Anyway, today I came across some very interesting custom content… Fresh-Prince has been creating Vice City for The Sims 3 using the Create-A-World tool. One of the most striking features of this city is the new custom water Fresh-Prince has created.  It is a very long thread so I took the important bits…

Fresh-Prince: “I am currently working on a neighborhood that is based off of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City’s replica of Miami. The map I created is based off of GTA, but this was the largest i could make it, so it’s more of a mini version. I started this yesterday and love it so far, and I want to make it perfect. It is no where complete, but I figured I’d post it here to get feedback of it right now, how I can improve anything, and for future updates. So here are some pics of the mini Vice City with some Miami incorporated. Thanks for any feedback!”

Fresh-Prince: I think I fixed the islands in the middle, I had one of the roads/bridges wrong. And as for the skyscrapers, I know they don’t look wonderful, but thats all I could do to make it look like tall buildings, I need them for this City

As for the roads, do you suggest that I add an intersection everywhere the roads meet? I just think it would look weird with a intersection everywhere with white lines. The roads do work without intersections though. I’m not sure what to do. And here’s the top view again. I’m obviously more focused on the right side of the city for now.

I added all new beach and water with some techniques, and it looks great! Well, I think it does,lol. I love the color of the water.



I replaced and added buildings. Made some new “rivers’ in the city. I also did the water change for the whole neighborhood. That was extremely annoying, and I was actually going to give up. It took me about 7 hours to fix all the water. But I am very happy because it looks stunning in the game. I tried recreating that grass I’mSimalicious!, but I just couldn’t get it. And I lowered the water tower kiwi_tea. So I tested it actually in game with my sim, and just have some fun/pretty screens for you guys!
New decor lighthouse:

Sunset overview of City:

My sim overlooking the ocean:

My simmie sleeping at the “hotel’s” beach:

For the bridges, I decided to have that rock texture around it. Here’s a pic of the idea of it. And I’m not able to remove the land underneath it.

I think I finished everything that I did with the other Vice City, so I moved on to some new things. Right now I’m working on Leaf Links, which is a series of islands as a golf course. Here’s a golfing range that is in Vice City, where I believe it’s there so you can hit golf balls into the ocean.

Here’s an overview to the Leaf Links islands.

Here’s an random picture that I thought was cool, it’s a display at a furniture store.

And here’s a random house near the edge of the water:

There is no estimated release date at this stage. You can follow the whole thread here.

The game will not simply be ported over to the consoles, they will each have their own unique features and upgrades. I was never a big fan of the console versions but this time, I am looking forward to try them out.

The Sims 3 For consoles: Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3

Create Sims with unique personalities, fulfill their desires, and control their lives within a living neighborhood. Unlock all-new Karma Powers and unleash them on your Sims: help your Sim “get lucky,” bless them with “instant beauty” or curse them with an “epic fail.” But use these powers wisely, because they may have unexpected results! Design and build your Sims’ dream home and share your creations with others. As you guide your Sims through life you can complete challenges to unlock additional items, town upgrades, and new buildings and landmarks. For the first time ever, upload and download content on XBLA and PSN, including furnishings, houses, player creations, and more!

The Sims 3 For consoles: Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 Features

• Create any Sim you can imagine and give them unique personalities! Fine-tune your Sims’ appearances and create millions of different personalities. Make them evil, romantic, paranoid, kleptomaniacs, or a mix of something completely different.

• Build and Customize! Build the ultimate home for your Sims, improve your town with building upgrades, and more.

• Unlock all-new Karma Powers. Wield the ultimate control over your Sims, giving them wealth, beauty, and love – or take it all away with the click of a button.

• Control your Sims’ destinies. Choose whether or not to fulfill your Sims’ destinies by making their wishes come true – or letting their dreams die. Will your Sims be rock stars, world leaders, or expert thieves? It’s up to you.

• Build and share online! Connect through XBLA and PSN to share your creations and download content from other players around the world.

• Complete Challenges to earn rewards. Face short and long term challenges and reap rewards and trophies. Connect with Facebook and share your achievements with your friends.

The Sims 3 For consoles: Nintendo Wii

Create Sims with unique personalities, fulfill their desires, and control their lives within a living neighborhood that you can customize, including designing the ultimate beach getaway. Unlock all-new Karma Powers and unleash them on your Sims: help your Sim get lucky with the power of “love connector”, bless them with the power of “age defier” or curse them with an “alien abduction.” Use these powers wisely, because they may have unexpected results! As you guide your Sims through life, you can complete challenges to unlock additional items, new buildings and landmarks. For the first time ever, share the fun with a friend in the co-op buddy mode or take on up to three friends in the Life Moments Game.

The Sims 3 For consoles: Nintendo Wii Features

• Create any Sim you can imagine and give them unique personalities! Fine-tune your Sims’ appearances and personalities. Make them evil, romantic, paranoid, kleptomaniacs, or a mix of something completely different.

• Control your Sims’ destinies. Choose whether or not to fulfill your Sims’ destinies by making their wishes come true – or letting their dreams die. Will your Sims be rock stars, world leaders, or expert thieves? It’s up to you.

• Unlock all-new Karma Powers. Wield the ultimate power over your Sims, controlling weather, the Grim Reaper and more!

• Play The Sims with friends! Get a friend in on the action in the all-new co-op mode. A second player can join the fun as a gnome who can help – or hinder – your Sims. You can also play the new Life Moments Game with up to four players. Bet on life’s most important moments to earn points and garner rewards.

• New Content! Enjoy an all new beach town with new residents, traits, careers, weather, and lifetime wishes exclusive for the Wii.

The Sims 3 For consoles: Nintendo DS

For the first time ever, enjoy a complete life simulation experience on handheld! Create Sims with unique personalities, fulfill their desires, and control their lives within a living neighborhood. Unlock all-new Karma Powers and unleash them on your Sims: help your Sims get lucky with the power of “rapid romance”, bless them with “instant beauty” or curse them with the “instant enemy”. Use these powers wisely, because they may have unexpected results! As you guide your Sims through life you can complete opportunities to unlock additional items and town upgrades. Experience the ultimate handheld life simulator!

The Sims 3 For consoles: Nintendo DS Features

• First Complete Life Sim on the DS! Create any Sim you can imagine and control their lives. Control multiple Sims within your family and enjoy life’s special moments as you interact with their world.

• Create Sims and give them unique personalities! Use your stylus to sculpt your Sims’ facial features. Choose their hair styles and clothing and dictate their personalities. Make them evil, romantic, paranoid, neurotic, or a mix of something completely different.

• Control your Sims’ destinies. Choose whether or not to fulfill your Sims’ destinies by making their wishes come true – or letting their dreams die. Will your Sims be emperors of evil, world leaders, or expert thieves? It’s up to you.

• Customize your Sims world! For the first time ever on DS, build your Sims home with tools to draw walls and floors, and customize with decor objects, textures, and more.

• Unlock all-new Karma Powers. Wield the ultimate control over your Sims giving them wealth, beauty, and love – or take it all away with the click of a button.

The Sims 3 For consoles On Its Way This Autumn, are you excited?

The Sims 3 World Adventures for iPhone/iPod Touch: explore 3 exotic destinations.

Al Simhara in Egypt, Champs Les Sims in France, Shang SimLa, China. Each exciting location is loaded with a world of possibilities for danger, adventure, and romance for your Sim.

The Sims 3 World Adventures for iPhone/iPod Touch: Meet global challenges.

Enjoy an international twist on the Sims-style gameplay you know and love with 52 new goals, 4 new mini-games — plus personas, careers, and quests.

The Sims 3 World Adventures for iPhone/iPod Touch: Enjoy more custom content.

Let your Sim sport the local looks of the culture and acquire worldly tastes. There are lots of new clothing styles, furniture selections, and even new face types to choose from.

The Sims 3 World Adventures for iPhone/iPod Touch:

IMPORT/EXPORT BETWEEN THE SIMS GAMES FOR iPHONE® & iPOD TOUCH®

Yes! You can transfer your Sim back and forth between the iPhone® & iPod touch® versions of The Sims World Adventures and The Sims 3. So bring your favorite Sim on your adventure.

The Sims 3 World Adventures for iPhone/iPod Touch:

INCLUDES SIMS-STYLE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT FROM WELL-KNOWN ARTISTS

Travel to the tunes of artists like LeAnn Rimes singing in Simlish, of course!

* Released: Apr 02, 2010
* Version: 1.0.0
* 1.0.0 (iPhone OS 3.0 Tested)
* 97.8 MB
* Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish
* Seller: Electronic Arts
* © 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Rated 12+ for the following:

* Infrequent/Mild Sexual Content or Nudity
* Infrequent/Mild Profanity or Crude Humor
* Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence
* Infrequent/Mild Mature/Suggestive Themes

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iPhone OS 2.2.1 or later.

[More Iphone news on InewsandApps]

Get The Sims 3 World Adventures for iPhone/iPod Touch!

Can Sims have babies?

NO! Only the Sims PC version allow that so far.

How to get married?

Get your Sim into a romantic relationship with another Sim by clicking on Flirt, Pick up Line, Embrace, Smooch, etc. enough that they become “Partners”. It can be a bit more difficult with some Sims because of their personalities. If your Sim isn’t compatible with the other Sim, it will be lot harder for them to get into a relationship but not impossible. Once you become partners, you should have the option under “Actions” to “Propose”. Being married to another Sim in this game does not mean they will automatically live in the same house. Your Sim have to ask the other Sim to “Move In” before or after she/he proposes to get them to actually live in the same house. Unlike in the Sims 3 PC version Sims moving in will not bring their money with them.

Note: If your Sim reaches the point of being “Good Friends” or “Best Friends” with another Sim they can no longer date without bringing the relationship back down to simply being “Friends.” You can “downgrade the relationship by selecting “Rude” actions until they are back to just friends. So basically when your Sim is friend with another, you have to chose which path you want your Sim to go: either make lots of romantic overtures to take the romance path, or make simple friendly gestures to take the best friends path.

How to get your Sim to Woohoo?

To be able to Woohoo, first your Sim has to be friends with the other. When your Sim get to a friendship status, only use the romantic options. Don’t use “be funny” or” chat”, etc. Stick to flirting, pick up lines, and after a while start embracing. Then a budding romance will start. Stick to romance, and your Sim will be able to ‘hot smooch”.’ The relationship will then become a “date”. Keep using the Romance options. Once the relationship bar is filled half way, go to “Romance”, scroll down and you should see the option to “Woohoo”.

How to slap a Sim?

Get your Sim to be rude and start insulting another Sim until the option to “Slap” shows up in the menu under “Be Rude” when talking to a Sim.

How to get a Catfish?

Talk to Kia abut fishing until she asks your Sim to catch her a catfish.

How to open the Pawn Shop?

It’s a surprise!!!
The Pawn shop has to be unlocked by fulfilling all of the goals in the game. Ultimately you need to create all of the personality types to complete all goals. To check how many goals you have fulfilled so far go to the front screen under “Goals checklist”.

Though I have to wonder if  each country will have their own creatures as they are only mentioning Mummies in Egypt… and they are not saying anything about the weather

As stated on Gamespot: “World Adventures will let you trot the globe to three different worldwide locations, either on a simple vacation (which you can take at any time if you’ve got the simoleons to afford a plane ticket), or as part of an “adventure”–an expanded version of the opportunity system that would randomly pop up at certain points in your sims’ careers. These adventures will take you to one of these three nations to take on quests to explore and plunder trap-filled ruins on behalf of a greedy corporation, though once you’ve fully explored one locale’s ruins, you can decide whether you prefer to side with the company (who would prefer to bulldoze them), or with the locals, who would prefer to keep their landmarks safe.

This kind of quest- and choice-based gameplay is a first for the Sims series, and makes World Adventures a lot more like a role-playing game than any previous ones in the series. You’ll have an extensive adventure journal that will keep track of a huge number of statistics and achievements, including how many relics (a new type of collectible item) you’ve gathered, how many puzzles you’ve solved, different areas you’ve visited, and your sim’s “visa points” (which determine how long you can stay abroad). Stats are very important to the World Adventures team, and apparently to the Sims community, and there will be a ton of them. There will also be tons of new collectible items, including new plants, new seeds, and new catchable fish for all the packrats out there.

We watched a demonstration of a sim exploring a tomb in Egypt, which was filled with rubble that needed to be cleared away (and can be cleared faster with athletic skills). Behind the rubble lay a switch that opened up a stairway to a lower level, though the pyramid also had several other adjoining chambers which were obscured by a fog-of-war. Different chambers may contain treasure caches in urns with valuable relics, or dangerous traps, or worse threats.

We watched our explorer try to navigate a fire trap that belched flames up out of the floor, and fail miserably, catching on fire and making a panicky run to the nearest pool of water and diving in with a cowardly leap. However, after getting dunked, our sim was affected by the “soaked” moodlet (minor conditions in The Sims 3 that can positively or negatively affect your character), which also made him immune to fire, so he was able to safely cross. He moved on to a treasure room full of urns containing items, but didn’t realize that there was a sarcophagus at the other end of the room, from which a hideous mummy emerged. ”

Gamespot carries on with: “Mummies will attack your sims and drag them into a fistfight, and unless your sim is a master of the martial arts skill (which is new to World Adventures), you’ll end up with the mummy’s curse, which will kill you in two weeks’ worth of game time unless you pay a visit to the Sphinx, which is also in the area, and plead your case. Of course, if you prefer to be adventurous, you can actually spend the night inside a cursed sarcophagus and become a mummy yourself, which will cause you to move much more slowly and die should you catch on fire, but will also increase your strength and limit your personal needs (so unlike regular sims, you won’t need to sleep or take bathroom breaks) and otherwise make you much longer-lived. You’ll also get new, unique mummy social interaction options. (Though if you die as a mummy, you can come back as a ghost-mummy. Yes, a ghost-mummy.)

While you begin your adventures on location at a base camp, all three international locations have their own businesses and amenities, as well as locals whom you can meet, interact with, and even fall in love with and marry, then bring home to Sunset Valley (the original Sims 3 neighborhood). Sims from these different regions are being designed to look like they belong to those regions, and will have various behaviors added to their personalities under the hood that will serve the purpose of modeling their different cultures–should your sims decide to marry someone from abroad, their children will evince these behaviors.

Along with new behaviors come new traits, new skills, and new side activities that can be used to generate a handsome income on the side. The three new traits each enhance the expansion’s three new skills. The first new skill is martial arts, which is first learned in China, practiced with a training dummy item, and can be advanced to compete in a special martial arts tournament in that country. The second new skill is photography, which can be advanced through various skill levels to take on new styles (such as panoramic shots or sepia-tone photos), and the expansion will offer a series of photography challenges to fill an album collection, including simpler stuff like grabbing a photo of a new father carrying a baby to esoteric, secret photo setups that will be much harder to nab.

The final new skill is “nectar making,” which originates in France, and involves using grapes to make non-alcoholic “nectar,” which, if made properly, will give its imbibers a “good meal” moodlet that will make them much happier, but which, if made poorly, will make its drinkers spit out the swill and bring their moods down for a while. Skilled nectar vintners can age their bottles in a nectar rack and sell aged bottles for a pretty penny, and having an advanced gardening skill (to grow good grapes) will help considerably in this profession.

In addition to all this other stuff, World Adventures will add the three new explorable areas, each of which will be comparable in size to Sunset Valley, along with a huge number of brand-new clothing outfits, plus tons of scenery items, which can be used by industrious players to build out their own trap-filled ruins to explore, filled with hidden switches, buttons, staircases, traps, and treasures. There will definitely be a ton of interesting new stuff to play in an expansion that will go in a new direction for Sims expansion packs. World Adventures will be released later this year.“

Source via Gamespot

I am really looking forward to this new Sims 3 expansion, so many new things coming up!

For starters, the first things about Sims 3 that come to mind… the water looks so much nicer whether in a lake, fountain or even in the bath… oh and that bubble bath looks amazing! An annoying sound is played when your Sims realizes their wish! The postman seems to be in a bad mood all the time and throws the bills on the ground…

Being able to just go anywhere is awesome! There is no more “loading” screens… you can follow your Sims wherever they go… to work… shopping… visit the neighbors… to the park or cemetery!
Though the one thing I was hoping it would be an integral to the game was the weather. Seasons was one of my favorite expansions for Sims 2 as I just loved the atmosphere it gave to the game. Sadly I will have to wait and see if it will be implemented at a later stage in the Sims 3.

Most community lots are “rabbit holes” except for parks, the library, the art gallery and gyms… So even though you can follow your Sims, you cannot actually see them at work. All community building have an interactive menu which lets you chose what you want to do. When your Sims are doing grocery shopping, a menu will show up and will allow you to chose your food: you can shop by item or by recipe… Same for books, a menu will show up and you can chose a title… Restaurants are also rabbit holes and you can chose to go alone or with someone which is great to get those friendships going. You can also go to the movies alone or with someone which is a fun thing to do for Sims. By clicking on a community building, it will also allows you to attend classes (to fine tune a Sim’s skill) or events – for both Sims have to pay but they can look for discounts in the newspaper. No more crosswords in the newspaper.

For the haters of the “rabbit holes” community lots, it does not really differ from  Sims 2. In Sims 2 you could not go to work with your Sims and had no options at all, at least now, even though you don’t actually see them, you still have opportunities to chose their work interactions for better chance of being promoted or to get other opportunities… You still have parks where you can play the guitar, play ball, have a picnic, play chess… and the beach… Granted, I wish there was at least a clothes store… make it a bit more realistic than getting all your clothes for free… There si still plenty to do in the great outdoors..

As mentioned above about “rabbit holes”, When your Sims are at work, you can chose options like take it easy, work hard, suck up to the boss, talk to co-workers… different options with each jobs. The pay shows up as hourly and when Sims get a raise it is now by the $/hr. I have only seen a few “chance cards” but nothing bad happened… Sims get tasks to do -usually done after work and they usually have plenty of time to do them. Those tasks can give your Sims a raise or money. You need skills to get promoted but it is not as demanding as it is with Sims 2.

Clicking on a community building will give you options such as applying for a job. I noticed you can now apply for a part-time job. So I though I could get my sim to have 2 jobs but you cant do that – though I would expect a mod to overwrite that at some point….

Now after work or from anywhere you have the option to do whatever you feel like… for instance you can send your sim to the gym or have a drink… What I love to do is sending my sim home jogging so they can gain athletic points.

Another good point is Sims can now multi-task. My Sim went to bed to relax wearing her pjs. She took out a book and read… the best part is when she finished her book she went striaght to sleep! She did not get out of bed to spin around to change in her pj’s even though she was already wearing them like in the Sims 2, she just went to sleep… what a time saver ( even if you only gain just a few minutes lol)

A Sim’s inventory is one of the greatest improvement in the Sims 3. They no longer drop everything on the floor, Sims tend to keep their stuff in their inventory… The newspaper for instance, my Sim had one new one and 3 old ones in her inventory. They also keep the books they read in their inventory so when your Sims are out and about they can read a book, use their laptop play guitar, play ball…

Another good point is that you no longer need a cheat to put objects in a diagonal position and Sims will use the corners… for example: put the coffee machine or the blender in the corner of the kitchen and they will be able to use it! I also noticed that up to 4 objects can be placed on the bedside table and several ones can be placed on the dresser.

I did not spend too much time in the Create-a-Sim as I just wanted to play but my favorite part: YOU CAN CHOSE THE SHOES!!!!!
No more astrological signs to chose from but you have to select 5 character traits and 3 favorite things. Love the slider to chose their skin colors, also to chose their weight and muscles… There are no piercings except for basic earrings and accessories such as watches, bracelets and rings… no tattoos

Sims 3 characters may not look as good as Sims 2 characters but that will not stop me from playing.

Well that is it for now.

Happy Simming!