What I have been doing this Summer, Part I: The Sims 3

[mlleelizabeth]

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.

Comments

[matryoshkarose]

How does the passage of time work in the game exactly? When I first started hearing about Sims 3 it sounded like while you're playing one family time will be passing at an equal rate in the other houses instead of staying static like in the older game, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

[mlleelizabeth]

You heard correctly, except that the improved game options let you disable that feature. In this version of the Sims, the game is one neighborhood instead of a family/house in a neighborhood. There are two things you can toggle on or off in the game options, though, that will keep other families and townies from aging. You can turn aging off for the game altogether, or you can turn off what they call "story progression." If you turn off story progression but leave aging on, the neighborhood will remain static while your Sims age, marry, etc. I don't particularly like playing it that way with this version of the Sims. Since they meet and interact with other families so much more, it seems weird to have those families never change or age. But mileage varies, of course. Now, it is a bit harder to create a themed neighborhood in Sims 3 and not just because of story progression. You have to switch from live mode to edit town mode every time you want to create a new family for that neighborhood or change which family you're playing

[matryoshkarose]

It does make sense, thanks! I think I was afraid of something like one family having a baby and the game naming it something crazy while I was busy with a different family.

I did like the freedom it looks like you get in choosing body shapes compared to the old game. I might look into it more, though I'm not sure my computer could handle the requirements right now. ;)

[mlleelizabeth]

I have the same computer I had for Sims 2, but it was pretty powerful way back when, so I'm not sure that means much.

It is possible for a family to have children while you're not playing them if you don't remember to turn story progression off, but if you know what to do, you should be okay. The design features, both with regard to Sims and houses/objects really are the best part of the game, IMO.

[dossier]

heh, good to see you!

[mlleelizabeth]

Hi! Hi! Good to see you as well! I hope your summer has been going well.

[wildmagelet]

I got the game when it first came out and have hardly played it all so far, surprisingly. I've managed to load it on to my MacBook so am hoping to play it while we're away on holiday next week.

I was both amused and irritated when I created a family-oriented Sim, went back to the main menu to create a like-minded man for her, and came back into her household - all in the space of about five human minutes - and during that time she had gone ahead and adopted some loathsome child. I turned down the "free will" dial after that!

The new expansion pack does look cool, though! France!

[mlleelizabeth]

I have been more than making up for your lack of playing by playing incessantly myself. ;)

If that happened soon after the game was released, it was a glitch that has since been corrected by a patch. The game was producing babies by parthenogenesis to single sims. It was a major complaint people had and yes, the babies were indeed loathsome. Doesn't happen any more, thank goodness!

I am so excited about the new expansion pack. It's the first time they've crossed the Sim Universe with the real world, wheee! If France and China look as cool as Egypt, it is going to be awesome.