Where would an expansion pack be without some new content for our sims to change their appearance and to wear?
As is my usual way, I'm going to create a family in order to find out what's new.
This is James Cartman, quite a debonair individual in his new threads and rakish trilby.
For adult males, there are 33 new outfits in everyday, 12 in formal, 6 in sleepwear and 6 in gymwear. In hair/headgear, there is a trilby in 5 colours, a flat cap in 5 colours and a warlock's hat in 3 colours. Therefore, three new styles in various colours, not thirteen new styles.
This is his wife, Calista Cartman.
For adult females, there are 54 new outfits in everyday, 14 formal, 10 in gymwear. The same also goes in hair/headgear. Female adults also get a choice of witch's hat in one of three colours, and otherwise, there are about three different styles, two of which are repeated about five times but just with different bobble colours. Whoop-di-do.
I always look forward to what new official hairstyles there are, but to claim there have been about 30 new styles for adults this time is a massive misrepresentation. Sorry, Maxoids, but I am very disappointed. Three hairstyles and headgears in a variety of colours would have been a more accurate description.
When it comes to the other age brackets, I was somewhat surprised to see that a lot of the outfits from FreeTime have been made available to elders and to teens. As some of these outfits were good and elders need some more clothes anyway, I can't complain too much. Just a bit lazy again. Same hair options again.
For the teens, the same again, really. A lot of adult clothes from FreeTime have been recategorised, although they do have some new items of their own.
This is the whole family, now including James's mother Billie and their teenage son and daughter, Ricardo and Tracey.
Before we move on, there is a new turn-on/off which is "Witchyism". Need I say again that magic is this expansion pack's weirdness? Calista has it as one of her turn ons.
So we've got this new family of sims. We could move them into a normal house, but as this is Apartment Life, we don't need to be told twice about where they should be going.
I'll let James Cartman lead you from here.
Moving Into The Cove
When we were recommended to move to Beladonna Cove, the realtor didn't tell us that very few of the apartment buildings or "multiple occupancy lots" had only two bedrooms. Calista and me would naturally want one room, but that might cause problems for the Ricardo, Tracey and their grandma.
"Once they associate a college with this neighborhood, we're out of here, dad" they told me, so I took it that they would not be there for long and my mother said a dividing screen should be enough and "I hope they don't mind my snoring".
So, we decided to take the place on Seaspray View. I was surprised to find we'd been given a starting budget of §36,000 whereas every other family I'd known in similar circumstances, be it a single guy or large family had started with only §20,000. Thanks for this, SimCity Council.
We had a look at the four apartments on offer. It was actually a row of four three-storey houses with a children's playground at the end of the row with swings, a slide, a small roundabout and some monkey bars.
On the ground floor of each apartment was a parking garage. The living room and kitchen on the next floor and bedrooms on the top floor. All were linked with spiral staircases, which added a nice touch.
The rent certainly was not cheap at almost §4,000 a week but we felt that the facilities and the view out over the sea was worth it. We chose one of the four apartments and almost immediately, the landlord appeared to let me sign the tenancy and took the first week's payment in advance. He said if there was anything we needed, we only had to give him a call.
Before long, the other apartments got taken and we met some of the new neighbors. They seemed very friendly, greeting us with firm handshakes and earthy hugs. One of them even told me she worked in a discount furniture store and could get us furniture at low prices.
Before I knew it, Ricardo and Tracey were zooming off to school. They'd quickly bought a car and didn't want to miss any school as they had plans to get their grades up. If I had got to them in time, I would have told them to WALK! This was not an option we had before, but I daresay it is available to everyone now whether they live in rented or owned accommodation.
Getting a Reputation
I managed to get myself a job as a standup comedian (FT Entertainment Career) and hearing that I could do standup at the Central Park Pavilion, I decided to head there with my mother and see if I could get some experience and perhaps build a bit of a reputation in this town.
There was a microphone on the stage under the pavilion and I got down to work. Mom was looking at a human statue, who did look somewhat creepy. The park had two of them. After that, she got down to meeting some of the townies and they seemed to take more of an interest in her than me. She seemed to know that talking about computers with those folk who looked like they were wearing faded starfleet uniforms was a way to get their attention ... and it did. Her reputation seemed to be soaring. I could not complain, really. She was offered a job as a mascot for one of the local teams, which she turned down, and someone, when they found out where we were living, said he could get our rent reduced as he knew the landlord. Way to go, Mom!
Anyway, there is still plenty to be done in our new home and neighborhood, but for the first day, it hasn't been too bad an experience at all. More later.
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