Martial Arts Tournament

 

John has an opportunity at work which he must fulfil in China.  He needs to set up a Martial Arts Tournament with a spar contender, namely Maya Wang but unfortunately she isn't available at that moment in time.  So John decides to see what other adventures there are in store for him.

He secures an "adventure" from the board at base camp.  Now, I wouldn't call fishing for koi an adventure but John does what he is asked, earning more simoleons and gaining some fishing skill.

He returns to the base camp and finally secures a tournament with Maya Wang.  After a lot of fluffing about, she arrives at the base camp and John proceeds to spar with her.  Luckily for John, he wins the sparring match.  Normally, once an opportunity is executed, a message will show to say that he has to return to work to complete the opportunity.  Unfortunately, this didn't happen so I assumed that John would have to spar with another Sim.

He proceeds to call another spar contender and Shen Su arrives at the base camp.  John spars with Shen and again wins the match but unfortunately it seems that John is still not yet done.  How many times must he do this?  Hopefully no more than 3 but then I could be wrong.

John will continue with this quest next time but if it's going to take too long, he feels that cancelling this opportunity would be best.

It's a pity if this happens though as this could secure a promotion at work for him.

- Minicart (Jules)

ENGULFED in a BLAZE!

 

Having killed one Sim at the Day Spa, Willow is feeling a little chilly so heads home to warm up.

Greeted by her familiar Tabitha, her beloved cat, she decides to better her relationship with her by giving her treats and playing games.  Willow also takes this time to practice some magic in order to progress to the next level of "wand" spells, thereby gaining strength and notoriety as a witch.

Now Willow, being evil, loves starting fires and causing misery to other Sims so it isn't long before she decides to return to the Unity Day Spa to cast a few more spells and generally cause havoc.

After casting a couple of fire blast spells, a couple of Sims turn up to shout and jump about.  As we know, this is the worst thing a Sim can do, especially with an evil witch on the lot.  The best thing a Sim could do is to just stay away unless of course they want to help by putting out the fires or other Sims but even this, as we have seen in the past, can turn out to be fatal.

Of course, you always get at least one do-gooder join the party, ready with fire extinguisher in hand, standing in one space for a period of time.  And that's the problem.  For them anyway.  Standing in one spot for a period of time can only mean one thing.  The evil witch has time to cast a fire blast spell at your feet, causing a terrible blaze that can engulf you and lead to your demise.

So whether you are a Sim trying to extinguish fires or just standing jumping about and screaming, you're a sitting duck where Willow is concerned.

And that's exactly what happened at the Day Spa on this particular day.  One do-gooder and plenty of other Sims jumping up and down, waving their arms in the air and screaming.  Willow has a field day!

But, will anyone die?

- Minicart (Jules)

Snow in The Sims 2

Getting snow in The Sims 2 was a little different than in TS3 and TS4.  You couldn't skate on an icy pond like you could in TS3 although there was an ice skating rink venue that you could place to send your Sims to.  Much like in TS4 where the ice skating rink shows up in parks in various worlds.

You could build a snowman and create a snow angel and of course have a snowball fight, just like in future games although building an igloo wasn't a feature until The Sims 3.

A couple of things I do miss from The Sims 2 regarding snow that we never had again was when it starting snowing, children and adults alike would run to the window and look outside.  Children would get excited and so would some adults.  They would also get a memory of "first snow"!  However there were adults that weren't very happy with this and would shake their heads, just like in real life!

Another thing was the way Sims would walk in the deep snow; I don't believe we have had that type of animation since.

And of course the penguin!  Who could forget that lovable penguin that ventured onto your lot when it snowed!  If you had a snowman in the yard, the penguin would walk up to it and chat to it.

In this video I have pieced together all the little video snippets that I have of snow in The Sims 2.  I hope you enjoy it!  Don't forget to comment below and let me know what you think!

Cheers!

- Minicart (Jules)