I've owned The Sims 3 since the beginning of the year, but about a month after I got it, my computer just decided it couldn't keep up all of a sudden and began to lag. I stopped playing the game with the hopes of finding a computer with a better graphics processor (or whatever it needs), but six months later, that computer is still sitting on the shelf. It, too, is missing just one part. Meanwhile, my game sat on the shelf and waited patiently to be taken down. Finally the desire to play got so bad that I just didn't care about the lag anymore. I popped it in last Thursday and have been playing ever since.
To be fair, The Sims 3 has been waiting for its opportunity to shine for half a year now. Yes, it's interfered with my blog posts and fanfiction writing, but I don't really mind so much. I'm ahead of my schedule for both reading and writing. As far as blog posts go, I actually used up pretty much every idea I had LAST month, during the Sonic Spotlight. I have a couple of ideas lined up for July, but beyond that, I'm going to be winging it.
Once upon a time, when I was a pre-teen, my grandma on my dad's side gave me The Sims 1 Deluxe Edition as a gift. Dad installed it, and grandma taught me how everything worked. She even taught me a couple of cheats to go along with it. I loved the game instantly and would play for hours and hours on end. Over the following years, I would occasionally get into "Sims mode" and pick up the game after not having played it for a while, then turn around and play it for weeks at a time before letting it wear off again.
A few years ago I was walking through Walmart with my dad and I found the PC games section, where I saw several more Sims games and expansion packs. One in particular, The Sims Life Stories, stood out to me. I wanted to get it and asked for a long time, but my dad was always wary about my buying it. Eventually the product was discontinued and disappeared off the shelves entirely. By the time I turned 18 and could actually buy another game, the only one that stood out was The Sims 3 Generations, but I would have had to get the base game in addition, which at the time cost more money than I was willing to spend.
Then voila! For Christmas of 2014, I received a gift card to Game Stop. I originally went for Sonic and was even considering a TMNT game when I stumbled upon The Sims 3 Starter Pack, which was only $20, versus the $40-something it cost before The Sims 4 was released. I debated for a bit, then decided to go ahead and give it a try. I don't regret the purchase, even though it has the tendency to take over my life for several days at a time.
I have only installed the base game at this point, again because I'm waiting on that new computer. My current one has finally begun to keep up and the lag is not as frequent or annoying, but I know the second I install even one expansion pack, that will be the end of playing The Sims until further notice. So I'm waiting - a bit impatiently - for that to happen. Meanwhile I've downloaded Riverview, which is a town you get for free upon registering the game. I haven't played in it yet, but I'm planning to soon.
Sunset Valley (the town in the base game):
The seventh generation I'm playing with consists of two boys - a teen and a child - who were both adopted. I was so excited when I saw the older boy was a black kid. I've been trying to expand my gameplay to other types of Sims instead of staying within the same kind (tan, brown or black hair, purple eyes), so when the adoption service gave me a black boy I was elated. The younger child is a blonde, which is a type of Sim I've never gotten to play with before either. I'm excited to watch these boys grow up. The hard part will be deciding which one to follow beyond the teen years.
I tend to only choose one Sim at a time to really follow through their life story. With my first generation, it was their third child. With his family, it was his first child. Usually I raise all of the kids until they are young adults, at which point I choose whether I want them to marry and then pick one to continue following as they have kids and get jobs and whatnot. With the last generation (six) I decided to follow the older of the twin girls.
Another thing I tend to do is choose the same traits over and over. I think that partly has to do with the fact that in my mind, traits are genetic, and so I automatically choose the same ones. But with these adopted kids, I really have more freedom to create brand-new Sims and explore what life is like for them. Maybe I should keep that in mind.
Anyway, The Sims 3 is really fun and is totally the game to blame for the lack of a blog post last week. I'm looking forward to trying Riverview, exploring new traits, and installing expansion packs when the time comes. See you next post! *goes back to playing The Sims 3*
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