Hi group! It's been awhile again, hasn't it. No, I haven't abandoned or forgotten everyone. Though I have gone back to that other hobby (not Sims) forum. It's friendly there again! Could have been my sudden exit of the place, that brought on the warm up, ha ha 
Who knows!
So have you heard about the next expansion pack? Yes, I know it's mentioned on the back of the Pets manual. It's called The Sims 2: Seasons & it comes out on February 27.
But have you heard about the 'others' that are coming! These 'others' aren't expansion packs, but stand alone products. Sort of a lite version of the Sims 2, but with a twist. They sound to be more geared toward notebook/laptop computer users. They also seem to have elements of what is in the console Sims 2 games. As you are following or making a storyline. But the 'really huge downfall' of these new games, is the fact that NONE of your custom stuff will work with them.
They aren't an open type game at all. As each are a stand alone game & don't even connect with the one before it. So it remains to be seen, how well these will actually work out. Knowing how much people are attached to 'their stuff'! The console games never really did as well as they hoped for either. Everyone will have to wait & see. The first of these new games is named: The Sims: Life Stories & it comes out on February 6. The next two are called: The Sims: Pet Stories & The Sims: Castaway Stories. No release date available for these yet.
So what have I been doing recently. Well, there is my new resin collecting & building hobby. I'm also playing the RPG PC game Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion. I got this very excellent game for Xmas & I just got it's expansion pack Knights of the Nine for my birthday (just past last weekend). So it's keeping me busy questing away. I've just heard recently that there is another expansion pack coming out for it in the Spring. It's going to be called The Shivering Isles. Can't wait!
Oblivion is a very huge game & the graphics are delightful. It even has a character face maker kind of thing, like the Sims 2. You can spend an hour trying to get you male or female character looking the way you want. Great 'God Mode' cheat too, that you can turn on, so you don't keep getting killed. Your character get even buy a horse to ride. Though I find my person is better off running, as you have to steer the character differently when riding. Besides the silly horse will try and help in a fight. The first time this happened, I accidently killed my horse too! Good thing there is a resurrect cheat.
Oblivion was named RPG Game of the Year, this past year, so you know it's good. Give it a try if you like RPGs. Though I have found a couple of little annoyances with it. The joystick support doesn't work very well, so I took mine off & am just using the keyboard & mouse. The game is also easily upset, when virus scanners, etc. access the internet in the background. The game has a tendency to freeze up & the only way out of it, is to take out your DVD & then stick it back in again. The silly game will try and restart & then will drop to your desktop. Which is good, as it is the only way to get your computer control back, without having to reboot. You just exit the second game trying to start & then click close the one that was dropped to your bottom taskbar. Don't try & play either of them, just exit them, then restart a another one.
The game can also full up your computer's memory buffer, if you are playing a long time, so save often. It sometimes fills up & the freezes when the game is doing an automatic save. Which happens when ever you go to another area, are near danger or exiting shops, caves, dungeons, etc. If the game freezes up during this time, you will find the Automatic Save file is corrupt & you'll have to use one of your saved games to load your game. Small annoyances, but other than that a great game. Well I've rambled on enough for this visit. Bye for now. SEJ
Who knows!So have you heard about the next expansion pack? Yes, I know it's mentioned on the back of the Pets manual. It's called The Sims 2: Seasons & it comes out on February 27.
But have you heard about the 'others' that are coming! These 'others' aren't expansion packs, but stand alone products. Sort of a lite version of the Sims 2, but with a twist. They sound to be more geared toward notebook/laptop computer users. They also seem to have elements of what is in the console Sims 2 games. As you are following or making a storyline. But the 'really huge downfall' of these new games, is the fact that NONE of your custom stuff will work with them.
They aren't an open type game at all. As each are a stand alone game & don't even connect with the one before it. So it remains to be seen, how well these will actually work out. Knowing how much people are attached to 'their stuff'! The console games never really did as well as they hoped for either. Everyone will have to wait & see. The first of these new games is named: The Sims: Life Stories & it comes out on February 6. The next two are called: The Sims: Pet Stories & The Sims: Castaway Stories. No release date available for these yet.
So what have I been doing recently. Well, there is my new resin collecting & building hobby. I'm also playing the RPG PC game Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion. I got this very excellent game for Xmas & I just got it's expansion pack Knights of the Nine for my birthday (just past last weekend). So it's keeping me busy questing away. I've just heard recently that there is another expansion pack coming out for it in the Spring. It's going to be called The Shivering Isles. Can't wait!
Oblivion is a very huge game & the graphics are delightful. It even has a character face maker kind of thing, like the Sims 2. You can spend an hour trying to get you male or female character looking the way you want. Great 'God Mode' cheat too, that you can turn on, so you don't keep getting killed. Your character get even buy a horse to ride. Though I find my person is better off running, as you have to steer the character differently when riding. Besides the silly horse will try and help in a fight. The first time this happened, I accidently killed my horse too! Good thing there is a resurrect cheat.
Oblivion was named RPG Game of the Year, this past year, so you know it's good. Give it a try if you like RPGs. Though I have found a couple of little annoyances with it. The joystick support doesn't work very well, so I took mine off & am just using the keyboard & mouse. The game is also easily upset, when virus scanners, etc. access the internet in the background. The game has a tendency to freeze up & the only way out of it, is to take out your DVD & then stick it back in again. The silly game will try and restart & then will drop to your desktop. Which is good, as it is the only way to get your computer control back, without having to reboot. You just exit the second game trying to start & then click close the one that was dropped to your bottom taskbar. Don't try & play either of them, just exit them, then restart a another one.
The game can also full up your computer's memory buffer, if you are playing a long time, so save often. It sometimes fills up & the freezes when the game is doing an automatic save. Which happens when ever you go to another area, are near danger or exiting shops, caves, dungeons, etc. If the game freezes up during this time, you will find the Automatic Save file is corrupt & you'll have to use one of your saved games to load your game. Small annoyances, but other than that a great game. Well I've rambled on enough for this visit. Bye for now. SEJ
