Exciting live broadcast news!

Today we got the final live broadcast about Island Paradise, which releases in exactly one week. I know that by this point a lot of people have calmed down about it, there's only a week of waiting left and we pretty much know everything by this point anyways, but the live broadcast was worth tuning into for me. Ryan Vaughan gave out lots of little news bits here and there that made it exciting. This is my little overview of all of the stuff worth mentioning.

First up is what the broadcast was supposed to be about: Island Paradise. Like I said, most of the information has been released already, so other than getting to see a bit more of the new world, mermaids, and underwater there was nothing new. Graham Nardone did take us into CAS and showed off the new mermaid coloring system that we get to use to change the color of our mermaids' tails. I was happy to see that there are 4 color channels on the tail. Should be pretty easy to create unique tails with that many options! The only bit of new houseboat information (to me at least) was that houseboats do have an autopilot if you want to have it steer itself to a new location while you're off doing something else. That'll probably come in handy seeing as they move pretty slowly. And of course the underwater lots looked spectacular! The amount of detail completely blows every other lot out of the water. It was a nice little demo that showed the hands-on aspects of the game fairly well, although the lag on that part of the broadcast was annoying.

Next is my own little personal excitement bundle. The Origin preorders hit 4,000 just before the live broadcast and that means that everyone who preordered gets not only the normal preorder bundle and the Origin preorder bundle, but Barnacle Bay too! Yay! Since worlds are so expensive, I refuse to buy them and sadly don't have any other than the free Riverview. So now I do! I know the world itself is the worst they've released, but it's a free world and I'm not complaining. Now if only they'd do that with Lucky Palms...

Finally I have what was arguably the most exciting moment of the whole broadcast. The date of The Sims 4's big information release has been announced! Everybody mark down August 20th, because that's when we will finally have our first little preview of the game!

Create a Plumbob

I'm really bored. My computer won't be here until June 17th, maybe a few days earlier, but that's still a week or so until I can Sim it up. It's pretty easy to tell that I'm bored too. My room is spotless, my CC has been organized, pretty much everything I could possibly do is done. Of course this had to be the worst possible time to have nothing to do too, because I'm not taking summer classes and am stuck drifting around...

But for at least a little bit I'm amused! EA put up the origami instructions on how to make your own little plumbob and it actually works. All you really need is the pattern and some tape or glue and you're ready to go. The paper plumbobs come out surprisingly realistic...or as realistic as a gaming icon could be anyways. I figured I'd share in case someone else was bored.

So have fun making your own little paper plumbob to sit on your desk, throw around, whatever you decide to do with it. At least you have a project to keep you busy for 5 minutes! The product's kinda cute too.

New computer!

So there have been several changes to my plans. I was originally going to buy a MacBook Pro with Retina Display since it could dual-purpose for both college and Sims. I really wasn't too thrilled because The Sims 3 has issues with playing on a Mac, but they're such nice computers that I just couldn't help myself. Then a miracle happened. The college I'm attending gave me a free MacBook Pro! So instead of spending my money on a laptop that had to be college-compatible, I'm now free to spend it on a purely gaming computer.

Meet the Alienware x51. Top-of-the-line gaming computer, incredibly speedy, and absolutely tiny which is perfect for college what with the moving and the sharing of small spaces. I've upgraded it and I'm in love. This thing is so powerful it'll have no problem running everything I could ever throw at it. Complete overkill I know, but I've been saving up for years to get myself a decent computer and this is what I want. Hopefully it'll still be advanced enough to handle not only The Sims 3 but The Sims 4 in its completion. I'll probably have to upgrade the graphics card halfway through The Sims 4, but everything else will hopefully be fine.

Operating System                  Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit
Software                               Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013
Memory                                 16GB
Hard Drive                             2TB
Processor                              3rd Generation Intel Core (8M cache, up to 3.4Ghz)
Video Card                            NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660

Bring on The Sims 4!

They've finally made what a lot of us had already guessed official. Coming in 2014, the latest Sims base game will be released! This time around they've said that they plan on "returning to the game's roots," which I'm hoping means that the focus will be on the interactions between the Sims and all the little details that made the game so much fun in the beginning. I've been compiling a list of what my dream base game would have:

• More family interactions. (child dancing on parent's feet, family kiss, snuggling)
• Equal age group focus with a lot to do at each age instead of focusing mainly on young adults.
• No more cocoon babies! I want real arms and legs!
• At least the framework for big gameplay elements included in the base so that they fit in seamlessly later. (weather, pets, vacations)
• Better story progression and possibly more aging options. (whole neighborhood, just the active household, none)
• Plenty of build mode options like the ability to create a garage attached to a house on a foundation without cheats, greenhouses, and an attic tool.
• Better and more realistic animations. (getting in and out of cars, backing out of the driveway)
• Improved trait / personality system where the Sims are actually different people because of their traits / personality.
• In-game CAW where you can create your own lot sizes and edit the terrain.

Goodness I want so much! I know that there'll probably be very little of this, but a girl can dream right? All this new and exciting thinking has made me all nostalgic for those beginning days of The Sims 3, when they'd just announced its pending release and the community was in an uproar over that...remember those days?

That was what used to excite the community; can you image what The Sims 4's intro trailer will look like?! That's going to be a huge day. They've told us to keep the 3rd week of August open, so cross your fingers that we only have a few short months until we get some actual information!

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!"