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For the 25th anniversary of the series, Electronic Arts released The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle, which compiles the Legacy Collection versions of the first two games of the long-running life sim franchise. You can also, of course, purchase each one separately. Aside from the overall dated nature of the unmodded games (especially the first one) and some occasional hiccups with resolution and odd bugs, the remasters play well despite the horror stories floating around on the Internet.

While the classic stereotype of a Sims girlie features unhinged save files full of breeding farms, mpreg, and human experiments that would make an ethics board soil themselves, I’m actually very kind to my virtual families in The Sims 3. I meet their every need, fulfill their life wants, and make sure they have a dream home to raise their children in. And let me tell you, I am trying my best to make sure my Sims and Sims 2 families receive the same royal treatment. But no matter what, it’s like they’re opposed to the very idea of happiness. Over a decade of playing The Sims 3 really spoiled me when it came to the older games. I have no idea how I had happy and accomplished Sims in these games as a kid or teenager.

The Sims (the first one) didn’t hold back in denting my confidence. This is a game that I don’t believe aged well at all if you’re serious about playing The Sims, and are used to the later entries in the franchise. It’s fun if you want to have a little trainwreck of a family, since it’s hard to keep these guys happy even if you’re trying your best. Between the lack of basic QoL features, no proper direction outside of making more money or speedrunning death, and poor screen resolution optimization, it doesn’t feel good to play at all. I’m playing The Sims on my laptop rather than my PC, and even on the smaller screen, I’m having real trouble reading a lot of the descriptions or seeing the lots on the neighborhood map. I’m sure it looks worse on a larger monitor.

I never realized just how uppity the sims in The Sims are. I’m used to The Sims 3, where they’re a lot more open to my directions, even if they’re not exactly happy at the moment. Chess and painting are activities that raise fun, so they usually do them without complaint, even if they’re in the red. But in The Sims, I had to let my sim goof off and nap for about two hours before they were okay to paint, and by then, bedtime rolled around. That’s pretty annoying, since that means they hardly have any time to maintain relationships with other sims. My sim was buttering up Bella Goth for days before she was willing to come over, because I could only call her in between trying to get him married to his intended belle while keeping him fed and clean.

After getting enough money to build a nice mansion (a more difficult task than I imagined thanks to the lack of modern Sims conveniences like even the eyedropper tool), I figured that surely, it would be easier for them to make friends and fall in love. On one hand, it did. Better furniture recovered motives faster and kept them happier, which meant I could give them more tasks per day. On the other, it just felt so hollow. I’m basically stuck playing the same sims forever and ever. If I’m not helping them with their 9-5 and social lives, I’m watching them goof off with the luxuries I bought with their hard-earned money. It got pretty boring, but switching to a new family didn’t appeal to me either, because I knew I’d have to start that grind all over again.

As a kid, building the dollhouse was really fun. But nowadays, if I wanted to focus more on the building than the actual life sim aspect of The Sims, I can just pick up The Sims 4. Despite all the scorn it receives from the community (and me), fans agree that its robust Build Mode is the best in the series. Even if I reach the top of my career in The Sims, the game will arbitrarily stick me into another job to climb the corporate latter again. There’s no aging, so I can’t start a family and try to keep it going for as many generations as I can. I can’t even create a love dodecahedron, let it implode, and laugh at the drama and tears because the game’s AI was simply not that advanced back then. It feels empty.

That’s kind of the point, though. In a recent interview with the New York Times, series creator Will Wright said, “I never really thought of The Sims as inherently optimistic. I always thought of The Sims as slightly sarcastically nostalgic for a past that never really existed.” Technological constraints aside, it’s pretty brilliant to play a game where you can seemingly accomplish the American dream, only for it to be a hollow and unfulfilling victory. While The Sims certainly occupies a fond spot in my memories, I’m not sure if it holds up compared to other similar games in the genre. Life kind of sucks right now. So I’m not too enthused about playing a life simulator that seems to hammer home how futile the pursuit for happiness and wealth is.

And on that depressing note, that’s all I have to say here about The Sims. Maybe I just need a bit more whimsy in how I play, but I haven’t been the “be mean to your sim for shits and giggles” or “make sims of people I know IRL or characters from other media, and watch them do stupid things” type of player since I was in elementary school. Playing generations and specific families in a legacy style is all I know now. The Sims 2 is wacky, though, isn’t it? And I loving this game as a kid! So surely, nostalgia hasn't tainted my memories about this game.

As a whole, I’m right about that. I really loved the blast to the past, as well as how well it ran on a modern machine. When I was in elementary and high school, I played The Sims 2 on a Toshiba laptop with less storage than my friend’s iPod. The loading screen to move between lots could take five minutes, and the game stuttered every time my sims did anything. Ironically, that’s kind of how I still live today when playing The Sims 3 thanks to Reshade and my mods, but I digress.

The Sims 2: Legacy Collection boasts fast save and load times, as well as smooth animations, even when on max speed. I’ve done basically everything I can think of—vacations, university, kids, pets, ghost murder, and businesses—without encountering problems like crashing or whatnot. Short of doing things I know would hurt my game (like reviving Knut Futa or marrying in a Hula Zombie), I’ve not personally encountered major bugs with The Sims 2: Legacy Collection. While I ran into odd glitches here or there, they didn’t actively take away from my experience.

At this point, I kind of expect the occasional hiccup from The Sims, though. One could argue Electronic Arts should’ve perfected the code for the remaster, but if modders—a community that fixes issues faster than EA can get to them—couldn’t work out every kink in this game, I don’t know what EA could’ve done. I’d also like to note the majority of my playtime was on a Windows 10 laptop. Since The Sims 3 had issues with Windows 11 if you didn’t run the Alder Lake patch from LazyDuchess (or install a later build from Electronic Arts), the performance problems other s reported could stem from that.

The Sims 2 feels a lot more manageable after The Sims. I’d installed The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection ages ago, and found taking care of everyone a lot harder than in 3. It feels a lot closer to the life sim I'm used to. I just had to that the AI in The Sims 2 is a lot more stupid than in The Sims 3, and motives decay much faster. This is a lesson I had to learn the hard way, as I had a pregnant sim straight up die on me while I was watching her ugly husband play with the family dog. I didn’t even notice she died until I wanted to send her off to sleep thanks to how small the UI. She was asleep, alright, but alas, ‘twas a slumber she would never wake from (until I exited without saving).

I’ve long advocated that Electronic Arts should’ve implemented the personality, memories, and turn-ons/turn-offs systems of The Sims 2 into The Sims 3. A combination of Traits and personality points would’ve opened up a lot of fun combinations and possibilities. The terrible attraction system in Sims 3 only made Sims 2’s seem so much more polished in comparison, even if it can feel shallow. I also really missed the little “Yay!” or “Ugh, really?” animations they’d sometimes do when directing them, even if they sometimes contradicted with what their actions and Wants tell me. Like, why are you complaining at me? I’m telling you to flirt with the guy you’ve wanted to fall in love with for the past three days.

There’s something so The Truman Show about these little movements that makes them feel visibly alive in a way beyond the new games, which rely so much on flavor text and windows. 2 captures life as the average person knows it. Though it lacks the bombastic presentation of 4, as well as the open world and customization of 3, it does its main conceit of presenting a life sim so much better than the others. Not everyone’s going to own a guinea pig planning world domination or travel to the future. But the experiences of opening a home business or ing out into your pasta while cramming for an exam are much more relatable. The world in The Sims 2 felt richer thanks to the details and care put into the interactions and content, and I'm glad the Legacy Collection can give newer players the opportunity to experience that.

The one thing I really don't like is the missing IKEA pack for Sims 2. Apparently, Electronic Arts couldn't renew the license for the re-release, so it's not a purposeful snub or oversight. If some day in the future, it decides to do something like this for The Sims 3, I'm guessing that the Katy Perry pack may suffer the same fate. Unlike the Katy Perry pack, though, the IKEA pack featured a lot of really useful items when decorating your home. The ubiquitous Swedish furniture store is a place I love going to and shopping at in real life, so it's too bad that I can't use its items in the base version of this re-release.

The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle is a nostalgic blast to the past that gives newer players the chance to explore more options beyond the third game, as well as offers older players the opportunity to relive their childhood. Compared to the conveniences of modern entries, some of the older titles might feel frustrating to navigate. It’s almost like a metaphor for real life.

The Sims: Legacy Collection and The Sims 2: Legacy Collection available on Windows PC.

The post Review: The Sims 1 & 2 Legacy Collection Harks Back to a Simpler Time appeared first on Siliconera.

Though The Sims 2 is a life simulator and open sandbox game, its neighborhoods—especially the three default ones of Pleasantview, Strangetown, and Veronaville—have a surprisingly rich lore that you can discover through the neighborhood story, townies, and item descriptions. Of particular interest to fans is the long-running mystery surrounding Bella Goth, matriarch of the Goth family, whose disappearance befuddles simmers to this day. What happened to Bella that fateful night in Pleasantview? While Electronic Arts never gave a straightforward answer, fans over the years have pieced together the clues behind this shocking crime, and come up with a few plausible theories.

Who is Bella Goth? 5i92f

Fans of the series should be familiar with Bella Goth and her family, as they appeared in every single title since the beginning of the franchise. She is the wife of Mortimer Goth, and the mother of Cassandra and Alexander Goth. Ever since she appeared in The Sims, she's had the same appearance: black hair, dark skin, and an iconic red dress. According to her biography, she’s elegant and athletic. When playing the Goth family in the original The Sims, we can see she enjoys artistic pursuits like painting or playing the piano.

Née as Bella Bachelor, Bella is the daughter of Simis and Jocasta, and the younger sister of Michael Bachelor. We see her as a child in The Sims 3, living in Sunset Valley with the rest of her family. She’s even wearing a red dress here. In canon, Bella Bachelor marries her childhood friend, Mortimer, and becomes Bella Goth. But in The Sims 3, there’s nothing stopping you from diverging from this timeline and marrying her (or Mortimer) to someone else. Obviously, that’s not canon, though.

The Mysterious Disappearance of Bella Goth in The Sims 2 1o2r2c

When you load up Pleasantview, you can read a blurb about the various families and dramas in this seemingly idyllic neighborhood. Some time in the 25 years between The Sims and The Sims 2, Mortimer Goth became an old man who lost his wife. The family description reads, “Cassandra is ready to start a family of her own, but can she tame the town Casanova? And can Mortimer bounce back after the disappearance of his wife, Bella?”

The Casanova in question is Don Lothario, and he is one of the key figures in this story. Don Lothario is the playboy bachelor of Pleasantview, though he’s currently engaged to Cassandra. The game pushes you to marry the two right after you load up the Goth family, which will always end with him leaving her at the altar. Despite Don’s engagement to Cassandra, he has romantic relationships with Kaylynn Langerak (the maid), and both Caliente sisters. He was also the last person to see Bella. According to his family description, rumors around town say that Bella was “scaling the deck of his condo," and was never seen again. Very mysterious, especially his relationship with the Caliente sisters.

The Caliente sisters arrived in Pleasantview the night of Bella’s disappearance. Between the pair, Dina raises a lot of red flags. She’s the widow of Michael Bachelor—Bella’s brother—and the current lover of Mortimer Goth. The family description for the Calientes also asks whether their interest in Mortimer is physical or fiscal. What’s going on here?

Something that we need to keep in mind as we go forth is that a lot of information comes from an interview on the old The Sims 2 website. This is a fictional interview between Bella Goth and “a team of highly trained SimCity investigators,” which gives a lot more insight about Bella’s circumstances. In this interview, she offers us several key facts:

• Aliens abducted Bella and took her to Strangetown, where she currently lives. She had amnesia, but with the help of a therapist, she’s ing details about her past life in Pleasantview.
• Mortimer was working on a “permanent life extending elixir.” This is likely the Elixir of Life, which is an Aspiration Reward you can get in The Sims 2.
• According to Bella, she felt bad for Don, who didn’t fit in with the neighbors. On the night of her disappearance, she went to his house to have a chat. Since the weather was so nice, they spent it watching the stars, which was when the aliens took Bella.
• Bella’s own theory points a finger at Dina, as well as Nina. She believes someone sent the Caliente sisters to Pleasantview to take Bella away from Mortimer, which would make him stop his work on the Elixir of Life.

So now, we kind of have the picture. On the night of her disappearance, aliens came and abducted Bella Goth. Simple enough. But there are still so many questions we don't have answers to.

The Caliente Sisters and Don Lothario 41p6a

Before we move on to Bella’s appearances in other neighborhoods and games, we need to talk about the Caliente sisters, as well as Don Lothario. Don Lothario is a skeevy slimeball, but he's likely an innocent in this case. The Caliente sisters framed him for Bella’s disappearance. His significance in the story doesn’t stop at his house being the setting of Bella’s abduction, though. Don is quite important in establishing a time travel twist to the story.

Chronologically, The Sims 2 takes place 25 years after The Sims, while The Sims 3 takes place 25 years before the first game. Don Lothario first appears in The Sims 2. However, you can actually find a young adult Don Lothario in Riverview, which is a neighborhood in The Sims 3. His biography reads, “Don was facing a big choice between marriage and continuing to be a man about town. Will his ‘accidental’ teleportation to a new town change his old ways?” It appears from this description that in this timeline, someone used a time machine to teleport Don to the Riverview of the past, where he settles down. Maybe the Caliente sisters did so to prevent him from saying anything about Bella’s disappearance.

Speaking of the Caliente sisters, one unfamiliar with The Sims lore may find it strange that this pair of femme fatales can be responsible for alien abduction. It’s not as if they’re aliens, right? Well, actually, a look in Dina and Nina’s family tree shows they do have alien blood on their father’s side. Their father’s parents are Nestor Caliente and Pollination Technician 7—an alien. It’s not that rare in The Sims 2, with entire families in Strangetown openly displaying their extraterrestrial heritage. Dina and Nina are the only alien hybrids in Pleasantview, though, and also the only ones with connections to an alien abduction.

Strangetown and Lunar Lakes Bella 2n675

Bella, in her interview, stated that she’s in Strangetown. If you load up Strangetown, you can find a townie named Bella Goth, who looks a lot like her. However, this version has a few differences from the one in Pleasantview. Maxis confirmed and acknowledged these differences, so they’re likely on purpose rather than an issue with the code.

The Bella in Strangetown doesn’t have any memories or her past life, which makes sense. In her interview, she said that she’d lost her memories. Strangetown Bella has slightly different facial features than Pleasantview Bella. Strangetown Bella also has personality data, whereas Pleasantview Bella doesn’t (probably due to the mind wipe from the aliens). While the Bella interview seems to confirm that Pleasantview Bella and Strangetown Bella are the same person, there are too many discrepancies between the two. It’s highly likely that the Strangetown Bella is a clone of the Pleasantview Bella.

In The Sims 3, one of the DLC worlds you can buy from the Sims 3 store is Lunar Lakes. This is an alien planet that has a thriving Sim colony after a spaceship full of them crash-landed on the planet. If you go to the Moon Shadow Graveyard, you can find a gravestone with Bella’s name on it. In a tweet from February 2014, SimGuruSarah confirmed that this is the Bella Goth from Pleasantview, who travelled to Lunar Lakes and died there. As a note, she looks completely different thanks to her yellow skin and blonde hair. All the ghosts in Lunar Lakes look like this. Maybe it’s something in the soil.

Clones in The Sims 2 g4p64

"What do you mean a Bella clone exists? Clones in The Sims? Really?" you might be saying. It's not that crazy, though! Let’s leave the Goth family behind for a little bit and look at another family in Pleasantview: the Brokes. Specifically, let’s look at Skip Broke, who is the deceased husband of Brandi Broke. Skip’s death is an open-ended mystery in The Sims 2, and there aren’t really enough clues to have a definitive answer as to what happened. He drowned in a “suspicious pool ladder accident,” which implies someone drowned him (the tiny pool in the Broke house almost makes it look like the pool was specifically built as a murder weapon).

While Skip’s death and Bella’s disappearance are two separate mysteries, there’s something else about Skip that’s bizarre. When looking through Brandi’s memories, we can see two Skip Brokes. You can resurrect one Skip, but not the other. They have slightly different facial features, different voice actors, and different aspirations. Skip also appears in The Sims 3 as a child. However, Bob Newbie and Betty Simovitch—the parents of his future wife, Brandi—are teenagers. That doesn’t track, since in The Sims 2, we can see from when he died that Skip and Brandi are around the same age.

In Skip’s case, there aren’t any alien shenanigans to blame on this discrepancy. Time travel is also a possibility. However, in 2009, SimGuruRain (who produced the Riverview neighborhood in The Sims 3, where you can find the child version of Skip) stated that “you’ll have to Skip twice for it [the Broke family’s story] to work.” Many people have their own interpretations of this line—such as skipping generations for him and Brandi to be around the same age—but it’s possible that this is alluding to the clone theory, in which one of the Skip Brokes is a copy of the original.

Clones aren’t unheard of in The Sims. For example, you can get a Clone Voucher as a Lifetime Happiness reward in The Sims 3. So what does this have to do with Bella Goth? Well, it’s possible that the aliens abducted Bella at Dina’s behest, and then used her as a test subject for cloning technology. That would explain the differences between the Pleasantview and Strangetown versions of her, as well as why her grave appears on Lunar Lakes in The Sims 3. If the aliens plopped her in Strangetown, they have no reason to abduct her again to Lunar Lakes, right?

Alexander Goth 3y4b32

Finally, let’s discuss Alexander. At the time of Bella’s abduction, Alexander is a mere child. As mentioned multiple times before, The Sims 3 is a prequel to The Sims, and Bella appears in this game as a child. There are multiple Easter Eggs alluding to Bella’s disappearance, though, despite Bella being alive and well. “Where’s Bella?” is a book you can buy in the game, as is a book titled “Murder in Pleasantview,” with Alexander Goth as the author.

This could be a whole other Alexander Goth. But the title of the book doesn’t make much sense. Gunther Goth founded Pleasantview, yet he’s still living in Sunset Valley with his wife, Cornelia. It’s unlikely that Pleasantview exists at this time, so a book with that title doesn’t line up with the timeline. Some fans believe that Alexander Goth got his hands on a time machine to go to the past and stop his mother’s disappearance. However, he messed up the settings, and flew too far back. Telling a child version of Bella to watch out for the Caliente sisters or Don Lothario would only alarm her, so Alexander might have written “Murder in Pleasantview” to warn her before she even moves to the town.

In fact, if Alexander had access to a time machine, it’s possible that he was the one who pushed Don Lothario in, rather than the Calientes. Judging by the title of the book, it doesn’t seem that Alexander believes aliens abducted his mother. Maybe he thought Don murdered her, and so he pushed Don into the time machine out of revenge. Since the Alexander from 2 doesn’t appear in 3, it’s impossible to tell what’s going on there, though. Again, the Alexander Goth and “Murder in Pleasantview” thread might just be an Easter Egg for fans of the previous game.

So...What Happened? 3u3aj

Between the information in the Sims 2 interview and what we can find in the first three games, we have a clearer picture of how the disappearance of Bella Goth went down. On the night she went to speak to Don Lothario, aliens abducted her. Dina and Nina Caliente’s alien heritage might have given them a way to communicate with the aliens, and they did them this favor. Their goal in getting rid of Bella was to gain access to Mortimer, either for his money or for his research on the Elixir of Life.

After the aliens took Bella from Pleasantview, they used her as a test subject for their cloning technology. Then, they plopped one of the Bellas—I personally believe it’s the clone version of her—into Strangetown. With the help of a therapist, she recovered the original Bella’s memories, but could never find her way back to her family. Some believe that the crashed spaceship in Strangetown belongs to the aliens who abducted Bella. After the spaceship plummeted to the ground, Bella escaped in the aftermath. Her amnesia resulted from the crash, or the alien experiments. It’s not definitive that the spaceship belongs to those aliens, though, and it could be Pollination Technician #9 Smith's. 

If the aliens who abducted Bella didn’t crash the ship in Strangetown, then they went to Lunar Lakes and dropped the remaining Bella there. Now a member of the Lunar Lakes colony, Bella started a new family, eventually giving birth to Mathilde Goth (or perhaps an ancestor of Mathilde's). Aside from them sharing the same surname, Mathilde shares a physical resemblance to the Bella Goth we're used to. Bella then died of old age without ever returning to Pleasantview or her family there.

Of course, that’s all a theory. The lore in The Sims changes depending on which SimGuru you ask, or which game you play. For example, in The Sims Bustin’ Out, Bella's description states she comes from a “long line of occultists, mystics, and decadents.” But we see her in The Sims 3 and the Bachelors are just your normal run-of-the-mill suburban family. So keep in mind that the above conclusions include my personal hypotheses about the disappearance of Bella Goth in The Sims 2. 

Something else to keep in mind is that The Sims 2 is not a very stable game. It’s possible that, to make sure the neighborhoods work properly or that players don’t simply cheat Bella back into the game to preserve the Pleasantview lore, they altered Pleasantview Bella’s files. That’s why they’re so different from Strangetown Bella.

We may never have a straight answer about the disappearance of Bella Goth in The Sims 2. Maxis might have added it as a fun little story beat for those who enjoy playing the pre-made families, and never thought out a definitive answer. Perhaps the truth behind Bella’s disappearance doesn’t matter. All we can do is help the Sims move on from the pain of losing her...or go back in the timeline to make sure it doesn’t happen at all.

The Sims 2: Legacy Collection is available on Windows PC.

The post The Biggest Mystery in The Sims 2: Untangling the Disappearance of Bella Goth appeared first on Siliconera.

Electronic Arts announced and released a legacy collection consisting of both The Sims and The Sims 2, both of which include a collection of DLC. The two games are available separately or together as part of The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle.

The announcement came alongside a predominantly live-action trailer featuring various references to the series throughout the years, including a nod to the infamous method of drowning sims by removing the steps to their swimming pool. While the biggest value point is that the games should now run better on modern machines, they also come packaged with almost all of the DLC released for each game. One of the apparent exceptions is the add-on The Sims 2: IKEA Home Stuff. Buying the first game's collection on its own will cost you $19.99, while the second one will set you back $29.99. Alternatively, you could purchase The Sims 25th Birthday Bundle for $39.99 to receive both games and save about $10.

You can watch the trailer for the legacy collections via Youtube below:

Back in September, 2024, EA also released both MySims and MySims Kingdom on Nintendo Switch as part of the MySims: Cozy Bundle. Just prior to that, the company also stated that it had no current plans to develop The Sims 5, though there is a film adaptation in the works.

Both The Sims: Legacy Collection and The Sims 2: Legacy Collection are available now for PCs via the EA Store, Epic Games Store, and Steam. EA Play Pro will also be able to access the games via their subscription.

The post The Sims & The Sims 2 Legacy Collections Are Here appeared first on Siliconera.

Ever since The Sims 4 came out in 2014 (oh my goodness...), I’ve been adamant that The Sims 2 and 3 remain the superior titles in the series, especially once you start using core mods to improve performance or quality of life. For those who want to get their life simulation fix but The Sims 4 is broken or too boring, I highly suggest playing The Sims 3 instead!

Those who know anything about The Sims 3 may know that Electronic Arts and Maxis did not optimize this game very well. There are a lot of reasons for this. One reason is that it’s an open-world 32-bit game. This can lead to your files bloating up and causing the game to crash to desktop. The Sims 3 is also notorious in that the game does not naturally cap your FPS, which can overheat your graphics card if you’re not careful. Some of these mods are not mere recommendations. They’re straight up essential for the overall health of your computer.

Though not a mod, I recommend using MATY’s FPS Limiter and 3Booter. This will help to keep your frame rate at the game’s default 30. If you’re like me and you’re using a NVIDIA graphics card, you can also go into your control and cap The Sims 3’s frame rate at 30 through there.

Here are some of the best mods for The Sims 3 in 2024 6ep3r

• NRaas Master Controller
  NRaas’s entire library of mods is fantastic, but I have a few that I recommend for even people who aren’t too keen on installing mods. Master Controller is exactly as it says on the tin. With this mod, you can control virtually everything in your town, from relationships to careers to ages. It’s a handy tool for little accidents (oops, my Sim is wearing a raincoat at her garden wedding) to more heavy-duty tasks (I need to reset every single object and sim in my neighborhood).
• NRaas Story Progression
  As mentioned earlier, The Sims 3 has an open world for its neighborhood, which means that things can happen in inactive households completely out of your control. You can turn this off if you want, but for those who don’t mind letting Sims live out their own little virtual lives, I recommend Story Progression from NRaas. This replaces EA’s slow and stagnant Story Progression, preventing your neighborhood from devolving into a ghost town over time.
• NRaas Overwatch
  ESSENTIAL MOD; YOU DEFINITELY SHOULD THIS FOR YOUR COMPUTER. Overwatch goes through your neighborhood at an interval you set to clean up things like deserted cars. In general, you can think of Overwatch as a garbage truck that throws away junk files which can cause bloating down the line.
• NRaas Error Trap
  ESSENTIAL MOD; YOU DEFINITELY SHOULD THIS FOR YOUR COMPUTER. Error Trap is, like Overwatch, a mod that’s for keeping your save file as clean as possible. It catches and corrects data corruption errors that can prevent you from loading up a save. Think of it as insurance. Under ideal circumstances, you won’t need it. But when you need it, man, you’ll be glad to have this thing in your folders.

• Simpishly's More Traits for All Ages
  If you raise a Sim in-game, you’re forced to only pick from limited pools of traits in the earlier life stages, which can get boring after a while. Enabling traits for all ages can lead to some wacky Sims like a toddler who’s Flirty and has Commitment Issues. But if you don’t mind that, this is a great mod for more varied Sims.
• LazyDuchess Smooth Patch
  As a note, the LazyDuchess Smooth Patch does not work with some NRaas mods if you’re using 2.x versions. I recommend using a 1.x build if you want to use it with, say, Master Controller. Smooth Patch alters some of the script in the game to make the game run faster. For example, it’ll load hairs and outfits in CAS as you scroll through rather than making you wait for the game to pull everything out.
• LazyDuchess Lot population
  This is a personal pet peeve, but I don’t like going to a community lot to scope out a t, only for everyone to be elsewhere in town. In The Sims 2, the game will populate lots after you arrive. However, the open world concept works against that since, again, Sims have their own lives. The Lot Population mod pushes Sims to lots your active Sim is at so you won’t be partying alone. It can also add walkbys like in The Sims 2, making your neighborhood feel more alive.
• Retuned Attraction
  The attraction system in The Sims 3 is ridiculous and can cause more trouble than it’s worth. With this mod, the attraction system is more sane and logical, as well as less indiscriminate. It will also prevent Sims from continuously harassing you for dates or sending you random stuff in the mail.

• OMSP, S3DT
  For people who like to build and decorate fancy houses, OMSP and S3DT are both absolutely essential. OMSP allows you to create more space on surfaces for clutter. This can include beds and sofas (so you can put blankets and cushions), or mini-fridges (if you want to put a radio or something on top). S3DT gives you a lot of freedom when it comes to moving things around a lot, as well as lets you change the height and angle of objects. If you only care about gameplay, these aren't necessary.
• Ghost Reaction Remover
  This is fantastic for people who play legacy style like I do, as you’ll naturally end up with a lot of ghosts in your house. If you’re annoyed by Sims constantly stopping what they’re doing to go “Ew, you’re getting ectoplasm all over the floor, Great-Great-Grandpa,” then this mod can curb that behavior. Other reaction removers from this maker include mods to curb relation loss from the Emperor of Evil and stop sims from freaking out over Bonehilda.
• Children Can mods
  The Children Can series of mods is fantastic for people who want to give their Sim kids more freedom and independence, as well as get them started in life. With this mod, Sim kids will be able to do laundry, make sculptures, call services, and more. It’s really handy for people who are doing challenges like, again, the legacy challenge or the 100 Baby Challenge, since it’ll make playing with kids more fun.
• NeuroBlazer Random Genetics
  I highly recommend the Random Genetics mod for people who want more varied faces around town or in your Sims. However, NeuroBlazer seems to have removed this mod and they’re not hosting it anymore. Fortunately, there is a backup (this link will directly the file to your computer).

• Brntwaffles environment mods
  Pretty much all of Tumblr brntwaffles’s default replacement mods (whether environment or genetics) are really good! They make the game really pretty and it looks even better if you install Reshade. My personal recommendations from brntwaffles for eyes are the MS93 and Sarhra default replacements. I also really like their Perfect Day and Dream Dimension lighting mods.
• Twinsimming mods
  Twinswimming’s mods are great for adding flavor to your game. I recommend basically all of them. Some of them can make your game more difficult, such as Pest Control and Utilities adding new things you have to watch out for. Their best mods are Growing Pains and the Level Up! mods, in my opinion.
• Velocitygrass No Automatic Memories
  ESSENTIAL MOD; YOU DEFINITELY SHOULD THIS FOR YOUR COMPUTER. As mentioned in the beginning, memories can really bloat your save file, causing the eventual corruption of your neighborhood and mess with your computer. Even if you turn off notifications, the game still accumulates memories, including from inactive families. This mod completely removes the feature.
• Icarusallsorts's -Directed Scolding
  If you don’t have kids in your game, this might be a non-issue. But Generations added a mechanic that lets parents scold and ground their kids when they do something bad. On paper, that sounds really neat. In practice, it’s freakishly annoying. This mod gives you more control over how your sim punishes their kid without turning it into unnecessary drama.

• Ultimate Careers
  The Ultimate Careers mod is a very intensive mod that overhauls how careers work in this game. This makes them a lot more similar to how professions work rather than just pushing your Sims to go to a rabbit hole where you can’t peek in on them. Fortunately, you don’t have to micromanage as much as you do with a profession, so it’s friendly for players with large families too.
• TheSweetSimmer mods
  TheSweetSimmer makes a lot of mods that focus on pregnancy interactions and toddlers, making them more fun to play with. It also frees up your teen or adult Sims, since children and toddlers will be able to perform acts that would usually require an older Sim's help. This is mostly useful for people who play families, but it might incentivize YA and Adult sim players to have a kid or two.
• Moar Interactions
  This is one of those mods that add things you’d figure would have been in the base game. It’s great for group meetings and parties, as you can do so much more with other sims around town.
• PhoebeJaySims Social Clubs Mod
  PhoebeJaySims, like TheSweetSimmer and Twinsimming, has a lot of really cool mods. My favorite of them is the Social Clubs mod. This lets you create a club, but without the objectives that are in The Sims 4 clubs. Clubs with this mod are more chill and are a great way for you to set up regular meetings and playdates, or add a layer of storytelling to your neighborhood.

The Sims 3 is readily available on the Windows PC.

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The Sims developer Maxis is working on what it's calling "the next-generation Sims game and creative platform". Its working title is Project Rene. Based on the details released during EA's "Behind the Sims Summit" stream event on October 18, 2022, the game is likely to be the next entry in the mainline Sims series. However, rather than being called The Sims 5 (or something similar), it being in the early stages of development precludes official confirmation beyond "Project Rene". It's a similar situation to when The Sims 4 was first being teased. At the time, EA only referred to that game as Project Olympus before formally confirming that it was The Sims 4 later on.

Speaking of The Sims 4, that game is now officially a free-to-play title. Players can the base game free of charge on Windows PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Mac. Expansions and DLC are still sold separately, though. of the EA Play and EA Play Pro subscription services are entitled to special -only bundles of the game. The EA Play Edition of The Sims 4 includes the Get To Work expansion pack, while the EA Play Pro Edition includes that and the Toddler Stuff pack. Players who previously bought the base game receive the Desert Luxe Kit DLC as a gift. Maxis assured fans that while the game is going free-to-play, it is not the end of further content plans for The Sims 4. Further additions will debut in the future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIBBm7tWs_U

For more on Project Rene, check out Vice-President of Franchise Creative for The Sims Lyndsay Pearson's presentation on the stream archive below. It kicks off at about the 26-minute mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmm6h6bHD3o

The name Project Rene is said to represent Maxis' renewed commitment to The Sims. Showing off some in-development footage, Pearson demonstrated some detailed furniture placement and modification tools. Players can, for example, change the shapes of in-game objects, deciding the placement of individual pillows on a couch. Players can also group together items and designs and publish them as a set for sharing. Cross-device functionality was also teased, with a player decorating the same room in real-time across both a PC and a smartphone. Pearson called the experience "Same Experience, Different Screen". Pearson said that Project Rene is "years away" from release and cautioned fans not to hold their breath, as the game is still very early in development. However, she promised more updates over time, along with behind-the-scenes looks as development progressed.

Maxis closed out the presentation by teasing the implementation of infant sims in the game, coming in a The Sims 4 expansion slated for release in 2023.

The Sims 4 is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Mac. Project Rene is in development.

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Electronic Arts have confirmed that their new action-RPG based on the Spore franchise is, indeed, titled Darkspore. The game is being developed internally at Maxis, the Sims and Spore studio, which has traditionally been involved in the development of simulation games.

Darkspore is a hack-and-slash loot RPG designed with a focus on four-player cooperative multiplayer in mind. The catch is, you aren't upgrading "equipment" -- in a Spore-like twist, you'll be upgrading body parts. You'll have access to three character classes of five different genetic hero types to start out with.

“Darkspore is inspired in part by the award-winning creature editor tech of Spore, but also in large part from the team’s own ion for gaming and prior experience,” said Lucy Bradshaw, General Manager of Maxis. “The team has combined these inspirations to produce a unique take on the action RPG genre.”

EA are planning to have Darkspore out in stores by February 2011 on the PC. They'll be talking about the game more at the San Diego Comic-Con this week.

The post EA Announce Darkspore, An Action RPG For PC appeared first on Siliconera.

The San Diego Comic-Con is coming up soon and the event website brings a tease of a new action RPG somehow related to Electronic Arts' Spore franchise, scheduled for a July 24th reveal:

6:00-7:00 Video Game Reveal: Maxis Studio— Maxis Studio (The Sims and Spore video games) has just announced their next project, a brand new, Sci-Fi Action-RPG based on the DNA of Spore. key leads from the dev team, Thomas Vu, Paul Sottosanti and Lauren McHugh, for the first game reveal to the public! Room 3

Earlier in the year, EA filed a trademark for something named "Darkspore" -- maybe...just maybe, this is related?

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At Will Wright’s keynote speech at SXSW he started with pictures from the Hubble telescope then waxed about the state of game design. To Mr. Wright games should be like “the Truman Show, where you would allow the player to run around with a certain amount of free will and the computer is like the director who controls the envelope around Truman but can't directly affect his movements.” Later he mentioned the power of created content in video games. “Players love making content in games, we've been riding that wave a lot. They love sharing and collecting content, some people love just organizing it. The power of that collective effort is amazing. You're seeing this on social network sites. But most of the content is not so good and a smaller percentage is great. But as we give them better and better tools, we'll increase the quality of what they're doing.” Spore is designed to take players out of being the “Luke Skywalker” hero and into the director’s chair. In the shaky cam video clips past the break you can see how his vision is evolving.

This first video demonstrates the beginning of Spore where you start out as a single celled creature and shows how the world grows with you similar to fl0w. Later Mr. Wright demonstrates how players can create their own characters with the built in tinker toy like toolset.

In this video we get a deeper look at the game in its later stages where you can design your own home planet. This demonstration has Mr. Wright fly around a spaceship that resembles something from Star Trek. Mr. Wright wants to give players tools to accurately make their favorite things so he can see an “interstellar war between the care bears and the Klingons.” Afterwards there is a demonstration of how you can terraform and destroy the world you’ve created.

The last video shows how players can put a monolith on the planet and get the inhabitants to worship their creature as a god. All the way at the tail end you can see a little of Spore’s intergalactic network of planets.

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