Babies in The Sims 2

 

I have been playing The Sims since 2001 when my son borrowed the original The Sims from a friend at school. I had played Sim City for a while on the Sega Saturn and was completely hooked, so being able to play The Sims themselves was even more fun.

In the original The Sims, babies grew straight from a baby into a child by jumping out of their cribs.  One minute they were babies and the next they were children, having to go to school.

The Sims 2 however had a different approach and brought the game up to date with babies growing into toddlers, then children then teens and on to adult then elder.  With the addition of The Sims 2 University expansion pack, a new lifespan of young adult was added which a teen entered into upon going to university.  But I digress...

The Sims 3 gave us babies that grew into toddlers and then children but unfortunately the babies had no limbs.  Other Simmers have called them "burritos" because the babies were just wrapped up in a type of blanket.  No arms.  No legs.  You couldn't even bathe them in a sink.  Then along came The Sims 4 and things got even worse.  Babies in this fourth incarnation of The Sims are no longer offspring.  Although breast feeding was brought into the mix, the babies are seen as objects with the player only being able to interact with the "baby" via the crib or "bassinet" as it is called in game.

When The Sims 4 first came out, even toddlers were omitted.  The "babies" jumped out of the bassinet and grew up into a child - just like in the original The Sims.  Toddlers were added to the game later as a free update.

Although the toddlers in The Sims 4 are the best toddlers ever in my opinion, the "babies" leave a lot to be desired.

I, like many other simmers, would love to see The Sims 2 babies back with their arms and legs and being able to bathe them in the sink, carry them around and play with them.  If you have never played The Sims 2, the little video I made above will show you just how lovely Sims 2 babies were and why simmers today, including myself, are unhappy with the babies of The Sims since TS3.

- Minicart

The Vampire

 

Vampire.  The mere mention of the word conjures up images of Transylvania, bloodshed, death and fangs.

There are certain things one must know about vampires.  Firstly, they cannot venture into the sunlight as they will die.  By nature, they are creatures of the night, the undead.  They sleep during the day in a coffin that is placed on soil taken from their motherland.  They hunger and thirst for only the blood of the living and can take the form of a bat to venture out and strike the unsuspecting by sinking their teeth into their victims necks.  Apart from sunlight, another way to kill a vampire is to drive a wooden stake through their heart whilst they lay slumbering in their coffin during the day.  The vampire is repelled by garlic and fears mirrors, as the vampire has no reflection.

If you invite a vampire into your home, even without knowing that he or she is such, they will be able to come back at a later date, either in their human form or the form of a bat, and will enter at will.  

In The Sims 4, vampires are a little different in as much as other Sims cannot drive a stake through the hearts of these unworldly creatures, however, sunlight will kill them.  And of course if you don't want your vampire Sims to bite the necks of others, there is always Plasma fruit that is available for them to eat which quenches their thirst for blood.

Talking of which, Willow Mendip also seems to have a thirst for blood but in a different way.  Being an evil witch, she takes much pleasure in annihilating her neighbours one by one and sometimes two at a time.  Unfortunately this doesn't get Willow any friends and although she enjoys making enemies, one should have a friend or two, especially if they are as evil as Willow is.

On this particular evening in Glimmerbrook, a young gentleman paid Willow an unexpected visit.  His very name strikes fear into the hearts of Sims, except for Willow of course.  Caleb Vatore lives with his wife Lillith in Midnight Hollow, the darkest of The Sims 4 worlds.  As we know, Willow doesn't stick to the rules so she invited Caleb in.

Striking up some friendly conversation, Willow soon made a friend of Caleb.  They proceeded to watch the movie "Sims of the Dead" together on TV and chatted about it afterwards.  They then had a nice outing to the Magic Realm before Willow had to leave to tend her beloved plants.

One can only wonder where this friendship of two supernaturals will lead.

- Minicart

Raging

 

An idle witch is a dangerous witch, or at least this is true in Willow Mendip's case.  So to occupy herself, in this episode, she visits Gemma Charm who lives just up the road and is a member of "The Coven".

"The Coven" was created a couple of episodes ago and consists of five witchy Sims.  This group of Sims have had just one outing and Willow noticed that they are all unfortunately do-gooders.  Willow had hoped that they would help her in her endeavours of killing Sims on a community lot but, alas, no.  Even her coven carried fire extinguishers and used them in force.  In fact, none of the members of The Coven passed the test, not even the "mean" ones.

Unfortunately, one such coven member lives alone and on the largest residential lot in Glimmerbrook - the lot that Willow wants to build her new house on when she has enough money.  Taking all this into consideration, Willow decided that Gemma Charm should be the one to "go" first.

Knocking politely on Gemma's door, Willow is invited inside.  After locating the poor Sim sitting upstairs at her computer, Willow proceeds to cast the "inferniate" spell.  It seems however that Gemma was expecting this and proceeded to swiftly move out of the way, running downstairs to safety.  However, Willow had other plans.

As Gemma was lighting the fire in the parlour, Willow lit a fire at Gemma's feet, setting the poor Sims rug ablaze, along with Gemma herself.

The Grim Reaper, as usual, although turning up rather quickly, took his time to check his list before collecting the soul of Gemma Charm and leaving behind a very ornate urn.

Willow's job was done.  One less do-gooder in her beloved Coven and an empty lot that she can build her dream house on.  Unless of course story progression moves someone else into the house, in which case, Willow will have to kill them too....

- Minicart

Copy Pasto

As a witch, Willow has grown considerably over the past few weeks.  By practising on the cauldron and with her wand and casting spells, her power has grown and she has learned much in the way of new spells and potions.

As I mentioned in a previous post with regard to potions, Willow needs ingredients such as herbs and crystals which she garners from the world and purchases from the little shop in the Magic Realm.  Fishing is also needed as fish too feature in her potions along with gardening to enable her to grow all manner of herbs, fruit and vegetables.

Of course, if one could "magic" these items into existence, there would be no need to purchase, garner, catch or grow anything.

This is where the "copy pasto" spell comes into play.

This spell does exactly what it says on the jar.  As long as you have one item of anything, including bottled potions, you can copy pasto it and voila!  You have another!

Unfortunately this doesn't actually work on fish but it does on mostly all other items in Willow's inventory.

So as long as she has the ingredients to create the initial potion, she can then copy pasto it, nullifying the need for any of the ingredients.  And by casting these spells, Willow's little orange bar goes up, giving her more magic points to enable her to get stronger and stronger.  Its a win-win situation.

Maybe Willow can try this spell out on expensive items and get rich in the process.  We will have to wait and see.

One can only wonder if this spell is dangerous in the hands of an evil witch.

- Minicart

 

Dancing Mr Reaper

 

Willow enjoys having a gathering of Sim neighbours at her home on a regular basis and this episode is no exception.

In previous get togethers however, only food and friendly conversation ensued, apart from of course the odd Sim dropping dead here and there.  This occasion is somewhat a little different as Willow purchased a music centre.  Just a small one. Some would call it a radio.  Nevertheless, having the addition of music changed her "party" into a "soiree".

As usual, Willow invited a few Sims that she didn't like, five in fact, to taste the delicacy of Pufferfish Nigiri that she made herself, afresh for her guests, participate in friendly conversation and dance the night away.  This is what her guests thought but you would think that, again, if someone you don't like invites you to their soiree, knowing that the feeling was reciprocated, that you wouldn't go, would you?  Well, I would have thought not too.  But, we are talking about The Sims and even though they are supposed to be "Smart Sims" as advertised when TS4 was first released, they are not smart at all.

One by one they turned up at Willows house, obviously looking forward to the evening ahead.  After being invited to dance, they were offered some freshly made food which, although struggling with the chopsticks, they ate with relish.  It wasn't long before one Sim started feeling the effects.  In fact the Grim Reaper showed up before the poor Sim had actually hit the floor.  It seems that Mr Reaper enjoys taking the souls of Sims, rushing to the place of death and then taking his time to read his list.

After receiving four of these souls, he decided to dance.  And dance he did!  He must be on dancing skill level 10 the way he busted those moves.  The Grim Reaper carried on dancing as the fifth Sim (the one who survived the Pufferfish dish) burned to death behind him.

- Minicart

The Coven

There are a few different types of witches.  There are those who prefer to work with herbs and/or healing spells known as "Green Witches"; hereditary Witches are those who have been born into a witch family so they naturally follow "the craft".  Some witches prefer to work alone while others prefer to work as a group, known as a "Coven".

In Willow's previous incarnation during The Sims 3 years, she preferred to work alone.  Casting fire spells on community lots and against other Sims was something she practised on a daily basis.  There was the odd Sim here and there trying to put out the fires that Willow started but all in all, the neighbours waved their arms in the air screaming.  An evil witch in The Sims 3 was truly evil and Willow proved herself to be such.

In The Sims 4 however, as I have stated before, it seems that The Sims franchise has calmed down a little.  To have a truly evil witch in The Sims 4 is a lot harder.  For example, whenever Willow witnesses another Sims death, even if she doesn't like them and even if she has caused their demise, she will cry - on the outside.  On the inside however, she seems happy, revelling in their misery due to the evil trait.  The Willow Mendip of The Sims 3 would laugh an evil laugh and never shed a tear.

It seems also that the neighbours of The Sims 4 are all equipped with fire extinguishers.  As soon as they see a fire, they become brave and attempt to put the blaze out, unless it's on a residential lot.  That's when they scream.  That's when they wave their arms in the air.  That's when they run away.

So, in order to be able to have Sims of the neighbourhood on Willow's side and reduce the number of Sims on community lots with fire extinguishers, Willow created a coven.

They say there is "strength in numbers" so by creating "The Coven" (as this is what she named it), there would be many more witchy Sims casting fires and creating havoc and less Sims trying to be "do-gooders".

The Coven members were told that they could only be friendly with each other, scare everyone outside The Coven, be mean to everyone outside The Coven and to cast spells and use the cauldron.

Together with her army of witches, Willow set off to Pupperstone Park.  

As you can guess, the only thing she had in mind was to set the place alight.  She cast inferniate spell after inferniate spell, setting fires all over the lot, expecting her coven to follow suit but alas, not one cast a spell.  Not one seemed to be on Willow's side.  In fact they all had fire extinguishers......

It seems that Willow has been foiled.  Should she throw them out of The Coven?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  There must be a way to make this gathering of spellcasters turn evil and follow in Willow's footsteps.  This is something that Willow is still trying to figure out.

- Minicart

Witch in Flight

 

As I have stated in previous posts, Willow enjoys a good party.

Usually, when "normal" Sims, and people, hold parties, they invite their friends, put on some music, provide good food and dance the night away.  But of course Willow isn't really normal.  As an evil witch, Willow prefers to invite to her party neighbours who she doesn't really like, lulling them into a sense of false security with friendly conversation.  She also provides poor quality food, such as Pufferfish Nigiri which her neighbours eat with relish.  The music is non-existent.  The dancing however is a little different.  You could call it a "fire dance".

In this episode, "Witch in Flight", Willow decides to hold one such party for the neighbours that she is not too keen on.  As before, she cooks them Pufferfish Nigiri and serves it outside in the cold autumn air. Most of her guests take a plateful of this delicacy, struggling to eat it with the chopsticks provided.  Of course, if this doesn't kill them, Willow has a back-up game plan, or two, at the ready.

As Willow now has the ability to cast her spells from afar, from the comfort of her warm living room she casts a few chillio spells.  One by one her guests become frozen, to the horror of the remaining few.

Not satisfied with chillioing her guests, she decides to make a fire.  One such guest was cold anyway, so warming things up seemed a good idea.

It is strange how neighbours on community lots have fire extinguishers and immediately put fires out but on home lots, they either just look on or run away, even if their beloved spouse is burning to death.  Sims also have the ability to put themselves out with their own fire extinguisher, as Willow found out the hard way, but not one of Willow's burning guests even attempt to do this.  Hence the "fire dance" - for two.

And as usual, the Grim Reaper turns up to claim the souls of the poor unfortunate Sims who should know better than to accept the offer of a party at an evil witches house, especially one who doesn't like you very much.

Party over, Willow decides to visit Magnolia Blossom park in Willow Creek, just for fun.

- Minicart

Glowing Eyes

The main job of a witch is to learn spells and potions.  By doing this, the witch gains points to enable him or her to refine their spellcasting and potion making abilities, thereby becoming stronger in all aspects of magic.

Willow is no exception.  Spending time in the magic realm actually allows her to learn magic faster and in turn, become stronger more quickly.

There comes a point however in any witch's career that no more magic can be learned due to the rank of the witch.  This episode sees Willow gaining more knowledge and strength and even though there is much more to be learned, Willow has come to the point where she cannot learn any more magic due to her rank.  This means that the only way she can gain more points is either by creating potions at the cauldron or casting magic on Sims and things.

It can take quite a while to to gain these points, but gain them she does, and then new spells are learned seemingly a lot more quickly.

Willow is gaining strength every day and with the help of drinking certain potions, such as the "Plentiful Needs" potion, she can work towards her goal of learning everything there is to be learned without needing to sleep, eat or shower.  As time is of the essence, this helps Willow to attain her goal more quickly.  Meanwhile, she casts spells on other Sims, reducing the neighbourhood Sim count, and reducing the neighbours to tears, all at the same time and having fun doing so.

Maybe tomorrow, Willow will have another party.....

- Minicart

Festival of Youth

 

As stated before in a previous post, there are quite few festivals in The Sims 4 if you have City Living and Snowy Escape expansion packs installed.  Willow seems to like to attend to these festivals due to the gathering of Sims and the mischief and mayhem she can cause.  One such festival is the Romance Festival in the city. 

Apart from the obvious romantic vibe this festival brings, there are rare plants that can be harvested, a "love guru" who can be consulted, food stalls and swag stalls and of course, the infamous Sakura Tea which when sipped, places the Sim in a flirty mood.  Although Willow drinks the tea, she is far from wanting any flirty conversations with other Sims.  Willow has something else in mind.

Armed with the "chillio" spell that she learned previously, Willow sets out to cast this on other unsuspecting Sims.  There are a few Sims there that have encountered Willow before and her evil shenanigans plus a few others who have also previously been chillioed.

Of course karma plays a part in Willows life.  They say what goes around, comes around and this is also true in The Sims 4.  Spells can backfire and when they do, they can leave the caster in a bit of a dilemma.

Willow thankfully survives and lives to face another day which she uses to visit The Festival of Youth in Mount Komorebi.  This festival, as the name suggests, is for the youth of any of the worlds to come and visit, play and make friends.  

Willow's evilness knows no bounds as she takes gleeful pleasure in setting alight the little pink climbing frame in the middle of the square.  I hasten to add here that no child was hurt in the blaze, in fact the little one carried on climbing and swinging and having a lovely time.  But in a sense, we knew this would happen, which is why Willow decided to set the climbing frame on fire in the first place.

Our evil witch will of course still try and exterminate her neighbours by fire and/or freezing on community lots and festivals and as she grows stronger in her magical endeavours, one can only hope that she doesn't exterminate herself.

- Minicart

Chillio

 

Willow seems to have a fascination with fire.  You could say that it was her forte.

After setting alight items in Willow Creek park, the Romance Festival and burning to death one of her party guests in her own back yard, our evil witch decided to visit the home of one of her neighbours.

After being invited in and of course a "friendly introduction", she decided to set the poor unsuspecting Sim's bed on fire.  Of course this is not a normal thing to do but we are talking about an evil witch.  Willow Mendip, to be precise.

As I stated in a previous post, EA/Maxis seem to have changed things a little since The Sims 3.  Unable to cast any more "inferniate" spells because everything "clicked on" brings up a red notice stating that "this cannot be done because there is a fire on the lot", Willow runs out of the house waving her arms in the air, followed by the poor neighbour.  There's nothing else she can do but to call the fire brigade.  In The Sims 3, she would have been able to light fires in every room of the house, causing more havoc than she can in this incarnation.

The firemen/women take their time, seemingly more interested in playing with clay than putting out the blaze.  However, they manage it after a fashion and everything is back to "normal".  Apart from, of course, the poor neighbours blackened bed.

Willow takes her leave and decides to go homeward bound to practice some more magic.  What else can she learn?

Chillio.  That was what she learned - chillio.  It seems to go from one extreme to the other.  Instead of burning Sims to death, she can now freeze them to death.

Armed with knowledge of a new spell, she travels to Mount Komorebi.  Needless to say, she chose this location because of the snow...

After introducing herself to a Sim on the lot, again in a friendly manner, she invited the Sim outside to help build a Snow Pal.  The Sim was of course happy to oblige and followed Willow outside into the freezing cold.  Once the Snow Pal was finished and having lulled the poor Sim into a false sense of security, Willow "chillioed" her.  To put it more plainly, she froze her into a Simlish iceberg.

Other Sims started to appear on the lot and Willow chillioed a couple of them too.

Unfortunately, this practice of freezing Sims is not lethal, for now anyway.  Things may get better as time wears on.  We can only wait and see.

- Minicart

Curses!

Encouraged by her trusty familiar in the form of a Raven named Fred, Willow tries out the potions she has learned by drinking them. She hasn't tasted them all but the ones that really help her are the Good Fortune, Plentiful Needs and Emotional Stability to name but a few.

Part of a Witches training is also to duel in the Magic Realm, either for knowledge, ingredients or just for the fun of it. Duelling helps with her knowledge of magic, pushing her orange bar up a little further but of course winning is the name of the game. Although Willow has managed to win a few of these duels, gaining magical knowledge in the process, she sometimes loses.

They say you can't have too much of a good thing but unfortunately for Willow, you can.

Even though she is getting stronger, she is not strong enough to cope with all of this power. Taking too many potions and losing a couple of duels in a row can take it's toll and this, in turn, curses our evil witch.

Willow is now stuck with two curses. One for taking too many potions and another for losing too many duels. The former causes her hygiene level to sink to rock bottom where no amount of showering will help at all. Even taking the Plentiful Needs potion will at first push her hygiene up but only for a short time. The stench causes her to “drip” green stinky puddles all over the floor inside and outside of the home. To make matters worse, the latter curse, the Curse of Awkward Embraces, causes her to hug people which is rather embarrassing for her and also for them.

The only way out of this is to learn the recipe for the potion of Curse Cleansing. And to ensure that she doesn't get hexed again, she needs to become more powerful in order to “earn” a few more points to “buy” Spellcaster Perks, namely, Hexproof, so that she never gets cursed again.

Here's a snippet of Part 10 of The Glimmerbrook Witch:

Click here to watch the full episode on my channel on YouTube!

- Minicart

Have the Neighbours Been Gossiping?

 

As stated before, Willow likes to have a party or two. Unfortunately for some Sims, they turn up to the party but never leave. However, are the ones that do get away, gossiping to the neighbours?

Since Willow moved in to Glimmerbrook, half the neighbourhood has disappeared. This, I imagine, would give cause for concern to anyone living in this magical neck of the woods. Questions should be asked and investigations made.

Fortunately for Willow, in The Sims franchise, we do not have the police knocking on the door asking around for these missing Sims. Of course Willow wouldn't be able to place their gravestones in her garden as ornaments and trophies of her shenanigans as the presence of these would give Willow away.

This is probably why one neighbour, who obviously drew the short straw, calls to see Willow to find out what is going on.

As usual, Willow is friendly and invites the poor neighbour in, even offering him freshly made Pufferfish Nigiri.

One would beg the question, how long can this go on for?

Here's a snippet of Part 9 of The Glimmerbrook Witch:

Click here to watch the full episode on my channel on YouTube!

- Minicart

We Got 5 This Time.....

As I mentioned in my previous post, a witch's job is not just to cast spells and brew potions but the garnering of items to create those potions is a must.

In this episode we see Willow continuing her quest for magical items such as crystals, plants and frogs. Experimenting with the cauldron allows her to find new potions and thereby gain more knowledge in her magical endeavours. As she gains more knowledge and experience, she becomes stronger magically.

All of this takes time, energy and a lot of work and as they say, all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, or in this case, makes Willow a dull witch. So playtime is a must for busy witches and inviting a few friends and neighbours around for dinner is something that Willow does on a regular basis.

Her speciality is preparing Pufferfish Nigiri for her guests who seem to tuck in quite enthusiastically. Unfortunately for the guests, the quality of the dish is poor but they still eat it. Maybe they don't want to offend the host or maybe they're just stupid. After all, they continue eating even when they see other Sims around them dropping dead all over the kitchen floor.

Here's a snippet of Part 8 of The Glimmerbrook Witch:

Click here to watch the full episode on my channel on YouTube!

- Minicart