The Big Brother Challenge

I have noticed that there are a lot of challenges that have been devised for the Sims games by players.  The 100 Baby Challenge, Not So Berry, Rags to Riches and Black Widow to name a few are all popular challenges and real life ones such as "Big Brother" and "I'm a Sim, Get me Out of Here" have also been popular.  Even EA/Maxis have devised some Scenarios/Challenges within The Sims 4 game for players to complete such as Proud Parent, Too Many Toddlers, Plant a Sim and Family Fortune.

Back in the day of The Sims 2, a challenge was placed on the old BBS website called The Legacy Challenge.  The player would have to place a Sim on the largest lot possible, not having much money left to build a house, more like a one room hovel and then work their way to get money to build up their home.  Marriage would be to a townie and the oldest son would stay on the lot, the remaining children leaving to be placed in the sim bin and forgotten about.  This would need to be done for each generation up to 10 generations or more.

I rather liked the idea of this challenge but didn't like to let my Sims go into the wilderness and be forgotten about.  So, when the University expansion pack for The Sims 2 was released, which was the first EP for the game, I decided to try the Legacy Challenge but with my own take on it.

Firstborn sons will always return to their birth home to continue the family name but other sons will be placed on their own lots, albeit a little smaller, which I call a sub-Legacy.  Daughters will marry and take on their partners names, creating a new legacy family on a large lot.  I never use townies for marriage but create partners for my Sims at University where they will meet and gain skills and relationships, giving them a good start in life.  I play rotationally and for three days for each family, allowing all of my Sims to grow up or age together.  Although it may sound a little old-fashioned having the first son return home and daughters taking on their partners names, for me it made it easier to keep track of families and new legacies within the game.  You can download my rules here if you are interested in playing this way.

I have been wanting to try the Big Brother Challenge for a while in The Sims 2 and finally got around to doing it after watching the real life show earlier this year just to get a feel for it.  Although there are certain rules for the Big Brother Challenge in The Sims that have been devised by players, I decided to create my own for my challenge which you can find here.

I built a Big Brother House and then created 8 Sims separately in CAS and moved them all in one by one.  For me, I had always thought that the Sims in 2 were a lot smarter than in 4 and although I still believe this, Sims in 2 are not as smart as I had previously believed.

At first the Sims seemed to be having a lot of fun, chatting, keeping their needs up by making group meals and showering but then something went wrong.  In a later episode, one Sim decided to take out the trash and, as the door was locked (my fault), threw the trash on the floor.  Of course this caused bugs and Sims freaking out.  They had never bothered about the trash before and now, all of sudden, it was a thing.

Here's a clip of episode 1:

If you would like to watch my Big Brother Challenge in The Sims 2, here is the first episode:

I would love to know what you think of my Big Brother Challenge or challenges in general within the Sims games!

Dag! Dag!

- Minicart

Different Juices for Different Effects

I was looking over on Tumblr and came across a post by someone who shared a Sims 2 Wiki article about the fruit juice in The Sims 2.

In case you didn't know, we have a juice extractor, The Main Squeezer 235X, where we can make apple juice, lemonade, orangeade and more, which is great for the gardeners in the game who like to grow fruit and vegetables.  I already knew about the pureed boot which is a boot that you can get during fishing.  What I didn't know was that if you combine certain fruits and vegetables, you can get different effects, which is really cool.  So after 20 years of playing The Sims 2, I've found something else out.

As you will see from this table screenshotted from the TS2 Wiki article, there are a few combinations that give different effects, much like the nectar making in The Sims 3 that gives different nectars:

I did have a look on YouTube to see if anyone else had done a video about this but I couldn't see anything so thought I would make my own.

My Sim earned a random skill point with the Eggplant Juice, had an energy boost with the Pepper Punch and even managed to get to platinum aspiration with the Strawberry Lemonade even though she was nearing a nervous breakdown!

Although I was unable to try out the Orange Juice, Strawberry Juice and Tomato Juice, all of the other combinations seemed to work really well.  I really liked the Strawberry Lemonade as having platinum or gold aspiration allows your Sim to use the lifetime rewards, such as the Smart Milk for toddlers.

If you would like to see the effects that different combinations of fruit and vegetables have on a Sim, then check out my video below - the pureed boot is not to be missed!

Let me know in the comments section below if you have ever tried out these fruit and vegetable juices or if, like me, you never knew about them!  I would love to know what you think.

Dag! Dag!

- Minicart (Jules)

Questions I Get Asked About The Sims 2...

I get asked quite a few questions about The Sims 2 such as where I get my custom content, how to make shorts, where to get The Sims 2 and how to optimise it for Windows so I thought I would make a blog post answering all of these questions with links to sites that will help.

The Sims 2 

Although I have all of the disks, I was one of the lucky ones who was able to get the downloadable game for free from EA many moons ago via Origin.  Unfortunately, they are not giving away copies any more.  There is an old petition on Change .org if you would like to sign it.

If you are on a Mac, The Sims 2 Super Collection can be purchased from the Apple Store with most of the expansion packs and stuff packs.  I do believe that it doesn't have Apartment Life which was the last EP for The Sims 2 unfortunately as EA only made it for Windows.  This EP not only had apartments but witches too.

However, if you are on Windows, Reddit has a great post which will help.

In order to run the game on Windows, Pleasantsims has all the instructions on her blog which I found to be extremely helpful. 

Custom Content

I usually get custom content from Tumblr and my favourite creator, especially for clothing and hair, is GoatsKickin'.

During The Sims 2 days, we had a store and all of the items have now been uploaded here.

I just recently found these really colourful items from Linacheries which I haven't downloaded yet but thought they were worth a mention.

For furniture, I really like Padre over at The Sims Resource.  He also creates items for The Sims 4.

If you are into building in The Sims 2, Mod the Sims have a great selection of build items either recolours or new meshes.  My favourite is Honeywells build set. 

Don't forget to check out BuggyBooz here on Blogger - they have made some awesome items for the home and garden. 

If you would like Sims 4 items in your Sims 2 game, there is a database where creators have converted them.  I actually look forward to when Maxis/EA release kits, stuff packs and EP's for The Sims 4 as a short while later they will be converted to The Sims 2!  

Also, I build lots for downloading and you can see videos of my speed builds over on my YouTube channel together with the download links.

Recording Gameplay

To record my gameplay of The Sims 2, I use OBS which is a free recording programme.

The version I have is 27.0.1 so you may need to scroll down the page to get it.  I find that any newer version will not record The Sims 2 as it's an old game.

Making Shorts

When I first started making shorts, I would chop my video up with my video editor into little videos and upload each one to Adobe Express which is a free online tool. 

You can also remove the background from your pictures by going to the little dropdown above entitled "quick actions" (you may need to wait a little while for it to load properly) and upload your image.  This is great for creating thumbnails for long-form videos if you are on YouTube.

I have now learned to make shorts in my video editor by watching tutorials on YouTube.  The video editor that I use is NCH Video Pad Video Editor which isn't a free programme but was just a one-time payment.

I hope the above helps and yes, I know I should update this blog a little more often...

Dag Dag!

- Minicart (Jules)