Sara Hammerzmith

So my friends! This weekend I’ve actually been at Jennie’s the whole time, and what have we been doing?

THE SIMS GAMING WEEKEND!

(The Sims 4 Plumbob giving light to the keyboard!)

So basically, I went to her on Friday evening and ever since then we’ve flipped between playing The Sims, eating some food and sleeping (‘cept for like five hours during Saturday when I worked, but yeah). It’s been freaking awesome, I’m telling you. I wasn’t sure at first when I went to Jennie’s if I’d be playing The Sims 1, 2, 3 or 4, so to be safe I brought it all with me, but I end up playing solely on Rosalie, the The Sims 4 one. And I’ve done sooo much with her since then!

At first I quit her job as a musical genious and got her into a career as a journalist, which I excelled in and later ALSO quit in order to go after some other career, but after going half-way on maybe two or three different I got tired of it and just quit everything. She get so much royalties for her songs and all the books she writes, so there isn’t any real need for a job.

I also finally moved her out of the little house she had, and built her a big villa if you like across the road from her previous house. I’m pretty happy with the outcome, especially it being the first time I ever build anything in The Sims 4!

This is as good shots as I could find of her old house, and now I’ll show you parts of the new house. I’m not sure how many good shots I have, because I didn’t think about showcasing it before I started writing here…

Yeah. These are few shots that captured most of the house, I think.

Another difference is, and this is something I haven’t done since The Sims 2, meaning, I even skipped this completley when it comes to The Sims 3 – I had Rosalie’s boyfriend Emil move in with her.

He came into the house unemployed knowing nothing, but he’s now an aspiring artist, I think he’s on level 8 or so in the career. He likes to paint squirrels.

And you might have noticed, there’s a little shorty in the pictures, huh? Yeah – that’s right. This is also a first since The Sims 3 – to be preggers and have a child. I had originally planned for them to be married first, because I wanted to see how it worked out, but for some reason I completely forgot about it and made her pregnant instead. So, they have a son, Oskar Emilsson (since he’s Emil’s son) and he is now a teenager. Straight A’s student and a parttime barrista. Love it.

Yeah. I guess that’s what I can update you about Rosalie and her family. I have yet to decide when I’m going to age Oskar and kick him out of the house, but once I’ve done so, I’ll start making new babies. But until then, I’m just going to let my The Sims 4 sim play The Sims 1. The sad part about is that I recognize all the places the game shows, and I even know exactly where the places are if I was to start The Sims 1 right here right now.

Pathetic or amazing?

Amazing. I say amazing. It’s passion, god damn!

// Sara

Today has been a The Sims day. I’ve literally just spent almost all day with just playing The Sims 3 and slowly reading a book. It’s been somewhat calming, but it’s also been.. I don’t know, boring in a way? Right now The Sims 3 bores me to death, but perhaps that’s because I stay too long on things without doing much. Like, I say I’m not gonna start the diving shit until she’s got her five star hotels, and such.

However, I did a 160, and turned. I changed her job, so instead of being an investigator, she’s now a coastguard in lack of better things to do. She can easily live on her two hotels, but I like doing things. She’s only saved two lives so far, one being an old man, and the second one… a ghost. I didn’t realize ghosts could drown. But then again, the cause of death of the sim was drowning so I guess it was… an old habit, haha.

Anyway. My sim has picked up fishing and are snorkling as much as she can, but for some reason she refuses to do it for long. Anyone knows why this happens? Hm. I’ll just keep on pushing though, I really want to get on the… seas with her boat and dive into the deepest of oceans. And hopefully not get hit by Kraken.

Maybe I should give you a quick tour of her house. It’s currently in four floors.

This is the bottom floor. It serves as a living room as well as a recreational room, in a way. She has her sculpting thingy there and all.

This is the second floor, and it serves as a bedroom and a bathroom.

Third floor. This serves as a kitchen, as well as a balcony, that now has a grill and everything. I have also but the steeringwheel up here, to have it as high as possible.

I have added a fourth floor, that serves as a cosy room. It has a big fireplace, lots of bookshelves and wineshelves and is made only for her to sit in to read and have it nice and cozy. Sadly, I have no pics of it as of now, though.

// Sara

I sort of just realized it’s about a month or less before The Sims 4 is being released. And I’m starting to get really pumped for it.

In the beginning, I never liked the idea of The Sims 2 or The Sims 3, and I was REALLY not a big fan of The Sims 4 (that my peeps predicted already many years ago?! Like what the hell?) and while I’m still a bit torn about it (as well as 2 and 3) I can’t help but getting a little pumped about it, and try it out. I guess I’ve started to somewhat grow tired of The Sims 3…

Which is hilarious, since I haven’t even gotten around to play everything in The Sims 3 yet. I have yet to play both Movie Stuff as well as Into the Future, and I have a couple of towns to try out as well. And then we are not even going to talk about all the jobs I never tried, or the fact I never actually had a baby in The Sims 3. I’ve been so caught up in playing with The Cullens and achieving all the goals I had with my sims that I completely ignored this whole family thing you know, getting married, having kids and whatever, which reflects a lot on how I am in real life, for some reason, Perhaps that’s why I play The Sims the way I do, huh.

Anyway. I must take myself the time some day to sit down and continue with Elsa. Maybe I’m just too stubborn about the whole thing, but I ain’t gonna go out looking for Kraken or dive or anything until I have my five star hotel. And it’s going sooo slowly. Like, she has 4,5 stars, and I’ve put in literally everything the guests asked for and more, and I have Elsa going over there personally to clean up the hotels and everything. I don’t get it. Oh well.

Hang in there, Jeanne.

// Sara

Seriously though. I’ve just spent three hours installing a few (not even all) of my The Sims 3 games onto my laptop. There will come  a day where my computer is just going to hate me for this. The thing is though, I’ve tried everything and for a very long time to make the game function on my normal stationary computer, yet it just won’t fix.

What happens is that, after you launch it, regardless if it is through the launcher or through the “back door” it starts load, like, you know the black screen that appears for normally just a few seconds, and you see the blue little wheel, and then it all crashes to taskbar and the only way to get it to quit is to open Task Manager and kill it. If anyone has a solution for this, please let us know. We’ve upgraded all our drivers, it’s been reinstalled, we’ve changed administrative settings and also compability settings. So yes. Literally everything.

While we’re on the topic of The Sims though, while cleaning the other day I had to clear space in one of my shelves for my The Sims games. They are becoming so many they require yet another space. I’m thinking about transforming my whole computer area into The Sims-y, perhaps with pictures of all my important Sims. Because yes, I’m one of these horrible persons who actually do consider my Sims-people my children, and some of them, like Rosalie, are very, very, very important. And they need to be highlighted. In some way.

Anyway – Island Paradise just finished installing, and I’m finally gonna see if it works on this computer or not. If you hear a computer being smashed, it means it didn’t work. Just so you know.

// Sara

So, for the first time ever, I’ve hosted a The Sims 3 wedding, between Mikayla Makoola and Wei Keane (or something like that).

Wei has cheated on Mikayla about three times before this marriage could finally go through, but because of my laziness, she has to put up with this son of a llama.

Anyway, Congratulations Mikayla and Wen!

Weddingdress by Katy Perry.

I’ll introduce you further to the Makoola’s tomorrow, I need to get some sleep now.

// Sara

I promised you yesterday I was to finish what I started, so here it goes. Basically, after installing the whole thing, in the wrong order, I finally got to play it. And the first thing that happens is that it offers me a lesson in how to play. Kinda brings me back to the days when I all excited played this game for the very very first time, like, 11 years ago. I declined the offer though, I love Robert’s family, but I just wanted to revive the sim I got stuck in my computer upstairs.

Or well, not actually reviving her, because she is stuck there. I think her name was Rose Hale, but I ain’t sure. The Sims 1 doesn’t have the “Rose Hale” rule, you see. Either way, my new sim was NOT to be called Rose either, I gave her the last name Flynn but for some unknown reason named her Vanessa. Vanessa Flynn. Vanessa Fletcher would’ve made more sense, but I think I was about to do Candace initially.

NEVERMIND.

The first thing I noticed though, as someone who never played Double Deluxe nor Deluxe Edition, were greeted with an awesome set of new clothes! I was like a little child on Christmas  you know. In The Sims 1 I have my favorite clothes and I usually stick to them, but for the first time in many years I found myself looking through each and every piece of clothing until I decided on a new piece, a black dress with this mesh thing going on over her shoulders. Head was the usual one though.

Sadly, I got no pictures yet to show, sorry for that, I’ll get that as soon as possible! Either way, I immediately moved her into that house in the corner, down on the map (the Unleashed map). It’s a small house, but I fancy it. Quite a lot. Not my favorite, but I’m not sure if I have a specific favorite. I got her a job in showbiz, because I love working with them there, and of course made her a magician. I always make my The Sims 1 sims magicians, not sure why.

But despite this, there was something sentimental opening this game. Like, when I made the character. I knew exactly what head I wanted, I looked it through just to see if there were any new, but settled with her. I did change my clothing pattern, but when I was to move her into a house…

I know every single square of every single house. I looked over them all. The white house across the street from Robert’s family, the blue house across from Claire’s. The mansion on top of the hill, and the hillbilly houses down the corner, next to Elden’s family (mind you, these are the Swedish name so they may vary from yours). Or the fancy, but small houses up northwest. It wasn’t particularly hard choosing a house, as like I said. Every single square. I just know it by heart.

And when I had moved her in, there was no doubt what magazine to put up, what job to get, which furniture to get or what part of StudioTown to go to. It’s just… I just got it you know. And I believe this isn’t something you just “learn”. Of course you can learn. I have learned most of the parts of Cullen neighborhood in The Sims 3, but I don’t know it like I do with The Sims 1.

Because The Sims 1, as well as The Sims 2, are in my heart. It may sound ridiculous to hold a game close to your heart, but I guess these sims somewhat becomes your viral friends. It’s a brand new reality that you just dive into. And this game doesn’t even have an end, or at least not in the same way many other games has. I often play Hercules video game  but that game ends. Once you’ve defeated Hades, it’s over. And you can only restart from the beginning, the same beginning on Phil’s Island.

But not with The Sims. Sure, your sims will eventually die. But you can’t start over. You can never start over, because, no matter how you try, the next family or perhaps story, can never be the same as the previous one. Never. You can do all you want to make it look alike, but it won’t know the same sims. It won’t learn as fast as the other, it won’t have the same interests.

And this, is probably why I unconditionally stuck to it all these years. Video and computer games has come and gone, Hercules, Spyro, Space Chase, Journalist… but I never compromised with The Sims. It has always been there. And it will always be.

Because, this is not just a game.  This is love. It’s in ones heart, and it has become a lifestyle.

// Sara

Having an alternate instrumental version of this lovely song on through my “Summer Belongs To You” DVD. I love it.

But either way. For once, in a VERY long time I figured I’d treat myself a little with playing The Sims. However, playing The Sims 3 sorts of bore me out right now. I have lots in the game I got yet to discover, but somehow…. no.

Thing is, I longed pretty much to play The Sims 1, or how to put it, but the CD wouldn’t install. But gladly, I have gotten over a Double Deluxe. This was rather exciting, as I never had Double Deluxe or Deluxe Edition before (believe it or not!) And it WOULD install that one, so gladly, I could play The Sims 1 again! (The computer I originally hold it on is temporarily dead)

And, you know, the first thing I love with The Sims 1, is that it takes basically as long time to install ALL expansion packs as it takes to start The Sims 3. Hallelujah! But the trick is to remember what order to install them. Normally one would install them chronological, The Sims, Livin’ It Up, House Party, Hot Date, On Holiday, Unleashed, Superstar, Makin’ Magic, however, this is a big no no. You should in fact install Unleashed before House Party and the rest. And why?

This is something that occurred to me a long time ago. When I was a new simmer, about 11 years ago, Unleashed was the first expansion pack I got (apart from Living it Up that we already had) so naturally, this was the first one to be installed. After a while, I achieved the rest of them, but that doesn’t matter. The point is, I had to re-install The Sims (quite often, for some reason) and once I got the brilliant idea I’d install them in order. Said and done. Then I went in, made a family, got them a dog and then threw them away to my favorite hotel, the big beach hotel I can’t recall the name of at the moment, only to realize one thing.

There was NO food or room or anything for the dog! But, what the hell? I recall there have ALWAYS BEEN! So I had to return home immediately  quite disappointed. And as I went DownTown, I noticed there were no shop for Pet supplies. Which it had ALWAYS been.

And that’s when I remembered, or rather  figured out. Obviously, these stores and rooms only existed due to the fact Unleashed was installed before them! So I immediately re-installed the whole thing putting Unleashed first to make sure I wouldn’t do the same mistake.

But now, about yeah, 8 years later perhaps, I find myself almost doing the same mistake. I was sitting here to myself thinking hard “remember what order, remember what order!” and the first thing I do is to install On Holiday first. And then I remembered I should have put Unleashed before. And The Sims 1 is evil that way, you can’t install ONE expansion pack but only the whole thing. And despite it not taking very long, I can’t say I wanted to redo it. But then again, I could just go into the hotels and put in dogfood, it’s not worse than that.

Wow. This entry about installing The Sims became longer than I expected. I think I’ll save the rest of the entry for tomorrow, just to have something to write about.

See you!

NP: I Believe We Can (Instrumental) – Phineas&Ferb

// Sara

I’ve hyped this game since whenever I heard about it for the first time. And finally, I got it in my possession. And as the Katy Perry fan I am, of course the limited edition. I got it from my grandma actually. Thank you!

You know, I haven’t started it just yet. But you know. It’s Showtime, entertainment stuff. I love such. It’s Katy Perry, need I say more? And it also features something I’ve wanted ever since The Sims Online existed. A feature, where you apparently can talk to your friends through the game! How awesome isn’t this?

But Ok, I got my platypus on skype, and about to board this ship. I’ll tell you later what I thought!

// Sara

Yes Peeeerrryyyy!

Okay, so I’m finally getting some time around to blog, and so I shall. As you might have known, I attended Skogsröjet, however I’m not gonna write about it just yet, I’ll do it tomorrow or something like that. I’m actually gonna dedicate todays entry to The Sims, as you know, I do occasionally.

So, for my birthday I got various things from meh lovely family, more to be exact the books “I’m with the band“, “Kee Marcello: The Rockstar God forgot“, and a guide to London, I got the CD’s “Theater of Pain” with Mötley Crüe and the soundtrack of Rock Of Ages. I also got a travelcharger for my cellphone and iphone, money and, bambambam! The Sims 3 Diesel Stuff and 1000 simpoints.

And today, I finally got the chance to try it out. But the first thing I did was to use almost ALL of the simpoints mum gave me and went on a shoppingspree on The Sims 3 store ending up with this:

Feeling pretty happy. But oh well, I guess I’ll get back to you once I’ve tried these and the Diesel stuff out!

NP: Come Home Perry – Phineas & Ferb
// Sara

Alright, I’ve been playing for a few days now. And what can I say? I love it.

I expected this to be some cheap kind of thing “choose a black, withe or brown horse, generic looks can jump and eat and drink”.

Imagine my surprise, when I pushed “Create a Horse” and could HANDDRAW my own horse with all marks and stuff! And pretty much all big horse races were in too! So yeah, I handdraw Lady Axa as good as I could, and you could also choose personalities for them. WOW. So far so good.

Haha, don’t mind the horses pose! What I also loved, on the humanpart, was that there are finally REAL BOOTS! Like the boots all good and legendary bands use. LOVE IT.

Anyways, when I moved them in and started playing.. First of all, a nomadic pony ran over my lot. And for the second.. THE DETAILS.

The Sim actually HAS to learn how to ride, and you have to groom your horse and ride it and train it so it won’t get bored, and the horse can do shitloads, like, playing with balls and roll around like REAL horses. This game is just fantastic.

I don’t really know what to say. Unleashed were, according to the cover, released in 2002. Ever since then, I have, together with many others, been WAITING for horses. BEGGED for horses. But as they didn’t show up in The Sims 2, we kinda gave up hope. And then, they came in The Sims 3.

You know, I kinda dislike The Sims 3. But this expansion, only this horsething, makes up for any unnecessary expansion, any bugg or mishap they have in their games. It makes up for EVERYTHING. And not only did it raise itself above all the other games (yes, it might just have managed to get prior to The Sims!) it also kicks ass with all my horsegames. It is the perfect fucking horsegame, the horsegame I always dreamed off.

EA, you succeeded well with this one. I salute you!
// Sara