Ambitions Release!

If you happen to be reading this miserable excuse for a story, you probably noticed that I haven't updated in a few weeks... And the reason is, of course, Ambitions -- it's hard to write when you're too busy playing! In the interest of keeping any readers I may have (ha, ha), I thought I'd drop a line to say that I haven't forgotten about this little tale.

In fact, I've been keeping my Sims quite busy with the new content, and it's helping me piece together what will happen after this storyline is "wrapped up", persay. I'm having quite a bit of fun, and I have to give Ambitions a big thumbs up (because my thumbs are, of course, so important), but I'm not all smiles and giggles about this EP.

It is a great expansion, and EA has really lived up to a lot of expectations with some of the additions. People have always lamented about not being able to follow their Sims to work, and having tedious things like laundry to do -- I never did personally, because I was fully aware how much micro-managing that would entail. Well, the community got their wish, and... Of course... I see a lot of complaints about how micro-managey it is. "I can't work two professions at once!" "I have to have someone stay home all day to do all the housework now with laundry!" Yeah... Did you really not see that coming?

I personally don't mind (and really, you only have to do laundry once and the benefits NEVER END, which I will get into in a moment), so I just roll my eyes... But there are some things that show that EA didn't exactly pay attention to some of the details when making this EP. It's not sloppy, just... not completely examined. I've noticed multiple errors in the PI cases, some weird outdoor daylight issues in Twinbrook, digital photo frames disappearing after a game restart, the 'endless running' bug, consignment sales not counting towards your self-employment promotions... Things like that.

Then there's the reports I hear of problems with the designer professions having a terrible time getting good reviews (sounds like they maybe made it too difficult in the beginning or something), the ghost hunter profession not accurately counting ghosts caught, issues with firefighter coworkers... And then with laundry, you can do it once a blue moon and still receive the benefits -- a whopping +32 moodlet that lasts for 16 hours... Seriously?! I can't say I'm surprised -- I'm really not -- but that doesn't mean I'm not a tad bit disappointed. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised that the game came out so hitch-free, than have my sub-standard expectations met... And that the game doesn't surprise me with a lack of errors and miscalculations makes me a bit sad.

The content itself, though, is fantastic -- Twinbrook is beyond awesome as a town, the new careers add so much flavor (I've only played the PI career so far, and being the one I had the least expectations for, I'm incredibly amused by the cases, and it adds some neat direction for future storylines), and I'm positively tickled by the Inventor skill. I haven't even done hardly anything with it, and I'm already excited by how funny some of the improved widgets are.

I'm taking this EP very, very slow, for now... I rushed through everything in World Adventures so fast that I really regret having nothing left there to replay, and I don't want that experience again. I've probably done only 15 cases on my PI, and my Inventor is only at like... Skill level 6. Laugh all you want, but even now, there are a couple of Base Game careers I haven't done yet (Sport or Science), and I'm glad -- the game does not bore me. You won't hear me griping about how this EP cost $40... If it lasts me until the next one in six months (at the least), it's just a bit more than $6 a month. That's cheap entertainment!

Anyways, enough blabbing to a non-existent audience. Time to work on another post to say what Jebidiah and his gang have been up to...