After Playing For 3 Days

I've been enjoying the game so much, it's been hard to stop to share or even remember to take pictures. I know a lot of people don't like the lack of open world, but one thing I do love is how lively? organic? the environment looks. I can look at the neighborhood and it's not blatantly obvious that everything is separated by square lots and tons of empty space between. All the what would be empty space is full of decor and I think it's beautiful.

I've still only been playing with my simself couple. I love the increased difficulty. It's been so hard to manage things. I finally broke down and started cheating the needs, just so I could progress faster and explore more.

I'd like to try a legacy challenge again, since I never finished any of my earlier attempts, but good god, it's going to be a real challenge. I can barely manage the two sims. I hate to imagine how hard it will be with kids, but it will be fun. If/when I do start one, I'll be posting it here. I had tried to make a regular picture thread on the forums, but it kept saying I needed approval. So here I am posting on my blog that I'm still learning to use. :)

If I exit the game while they're sleeping, I come back to this. 

Send your rocks to the Geo Council and they send back these elemental cubes to stick in this periodic table. You can click the individual cubes to turn on emotional auras. Good for a study room.

The fridges DO break!

Alright, who cleans their toilet with a sponge? I know I don't. 

They can play The Sims on the computer. I wish there were video game consoles too. Maybe later?

I made my sim a little thick to start out, but DAMN she's gotten fat since she left CAS. 

She is a foodie with a culinary aspiration, so I got her a cupcake machine!

CUPCAKES! Unfortunately, it takes my sim forever and two days to try to eat one. I ended up just canceling the action.

Cute little bonsai tree that gives gardening skill for trimming and shaping.

I love the new gardening system. You place your plants/seeds on the ground, then click on them to plant. Now, when your plants increase in quality you don't have to replant, just click and evolve it.

My sim is gloomy and when she is sad she has the option to water the plants with her tears.

It only waters ONE plant though.

My sim is a foodie and in a playful mood, so she has the option to make silly gummy bear pancakes. Awesome!

Silly Gummy Bear Pancakes

I think a lot of the new cakes are pretty, but they're soooo small. I'll have to see if that resizing cheat works on them.

I love a lot of the new decor that make a home more homie. There are things I don't remember from other games like garden hoses, shoe racks, or maybe I never spent enough time decorating.

Hub's nerd brain aspiration wanted him to build a rocket ship.

It's coming along nicely. We'll be woohooing in space in no time.

I found this tree in Willow Creek. I interacted with it until it gave me the option to explore. It takes you into one of the text adventures and choosing the right path takes you to Sylvan Glade.

It's sooo pink and pretty! There are frog logs here, some wild plants, mining rocks, and a couple of fishing spots. The most interesting thing so far was a wild cherry tree. I didn't get to fish long, since the needs cheat doesn't stick after switching lots.

Only need four more elements!

Fishing at the big park in Oasis Springs and caught a violin. :P This is also where I caught a cow plant berry.

Here's her planting the cowplant. Cute little horns pop up from the dirt. It takes a few days to grow.

Here I am feeding him and it says you can only collect a microscope sample after he's been fed a sim. o.O

Then, I promptly forgot about my cowplant while I was off exploring other lots and well, he died. I can't throw it away, so I guess the only way to get rid of it is to sell in buy mode, but I'm keeping it as a reminder for now.

Napping on community lots while I wait for the wild plants to be grown enough to collect samples from. There are lemons, blackberries and sage at the large park in Oasis Springs.

Okay, it says right here that now I can craft an instrument at the woodworking table. I cannot. There is no option for an instrument even after maxing out the skill. :(

But now that I have handiness maxed out I can break open this cave.

Which has it's own text adventure and leads to Forgotten Grotto. This is a dark cave and like the other hidden lot, just contains some collectibles and fishing spots. You can find mushrooms, onions, sage, potatoes, lily, mining rocks frogs and some fishing spots. 

I found this little guy in one of those capsules from digging for treasure at one of the mining rocks. VOODOO!

She's binding the doll to her husband.

Now see! That's emotion! So far, the only voodoo options were to poke, cuddle and frolic. I didn't notice any acutal animation of her husband getting poked or cuddled, it just changed his mood.

I also fished up a health potion. Not sure how I fished up an open glass of liquid, but whatever. I'll drink it later and see what it does.

Ending with a shot of hub launching off into space. This leads to it's own text adventure and he usually brings home some goodies.