Reconnecting with the (new) neighborhood
Now that the network is playing nice and the machines are all speaking, I thought it time to finish installing my toys on the XPS. I haven’t played the Sims 2 in several months. I was really surprised it had been that long, but when I checked my backup file, the last time I played was in June.
I took my Sims game DVD and the expansion pack CDs and sat down to do the installations. It was about 30 minutes before everything was installed, the registrations complete and all patches applied. Before starting the game I gave serious thought to my old neighborhood, Seaside Valley. I never got into the existing neighborhoods, so I had originally built one from scratch.
I have a hard time lettings Sims die of old age, so every house in Seaside Valley had a green juice cooler to turn back the hands of time. Since no one ever died, it had grown way too fast with so many people I couldn’t remember them all. It was almost so big I wasn’t enjoying it anymore.
I decided to start over from scratch with my new installation. I’ve now created a new neighborhood called Woodland Valley. There are a few starter Sims: two brothers, a single mom with 3 kids, a newlywed couple, a science guy living with his elderly mother and a set of snooty sisters who live in the mansion at the far end of the town.
Shortly after setting up these new Sims, I realized I had lost all of my custom wallpaper and flooring. While I’m not very good at building houses, I really enjoy creating textures for the floors and walls. I believe the higher the cost of the floor and paint, the more benefit it has for the environment score. I’m not sure if that’s true, but I set my custom stuff at $20.00 and over anyhow. I’ve now got to dig through my backup files and find my original graphics to re-import. Hopefully I can get to that this weekend.
After playing a bit on the XPS, I realized I enjoy playing so much more on the couch so I can watch sports at the same time. Weekends are perfect for doing both. So, I made a copy of the few things I had done, uninstalled everything from the XPS and put it all back on the laptop. I even went ahead and downloaded the Glamour Life Stuff, even though I was quite disappointed with Family Fun Stuff.
The only thing I needed to make my playing experience complete again was an optical mouse, which I picked up today. Once I get the floors and walls back in the game, I think I’ll be all set to begin visiting with my Sims regularly again. Which, of course, is critical so I’m ready when the new Pets pack comes out.
