Hart's Desire

Henry Hart stood on his front lawn in the shade of his enormous home, one arm rigidly wrapped around his wife's waist and the other resting awkwardly on his teenage daughter's shoulder. The photographer from the local paper, an inexperienced graduate named Gareth, fired off a quick shot.

New Year, New World...

I'm so in love with St. Claire by Awesims, and so glad I made the switch from Los Aniegos (which was getting really buggy).

One of my favourite aspects about St. Claire is the dense, closed-in feeling you can get in the city/down town area.

I find too many worlds in TS3 feel like vast open spaces, when I really just want my little flat in the city.

St. Claire also has gorgeous suburban neighbourhoods, which is where I think I'll start the Hart family. But as soon as Ellie is old enough, she is definitely getting a little place in the bustling city.

I love the architecture in St. Claire. It's familiar, realistic and - my favourite part - has lots of beautiful mid-century homes.

As a simmer living in Australia, I find so many worlds are very "Americana", but St. Claire (and other worlds) from Awesims have a distinct southern hemisphere feeling to them. I think St. Claire's creator is actually from New Zealand, so I guess that would explain it.

CRASH! ... cont'd

I've been dying to get under way with my new family, the Harts, but my game has had other plans.

Originally I settled the Harts in a big mansion in Los Aniegos. I'd opted for pre-built house in one of my favourite worlds to reduce the time it would take me to set-up before playing, but sadly my game was riddled with lagging and crashing every time I tried to play.

I tried everything, from DEP to clean re-install... Nothing seemed to fix the problem. Now I'm pretty sure it was an issue with the house, because I'd experience the same problems in that house with different families. But on the flip-side, I could play any other house in the same world and not have the lagging and crashing problems. So I've chalked this up to another case of the little EA gremlins having fun times at my expense.

I've decided to try again in another favourite world - St Claire. I'm hastily knocking up a mansion based on photos I found online, and hope to have it finished and furnished today or tomorrow so I can settle in and get to know the Harts all weekend.