The Sands of Time

 

World Adventures was the first expansion pack that came out for The Sims 3.  At the time, I wasn't very happy with The Sims 3 as it was so different from The Sims 2.  Having an open world, I felt that I didn't have much control over the sims that I wasn't playing.  So when World Adventures was released, although I thought the trailer looked pretty good, I waited for other simmers to post their reviews on YouTube before I even thought about purchasing it.

Most of the reviews seemed positive and, as a fan of games such as Tomb Raider, I decided to buy the pack and give it a shot.

At first it seemed really strange to play a Sim who was entering tombs, disabling traps, finding secret doors and basically looting the treasure chests as I felt that this wasn't like real life as opposed to playing families.  However, when you think about it, in real life there are adventurers who climb mountains and archaeologists like Howard Carter who found the tomb of Tutankhamen.  So The Sims 3 World Adventures, although new and different for The Sims franchise as something like this had not been done before, it was still true to life.

I really got into playing World Adventures and loved every minute of it.  EA certainly put a lot of work and thought into this expansion pack and it is definitely worth the money.  Getting three new worlds as opposed to just one was a first, plus all the new build and buy objects that came with it was a real bonus.

As I have said in previous posts on my Let's Play of The Glimmerbrook Witch for The Sims 4, EA seem to have calmed things down with The Sims.  By this I mean that in The Sims 3 for example, a witch could set fires on community lots, the Sims would run away and inevitably the ones that didn't ended up dead.  In The Sims 4, all Sims seem to be equipped with fire extinguishers on community lots and therefore not much damage can be done as fires are put out as soon as they are started.  My way of thinking is that you should be able to play The Sims how you want.  If I want to play an evil witch, she must be evil.  Simples.

With this in mind, even though The Glimmerbrook Witch is still an ongoing Let's Play on my YouTube channel, I decided to create a second Let's Play made with The Sims 3.  And what better than to create it around my favourite expansion pack of World Adventures!

So, "The Sands of Time" was born.

Set in Sunset Valley, our hero John Linden is a brave and charismatic adventurer.  Of course in this first episode (and also episodes 2 and 3), he is working his way up in his career in the military, gaining money and skills in readiness for his adventures.

Although it may be boring for some, getting some cash rolling in and skill building is a must during gameplay for John to be able to do what he wants to do.  Sending him to Egypt without any handiness skill will surely kill him as he will not be able to disable traps easily.  And of course, he needs money to travel and buy the things he needs from the market place, such as shower in a can and dried food.

The athletic skill comes in handy too for smashing the rubble piles that stand in his way.  This skill and also the handiness skill are needed for his job to gain promotions and earn more daily.  Preparation is underway for his great adventure, firstly in Egypt and then on to other climes.

I am loving creating this Let's Play and even though the game is a little old, I am having as much fun now as I did back in the day.

The Sims 3 music however is all copyrighted so I am having to mute the music in game and replacing it with royalty free music from the YouTube audio library where appropriate.  I have found some great Egyptian, French and Chinese style music which I am using.

I did make a few mistakes with this first episode but corrected this when editing, which you will see if you watch.

I hope that you enjoy watching The Sands of Time just as much as I am enjoying playing it!

- Minicart