Is it Finally Done?

     It seems I work on Aspen Islands world for ages and ages - as soon as I get all errors fixed, routing polished and update lots the new patch comes out and breaks this or that or adds something new. Lets' hope this one works in the long run. I think I'll release it in a couple of days.

 

The Sims 2 vs The Sims 3 (Part I)

           So, it seems that The Sims 3 series has finally come to an end, as I don't see the Store team bringing any substantial game play innovations. Well, maybe they'll still manage to break something else with one more small insignificant patch, actually it will not be surprising at all. Anyway I wanted to somehow sum up both iterations from my player's perspective, after all this topic was and still is debated and it will help me to make up my mind about the upcoming The Sims 4. Since there will be no more expansions or stuff packs it is safe to compare both. 

             I've witnessed  the advertizing of both and bought The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 base games as soon as they appeared on the market and I must say that leaving aside the unfortunate the Sims 2 trailer which turned nothing like the game actually was the whole the Sims 3 marketing companion was highly untruthful and over-hyped. Does anyone remember how many times producers tooted impressive AI and "tons of impressive trait specific new interactions" giving "Steal the candy from a baby" as an example? Well, turned out there are only several really unique ones, the rest is marketing fluff and text. Moreover the Sims 2 base game was much more stable then the Sims 3 one from the get go. I've never seen so many patches for an offline game before in my life, furthermore I've never seen so may patches that break previous patches once again or take away game functionality (for example reclaiming items from the junkyard).

          Create-A-Sim: As for me, from the point of view of genetics, sim's character and face sculpting in the Sims 2 is better - the genetics actually work, you can see the traits of the parents in the children and grandchildren, character points paired with aspirations add consistency and make it possible to create sims with diverse and distinct personalities, enabling attractions. On the other hand traits in the Sims 3 seem superficial and shallow, you really cannot fully describe a personality with something like "Loves to swim" or "Loves Cold", sims can't be compared using some sort of similar parameters hence attraction system is awful. As a result you get a bunch of sims, that act and react absolutely the same. Face sculpting tools, default textures and templates have their drawbacks and strong points in both games.
         Skin sliders and advance bodysculpting are definitely a selling points of the Sims 3. Not to forget the awesome CAST, that enabled countless haircolours and clothing items recolours without resorting to external programs. On the other hand CAST slowed the game down considerably and ruined genetics, clothing textured look flat and shiny due to lack of small details and shadowing. Thanks to general art style and better animations the Sims 2 sims overall seem more believable, I tend to sympathize and remember them, while the Sims 3 sims, even with better customization and different body shapes seem disposable dummies.

         Neighbourhood and World Creation: In game town editor is better in the Sims 2, though it doesn't let you to change terrain without cheats it doesn't break the save when used. If you add or move too many lots in the Sims 3 you'll eventually break the routing, making the save unstable.

       I am not afraid of CAW and love it dearly in spite of it's flaws and bugs, so for me neighbourhood creation and environment visuals are definitely better in the Sims 3. In fact it's the only reason I still play it. I just love to come up with an idea, create a world with some character and watch how sims inhabit it and progress. Well, the last part is almost impossible with in game Story Progression, but I'll get to it in Gameplay abstract in the next part of my review.

  



        

Sims in Paris Living room 7 Set Recolours

         Hello! This is the combined post for my SiP Living Room 7 set recolours - a couch, an armchair and a cabinet. All meshes are included in the .rar file, according to Sims in Paris upload policy.  You can get the whole original set here.

       Nine contemporary and vibrant Sims in Paris sofa recolours from Living Room 7 Set. It's one of my favourite custom couches - it's versatile, comfortable and relatively cheap.
There are nine recolours included in the set, both cushions and sofa part, and a swatch image. By the way you can mix and match most cushions and sofa bases, most of them work together really well.

      The sofa is called sip living 7 -sofa- in game and you can find it under comfort/sofas & loveseats category in buy mode, the price is 650 simoleans. 

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        The complimentary armchair recolours. It was rather difficult to find matching armchairs, so I had to retexture these as well.  Textures and colours are the same I used for couches. You can find them under comfort/sofas & loveseats category in buy mode.

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Six cabinet recolours from the same set, with different handles. Textures were found with Google some time ago, cannot find the source now. You can find them under surfaces/nightstands category in buy mode.

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Various Paintings Part II

         Second part of my rather vast paintings collection. All Maxis meshes in this post as well , but, unfortunately not from the base game.

A small collection of graphic and cheerful posters, mostly by Jessica Das from this site.There are six paintings in the .rar file, all named accordingly and a swatch.

Requirements

• 'Grilled Cheese' by Renn Tumush from Nightlife;
• CEP 

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       One of my households consists of two artisan grannies, one of them grows various produce and another creates art in all forms - paintings, sculptures, you name it. Recently she started to sew as well, so I had to whip up several quilts to decorate her workroom. I present seven large quilts, images courtesy to google search, they look really nice in modern interiors as well. As usually all in one .rar, enumerated and named.

Requirements

• 'Untitled' by Len Bledgemann from Nightlife;
• CEP.

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Various Paintings Part I

           I've accumulated a bunch of paintings for my the Sims 2 game over time. I think it's the best way to change an interior quickly, plus one of my favourite sims runs an art gallery which requires new art all the time. Some of these paintings have already been uploaded on my simblr, some are new. They all use Maxis meshes. 

  

 Cul-de-sac Prints has a new collection of bold graphic prints. Now your sims can enjoy them too. There are 12 posters, as you can see, on Collectible Poster mesh from Bon Voyage. As usually, all are in separate packages, swatch image is included in the .rar.

Requirements

• Collectible Poster mesh from Bon Voyage;
• CEP. 

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English artist Natasha Newton creates elegant and incredibly beautiful pieces. My sims certainly admire them. Now yours can too! :)
Ten paintings on ‘Transcendence’ mesh, that, I believe, is from the base game. As usually - separate packages with previews.

Requirements

•  Transcendence mesh from a base game;
• CEP. 

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Long time to see!
I've just remembered about this blog and decided to move my various Tumblr and MTS uploads here just in case. So, from now on there's the Sims 2 section as well, watch out for tags.

Teta 5120 - An Alien Vacation World

I proudly present you Teta 5120, a tiny extraterrestrial vacation world!

It has a small back story to it, so be patient and read on. Once I was playing the Sims 3 and my active sim was an aspiring and brave, but completely single, astronaut and I thought that it would be fun to bring him a date from another planet. Then I saw Lunar Lakes in the store and loved the concept, but as I didn't like the price at all I had to find other ways to get an alien world. One led to another and this map was created and my astronaut got happily married to a green girl from Teta 5120.