WORK

The temp job is going really well, I’ve made a few friends and the tasks are varied enough so I don’t get too bored. It’s been extended until Christmas so I can afford to buy myself a PSP, the tattoo and some more clothes! Only thing is it isn’t permanent so I hope something crops up in the meantime 

HOME

As you might know I’ve had my hair cut a few weeks ago – I’ve got a thin fringe and it trimmed. This weekend I’m having a thicker fringe cut in, it heavily layered long at the front and short at the back coming down to the top of my shoulders/bottom of neck. I like the look of longer hair but I’m just sick of it and it’ll grow back quick if I don’t like it short 

I know I look really young here but most photos make me look young anyway so meh 

It’s my mum’s 40th next week – she’s old!  I’m gonna bake her some of my homemade flapjack, drizzled in white chocolate and with white chocolate buttons around it. I found some candles that spell out FORTY so I’m gonna pop those on top  She loves white chocolate, I bake fab flapjack – sorted!

And on another note I’ve gotta sort out my taxes – grr! I’ve been taxed since that temp job in August so I’ve got a hell of a job claiming everything back. And the tax office is only open Monday – Friday, 9-5…you know, when I’m at work  I’ve heard you can do it online but I’ve yet to check it out. Why can’t getting paid be really simple?

SOCIAL

Since turning 18 I’ve been to the pub a few times on a Friday night. Last week I went with Chantel (a mate from work) and Danny (childhood mate) – it was really good  I was only planning on staying for a few drinks but ended up getting home at 1am! I’ve decided though that I’m sick of feeling rough on Saturdays and it kinda ruins my day with Hero so I’m gonna lay off the pub for a while…maybe 

Flash Forward! I caught the first episode a few days ago and it’s wicked – can’t wait for the next one 

I bought the new Muse album on Amazon and saved 4 quid so I spent 4 quid on Derren Brown’s book, Tricks of the Mind. My mate had it a while ago and I read a bit on memory and thought it might be useful as I’m crap at remembering things. I’ve been reading a little each day and it’s so well written! An amusing read, I’d definately recommend it 

Gotta be Uprising by Muse – love it!❤

Has to be my current desktop background. I want to see the Northern Lights one day 

I dreamt a couple of days ago that there was a flood and huge waves. News story today? A ****ing tsunamio_O Holy crap I can dream the future *is all spooky* 

The new Muse album  I pre-ordered it on Amazon on Saturday and chose free delivery which is 3-5 working days. So I expected it to arrive anytime between the next Wednesday to Friday. Tuesday, the day after the release and it arrives! So chuffed with that! ^______^

WORK

I now work full-time as an admin temp at Tickhill hospital in Balby It’s great, the tasks I have to do are varied enough so I don’t get bored and the people are really nice. I’ll be working there til October but afterwards I hope to get a job in the NHS permanently until I’m 25ish and can get into the police force.

HOME

Have you heard of one million giraffes? http://www.olahelland.net/giraffes/

It’s a website where you submit a hand drawn/crafted giraffe – they’re hoping to get 1 million entries by 2011!

Here’s my giraffe: http://olahelland.net/giraffes/?id=17498

I’ve also been working on mine and Hero’s website for the last day or so: http://tofu-hero.com/

A Sims 3 review is up which I wrote last night

I’ve had my hair cut – a fringe cut in and it trimmed and layered. It looks ok but it’ll look even better when I go to the hair dressers early October (was the first appointment I could get!) and have it cut short at the back to go into a little pony tail and the fringe have more weight on it (so you can’t see my forehead) and it layered around the sides

I rearranged my room today so my bed is where my desk was and vice versa. I’d switched everything off before plugging cables back into my computer and when I switched it on – BAM! The power supply bust. I’ve only had it for a couple of months so hopefully I can get it replaced for free. I’m also gonna buy a surge protector which I’ve been meaning to get for ages. I’m using my old power supply atm but it doesn’t even have enough space on it to plug my DVD drive and fans in

SOCIAL

Hero got swine flu recently so I couldn’t see him for 2 whole weeks If I get ill then I’ll lose my job and since I work in a hospital it’s even worse. Still, he’s fine now and I haven’t got it!

Here are some extra holiday photos I nabbed from Mehregan’s camera:

Me at the airport in Connor’s hat

Me and Hero on our balcony at night…

…and during the day

All 3 couples lmao

It was my 18th birthday on the 5th August I opened my awesome presents in the morning and then went out to lunch with my family. In the evening I went to Hero’s house and we had a couple of mates round. I had a fab day

Presents!

Amazing cake made by Aunty B!

And it had a photo of me on the back when I was a nipper

I also got my a-level results back last week:

A2 Photography – B

A2 Psychology – B

AS Citizenship – B

AS Sociology – A

Plus my C from AS Art last year I was really chuffed with the results, I was unsure about whether I’d got a C in Psychology, let alone a B!

I went to a results party that night in Epworth which was ok, and then to another one that Saturday in Stainforth which was amazing! I drank 5 beers, 1 pear cider, 1 shot of apple sours , 1 shot of absinthe and 1 gas chamber. I usually have up to 4 beers so I got v.drunk that night and had lots of merriment!

Crayon Physics Deluxe I wrote a feature about it on tofu-hero.com

Season 1 is over! I nearly cried when it ended – Thursdays just aren’t the same anymore

Nothing beats sleek and geeky

My gorgeous new jacket – 13 quid from Primark!

You get the little fuzzy bird shown in the earlier lolcat picture if you reach the end of this blog :3

To celebrate the release of Pokemon Platinum we take a look at the changing face of the Pokemon games.

Pokemon is a media franchise published by the video game company Nintendo and created by Satoshi Tajiri around 1995. The franchise started as a pair of Gameboy role-play video games “Pocket Monsters Aka and Midori” that were released outside of Japan under the names Pokemon Red and Blue in 1998. Afterwards, a further enhanced remake titled Pokemon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition was released to take advantage of the Gameboy Color and add a few more elements into game play.

The player controls the main character from an overhead perspective and navigates them through the region of Kanto in a quest to master Pokemon battling and become the champion of the region by defeating the Elite Four. Another objective is to complete the Pokedex by obtaining all of the available Pokemon.

The games Red, Blue and Yellow also utilize the Gameboy link cable – players can trade and battle Pokemon with their friends. Red and Blue have largely the same plot but to obtain all 151 Pokemon it requires trading between the two versions.

The game play features a simple turn-based combat system where Pokemon take turns to use moves they have learnt. The aim is to reduce the enemy Pokemon’s health to 0 – once this has happened the Pokemon which lost faints and is unusable until it has been healed at a Pokemon Centre (a hospital/healing centre for Pokemon) and the Pokemon which won gains experience. After gaining enough experience Pokemon can level up and eventually evolve into the next stage of development.

The core element of the Pokemon games has largely remained the same throughout the franchise, with the exception of graphical changes.

The second generation of Pokemon began in 2000 with the release of Pokemon Gold and Silver for Gameboy Color. New features from the first generation include:

• The Johto region is the main setting with the option to return and complete Kanto after the story has been completed.
• 100 new species of Pokemon.
• A time system using an internal clock in the game’s cartridge – day and night are a prominent feature and Pokemon appearances are also influenced by the time.
• New items including berries and the ability for Pokemon to hold items.
• Specialised Poke Balls to make Pokemon easier to catch in certain situations.
• Pokegear introduced with watch, map, radio and phone.
• New legendaries (Raiku, Entei and Suicune).
• Steel and Dark type added.
• New moves and a move deleter to prevent players from trading Pokemon with new moves to older generations of the game.
• Special stat was split into Special Attack and Special Defence allowing more strategic play.
• Breeding introduced which produces young Pokemon eggs.

Like the previous generation, an enhanced remake titled Pokemon Crystal was later released.

Pokemon entered it’s third generation in 2003 with Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire for the Gameboy Advance and continued with the Gameboy Advance remakes of Red and Blue – FireRed and LeafGreen. Pokemon Emerald (the enhanced remake of Ruby and Sapphire) was also later released.  The games in this generation had taken a huge graphical leap.

New features in these games included:

• The Hoenn region is introduced as the setting for the game.
• The battle mechanics are altered to allow double battles (more than one Pokemon fighting per side).
• Introduction of natures and abilities (natures affect the Pokemon’s stats and innate abilities affect the Pokemon in battle).
• Pokemon Contests where Pokemon are judged by appearance and the moves they perform.
  
• A new stat called Condition for use in Pokemon Contests – different subsections of Condition are trained using Pokeblocks (candies made from berries).
• The time system is present and is used to affect tides and berry growth but there is no differentiation between day and night.
• Secret Bases where players can buy/collect furniture to display in their ‘den’ which can be situated almost anywhere in the region.
  
• Able to connect to the GameCube games Pokemon Colosseum and Pokemon Box.
• 135 new Pokemon to make a total of 386 species.

In 2006, Japan began the fourth generation of the franchise with the release of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl for Nintendo DS. The fourth generation introduces another 107 new species of Pokemon, bringing the total of Pokemon species to 493. The DS touch screen allowed many innovative features to be added and the graphics were once again heavily improved. These features included:

• New species of Pokemon introduced with players being able to obtain all 493 in game (apart from the last 3 which can be obtained through an event or trading with Pokemon Platinum).
• New region called Sinnoh.
  
• Day and night feature is back with the inclusion of morning, afternoon and evening. Days of the week also affect gameplay.
• New moves and changes to the physical/special attacks (these used to be based on type).
• Poketch uses the bottom screen of the DS and hosts applications including a clock, a calculator, a map, a counter, and a drawing pad.
• An Underground world where players can create Secret Bases (seen in Ruby/Sapphire) and participate in mini-games.
• Players can link up locally over wireless connection and also over Nintendo Wi-Fi which can connect players over long distances. Players can voice chat, battle and trade online.
• Diamond and Pearl are compatible with the Gameboy Advance Pokemon games, Pokemon Ranger and Pokemon Battle Revolution (Wii)
  
• Contests have more stages which involve use of the touch screen.

Crayon Physics Deluxe is a puzzle game designed by Petri Purho. Its main focus is 2D physics simulation (including gravity, mass, kinetic energy and transfer of momentum) all presented in a unique and quirky way.

☆ The official website ☆

(Including link to download demo)

Title: The Sims 3
Platform: PC
Genre: Virtual Life
Release Date: 5 June 2009
Developer: EA Redwood Shores
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Rating: PEGI 12+

WHAT IS… The Sims 3?

The Sims 3 is the next strategic life simulation game in the highly addictive Sims franchise (originally created by Maxis). It follows the same road as its predecessors – players create and control Sims through a lifespan where they can do various activities and form relationships (like real life!). There is no defined goal, so gameplay continues until boredom sets in (usually a week or so of solid playing for me).

There are tons of new features in this version of the Sims, including a “living neighbourhood” where all Sims age at once, “Create-a-style” tool where any piece of clothing or furniture can be customised and “Traits” where the player can create more unique personalities for their Sims.

GRAPHICS 9/10

The graphics in the Sims 3 aren’t a huge leap from the Sims 2 but they are still pretty nifty and the interfaces are great (as per usual!). Everything is simple, friendly and smart which makes the game quick and easy to get into.

+ Great graphics and friendly interfaces

- Not a great leap from the Sims 2

STORY 8/10

As in all the Sims games the storyline in the Sims 3 is pretty much non-existent which suits this type of game fine. Anybody who believes the Sims has an actual story needs a boot to the face! An optional story like the console versions (moving out of parent’s house, finding a job while completing tasks etc) would give the game some purpose although this could be set up by the player on the Sims 3 anyway.

+/- Story is non-existent

LONGEVITY 5/10

The Sims games have no definitive goal which means the game is open ended and carries on until you’re bored of it. It’s a real life simulation game so this is fine but after a week or so of solid gameplay it starts to get stale. Some achievements or goals to work towards would be interesting. As mentioned before, an optional side story would bring something more to the table.

+ Open ended which is perfect for a simulation game

- Some features could be added to increase longevity

GAMEPLAY 8/10

There are tons of features that have been added in the Sims 3. The neighbourhood is live which means neighbours will age, have relationships and children etc alongside your own Sims. This is a great addition although I was playing the Sims recently and had created a Braindead Hero Sim next door ready to ‘woo’ him once I had climbed the career ladder. My Sim popped round to his house to find a baby on the lawn! The live neighbourhood can be switched off if you find it interferes with your wooing intentions.

The traits tool allows players to create more unique personalities for their Sims – traits include being a computer whizz, a great kisser and a vegetarian. These traits influence your Sims behaviour and wishes and overall create more diverse gameplay.

Your Sims are free to explore the neighbourhood which means no loading screens! They can pop round to other Sim houses or even go to work. The loading times have greatly improved since the Sims 2 which is a blessing.

My only gripe is the lack of content! When I heard about the Sims 3 I assumed it would be the Sims 2 + more. Although the Sims 3 has added loads more features, the actual items in the catalogue are thin on the ground. There are no hot tubs, no pool tables and limited styles of every other object. The create-a-style tool is great for adding patterns and textures to objects but there aren’t enough objects in the first place!

+ Loads of new features

- Lack of actual content

FUN 10/10

Even though the game is short lived, it is immersive to the point where I forget to eat! Like its predecessors it is 100% pure addictive gaming crack and a nice break to all the games that involve thinking and hard work. It’s easy to get into and everyone will enjoy creating their own little world.

+ Great fun and recommended to all

OVERALL 8/10

Overall this game has brought many new features to the table but has still retained the classic Sims style.

PLAYSTATION 3 SLIM ANNOUNCED

Sony seem to be absolutely terrible at keeping a lid on their hardware. After the leak of the PSPgo before E309 which was announced to nobodies surprise. For a while now pictures and rumours of a newer slimmed and most importantly cheaper version of the PlayStation 3 and lo and behold, August 18 – GamesCom in Cologne, Germany, Sony announed the new PlayStation 3 Slim for a price point of $299 or £249.

The PlayStation 3 Slim will arrive in September and according to Sony is 32% smaller, 36% lighter and consumes 34% power making it overall around 1/3rd smaller but will retain all the features of the current models of PlayStation 3 except with the ‘install other OS’ feature removed. In preparation for the release Sony are also releasing a new firmware (3.0) which adds new features such as bringing the Video Store to Europe, a new ‘what’s new’ feature, a slight redesign of the XMB and a change in the way trophies are displayed.

If you still do not own a PlayStation 3 the slim does appear to be a very attractive package and for the new lower price it makes it much more competitive with the Xbox 360. It should also be noted that Sony will be packing in a 120GB HDD with the slim, which of course is an increase from the current minimum of 80GB.

Anyway last week something did happen. However what this something was was a case of Swine Flu, not what I was hoping for really. I am a lot better now anyway otherwise I wouldn’t be writing this. Yeah I think I’m going to keep this short, I have promised to myself that I am going to be a lot more proactive and have set myself goals each day of what I’m going to get done in an effort to stop myself pissing time away. Incidentally I am counting any work I do for this site or a new site I have offered to contribute to newbreview as work, which it kind of is so I will (I know I’ve promised this a lot recently and not delivered) be writing more articles more frequesntly and if you are part of a gaming publication print or web then my services are offered to you whatever level you are just please e-mail me at braindead_hero@hotmail.com or alternitavely I’m @braindead_hero on twitter.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a western themed first person shooter, which is something that we don’t get all too often in the gaming world. Sure there are plenty of movies and books based off the wild west but there have only been a couple of video games dedicated to this concept whereas World War II and Sci-fi Aliens have been driven into the ground by developers. You play as two brothers, both bad ass desperadoes as you would expect from the genre, who desert from the confederate army in order to protect their home and get caught up in a quest for Aztec treasure. Throughout the course of the game you go around checking many things off the western checklist, such as; breaking people out of jail, showdowns, fighting Mexican bandits and escorting wagons through Indian territory.

GRAPHICS

Bound in Blood on the whole is a very nice looking game, the developers have spent a lot of time making sure the game has some very nice and interesting effects. For example the heat and smoke effects are some of the best I’ve seen in any game, this sounds like a weird thing to pick up on but seems as they are both so well done and used quite a lot I thought they were worth mentioning. The game takes place in North America around the time of the American Civil War so the environments are made up of lush forests, dusty wooden towns and high up mountains and in the valleys between, all of which are beautifully detailed and just all round gorgeous. Also, in case your wondering the game runs smoothly and consistently so there are no weird graphical problems which detract from your enjoyment of the game, all of the lighting and water and animations are all incredibly realised and all look fantastic. However, the game tries to put over a cinematic feel by flourishes such as blurring and shaking around explosions, and seems as there are a lot of explosions this happens all the time, so if you’re a fan of actually being able to see what you are doing then you may get a bit frustrated at the games eagerness to obscure your view by constant blurring and shaking of the screen, which is also not fun if you are prone to motion sickness from games.

STORY

It has a typical western story, so much so that I expect that the writers for this game went down to the local HMV and picked up several box-sets of western DVDs as well as a few notepads and by the end of the weekend Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood was written. By this is mean it is quite a generic story, this can kind of be excused when compared to other games which are also retreading heavily used storyline and in it’s defense the western storyline, whilst relying heavily upon cliches, have not been seen a great deal in video games westerns are usually the realm of movies. So you play as one of two brothers (there is also a 3rd brother named William, however the characters insist on calling him Wee’um for some unknown reason, but he’s not playable presumably because he’s useless) and whilst been western angry bad asses they learn of some hidden Aztec treasure so being the tough action types that they are decide they want a piece of that. On the way they meet up with some Mexican bandits, a lady who is rubbish at not being kidnapped and a group of Native Americans who have knowledge of the ancient mystical ways. I don’t want to give away any spoilers however if you’ve ever watched a western movie you can kind of see where the game is going, also if you’ve ever enjoyed the western storyline then you will most likely find this an enjoyable experience. It may be a bit generic and derivative but it is well held together and fairly well written.

GAMEPLAY

So Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is a first person shooter so that leaves some key questions as to how well it fares as a first person shooter. First of all how good and fun is the actual shooting in the game. So as already mentioned the game is set in the wild west and one thing to note is that old guns are not very good which can make the game really frustrating when you’ve used the six shots you get in just about every revolver and then have to spend an absolute age reloading as the enemies are happily filling you full of holes. At the beginning at each level the game gives you the choice of which character you wish to play as and this does have an effect on the gameplay, Thomas takes slightly less damage but his health regenerates incredibly fast so that doesn’t really matter, he also is a crack shot with a rifle and uses a lasso to reach areas Ray cannot. Ray, on the other hand, can dual wield hand guns so you have twice the ammo (and twice the reload time) and can take a bit more damage than Thomas and seems to move a bit slower as well as having the option to use dynamite as grenades. There is pretty much no real reason to ever use Ray if you have the option of Thomas open to you, the rifles are easily the best weapon in the game and as Ray is really inaccurate due to heavy reliance on dual handguns and the health regeneration of Thomas is so ridiculously fast you do not need the health boost of Ray. This reeks of poor game design when you find that the best way to play a game is with only one particular character using one particular gun then something has gone wrong somewhere along the line. One last thing I’m going to throw out there is the fact that movement feels really slow, compared to games such as Call of Duty where movement is nice and quick whereas in comparison Call of Juarez feels like all the characters are moving through treacle.

OVERALL

There are good things and bad things with Call of Juarez, like many games. The graphics are gorgeous and so are the many effects that help suck you into the game, the story whilst a bit cliched holds together well and conveys a coherent and entertaining story. On the other hand as a first person shooter there are some serious problems, movement is too slow the guns are terrible and take ages to reload and one of the two characters feels a bit redundant. Also, for a game which has two main characters who are almost always together throughout the game to not have co-operative play is criminal. The game is fun but has it’s issues, worth playing and worth finishing I would recommend it to people who live westerns and are looking for a really good western game, but I would not really recommend it to people who want a good first person shooter. Oh, and as a last note NEVER play the first game simply called Call of Juarez as that game is terrible.

Early this month I did a data processing job. I’d done it a couple of years before – my mate James’ cousin runs it so I get offered a place each year. This year was really fun, I spent time with James, Nathan and Tommy and we had a good laugh The job only lasted 2 days as we finished all the work but I was quite relieved cause it’s really tedious just putting 0 or 1 and ENTER into a computer =_=” I still haven’t got a payment through which is quite worrying so that’s just another thing on my plate to sort out!

I also did a temp job at the NHS a few weeks back. It was supposed to last 2 weeks but I was on holiday for the last week – another relief as the job was filing and also quite tedious! I got on really well with my co-workers which made me realise something. When I quit the pizza shop my confidence was rock bottom – no-one there liked me…I’ve never been particularly liked at school but I thought things would change when I got into work and they didn’t. I was really worried that nothing would ever change and even when I got into the police I’d be unhappy. But it wasn’t that at all – it was the stupid teen workers at the pizza shop, not me. Everyone at the NHS was aged late 20′s to early 50′s and they were fab! I’ve just filled in some time sheets and I’ll have to sort out this P45 thingy – getting paid isn’t as straight forward as I thought!

FUN

I went to a gig with Amy and Pippa mid July and it was AMAZING! It was awesome spending time with them – I’ve never really had girl mates before and it’s great to finally have some We all dressed up pretty gothy as Birthday Massacre sounded like that kind of band! I got back home at 2am and woke up at 7am to start that NHS temp job…that was fun lol

We also saw Raggedy Angry and I loved their influence of retro games in the music!

The bassist reminded me of a chubbier, punkier version of Hero lol We met the band afterwards – got some photos and they signed our tickets

Lmao the front of the ticket violates Photobucket’s terms of use cause the lead singer drew a penis

I also got one of their t-shirts:

Here’s a web cam shot of me wearing it to put in my 10k post party:

Which brings me swiftly onto my next subject – I finally hit 10k!

Link to the thread – don’t post though or you’ll get a moderation

HOLIDAY

I got back from a week in Bulgaria yesterday – I went with my mum, her boyfriend, my brother, his best friend and Hero. It’s a first as I usually just go away with my family. It was amazing getting a week with Hero in the sun – we even had our own room ^____^ The hotel was fab and the beach was literally next door! I don’t like spending more than 10 mins lying in the sun so I picked up a light tan rather than a proper one – Hero’s only been on holiday once before when he was 5 and he’s really pale anyway so we didn’t overdo it and he’s picked up a healthy glow

We arrived at 4am local time so we unpacked and headed down to the beach to watch the sun rise. I’ve never watched the sun rise before, let alone with a partner so it was nice and romantic I got some crappy pics on my camera phone:

This was the view from our balcony:

To the left:

The beach and a football pitch

To the right:

The town – Obzor

I also took this photo at dusk one night:

We were on the top floor in some of the best rooms so our balconies were open

The pool:

You know how us Brits have the Spar shop? Over in Bulgaria they have Sparm lol

Hero decided to try out all the weird flavoured crisps like Paprika and we ended up loving these Star Snack bacon flavoured crisps – I hate meat flavoured crisps but those were gorgeous! We bought tons of packs back with us :3

I’ll get the photos off Mehregan’s (mum’s boyfriend) camera asap and post them in the next blog!

We usually had a few drinks in the evening every day (hurray for all-inclusive!) On Tuesday night Matt (brother), Connor (best mate) and Hero drank loads of Tequilas and even I tried my first one! Matt snorted salt off the table for 10 lev between us and it was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while Some French guy saw and started talking to us. He knew as much English as Hero knew French so we kind of got by and saw him on some nights after that

On Wednesday Hero woke up and was sick which I pinned down to the alcohol but when he hadn’t stopped by that afternoon we realised it was sun stroke. The poor sod was shut away in the room for the day and I (the bikini clad nurse) checked in every few hours, got more water etc. So that wasn’t a fun day for him but at least it got him out of the sun.

Neither of us burnt because we were careful with sun tan but we often forgot to wear sun hats which led to Hero’s sun stroke and me burning my scalp in a line where my parting was – that’s still painful!

Oh and on the first day I hadn’t slept in a day, my legs had been inactive sat on the plane and travelling and I decided to go for a swim in the sea with Hero. Bad idea – I went to put my feet down and the bottom wasn’t there and so my legs stretched too far and BAM! One of them cramped – it was by far the most excrutiating cramp I’ve ever had and my head started to go under the water. Luckily Hero was at hand to lift me up and carry me to shore like…well, a Hero Usually cramps wear away and I’m fine but I hobbled about for the rest of the day as my leg was that stiff =_=”

On another note we buried each other in the sand:

And we went out on a peddle boat on one of the days to find that there were jellyfish beyond the swim markers. They were clear and some were huge!

So we decided to return the next day with nets and buckets to catch them but we couldn’t find any nets in the shops so we hired the peddle boat and scooped them out the water with my brother’s sun hat. We didn’t have any buckets either so we thought it would be funny to put them down the slide on the boat and you know what? It was funny

All in all the holiday was a great laugh I miss Hero already but I’m looking forward to seeing him on my 18th birthday which is in 3 days now (on Wednesday) – woot!

MONTHLY BLOG STUFF

PROTOTYPE! Not much to say other than it’s ****ing awesome!

By Rache Engel on DeviantART. He was one of the first people I ever followed and I’m buying one of his prints for my birthday with I’ve loved for 4 years now ^____^ Hero wants a bear onesie like this :3

Sorry for another huge blog, my life shouldn’t be this exciting from now on!

A big cookie to all who read this:

Well the Sims 3 has arrived and I believe the best way of testing the strengths and limitations of the Sims games is to try and build an exact replica of your house and family

If you want to participate in this challenge, post screenshots on this forum page!

I live in a semi-detached so I might add the neighbours part to the house later complete with scumbag Sims

Outside the house:

Front of house

Good: The wall is a perfect replica of the one outside, the mini white wall to surround the grass also matches the one outside my house. The hedge is just the right height and although the Sims game obviously does not stock Nissan Micras, I found a good substitute

Bad: Apparently every house on the Sims 3 requires foundations which I can’t ever remember being a part of the Sims 2. This means extra foundations around doorways so people have room to go out through a door and down the steps. My house does not have steps, the doors are built at ground level. Major setback to creating the replica as some doors had to be moved (back door) to fit.

Side of house

Good: Cat area has right coloured flat roof, every window is the right size and perfectly placed and they even had the exact side gate we have!

Bad: Because of the proportions in the Sims game, the front of the house was much longer than it is in rl. The muddy ground shown in the screenshot barely takes up a couple of meters squared in rl but here it takes up half the front garden because of the proportions of the house.

Flowers in garden

Good: Flowers can be placed over each other which made for interesting flower bed creation, also the little wooden fencing around the flowers was in the game in exactly the right colour The garage brickwork was also perfect.

Bad: We have this little den behind the shed which has thick wooden walls and a corrugated plastic roof. This could not be put into the Sims which is fine because it’s a bit of a weird creation anyway!

Back garden

Good: Back fence is perfect.

Bad: More annoying steps from the conservatory doors and the back door had to be moved to the back of the cat area to allow room for the steps.

Inside the house:

Conservatory

Good: Leather sofa, floors, walls and TV pretty much match the real thing.

Bad: What happened to the pool tables in the Sims 2? I had to put in a football table instead.

Living room

Good: Thanks to the style tool, the sofa and floor look much more realistic. The TV is also pretty much the same as rl. Use of diagonal placing is much better.

Bad: The sofa isn’t the right design – ours have large sides that come down. The fireplaces were really picky about where they’d go and so I couldn’t put one in the room – I put some counters up instead.

Dining room

Good: Window, table and stereo the same.

Bad: No ironing board (used a grey table instead) and pianos have gone as well cause apparently guitars are more cool I can’t remember whether they ditched pianos in the Sims 2 but still… had to put a bar there instead.

Kitchen

Good: Everything pretty much the same as rl.

Bad: Microwaves can’t be placed on shelves on walls which is what we have.

Downstairs loo/cat area

Good: Wallpaper and floor same, no washing machine but dishwasher will do instead. Love the little loo paper rolls – add ons like these make the game so much more rich and in depth.

Bad: No pets in this version. No doubt they’ll be bringing out a million expansion packs/updates costing 20 quid each and taking up more space than the original 6gb (which is a lot on my 70gb hard drive!)

Entrance

Good: Mini-wall can be easily replicated by counters.

Bad: Hallway is too wide due to proportions in the Sims game.

Bathroom

Good: Nice towel accessories and blinds.

Bad: We have a tub with a shower curtain not glass. No designs like that available.

Mum's bedroom

Good: Everything the same plus TVs can be placed on pedestals which raises them up.

Bad: She has full height wardrobes instead of little chest of drawers.

My bedroom

Good: With the style tool, my exact bedsheets are possible to create. The Sims game also has a little notice board like the one I’ve got!

Bad: No wardrobe (wouldn’t fit plus only chest of drawers available) and my bed side lamp is a little desk lamp and looks nothing like the one in the screenshot. No better design available.

Brother's bedroom

Good: Accessories for desks are great and TV can be up on a height.

Bad: No wardrobe and no messy piles of clothes!

Family

If anyone has a bit of spare time on their hands, this is an interesting challenge to do – look forward to seeing your posts on the forums!

Submitted by Tofu Lion