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Sims 3 Ambition Preview

On Friday may 21st I was very fortunate to tag along with Angela to the Dutch preview of Sims 3 Ambitions (much love to her and of course the Dutch EA for inviting her in the first place).

We played with a dutch version of the game so the English translation may be wrong, tell me so that I can fix that :) Also this was not the final version of the game, so there were bugs (fog inside the house?).

I have a feeling EA is going a new route with The Sims 3 expansion packs, with Sims 1 and 2 they expanded onto the game but the original game was still the main way of playing. With Sims 3 they add completely new angles of playing. This was shown in world adventures and has happened again with ambitions.

The new occupations are just a tip of the iceberg that they added, Blackgarden has a very good preview of these in her blog. As we only had a 2.5 hour preview, I did not have time to play with everything, so I will only discuss the things that I played with myself or either amused me severely that the other people played with.

Professions

The first notable difference with professions is how the career menu is shown, work progress bar has changed, you cannot go into the negative! Technically, you build up work experience now, instead of performing well or not. And instead of smileys for each thing that influences your performance, you now get simple icons explaining things that improve your work experience.

By far, very FAAAAAAR and maybe even further the most amusing thing I saw was from the private investigator profession. Your sim can go on a stake out, this in every detective tv show I have seen means you sit in a car hidden and just watch a building. In the humorous world of EA this ‘stake out’ means your sim stands in the middle of a lot, displaying all the subtlety of an elephant in ballet shoes, gets a branch with leaves in each hand and holds it in front of him-/herself and voilà covertly hidden sim! So hidden that other sims do not even notice your sim when her phone rings. I was laughing for like 5 minutes about that, it is so funny.

Side information from Blackgarden:  Grant told them at UK preview how they came up with the stake out, apparently there is a guy who dresses up as a bush and stands in an empty park in SF. And it's like a TOTALLY empty park, no foliage anywhere.

The rest of the private investigation profession is similar to an adventure in WA, but in your home hood.  You can also increase your work experience by building up skills.

I also played with the fire-fighter profession, for a lot of the working ‘day’ you sit around and just lounge at the firestation. Chat with co-workers, bounce on the trampoline (more on that later), maintain the fire truck (I wonder what happens if you don’t maintain it, does it breaks down on the way to a fire.. and the house burns down? Something to try later...). ALARM!!!! Seriously, it is super loud, do not get deaf from the fire alarm. EA should add warning signs about that in the game.

You jump onto the big fire truck and go to the house that is on fire, when my sim arrived there she was a good girl and put out the fire. AnoeskaB’s sim was not such a good guy, he started stealing from the poor sim!  Can be even worse, instead of using a fire extinguisher you can also destroy the object to put out the fire... effective I suppose, not very nice.

Dumdi dum GHOSTBUSTERS! Something strange in the neighbourhood.. Who you gonna call? GHOST BUSTERS! If you think I am a fool here spraying nonsense, be ashamed of yourself, it means you have not seen the brilliant ghost busters movies. So yes, there is ghost hunting in this game! And it is very similar to how it is done in the ghost busters movie. Your sim gets called by the owner of a haunted house, sim goes there and finds the ghosts (who look more like the green colored ‘bad’ ghosts in Casper), your sim zaps it with a cool looking zapping gun (I am sure it has a more proper name, but I did not check) and then has 1 ghost in his inventory bag. You can then give it a name or release it.

Then we come to the inventor, I did not play with this much myself, but my neighbour at the preview did. He got his sim to such a high level he could blow things up to get some scrap. This blowing up of things is not a small thing, blowing up car is BOOM! This neighbour was a guy (cheetah)  who thought blowing things up was so much fun, he went around the neighbourhood and destroyed everyone’s car!! He got caught once and was asked to leave for misbehaving... just a minor behaviour problem. Then moved onto a community lot and started blowing up tables, at least he got some punishment for this, a fine. His sim did not even get in touch with law enforcement.

Then another person at the preview made a time machine and created a baby that started at teen years. I wish I had more time to play with the inventor myself... it sounds very funny.

For the other professions I refer you to Blackgardens preview, I did not play with them. There is also a confusing bit about how much your sim gets paid, they get paid for each job but.. also get a weekly salary? Something to check.

Other new things

I did play with some objects, like the trampoline. Warning for all the parents who have a trampoline at home, do not let your children play with the trampolines in game, it will give them the wrong idea. The sim regular jumping action on the trampoline is already hilarious! But they can also fall off (I think I saw that once, it went fast), somersault and it looks just hilarious. But I noticed the sim jumps near the side of a trampoline instead of in the middle.. very safe....

Laundry is a cute touch that they added to the game, there is an even a laundromat where you can wash your clothes if you don’t own a laundry machine yourself.  You can also sculpt and make money that way, I did not play with this so much. I did find it funny how enormous the block of clay is that your sim starts with and the eventual object can be tiny... very typical Sims humour.

I did look around the new neighbourhood a bit, it is called TwinBrooks and has a more darky/dirty bit to it (aka, swamps – cyclonesue is going to like them). This darky mood is also created with a fog object, from the buydebug menu. In total there are 5 new community lot types:

Laundromat

Firestation

Junkjard

Beauty salon

Meeting point? Dutch translation was hang plek (literally 'hanging about spot') in game it was like  a cafe but in Dutch hang plek means a place where (bad) kids hang about do nothing/skip school... they should change that name I think.

Last community lot is the Consignment Store.The Consignment Store allows your inventor/sculptor/painter to sell their goods, they give it to the store and when another sim buys it, your sim gets money. It’s not an automatic sell, which I personally found cute. It’s a small detail that EA did keep in mind.

If you load sunset valley or riverview, you will get the option to add these community lots, so the neighbourhoods are still compatible.

In CAS I found new hairs! Very cute hair for females, not so much cute clothes – but blackgarden has told me they may be in the salon in game not in CAS. And I found something I wanted but forgot to ask EA! You got influence on your sims makeup with the use of transparency! No more fighting with the colors to make the makeup not THAT bold.. just use the transparency slider.

Something for the builders that I found: columns can be 1, 2 or 3 stories high, just by changing a slider. I also saw new terrain paints and trees and possibly plants. You can adjust the height of each roof individually, allowing more freedom with them. You can also add ceilings now and that was all the build stuff I found, there could be more.

Your sim can also buy community lots, there was something similar before, you could own a rabit hole. Now you own the entire lot, this means you can change the name of the lot, and build/buy on it. Also, a community lot has 3 levels. The higher the level the higher the more profit from that lot your sim gets. I do not know how this works exactly, cause in my mind – a park is free to use so no profit from that. This is something we will have to see when we got the game.  

So we got the wonderful create a world tool, but it is tricky to use and some real effort needs to be put into it to learn it. Now you can also edit the neighbourhood, add trees everywhere and new lots of different sizes with the in-town editing tools, very useful if you just want a little change.

And last there is a new education career, did not play with this but I am glad they added it.

Fantastic

They gave things for builders, players, decorators and did it all with humour. I am glad to see they know on how many different ways people play the game and catered for all of them. We all can be very happy with this EP ^_^ EA went all out yet again, fantastic.

Ps. You can put a hole on your property from the buydebug menu and then your sim can fill it up ... I am not sure how useful this is.

Pps. EA please give us back collections, pretty please, I miss collections.

It's Friday

I'm honestly very happy that the end of the week is here. Though chances are I'll have to work on Sunday (and had to work today), Saturday is my day off and I want nothing more than to relax in the house under the AC. More than likely I'll read some of the tutorials. I really wanna create a skirt. Lol, or change the logo on an exsisting shirt. Wish me luck.

Old Fashioned Community Lots

Finally I have begun to upload these lots! The Arts District will come out first, beginning with Theatre in the Park, followed by the Museum of Historical Societies and then the Theatre Royale. Next will be the Victorian Grocer's Market, which is funny since it is the last lot I started! But it is finished and ready to go. After that will be City Hall and last will be the six main street lots. I'm stilled tweaking those. I have changed a few of the buildings around, like putting the spa next to the lady's shop and a fitness center next to the gentleman's club. There are eleven lots altogether in the series. I may add others later, but these will be it for now. I have made a park in place of the graveyard, but it it very sparse and simple. I have also taken out the center lots and made them into old fashioned paved streets. If anyone wants those lots, I will certainly upload them as well. I'll post pictures of those in my gallery.

poll

thanks to fobmroweczka and Sandra for filling out my poll :o)

My Thoughts on The Sims 3..

I have been playing The Sims 3 since it first came out i find it brilliant!! but there are a few things that i think should be in it im not saying it should be like Sims 2 but there are things missing that will make it a i lil bit better. Firstly i think the Sims 3 should have a diving board and should be able to dive there should be a tool that lets you have round corners on the pool. i love the fact you can create a sim exactly how you want it but i miss going to clothes shop and buying the clothes or having woohoo in the changing rooms..

My favourate bits of the sims 3 are been able to move around the neighbourhood going to other sims houses having a picknik in the park or fishing i miss getting sun burnt or freezing and sweeping the leaves up all though i love the fact you can go to other countries and have different adventures and i cant wait untill ambitions comes out.

Clutter

Before the old styled office will come, I will publish a breakfast clutter set! Here the loaf.. ((:

hey ya!

Hiya all, it's pretty warm here in the UK for the time of year, I have been doing some work outside today, laying the foundations for a wall I am going to build shortly..if only life was as easy in the real world as it is in the Sims world, I could just drag and drop the darned wall without as much as a care in the world for foundations. Wonder if there has ever been a case of subsidence in Pleasant valley?

I dont know if our friends in other parts of the world have to suffer scrap merchants trawling the neighbourhood in a lorry looking for scrap..we do here in the UK  and when they are in your area they blow a flipping trumpet to let you know that they are about. My god what a racket, not one note in tune! you would think that with all the practice that they get during  their 'career' they could go on to perform 'En fermant les yeux '  at the Royal Albert hall when they retire, but so far I have yet to hear of one. If the one who has been around here this morning keeps it up I am gonna shove his flaming trumpet where the sun don't shine.

 okies my lovelies, thats my moan for the day, catch you guys real soon!!..happy Simming!

Weekend.. full of promise

Not much planned. Except probably clean the house and then catch up with a friend.

Lady Antebellum -Need You Now- in simlish

It's incredible! Watch video on Youtube.

Poll Results

Well, well, well, it's that time again. I think it's time I posted the results of my current poll and put up a new one. I got a great response from my Sims 2 or Sims 3 stories poll and as you can see, the results are below:

Thank you to all the participants of this poll and I'm very glad that I have a selection of both Sims 2 and Sims 3 stories to satisfy those with preferences. And for those of you who don't like to read the stories, I guess my site isn't very helpful for you ;-) But thanks for visiting!

I now have a new poll up called Story Chapters which I hope will help me understand how you prefer to read stories. If you have time, why not pop over and put forward your opinion?

Thanks again!

Romance Bedroom & Pictures Uploaded of New Bheliom Family

Yay! I was able to purchase the Kudos Romance Bedroom today! I'll be able to try it out tonight, which should be nice. According to the reviews, it should be well worth the 5,000 Kudos points I spent.

I also uploaded a couple pictures of my newly re-created Bheliom family. I put them in a new Neighborhood (MUCH larger), re-created the Sims and added one more adult, so that I can try out another career (as well as making the game a tad more difficult). Plus, with Ambitions coming out...I may want to try out some of those new careers. I am already planning on having the two teens, Alean and Lyla taking on the Inventor and Ghost-Hunting Careers, respectively. We shall see. Only two more weeks until release! (and my birthday is Saturday! - not that I expect anything - no $$$ for the past few years, and that hasn't changed this year, but that's ok. I will be getting Ambitions when it comes out. Sucks that my wife's b-day is the 26th and I have no $$ to get her anything...and the 30th or 31st - I forget - is our Anniversarry... - oh well. Life goes on. At least we are together and surviving).

The Drifter - Finale Published

Yes you read right, the final part of The Drifter has been published. I just wanted to write a short blog post to thank everyone who followed The Drifter and all the wonderful comments that everyone has left. Your support has been over whelming and I really appreciate it. That goes to TSR as well, for the opportunity to have our stories published and featuring them on the front page.

I have become quite fond of Will & Eliza and think that I'll continue to play them right up until they pass on. (Not sure when that will be though as I have aging turned off! lol) I probably won't do a follow up story as I have a couple of new ideas that I'd like to start on soon, but I will upload some snaps later to update everyone - if you are intrested.

First though I will take little break from writing. I have created a couple of new sims and a new lot that I'd like to submit (which I have been working on since February), but I'll be sure to let you know when I have another story out.

Thanks again everyone,

~ Jen xo  ;)  

1st entry in storytelling

My first story submitted. Come back for more :))))

My Latest Projects - Sneak Peak Time!

Hi all!

Yes, I've been busy doing some more paintings and thought I would post a few sneak peaks of some new sets I've been working on that will be uploaded very shortly.

The first set is ideal for all those sports loving, athletic sims, especially the teens:

Secondly, a little something aimed at those teen girls with a bit of an attitude, or who just like to express themselves!

Then I have two homely paintings:

And finally for now, it's 'Time To Unwind' after a busy day:

Hope you like them - feedback, comments and suggestions are always welcome!

Enjoy! 

Sorry

Hi everyone

I'm off work next week (finally) and i am hoping to create more walls and floors to share with you and spend more time on TSR.

Just been pre-occupied with family stuff at the moment.

Thank you for your patience.

New set coming!

This will be my (maybe) next set! It´s an old inspired office with some touch of modernity! Here the first mesh...

Creating banners for you!

If you want a banner, let me know.

:D

Why there are 200.000 reasons to say thank you!

OMG! I´ve reached 200.000 downloads today!!    

Thank you everyone who had downloaded, thanked and commented my creations! I truly appreciate it! 

Starter lots - Riverside and Kiwi

Riverside and Kiwi are both starters, but they are different in and outside.
Riverside is a pretty cottage-style lot, fully furnished, but with the cheapest items. If you are looking for this kind of challenge, this lot is perfect for you to play: everything is included, no store, no custom content, you will get everything like on the picture. But when I played with this lot, I found a little bit hard to enjoy everything in my sim's life, because she was always tired, hungry, missed fun and some comfortable objects - like a good shower. But I saved some money for decorating the garden.
So, I tried to create an easy-to-play lot, a non-usual starter with high level objects, where my sim can get a little more free time. I used highest level stove, and nearly the highest fridge and shower, mid-level double bed, and dishwasher. TV, counters, loveseat, mirror, and other items aren't the cheapest, and added some decoration - flowers and curtains, too. I tried to save money where I can - for example I recoloured the cheapest wallpaper (swimming pool's tiles - costs only 3), and floor (costs 4) and recoloured with patterns. Of course I had not too much money for the garden, so I used "free" items to make something with it: terrain paints, a lake and some cheap flowers was the all I can do. But I think, if you want to play with a starter, that's not the most important thing. When I finished, I moved my sim in it, and she felt much better! That's what I wanted to see.

*Known issue: bookcase is not working with the wallplants above, so please move it to another place. In my game I use a desk under this, and it works well although there're nott too much free place between the wallplant and the laptop.

UPCOMING - TODDLER OUTFIT - REBEL GIRL

I thought it will be nice to have some new outfits for the little ones so I created this one yesterday. There are four recolorable outfits in the upcoming pack - 2x printed upper shirt , 1x without print and 1x without print and second shirt. I created Converse - All Star for toddlers, too. I will probably upload them in few days, as soon as I finish the preview. :)

Problems with my files

I have had quite a few people telling me that some of the files I had posted showed distorted arms.

I just want to let everyone know that I figured out what the problem was, and will replace the files in time soon.

If anyone wants a particular item fixed really soon let me know.

I actually would be thankful if people would let me know which files are not ok, as they have always showed up right on my

computers.

Seeing Spots

Seeing spots on Plates

ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS!!!!!

Hi all!!!

I Have just reached a huge milestone ONE MILLION DOWNLOADS!!!!

When I first started submitting TS2 creations and more recently TS3 creations here, I never dreamt I would ever have this many downloads. I was thrilled when I got my 1st download so you can imagine how I feel right now....You guys have made all the late nights well worth it!!!

I would like to say a mega BIG THANK YOU to all the members here at TSR who have liked my custom content enough to want it in their game...!!!

THANK YOU!!!   THANK YOU!!!

Lorraine xxxxxxxxxxxx

hello,replica handbags

To say Bayh lacks Nelson's steady hand on the wheel is a bit of an understatement. The two really interesting data points, however, are the 109th Congress, which stretched from 2005 to replica handbags 2007, and the 110th Congress, which ended in January of this year. In the 109th Congress, Bayh's replica handbags  voting pattern suddenly develops replica handbags an uncharacteristic liberalism. He becomes the 19th most conservative member, with a record more liberal than, replica handbags among others, Joe Biden. As context, these were also the years when Bayh was preparing for the presidential run that he eventually aborted.

In the 110th Congress, however, that flash of liberalism gives way to a career-high conservatism: He actually displaces Nelson as the Caucus's most conservative member. He's running for reelection in Indiana this replica handbags year, but this is also the year that Indiana's tectonic plates shift and the state chooses that replica handbags  Obama guy. So I'm not replica handbags  going to pretend that I fully understand the motivations behind the sharp swings in Bayh's voting record.Bbut   replica handbags they're undeniably present, and seem to be keyed to political campaigns. Bayh is much steadier replica handbags during the 107th and 108th Congresses, when no elections loom.

One day. . . .

I told myself that one day I'll be creating things that hundreds of thousands of simmers, like me, will want to download. However I feel that this is a feat that may not happen. It's actually hard. I tried. And while I'm far from giving up, I am going to read all that I can about creating custom content.

Hair..again

I'm looking for sims 3 hair. If anyone know's of any good sites that'd be great thank you!

thought as much!

Well........Just a line to apologise profusely for inflicting you all with the hideous pictures that I made...let me explain how they came to be. It all started when I was standing on my toilet to fix the chain when suddenly I slipped hitting my head on the way down..it was then that I had the vision of a 'flux capacitor' ...hang on, sorry, that was the film I was watching last night, something about going back to the future or something. Come to think of it, that would'nt be such a bad idea at the moment, I could go back in time and kill my art teacher before he has the chance to pass on his 'talents' to me. Thing is though, if I did do that it would mean ruining thousands of photographs  as the art teachers children in them would start fading and disappearing at an alarming rate ...or would they? Lets not go there or we will never have time for our Sims!

I have been making some Pictures today actually, I have made a set of four pictures by the Artist John William Waterhouse so you may want to keep your eyes open for those, they really are very nice. The next thing I am going to make is a nice cup of tea..so toodlepip my lovlies and in the words of the prisoner...I'll be seein ya! x

Birkins by Bunny

Continuing my third wedding anniversary leather theme, I have created a set of gorgeous Birkin bags. I've been fascinated by Birkin bags ever since watching Samantha's struggle to get her hands on one in Sex & The City and was delighted to be given a bag in this style as an anniversary gift by my husband (not a real Birkin!). I've fallen in love with these bags - they're just so stylish and come in so many different colours and textures. I've created eight bags and have attempted to represent a cross section of the huge variety available. A real life Birkin may be unaffordable, but happily this is not so for your Sims!

Thank you to NataliS for her wonderful mesh which you can download here at TSR - and don't forget to check out her own re-colours of the mesh which are beautiful.

You will find the bags located in the glasses section in the game.

Crossed the 10k page views!

Wow, I feel so honored... Thank you so much<3

Hugs, 

Senja

Welcome!

Here is my latest set, it is a hall (thanks to Daniel! ) ;

IM BACK!

After taking a absense from TSR i am back

and can i say thanks for 90000 downloads on my items!!! You guys are awesom!

New clothes comming soon, billabong shirt and trunks, keep checking my minisite for more!

Thanks Blake :D

Vacation homes

I've always been the kind of Simmer who wanted to live like my Sims. I mean, they are apart of my life. So when looking for a great vacation home, it has to be the best.

My family, the McGhee's, are fairly rich. The father, James, is a few visa points away from being able to have citizenship in China. (took a long time. Many burns, passing out from lack of sleep, etc.) So now I'm on the lookout to find a great themed home for his family to spend the time in. I can't wait!

LOL - My sim is not likeable

The sim that I am playing at the moment Gary Blieke is a big tech nerd (and came with the game) not really sociable and all that - so I took him on vacation to Three Lakes in Bon Voyage, he only made one new friend and the rest of them didn't want to talk to him. Quite funny. At one point I let him do his own networking but he just kept cracking onto the men and ladies. LOL Oh dear.

My biggest problem with that Sim is he is pretty lazy and he has a small and re-furbished bachelar apartment, so keeping that clean is important - so having to re-direct him to do the task gets a big groany and monay response - I could always just hire a maid for him -but she'll probably may not like him either!!

Have a nice day!

selenarocks552

thanks

marilynmonroe and happygirl, thank you both for filling out my poll - much appreciated :o)

Part 3 update!!!!

I'm sorry that i haven't written the story in awhile. I have been way busy and still having problems with the house, but i do still have someone helping me so i hope i it'll be fixed soon. I will definitely finish it at some point and again i'm sorry!!

Regulation

Regulation Table and Floor Lamps

Feline Friends

I thought all you TS3 cat lovers would like to take a look at my new picture set. The set will be available soon to download...I hope you like them.. Lorraine

GOD IM SO THICK!

I CAN'T EVEN BEGIN TO SAY HOW STUPID I AM! I BROKE MY LAPTOP BY STRANDING ON IT, AND I CANT COMPLETE THE SECOND CHAPTER OF 'Not that bad' GRRRR, WELL I SWARE WHEN ITS FIXED I WILL GET IT OUT AS SOON AS POSSABLE!

I got my banner!

I watched eagerly as the Kudos meter in the corner finally clicked onto the 3000 points mark...Yipeee..I can have my banner! The very same banner that has been sitting in a dusty old folder on my desktop for many an eon..well ok, for two days. I couldn't wait to go find it and proudly post it on my minisite. I would love to say that it was the proudest moment in my life and thank my parents and partner who have given me so much support during my time as a bannerless member of TSR...but that would be silly, so I wont.

Also I have dared to create some original paintings in my painter classic and psp programs, I have posted them but half expect to be pelted with rotten eggs for my efforts..time will tell, I may be surprised.then again...I will most probabaly wont!

I was really impressed by the amount of members here at TSR who have a real liking for the likes of William Turner. I have recently made some Turner paintings..(let me quickly point out that when I say 'made some Turner paintings' I did'nt mean I have been in the basement with some moody canvas and oil paints burning the midnight oil heading up an international arts forgey racket..) I mean that I have posted some facsimiles of some Turner paintings on here for you lot and your sims to enjoy! The response was so good that I have made and posted another five for your delight. You will be able to download them in a Cpl of days or so.

Right, thats me done for now, I am going to visit my granny because she has had all her teeth out and a gas cooker put in today..poor dear!

see you soon my lovelies! TTFN

ps..was a lie about my granny, she died in 1976

I'll do anything ____No oops :'(

Right here it goes Im not enjoying writing it :S I did and now Just as I was about to finish the first chapter I dont like it so If it is alright with you I may not continue with it I have got an amazing Idea and maybe after that I will go back to it....Maybe :S sorry guys I will try n I promise you this idea is amazing I hope you will enjoy it yet again thanks n sorry it shall be good :L please dont be mad I will try to get back to it eventually but plz :) thanks