The Sims games are full of secrets just waiting to be found. Here are some things you can do in these games that you didn't know.
15
Natural Twins
Personally, I’ve never seen the appeal of having twins in The Sims (much like the appeal of having twins in real life), since the only thing more annoying than having one loud poop machine that won’t sleep through the night would be having two of them. But many Simmers embrace the twin aspect and want to inject it deliberately into their game. While this can be done with a simple cheat, it can also be done in natural gameplay.
In Sims 2 you can have twins simply by having a pregnant Sim eat cheesecake, available in the Sims: Open for Business expansion pack. In Sims 3, the chance of multiple births can be increased by watching the Kids Network on TV or listening to kids music, along with having the fertility treatment lifetime rewards. Sims 4 includes the fertile reward trait and getting a fertility massage at the Spa will increase the odds of twins.
14
Grilled Cheese Aspiration
The Grilled Cheese Aspiration was introduced into Sims Nightlife, as a punishment for attempting to change your Sims aspiration with ‘ReNuYuSenso Orb’ when your Sim had below gold aspiration. Traits of this aspiration include wanted to eat grilled cheese, wanting to cook grilled cheese, wanting to talk about grilled cheese, and in general just wanting a lot of grilled cheese in their lives.
Despite this, you couldn’t choose grilled cheese aspiration for your Sims, as it was seen as a punishment (although having your Sims only want to eat grilled cheese seemed amazing to me). This was until the Sims Freetime expansion pack was introduced, when you could select grilled cheese as a secondary aspiration for your Sims!
13
Passing Out At The Greek House
After getting Sims University, did you ever wonder if there was a way to make your Sims have a college experience similar to yours? Sure, they can study late at night, have wild parties, and make out with strangers in the hot tub, but what about the extreme levels of parties?
While there isn’t any substance use within the game, it can be simulated if you upgrade your Sims' college abode over the phone to a Greek House! Creating a Greek House costs only twenty simoleons and comes with plenty of benefits. The game also allows mixed-gender houses, so no need to choose between a fraternity and a sorority. And if you want to make the parties reminiscent of your days, just click on a Sim during a toga party and select fall asleep, which will cause your Sim to pass out on the floor. Doing this will immediately decrease their energy levels, regardless of what they were before, but will not affect their comfort score.
12
Dude, Free Pizza!
Being able to pass out on the floor isn’t the only advantage of turning your simple college abode into a ranging Greek house! The amount of payback from the simple twenty simoleons that come from creating a Greek House comes almost instantly. Several times a day, a house member will leave the lot with the icon “visit campus.” Soon they will return with a number of items, including stereos, plants, or televisions, the cost depending on your Greek House level. But the most common item is a free pizza, perfect for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and parties. Thanks to this, your Greek House can eat their favourite food for free, leaving more money for those other party essentials.
11
Bring Back Bella!
Bella Goth has been an iconic member of the Sims franchise since the beginning and has featured in every single Sims PC game. However, her story is most iconic during Sims 2 when she has been supposedly abducted by aliens after refusing to make-out with Dom Lothario. After this, a clone of her appears in Strange Town (although this is not the canon Bella).
If you hate this storyline and want the original Goths back together, then this isn’t difficult to achieve. To do this simple enter the boolProp cheat in the neighbourhood, visit a household, produce the tombstone of life and death, move in a neighbour, and find Bella! Doing this may cause Bella to disappear when coming home from a community lot (maybe due to a bug, or maybe because she wanted Mortimer and Dina to be happy together…).
10
Before They Were Family…
Before the release of Sims 2, some character ties were not added to the story line of the original game. Maybe, like me, when playing the original game, you decided that Bella could do better than stuffy old Mortimer and decided to give her a new love interest. Maybe you decided that Michael Bachelor seemed more her style, and had the two peruse each other. Maybe they got on really well, fell in love easily, and had Bella remarry her new love interest, so they could live together, have more children, and live happily ever after.
Only to play the sequels and realize that the reason they got along so well is because they are brother and sister. Oh, the humanity!
Despite them being confirmed as canonically brother and sister, there is nothing stopping you from going back a re-writing Sim history. You know, if that’s your thing.
9
Simpax
One of the best parts about The Sims is that its masses of devoted fans have been very busy over the years. If there is something that you wish your Sims could do, then I guarantee someone out there has made a mod for it. As someone who is always looking to bring their Sims closer to reality, one of my favourites is the modthesims Period Hack, created in 2006, for nothing more than its sheer randomness and realness.
The hack means that once a week your female sims will have their period for one day, the time scale fitting more comfortable in the Sims' shorter life span. Every four hours your Sim will need to visit the bathroom to change their tampon, will occasionally experience a comfort decrease, experience ‘cramps,’ and get snacks from the fridge without being told. When a teen Sim starts her period, she’ll get a memory of the event.
8
Hit The Road!
One of the most annoying things about the original Sims was that, as cute as your little children were, they never grew up! They just hang around your house eating your cookies and crying because the bathroom wasn’t free. So, the only way to get rid of them was to have them fail school and be sent to military school, never to be seen again.
While this was a great way to get rid of bratty little Sims, there was another way to get rid of bratty adult Sims, aside from the traditional “pool without a ladder” method. If there are two Sims in your household that don’t get along and really can’t resolve their issues (spending more time in a Beano dust cloud then in the watcher’s view), then one of your Sims will declare that they have had enough and simply leave the game.
7
You Don’t Like It?
Artistic Sims can sometimes be as dramatic as artistic humans. The easel has been available in every Sims PC game, allowing your Sims to increase their creativity and later their painting skills. After your Sim has finished their creation, you have the option of either selling the painting or hanging it up on the wall for other Sims to view.
However, not all viewings will bring forth a positive response, and if you've gotten bored of simply locking your Sims inside an inferno, then maybe you'll enjoy putting them through some psychological trauma. If a Sim doesn’t like the painting (sometimes literally booing it), then the artist will react, sometimes bursting into tears! Artists can be so dramatic. The higher the creativity skill, the less likely it will be that other Sims won’t like your artwork, but if the viewing Sim has no or little interest in art then there might be no pleasing them.
6
Did You Get A Haircut Or Something?
Sometimes a Sim enters your game world that you just can’t stand the sight of, whether their lips are too thin, their face too fat... or maybe it’s a lot of things. In The Sims 3 Pets, your Sim could visit the hospital and for a few thousand simoleons look like the Sim of your dreams. Be sure to spend a decent amount, or things could go terribly wrong.
But in The Sims 2 University, things could go a lot simpler and a lot cheaper. After following the Show Business career path, you can unlock the reward “Dr Vu's Automated Cosmetic Surgeon”, which can modify your Sim's appearance at home. But make sure your Sim has sufficient aspiration points, or things could go very, very badly!
5
Be A TransSim
While I am glad that now, in the Sims 4, the barriers of gendered clothing have finally fallen, it’s really surprising that it took so long! Especially as Sims has always been supportive of the LGB community, allowing same-gender relationships, and for the third installment onwards same-gender marriage. And while the T part of the community has been left in the cold, there is a part of the second game that snuck them in.
The Sims PE is a tool that allows you to modify your Sims, changing their appearance, skills, relationships and their gender! After changing your Sims' gender, for example from male to female, the game will recognize them as female and refer to them with female pronouns. However, you may have to download custom outfits and hairstyles to avoid glitches.
4
Saving The World, One Rat At A Time
There are several ways to become a superhero in the Sims world, but my absolute favourite is in the Sims DS game! In this console spin-off, you break down in mysterious Strange Town, where your broken car is all the qualification you need to become the hotel manager. As you play the game you can build new rooms in the hotel, including the basement Rat Cave! Here you will find a rat costume in just the right size and save Strange Town from various villains, aliens and evil robots, by becoming the Ratticator.
Your rat powers allow you to sneak up on villains, stun them, and then send them to rot in prison, although it is quicker to destroy aliens with the super-drencher. Although you can build the Rat Cave at your leisure, the Ratticator is required to defeat Optimum Alfred.
3
This Is Bananas
The Sims has always been the best at coming up with creative servants for your Sims, such as the skeleton maid from Makin’ Magic. What could be more awesome than at skeleton coming out of her coffin to clean your house for you? Well, how about your own monkey butler!
During the early console version of The Sims, available on Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube, you had to complete the Get a Life story in order to unlock careers and objects to use in the game, the ultimate reward being a fifteen thousand Simoleon tree in the back garden, which can be used to summon Major Domo, a large baboon-type ape who will clean your house for you before returning calmly to his tree. Is there nothing that can’t happen in this simulated life? Apparently not!
2
The Campfire Songs
I recently read some articles claiming that Katy Perry’s Hot N Cold was the first song ever translated into Simlish. Well, this isn’t true. Not only because The Pussycat Dolls and The Barenaked Ladies also recorded songs in Simlish for Sims 2 expansion packs around the same time as Katy Perry, but because even more traditional songs were translated back in the original game.
In the original Sims expansion pack Sims Vacation, released in some regions as Sims Holiday, you can bring your sims together around a campfire for a good old sing-song! When sat around a campfire, your Sims will start to sing Simlish versions of good old campfire songs such as Michael Row Your Boat Ashore, She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain, and On Top of Old Smokey!
1
Sim Eyed Peas
If the good old campfire songs aren’t really your thing, then why not jump on to the console spin-off The Urbz, which introduced Simlish versions of slightly more modern music? The Urbz brought a lot of memorable locations and characters to the franchise including Sim versions of the popular American group The Black-Eyed Peas. All four band members appear in the game, styled like their inspirations, and can be befriended or even romanced by your Sim-sona.
15
Natural Twins
Personally, I’ve never seen the appeal of having twins in The Sims (much like the appeal of having twins in real life), since the only thing more annoying than having one loud poop machine that won’t sleep through the night would be having two of them. But many Simmers embrace the twin aspect and want to inject it deliberately into their game. While this can be done with a simple cheat, it can also be done in natural gameplay.
In Sims 2 you can have twins simply by having a pregnant Sim eat cheesecake, available in the Sims: Open for Business expansion pack. In Sims 3, the chance of multiple births can be increased by watching the Kids Network on TV or listening to kids music, along with having the fertility treatment lifetime rewards. Sims 4 includes the fertile reward trait and getting a fertility massage at the Spa will increase the odds of twins.
14
Grilled Cheese Aspiration
The Grilled Cheese Aspiration was introduced into Sims Nightlife, as a punishment for attempting to change your Sims aspiration with ‘ReNuYuSenso Orb’ when your Sim had below gold aspiration. Traits of this aspiration include wanted to eat grilled cheese, wanting to cook grilled cheese, wanting to talk about grilled cheese, and in general just wanting a lot of grilled cheese in their lives.
Despite this, you couldn’t choose grilled cheese aspiration for your Sims, as it was seen as a punishment (although having your Sims only want to eat grilled cheese seemed amazing to me). This was until the Sims Freetime expansion pack was introduced, when you could select grilled cheese as a secondary aspiration for your Sims!
13
Passing Out At The Greek House
After getting Sims University, did you ever wonder if there was a way to make your Sims have a college experience similar to yours? Sure, they can study late at night, have wild parties, and make out with strangers in the hot tub, but what about the extreme levels of parties?
While there isn’t any substance use within the game, it can be simulated if you upgrade your Sims' college abode over the phone to a Greek House! Creating a Greek House costs only twenty simoleons and comes with plenty of benefits. The game also allows mixed-gender houses, so no need to choose between a fraternity and a sorority. And if you want to make the parties reminiscent of your days, just click on a Sim during a toga party and select fall asleep, which will cause your Sim to pass out on the floor. Doing this will immediately decrease their energy levels, regardless of what they were before, but will not affect their comfort score.
12
Dude, Free Pizza!
Being able to pass out on the floor isn’t the only advantage of turning your simple college abode into a ranging Greek house! The amount of payback from the simple twenty simoleons that come from creating a Greek House comes almost instantly. Several times a day, a house member will leave the lot with the icon “visit campus.” Soon they will return with a number of items, including stereos, plants, or televisions, the cost depending on your Greek House level. But the most common item is a free pizza, perfect for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and parties. Thanks to this, your Greek House can eat their favourite food for free, leaving more money for those other party essentials.
11
Bring Back Bella!
Bella Goth has been an iconic member of the Sims franchise since the beginning and has featured in every single Sims PC game. However, her story is most iconic during Sims 2 when she has been supposedly abducted by aliens after refusing to make-out with Dom Lothario. After this, a clone of her appears in Strange Town (although this is not the canon Bella).
If you hate this storyline and want the original Goths back together, then this isn’t difficult to achieve. To do this simple enter the boolProp cheat in the neighbourhood, visit a household, produce the tombstone of life and death, move in a neighbour, and find Bella! Doing this may cause Bella to disappear when coming home from a community lot (maybe due to a bug, or maybe because she wanted Mortimer and Dina to be happy together…).
10
Before They Were Family…
Before the release of Sims 2, some character ties were not added to the story line of the original game. Maybe, like me, when playing the original game, you decided that Bella could do better than stuffy old Mortimer and decided to give her a new love interest. Maybe you decided that Michael Bachelor seemed more her style, and had the two peruse each other. Maybe they got on really well, fell in love easily, and had Bella remarry her new love interest, so they could live together, have more children, and live happily ever after.
Only to play the sequels and realize that the reason they got along so well is because they are brother and sister. Oh, the humanity!
Despite them being confirmed as canonically brother and sister, there is nothing stopping you from going back a re-writing Sim history. You know, if that’s your thing.
9
Simpax
One of the best parts about The Sims is that its masses of devoted fans have been very busy over the years. If there is something that you wish your Sims could do, then I guarantee someone out there has made a mod for it. As someone who is always looking to bring their Sims closer to reality, one of my favourites is the modthesims Period Hack, created in 2006, for nothing more than its sheer randomness and realness.
The hack means that once a week your female sims will have their period for one day, the time scale fitting more comfortable in the Sims' shorter life span. Every four hours your Sim will need to visit the bathroom to change their tampon, will occasionally experience a comfort decrease, experience ‘cramps,’ and get snacks from the fridge without being told. When a teen Sim starts her period, she’ll get a memory of the event.
8
Hit The Road!
One of the most annoying things about the original Sims was that, as cute as your little children were, they never grew up! They just hang around your house eating your cookies and crying because the bathroom wasn’t free. So, the only way to get rid of them was to have them fail school and be sent to military school, never to be seen again.
While this was a great way to get rid of bratty little Sims, there was another way to get rid of bratty adult Sims, aside from the traditional “pool without a ladder” method. If there are two Sims in your household that don’t get along and really can’t resolve their issues (spending more time in a Beano dust cloud then in the watcher’s view), then one of your Sims will declare that they have had enough and simply leave the game.
7
You Don’t Like It?
Artistic Sims can sometimes be as dramatic as artistic humans. The easel has been available in every Sims PC game, allowing your Sims to increase their creativity and later their painting skills. After your Sim has finished their creation, you have the option of either selling the painting or hanging it up on the wall for other Sims to view.
However, not all viewings will bring forth a positive response, and if you've gotten bored of simply locking your Sims inside an inferno, then maybe you'll enjoy putting them through some psychological trauma. If a Sim doesn’t like the painting (sometimes literally booing it), then the artist will react, sometimes bursting into tears! Artists can be so dramatic. The higher the creativity skill, the less likely it will be that other Sims won’t like your artwork, but if the viewing Sim has no or little interest in art then there might be no pleasing them.
6
Did You Get A Haircut Or Something?
Sometimes a Sim enters your game world that you just can’t stand the sight of, whether their lips are too thin, their face too fat... or maybe it’s a lot of things. In The Sims 3 Pets, your Sim could visit the hospital and for a few thousand simoleons look like the Sim of your dreams. Be sure to spend a decent amount, or things could go terribly wrong.
But in The Sims 2 University, things could go a lot simpler and a lot cheaper. After following the Show Business career path, you can unlock the reward “Dr Vu's Automated Cosmetic Surgeon”, which can modify your Sim's appearance at home. But make sure your Sim has sufficient aspiration points, or things could go very, very badly!
5
Be A TransSim
While I am glad that now, in the Sims 4, the barriers of gendered clothing have finally fallen, it’s really surprising that it took so long! Especially as Sims has always been supportive of the LGB community, allowing same-gender relationships, and for the third installment onwards same-gender marriage. And while the T part of the community has been left in the cold, there is a part of the second game that snuck them in.
The Sims PE is a tool that allows you to modify your Sims, changing their appearance, skills, relationships and their gender! After changing your Sims' gender, for example from male to female, the game will recognize them as female and refer to them with female pronouns. However, you may have to download custom outfits and hairstyles to avoid glitches.
4
Saving The World, One Rat At A Time
There are several ways to become a superhero in the Sims world, but my absolute favourite is in the Sims DS game! In this console spin-off, you break down in mysterious Strange Town, where your broken car is all the qualification you need to become the hotel manager. As you play the game you can build new rooms in the hotel, including the basement Rat Cave! Here you will find a rat costume in just the right size and save Strange Town from various villains, aliens and evil robots, by becoming the Ratticator.
Your rat powers allow you to sneak up on villains, stun them, and then send them to rot in prison, although it is quicker to destroy aliens with the super-drencher. Although you can build the Rat Cave at your leisure, the Ratticator is required to defeat Optimum Alfred.
3
This Is Bananas
The Sims has always been the best at coming up with creative servants for your Sims, such as the skeleton maid from Makin’ Magic. What could be more awesome than at skeleton coming out of her coffin to clean your house for you? Well, how about your own monkey butler!
During the early console version of The Sims, available on Xbox, PlayStation 2 and GameCube, you had to complete the Get a Life story in order to unlock careers and objects to use in the game, the ultimate reward being a fifteen thousand Simoleon tree in the back garden, which can be used to summon Major Domo, a large baboon-type ape who will clean your house for you before returning calmly to his tree. Is there nothing that can’t happen in this simulated life? Apparently not!
2
The Campfire Songs
I recently read some articles claiming that Katy Perry’s Hot N Cold was the first song ever translated into Simlish. Well, this isn’t true. Not only because The Pussycat Dolls and The Barenaked Ladies also recorded songs in Simlish for Sims 2 expansion packs around the same time as Katy Perry, but because even more traditional songs were translated back in the original game.
In the original Sims expansion pack Sims Vacation, released in some regions as Sims Holiday, you can bring your sims together around a campfire for a good old sing-song! When sat around a campfire, your Sims will start to sing Simlish versions of good old campfire songs such as Michael Row Your Boat Ashore, She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain, and On Top of Old Smokey!
1
Sim Eyed Peas
If the good old campfire songs aren’t really your thing, then why not jump on to the console spin-off The Urbz, which introduced Simlish versions of slightly more modern music? The Urbz brought a lot of memorable locations and characters to the franchise including Sim versions of the popular American group The Black-Eyed Peas. All four band members appear in the game, styled like their inspirations, and can be befriended or even romanced by your Sim-sona.
Comments
Post a Comment