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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.
New to TSR (and this blog thing-a-majig)
Waz up peps!
This is my first day on TSR (and entry on this blog) and i got a mansion on Sims 3 :D Note:I only got Sims 3
18/04/11
Just started to use TSR.
Been busy learning and making CCs. Finialy master how to use milkshape, and begin to working on learning how to make clothes before I try to learn animation.
Hey
Hey everyone!
I can't describe how happy I am to see that I was bookmarked as an Artist by some of you. I should say I haven't played sims since the year I submitted my last project. I was super busy with university as I had to lessen play time and invested that time in learning extraordinary things. Let me tell you what I have been doing the past 3 years. I am currently a Computer System Engineering student in Canada. I can honestly tell you that I never programmed in my life but I LOVED my program so much that I didn't want to change. Right now I have 1 more year to go and I can't wait to finish my Bachelor's degree, work for few months and then get my Masters and Ph.D. Yes, my plan is to become a university professor in hopefully less than 10 years :P( a goal?) .
Anyways, coming back on the Sims Resource encouraged me to go back to simming and creating, which I truely love. So in addition to simming and creating ( which I will be doing for sims 2 only), I will be learning ASL(American Sign Language) which I am very excited to learn this summer. So be patient :) because I need to reinstall the game and get my skills back :P.
Thanks a lot for the amazing support and I wish everyone an amazing summer and happy simming.
Sousa1516
A modern lot...
Someday this month, a new modern lot will be released.
Its name is Modern Dean.
Its licence is located here
OH SNAP! A 3.8 wating? Hell No!
A few days ago I commented on spladoum's blog about having random down-rates on stories here on the site. I told her that if it happened to me "I'd search the whole interwebs and beat that troll."
I don't mind recieving a 3 rating as long as I get a comment on what to improve on. However, giving a 3 to a decent story that obviously show some effort without a note is simply wrong.
And before you think I'm butthurt from a stupid number, think again. How would you feel for being rated a 3 when you've always scored 5s and 4s? It's like receiving day-old leftovers while you were in a fancy restaurant. D:
Anyways, I don't plan to hunt the troll down, if there is one. Feh, what could a 3 do? I have you guys :]
A special thank you too, to Mangio for still reading my brainbabies!
Love,
Zen
Sorry about long delay.
The next addition to my legacy should be in in a matter of a few weeks. Sorry about the delay though I just got a new job and won't have so much time to do it. But please keep posted for the next addition.
Work on progress
Hello fellow simmers!
I am currently working on my first meshing project. I have pretty much finished a column and 2 half columns. I will post a preview picture in next few days. The plans are making this into a set of few columns, fences and wallpapers... its not set in stone yet. The style of the set is scandinavian (finnish), material wood, theme country manor.
HELLO EVERYONE
I JUST WANT EVERYONE TO KNOW HAVE A GREAT AND SAFE WEEKEND AND THE SRING IS HERE SO WATCH THE ROAD DRIVING THERE OTHER OUTSIDE DRIVING CRAZY AND THEY BEEN ON THERE PHONE'S ALOT AND THEY AREN'T WATCHING THE ROAD SO JUST WATCH OUT TO ALL AND YAY!! SPRING IS HERE TIME TO GET THE PLANTING DONE HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND :D
Thank you!
Thanks everyone for the nice comments you left me for becoming an SA! I was so excited! I hope that I can continue to get better at creating and that you continue to like my creations!!
Missing Blogs
Greetings Everyone,
Does anyone know where i can find other users blogs at?
Thanks Brooklyn ...
Kudo Store Buy's
Greeting Everyone,
I have a huge question and i need a little help here ... As a novice to the world of TSR i find it really hard to spend my hard earned kudos .... Im not sure on what just yet ...
what should i buy first to spruce up my page so that it could look atleast nice ... lol ????
Thanks everyone ... brooklyn ...
Submitting your work for Kudos ...
Greetings Everyone,
Does anyone know if submitting your own creations will earn you more Kudo's if people download them ....
Thanks, Brooklyn ...
Whoa!
Hi TSR lurkers,
I cannot believe how inactive I have been here over the past year..I remember that TSR was THE birthplace of my creativity involving Sims. I have learned so much since I've been gone that I am totally ashamed of my old uploads. ASHAMED.
Not that anyone will read this,
but is there a way to remove all of my old uploads? I'd like to start out with a fresh, clean slate.
See you,
xtina
Simple how to ? ...
Greetings everyone,
This is my first blog, kind of unsure how to start one the correct way but i have a question;
Does anyone know how to connect their facebook to their TSR to get the 300 points? ....
Thanks everyone ... Brooklyn
Progress
Hey almost finshed my stealth door Yahh!!:) just need to transfer the textures over. Also found out during testing that the window lights have been fixed in workshop and now work so i will be updating my modern Garages with the lighting all fixed. My thanks to the workshop programers should have more stuff finished soon decided it was better to finish 1 project then move on rather than trying to make 4 or 5 things at once
Clothing Tutorials?
Hello Everyone! :]
I have managed to learn how to create few makeup items for the Sims 3. Pretty proud of that since I'm still new to photoshop and TSR workshop. But I am looking for any clothing tutorials to help me get into it. If you know any please share with me or even if you could somehow help me woul be great!
Happy simming!
NEW content soon
I'm preparing some new content for the sims 3. I'll be uploading them soon, you are going to love them :)
I'm Back to Writing :]
Hello fellow simmers, missed me? Because I missed you! I've been away due to school and an itsy bitsy scare-a-thon from the amount of sims 3 stories in the storytelling section. I wasn't sure if my sims 2 stories would be much appreciated as before, but that was a thing of the past because I'm writing something new again.
Yes, new. You all know me and my countless hard drive crashes.
Yes, there shall be gay sims. Although I don't intend it, my game does it for me. You know that boolprop cheat that lets you know what gender they prefer for a partner? That. Whenever I use that on my male sims they always say:
"My default gender preferance is for Males."
I swear. That notice bubble never failed to crack me up because there was always a trend! If my male sim looks effeminite (or even not, just ridiculously handsome in a manly way) they're automatically gay. The rest - like Goopy GilsCarbo, were straight XD
Anyways, this new project is...short. I'll make sure its's short! I'll make sure I finish this thing! No more over 10 chapters! No! That's ridiculous! I don't even know how I got that far with Lorel----*breaks down and cries* OMG we were so near to the end!
Let's hope we don't have any more crashes!
So wish me luck :]
-Zen
Why I read serialized novels only after the last part has been released
I guess it has happened to everyone at least once. Reading a fantastic, absorbing book or watching a great movie that ends with a "to be continued". But the next installment isn't available yet. So you have to wait. Impatiently. For an increasingly frustrating long time. For me, it's like starting to count the days until christmas 6 months in advance. That's why I shy away from serialized stories if I know they are not completed yet. When Robert Jordan died and the mourning faded away I took a sad look at my 13 or so books of his "Wheel of Time" series I already owned. I hadn't started to read them yet, because I knew the story (which was initially promised to be spread over just 12 books) hadn't been finished - and now it seemed the story would never become so. What a relief I hadn't started to read them. Later it turned out a Brandon Sanderson (whom I had never heard of, shame over me) took the responsibility to write the last chapters. So this story about my "Wheel of Time" book collection will have a happy ending. But it was a close call. I won't bother you with recollections of some truly-never-finished-but-started-to-read stories in my past. I just want to point out what I am talking about.
I mention it because our Sims story section has the same problem, albeit to a much lesser degree, since the stories are shorter and usually all chapters are released over a few weeks or months time. Reading them doesn't take a lot of time, too, so I read most of the stories without any concerns regarding their state of being unfinished yet. BTW I am currently way behind with reading, because I don't read many stories at all these days (due to short-term job reasons), but that's a different topic.
Still, there are some excellent writers at TSR that do write long stories. And usually I "take the risk" and start to read them immediately (except at the moment), because I trust them to complete the story and I like their way of writing so much. Plus I think they know about their responsibility as authors to finish their stories, even if this is an unfair deal (because their counterpart, the reader, doesn't have a similar responsibility and much much less work than the writer creating the story).
So I know about the pain of a reader waiting for a continuation and about the responsibility of a storywriter. Nonetheless I took a try myself at writing a very long serialized novel. And here we are at my feeling of guiltyness: My Sparklewood story is still uncompleted for some months now. Unfortunately, I haven't found the time to finish it - yet. The outline of the story is done, but the stage bulding, picture shooting and dialogue writing is far from being completed. This blog entry is my way to say sorry for the waiting. Sparklewood is still in the making and I have still all intentions to finish it. But sometimes life's priorities prevent us from doing the fun things. So please bear with me. Or start reading Sparklewood only after I have published the last part :)
I followed a Ghost Today!
I wanted to see where they go...instead of hanging around in the graveyard, they all seem to jump in their (not so ghostly) cars and speed off somewhere leaving my sim wondering how they are supposed to take pictures of more than one ghost at a time..so today I followed one..Basil somebody or other..in his car he got and sped off towards the town centre of SV..drove on past and parked up at an empty Sims house..obviously nobody lived there so I wasn't suprised when he didn't ring the door bell, but he did go round the back of the house and disappeared inside...does this mean that is where he used to live until EA bumped him off?
If I moved a sim into that house would they meet him or would he no longer go to the house? Hmm, questions, questions....
Kim
Hope you guys enjoy my newest house, that will be comming out soon! Its made for my good friend kim, hope you guys like it!
-2 bedrooms
-4 bathrooms
Hi again..
No one really reads this, but I felt I should blog anyway.
So...Hiya! I'm back from my none post-y hideout- but there will be no more Magic Schmagic. Sorry. I've started this new story which is mostly written already- in the Sims 3. So, keep an eye out
Bye!
Artsysimaddict
Things that Should work...
So, we're just about to get a new Expansion Pack...which is good, as I think we're overdue (aren't I greedy!), and it looks like it could be good one...but...Why are there still things in the game that Still don't work!? We all have a different style of play, but most of the little issues affect most people at some point....
Number One: Why is it still telling me that my game launcher isn't working? It is working..the game loads..I'm playing it..It's there in front of my face..yet it tells me nearly every time I play that it isn't! Which isn't too much of a bad thing, I know, but on my PC it logs every problem every time it happens..I have a log stuffed full of Launcher problems!!
Number Two: I want to play several families, this is supposed to be what the game is about (isn't it? the fact that the storyline continues?!) and if I do their houses disappear so it looks like I have an empty hood, which means: A: it looks Poo..and B: I can't take screenshots!! It's not my PC, it can handle all the graphics wazzed up, so why the disappearing lots..I've stopped playing multiple families bacause of this. (Boooo!)
Number Three: Barnacle Bay. I love it. I love the layout. But why all the celebs?! The celeb thing is ok if I want to play Bridgeport...I expect them..But Barnacle Bay? Is that why they've brought out a new version?? (Booo!)
Number Four: WA..the Adventure Boards (I've seen a lot of comments about this)..to be fair I only have a real problem with France at the moment..But I can't complete all the tombs..I tried moving my entire Sim Family and house to a new game..But now there are NO adventures!! PLease fix that EA, it's driving me nuts...
I'm sure that I could go on allllll day (but I'll sound like a whingey Cow!) but to be honest, the reason I keep coming back, time and time again..is that I love the Sims. I've been playing since Sims1 came out, and I've seen the changes and updates and it has got better and better with each version..but it would be nice if all those little niggly things, that seem to have been around for a while, were fixed..I'd love to play a perfect game :-)
Art Deco Project - Delayed because of RL
Because of real life issues this project is slightly delayed but I think I will be able to resume meshing this week. I just hope that I can remember where I left off. My memory good but very short, lol.
Another Real Life Interruption:
Hey guys,
I've taken a few weeks off to help my sister with her latest project. This house that she's working on is so cool, I will be attempting to build a game-version of it....
Sutton shutter
I just wanted to show you what my next set will be..... Matching Sutton Shutters... They will be available in all sizes for the Sutton windows. They also fit the Thorpe windows... and many more.
Hope you like them!!!!
Limited Time Offer
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