This is another “usually don’t do this but I’m doing it now” post. These two expansions for The Sims 3, deserve my opinion.
I got them during EA’s sale of The Sims Anniversary; 50% off all Sims stuff. Also got Late Night, but haven’t played around with that yet. I also used a 10% off discount I got for having so much trouble with their Grade A tech support (sarcasm alert). It was a pretty cool deal.
So, why did I get these? World Adventures has a lot of controversy of being one hell of a bugged EP. But actually, that ‘title’ can go to Island Paradise. I’ll explain it when I get to the Bugs section. Let’s just say it proves my theory of EA’s “get ’em EPs out and screw testing! We want moar monies!” practices.
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The first EP I’ll talk about is World Adventures…the expansion that ‘replaces’ The Sims 2: Bon Voyage. Actually, both do, but this is more. In WA, you can go to three exotic locations; China, Egypt, and France. Bon Voyage (and even The Sims: Vacation) had three places to visit. But the change, each area has a Base Camp where all explorers such as yourself show up. You don’t need to check into a hotel; you can instantly go and interact with other sims. But with myself being a Loner sim, that’s always a problem.
But that’s why there’s Adventure Boards, where your sim can help out in town, convince other sims to tell you what you need to know (for certain adventures), and explore tombs. The tomb part is what I obviously like (and the reason I got it).
My recommendation, get to pumping iron and get your Athletic skill to 10, then go to China. There’s two things you ‘need’ for the other two places when it comes to tomb raiding; Martial Arts, and a magical weapon that is rumored to destroy even the largest boulders (only in tombs, and only if they have a ‘Smash’ option).
For Martial Arts, you’ll be kicking ass and taking names, Sim Fu style. You must go to the academy, and then just start practicing with practice dummies. You’ll level up your skill and get new colored belts, just like they do in RL. Soon, you’ll have the Black and Orange (which I like to call the “Golden Dragon”) belt at Level 10.
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The second item you need is called the ‘Legendary Axe of Pangu’, which has the power of removing large boulders and rubble. You get this as an Adventure after you get Level 10 Martial Arts. The adventure is to learn how to smash boulders. You’ll know it when you see it.
Just a word of warning, the tomb it’s in has a load of booby traps.
Once you have both things, you can do more. Like for example, a place you expect to find tombs (and mummies), and Pyramids… Egypt.
Now in Egypt, remember when I mentioned mummies? Be careful when opening Sarcophagi, as your mummy might show up to give you a 10,000+ year spanking of your lifetime. If you have high Athletic and Martial Arts skill(which is why you needed it), you can get the mummy to try to kick your ass by having it walk near you and engage. If you don’t or lack one of the two (though there’s a chance it’ll fail), it’ll kick yours and either knock you out or put a deadly curse on you, that will kill you in two ingame weeks if not cured. Or you can just run away. The mummy won’t follow you, as it’s cursed to stay in the room its in. You can also lure the mummy to a fire trap which will instantly kill it.
You can also get a roommate that’s a mummy to live with you back home. You have to collect special relics to do so.
Egypt is also where you can begin work on the new Photography skill. Get you a camera and take pictures.
Lastly, in early France (after the medieval times), they also have tombs, but not as many as China and Egypt. The only real reason to go to France, is get the supplies to work on the new nectar making skill. Essentially, you’re making wine. Get the right ingredients, put it in storage and let it age for awhile, then drink it and receive positive moodlets.
Unfortunately, there’s no The Sims version of the world famous art museum ‘The Louvre’. It has a museum, but it’s a history museum.
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Moving on. Now we talk about the final EP for The Sims 3; Island Paradise. Now, at its base, it’s nothing but a new town your existing Sims can move to, or you can create a new family. But there’s a lot more than those Sims 3 Store towns. You have boating, Snorkeling, Scuba Diving, Hotels, Houseboats, Ability to build a house over water, Jet Skiing, Windsurfing, a new Lifeguard job, and…mermaids. So why is this not a vacation spot like Egypt, China, and France? I don’t get EA sometimes. It literally screams out “vacation”! It really does.
Anyway, let’s go over each feature. First, starting with the Hotel side of The Sims 2: Bon Voyage. So yes. Hotels. You can check into one, which is kind of pointless since you have to move to the town to enjoy its activities. Thankfully there is another option; you can own a hotel. It’s a minigame where you can set prices, hire staff, man the front desk, upgrade the hotel, get people to book into your hotel..and all to get a 5 star rating.
But a hotel isn’t for you? How about try living by the water. New build options, that you can place stilts to build over water and cliffs.
Still not happy? How about a house, that’s also a boat?! Houseboats! Now you can literally never leave home, because you’ll always BE home. Unless you leave your floating fortress and go snorkeling in miles of ocean to cover. And when your level gets high enough, you will be able to go scuba diving, and go underwater for the first time in sim history. Here, you can explore specifically-set caves (that are your traditional ‘rabbit holes’. Aka, what your sim can see but you can’t), gather sea shells and marine life, and even search for buried treasure.
It doesn’t stop there. There are several islands that are shrouded by clouds. Nearly all of them require you to do something to reveal them. Like find pieces of a map, search for a message in a bottle that gives you a riddle, or make your hotel the best hotel ever.
These islands when revealed, are yours. Private islands, that you can build a vacation house (or even a hotel). You can have the same standard services you get in the mainland, but come via boat to your island.
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And now we move on to my always favorite area that I like to call; “Where EA Fucked Up”. Aka, the Bugs section. I’ll be dividing both the EPs into separate categories.
These issues are for the default un-modded versions.
The Sims 3: World Adventures
1. The Visa. This is a different system than Bon Voyage, where it doesn’t matter if you cheated your way to being rich and famous (literally), and want to see the world. This system depends on how much adventuring and other activities (see the one below this) you do to get Visa points. Get up to Visa Level 3 and you can spend up to 15 days max.
In ways I like it, as you can only spend a week in Bon Voyage compared to just over two weeks in World Adventures. But in ways, I don’t (as there’s no way to cheat your Visa to Level 3). Also, Visa works per location, and not shared between vacation destinations.
2. The non-Tomb Raider missions. Half are “Get/Do this for me because I’m too lazy. I’ll pay you!”, and the other half are “kiss my ass(aka befriend) before I let you continue to advance your current adventure” with no “Kick *sim name here*’s Ass” to get said info. 😛
3. Saying “fuck no, give me something better!” (aka, hitting the X when if you want to accept an adventure or not) causes the Adventure Board to say “well fuck YOU then, I’m not going to work!” Going back home and then going back after two days(due to the ‘Went to ‘vacation place here” moodlet), fixes the problem.
4. The Egypt Base Camp’s fridge is void of food. I wonder if it’s the same thing for the other locations’ base camps. Are they saying you are responsible for feeding fellow adventurers? But that’s why there’s dried food you can buy that never spoils.
5. Very, very annoying “AHH!! I’m too stupid to know how to walk through a doorway!” or “AHH!!, this WALL is in my way! I don’t know how to WALK AROUND IT! D:” path finding in some tombs.
The Sims 3: Island Paradise
1. It’s a town, not a vacation destination. Yet it fucking SHOULD be! Seriously, hotels? Houseboats? Scuba Diving that can be only done in that world? It literally screams out “VACATION!!!!!”
2. Constant pausing/freezing for no reason. My computer is more than capable to run the game. Not fun. Very annoying.
3. Certain items like to either get stuck under the ground, or be in an area a sim has no idea how to approach it.
4. The houseboat doesn’t always go exactly where you want it, in certain areas. It too, like a Sim since Day 1, relies on path finding.
5. A sim is too stupid to know how to use the ladder of a Houseboat. Infact, never even uses it as the ladder is unclickable. Even if he manages to get on board (via finding the correct path), he magically appears on it by taking another boat.
And this is the part were I say “despite the flaws, it’s still good”. Well, the same goes to these two. I mean, it’s EA. It’s typical to find a few…hundred bugs that go unresolved for months. You really think EA actually has testers that look for these bugs? Well, they do. It’s called the fools that buy their products. Which makes me a fool as well.
But at least I’m a smart fool. I wait ’till these EPs go on sale. These were originally $40. Now they’re $9.99 to $24.99 (depending on how much content there is).