telling me what I must do. Since that’s no longer much of an issue with Sims 3, I’m having a lot more fun with this version of the game.
Here are more specifics.
What I like about Sims 3:
The graphics! By this I don’t mean just the way sims look in game, but the backgrounds/neighborhood lots, the night sky, the ocean, things like that. It’s possible to create so amazingly beautiful scenes in this game.
No more need to make friends to advance at job (except maybe politics). Hallelujah! The game finally recognizes that introverts can be successful in life. There is even a loner personality trait.
Personality traits - More fun, more variety and just generally more interesting than the S1/S2 method of personality creation. There are over 60 traits and some of them, especially in combination, are pretty cool and/or funny. Some of them are extremely helpful when it comes to reaching goals.
Traits I like best and/or find the most useful - insane, mooch, workaholic, athletic, artistic, green thumb, neat, angler, handy, charismatic, natural cook,
Traits I’m kind of disappointed in - clumsy, absent-minded, snob, daredevil (though it is quite useful for Roy Mustang sims since it makes them play with fire & especially useful for that purpose if combined with hydrophobe, and ambitious.)
Traits that are Just Damned Annoying - neurotic, excitable, can’t stand art, dislikes children.
Have no use for/never tried: never nude, technophobe, commitment issues, heavy & light sleeper, party animal, unflirty, vegetarian.
But, I do need to branch out and try some more different trait combos, and some traits I’ve been ignoring, like perfectionist.
Create a Style - LOVE THIS!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!Elventy YAY!!! I end up redoing almost everything - clothes, walls, floors, furniture, whatever. The game comes with a lot of patterns and TSR has lots of free patterns you can download And they are pretty decently categorized. I rarely had my Sims 2 sims change clothes. I make my Sims 3 sims change all the time. I LOVE THIS FEATURE SO MUCH!!! Then again, to me Sims is basically playing with dollies and dollhouses. I’ve always been more interested in design than gameplay and building and decorating houses is my favorite part of the game. Now that I have more options with clothes, creating outfits has become my second favorite part of the game. It reminds me of making clothes for paperdolls when I was a kid, only they turn out looking good whereas my crude, childish drawings never really did. And they’re 3D. So, have I mentioned how much I love this feature? I have looked into making my own patterns, but it looks rather tricksy, so for now I’m holding off on that.
Interesting side note - my favorite house building/decoratingwise has my least fun to play family in it. I was trying to make it a little bit of heaven, but the parents are just *too * perfect and life is a little too idyllic there. I think I will evict them and move in someone more flawed.
Aging: No longer a cheat to turn off, and there is a slider bar so you can adjust aging as much as you want. Actually, the game options in general are a lot easier to work with in Sims 3, IMO.
Fishing/Gardening - Two activities from Sims2, I think, that made it into the base game. Along with writing they give you 3 options for non-career money/part-time job money making. My self-sim is a gardening/fishing sims and my experiences with her are below.
Stuff I haven’t tried yet -
The medical, journalism, the upper levels of business, criminal, music, culinary, pro sports, careers (I’ve only had sims make it to the top of the political and law enforcement [spy branch] careers, part time jobs.
Things I’m not so crazy about:
The lack of hair meshes, especially curly hair and interesting updos
Collectibles - meh. Also, no place to put them. Where are the shelves, game?
I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about the lack of stuff/things to do/weather/pets etc. I don’t get the complaining. This is the base game for goodness sake! Think back to Sims 1 and how little was included in that base game. Sure, EA (probably) had the capability to include all those and more in the base game for Sims 3, but no, they were not going to do that. Yes, they are trying to make money OMG!!!121! How evil of them! [/sarcasm] Yeah, I’m getting close to a point where I’ll need new stuff/activities to make the game interesting to me and just when I’ve hit that point they announce the first expansion will be out soon (November, I think). Considering how much entertainment I’ve gotten out the base game, I’m ready to plunk down $30 or $40 or so more for that expansion. Plus it looks really cool:
World Adventures
Over the past 2 months, I’ve created and played with (12? 10?) Families in both neighborhoods. They have ranged from crazy single sims I quickly tired of, to huge families in giant mansions that I’ve taken through a few generatiions, to sims I created specifically as "stress relief" (i.e., sims=2 0to be mean to). I have played two families without using any cheats at all - something I only attempted once with Sims 2.
Inadvertent Self-Sim: I created a loves-the-outdoors, fishing, gardening, computer whiz, green thumb, loner sim. At the time I didn’t realize or maybe admit to myself that I was creating a self-sim. She doesn’t really look like me, but her personality, yeah, that’s me. She achieved her lifetime want (perfect garden) long, long ago. She has now grown every single plant in the game (according to the game, though I cannot find a flame fruit that she has grown, so ...). I think she’s made over $100,000 on veggies alone. I don’t think the money tree is that great of a deal, but that’s because I have several omni plants that I feed a clone of a $950 perfect deathfish to, which creates further deathfish clones. I’m bringing in around $7,000 - $8,000 a harvest (maybe twice a week or so) with the omni/deathfish combo as opposed to around $1,200 a harvest with the money tree. And the money tree doesn’t produce as often as the omnis. It was quite a challenge to get that one perfect deathfish, but now that she has, we’re on easy street.
First no-cheat family: The cop wife & two daughters. Started with a tiny house and both parents in the law enforcement career. As soon as They had a kid, I had her quit her job to be a SAHM. This wasn’t a gender based decision - he was further along the career ladder and bringing in more money, so it made more sense to keep him earning. Last time I played them, their eldest daughter was grown, married to her childhood best friend/girlfriend, was on the professional sports career track and they had adopted a darling little boy. I should go back and play them some more, but I feel the need to kick the second daughter out, but I like her and I’m a little sad about playing them as a result.
Second no-cheat family: Romance Novel Writer Sim. Playing a homebased novelist Sim is really fun and pretty easy, too. I started this one out with almost nothing - writing on the cheap spongebobesque computer. She is now making around $60,000 a week in royalties. I did use one semi-cheat in that I turned aging off. It takes a long time to progress as a writer.
My giant multi-generation family that disappeared - This one makes me sad. I created one of my usual way-too-big houses, got the oldest kid to the top of the political career and he still lives at home with is parents and grandfather! Also got him married and the next generation born and after that I couldn’t get back into that game/neighborhood.
And now a question anyone who’s read this far: Should I post screenshots of the houses and sims I’ve created? I promise they’ll be sized down and put under a cut.
Next up: Probably movies I’ve watched or Fullmetal Alchemist (Catching up and keeping up with the manga and the new remake of the anime that follows the correctmanga storyline and characterization. I tried to watch the first anime again and ... I can’t. But more on that, later.)
Update on the weather situation: It’s warmed up a good bit and most days it’s in the upper 90s, but we’ve only had, I think, 2 days over 100 and it has rained. It has rained in August in Dallas! Today, however, it is hot and dry and yech.
So, here is a ridiculously long post about one of the things I’ve been doing instead.
This is probably what I’ve done the most of this summer. Since the game came out in June, I’ve played almost daily. Guess I’m really getting my money’s worth out of it!
Whatever you do, don’t bother with the Prima Guide. I wouldn’t ordinarily say that. Prima Guides have served me well in the past. But this one is so inaccurate and misleading that it can cause some problems with gameplay. Also, (and this may just be a matter of personal taste) the way it is written is just ... stupid and awful and kind of condescending and very prima-guide-writer centric. I don’t know if I’m describing that clearly, but it’s just kind of smarmy and made me end up really disliking the woman who wrote it, though I’m sure she’s actually a very nice person.
If you need a guide/walkthrough, Warfreak’s is not too bad, though it also contains a few minor inaccuracies and leaves a few blanks unfilled in. I think, however, that it is your best bet and if combined with a read-through of some of the posts on MATY’s Suggestion/Faq board you should have answers to all Sims 3 questions.
I enjoyed Sims 2, but I never really got into it the same way I got into Sims 1. The wants/aspiration aspect of the game drove me crazy. I just want to play with my dollies. I really don’t want my dollies telling me what I must do. Since that’s no longer much of an issue with Sims 3, I’m having a lot more fun with this version of the game.
Here are more specifics.
What I like about Sims 3:
The graphics! By this I don’t mean just the way sims look in game, but the backgrounds/neighborhood lots, the night sky, the ocean, things like that. It’s possible to create so amazingly beautiful scenes in this game.
No more need to make friends to advance at job (except maybe politics). Hallelujah! The game finally recognizes that introverts can be successful in life. There is even a loner personality trait.
Personality traits - More fun, more variety and just generally more interesting than the S1/S2 method of personality creation. There are over 60 traits and some of them, especially in combination, are pretty cool and/or funny. Some of them are extremely helpful when it comes to reaching goals.
Traits I like best and/or find the most useful - insane, mooch, workaholic, athletic, artistic, green thumb, neat, angler, handy, charismatic, natural cook,
Traits I’m kind of disappointed in - clumsy, absent-minded, snob, daredevil (though it is quite useful for Roy Mustang sims since it makes them play with fire & especially useful for that purpose if combined with hydrophobe, and ambitious.)
Traits that are Just Damned Annoying - neurotic, excitable, can’t stand art, dislikes children.
Have no use for/never tried: never nude, technophobe, commitment issues, heavy & light sleeper, party animal, unflirty, vegetarian.
But, I do need to branch out and try some more different trait combos, and some traits I’ve been ignoring, like perfectionist.
Create a Style - LOVE THIS!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!Elventy YAY!!! I end up redoing almost everything - clothes, walls, floors, furniture, whatever. The game comes with a lot of patterns and TSR has lots of free patterns you can download And they are pretty decently categorized. I rarely had my Sims 2 sims change clothes. I make my Sims 3 sims change all the time. I LOVE THIS FEATURE SO MUCH!!! Then again, to me Sims is basically playing with dollies and dollhouses. I’ve always been more interested in design than gameplay and building and decorating houses is my favorite part of the game. Now that I have more options with clothes, creating outfits has become my second favorite part of the game. It reminds me of making clothes for paperdolls when I was a kid, only they turn out looking good whereas my crude, childish drawings never really did. And they’re 3D. So, have I mentioned how much I love this feature? I have looked into making my own patterns, but it looks rather tricksy, so for now I’m holding off on that.
Interesting side note - my favorite house building/decoratingwise has my least fun to play family in it. I was trying to make it a little bit of heaven, but the parents are just *too * perfect and life is a little too idyllic there. I think I will evict them and move in someone more flawed.
Aging: No longer a cheat to turn off, and there is a slider bar so you can adjust aging as much as you want. Actually, the game options in general are a lot easier to work with in Sims 3, IMO.
Fishing/Gardening - Two activities from Sims2, I think, that made it into the base game. Along with writing they give you 3 options for non-career money/part-time job money making. My self-sim is a gardening/fishing sims and my experiences with her are below.
Stuff I haven’t tried yet -
The medical, journalism, the upper levels of business, criminal, music, culinary, pro sports, careers (I’ve only had sims make it to the top of the political and law enforcement [spy branch] careers, part time jobs.
Things I’m not so crazy about:
The lack of hair meshes, especially curly hair and interesting updos
Collectibles - meh. Also, no place to put them. Where are the shelves, game?
I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about the lack of stuff/things to do/weather/pets etc. I don’t get the complaining. This is the base game for goodness sake! Think back to Sims 1 and how little was included in that base game. Sure, EA (probably) had the capability to include all those and more in the base game for Sims 3, but no, they were not going to do that. Yes, they are trying to make money OMG!!!121! How evil of them! [/sarcasm] Yeah, I’m getting close to a point where I’ll need new stuff/activities to make the game interesting to me and just when I’ve hit that point they announce the first expansion will be out soon (November, I think). Considering how much entertainment I’ve gotten out the base game, I’m ready to plunk down $30 or $40 or so more for that expansion. Plus it looks really cool:
World Adventures
Over the past 2 months, I’ve created and played with (12? 10?) Families in both neighborhoods. They have ranged from crazy single sims I quickly tired of, to huge families in giant mansions that I’ve taken through a few generatiions, to sims I created specifically as "stress relief" (i.e., sims=2 0to be mean to). I have played two families without using any cheats at all - something I only attempted once with Sims 2.
Inadvertent Self-Sim: I created a loves-the-outdoors, fishing, gardening, computer whiz, green thumb, loner sim. At the time I didn’t realize or maybe admit to myself that I was creating a self-sim. She doesn’t really look like me, but her personality, yeah, that’s me. She achieved her lifetime want (perfect garden) long, long ago. She has now grown every single plant in the game (according to the game, though I cannot find a flame fruit that she has grown, so ...). I think she’s made over $100,000 on veggies alone. I don’t think the money tree is that great of a deal, but that’s because I have several omni plants that I feed a clone of a $950 perfect deathfish to, which creates further deathfish clones. I’m bringing in around $7,000 - $8,000 a harvest (maybe twice a week or so) with the omni/deathfish combo as opposed to around $1,200 a harvest with the money tree. And the money tree doesn’t produce as often as the omnis. It was quite a challenge to get that one perfect deathfish, but now that she has, we’re on easy street.
First no-cheat family: The cop wife & two daughters. Started with a tiny house and both parents in the law enforcement career. As soon as They had a kid, I had her quit her job to be a SAHM. This wasn’t a gender based decision - he was further along the career ladder and bringing in more money, so it made more sense to keep him earning. Last time I played them, their eldest daughter was grown, married to her childhood best friend/girlfriend, was on the professional sports career track and they had adopted a darling little boy. I should go back and play them some more, but I feel the need to kick the second daughter out, but I like her and I’m a little sad about playing them as a result.
Second no-cheat family: Romance Novel Writer Sim. Playing a homebased novelist Sim is really fun and pretty easy, too. I started this one out with almost nothing - writing on the cheap spongebobesque computer. She is now making around $60,000 a week in royalties. I did use one semi-cheat in that I turned aging off. It takes a long time to progress as a writer.
My giant multi-generation family that disappeared - This one makes me sad. I created one of my usual way-too-big houses, got the oldest kid to the top of the political career and he still lives at home with is parents and grandfather! Also got him married and the next generation born and after that I couldn’t get back into that game/neighborhood.
And now a question anyone who’s read this far: Should I post screenshots of the houses and sims I’ve created? I promise they’ll be sized down and put under a cut.
Next up: Probably movies I’ve watched or Fullmetal Alchemist (Catching up and keeping up with the manga and the new remake of the anime that follows the correctmanga storyline and characterization. I tried to watch the first anime again and ... I can’t. But more on that, later.)
Update on the weather situation: It’s warmed up a good bit and most days it’s in the upper 90s, but we’ve only had, I think, 2 days over 100 and it has rained. It has rained in August in Dallas! Today, however, it is hot and dry and yech.