So, it should be of no surprise to you guys that the first “YOU MUST HAVE WORLD ADVENTURES INSTALLED!!!” download I offered would be a French lot.

But isn’t it such a pretty lot?

Makes me a bit sad that I still haven’t gotten World Adventures.

With the Quartier du Café de Louis lot for Sims 3 World Adventures, you get a one bedroom, one and a half bath along with some vacant buildings.

You also get some custom content that isn’t included in the download. Some of it is available in the Sims 3 Store and some is custom content so make sure you make note of that so you don’t miss out on cool stuff.

Images/ninotchka

Post from: Sims Gamer

Hope you believed me because it’s here. Like right now.

You can head over to The Sims 3 website right now and download the Create a World Tool for Sims 3 but do keep in mind that it’s still in Beta so there might be some bugs crawling around.

In addition to providing the download, those super cool folks have included a Tutorial and a Walkthrough.

Also keep in mind that this is for PCs only right now so if you’re running Sims 3 on a Mac, cool your jets. I don’t know if a Mac version is going to be released – though I’m gonna guess one will be released.

You have to have a Sims 3 account so you can download the tool, agree to the terms and don’t think that you’re instantly going to be a world building champion. Practice makes perfect, people.

If you decide to download the tool, drop me a comment and tell me what you think about it. I’m downloading it right now and I’ll let you know what I think once I get a chance to play around with it.

Post from: Sims Gamer

There’s just something about the glowing band of light where there should be eyes or at least normal darkness that seems wrong…but I guess wrong in a good way since I’m featuring it here today.

These babies go all the way from Teen to Elder and are not only recolourable but are also repatternable which means you can basically make them look anyway you want them to look.

If you’re noticing that the glasses aren’t showing up all glowy in your game then it’s probably your graphics card. If you’re running a lower end card, the glasses will look mirrored – still cool looking just not as cool.

No custom content to worry about. Just download these glowing wraparound glasses for Sims 3 and go.

Image|EsmeraldaF

Post from: Sims Gamer

You know it but that doesn’t mean that you always do it and I’m just as guilty as you are.

But, if you have a really great game going and you lose those hours of gameplay, you’ll quickly [and painfully] learn your lesson.

So. How do you go about backing up a Sims 3 game anyway?

This is what you do and it’s pretty painless. MUCH less painful than losing all of your game data.

And, to make it even easier, you get pictures!

ComputerOS (C:)

Click Program Files

Find the Electronic Arts File

Right click on the Sims 3 file folder.

COPY the file to your Desktop

Things to remember:

• Check to make sure that you have enough space on your computer to make a copy of your game BEFORE you try to backup the game.
• If you compress the file to a zip, choose “Best” under Compression Method.
• If you compress the file to a RAR, choose “Best” under Compression Method and click “Create solid archive”.
• You can also choose the “Sent To” option and send the backup to a USB flash drive.
• These screens were taken on a Vista system. If you use XP, what you see might be different.
• If you screw everything up, it’s not my fault and you’re doing this at your own risk. Don’t send me nasty emails.

Images|Mine. All mine…except for the Sims 3 logo which belongs to EA

Post from: Sims Gamer

When I’m on YouTube, I always search “Sims” or “Sims 3″ to see what new and exciting stuff has popped up. Sometimes it’s good stuff and sometimes it’s utter crap. But, it is YouTube so that’s really the nature of the beast, isn’t it?

Anyway, with World Adventures hitting next week, I’ve been kind of surprised at the lack of World Adventures trailers. But, of course, I found one today and I must say that the “learn foreign tongues” line cracked me up.

The video is short at only 30 seconds but since it is only 30 seconds, it won’t take much out of your day to give it a look. And the mummy servant is pretty awesome.

Post from: Sims Gamer

With the limited edition Holiday Collector’s Edition of Sims 3, you’ll get:

• a Sims 2 GB plumbob
• a European-styled sports car download
• theme music from Sims 3
• exclusive Prima Tips and Hints Guide
• holiday themed items download

But, I know some of you are still on the fence.

How can Sims 3 be better than Sims 2 – a game you’ve known and loved since 2004?

Well, now EA is giving you an online taste of Sims 3 in the form of SimSocial.

This web based game will give you an idea of what it’s like to create a very basic Sim in Sims 3 and assign character traits and a lifetime wish/goal.

There’s even a Facebook app of SimSocial if you can’t get enough of that kind of thing.

While I don’t know if SimSocial will tip the proverbial scale for someone who is sitting on the Sim 3 fence, the game is definitely a nice way to kill some time while you’re waiting for your popcorn to get done popping.

Image|screen grab

Post from: Sims Gamer

Then again, I don’t remember the last Sims game I actually bought in a disc version – I generally just download it via EA’s Digital Downloader.

Anyway, the big news [for me] is the release of a couple of Paris screens. China and Egypt are cool, but I was really looking forward to seeing what the creative team was going to do with Paris. And things have been so quiet on the Paris front that I was starting to wonder if EA had nixed Paris all together.

But, today, I found these two screenshots and my interest has been renewed.

I’m not sure if EA has been pushing Egypt and China because those were the first “worlds” to be completed or if maybe they thought interest would be highest for those two but I’m relieved to finally see that they didn’t nix Paris.

Bonne journeé.

Images|EA

Post from: Sims Gamer

While Maxis has been good about putting out Stuff Packs full of Maxis created goodies, the fan created custom content has tended to exceed what Maxis delivers both in terms of the amount of content and the subject matter – user created content is usually created to fulfill a direct need/request.

Looks like that’s about to change with the announcement of Maxis’s Create-a-World Tool.

With the Create-a-World Tool, Maxis is putting the creation of towns in your hands and will allow you to make anything that your brain can come up with in terms of layout and typography.

From what I’ve seen, this isn’t going to be one of those tools that everyone will use but then again, not everyone makes custom content – some people just want to play their game.

And you know, that’s fine because there are going to be a lot of highly talented creators out there who are going to swoop down on this tool and wring it out until the tool has nothing left to give and we’re going to be left speechless at the things they come up with. I’ve predicted some amazing towns; you read it here first.

The Beta version will be available as a free download sometime in December and a full install of at least Sims 3 is required to get the program to work. If you also install World Adventures, you will be able to use items from that expansion in your towns and I can only assume that you will be able to pick through elements from any subsequent expansions.

Even if you’ve never created custom content for any of the Sims games, you might as well download the free program when it’s released and see what you can come up with.

You just might surprise yourself.

Image|EA

Post from: Sims Gamer

I saw the Sims 3 Store as a way to pick and choose what extra stuff you wanted in your game without having to go all out and buy a Stuff pack. Let’s all admit it, Stuff packs got a bit out of hand with Sims 2 – it seemed like every other month a Stuff pack was being released.

For the most part, the Sims 3 Store has served me well.

I’ve picked up a couple of cute hairstyles and a few shirts and dresses that I thought would look fetching on whatever Sim I was working with at that time.

But one thing really bugs me about the way the store is set up – the search functionality.

While there is a “Sale” tab where you can find items that have been discounted, there is no way to search for exclusively free items. And you know, when I’m short on Sims Points, I don’t want to have to go through each and every category in the hopes of finding a free item; there are a lot of categories!

Would it really be such a pain to add a “Free” tab under the “Sale” tab?

Image|EA

Post from: Sims Gamer

Think of it as a secret club that you’re not invited to but people will discuss around you.

Well, you’re about to be in that secret club. You’re welcome.

First off, what is Awesomemod?

Think of Awesomemod as a huge ass cheat console…sort of.

It fixes annoying crap that EA didn’t think to fix or maybe just didn’t want to fix. It’s a like a whole bunch of mods all wrapped into one.

You can turn off the nudity censor, you have a slider hack that you can enable that allows you to under and over slide sliders for the face and body. You can make your Sims 3 Sims age like they are in Sims 2. There are a bunch of goodies – trust me.

To download Awesomemod, CLICK HERE and you’ll be taken to where you download the mod. Read the instructions and you should be good to go. The install is pretty straight forward.

Post from: Sims Gamer