Well, I have strep throat for the second New Year's in a row! What the heck is that about?! Thankfully, I'm off work til Monday and should be better by then. The plus side? Plenty of time for simming :) Yay! And plenty of time to update my weebly account with the latest and greatest pics. :) Hope the New Year is being kind to you all so far!
Hey there, ladies and gents! Happy New Year to one and all. Today is the first day of 2014 and I'm hoping this year will be a good one. :) I haven't posted in a couple of months, what with all the holidays and preparations, etc., not to mention one of the hardest college semesters thus far, but...I have still been simming and competing! I will be updating everything with the latest pics in a bit. Currently have dinner in the oven and it's nearly ready. Also, I feel like I'm getting sick. You know that feeling you get the day before you wake up really sick? It feels very much like you've been hit by a truck. A big truck. One carrying lots of big heavy stuff...and maybe some dynamite that exploded upon impact. Yeah, that about sums up how I feel. Luckily I'm off work til Monday...though it's unlucky that I had to get sick on my little mini vacation! Alas, such is life and things could be worse. My New Year's resolution...well one of them, I have many, is to stop being woe is me about everything. If I'm sick, I'm sick! Getting mad isn't going to change it right? Right! After dinner, perhaps I'll come back and post my list of New Year's resolutions. :D Talk to ya soon!
I was just sort of playing around with different effects, settings, etc. and ended up with this....this...snow witch? Felt like making an urban shot. I didn't do so great with this for some reason so I went with this.
I decided to makeover the first model I ever made, Belladonna D'Amici, using all the tips and tricks I've learned along the way. I still have some more learning to do but hey, that's half the fun! :D In the before shot, there is no CC used (this was before I was brave enough, or should I say knowledgable enough, to download CC) In the second shot, everything is CC from her skin to her hair to her eyebrows, eyes, lips, earrings, etc. I also used some skin brushes in Gimp (which I only learned about today) and the other normal editing techniques...contrast, sharpness, etc. The second pic isn't perfect. I went over her hair with the brush a couple of times and didn't notice until it was too late but....still, the difference is quite noticeable. I also tweaked her nose and chin to make them more realistic. To me, she doesn't even look like the same model. But I guarantee you she is!
*sigh* Really, I could just finish this post right here and you’d pretty much have my feelings of TS4 summed up. When do you sigh? When you’re exhausted, when you’re frustrated, sad, disappointed, maybe even when you’re angry. Yes, I’m all of those things when it comes to TS4. I won’t get into the hows and whys of the way the game was produced as I don’t know how or why this game looks the way it does beyond rumors and speculation. I am also not criticizing the devs, the higher ups, the whoever because I don’t know who to blame and so this shall serve as an overall review directed at no one :D For the record, yes, I know it’s early and very little has been released so I will only comment on what HAS been released and what HAS been confirmed by the devs. Where to begin? OK, let’s start with: THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE OH SO VERY UGLY: GRAPHICS: OK, EA, you’re kidding me, right? The hair in TS3 is awful but at least it resembles hair, albeit bad hair, but I digress. This “hair” in TS4 (and yes, quotation marks are necessary) is really nothing more than melded bits of clay randomly clumped on top of the head. The longer hair is just the bit of clay that was pulled down by gravity. How can this be explained? Although these pictures were released early on, is there really any hope that this will be drastically improved by the time the product is released? What are we supposed to do with this clay hair? Brush it? Slather it around with a plaster scraper? Squeeze it through a playdoh factory? What? Now, I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t use EA hair anymore, unless a competition specifically requires it. Otherwise I avoid it like the bubonic plague it resembles and stick with CC. Will the cc creators be able to do anything with this clay “hair”? The cc creators are absolutely amazing, but goodness, you need to have something to work with! So, that’s the hair. I mean, look up at the logo. Even the girl on the far right looks shocked at the looks of the two sad sims beside her. She is clearly saying, "WTF?!" Or take this guy, who looks like he is just so unhappy to look as he does. He looks to be in disbelief...as we all are, my clay friend...as we all are. His friend looks positively furious. I would be too if my hair resembled orange clay molded into damp swamp leaves. OK, what is this? This is Sims 4? No, haha, you’re kidding. Really, what is this? Oh, it IS The Sims 4? For what platform? Wii? While the house across the street looks nice…from far away….through a glass door… let’s look at the rest. Is there anything to be excited about here? Is anyone looking at this and thinking, “Wow, EA really pulled out all the stops here!”?
Let’s begin with the guy standing up and his awesome, red, Bart Simpson-like shirt. Innovative. There he is, with his plumbob more vibrant than he, standing with his plate of pancakes, his clay hair, and his shoes from TS3 (really, the same shoes?). He appears to have the ability to hold up a pancake and speak at the same time. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’ve always struggled with that. What is it about pancakes that makes holding them eliminate my ability to speak? Glad this Bart Simpson look alike has figured that one out. He appears to be talking with the girl with the purple shirt. The one with the ginger clay, not the blonde. What do you suppose they are saying to each other? Bart: “Can you BELIEVE this sad kitchen they’ve given me? Take a look at the puke green cabinets!” Ginger Clay: “Forget about that! Have you SEEN your hair? Grab a mirror! Do we have mirrors in base game or does that come in the 4thEP?” OK, so I’m being a little snarky but really, this is just so bad in comparison to TS3. Yes, I heard about the tanked work that was three years in the making and that this was designed to be like the Sims Social and that’s why it looks like this and on and on. The reasons why at this point are irrelevant in the face of this disappointment! So where shall we move next? CAS: I must admit I like CAS a great deal. The ability to pull and pinch directly on the sim and customize certain areas that we couldn’t before (butt, thighs, shoulder width, etc.) is pretty cool. Much like clay (yes, there is the clay reference again). However, if they DO all look like clay, then what difference does a state of the art CAS make? Clay is clay…no matter how you pull and pinch it. BUILD MODE: I like this quite a bit. I like that you can lift whole rooms or the entire house and move it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve misjudged a lot and built something too close to the property line on one side or another. It does look like this might be pretty cool. I know there is a limit right now where you can only build up to 3 stories and I’m sure there are no basements included. I don’t usually build upwards of 3 stories though and there is always a building cheat to make basements so…not too upset by those limitations. For those of you who do love building five story mansions complete with decked out basement….*waves fist in protest at EA*. There, you have my support. =D EMOTIONS: Need I hear about these again? Now your sims will base their lives around their emotions. OK, cool concept, and maybe very interesting for gameplay. If it actually works, that is. Let’s not forget the celebrity fiasco where everyone in town becomes a celebrity just for being neighbors with one. My town had more paparazzi than townies! Is there any reason to believe this system will work more smoothly? Or will my sims be overcome with feelings of rage because someone next door is playing a violent video game? I like this idea but the fact that this seems to be ALL anyone is talking about leaves me with the fear that this may be the only noteworthy feature in TS4 as far as gameplay except for: MULTITASKING: Cool again. The sims can now interact with one another while eating, drinking, sitting, standing in a more seamless fashion. There can be more group conversations. Great…but not great enough to dismiss these horrendous graphics and my biggest gripe of all: THE REMOVAL OF CASt: Now, this is just a joke. There is no excuse for this. I know TS3 comes with its share of issues, yes, but can you really say they are all because of CASt? If so, the result in TS4 should not be the removal of CASt but rather to improve the system to fix the issues! I don’t want to go back to TS2 where everyone has the same furniture and clothing because of a very limited selection and I don’t want to download mass amounts of CC just to have the option to have furniture and clothing in different colors! I like downloading CC and then still using CASt to make it my own if I so desire. CASt opens up so much room for creativity that it would probably take more years than I’m alive to use every combination. The removal of this was just a major mistake. OVERALL: Overall, I’m disappointed to say the least. I really expected a lot from TS4 and what I got instead was an offline version of The Sims Social…which I never played because I thought it was a downgrade from the base franchise. I do understand the need to create a game that will work on as many PCs as possible but still, this is just crazy. I don’t see other games dumbing down the graphics and features so that more people can play without issues. GTA5 made plenty of improvements this time around and they broke the all time record for sales in the first two days. Clearly they are doing something right. Will I buy TS4? Not like this. I can’t imagine myself being able to get any enjoyment out of the game this way. I’ve tried thinking of this as another sims game rather than a continuation with the hopes that doing so may get me to accept it more but nah, it isn’t working. There are definitely things I like about the game, but not $70 worth of like, plus an untold amount of money for EPs, SPs, etc. I love TS3 and I may just stick with it. As of now I’m undecided and waiting for more details but I can’t imagine playing with these clay sims. Not after TS3. Does this mean no more modeling? Will anyone be able to model with these sims after TS3? Again, I am not knocking the devs. I know that there are really people who worked hard for this but they have to know too how bad this looks. I don't know if they had a budgetary restriction, a time restriction, or likely both, but I can't imagine that given unlimited time and resources, that this is what they would have come up with. We'll see what else comes to light as the release date gets closer but I don't see how anything will improve. So, I'll sit back, wait and see. Until then, t In Miss Simiverse, I had to create an ad. I wanted to do something kind of risque so I went with his ad. I was so happy with it and was just uploading it to Flickr when I remembered that the ad was supposed to be a household item that was named after Abby. So, I couldn't use this shot but hey, a little extra editing practice doesn't hurt, right?
This probably looks edited but other than the usual edits to change the color, shading, etc. this photo is taken in game. I downloaded a mod that replaces the moon and sun with bigger, better ones. The moon is absolutely humongous, and beyond gorgeous, when it rises and sets, so I had to take advantage of that. I plopped Valentine into Aurora Skies, waited for the moon to make its appearance, waited for the Aurora Borealis to start and the rest was just camera angling and manuvering. Still, this is now one of my favorite shots and is the current background on my computer. :D Another in game shot courtesy of the sun, moon mod. The sunsets are more colorful and more realistic with this mod, so while Valentine and I were waiting for the moon to rise, I took a shot of her looking out over the water at sunrise. With her being in her wedding dress, it reminds me of one of those old ghost stories where a would-be brides haunts a coast waiting for her love to return from sea. Below is a slideshow of photos that I took during this process. These are straight from my game so these have not been edited at all....yet :) As I've gotten older, I've discovered that I'm much more cynical than I used to be. It's probably just experience. So as upset as I got from my meeting at Baruch today, I'm really trying not to let it eat at me. it appears that I have to take a pre-calculus class before I can be accepted in Baruch...and I can't take pre-calculus in my current school without first taking college algebra, which I don't have time for. Rather than stress out about it, I'm just going to meet with an advisor at my current school next week and see if there is anything that can be done. For now, I'm going to relax and have some simmy time. :) Toodles.
Since Baruch is so close to my job, I decided to head over at lunch time to meet with the transfer advisor. So I get here and the building is closed for a fire drill! May not have enough time now to actually do this and I do not want to come back later. We'll see I guess.
|