The Evolution of Sims!

Hey everyone! Its been awhile since we posted anything. I've got some free time now and every Thursday I will be posting something.The Sims is my absolute favorite game franchise. I can play Sims all day long honestly.With the Sims 4's new building scheme announcement a few days ago, I thought it'd be nice to take a walk down memory lane and see just how much the Sims franchise has grown. (Disclaimer: None of the pictures belong to me! Most of the information is either from Wikipedia or my own personal knowledge of the franchise!)

The Original Sims (PC):
It is often referred to as The Sims 1. It came out in February of 2000. By 2002, over 2 Million copies had been sold worldwide. In fact, the Sims Franchise is the best selling on PC. There are a total of seven expansion packs released for the original sims and 2 deluxe versions. These original versions have all been made by the gaming company Maxis and not Electronic Arts. (Wikipedia).

Source: Wikipedia

The graphics were primitive, but still good for their era. I remember getting the Sims deluxe which came with the base game and the House Party Expansion. 

Source: http://thesims.neoseeker.com/wiki/File:SD03.png

The Inflatable chair was my absolute favorite. I had these instead of couches. In the Sims, the object of the game was the same as the later games, control your sims and lead them to a life of riches and luxury or rags and crime. The expansion packs were a huge plus because they kept adding more and more to your game play.

The Sims 2 (PC):
The Sims 2 came out in 2004. It takes place 25 years after the original Sims. The game itself was a transition from 2D graphics to 3D graphics and therefore had to be built from scratch. The SIms 2 introduced six distinct life stages, ranging from infant to elder. Weekdays were also introduced where vacation days from work and school were available. Along with 8 expansion packs and 9 stuff packs, there has also been over 400 exclusive items that could have been purchased from the sims 2 store. (Wikipedia). The was also an exchange on the Sims 2 website that allowed players to upload their own creations and let other players download them. Custom Content and mods have also been introduced where players create their own things for the game and allow other players to add them to their games as well. Many people still play the Sims 2 today.


The most prominent expansion pack had to have been Seasons, which basically added weather to your game. No more constant sun. It made the game more realistic for many fans.

(Source: EA.com)

The Sims 3: 
This is the newest installment in the Sims franchise. There have been 11 expansion packs and 9 stuff packs released. Exclusive content is still being sold on The Sims 3 store. There are TONS of custom content and mods available to download created by fans of the series.

Source: Gamespot.com

The graphics have significantly improved and many new game features have been introduced.

The Sims 4:
This game has yet to come out but it has been officially announced by the Sims team. The newest addition to the franchise is emotions that affect how your sims interact with each other. In the Sims 4, creating a sim and building a house have become easier.You can check out the trailer below: 

These sims have a more cartoony feel to them than others in the franchise.

Console Games: 
The Sims, The Sims Bustin' Out

Urbz Sims in the City (Starkly different than the games in the original series. You did not create a family or have the opportunity to create one. Instead you visited several different cities and changed your style to gain reputation with the people there in order to be allowed access into their exclusive club rooms).

The Sims 2, The Sims 2 Pets, The Sims 2 Apartment Pets

The Sims Castaway (You play as a sim, or group of sims who were travelling and got stranded on an island. The objective was to get off of the island and back home.)

The Sims 3, The Sims 3 Pets

Android/Iphone games:
The Sims 3, The Sims 3 World Adventures, The Sims 3 Ambitions and Sims Freeplay (Time is based on actual time and not sims fast forwarded time. For example, showers take fifteen minutes and not five seconds.)

Other Versions:
The Sims Online (An online game where players created their own sims and interacted with others over the internet. It is since discontinued.)

The Sims Life Stories (It had the Sims 2 graphics but was created to be more laptop friendly. It introduced a story mode as well as freeplay.)

The Sims Medieval (A standalone Sims game. You control a kingdom of sims in the Medieval time period. It has one expansion pack: Sims Medieval Pirates and Nobles.)

The Sims Social (A discontinued Facebook game. You created a sim and had to do little quests. It was very friend oriented in which you had to constantly ask your friends to send you things in order to advance.)

Attention!

Hello everyone, I know I haven't posted in a while. But, summer is finally approaching and I have time to focus on writing. I will no longer be posting weekly updates on Wednesdays anymore. I will be posting on Thursdays instead. This will last until the end of summer and then I will go back to my weekly Wednesday updates. Thank you guys for reading our blog and check back soon for an update :)

-Anna :)

Cosplay

What exactly is cosplay?

The term cosplay comes from the words costume and play. Basically, it is where people dress up as characters from their favorite anime, televisions shows, movies and even video games.

What makes it different than a costume?

Cosplayers take their craft seriously. They make their costume from scratch with the intention of wearing it for more than just Halloween. They don their homemade Mario (or even store bought sometimes as well) costume and parade it around conventions, interacting with people, posing as their character would and even speaking as if they were that very character.

Why would somebody cosplay?

Why not? It is an extremely fun way to show your dedication to a series. Its easy to tell who likes what from what they're wearing, and if you see someone dressed up as Sora from Kingdom Hearts and you absolutely LOVE Kingdom Hearts, you can march right over and talk to them. Chances are they'd be excited to talk about the series. Plus, its fun being somebody else for a day (or the case of some conventions, a few days). 

This sounds like fun, how do I start cosplaying?

The majority of cosplays are done at game launch events or conventions. Find a convention you'd be interested in attending, either a comic convention or an anime convention, depending on your interests. After that, start thinking about what you want to cosplay as, how much time you have until that convention, whether you're going to make or buy your cosplay and if you're going to make your costume, how difficult it is going to be.

From my experience, I'd say go for an easy costume for your first cosplay to test the waters. After that, you can move up to more difficult cosplays depending on what your skill level is. Make sure that you cosplay as a character that you love. Chances are people will approach you, whether your costume is top notch or a beginner one. They want to talk about the love of a character, show or video game with someone else who loves it just as much. You don't want to be standing there not knowing what to say to someone who actually watches the show with the character you're dressed as. 

There are countless videos on youtube about conventions and cosplay in general. There is a huge community that cosplays. The best cosplaying website, for everything you need to know about cosplay is cosplay.com.

You can also watch the series Heroes of Cosplay on SyFy that follows the lives of competitive cosplayers.

Thank you for reading! :)

1000 Views!

The Lovely Writers has reached over 1000 views! Yay! I just want to thank everyone for reading our blog and sharing it with your friends. We've only been around for three months, (our three month anniversary was May 1st) but here is some fun facts about our blog.

• We got retweeted by the WWE Superstar Darren Young.

• We've got 1006 views from the United States but we also have some views from Germany, Canada, Sweden, Argentina, Romania, Australia, France, United Kingdom and Italy. How cool!

• More people read our blog on Mac computers than PC and the preferred web browser is Google Chrome. 

• We had over 580 views in March alone.

• I've already said this countless times, but our blog logo is by the talented Yvonne Chow! If you want her email, you can comment below, she would love to hear from you.

• We have a tumblr account: thelovelywriters.tumblr.com. 

Keep reading and sharing our blog with your friends, families, followers, neighbors, whatever! Thank you once again for reading, and once we make it to 2,000 views, we will have an even bigger surprise post! 

Daylight Review [PS4]

Hey everyone, it's Anna here with another game review. Recently, Daylight was released for the PS4. Like it's predecessor, Outlast, it is an indie horror game. If that seems to be your kind of game, keep reading.

There is the trailer for you horror lovers. You play as Sarah, in a series of areas ranging from a hospital to a prison to a forest. The game, similar to Outlast is played in first person. 'You' are Sarah, going through this adventure. There's is an ominous voice that is triggered during cut scenes that acts as a guide. Frankly, it'd be much scarier if he wasn't helping you out but leading you to your doom. But, in Daylight that is not the case. The 'enemies' in this game are shadows which are absolutely terrifying. They pop up behind you (hence, shadow) and if you face them, they'll let out a horrifying shriek. Your aim is to basically find these memory fragments and bring them back to the room with a large "sigil" to unlock an item which is used as a key to opening the next area. That's just the mere basics, more will be explained in the pros and cons list I have made below.


Pros:

• You have a map that you can use at all times.
• Similar to Outlast, you have something to illuminate the room, but instead of a night vision camera it is a glow stick. You can hold four of them, but they are very easy to come by and you can even throw them. I never actually ran out of them or came close to while playing the game.
• The fragment dynamic is different and reading the clues can be interesting if you have the patience to read them all.
• Parts of the ending are wicked.
• Female Protagonist! For once, a strong willed female protagonist and a game developer who isn't scared of losing a male audience. 

                                                   Total: Five

Cons:

• The game is really too short, I finished it in two sittings. It is extremely possible to finish this in one sitting, it is much shorter than Outlast.
• The story-line is hard to follow. Maybe I missed a lot by skipping through most of the fragments but I had no idea what really happened throughout the game, I can only vaguely explain it to you.
• Too many fragments. I'd rather play through the story and hear about the story from the ominous voice than have to read ALL of those fragments. Seriously, there's a ton. (They are similar to the case notes in Outlast). I mean, at one point I just stopped reading them because it was getting tedious.
• Once you know how to beat the Shadows, the game play becomes boring. They are so easy to avoid, that it makes the game kind of boring. But I do have to say, they are pretty scary. 
• Barely any cut scenes to explain what is happening. I feel like I was wandering around the area finding clues that weren't even explained to me.
• It doesn't feel like you're trying to escape, it feels like you're trying to solve a mystery of some sort. It doesn't accomplish either really.
• The voice acting is repetitive, Sarah says the same things over and over again.
• Lack of characters. There is only the voice, Sarah and the shadows if you count them. Add some psychos or something.

                                                         Total: Eight

As you can see from this list, the cons outweigh the pros. I give them props for having a female protagonist but that isn't what is going to keep people from playing it. Outlast is one of the scariest games out right now, and it has an easy to follow, linear story with scary characters. Daylight just isn't up to par with it. I may be harsh because I love Outlast so much, but honestly, I say pass this game up and spend the ten dollars on the Outlast DLC, Whistleblower. 

Thank you for reading. Follow our blog to get updates on our newest posts. If you haven't already, check out Shannon's short story, The Mimic!