The Sims 2 Open For Business

Now your Sims can open their own business!!!!!!!! Sims have to use their personal funds either to buy a community lot to start their own business, or they can buy some supplies pertaining to their business and start theirs at home. There are a range of businesses that can Sims can form. They can get into the clothing business, hair styling, home decor, selling toys, etc. Without clients, your Sims business will not prosper. Therefore your Sims have to work really hard at promoting themselves, as well as execute their jobs well. Once way that you can make sure this happens is by making sure your Sim is in a good mood. Make sure all their needs are taken care of before they start their work day, that way they can have a productive day. The better you do at your job on a daily basis the more you get promoted, and ultimately your Sim and their household make more money. The hairstylist (as a home career) is my favorite. When it comes to designing my Sims home, I make sure to set up an extra room full of hair stylist chairs, and mirrors. This soon becomes my Sims work space, and it saves me a lot of money versus buying a community lot for a business. Its also fun being a hairstylist because you ultimately get to chose a hairstyle and make-up choices for each one of your Sims clients!

The Sims 2 NIghtlife

In this expansion pack of the Sims, your Sims can now enjoy nightlife. Your Sims can go out at night and hit up some bars and  clubs. Now they can have drinks, and have cars so they can show out when they are downtown. Speaking of downtown that's another town that was added in this very own expansion pack. Now you have more apartment lifestyle living, and crazier things tend to happen in this game. Vampires are another type of Sim that you can have in this game other than human beings. Your Sim would have to get bitten by another vampire, and for them to turn into humans again, they would need to buy a potion from the local store in town. Another feature that I forgot to mention entirely about the entire Sims 2 game along with its expansion packs is that your Sims age! Your Sims go from babies to toddlers, from toddlers to children, from children to teenagers, from teenagers to young adults, and from young adults to adults, then from adults to elders. Eventually elders die and then the cycle of life repeats itself with another Sim. Another feature that I like about the Sims 2 is that there is an actual track of relationships. Each Sim has a family tree. Once your Sim makes a family it is recorded on their family tree, and each Sim knows who is who in their family. Since they know this, they have family interacts with one another rather than romantic ones....!

The Sims 2 University

In the Sims 2 University your Sims can go to college!!!!!!!!!!!! When you start the game there there is a new neighborhood that if offered for the player to enter into and start playing. In the upper left hand corner you can see that there is an option to enter various college campuses. Once you click on this option for the first time it will load all three different campuses up and you can choose where you would like for your Sim to go to college. Usually how I play is by starting off on the college campus and having my Sim graduate with a degree, that way when they graduate can get a job that pays them more daily. When in college your Sim can pursue a significant other. They cant have sex or have children once away at college, but they can once they graduate and reach full adulthood. Just like in college (in the real world) your Sim can select a major. According to your Sims major your Sim will develop a certain skill set  This is what lands your Sim a high paying job once they graduate. Normally Sims that don't attend college have to start working from the bottom to the top of their careers. Sims that do graduate from college end up with a 3rd of 4th level position out of an 8 level promotion track. All in all this is a great game to play!

The Sims 2

To continue with my PC game Sim obsession, I will now discuss with you the changes that have been made between the Sims and the Sims 2. Between these two versions of Sims games there have been quite a few expansions made. Some of them were known as "the Sims Vacation" "the Sims Hot Date" "the Sims Superstar" "the Sims Unleashed" "the Sims House Party" "the Sims Makin' Magic", etc. All of those expansion packs that I just mentioned were fun, but they weren't as much fun to play compared to the Sims 2. Now I will discuss with you the major differences between the Sims (and their expansion packs) and the Sims 2.
In the Sims 2 you can actually change facial features on your Sims. You also have a much bigger selection of clothes to choose from, and the picture quality is so much better. Their are more selections when it comes to everything! There are a lot of paint colors, that you can use to decorate your house with. Also there are cool furniture pieces to choose from, new homes that are sculpted beautifully, and so much more! Another feature about this game that I enjoy is that Sims can have parties. They can have birthday parties, and wedding parties! Sims now can go through engagements and wedding ceremonies, as well as get pregnant by a significant other.Sims can have children out of wedlock, and can be home wreckers by splitting up other Sims marriages. This game is more enjoyable to play versus the first Sims game (along with the previous expansion packs) because the Sims 2 resembles more on realty. 

The Sims

So I've already shared with you my addiction for this game, but now I am going to explain this game in depth on how to play it and why its so much fun! There are many versions and expansions to this game. I am going to explain to you all the things the very FIRST game has to offer. The first game isn't all that, but at the time it was "THE BOMB". As time went by the game became more realistic and more intriguing to play. Just a side note before I begin ranting, the only reason why I wanted the game in the first place was because my older cousin wanted it, and being that I was young and impressionable I wanted everything that she did.
To start off the game it takes you into a neighborhood where you will be playing your game. There are a decent amount of houses already planted there. There are some households that are already occupied by the time you start playing. You have the choice of playing with a pre-made family or you can create your own! When you go to create your own Sim, you can decide what clothes they are going to wear what their face will look like, and once you have named your Sim/Sims, you are now able to begin playing. Once your Sim has been created you can move them into their very own house. Some may be too expensive for the allotted money that the game gives you, however you can either use money cheats or purchase a house within your price range. Once you bought your house you will pause the game from "live mode" and you are now able to expand the size of your house, and furnish it. After that the fun begins....you get to control your Sims!!!!! If your Sim is single you can go out and mingle with other single Sims. Once your Sim and another get close you have the option of marriage and once you unite in that way you can now have a baby. A Sim baby in the first version only came in a bassinet. You couldn't see its face or interact with it much other than feeding, cuddling, or playing with it. When it came to eating your Sim could either order a pizza, or cook something from their fridge. If your Sim wasn't skillful at cooking, then 9 times out of 10 your Sim will cause a fire. Without a fire alarm your Sim would have to call a firefighter to come over by phone, or your Sim would have to extinguish the fire themselves. As far as jobs, your Sim could either find employment through their daily newspaper, or by a computer. In order for them to get promoted they would have to improve on their skills that were a requirement for them to have as a higher official. The more money your Sim gets, the more stuff you can buy for your  Sim's house. If you are one of those impatient players like me you can always use a money cheat. To use a money cheat all you have to do is press ctrl+shift+C at the same time. This creates a grey long rectangle shape on the top left hand corner of your screen. Then you just type in motherlode, and it puts $50,000 in your family funds.

The Sims Addiction

I remember last semester (in Video Production 1) one of our classmates stated that he isn't that big on technology or media because of his everyday lifestyle. The reason why he mentioned this was because each member of the class has to write a blog a week on a movie. Movie Reviews are what we have to talk about throughout our blogs, but then everybody staring raising the issue that they hardly watch movies. After putting this into consideration,, our teacher told us that she would allow us to write about anything media related. We could talk about gaming, movies, television shows, etc, as along as its media/tech related. So now I am going to go in depth about my addiction to the PC game The Sims.
My addiction to this game began many years ago. If you look around online or in stores, you will notice that there are many versions of the Sims.  The first Sims game came out in the year 2000. The moment I got it I was 8 years old. The whole concept to the Sims is management. You create a person and then you can manage their lives from there on out. You can have them meet someone and raise a family, you can have broken families, you can cause ciaos in their lives, all in all you are the person that is in charge of controlling everything that they do and how their lives turn out. I love this game because the more expansions that come out the more realistic the game becomes. I'm also a person that likes to be in control of others, so I feel like the game designer had me in mind when he came up with the Sims.
I remember the very first time I played the game. I was terrible with managing my family. My house burnt down because I forgot that my Sim left dinner on the stove, my baby got taken by social services because it kept crying and I didn't know how to get wake my Sims up from their sleep. I was crying myself because I was so emotionally invested into my game. My mom threatened to take it back to the store if I kept acting crazy like I was. lol All I know is that the Sims is my enjoyment when I have absolutely nothing to do, and it is a great tool to use when I want to escape time. I can be playing the Sims for well over 16 hours a day...and the sad thing is I'm not too ashamed to admit that.

Ruby Lips Shoot (Solms Hall)

In our student film, there is a scene where we have to shoot in a "Police Station". Being the resourceful students that we are, we used an office in one of our on campus buildings to do the shoot. The characters that were needed for this shoot were some cop extras, London (Clementine's sister), and some other extras that were needed to establish a police department.....a hooker, a drug addict, and a homeless person. I had a blast doing make-up for the hooker, and the drug addict! For the hooker I dressed her up in a mini skirt, and I had her showing off her bra as well and have a blue over sized shirt tied in the front over her exposed purple/black bra. I also had her dress in boots that went up her calf, and I had her pull up her thong on both of her sides so that it could establish how open she was to showing off her "money maker". For make-up I darkened her skin with some of my make-up. Her skin was of a caramel complexion (after the application of the make-up) and i applied some blue and purple eye shadow on her. I darkened in her eyebrows and I made sure her hair was full and had some body to it.
As far as the drug addict went, I originally dressed him in over sized clothing to establish that the drugs made him lose a lot of weight. After consulting with the director, he suggested that I apply makeup on his arms to show that he stuck needles there. I was scared at first when he told me this because I had never done special effects with make-up before. Once taking the drug addict extra back to the actors holding room, I started to apply the make-up on his arm, and I couldn't believe how real it looked (considering this was my first time doing this!) I then went over bored and applied makeup under his eyes to show that he was strung out on drugs, and by the time I showed his off to the director, he gave me nothing but a thumbs up!