Finally figured out my problem!

Well I now know exactly what causes my computer to freak out and crash while playing The Sims 3. Anything involving playing with the Sims themselves makes in go into panic mode. So CAS and playing a household are no longer options which leaves...building. That's all I can do these days is build. So no more pictures of Sims, just pictures of my buildings and my favorite EP information.

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I'm assuming that the Island Paradise announce trailer is now old news even though it's only a day old. It's definitely exciting news! Finally the 1st glimpse and a bunch of brand new information from just a short little video. Watch it!

After watching that trailer there were 2 big things that were stuck in my head: mermaids and the fact that toddlers have swimming interactions! Both of which are shown clearly in the video, both of which are so dang long-awaited. Toddlers have been so left out of all the swimming activities; Generations was the hope of a kiddie pool but that definitely didn't happen. It looks like they'll finally get some action in Island Paradise since mommy can clearly be seen holding baby in the water. And mermaids make their 1st appearance too in the last few seconds of the trailer, swimming through the waves.

New lifeguard career, private island beach houses, boats of all kinds...this EP is looking better and better! Keep an eye on the date too, because a live broadcast airs on April 16th and the game will be released on June 25th. Not too far away at all. Keep your fingers crossed that EA gives out more mermaid information in the live broadcast!

And it's only the beginning...

Okay before I share my lovely new story, I want to update on my current computer status. I'm getting a MacBook Pro soonish. The date isn't really set in stone; it shifts back and forth. I could get it tomorrow, or May, or in August for my birthday. There's really no telling. :( But I am going to eventually get one!

Currently my desktop has all but given up. My ancient computer literally goes into a hysterical meltdown every 20 minutes or so, with flashy colors and the closing of many programs. Stupid computer. And I've tried everything to make The Sims 3 work too! I'm down to no CC at all, and only my EPs, SPs, and store stuff. Yep, the basics. But even then it can only take maybe 30 minutes if I'm incredibly lucky and then either the game CTD's or the computer has a hysterical meltdown...

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Despite many computer issues, I'm still trying really hard to play a little. My latest idea has me chasing Sims around Twinbrook. I've always loved the old Sims 2 neighborhoods Pleasantview and Strangetown, they're easily the best worlds ever to be produced. Because of that, all the remade families that appear in The Sims 3 make me really curious...and speaking of Curious:

Bunny Curious, older sister of Notzo Curious, is a sweet little girl with a real love of horses and adventuring. Not quite the norm for her science-oriented family, poor Bunny usually feels a bit left out. It's not her fault she'd rather be out riding Carrot or searching the town for supernatural Sims instead of staying inside and messing with weird things in bottles or banging on pieces of metal.

Catch the joke? Bunny and Carrot, haha. Like a rabbit. And a carrot. Ok my attempt at humor is now over. But seriously I do love them; their adorable young moments are beyond sweet:

Since I love Bunny and Carrot so much, I came up with  a kinda different idea. Most backstories follow the main character. In the Curious family, this would be Notzo and his descendants, the famous Curious brothers from Strangetown. But what if I followed Bunny? She's close enough to the main characters that she could easily affect what happens in the story. I already have bits and pieces planned out. This way everybody gets a really unique and original view instead of the same story told with a slightly different twist.

If I can really get this rolling, it'll be posted over on Return to Sims, my blog meant purely for recreating Sims 2 stories. I don't have a lot of hope though since my playing time is severely limited these days. I'll try to at least get pictures of the rest of the Curious clan to share, maybe even upload them to the exchange since they are, after all, completely CC free.

The Strangerhood: Watch it NOW!

Oh gosh, I just find so many funny things from past games. Mainly The Sims 2. So this awesome company called Rooster Teeth made a whole series using The Sims 2, but with actually people voices instead of Simlish...and it's hilarious! It's all about how these horribly stereotyped Sims wind up in a strange town with no memories of how they got there or who they are. If you're looking for a laugh, or are just really REALLY bored waiting to for that new patch to finish downloading, watch a few little episodes. They aren't long, about 4 minutes each. The 1st is a tiny bit stale but they get so much funnier! Watch the trailer:

I just like the older stuff, sometimes it's better than the newer Sims 3 stuff. And this is definitely one of the funniest little series you'll find. If you wanna watch the full series either go straight to Rooster Teeth or use their YouTube account. I'm gonna wrap this up with one of my favorite quotes from one of the episodes:

"I'm sorry Tovar but I have to agree with Sam. 

A fish needs a name. How else are you gonna indicate 

which one you wanna eat? You can't just say 'I 

wanna eat Anonymous,' I mean really!"

So much EP info to rant about!

I just don't know which new EP I'm more excited for, University Life or Island Paradise! They both add so much gameplay and so many new and old things...picking between them is impossible! After EA's last live demo of the game there's just so much to take in and so many things to be excited about.

I guess I'll rant about University Life 1st, since it is coming out soonest and is completely done. We finally got all the info on death types, life states, and all the other awesome stuff that's heading our way. Thanks to this last broadcast (and the producer walkthrough video below) it has been confirmed that plantSims are making a comeback. From the trailer at around 5 minutes, you get your 1st ever look at a plantSim and a possible hint about how to create such a creature. Those people who were guessing that the science field's special item would be important appear to be right! The plantSim may be an accidental or completely-on-purpose discovery, kinda like Simbots from Ambitions.

The whole university idea is so improved from The Sims 2. Instead of having to get your diploma in one go, and at only one time, you can go to college whenever you want (young adult - elder) and earn it over several trips and get however many degrees you want. That's just cool, not to mention perfect for storytelling. And lastly, 2 new death types have been confirmed: being crushed to death by either the soda machine or the murphy bed, and protesting death to the extent that the Grim Reaper comes and takes your Sim.

Now for Island Paradise! Holy crap where do I even start?! There was so much that they showed in that live demo. They showed off houseboats, which are pretty much just houses on a floating barge which can dock in ports on land or archor anywhere in the ocean. Smaller boats like speedboats and rumored canoes will also be available but will be more like cars and not houses. It was also announced that underwater won't be just a disappear-and-get-popups thing. Instead of being like a rabbithole, the ocean will open up to a certain extent when Sims go scuba diving. They can die if they run out of oxygen, and rumor has it that merSims will indeed be the new lifestate...the SimGurus hinted just enough to drive me crazy!

Yep, there are even official pictures of the new scuba diving interaction and being underwater. :) I'm very, very happy right now with all this new info. That's all I have for today, but it's still a lot to take in! Hopefully I'll post again soon with more Island Paradise info.

A blast from the past.

Browsing YouTube is always fun, even more so when you accidentally click an old Sims 2 trailer instead of a Sims 3 trailer. Watching all that old stuff is still fun since I actually wasn't online at that point in Sims history. Then I found the oldest of the old: the original trailer for The Sims 2, which was included in The Sims Makin' Magic. It's even funnier than I remember!

We still can't do most of that. My children can't set things on fire, there's no ceiling fan antics, I've never seen any interactions with window blinds at all, and sadly the adorable napping with your feet on another Sim's lap still hasn't appeared. And Sims definitely don't rip their tops off! Lol at least not that I know of. It makes me wonder what future Sims trailers will show us...

More and more things to do!

I guess I'm just determined to add more and more to the pile of things on my already gigantic to-do list! And of course I really can't do much right now because of my stupid computer...but that'll be fixed in less than 4 months so I can hold on that long. It's like the light at the end of the tunnel. A brand new, top-of-the-line MacBook Pro! With an upgraded graphics card and a ridiculous amount of power. I'm pretty happy.

Anyways, I was flipping through all my old Sims 2 stuff and found a few pictures of Alexander Goth and how his life turned out. This was really cool to me (can't give too much away since I'm planning on writing a whole story about all that) and it made me remember the house I'd moved him into. It was the old 210 Wright Way mansion:

I'd edited the crap out of it as I usually do to any and all EA houses, but the basics stayed the same. I'm planning on beginning to build a highly similar house with my own special twists. I know people have already converted every old Sims 2 house there is, but I think everybody tends to do their own thing with their builds and that makes each one special. So I'll add my own little bits to it, upload it in case anyone wants it, and use it in the future.

To get it started I'm definitely gonna need some help building up the basic shape. To do this I'll need lots of pictures and I'm planning on using OkieOK01's pictures for that. Just wanted to share in case someone else would like to make their own version!

Back to school...or university anyways!

After that leak on their Seasons broadcast where the mascot and people in togas ran across the stage they have FINALLY slipped enough for some pictures to be grabbed! I'm so thrilled! The whole college thing was my 2nd favorite part of The Sims 2, and at long last The Sims 3 will have colleges too!

That's right, University Life is official! Campuses and mascots and fraternities are all back, and I for one am a very happy Simmer. The news is out now, and hopefully the trailer for University Life will be released soon. Until then, check out SimsVIP for all the pictures and the latest news on the latest EP leak.

Now I just get to cross my fingers and pray that I can get my new laptop before it comes out! Not having Seasons is already killing me, if I'm missing Seasons and University Life I think I'll go crazy!