The KEY to the INNERMOST CHAMBERS

 

After sleeping the night in a tent at a nearby campsite, John returns to the tomb to continue on his quest to obtain the spear from the treasure chest.

But first, John must enter the large room which holds a treasure chest, some floor panels and a movable statue.  This room is also full of traps so John must be guided on the green or jade, path in order not to be hit by the darts.

First of all, John opens the treasure chest which contains a star key and even though he does have a few skeleton keys in his inventory which would open these star and moon shaped keystones, one can never have enough keys, especially when you're an adventurer!

John proceeds to move the statue and after placing this on floor panels together with standing on some other panels, he eventually manages to "hit the right button" and a staircase opens up allowing him to move deeper into the tomb.

As John descends the staircase, he sees a locked door with a star keystone.  He immediately places the star key into the lock and the door opens, revealing a dive well and 3 treasure chests.  In front of the chests however, there is a large boulder.  No problem for John as he has Pangu's Axe to annihilate it!

The treasure chests hold some money, ancient coins and a dive well fragment.  Nothing really of any large value but still treasure all the same.

John dives into the dive well and searches through the pitch dark depths.  He finds a secret tunnel which he swims through and comes out into a long corridor which holds some coffins.  One coffin is blue, another green and the rest are white.  John decides to open the green coffin first as it is the colour of jade, which seems to be the theme of this tomb.  John is correct in looking in this coffin as he finds a Key to the Innermost Chambers of the First Emperor!

Walking to the end of the corridor, John goes through another door which leads him to a floor panel which he can stand on.  This unlocks a secret door to the corridor which he has just been in which contains the 6 coffins.

John proceeds to look in another coffin or two.  Will he find more treasure or will he find a mummy?

- Minicart (Jules)

BURNING to DEATH!

After Willow extinguishes herself in the river, she returns to the police station to find what looks like four remains of sims, albeit no names are attached to these lumps of charred bodies.  Confused, Willow decides to travel to the local school, somewhere she hasn't been before.  New places always hold excitement for Willow.

She proceeds to cast a few fire blast spells around the main door of the building and before long, a few sims gather, screaming and shouting and waving their arms about as usual.  Willow is having a lovely time casting spells and consuming Essence of Magic Elixirs in-between.

Just lately however, Willow isn't really paying attention to where she stands.  She seems more content in casting fire blast spells and tends to stand in the midst of blazes whilst she casts the next spell.  This really isn't a good idea but Willow being Willow does what she wants.  To her own detriment I might add.

This occasion is no different.  Willow casts yet another fire blast spell in the midst of an inferno and catches herself alight yet again!

This could be the end for Willow.  There is no water around apart from a fountain that is unusable and she isn't able to put herself out.  The only water she can see is a river quite far away.  Willow jumps on her broomstick and makes her way around the roads to the river.  Running across the field and up the mountain, she decides it would be better to turn around and make her way to a swimming pool.  

Screaming and waving her arms in the air, she finally arrives at the sims house, only to be saved by the householder who happens to have a fire extinguisher.

Willow goes home to freshen up and as she is a bit of a sucker for punishment, she decides to return to the school where various sims are still there shouting and screaming and a couple of fires still burn brightly.

Willow again proceeds to light a few fires and catches a few sims alight.  It seems her aim is getting better.  She decides to stand and practice some magic while all mayhem breaks loose.

Not one, but two sims burn to death in this blazing inferno that Willow has created.

Once the Grim Reaper has reaped the souls of these two unfortunate sims, Willow proceeds to show him an internet cat video.

- Minicart (Jules)

Gardening in The Sims 2

 

I really enjoy gardening in The Sims 2.  It is somewhat different to what we had in The Sims 3 and now, in The Sims 4.

First of all from build mode you have to place earth dirt, one square at a time, just like laying a foundation.  Then the Sim can fertilize each square before digging and planting the seeds.

There wasn't much to choose from by way of seeds.  When starting out, a Sim can only plant tomatoes, however, once a gold talent badge had been acquired for the gardening skill, a Sim could then plant tomatoes, cucumber, strawberries, pole beans, peppers and eggplant which was the majority of seeds available.

Purchasing a ladybug loft will keep all the bad bugs away from your plants and having a compost bin allows your Sim to compost all kitchen waste, and even the newspaper, to use for fertilizing the earth next time you want to plant something.

Gardening seemed a lot harder in The Sims 2.  If you overwatered your plants, they would drown and die.  Talking to your plants kept them happy and vibrant, allowing their health level to increase, but this could only be done once you had a gold talent badge for gardening.  Once this is achieved, it is a lot easier to keep your plants happy but until your Sim gets to that point, keeping your plants happy is hard work.

There were three trees available in gardening in The Sims 2, namely Ambrosial Lemon, Ambrosial Orange and Ambrosial Apple, all of which can be purchased fully grown from the gardening section in build mode.

These trees need to be trimmed, which is something we didn't have again in future The Sims releases.  Trimming your trees keeps them happy and of course, as with all plants in The Sims 2, talking to them keeps them healthy and all plants then give great quality fruit and vegetables.  All produce can be placed in the refrigerator for future use and if you have a juicer, fruit and vegetables can be placed in there for a fresh and healthy drink!

Bushes, such as rose bushes, and hedges all bought from build mode would grow, spurting out little shoots that had to be trimmed.  This is something that we never had again in The Sims.  Weeds would also grow not just within plants but on the grass too.

I have quite a few little snippets of gardening in The Sims 2 so decided to pop them all in a video.

Do you enjoy gardening in The Sims 2?  Or perhaps you prefer gardening in The Sims 3 or maybe 4, or maybe a mixture of each?  Let me know in the comment section below!

Cheers!

- Minicart (Jules)