DIE STUPID COMPUTER!!!

I'm just about fed up with my computer. Less than 6 months ago I purchased a very expensive, top-of-the-line Alienware x51. It was just such a pretty computer, all shiny and new. Everything was so perfect...until now. In the last 3 days I've spent a grand total of 14 hours on the phone with their technical support and I'm still not quite out of the woods yet.

At first it was taking over an hour to start up the computer, and then it began crashing. I ran a diagnostic on my computer and found out that the error the hard drive was displaying actually meant that the hard drive was shot already. Apparently it had a small manufacturing error that caused it to crash. So I got a new hard drive and had a technician from Dell come by to swap it out. First off, the guy had NO IDEA what he was doing. Couldn't get the computer open, couldn't find the hard drive, just no clue. Then he finally got it swapped out and left. First problem solved!

I started everything up and immediately found out that my graphics card wasn't working any more. Yay. So I called them back and told them about my new problem. They had me take my computer apart to make sure their technician hadn't accidentally disconnected it. So I took my computer apart and found out that the technician had actually put the whole thing together wrong. The clips that held certain parts in place were all screwed up, I'm missing multiple screws, and one of the cooling fans was blocked. Weirdly enough, the graphics card was actually still connected. So then the technical support person told me that meant that my graphics card had also gone bad and they would send me a REFURBISHED one! Not a brand new one, but someone else's old one! So I got off the phone with them and looked up my problem online. Fixed it. Turned out I was missing the driver for the graphics card as Dell hadn't taken the time to download it onto my new hard drive. Second problem solved!

Then I discovered yet another problem. The eject button on the CD drive wasn't working. If I wanted to eject a CD, I had to go into the computer folder and left-click and eject it manually. This time I was smarter though. Didn't call technical support, nope. I looked it up online. Again it was a missing driver. Third problem solved! So after all that work and hours on the phone, the computer runs again.

Unfortunately, running doesn't mean it's just like it was. Since my old hard drive completely crashed, I couldn't save any of my files. The new one is a blank slate. That means I have to reinstall everything. I'm so mad that I lost all my Sim stuff. It's going to take me forever to redownload the games themselves and all of my CC! Hopefully I can get it done within a day and be back to playing soon.

Welcome to the new world...are you ready?

Wow, where in the world did 2013 go? I got all caught up in school and haven't updated in months, and somehow the end of the year just kind of slipped by. Oops. Well I'm determined to have some fun in 2014 and The Sims will always be a part of my fun. Here's to me hopefully updating more often in this lovely new year!

Unfortunately there's a very important Simmer who's decided to call it quits this year. :( Twallan is such an amazing modder and I'm really going to miss him. He'd already announced that he wasn't going to make any mods for The Sims 4, but that really didn't matter as it's still the era of The Sims 3. However, Twallan has decided to retire sooner than that and announced a few days ago that he's retiring now. Doesn't seem like all that big a deal since there are no new EPs or SPs, but EA announced that they have at least one more patch in progress for The Sims 3 so...crap. If anything major changes with this patch, all Twallan's mods will be broken. I urge anyone who would like to keep their mods intact to turn off their automatic updates now!

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So anyways, I'm kind of considering changing from Twallan's mods to AwesomeMod. I actually used to use AwesomeMod way back in the beginning of The Sims 3 era, but switched over because Twallan tended to update much more frequently than Pescado. Now I guess there's very little reason to worry about updates though since The Sims 3 era is almost over.

There's also a really big reason I'm thinking of making the change. AwesomeMod has an option to enable Sims 2-style aging, where only your active household ages. I've always missed that, and with my remodel of Sunset Valley this style of aging would be incredibly useful. That way I could age up the Sims I wanted without affecting the rest of the world. I don't like turning aging off, and I don't like missing other Sims aging up. Sims 2-style aging is really the perfect compromise for me. So I'll be mulling that over as I get everything all set up to start being active in the community once more!

Happy 2014! It's great to be back! :)

What. The. Hell.

I can't help posting about this. I really can't. After watching the videos a million times over I'm still in complete and utter shock. My game looks worse than before, my build tools have been downgraded to a box, and my Sims are now moody. Great. That was my initial reaction anyways. I'm slowly beginning to calm down and really take a good look at The Sims 4. Don't get me wrong, I'm still so, so disappointed, but maybe there's a few good things coming out of this after all.

So the graphics aren't exactly the most amazing thing I've ever seen. There's absolutely no arguing that. But if you can get past that image in your head of how it's supposed to look, it can be pretty in its own way. It is a game after all, and cartoony can be adorable. I guess a less-realistic world is okay since I wouldn't want a super-realistic one. It'd be creepy if my Sims looked 100% real. With CC I'm sure those little things that really bother me, like those non-existent line eyelashes, could be fixed and made to look just a teensy bit more realistic. I guess my point is that we should try to get past the graphics and really see the game and how it has improved.

Some of those improvements are the new emotions and CAS. The emotions look like a lot of fun to play with. It's cute that my Sims' lips will quiver when they're really upset, or that their facial expressions really do have more that the standard happy and sad settings. Hopefully EA / Maxis hasn't over exaggerated a ton though. A little flair is great and makes the game fun to play since it has that little silly edge to it, but if my Sims are constantly in a completely over-the-top mood then I can see it getting really annoying really fast. Time will tell. And CAS looks amazing! Pulling at the body shape will make it so much easier to tweak my Sims. Instead of having to hunt through dozens of sliders and having to guess at which little detail each one changed, now you just click and drag whichever bit you want to change. We haven't seen the hair and clothing options yet though, or any other age groups for that matter which worries me, but at least this one thing seems so improved!

The build tools though! :( No more wall tool?! I don't want a box to click and drag! We can do that now but I hate building that way and never do. I'm hoping that the wall tool is still there and they were just emphasizing how easy it is to build houses for those players that don't like building. This is my biggest worry from the videos so far and I'm really gonna worry until I see build mode and can confirm for myself how it works.

The last thing has nothing to do with the videos. At this point in time you can only preorder a digital version of the game...I don't buy a game I can't have a physical copy of. And the company has seemed to hint that there may not be EPs any more but instead will sell new things online like with The Sims 3's store we have now. I will not buy The Sims 4 if there aren't physical copies. Digital copies don't stay forever. I want something I can keep and use years and years from now. This will be the deciding factor on if I move on to The Sims 4. I can handle the cartoony style, the possibly messed up build mode, and anything else but this...this would mean the end of The Sims for me. I guess everything rides on what they release about the game in the year to come.

No more burrito babies!

The greatest piece of CC ever to be released for The Sims 3 has come to my attention today. For the 1st time ever in-game, babies can have arms and legs thanks to QuizicalGin's Sleeper Footies! Goodbye burrito babies, hello normality. It's sad that somehow in the course of this wonderful game series our babies have devolved into little larvae...let's take a look.

The Sims

Babies were more of a object than a Sim. They were made in a weird way too, instead of woohooing Sims would kiss passionately 3 times in a row and get a pop-up asking if they would like to have a baby. It'd appear in a rain of flowers in its little bassinet. You never saw the baby unless a Sim walked over to interact with it, and then it couldn't be put down anywhere other than the bassinet or carried around. Those suckers were hard to keep too! You had maybe an hour of it crying before the social worker would call and threaten to take it away.

The Sims 2

Yay my favorite babies! These are the most realistic of all in my opinion. The little arms and legs, the diaper, the interactions...ah I miss it. They were always bald but their eyebrows reflected what hair color they'd inherited, and their eye color was an inherited feature too. And no more crib attachment! You had to buy the crib, and the babies could be put on the floor and carried around. They also could be bathed and the changing table came with the base game. Oh, and they could be interacted with by multiple adults! One would hold the baby while the other cooed at it, and they could hand the baby to each other.

The Sims 3

And now we devolve. Burrito babies, larvae, caterpillars...all nicknames for what EA did to the previously-adorable age. Before I could stand having a few babies in the house. They were cute. Now I skip through that particular age. What's the point? They aren't cute any more, there are less interactions, and they're just generally annoying. I was so disappointed this time around.

But now, hallelujah! Babies can have arms and legs in The Sims 3! I'm so excited for my next in-game baby. I might actually be able to stand having one in my family now. This CC gets the highest praise from me. Hopefully EA picks up on how much people hate the babies and make them much better in the future.

Pfft...well this blows me outta the water!

Guess I need to aim higher in my personal renovation of Sunset Valley. SimFans.de far exceeded anybody's dreams with New Sunset Valley, which was released earlier today. This world is so amazing that I'm speechless. Usually I can find some flaw that makes it a questionable download, but this time...just wow. It includes every EP's new lots and has an expanded neighborhood unlike any remodeled Sunset Valley that came before it. Somehow it still looks like the original, just a lot bigger. Take a look yourself.

The one thing that might turn people off is that it isn't populated. Makes sense though if you think about it. Like they say on their site, pre-population has been known to cause problems so it was left out. I figure if anybody was truly determined to keep their original Sunset Valley households, Nraas' porter mod would serve to transfer every household. As long as they were grouped by family ties, every family tree would be perfectly preserved and the neighborhood would stay the exact same. You'd need 2 or 3 total family packages. (Incidentally, this is my plan!)

New Sunset Valley is definitely worth checking out for those who want the full game experience without all the work of updating a world.

Adventures in Egypt and cute baby pictures!

I'm still playing the Slayer household, getting them all ready to move to Isla Paradiso as soon as my copy of the newest EP gets here. Marci is just so dang adorable and Elvira will always be my favorite premade. It's a good thing they'll be seen in my legacy, because they're my favorite Sims. I love playing with EP content with them! 1st up was a little vacation / adventure for Elvira and Barry. They got to visit Egypt and see the pyramids.

Barry had lots of fun taking pictures, Elvira explored several tombs and raided them for some very profitable treasures, and they both enjoyed the little break from regular life. Other than the mummy (which Elvira beat the wrappings off of by the way), it was a relaxing vacation. Next I think they'll be heading to China, but by that point Marci will be able to go with them...that's probably a good thing. By the 2nd day both of them were constantly popping up thought bubbles about Marci. They missed their baby.

They are just so dang cute! As excited as I am to see Marci as a child, I'm going to miss her toddler cuteness. Elvira doesn't age since she has that vampire LTW that lets her walk in the sun and also stops aging, so at least one of my Sims will stay the same. She's frozen forever at her current age. My next post will have an older Marci though!

I have one last picture and it's really a strange one. Barry is a painter and he's getting pretty good. His latest painting was clear, worth a small fortune, and...from The Sims 2?

The 1st is the picture that Barry painting. See, even he looks weirded out! The 2nd is the picture from The Sims 2. It's in the Specter family's photo album. I thought it was strange but cool and wanted to share with everybody.

Starting in on my legacy!

With my new computer in place and running perfectly, I finally get to start playing out my stories. The 1st thing I wanted to do is get the backstory for my legacy in place. This part of the backstory isn't for my founder, but for another Sim who will have a part in my story. I have a lot of families that I want to involve in my legacy in all sorts of ways, but for now this is all I have.

Remember the pictures of Elvira Slayer I posted a while back? I carried her over to my new game and started in on her story. She's supposed to be the oldest vampire in existence according to EA's premade backstory, so I adjusted her to be a complete badass vampire. She's the head of the Bridgeport criminal career, has a great apartment, and lots of little human Sims to feed off of...or she was anyways. Now she's a bit more caring.

These days Elvira has fallen hard for a photographer that she kidnapped, Barry Tenderlove. He's almost the exact opposite of her. Where she's tough and strong, he's sensitive and creative. It's a bit funny, I decided I'd let her pick who she kept as her plaything / love by letting her hunt on a community lot. Whoever she targeted would be the one, and he's who she picked. I redesigned him a tiny bit, but other than changing his hairstyle and switching out one of his traits for the photography trait, I didn't do much. He's now a self-employed painter and stays at home. Elvira is hiding her relationship from the other vampires since humans are food, not mates.

Oops...someone got busy while I wasn't paying attention and got pregnant before I wanted her to. I had been planning to take them to Al Simhara and possibly Shang Simla before a baby came along but apparently they didn't quite feel like sticking to the plan. I do love their faces in that last picture though. The baby was crying and both of them dropped everything to come make faces at it. They both acted exactly as I'd imagined. Elvira's about to lose it and Barry is resigned to days of dirty diapers. So I guess I should show the darling baby. Meet Marci Slayer!

She's essentially a clone of Barry. The really weird thing is that she's human in-game, but her character portrait and any thought bubble pictures of her show her with the vampire skintone and glowing eyes. Actually Elvira's thought bubble in the previous picture shows exactly what I mean. Strange. Ah well, I love her!