A note, and back to creating!

All of my files for Sims 1, 2, and 3, which are available on TSR are now also available (free, no registration required) at Platinum Simmers. Note that I no longer reply to any messages here, so if you need help with my custom content, please contact me on Platinum Simmers, or via Twitter @BlackGarden.

Also, no further updates or fixes will be made to any of my files hosted on TSR. All updates and fixes will be available at Platinum Simmers only. To ensure you have the latest versions of my files, I recommend that you download them from Platinum Simmers, not from TSR.

I will be creating new Sims 3 downloads very very soon, which will all be available exclusively at Platinum Simmers. I hope you will enjoy them, and will come and join me there!

So long, farewell!

I'll keep this brief because, well, I do hate to make a scene.

When I first joined TSR many, many years ago, it was a wonderful, vibrant site, full of fun. I took an instant liking to it, and enjoyed sharing my creations, chatting in the forums and on the IRC, and generally being a part of it.

Over the past couple of years, I've begun to feel less and less a part of TSR. It simply isn't my home any more. And that's a terrible shame, but all things in life change.

My new Sims Internet home is Platinum Simmers, where you'll find a few familiar faces.

A huge thank you to all my friends at TSR, to everyone who's downloaded my creations, and to everyone who's helped me when I've just plain broken a mesh. All the best for the future!

BlackGarden xx

Sims 3 Generations - My First Impressions

When I first heard the rumours about an expansion pack called “Generations”, I groaned inwardly. It just sounded like a padded out version of Family Fun Stuff with a bit of Celebration Stuff thrown in. As more information started to become available about the pack, and EA officially announced it, it started to look a little better than that. It had a bunch of cool objects that many players had wanted for a long time – strollers, spiral staircases, and bunk beds among them.

Even so, as I headed to London last Thursday, I still felt as though the game I was about to play was nothing more than a glorified “stuff” pack. I have never been so happy to be so wrong. From birth to death your Sims can now live out each stage of their life to the fullest.

As well as having around 5 hours to play, we were treated to a demo from, and an interview with, producer Graham Nardone. The information below is gathered from a combination of the demo, play time, and interview. As always with these events, remember we were playing an early version of the game, so it's possible the features and content could vary from the final retail version.

Toddlers

For toddlers in Generations, there are several new ways that the family can take care of them. The new strollers that have stirred up so much excitement in the community make it easier to take a toddler out of the house. You just need to have a stroller in your Sim’s inventory, and they’ll automatically use it when they go out of the house. However, I did notice that you can't push a stroller through a gate, so there is a bit of putting the stroller away and taking it out again that I can imagine might get annoying in certain circumstaces.
Toddlers also haven’t been left out of the new playground equipment that comes in the pack. They can ride the new spring rider playground toys - carefully supervised by an adult of course.

Also, toddlers now have the opportunity to begin a friendship which will last a lifetime. I refer, of course, to the imaginary friend. After your Sims have a baby, you might randomly receive a gift of a doll in the mail for them. If your new baby bonds enough with this doll, they will start to seem "real" to them. So much so, that later in life they will become an imaginary friend.

Children

As you would expect, children get a lot of new gameplay in Generations. Generally so far in The Sims 3, I have found that the children are quite boring and one-dimensional, and I can't wait to age them up to teens so they can do something more interesting. I think that with Generations, I will actually now enjoy playing a family with children. Shock horror! So what can they do that's so cool?

Well for starters, there is all the new playground equipment. This includes the sand box, hopscotch courts, water slides (flat, on the ground - not into the pool), seesaws, the spring riders mentioned above, and of course, the tree house. In the sand box, you will see kids digging, building sandcastles, and of course, burying things (for example, their homework!). And these activities are not restricted to the sandboxes either, as you can expect to see your beaches to come alive with kids playing in the sand.

The other playground equipment particularly worthy of a mention here is the treehouse. If you ever had or played in a treehouse as a kid, you will remember that it was a spaceship, a castle, a pirate ship, a dragon's lair, and so on. Kids in Generations can be just as imaginative, and you will actually hear some sound effects coming from the treehouse depending on what they are pretending right now.

How your Sim kids are dressed might affect how they choose to play in the treehouse. The costume chest makes a welcome return to the series, and kids act really cute when they're dressed up. There are four costume options - dinosaur, astronaut, prince, and princess - each available in 3 colours. Depending on how your Sim is dressed, the way they walk and play will change. In fact, maybe their dino rage will make them go Godzilla on their sister's dollhouse...

Now of course, in real life, if you did that you could expect some pretty serious punishments from your parents. And Sim parents just got tougher, because now the Sims is no different. Kids might get their favourite toy taken away from them, or they might get put in time out. This is really funny and cute, as your Sim kid will stand facing a wall looking really grumpy about the whole thing. They have to stay there for their entire time out, or until a parent is directed to let them off the hook.

Above is a picture of one of my kid Sims in time out, and that behind them... well that's their imaginary friend of course. This bit really made me laugh, because my Sim kept on getting distracted by her imaginary friend, and her dad would get furious and make her start her time out over again. Just like the social bunny and the psychiatrist in The Sims 2, the imaginary friend is only "real" for that one Sim. With other Sims selected, the imaginary friend will be completely invisible.

With the chemistry set, your Sim can make around 15 or so potions (we asked about the exact amount, but Graham couldn't remember, so don't shoot me if 15 turns out to be off the mark!). Among those is a potion which will allow you to turn your imaginary friend into a "real Sim" (below). Of course, they're still not quite like a real Sim, and they can turn back into their doll form (ie. the form in the 'timeout' image above) at will. Just like other Sims, they can age up, and have relationships. One thing I didn't have time to check is whether you can, as an adult, woohoo with your imaginary friend from childhood. I would love to know if that is possible!

Other cute and fun new interactions for kids include having a tea party with your teddy bear (which gives a positive moodlet from having a fun tea party). But if that's still not enough to fill your Sim's time, maybe you should enroll your kid in an after school activity. Scouting and Ballet are among the many after school activities available for your Sims.

The final new features for kids, and these also applies for teens, are school-related. First, is the ability for parents to enroll their kids and teens in boarding school. If you really can't stand to have your kids around, or if their behaviour has become unbearable, you can send them off to boarding school. Graham informed us that they will return shortly before graduating at each age. Second, your Sim kids and teens will now be able to go on field trips to community rabbitholes. The day before the field trip, a dialog box will appear telling you where the field trip is to, and asking whether you want to sign the permission slip. Your Sim will be excused from after school activities following the field trip.

If you're tired after all that, maybe it's time for your teenage brother to read you a bedtime story...

Teens

In Generations, teens get a chance to challenge authority like never before. If they have the new "rebellious" trait, they may well want to start pulling pranks, and stay out after curfew. More mild-mannered teens might prefer to join the after-school debate club. But, even a mild-mannered teenager will get the occasional mood swing. Mood swings are a new moodlet, which in and of themselves have no mood effect... however, during a mood swing, your teen will roll up rebellious wishes (which have purple backgrounds on the UI), which range from wanting to pull pranks, to wanting to fight with people.

Pranks range from booby trapping household objects - putting dye in the shower, setting up a sink to spray in someone's face, blocking up the toilet, putting a whoopy cushion on a chair, or rigging a computer to show a "scary" face were the ones I spotted - to playing pranks on neighbours' houses or even the school.

There are also new kinds of parties that your Sims can have as teenagers, including wild "teen parties". Randomly, parents of teenagers might get offered short holidays, where they will disappear from the town. And while the cat's away...
These teen parties can be broken up by the police, or by a parent returning early. And you can be sure that any parent returning to find the house in a state will ground their teen!

A grounded teenager is not a happy teenager, and unhappy teenagers will stomp around the place looking hilariously annoyed at the world. Maybe they should have had a much more harmless sleepover instead.

Assuming your teenager is (relatively) well behaved, you might want to treat them. How about a driving lesson? Teens can learn to drive in Generations, and although I didn't try this out myself, but duckeggpie did, so check her blog for information.

Young Adults and Adults

 One of the major new features for adults and young adults is of course the new bachelor and bachelorette parties. Once your Sim is engaged, they can now choose this party type, and they are just about as true to life as the developers could get away with, while keeping the game's 'T' rating. Of course, your Sim might want to ask their best friend to make a toast to kick off the festivities, then the party can continue with plenty of nectar and dancing

Graham informed us that Sims will often strip off at bachelor parties, so at the end of the night you end up with a bunch of men passed out on the floor in their underwear. Maybe those Sims will remember the dancers. There seems to be a variety of different outfits that the dancers at bachelor and bachelorette parties will arrive in. These include firefighters, soldiers, and police officers. There is also a new interaction which will allow you to spray other Sims with fizzy nectar. How they react depends on the Sim, of course.

For the actual wedding ceremony, wedding arches and wedding cakes make a more than welcome return. There are a few styles of wedding arch, to help you set the perfect scene for your wedding. Of course, when you're trying to set the perfect scene, you might want to first check that your Sim isn't due at work, so they don't change into their work uniform at the altar...

Elders

When you reach a certain time in your life, you will really enjoy reminiscing about the good old days. This is where the video camera comes in handy. Although of course using the new video camera is not exclusive to elders, they seem to really love watching the old tapes. But you'd better be careful what you get caught doing on camera. We were told that Sims will react to certain events on film as if they are seeing them first hand, so if you cheat on your spouse, make sure you're not being watched.

More specifically for elders, you can choose for elders to walk with canes, which really makes the game seem more real. Elders can be friendly and cheerful, of course, but you can also get nasty bitter elders, who love nothing more than to watch the world go by... and disapprove of everything!

Miscellaneous Features

A minor UI change, but one that will be useful if you like to switch families a lot, is that there is now a quicker button for switching families. If you have an active family, and you go onto edit town, then click another occupied lot, there is now a small button there to switch to that household.

As well as the two new traits, nuturing and rebellious, there are seven new Lifetime Rewards, and I can see myself using some of these a lot.

Hover bed - 20,000 points
Well, what do you think? It's a bed, that hovers! Graham told us your Sims will get a special moodlet from sleeping in the hover bed, and also woohooing looks pretty funny as the bed... bounces about. Steve took a screenshot of the hover bed, so check his article for that.

Super nanny - 25,000 points
If you work in the daycare profession, your Sim will become really good at keeping the kids in line. They become less likely to pull pranks on your watch, and generally more obedient.

Clean slate - 25,000 points
Another aspect to this EP that I haven't actually touched upon yet is that your Sim will build up a dating reputation. If you woohoo with too many people and never call them back, well, word gets around. This lifetime reward lets you lose your dating reputation so you can start over.

Inheritance - 30,000 points
A long-lost relative dies and leaves you lots of money. I don't know how much because I didn't manage to get enough points to buy it :-(

Above reproach - 35,000 points
Public displays of affection will go unnoticed by passers by if you buy this reward.

Motive mobile - 45,000 points
Didn't get to actually try this, but someone from EA told us that it fills up your motives as you drive, so you arrive at your destination with full motive bars. Cool!

Clone voucher - 45,000 points
Redeemable at the science facility to have a child-age clone of your Sim join the family.

In buy mode there's plenty of new things to see, and if you want to quickly find all the new Generations items, you can use the new catalogue filters to show only content from that expansion pack. You can also choose to show only content from a couple of specific expansion packs. Given what I have read on some forums, I want to make this bit clear though: collections are NOT back. These filters are NOT like the collections we had in The Sims 2. You can only filter by EP, and store content. There are no themed collections. Nonetheless, the filters made it easy to find what was new from the catalogue. Graham confirmed that this filter will be included in the patch that is rolled out at the same time as the EP.

Obviously one of the cooler new objects is the bunk bed. There are 4 different bunk beds to choose from, and each is also available as a loft bed. You can even put a desk under a loft bed to make the most of a tiny bedroom, or to create a more stylish bedroom for a teenager. Of course, kids love to sleep in bunk beds, especially if they get to sleep on the top bunk!

Another cool item is the chemistry set, which I mentioned briefly earlier. Your Sim will wear the appropriate safety clothes when working with the chemistry kit, but of course explosions are still possible.

But I think my favourite change is one that you'll find on the settings menu. Right below the slider where you choose the length of your Sims' lifespans, there is now a slider for each age so you can choose how long each life stage lasts. So, if you just can't stand having babies around, you can set them to 1 day. These sliders are "proper" sliders, unlike the overall life length slider, so instead of choosing from a bunch of presets you can choose exactly how many days each life stage will last.

And the verdict?

Five hours to play sounds like a long time but it really did fly by. I was having so much fun with this EP I could have played all day and then some. There are so many things I wanted to try but didn't get a chance to... so now, I am going to wait impatiently for June 3rd so I can play for a looong long time! This EP is so feature packed, I am absolutely certain that I have missed some things out. If you have any questions at all about the EP after reading this and Steve's article, do leave a comment and I will see if I can answer. I do also have some more screenshots I took which I haven't used here, and the above images at a slightly larger resolution, so check my gallery for those.

Hallowe'en's a-coming!

... and here's my pick of the Hallowe'en downloads for Sims 3 here at TSR!

Subscriber only:
A totally AWESOME haunted house by ayyuff, here
Some spooky Hallowe'en props by DOT, including coffin, candy, and candlesticks, here
Reeallly creepy gravestones and skeleton-bits by Cyclonesue, here
Some interior decorative Hallowe'en stuff by Apple, here
A pumpkin garden set by Apple, here
Cute pumpkin lanterns by DOT, here
Spooky dead trees by sim_man123, here

Free:
Pumpkin face masks by Apple, here
A nice mix of Hallowe'en patterns by Vanilla Sim, here
Some seriously groovy Hallowe'en patterns by SIMcredible!, here and here
An awesome Hallowe'en dining/decor set by SIMcredible!, here
Cute toddler skeleton costumes by simromi, here
Some very creepy but way cool Hallowe'en masks (facepaints) by Skystars5, here
The perfect dress for any countess by ernhn, here
A super cute Batman costume for toddlers by RomanceSims, here
More Hallowe'en paintings than I can count by paramiti, check out their minisite
A ghostly pirate by mellamoshpit, here
A haunted lot (with ghosts included!) by evi, here
A versatile, recolourable, Hallowe'en makeup/facepaint by jomsims, here
A very scary torture room for your dungeons by cm_11778, here
A ghoulish pattern by tdyannd, here
... and some novelty Hallowe'en accessories by someone called BlackGarden, here

So that's my pick, what's yours? Post your favourite Hallowe'en items here!

Happy Hallowe'en to you and your Sims!

Excuses excuses...

Maybe somebody, somewhere, is wondering why that BlackGarden chick hasn't posted anything new in like, forever. Well I got a reason for that I do. Two reasons in fact.

First, it's summer, and like many of you I've been away at music festivals and on holiday and suchlike. In fact I'm on holiday right now, at my parents' beautiful house in the Lake District. Now I almost had a pattern set ready to go before I went away on holiday but...

I got tonsillitis. It started on like the 25th of last month, a few days before we went away. So instead of finishing and uploading my pattern set, I was lying about in bed complaining alternately about the heat and the cold.

I saw the doctor that Saturday who gave me a five day course of penicillin... unfortunately though just a few days after finishing the penicillin (ie. this morning) I woke up with a ridiculously high fever and a sore throat, again. Sooo back to the doctor it was and now they've given me a 10 day course of penicillin, which should kill it off completely.

So, about that pattern set... I've been working on some truely disgusting grungy patterns which I look forward to uploading after I return home this weekend, and I hope you'll all enjoy them.

(And here's hoping they don't have to yank my tonsils out...)

Ambitions hands-on preview - part 2

Well, sorry to keep you guys hanging so long! Let's get to it!

Private Investigator

The private investigator profession might just be my favourite of all the professions included in Ambitions. You join the profession via the computer or the newspaper, and there are a few different ways to advance.

Obviously the main way to advance is to solve cases. You can find a new case by checking the newspaper or the computer to pick up your first lead. The cases work similarly to the adventures on World Adventures, but obviously these are based in the home hood. So if you liked the adventures, you'll love the cases.

A Private Investigator is never off duty. Wherever and whenever there is a case, the PI is there. If they can be bothered, anyway. Basically, you can work when you like. As each case progresses, your PI will be asked to perform various tasks to gain information. Maybe they'll have to rummage through someone's rubbish, or read their letters; maybe they'll even have to break into someone's house. There's no limit when you're searching for justice.

The cases your PI will have to solve have all the classic humour of the Sims series. During my time playing the game, my PI had a client who wanted me to discover who had been kicking over their garden gnome. After rummaging through someone's rubbish, they found a shoe which, shock horror, matched the footprint on the poor garden gnome. I questioned the owner of the shoe and they cracked like an egg. Garden gnomes all over Twinbrooks will be safe from now on.

But that's not all there is for PIs. You might just want to go and look for a case of your own. Find some dirt on one of your friendly neighbours by going on a stakeout. A Sim's idea of being subtle on a stakeout is, of course, hilariously misguided. What could be a better way of concealing yourself than grabbing a large bit of foliage in each hand and then hiding behind them? Surprisingly, though, other Sims don't seem to notice the new hedge on the block, and the large Sim holding it, and you might just uncover some valuable information this way.

When you've got info there are a couple of things you could do with it. You could write a report for the police, and get a reward that way. Or you could go for the big money... and blackmail the Sim you've got the dirt on.

Inventor (and self-employment)

There are a few new skills in Ambitions. Namely those are inventing, sculpting, and tattoo...ing. Two of those skills, like the skills in the base game, have an associated trait, and Sims with that trait will find that the skill comes naturally to them. Those new traits are:

Eccentric - good inventors
Savvy sculptor - good sculptors

I didn't spot a trait that makes Sims particularly good tattoo artists, and I did check the trait list quite carefully. Also, in my time playing the game I only got time to check out the inventing skill. I was too busy having a blast with the new careers, really.
Anyway, so you want to be an inventor huh? First, you'd best be heading down to the junk yard and digging through the piles of junk to get some scrap. You can't be an inventor without getting your hands a bit dirty.  You can only retrieve a certain amount of scrap from the junk piles each day, and you'll find that some of the junk piles have already been plundered. However, the ones that might still hold some useful scrap are clearly marked with a shiny sparkly effect surrounding them.

Once you've got your scrap, it's time to head home, and get working on your inventor's workbench. You bought one right? Your Sim will randomly play with the scrap for an extended period of time. They'll put bits together. They'll tut and pull them apart again. They might just set themselves on fire (either have family members ready to put your Sim out in this eventuality, or put a fire alarm in the workshop!). Eventually, they will make something. Maybe it'll be a sculpture, or a toy. It might even be something useful.

When you have one skill point in inventing, that's enough to prove your intent. You can head down to the town hall and register as a self-employed inventor. In practical terms, the main thing this will change is the fact that your career status will not say that you're "unemployed" when of course you are making an incredibly useful contribution to Sim-society. The ability to register as self-employed also applies to some base-game skills too, for example writing and painting.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to max out the skill. In fact my Sim's inventions were really of the lame and useless variety. The most useful thing he made was something that went on the floor and gave off a nice smell. Except it didn't seem to give any moodlets or anything, so it was pretty well useless.

Luckily, Grant showed us a higher level inventor in his demonstration, so we also got to see some of the cooler inventions. And yes, there is a Sim robot in this EP. It's called a SimBot. Like the Servo in The Sims 2, the SimBot is a part of the family, can Woohoo, do the cleaning and the laundry. And inventing isn't the only way to get the SimBot. For the inventing-challenged, there's also the option to buy the SimBot as a new life time reward.

Another particularly exciting invention is the time machine. Who knows who your Sim might meet as they travel into the past or the future? Maybe even a character from another EA game, but surely, surely EA wouldn't go in for such shameless product placement. Or maybe you'll run into Shepard from Mass Effect. I love Mass Effect.

Ghost hunter

There's a strange new kind of entity wreaking havoc around the neighbourhood. There are spirits on the loose. Luckily, your Sim is pretty business-minded and they've spotted the opportunity to make some money a mile off.

In the ghost hunting profession most of your jobs will involve going round to another Sim's house and hunting down some spirits. And then when you find them you can zap them with your big gun. Grant told us that as you get more skilled at ghost hunting, you might be able to talk them into leaving instead.

As you arrive at a job, the lot will be filled with fog and spooky music will be playing. All you have to do is look around the lot for signs of spirits. Spirits are a little different from ghosts. So don't worry, you're not going to be zapping away the ghost of your great aunt Betty. The spirits don't look like Sims, they look a lot more like Casper the friendly ghost, and just like Sim-ghosts, they are all different colours.

(Quick note: some of the pictures we've seen seem to show the ghost hunters hunting real ghosts, like the one on the right here. I'm not sure if this is because higher up the ghost hunter career you do hunt ghosts instead of spirits, or just because EA are using a bit of artistic license.)

When you "banish" a spirit, your Sim yanks out their big zappy gun, and sucks the spirit up. From there, the spirit appears in your Sim's inventory, and at this point they're just like any other collectable. You can find out a little bit about the spirit, like their age, and what kind of spirit they are ("friendly", "lonely", etc). You can collect them up, or sell them for a tidy profit at the science lab, to supplement your income.

In addition to these "normal" jobs, your ghost-hunting Sims will also get some sort of "special event" jobs at rabbit holes. These are pretty cool, because despite your Sim disappearing inside and going out of your control, a bunch of special effects appear around the rabbit hole, and it looks awesome.

It's the little things...

Despite all these completely totally fabulous new careers, skills, and gameplay, some of the little things included in this pack really made me go "wow".

Laundry

The first one is laundry. Now, when your Sim gets changed out of their every day clothes before showering or going to bed, the clothes don't magically vaporise. They fall in a little pile on the floor (although, all the little piles look the same, whether it's a dress or jeans and a t-shirt, but that's really not the point).

If your Sim is lucky enough to own a washing machine and either a dryer or a washing line, you can finally do the laundry. You can move the laundry to the machine, either by directing your Sim to do so, or by using the hand of god. Then you instruct your Sim to get the wash started.

Once the wash is started, you can place the cursor over the washing machine to see how much time it has left. It takes an hour to complete its wash cycle, and your Sim doesn't need to do anything else until the machine finishes. If you have a cheap machine, it might make a lot of noise, in which case your Sim can attempt to subdue it, which is quite amusing to watch. If they "win" their fight with the washing machine, they'll get a positive moodlet out of it.

Once it's done in the washer, you can get your Sim to move the laundry to the dryer or out onto the washing line to dry. And finally, when it's done there, you get your Sim to collect it, and the next time they put some clothes on or get into bed they'll get a positive moodlet from having clean clothes or fresh sheets.

Create-A-Style

Create-A-Style's capabilities are expanded in a couple of ways.
You will be able to use Create-A-Style on your ceilings, to further customise your rooms.
You will be able to use Create-A-Style on the edges of floor tiles, where they overhang a staircase, or on a balcony.

Create-A-Sim and tattoos

The new tattoo system is pretty cool. This isn't something you can do with Create-A-Sim when you first make a new family, so you need to head down to the salon or buy your own tattoo chair to get a tattoo. When you're ready, it loads up a Create-A-Sim style interface, where you can design and apply your own tattoos using a bunch of different elements. For example, you could layer up a pair of wings and a skull. You can adjust the colours and opacity of each layer on the tattoo, and choose where to place it. You can also save the designs you create, share them, and reuse them.

Things are a little different in Create-A-Sim too. Finally, you can adjust the opacity of your Sim's makeup, so you don't need to fiddle with colours for hours to get a subtle "barely there" shade of lipstick.
There are also a few more new traits that I didn't mention before:

Eco-friendly: eco-friendly Sims love to try and save the environment. They like to take quick showers. They love cycling and car pooling. They hate inefficient washing machines and riding in a car alone. They also always eat organic food (this isn't something you need to buy - just like vegetarian Sims will automatically use vegetarian sausage substitutes, eco-friendly Sims will automatically use organic food).
Born salesman/saleswoman: I honestly didn't check this one out, but I guess it probably gets your Sims a bit more money out of selling their stuff.
Perceptive: again, I didn't really check this one out, but the icon was similar to the one for the observant life time reward.

User interface changes

With the new EP, as well as with the base game patch that will be released at the same time, there are some small changes to the user interface.

Firstly... you know when your Sim comes home from work with a promotion at the same time as your toddler learns to walk and your kid brings a friend home from school and grandpa catches a really big fish? Suddenly the right side of your screen is bombarded with pop-up messages that fill up the whole screen and seem to take forever to get rid of.

In the new format user interface, these messages are sorted into three tabs for different types of messages. You can press "forward" and "backward" buttons to browse through them. You can keep the messages for as long as you like. And if you just want to get them all out of the way and play, you can click a button to hide them all at the edge of the screen.

Secondly, the opportunities pop-ups have changed. Now, instead of a popup with all the blurb, it also shows clearly what the requirements for the opportunity are before you accept it, and this same style of pop-up is used for most of the new careers. For example, when the Private Investigator gets a new lead, the "opportunity" pop-up will show an icon of the PI, with a thought bubble filled with some film-noir style blurb. Below that, there's the list of requirements that your PI must fulfil to move on.

So what's the verdict?

Well, I have, for a long time, been a real naysayer when it comes to "following your Sim around at work" and "doing laundry". I thought it would be dull, and tedious, and really annoying. I thought it would suck all of the fun out of the game. But after playing the game for just a few hours, and watching Grant Rodiek's demo, I am more excited for this EP than I have been for any EP, ever. Seriously. So if you're one of those people sat there going "oh it'll be boring, it'll be irritating, I won't use any of the new features, I'll just buy it for the robots"... then I think you will be not just pleasantly surprised but fantastically delighted. If this game could convert me in a couple of short hours, it could convert anyone.

Ambitions hands-on preview - part 1

Picture the scene: you're playing The Sims 3. A family member or loved one peers over your shoulder and asks "what are you doing?". What's the answer? In my case, it's almost always "I'm waiting for my Sim to finish work". Sound familiar?

Well this scene will be changing very soon. As soon as you install The Sims 3: Ambitions, the answer will become "I'm waiting for my Sim to start work".

It's impossible to understate how much this expansion pack could change the way you play your Sims game. I only played for a couple of hours and I found that the new careers, or "professions" as they're called in the game (to distinguish them from the rabbit-hole based careers) are extremely involved.

Of the new professions, I played at least a little bit of the following:

• Stylist
• Interior designer
• Fire-fighter
• Private Investigator
• Inventor (self-employed)
• Ghost hunter

During the 4 hour preview session in London, I got plenty of hands-on time with the game. Plus, we were treated to a demo from Grant Rodiek, the producer of Ambitions, who showed us some of his favourite aspects of the new expansion. So, without further ado, here's a little bit about those professions:

Stylist

The stylist has the power to transform your townies' clothes from threadbare to designer flare, their hair from looking like hay to "hey good looking" and their makeup... is also something you can edit in this particular profession.

As a stylist your Sim will have working hours when they should head down to the salon. How much or how little work your Sim does is your choice. You could just hang out with your co-workers, and mess about all day. Or you could wait for a potential client to come in through the door. During your working day, you'll get special assignments to make over certain Sims. These pop up like opportunities.

The client will come along with a story about why they want or need a makeover, along with a list of requirements. These might be something like 3 x everyday clothes, 1 x formal wear, 1 x shoes, 1 x accessory, new hair style, new hair colour, new makeup. That's not a restriction, that's just the minimum you need to do to complete this client's makeover. So if their swimwear was offensively hideous, you could change that as well.

Will your makeover be a hit or a flop?

So you get your client to step up to the new stylists' object, and you'll find yourself in something that looks a bit like Create-A-Sim, but with a slightly different background. It allows you access to change hair, facial hair, eyebrows, makeup, and clothes. There are also some extra hair styles that are only available from the stylist, including a really cute new ponytail style for women. After you've changed all the different things the client asked for, they pay you for your work, and off they go.

As a stylist, your Sim will also have a couple of new socials available to them. They can compliment a Sim on their style to increase their relationship. Conversely, of course, you can also insult their sense of style, which will upset them.

Interior designer

The interior designer profession does not have a special lot or rabbit hole assigned to it. You can join the profession by looking it up in the newspaper. After that you will have certain working hours when you are "on the clock". During that time, available jobs will show up around town.

There's quite a large variety of jobs that might be available, and they will in some cases link in with story progression. For example, a couple expecting a baby might ask you to design them a baby room. A couple whose kid just aged up from a toddler to a child or from a child to a teen might ask you to redesign their child's room to suit their new age group better. On any given working day, there will be a handful of these jobs for your designer to complete for a fee.

There are a couple of restrictions on the interior design jobs. For example, if you remove everything from the house, the game won't let you return to live mode until you've replaced at least the basic items that Sims need to live (i.e. a toilet, a fridge, and one bed space per Sim).

Can you measure up to expectations?

Before your Sim starts the redesign, it may pay off to get to know your client a bit. Learn some of their traits and you might be able to provide them with a design that suits them better. A computer whiz might not have specified that they wanted a computer in their new living room, but you know they'll thank you for it. Your Sim can also "measure up" the house that's to be redesigned. This is just a little interaction that they do, and it has no real effect except that it will boost the final score for the redesign.

When you're ready, and when you know your client, you can hit renovation mode. This is very much the same as build mode and buy mode. As with the stylist profession, the client will give you a list of requirements for the job. In this case, it will be a list of new furniture that must be bought. Again, this is not a restriction, it's just a minimum. The renovation mode also features a budget, visible in the top left corner, which clearly tells you what your client's budget is, and how much you have left to spend. Most clients will like it if you manage to come in a little bit under budget. Frugal Sims will be delighted, of course, if you have plenty of money left over from the budget. However, if your client is a snob, they will prefer you to go over the budget!

If you want to give your makeovers the personal touch, you can actually access your family inventory from the renovation mode. This is great because it means you can place down paintings, sketches, and any collectible items you've placed there. Or if you're Cyclonesue you can put a dirty toilet in the family inventory, and leave it as a charming gift for your client.

After you've completed your fabulous redesign, you report back to your client with a quick phone call, and if they're available they'll come home to check on your handiwork. They'll check it all out, and tell you what they think. If you've paid no special attention to it it'll be "ok", but if you measured up the house, and really got to know your client and considered their personality in your design, they will love their new room, and should pay you a bit extra to thank you for your efforts.

Finally your Sim can take a photo for their portfolio. If you have World Adventures, here's where you can bring in the photography skill, and the nice cameras, to take a professional-looking photo. Otherwise, your Sim will have to put up with their less-than-spectacular camera phone for this.

Fire-fighter

If your Sim likes a bit of adventure and action, or just likes bright flashing lights and loud noises, perhaps they'd enjoy the new fire-fighter profession. Like the stylist profession, this new profession has its own open community lot. The lot contains a fire engine (of course!), an alarm in every room, plus a bunch of recreational stuff for the fire-fighters to use when they're just hanging out.

When your shift starts, you have to head down to the fire station. You can do basically whatever you want there until your shift starts. You could even just sit around eating and watching TV. However, if you prefer to do something more productive, you could maintain or upgrade the fire engine and maintain the alarms around the station. Alternatively, you could hang out with your co-workers, or hit the gym in the basement to keep yourself in shape.

Whatever you're doing, when that alarm starts ringing you'd better get to the fire engine - and fast. Of course, if you're upstairs, you can slide down the pole to get back to the ground floor really, really fast. Well, you could just hang around a bit longer, after all you haven't finished your sandwich yet... mmmm sandwich... ok ready now, did someone say fire?

Save the day! And impress the ladies...

Depending on how well you've maintained your fire engine you'll either zoom to the scene of the fire, or you'll be overtaken by your elderly mother en route. All of the jobs my Sim went on were small house fires, however Grant told us that that there are plenty of other different kinds of fire that your Sim might get called out to help with.

Upon arriving at the scene, your Sim can start to extinguish the fire. Or they can take a few pieces of furniture first. Y'know, you can just tell them it was burnt. They'll never know. Once you've put the fire out, you'll be given a grade depending on how long it took you to deal with the fire, and you'll be graded accordingly.

And for those of you wondering - yes, you can buy the fire pole for your Sims' houses, without them necessarily being in that profession. I had a pole going from my Sims' bedroom into the kitchen. It was sweeeeeet.

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I'm going to cut this review off here, for now, because it's getting rather late and... wow look how much stuff I still have to write about... new traits, laundry, and three more professions, and "more", as they say. So you've read all this? On to part two then...

Patterns - Help me help you!

You may have noticed some of my older patterns aren't working in your game any more. I was sort of holding on, hoping that maybe we'd get a magical server-side fix for patterns like we did for the clothing that didn't install. But no such luck!

So I'm going to go through my old patterns, and remake the ones that aren't working. Luckily, I keep all my source files backed up! Please please please, if you have any patterns of mine which are not working, or won't install, respond to this blog post and tell me which pattern(s) are problematic for you.

I'll keep this list updated daily with the patterns that have been fixed so you can go and redownload any that you're missing.

Known broken patterns

All reported patterns have been fixed - please leave a comment to let me know of any more!

Fixed patterns

• Time After Time
  
• Time After Time (smaller)
  
• Time After Time (tiny)
  
• Towelling
  
• Satin
  
• Diagonal Wool Stripes
  
• Supersoft Chenille
  
• Shag Pile Carpet
  
• Memory
  
• Forget-me-nots
  
• Lucky Day (smaller)
  
• Lucky day
  
• Funky Pretty Flowers
  
• Groovy - Horizontal
  
• Groovy
  
• Crest Crown Molding
  
• Leafy Panelling with Leaf Striped Wallpaper
  
• Reminders 1
  
• Reminders 2
  
• Textured Wallpaper 2
  
• Textured Wallpaper 1
  
• Rope Twist Panel Molding
  
• Rope Twist Kick Molding
  
• Rope Twist Crown Molding
  
• Chinese Symbol Tiles (all) 
• Big Marbled Tiles

Patch broke my gaaaame!

Ok, something very strange is happening at my house this Christmas. My Sims 3 game worked fine with all CC apart from hair after the latest patch, and it even let me install new stuff.

But since yesterday evening, I'm suddenly unable to install anything at all. The launcher says successfully installed, but then the items don't show up as being installed, and don't show in game.

Obviously this makes things seriously different when it comes to making new CC. I'm creating and creating but I'm unable to test or take screenshots of anything, or do any fine tweaking, because I can't see what it looks like in the game!

Therefore I apologise in advance because I am about to attempt lot building again, to vent my creative frustrations, and we all know how that turned out last time.

Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year!

BG

Festive fun at The Sim Shack

Want to get into the festive spirit? Or just been given more holiday than you know what to do with and need somewhere to wile away the hours? Why not come on down to The Sim Shack and join in the festivities.

http://www.thesimshack.com/

The Sim Shack is a Sims community with the emphasis on chatter and fun, why not come check it out today? (Plus, jaws has this totally awesome upside down Christmas tree. I'm not kidding, it looks great! She posted up a picture in the general chat area!)