Everyone’s always emailing me and asking “how do I play sims online?!”  The answer is that you can’t.

I wrote about this back in May and was pretty testy about the whole deal but I’ve calmed since then and I guess I can’t blame you for trying.  So, for those of you who want to play Sims online for free I present to you this link. [Click where it says "this link"]

OK.  That’s a bit of a joke.  They’re Sims 2 online mini games to take some of the sting out of not being able to download Sims 2 online for free legally.

But don’t go away angry.  Friday I have a big giveaway to announce just to reward you for putting up with all of my crap.  I really do appreciate you’re emails, so keep them coming…even if they are about wanting to play Sims 2 for free.

Image Source: Kevin Zollman

Post from: Sims Gamer

I told you yesterday about EA releasing a patch to fix broken crap issues in Apartment Life.

Today, I realized that I’ve never mentioned what to do before you install a patch or well…just about anything that alters the original game.  [That includes all of the really cool downloads/content that I find for you.]

When you install a patch or other new content, your changing your original game.  [I know that seems really obvious, but stick with me.]  Now, imagine if you will, that you’ve been playing on Sims 2 since it was released back in 2004.  All of this time, you’ve been playing the same family – generation after generation – and building your neighborhood.

You’ve installed all of the expansion and stuff packs with no problems and have never backed up your game [gasp].  “Who really needs to back up a game”, you think.  “Nothing’s ever happened before”.

Then you download the Apartment Life patch and install it.

You reboot the computer and your game is dead.  All of your sims are gone and you’re officially screwed.

Something happened while you were downloading the patch and the download was corrupted but you didn’t realize it.  Since you didn’t back anything up – EVER – you’re now left to start all over.

That doesn’t sound like much fun, does it?

Didn’t think so.

Here’s what you need to know to backup what you have so that you don’t loose it all.

This is all assuming that you did a typical install of the game and that you didn’t mess with the location for install.  If you screwed with the location then figure it out yourself cause I have no way of knowing where you put stuff.

The safest place to put a backup of the game is somewhere other than on the computer you have your game installed on.  What’s the point in having a backup if the backup and game get killed by a power surge?

Figure out where you want your backup to go before you do anything.  If you don’t have access to an external hard drive or DVD/CD then create a new file called “Backup” or whatever blows your skirtup.

Now that you’ve figured out where to put your sims, go find your game data.

It’s most likely gonna be found here:

C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2

Look around in there and find these four files:

Copy and save them all to their new home and you’re done.

Pretty easy, huh?

If you’ve taken pictures of your sims or made any movies then you’re gonna want to find those files as well.  Movies are found in C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Movies and pictures are hiding in C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Storytelling.

Have fun with all of the great expansions and custom content…just don’t forget to backup your game often to prevent a Sims 2 apocalypse.

Image Source – Amy Tucker © 2008

Post from: Sims Gamer

Buy some fruit trees and spray the crap out of them with bug spray. Or, you can buy a garden plot, plant some seeds and then spray the crap out of it with bug spray.

Whichever you choose, you should eventually end up like this:

Unless of course, you seem to lack the ability to create a garden that contains bugs.

And that was my problem.

Exhibit A:

Here I am planting my happy little garden. I realized that the plethora of lady bug houses was going to be an issue if I wanted plant eating bugs, so I nixed them right after this picture was taken.

Exhibit B:

I’ve gotten rid of the lady bug houses and added some fruit trees.  Hopefully some bugs will find this little greenhouse inviting.

Exhibit C:

You might not be able to read what that little “status box” says, so I’ll tell you.  It says “thriving”.  That means no bugs!  Normally, that would be a great thing.  All of my tomato plants are happy as larks.

But, if you want to make a Plant Sim, you’re kind of SOL.

A challenge for interested readers: make your very own Plant Sim and email ‘em to me.  I’ll gladly post your pictures since I apparently bought the “bug free” version of Sims Seasons.

Post from: Sims Gamer