Sims 3 Blog

Wow, it has been an insanely long time since I have had the chance to talk to my Sims 3 Blog family.  It has been one seriously crazy year that saw both a complete and utter change to my life and me unable to play The Sims 3 at all for a large portion of it.

I am not afraid to say that I was going somewhat insane with not being able to play the Sims 3.  I am sure that a lot of my fellow Sims addicts can appreciate it when I say that The Sims 3 can often be like therapy for me and I have really missed it.

Anyway, the life changes were pretty major. I moved back home to the United States after 16 years of living in the United Kingdom.  I got a divorce and am currently living in California with my best friend.  Luckily, he is a gamer too so understands my addiction even if he doesn’t really understand the draw of the Sims 3.

Somewhere along my journey back to life in the United States, I also made the transition between being a PC owner and buying a Macbook Pro 13 inch. Now, I mention the exact size of my Macbook Pro because it turns out that the selection of this model ended up being the reason I couldn’t play the Sims 3 for such an extraordinary length of time.

It all started when I bought Sims 3 Pets. After so long of not playing The Sims 3, I just really wanted to play so badly. I had a new Macbook Pro 13 inch, so why on earth would I think it wouldn’t run. I installed the game and got all excited to play – you know what I mean, that new Sims 3 expansion pack buzz all Sims addicts know – but once I loaded the game, the graphics were just appalling. Even on the lowest settings, all the Sims characters were blackish blobs. It really was totally unplayable.

After ages of trying to find out what possibly could be wrong, I did what I should have done in the first place and asked Google.  It turns out that pretty much everybody that has tried to run the Sims 3 on the 13 inch Macbook Pro has been unable to play the game.  The larger sizes of the laptop apparently run it fine but the graphics card in the 13 inch Macbook Pro isn’t supported by EA Games and they pretty much aren’t going to correct the problem.

Today, I reached my limit of not being able to play The Sims 3 at all and I dragged my best friend to Best Buy in the hunt for a low-ish cost PC laptop that would be able to play the game. Of course, at the same time I fully intended on picking up The Sims 3 Showtime expansion pack.

We asked several Best Buy workers which laptop would be able to handle the specs required for the Sims 3 Showtime expansion pack. Most of them had no idea until one guy leveled with us and told us that only the really high end laptops would be able to deal with the video the Sims 3 Showtime needed.

For a second, I thought my attempt to finally get back to playing the Sims 3 was going to be unsuccessful.  Then, it dawned on me that myself and the bestie, really could use a desktop computer. Oh, look Best Buy sells iMacs too. No, seriously, we needed a desktop. Just maybe we didn’t need it this soon BUT I *SO* wanted to play The Sims 3 again.

So, I broke down and bought an iMac *JUST* so I can play the Sims 3. Yes, of course I also bought The Sims 3 Showtime expansion pack.  Not just that but, of course, the Katy Perry Collector’s Edition of The Sims 3 Showtime. How can a true Sims addict not have all the content possible?

I am not AT ALL a Katy Perry fan…rather the opposite. So, sitting through my best friend and the lovely Jake from Best Buy play mocking me for buying this iMac simply to play The Sims 3 Showtime expansion pack WITH (as they kept reminding me) Katy Perry, was a true sign of my real addiction to this game.

You heard of pics or it didn’t happen? Well, my – ever social media minded best friend – whipped out his iPhone (yes, we really have fully guzzled the Apple Kool-Aid) and recorded a video of the moment I decided to make this Sims 3 driven purchase. Please do not judge me by my hair. It had been raining!

So, here I am at 1:53 am, listening to Radiohead and about to push play on Sims 3 Showtime for the first time.  Fingers crossed that it  works and all this installing of the many Sims 3 expansion discs I have collected over the years – not to mention the purchase of a brand new computer – will have been worth it.  Wish me well!

Those of you that follow the goings on at the Sims 3 Store will have noticed that they have released a brand new wedding themed set. The Sims 3 wedding set is called Romanza Ceremony and it includes a whole bunch of furniture and decorations to allow you to set up the perfect Sims 3 wedding and reception.

Of course, no Sims 3 set is complete without some new clothing and the Romanza Ceremony set doesn’t disappoint if you just can’t get enough formal dresses.

It all looks great but I did feel a bit let down that while you can break up the Romanza Ceremony set so that you can buy just the wedding or just the reception items in separate smaller sets, you are unable to do that with just the fashion items.

Which, is a shame because if I could have just bought the wedding clothing in a separate sett I would have done that. Instead though, I would have had to have paid a lot more than I wanted to to get all the dresses and hairstyles and most of that money would have been spent on bits of decoration I didn’t really need.

So, instead of buying the whole set of dresses I decided to allow myself to buy just two of them and do as much custom content work as I could on them. I can never get enough playing with the styling tools anyway and now with the new Sims 3 pattern creation tool they have released it has become even more addictive for me.

Of all the new Sims 3 wedding dresses made available in the Romanza Ceremony set it was the Off-Shoulder Gown which I was drawn to straight away. It is a simple but elegant wedding dress design with a lace texture. From looking at the dress in the Sims store I could tell that there would be a lot you could do to the dress to make it suitable for all sorts of occasions in The Sims 3.  If done nicely it wouldn’t have to be a wedding dress at all but could be for just about any fancy setting.

Within the first fifteen or so minutes of having installed the dress into my Sims 3 game, I had come up with any number of custom versions of the dress. Of course, I have made them all available on The Sims Exchange. It just isn’t as much fun to me if we aren’t all sharing our Sims 3 creations with each other!

I put together this video to show you all what each of the Sims 3 dresses looks like in the actual game. Hopefully there is one of them that catches your fancy!

Here is a list of each of the Sims 3 wedding dresses I designed. If you want to download one of them simply click on the download  link and it will take you to the item on the Sims 3 Exchange.  Have you done any custom designs for this Sims 3 dress? Why not leave a comment and let us all know where to find them!

Pretty In Pink Lace – Download Here

Not At All White Lace Dress – Download Here

Gothic Lace Gown – Download Here

Evening On The Red Carpet Gown - Download Here

Delicate Glam Lace Dress – Download Here

Purple Princess Lace Gown – Download Here

Scarlet and Gold Lace Gown – Download Here

Simple But Classy Lace Gown – Download Here

Glam In Grey Lace Gown – Download Here

Vamp In Lace – Download Here

Claret Lace Gown – Download Here

Pale Blue Wonder – Download Here

Show Stopper Dress – Download Here

Punky Honey Gown – Download Here

It has been a long time hasn’t it?  A few days after I posted my review of  The Sims 3: World Adventures, I had to eat my words that it wasn’t that buggy. I took one of my Puggington legacy family on a vacation to China and when they returned all of the files were corrupt. Not just one one or two Sims but on all the Sims 3 families that I had in the game. They were totally unrecoverable and it was just so frustrating I decided to take a break from playing The Sims 3.

That lasted for a little bit but when I heard that The Sims 3 Ambitions was coming out I knew it would be only a matter of time until I was back playing the game. I totally uninstalled The Sims 3 and installed it all over again when I bought my copy of The Sims 3: Ambitions.

I am delighted to say that Sims 3 Ambitions has been running on my system for over a week now and I haven’t had any problems at all. Not only that but all of the bugs from World Adventures appear to be have been fixed up. So, I am back and I am going to go back to sharing my custom content and fun Sims 3 finds.

The first of these Sims 3: Ambitions finds is both saucy and creepy all at the same time! When you install Sims 3 Ambitions you now have  some new lifetime rewards added to the existing selection. One of those is a to add a Simbot best friend to the household.  My Sims  character had just had her husband die and was feeling a bit lonely. So, I decided it would be the perfect time to add a Simbot to the home.

Wow! It turns out the Simbot best friend can be WAY more than friends.  I was just curious if they could flirt with each other and it turned out they could. Then I decided to see just how far the game would let them go and before I knew it the Sims 3 woman and her Simbot (a female simbot at that!) were having woohoo!

I thought I would make a Sims 3 video of it just to prove it happened!  I have to admit to being a bit weirded out but also increasingly curious. Can the Simsbot and ‘human’ Sims marry? If my Sims 3 woman had a male Simsbot would they be able to try for a baby? So, wrong but you know somebody will try!

In the scheme of things, the Sims 3 World Adventures expansion pack came out pretty quickly after the release of Sims3. So, I wasn’t sure if I really needed to by Sims 3 World Adventures straight away because I am actually still really enjoying playing the base game. I am onto the sixth generation of my Puggington legacy and still discovering new things about the Sims 3 every time I play. However, when it came down to the actual release date for Sims 3 World Adventures, I simply couldn’t resist the call of my inner Sims addict.

So, sure thing, I went out first thing this morning and bought my copy of the World Adventures expansion pack. I made really sure to back up my saved games files because the last thing I wanted to do was to lose my legacy family after having been playing them so long. As it happens, my family was just fine when I installed but I would still rather be careful.

My latest generation of the Puggington legacy was just about to have her birthday where she became an adult. So, I decided to hold off on any travelling until that was completed and then make her the first world traveller of the family. The character is Jasmine Puggington and you can download her at the Sims 3 exhange – just click here .

One of the things that I hadn’t expected but am really enjoying about the Sims 3 World Adventures expansion pack, is that not only can you go to other places but that tourists from those places also come to your town. When Jasmine Pugginton was waiting for her birthday, she was in the central park area and met a tourist from France. So, I figured the first world adventure I sent my Sims 3 characters on would be to France.

The day of her birthday, Jasmine Puggington packed her bag and was off for a three day stay in France. How long you can stay in your travel destination depends on what sort of travel visa your Sims 3 character has obtained. The more experience they have of travel and the more tasks they complete the longer and longer they can stay. I think three Sims days for your first visit is just fine and it also means you won’t get burned out on all the new things straight away.

As you arrive in Sims 3 France, this is the view you get. I don’t know about you but I think it is rather pretty! I especially like the stone work on that bridge.

Sims 3 World Adventures - France

When you arrive at the base camp area of the French town, there is a notice board. If you examine the notice board you are given information on any adventures that are on offer. These are challenges set my locals a bit like those you get associated with your job and such back in your normal Sims 3 town. I had Jasmine Puggington take a look at the board. I love the expression on her face as the contemplates the adventures on offer.

Sims 3 World Adventures - notice board

Once she had decided on her adventure she hopped onto a scooter and went to find her contact. I love that Sims 3 scooter! Even more so, I love the look of ‘speed demon’ on her face with the distant Eifel Tower over her shoulder. Hats off to the folks that did the art work for the Sims 3 World Adventures. They did a really nice job.

Sims 3 World Adventures - Sims 3 Scooter

It turned out that her Sims 3 France contact was the owner of the local store. The Store was pretty neat. You can buy a variety of things there from dehydrated food to keep you going while you are on your Sims 3 adventure to a nifty shower in a can for those not so fresh moments.

Sims 3 World Adventures - Store

Jasmine’s first adventure in Sims 3 France, sent her to this old Celtic relic. Again, the artists have done a really nice job.

Sims 3 World Adventures - Celtic Relic

The real fun started though, when she went down underground into the tombs bellow the relic. I have to say that I really enjoyed the whole feeling of these underground tombs. Plus, it also means we can now build basements in our Sims 3 homes. I am going to have to play with that later on but for now I am more up for exploring.

Sims 3 World Adventures - Tombs

Once in the tomb, she had to negotiate her way through by breaking through rocks, moving statues into position to help solve puzzles and other things such as finding keys. Really, they have made an adventure game they have tacked onto the Sims 3 and so far I am really enjoying it. Here are some pics from her adventures in the French tombs from Sims 3 World Adventures.

Sims 3 - French Tombs

Sims 3 World Adventure - Pulling Statue in tomb

After successfully completing this challenge, Jasmine Pugginton then went on to explore more of the Sims 3 France countryside. She ended up at this stately home. This turned out to be a BIG mistake! Sure, the home looks stunningly beautiful but it is like the house equivalent of the venus fly trap. It looks very beautiful and lures you to come take a closer look.

Sims 3 - France House

It turned out to have so many booby traps that it would make One Eyed Willy from The Goonies pround! Jasmine managed to disarm a number of them but then, after she thought she was in the clear, she got trapped in a hallway between two different sets of electric traps.

Sims 3 World Adventures - electric traps

It may have been a glitch in the game but Jasmine was totally trapped between these two and trying to cross them resulted in her being burnt to a near crisp!

Burnt Sims 3 character

I really saw no way out but luckily, when it was time for her vacation to end it just sent her home. Which is good because I was sure I was going to lose her.

All and all, I think that on first impressions, the World Adventure expansion pack is a success. There are little things they have added that I really like and other things which I think will herald a lot of changes in the main Sims 3 game down the line.

For example, now when you have a task to complete, it tells you how far along you are to completion. So, if you have to work out in the gym for four hours straight, every time you hover over that want it will tell you how long you have been there. Then, on the larger side of things, when you visit a store in the vacation towns you actually go inside of them. I am sure that will mean that eventually the rabbit holes in the main Sims 3 town will be playable too. I am sure we can all imagine the any number of Sims 3 expansion packs that could come out of opening up the various businesses.

It doesn’t appear that the World Adventures expansion pack is bug free though. A number of people have reported having problems saving their games. Apparently, the answer is to ‘save as’ instead of save. The expansion pack has changed the way the games are saved and it is confusing it. Also, I have stopped earning money on any of my investments since installing the expansion pack. Food is also spoiling in the fridge within 24 hours of it being stored. All of these problems, and more, are known to the Sims 3 staff though and no doubt a patch is on its way.

It is has been such a long time! My work life has been insane lately and I have barely had the time to fire up the Sims 3. I think I am suffering withdrawal! However, I have promised myself that this weekend I will take time out and work on my every growing Puggingtion Sims 3 legacy I am four full generations into it but just haven’t had to time to write up the stories about their lives.

In the meantime, I thought I would share with you my latest celebrity Sims 3 character creations. As we all know, Grey’s Anatomy season 6 has just started in the United States. Which means that I am behind you all because Grey’s Anatomy hasn’t yet started the new season in the UK. I think it should air soon though. I am doing my best to dodge spoilers. I am pretty sure I know what happens but I still like to figure these things out on my own. Down with spoilers! lol

I really did enjoy season 5 of Grey’s Anatomy though and so I decided to make the characters into Sims 3 characters. I have uploaded them to the Sims 3 exchange both as individual sims and as households. So, you can decided to just download a couple or the whole cast.

Meredith Grey Sims 3 Character – download here

Cristina Yang Sims 3 character – download here

Derek Shepherd Sims 3 character – download here

George O’Malley Sims 3 character – download here

Izzie Stevens Sims 3 character – download here

Alex Karev Sims 3 character – download here

Miranda Bailey Sims 3 character – download here

Richard Webber Sims 3 character – download here

Owen Hunt Sims 3 character – download here

Callie Torres Sims 3 character – download here

Mark Sloan Sims 3 character – download here

Lexie Grey Sims 3 character – download here

Grey’s Anatomy cast Sims 3 characters part 1 – download here

Grey’s Anatomy cast Sims 3 characters part 2 – download here

Looking for something a bit more hip for your Sims 3 women to wear? The great thing about a simple black leather jacket is that simply chaning the shirt you wear underneath it can create a whole new look.

Here are some of the leather jacket combos I have done for my Sims 3 women.  They all look pretty good in the game.  Why not click through and download them to wear in your own game as you play the Sims 3? You know you can never have too many outfits for your characters!

Sims 3 Black Leather Jacket With Dark Red Top – Download Here

Sims 3 Black Leather Jacket With Funky Red Top – Download Here

Sims 3 Black Leather Jacket With Nifty Brown Top – Download Here

Sims 3 Black Leather Jacket With Pink Top – Download Here

For a while now, I have been following the legacy challenge thread on the Sims 3 forum.  I have always liked to grow a family when I was playing The Sims but I never took it so far as to do one of the legacy challenges. I have decided to jump into now though and I have just got done creating the founder member of my new Sims 3 legacy.  I also have done a Sims 3 story to go with it.

That is another first for me.  I have never actually done a Sims story on the formal Sims websites over all these years.  The gist of the Sims 3 legacy challenge is to start a legacy and have it grow up to ten generations of the same Sims 3 family.  Most importantly, the whole ten generations have to live on the same plot of land. The rules of the Sims 3 legacy challenge have everybody that plays using Sunset Valley start off by moving their founding member move into 15 Summer Hill Court.

By the time your Sims 3 legacy founder has moved into that lot – which is rather larger – you have next to know money to build a place to live and to exist. You are not allowed to do any money cheat at all. It is a real challenge but it also makes you go learn a lot about the Sims 3 neighbourhood rather than just living comfortably in your cushy home straight from the start.

So, I decided I was up for the challenge and the founding member of my first ever Sims 3 legacy will be:

Parker Puggington

Parker Puggington - Sims 3 legacy founder - download here

Gender: Female
Age: Young Adult
Fitness: Ripped
Weight: Husky
Traits: Computer Whiz, Handy, Lucky, Bookworm, Good Sense Of Humor
The founder of the Puggington legacy. Yes, Parker is a man’s name but Parker is every bit a woman even with her big strong body. If you ever ask her if she is called Puggington because of her upturned nose and bulging eyes you will soon find out just how strong a woman can be!

Download and play your own game with Parker Puggington

Here is chapter one of the Puggington Legacy. Read it and enjoy

I don’t know about the rest of you out there in Sims 3 land but I still haven’t explored all the new things there is to offer in The Sims 3. I am still finding out new things every time that I fire up the Sims 3 for a game playing session. The fine people at EA games are always a step ahead of us though and that is no different when it comes to The Sims 3.

This week, the first Sims 3 expansion pack was announced and it will be called – Sims 3 World Adventures. It looks like it is going to be a lot of fun. Sims 3 characters will be able to travel the world, a bit like the vacation themed expansion pack for Sims 2. It sounds like Sims 3 World Adventures will be a much bigger expansion pack though. Your Sims 3 characters will be able to travel the world and visit places such as China, France and Egypt.

While they are on their travels, your Sims 3 characters will develop new skills such of photography. They will also meet people from different cultures and take things, such as fashion sense, back with them. They can even decide to move permanently to somewhere they visited on their travels. This is probably a clever business move for the folks behind The Sims 3. Imagine the interest in places like China to have the Sims 3 characters living in a Chinese environment, for example.

The Sims 3 World Adventures release date is said to be Novemeber 16, 2009 and apparently a $10 Sims Store credit when you buy it. I still have a couple dollars left from the $10 I got when I purchased the Sims 3 but I am sure by November I will be wanting that credit badly.

A few screen shots from The Sims 3 World Adventures expansion pack have been released. It isn’t much but it is enough to wet our appetite for the first Sims 3 expansion pack.

They give us an idea of of what it will be like to travel to Egypt with our Sims 3 characters.

Sims 3 World Adventures - Egypt

Sims 3 Eqypt

Egypt Sims 3

I wonder if the Sims 3 character in the last picture from Sims 3 World Adventures is haggling over a price for that souvenir. That could be a fun trait to have to learn!

I don’t know about you but I can’t wait to find out more about this Sims 3 expansion pack.

Yesterday, I found out about the first creative showcase for The Sims 3.  The theme is a good one too – Good vs. Evil.   Full details on the showcase can be found here on The Sims 3 site.  There are a lot of creative people out there on the Sims 3 community forum already building their Good vs Evil Sims 3 creations.  It is really impressive to watch. So, I figured that I should join them.

The Good vs Evil theme gave me the idea of creating Sims 3 twins where one is the good twin and one is the evil twin.  The basics of this is so easy with the new Create A Sims tool because all you have to do is tell it to create a twin of the last Sims 3 character you made in that family.  Once I did that, I was able to use the exact same base face to create two very different Sims 3 sisters.

I still have more that I want to do with them before the showcase deadline.  In particular, I am in the middle of building them a home so there is a lot to upload and perhaps do a story. So, far I have only just placed them on an empty lot and they are already nearly in a fist fight without me having directed any of the action at all!  So, this could get good!

At the moment, they are available in the Sims 3 Exchange as both a pair and as individuals. Click on the links to be taken to the download pages on the Sims 3 exchange.

The Gemini Twins

Robin Gemini (good twin)

and

Raven Gemini (evil twin)

Since early yesterday, one of my Sims 3 characters has come down with a terrible condition. I am calling it Restless Sim Syndrome. Shortly after being rushed to the hospital to give birth to her first Sims 3 baby, Shantel Jayne – the wife of the now grown son of Sarah Jayne – began to suffer from this new found Sims 3 illness. Restless Sim Syndrome has meant that she is unable to sit or lay down without having the need to suddenly stand up.

It all started with her standing up in the middle of her bed every few moments during the night. Then she was noticed standing up while using the toilet and then not being able to use the treadmill without falling off the end every other second. Now, Shantel Jayne has reached the stage in her case of Restless Sim Syndrome where she can not even sit to read a book with her child without being forced to stand up and then sit back down.

Watch this moving video which shares the plight of a Sims 3 woman with Restless Sim Syndrome.