Though you can’t control the toddlers in your care, if you hover over them, a message box appears which states their general mood and any needs they might have. Sandi French wanted to have more fun, so Talia did the new “claw†interaction with her. It’s pretty cute, but it was the only new social for toddlers, as far as I could tell.
Gareth takes a break from writing his new sci fi adventure, The Impossible Robot, and practices his hopscotch (he had a Want for it).
Unfortunately the man is completely uncoordinated and keeps jumping on the block he isn’t supposed to jump on. Hopscotch fail!
It looks like hopscotch raises Athletic ability, but as Gareth didn’t play long enough to get one bar of the skill, I’m not totally sure.
Around 7 PM, a message pops up with Talia’s end-of-the-day report. She receives a score of “Good†for her care of both Sam and Sandi, which is pretty respectable for her first day as an Amateur Babysitter, I think. The parents show up in their work clothes to take the kids home, and Talia is now free for the night.
Her duties the entire shift consisted of playing with the kids, changing their diapers, and giving them bottles. They never needed a nap, and never threw any serious tantrums. Talia’s needs stayed pretty steady the whole time as well, and she only needed one break to use the toilet. The kids kept playing happily when she left the room, so that was good. They still play alone, though – I really wish toddlers would interact with each other more.
Gareth makes dinner for Talia, and then the two sit outside and gaze at the stars (another very cute interaction – although instead of sitting in the larger area in the backyard, they chose a narrow spot at the side of the house. D’oh.)
After Molly retrieved Sandi earlier that day, I received a pop-up message stating that Sandi had grown up and would no longer be attending daycare. I’m guessing that at this level in the profession (still level 1), you only take care of toddlers.
So the next day, a default-faced townie I have never heard of drops off an adorable little toddler named Julianne.
Much to Talia’s delight, Julianne is just as easy to take care of as Sandi was, and Talia even has time to teach both kids how to walk, which gets her a report of “Great†for Sam and Julianne at the end of the day.
A completely different default-faced townie picks up Julianne, and I start to suspect that she has no real family, but is being raised by a cabal of creepy default-faced clones that were all grown from pods, like in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The poor girl will probably be a default-faced pod person when she grows up. Sad.
That night, Gareth gets all romantic and gives Talia a bouquet of red flowers (you can choose the color, kind of cool).
They look lovely on the dining room table.
(continued on Page 3)
This is the first game session I’ve seen about Generations, and so far so good. Hope you post soon.
By the way, the random anti-spam word, is it really random, or have you selected a set of words to use? because the last three have been very Sim related, Goth, Curious and the first one that I can’t remember what it was but I remember thinking how creepily Sims related that one was as well.
I’m hoping I get a chance to post soon, too! I played the Bunch family in Sunset Valley for a bit and got to see a lot more of the Generations interactions. Very fun.
The plug-in I use for my anti-spam words allows me to edit the list of words it uses, so I made them all Sim-related words. :)
Oooh my word today was simlish. How appropriate!
Love this new instalment Jen, like ani I haven’t seen a massive amount of Gen gameplay photos just random ones all clipped together. I like the look of the daycare profession but it looks like I will have to wait another day to test it out. Stupid Amazon!
Well shoot, I hope you have your game by now!! :)
Yay for woohoo being my word of the day. If my computer would work I’d be playing, but thanks to you and your stories I’m in good condition til it does get fixed. I saw that there was a nuturing trait for those who were going to head toward day care profession that is supposedly used to make taking care of lots of kids easier so maybe when she has the baby it won’t be too boring taking care of kids anymore.
Btw love his face after she yells at him totally hilarious.
Hiya Hannah! I’m sorry to hear your computer’s not working — ugh. I hope you can get it fixed soon!
Ahh, pod people. How I hate thee.
Again, the daycare looks great! I find it kind of weird that you got Sandi and Sam on the first day, because I did as well. I wonder if it’s because they’re the only ones in Sunset Valley who have toddlers? That doesn’t sound right though, I could have sworn that there were other toddlers too..
Julianne is adorable, and I love her hairstyle!
Yeah, I’m wondering about only two toddlers in SV, too. Now that I have Twallan’s Master Controller re-installed, I’m going to check the Demographics and see just how many toddlers are currently in town. BTW, I think Julianne’s hairstyle is from the store — just in case you thought it might be in Generations. I have too much store crap. ;-p
I’ve, sadly, not been able to really play sims for over year. Life has just gotten in the way. Yours is the only blog I still follow. I didn’t even know, until a few weeks ago, that Generations was even coming out. Sad, huh? You make me want to schedule time in to play again! Looks like a lot of fun stuff in Generations. Thanks for sharing & hope you’ll let us know how the rest of the day care profession ends up.
I certainly plan to! Although it’s slowgoing at the moment — Talia had her baby but has 9 more days of maternity leave until the daycare starts up again! D’oh. So I’m playing another family in the meantime. I hear ya on life getting in the way of Sims — I hate it when that happens! ;) I’m touched that you have continued to check on my blog nonetheless — thank you for that. I hope life isn’t too crazy for you and that you can maybe fire up your Sims game sometime in the near future!
I installed the game, but have not played yet as trying to tidy up my cc, plan I have had for ages…it needs a big clean up first.
Your family is adorable, your story telling as usual hilarious and shower woohoo just pure insane. Can’t wait to see what next update will bring.
Ah, the neverending task of CC management! :) I’m always trimming mine but still it grows…hah. I need to stop downloading so much stuff…but there’s so much GOOD stuff!
Haha, Gareth and his hopscotch fail. Julianne is really adorable! Although, yeah, the game generating pod people to pick her up would worry me about eventual bloat. I had been excited about the memory system, but a lot of reviews I’ve seen have said that they do get a bit annoying/are for the weirdest things. The daycare profession looks interesting, although a bit disappointing that they added it and there aren’t many new interactions with or for toddlers or lots of new toys for them. I hear they can’t even play in the sand (that only children can). I’ve also heard that some of the parents end up leaving their kids at the daycare overnight, so will be interesting to see if you have to deal with any of that with the Happy Campers!
And I gotta say, I just saw the preview for Pets and I am so excited. That one I may have to break my “wait for the price drop” and just get it right away!
Yeah, Pets looks really cool! And the fact that they announced it so early makes me wonder if it was originally going to be part of Generations, and that’s why Generations feels a bit sparse. Either that or they knew people would complain about Generations being sparse and decided to throw us a bone with the Pets announcement, so we’d get excited about THAT and forgot to gripe about lack of stuff in Generations. Heh. Who knows. But yeah, I love seeing the Grim Reaper riding on a horse! That is too cool.
Interesting about the possible overnight daycare…I look forward to seeing if that happens!
How did Talia and Gareth “tell” each other about their schools? Did it come up as a pop-up with the info for you to see? And I never understood why EA -never- put railings around the opening hole at the top of the stairs. They didn’t in TS2 either. *grumbles* Ooo, I like the fancy new small computer! Geeze, 4 10-hour days for only $100?!? Yikes! Yay, the first Happy Campers! *claps*
I like that you can see what the toddlers need, even if you can’t click on/control them. *snickers at Gareth’s hopscotch attempt* So if Talia had a bit of downtime where she didn’t need to interact with the kids, can you put a skilling somethingorother in the room so she can skill a little, then play/feed/change the kids, skill, rinse, repeat? Julianne is very cute! Okay, nevermind the skilling machine, if she can teach them to walk and stuff on her work time. *nod* I wonder if the report cards will mean bigger raises or more “experience” towards the next level or something. Aww, Gareth is a sweetie. *melts*
Yikes! I, um, I don’t think I’d want to experience that sort of woohoo’ing, thankyouverymuch. *shudders* I guess you’re right about Julianne being raised by a cabal of generic pod people. Congrats on the baby bump and on the promotion! *cheers* Yay for new maternity clothes!!! *boogies*
There’s actually a new Friendly social called “Ask About Alma Mater”, and then the Sim who is asked will talk about their school, and a pop-up tells you which school it was. After that, there are socials for them to talk about their alma mater (which seems to bore the other Sim, far as I can tell!). It was one of the first things Talia and Gareth did when I unpaused them, but I was in the middle of building still, so I didn’t take a picture of it.
That fancy new computer is a store object, I think…or it might be HELS? I forget. :p I don’t think I saw any new computers with Generations.
Good idea to put a skilling something-or-other in the playroom for Talia to work on when the kids aren’t in need of anything. There’s a chair and bookcase in there, so she could at least read skillbooks if she gets bored. :)
*LOL* at the shower woohoo.
You know … Gareth is kinda hot. That picture where he\’s holding the todler … with that facial expression on his face … it\’s kinda sexy! :O)
I look forward to reading more of your Generations experiences.
LOL…whenever I make a married man/dad in the Sims, I seem to always make him this nerdyhot guy in a cardigan. :D
Jen this is great – entertaining and informative. I love how you always come up with something different to keep us coming back for more.
I did finally get my Generations EP and today is really the first chance I’m going to get to play it. I’ve had a good look through the catalogues already (of course!) and normally I’d just carry on with whatever game I’m already playing – but you’ve made me want to try something different myself – just to see all these new game play features in action.
Will we be seeing more of the Godfreys, or are they just for testing the new gameplay?
Yay, you got your Generations! I hope you have fun with it (and maybe decide to share some pics? Hint hint ;).
The Godfreys are just a test family for now, but if I ever get around to building/developing my own town, I’ll probably move them in. I do want to see if I can at least get Talia to the max level of the Daycare profession. But it’ll take forever if she keeps getting pregnant!
Hi Jen,
I love your story. It’s laugh out loud funny, especially the pillow fight. Your daycare centre is gorgeous as is the rest of the house. I just wish I had half as much talent as you when it comes to decorating. Did you use a particular house in Sunset Vally or build one? Like a few others, I’ve been checking out your site on a regular basis and I’m glad you’ve updated. Very entertaining.
Hi Debbie! I’m glad you enjoyed my post, and thank you for your kind words about my site. For the Godfreys, I built a new house on an empty lot. I was going for a contemporary style, but it turned out to be horribly boxy. The inside was fun to decorate, though!
I haven’t been back to your blog in a long time, ever since that post from way back when the Sims 3 first came out, and it sounded like you were not too impressed with the game. However, I’m so, so happy to see that you are still blogging! I have so many posts to catch up on! =)
Heh, it’s hard to stay away from the Sims, even when I’m annoyed with it! ;) I see that you are blogging about TS3 as well…I’ll have to check it out! Thanks so much for stopping in again after all this time.
*posted with almost closed eyes* Hi Jen, I haven’t looked at your entry yet, as I haven’t installed Generations and want to keep a little bit of surprise about the daycare, but I just wanted to say: it’s nice to see you back! I missed reading you! :)
(will be back right after Generations installation!)
Hey Jenba I think there’s something in the daycare water – my test daycare owner keeps getting pregnant too! Perhaps it’s the nurturing trait? Idk – but I love your take on Generations. You do have a way of making the everyday game-play entertaining.
I’m thinkin’ the random sims dropping off and picking up the poor babies must come from a gypsy clan or some such family. Maybe hold overs from the 70s style commune living? Whatever the case, it is reeally strange to see all those strangers w/one kid. Poor dears.
I had no idea you could earn athletic skill by playing hop-scotch. It has a weird kind of logic to it I suppose. Anywho, thanks for the stories/by-play/game-play lol. Til next time ‘wright’ on! That was my spam word this time around.
Aww, Gareth is so totally adorable! I love your Sims’ faces! Talia’s expression after the pillows fight is priceless!
*lol* at the “I’m still in my jammies” picture!