Category: Games

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp | Nintendo Direct Thoughts

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

As soon as I heard about the Animal Crossing mobile Nintendo Direct I knew that 140 characters was not going to be enough to express my thoughts and excitement. I also realised that some people would not appreciate a one hour video of me fangirling and talking about Animal Crossing either. So I decided to go for a blog post. This way I can say everything I need to say, you can read it or not and things will make a lot more sense. When I make videos when I’m excited they tend to be all over the place and I talk really fast so can be hard to understand. So here I am trying to be comprehensive and more structured.
I’ve decided to base this off of the way the Nintendo Direct flowed and also throw in additional comments about other things I’ve seen online. Like I said I have a lot of thoughts so, let’s not waste any more time!

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp
First of all – the name. It’s not the best spin-off name. It kind of follows along the lines of Animal Crossing: Let’s Go To The City. Very literal. It would have been nice if they had gone along the lines of New Leaf or Wild World but I don’t know what else they would have called it.
Not that I can really be annoyed at something like the name. If anything everyone will probably just call it Animal Crossing Mobile anyway.

Camp Manager
In this spin-off, we are not going to be mayors. We are taking on the role of Camp Manager. Which makes sense, I mean I hardly expected them to give us a full Animal Crossing game on mobile. So when I saw the concept of decorating your own campsite I thought that would be it, kind of a watered down version of things like the Mario mobile app. And the way you decorate the campsite is the same as you would in Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer which I am already very familiar with so I thought that would be okay. Definitely something simple and easy to do for mobile phone.
But finding out that this is only part of what you can do with this app is amazing. If anything, I feel like this is the kind of thing Happy Home Designer should have been because it gives you so much more gameplay than just designing a campsite.
So I am very excited to take on my role of camp manager and to design a campsite – especially if it means it’s not the only thing we get to do.

Helping Villagers
Something that every Animal Crossing player is familiar with. I like the idea of doing quests for villagers in exchange for crafting materials. I also like the new friendship level that they have added to the game. This way you know exactly how friendly you are with a villager and it’s easier to see the friendship progress over time. In the other games, you kind of just guessed how close you were with a villager.
Not sure if your friendship level can decrease with a villager like it does in other games though. I mean it would be interesting if it did so you would have to keep in contact and talk to the villager to keep the friendship level up. Although I don’t know how interested people would be in that feature, but I think I would like it.

Also, I noticed in the video that when the villager shook the fruit tree, it told you a time for when the trees would replenish with fruit which is interesting. In other games, normally fruit would just reappear the next day but it’s good to know the waiting time is a lot less for this mobile game. Although I guess it would have to be to get those materials.

 Crafting furniture



Instead of buying all our furniture from Tom Nook, we have to craft our furniture by gathering materials. Something that I think will be very time consuming, as items of furniture take time to craft. Also, I don’t know how many items Cyrus can craft at a time so this is something that could be very frustrating for me.
I have never been the most patient of people, especially right now. I mean I can’t contain my excitement for this mobile game. Every time I look up things about it or think about it, I just get super hyped up. So waiting for furniture to be built is going to be kind of annoying…but I guess that brings us to the next topic.

 Leaf Tickets

People are very divided about this. But honestly, how can you expect a mobile app not to have in-app purchases?
I guess it does suck though because it’s not something we ever had in Animal Crossing. You just paid for the price of the game and that was it. But this game, is free to download, so essentially free to play. They gotta make money somewhere…
And of course, Tom Nook is the one to be handling your real life money transactions. That was definitely on purpose. I’ve spent years paying off debt to Tom Nook so it makes sense he would be after real money now.
On a serious note though, I don’t know how to feel about the Leaf Ticket thing. I mean you can use them to have things completed faster and everything but will they become a requirement the further you get in the game?
If so that would be a serious turn off for me. As an avid player of mobile games, I have always refused to make in-app purchases for things such as lives in Candy Crush. So I probably won’t be spending money just to have something built quicker for my Animal Crossing campsite. I would rather pay an up-front price and not have to pay again.
So, as long as you can get plenty of gameplay without the purchase of leaf tickets then it’s fine. But I definitely think it should be left as an optional thing. I don’t like paying real money for virtual currency. It just feels wrong.
However, if they added certain features that you had to pay for it may be different. But I guess we just have to see what happens…

 Villagers Move Around?
This isn’t actually talked about in the Nintendo Direct but I noticed it while watching it – the villagers move around? I think this is great because it means you don’t have the same five villagers around. And I was wondering how you attracted more villagers to the campsite.
I’m not sure how many villagers you can have on a campsite at one time either but I know I will be constantly checking my app to see what villagers are around.

 Throw Nets and Honey
I have to admit I was pretty excited about these. Not that catching fish or bugs in Animal Crossing has ever been hard, but finding the particular one you need for a quest can be annoying. So this makes things easier, as you can catch large amounts of fish/bugs in one go.
But I’m pretty sure this is something that you have to pay for. So something I think I could probably live without.
I am excited to see if they are used in a new console version of Animal Crossing in the future though. Because not only was I watching the Nintendo Direct and getting excited about the mobile game, I was also watching and getting excited on what they could bring to Animal Crossing for the Nintendo Switch. So I think these would be cool additions to the game. But instead of paying for them you could only use them once a day or something. Would be something to think about.

 Play Real Time
This is one of the reasons why I got hooked on playing Animal Crossing so much. Playing in real time means you wanna play every hour of the day to see what changes and things you can do at different times of the day. Obviously, you could just cheat and change the time of your device, but where’s the fun in that? So for sure, playing in real time on mobile means I’ll be playing morning, noon and night.
Not to mention HOLIDAYS! This has always been a huge thing in Animal Crossing for me. I love the holidays in Animal Crossing. They are always super cute. And it was only really with the release of the 3DS game that we got to experience the most holidays. So I am excited to see what they will be like in Pocket Camp, especially because we will get mobile app updates regularly so they can always create new things for all the events in the world.
It’s just one of those extra things that makes Animal Crossing special. So I am super excited to play all year round, and basically forever…

 Shopping
I would have been surprised if this was something that was left out of this mobile app. Shopping is a big thing in Animal Crossing. And dressing up your character and customising things is also a big part of it. So I am super glad we have this.
Plus the marketplace and all the camper vans are super cute so I am definitely a fan of this.

Designing Your Camper Van
I was waiting the whole video for this. I needed to know if we could decorate the camper van. It’s a necessity. Like, if you’re going to be driving it around all the time we have to be able to personalise it. So yes. We can. All is well.
Not only that but we have NEW characters! (Honestly surprised that Tom Nook just didn’t get into the vehicle business). But yes, new characters! This is always exciting. I don’t know a lot about them but they upgrade your van.
They also bring loans back into the game, something that we are familiar with because of Tom Nook. But we don’t need leaf tickets for these upgrades. As far as I know, these are strictly bell loans. Which means we can pay them off by selling things in the game. Which has been something I have gotten really good at in Animal Crossing. So I am not worried about some loans if it means I can have a really fancy camper vans.

 Friends!
Want to be my friend on Animal Crossing? I’m all for it.
The summer that Animal Crossing: New Leaf came out I made so many new friends. And I don’t have any people in my real life that share my love for Animal Crossing so I need people like that in my life.
So yes, I am open to having all the friends on Animal Crossing and visiting people’s campsites and all the other things we can do with that.
And as soon as I get the game, you can be sure I’ll be posting my friend code online 🙂

 Customising Your Character
This is something that they introduced in Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer and I am here for it. Mainly because ever since Wild World, I use the same character and it’s annoying looking up face guides haha. So being able to choose whatever you want your character to look like is great.
It also means we can choose a skin tone which is also great and I approve of that very much. So no complaints here. All is well.

 Amenities
I got super excited about these! Mainly because it brings us more animations of villagers interacting with items and it’s super cute. Honestly, the main appeal of Animal Crossing for me is that it is super adorable.
But yes, so amenities are bigger items you can add to the campsite and take a lot longer to build. I don’t know how easy it will be to swap amenities out or how many we can have but I want to be able to have all of them at least once to see the villagers use them. And again, it gets me excited to see what they could bring to Animal Crossing for the Switch.

 Controls
The final thing I want to talk about, that wasn’t in the videos is controls! So okay, I know it’s a mobile game, so all the controls are just going to be touching the screen.
But I think this is going to be weird. Mainly because Animal Crossing has always been on console so I’m very used to using buttons for all my Animal Crossing actions. Apart from the occasional use of the DS touch screen.
It will be strange to only use touch screen with the game. Especially when the instinct will be to press A to talk/interact with anyone or anything. And also to use the joystick to move your character. So I think it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. But I also think it will take away a bit of the playing experience just because tapping everything could get in the way of things. But I guess we just see what it’s like. Not that something like this could ever stop me from playing this game.

That brings us to the end of all my thoughts on the Animal Crossing Nintendo Direct. (Way more than 140 characters).
As you can see 99% of this blog post was positive. I really don’t think I could have said a bad thing about this mobile app if I tried. Obviously, as a lover of the Animal Crossing franchise, I was going to be all for anything new Nintendo wanted to bring out to do with it. And this mobile application is definitely worth the wait.
It doesn’t even feel like it’s a mobile app. This is a full Animal Crossing game in its own right. And I can’t wait until I have it. I know they’ve released it early in Australia and it’s killing me because all I want to do is download it right now.
But I will be patient. And I guess I will have to be even more patient and wait to see if they are going to be releasing a new Animal Crossing console game in the future. I just know that they can go above and beyond with Animal Crossing if they brought it to the Switch and that is what I’m really hoping for.
In the meantime, I’ll probably be torturing myself by watching gameplay videos and looking at the Animal Crossing tag on Tumblr. And also playing the other Animal Crossing games to keep me satisfied until the release of the new game. They say it’ll be released late November but how late in November is what I wanna know. An exact date would be ideal but I guess we just see what happens.
If you guys are interested in following me and my adventures in Animal Crossing then feel free to follow my Animal Crossing Tumblr blog! I haven’t been very active recently but I will definitely be posting more when the new Animal Crossing game is released. And as always, find me on Twitter for all my real-time up-to-date fangirling.
~ Courtney x

Stardew Valley First Impressions | My First Year in Pelican Town

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

At the start of June, my brother asked me what I wanted for my birthday and so I asked him to buy me Stardew Valley. The reason why I asked him to buy it for me as a present was because, one, it was the only thing I could think of that I kind of wanted. And two, because I wasn’t sure if I would like it or not but I thought I would give it a go. So the purchase was made via Steam and I was playing it within five minutes.
The reason why I was unsure of whether I would like the game or not is because the game is heavily influenced by the Harvest Moon series and the one Harvest Moon game I played, I was not a fan of. So it only made sense that if I didn’t like Harvest Moon, I wouldn’t like a game heavily based off of it.
Well, I was wrong.
You start off in a farm which you inherited from your grandfather, it is an overgrown farm so you have to clear the land in order to plant any crops. Which, was the first thing that I thought would turn me off of the game. I tried to watch a Let’s Play of the game to get an idea of it, but when I saw the player start with a huge farm they had to clear, I thought it would be super boring to watch and therefore super boring to play.
However, clearing up the farm didn’t end up being too bad. You just need to clear a little patch at first to get going and then over time you can clear the whole land.

Planting my summer crops!

The farming aspect of the game is actually quite enjoyable, for me anyway. (I think it has something to do with the Farmville addiction I used to have). Every time a new season starts I go straight to the store to get seeds for that season. In the first year, I didn’t do much farming because at the time you had to water each and every crop and it became tedious. For the longest time, I didn’t know that when you upgraded your tools it allowed you to water and hoe more than one piece of land at a time. So that probably would have saved me a lot of time haha.
As the game goes on you can also craft sprinklers which makes it a lot easier to farm, you just have to plant things and let the sprinklers take care of the watering. You can also craft scarecrows to help scare away crows from the farm.
Of course, there are also animals which you can get on the farm which comes with building coops and barns for them, they are also pretty easy to take care of as long as you have long grass on your farm. During winter though you have to keep them indoors and stock up on hay.
Winter was probably the hardest month for me to play through because you can’t grow any crops during the winter unless you have the greenhouse. In the first winter, I hadn’t unlocked it yet so I had to find other things to do. But I definitely missed planting my crops.

Meet the villagers!

Aside from that, you also have a whole town full of people to meet when you first arrive which I struggled with at first. When you start a game and they give you a task like “meet everyone in town” you think it’s going to take about two minutes. It took me about two hours. There are so many people to meet and it’s such a big town so it was a bit of a struggle. Luckily, as the game goes on you begin to recognise villagers and their routines so it’s a lot easier to track them down.
My main problem at the beginning was trying to talk to people who were in their rooms. You can only get into their rooms if you have enough friendship hearts with them. So building relationships in the game is also important.
However, if you are like me, and your focus in the game is anything but talking to villagers, then you can slowly build relationships by giving presents on people’s birthdays. I missed the first few birthdays in the Spring, but other than that I made sure everyone got a present on their birthday.
Although it is beneficial to build relationships with the villagers as they can help you as the game progresses and there are several villagers that you can marry and start a family with in the game. I have not decided who I want to marry yet though, there are a lot of eligible spouses and they all have their own charms about them. So I guess I just see who I end up with.

A Linus heart event

When gaining friendship hearts with villagers you will also get to experience heart events. I didn’t know what they were until I stumbled into one without knowing. They are little cut scenes that you have with the villagers and you get to learn more about them. This adds a lot more depth to the game because even though it’s a cute game on the outside, a lot of the villagers are dealing with real problems. So I do recommend befriending the villagers to learn more about their story.

The Feast of the Winter Star (Winter Event)

You also get to spend time with the villagers during special events. I make sure to go around and talk to everyone at events because they are all in one place. I imagine the special events get boring after the first few times you experience them but the first time around it’s interesting to see what goes on. Every season has two special events, and each is different but take up the whole day which means farming and other ventures have to be put on hold.

Completing a room in the community center

One thing I really got into during my first year in the game was completing the community center bundles. You have to collect certain items and bring them to the community center to restore it. I know there is a different way you can do this where you buy a Joja Mart membership but if you do that, you just have to pay a lot of money to restore the community center. Which, doesn’t seem as fun.
Plus, I feel like you feel more accomplished when you get a certain item needed for a bundle. I have completed three sections of the community center so far, so I just need a few more to go. It can be a little frustrating having to check the community center bundle list every time you pick up a new item, so my solution was to write down the ones I needed on a piece of paper. That way, when I played the game I could always have the sheet in front of me, rather than trying to navigate back and forth from the menu.
When you complete a bundle in the community center you also receive items or unlock special things which will help you in the game, such as the beloved greenhouse that I need to grow crops in the winter.
Another thing which I really enjoyed in my first year of the game was going into the mines. It was the thing I would do when it rained because that’s when I didn’t lose any energy watering crops. The mines are procedurally generated each time you enter, meaning each floor is different each time. You make your way through mining for ore to turn into bars which help craft items. You also have to be wary of monsters lurking in there too.

Reaching the bottom of the mines

One of the tasks you get in the game is to reach the bottom of the mines, it’s not that difficult, however, the further you go down the mines the more you have to be careful of losing all your health/energy and passing out. If you pass out, you lose items, money and “forget” previous levels in the mine which you have to revisit. I was usually good at making it down there without passing out, but towards the end, it happened a few times and it was so frustrating because I was so close to a checkpoint.
By checkpoint, I mean that every five levels in the mine was an elevator, and when you unlocked that elevator you could travel directly to that level in the mine the next time you went there. I didn’t know this was a thing for a while so every time I went into the mines I started at level one, which meant I hardly got past level 10 before I had to leave before I ran out of energy or health. It’s good to know little things like that.

Trying to catch that fish!

I also was really determined to get the hang of fishing in the game. It was difficult when I first started because it’s not something I had experienced before. Basically, when you go fishing you have to keep the fish within the green bar to catch it. Sounds easy, but not when the fish is moving and never staying in one place haha.
Usually, when I go fishing in Animal Crossing it’s super easy, you just gotta press a button when the bobber goes down. So, fishing in this game is a bit of a challenge. But I think it makes it fun. My advice is to use your mouse when catching fish and just slowly click and release it and you should be able to catch most fish with ease. I still have no chance of catching fish that jump crazily up and down the bar but, one day I’m sure I will get them. I hope haha.
After I played the game for the first time, I found myself looking up videos about it on YouTube to find out useful information about starting a new game. The game has been out for a year, and so there are lots of useful videos and resources out there to help. I still always play the game with the wikia page up in case I need to know something. It really helps, especially with villager locations and finding out what the best thing is to give someone on their birthday.
You can also download mods which can allow you to basically cheat or just little ones that can enhance gameplay and change appearance of things in-game. I am familiar with using mods and things like that because of playing Sims, I can’t play Sims without some nice custom content clothing. So when I found out there were mods to make things in Stardew Valley cuter, I was all over that. I only started using mods recently, as I thought I would play my first year in the game without any mods. So I could experience it without any help.

I used mods to change the appearance of my farm buildings, cows, horse and hairstyle

I now use mods mostly to change the appearance of things. But I also use a UI mod which gives you more information in the game, I mainly got it so I would know what area scarecrows and sprinklers cover. I didn’t realise scarecrows covered such a big area in the game, but I still overlap a few areas because I want to protect my crops.
There are lots of other mods out there that I don’t even know how to begin to get into. I don’t want to mod the game too much because I do think it can take away from playing it. Although I know a lot of people prefer it that way. At the start, I did consider downloading a fishing mod because there are loads out there that make fishing a lot easier, but I was determined to be able to catch the fish on my own. So I guess mods are really just a player’s preference.
It’s recommended that you back up your files before you mod so you can always switch them back. Modding in this game is different to modding in the Sims. With the Sims, you just need to have a mods folder, but game mods for Stardew Valley require you to replace game files. So be careful, and make sure you follow install instructions on your desired mod.
I think that wraps up everything that I wanted to share about Stardew Valley now. I knew I had a lot to say but I didn’t realise just how much until I started to write this blog post haha. I just wanted to share my thoughts in case it would help other people. Although, like I said, I have only completed my first year so I might not be the best person to get advice from, but this is just what I have experienced so far in the game.
I am excited to see what other things the game has in store for me as I continue to play. I also look forward to playing in the other farm layouts you can choose from when you start the game. I didn’t mention it earlier but when you start the game, you can choose a farm layout that focuses on building a particular skill. But because it was my first time playing the game, I decided to go with the default farm. Although the other farms look kind of cool too.
Anyway, I’m sure I have more things to say about Stardew Valley but I will leave it here for now.
If you guys are interested in more updates of how my Stardew Valley life is going you can follow me on Twitter or Tumblr. You can also add me on Steam, my username is fangirl1901.
~ Courtney x

Pokemon Got Me To Go Outside?

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

I know I should have posted about this last month but I honestly had no idea just how addicting that it would be.
Pokemon Go.

Everyone’s playing it, everyone is talking about it and well, everyone is going outside because of it. I can’t believe it either. Although if you really want to be the very best like no one ever was you’re gonna have to go out there and do something about it. Because you can’t catch ’em all from your bedroom – I have tried.
I was so excited for the game to be released that it broke my heart to find out the release of the game had been delayed due to the servers not being able to handle the capacity of players. I still don’t understand how they could have underestimated the popularity of this game. I guess they didn’t account for people who haven’t played Pokemon before and that are just jumping on the bandwagon because everyone is talking about it.

Still, it bothered me that I had to wait. Even though I only had to wait about a week. But it wasn’t fun seeing everyone else online play when you couldn’t. I knew there were ways for me to get illegally but I didn’t want to do that because I heard that they could ban you from the real game if they found out. Better to be safe than sorry.
But as soon as I found out the game was released I had to get it. I had to fulfill my destiny as a Pokemon player, because after all, isn’t that what everyone wanted to be at some point in their life? A Pokemon master?
I had to admit it was slow starting for me. Especially when you don’t live near any Pokestops or Gyms. On the first/second day it was released I actually decided to go outside and explore the Pokestops and Gyms that my town had to offer. Although it was clear that the side of town I lived on did not have a lot.
But it was okay, I only wanted to go on a walk to explore and see what was out there. I knew as I progressed and travelled more that I would find more things and more interesting Pokemon. Because I’ve figured out that the only thing you are actually capable of catching from your bedroom are Pidgeys, Weedles and Rattattas. I have caught the occasional other Pokemon but if you really want to catch more Pokemon then you have to be willing to go outside.
Which I know isn’t for everyone. Including myself. I was surprised that Pokemon had me willingly leaving the house. But that only lasted for the first week. Mainly so that I could level up and join my team.

You can join three teams in Pokemon Go and this team allows you to fight/take over/defend gyms. Gyms can be found anywhere just like Pokestops. What I have noticed is that Pokemon Go seemed to really like making churches Gyms and Pokestops. I’m not sure what the reason is behind that but okay.
Anyway other than willingly going out the first week of Pokemon Go being released I only really play Pokemon when I am leaving the house and doing other things. It’s a lot easier to do it that way because you’re going to be out and about anyway, so why not see what Pokemon are out and about while you are?
I have to admit I did enjoy one night that I went out with my friend Jasmine to go Pokemon hunting. This was the first time that I got to see just how many people were out playing Pokemon. And it was a lot. We walked into this area in town and found about 20 people standing in a circle around a Lure placed at a Pokestop. I was not expecting that at all. But you get a real sense of community playing Pokemon Go in big groups, especially if you are all the same team and work together to take over a gym.
I haven’t been out in big groups since that night but I know people still do it. I think it’s a lot more fun when you play with people and not just yourself. Although at the same time it can feel much more satisfying when you manage to take over a gym on your own.

That being said, I haven’t really taken that many gyms by myself. Anytime I have taken a gym I have been with my brother and we have worked together. The way gyms work is that you fight the Pokemon in the gym and once you defeat them all the gym turns neutral. Once the gym goes neutral, anyone from any team can place their Pokemon in the gym to take it over. So it’s better to have another person from your team standing by to take the gym once you defeat it and heal your Pokemon. Otherwise, anyone passing by could take over the gym instead.
I think that’s what causes there to be some rivalry in Pokemon however I haven’t gotten into any real fights about it. If anything it’s just a bit of fun. Plus, a lot of gyms in common areas such as train stations and restaurants/bars are constantly changing as people come and go. So no gym belongs to the same team for long.
Apart from the Gyms, another part of the game is obviously working to catch all the Pokemon. So far the Pokemon only extend to the original first generation of Pokemon but hopefully the game updates to include more. As far as I know there are a few Pokemon that are region locked which means you will literally have to travel far if you want to catch them all. I don’t know if I ever will get to catch them all but you know I’ll try haha.
I’m actually pretty proud of the amount of Pokemon I have been able to catch just by playing when I leave the house. My friends at this point think I’m crazy because I play it so much. I have the app open almost constantly so that I can hatch Pokemon eggs. This isn’t always great for your phone battery or your 3G allowance but I can tell you it is worth it for the possibility of hatching a rare Pokemon. Although most of the time you could hatch a Pokemon you have already caught before. But still, it’s nice to have the hope you could get a new Pokemon from those eggs.
Another thing I tend to do is play the game while on public transport. I know that’s technically cheating but the game does register when you are going too fast. But sometimes when you are on a train and the train slows down at each stop, there is a chance for Pokemon to spawn. One day I was on the train and as we were coming into a train station I was able to catch two new Pokemon and so it is worth it to have the app open on the train. It might not help you catch eggs, but a lot of train stations are Pokestops and so if you need some more Pokeballs it’s worth the trip.

I think that pretty much covers my experience with Pokemon Go so far. There is the case of the Pokemon tracker which a lot of people don’t like because it doesn’t work but that doesn’t bother me. Mainly because I only play the game when I am already out of the house. I can see how it can be annoying if you are actively searching for Pokemon but usually I just catch the Pokemon that spawn around me. I like to be surprised when a rare Pokemon appears haha.
But yes, that is everything I wanted to say on the topic of Pokemon Go, at least for now. The last thing I will do is leave you with my current Pokemon level and strongest Pokemon. (And yes, I did nickname some of them after KPop band Seventeen).

~ Courtney x

Sims, Sims and more SIMS

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

So this past month of my life has basically been non-stop Sims.

Ever since the launch of my Sims only YouTube channel I find myself playing Sims more than ever. And not just because I am producing more Sims content than before, but also just because I really love playing Sims.
I don’t even know how to explain it. I have just been getting a lot of inspiration lately from other Sim YouTubers such as Deligracy and the Sim Supply. I really love their building techniques and they make me want to push my limits and build great things on the Sims.
I mean if only it was that easy to build a house in real life as it is on the Sims. I just love it.
Not to mention the Sims recently released a new Game Pack called the Sims 4: Dine Out where you can own and visit restaurants and so I have been obsessed with that lately. I have recently started a Let’s Play using the Game Pack and I love it. I also have my own personal save game where I am owning my own restaurant and it’s great.
I used to love restaurants in the Sims 2, and was sad when they didn’t really have them for Sims 3 so I am glad they brought them back for the Sims 4.
Below are the two restaurants I have build for the Sims 4 so far:
The Windenburg Bistro

The Conservatory

As you can see, the two restaurants are very different in style haha. I just had a lot of fun playing around with the new items and stuff.
And as of right now I currently have 4 different save games going on at the same time. I have my two Let’s Play save games, one is for the Sims 4: Dine Out and the other is the Alexa Rose story.
My Sims 4: Dine Out Let’s Play features the Wakefield family who hope to own successful restaurants and have a big family.
And the Alexa Rose story is about a teenage runaway who wants to complete the musical genius lifetime aspiration and prove to her parents that she can be famous.
Again, two very different storylines but I love them both.
Then I have my two personal save games, one of them is me taking on the Asylum challenge – with the Sims I have found that there are loads of challenges which you can choose to take on which make gameplay a little more interesting than average Sim life. It’s really fun. And it is definitely a style of gameplay I have never done before so it definitely did take some time to adjust but I find it really fun.
Another save game is where I am running my second restaurant and is just a general personal save game.
In between actual gameplay I have also been producing create a sim videos and speed building videos for my Sims YouTube channel which are two things I really love to do. With the new Sims 4 Create A Sim it is so easy to make Sims and one of my favourite things to do is make Sims that look like other people. And with speed building I am always improving because when I started out playing Sims I used to only make rectangle houses but I am trying to branch out and create other things and fully check out the build options on the Sims 4. Because it is very different to previous build modes in other games.
And so yes. My whole life has been taken over by Sims. I feel like I’m 13 and playing the Sims 2 for the first time all over again. It’s insane. But I love it.
So I am sorry I haven’t really been posting main channel videos or even blogging in the last month but as you can see, I’ve been very busy with the Sims. I hope to maybe calm down on the Sim play for a while soon and focus on other things during the summer but for right now, I’m content with my Simming life haha.
Please enjoy some more screenshots from my game below and if you want to see even more of my Sims gameplay that’s not on YouTube, follow my Sims Tumblr where I post all of my Sims adventures.
~ Courtney x

New Style Boutique 2: Fashion Forward First Impressions!

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys!
Today I am going to be giving you my first impressions of the game New Style Boutique 2: Fashion Forward.

I am a huge fan of this game series for the Nintendo DS. Mainly because it is something I have always wanted in a game. I love shopping, I love fashion and this game series combines those things and allows you to run your own fashion boutique.
I picked up the first Style Boutique game on a whim one day and I don’t regret it. Since then Nintendo has released New Style Boutique for the 3DS and now New Style Boutique 2.
One thing I will say about the series is that Nintendo wasn’t that great with naming it. I know in Japan the game is called something like “Girls Mode” which I suppose isn’t much better. But having the word “new” in the title is really confusing. Mainly because the previous game was also called “New Style Boutique”.
Either way this game definitely steps up from it’s prequels. In this game you can be so much more than a boutique owner, you can also be a hairdresser, model, designer and a makeup artist. This really excited me because it meant we were getting a lot more features to play around with.
This game also has a different storyline from the others. This time you are transported into a doll’s world? And it is there that you take the fashion world by storm. I have to admit I found this really strange but I went along with it anyway. I was just excited to be able to play a new game.
One thing I really appreciate about this game is that it takes a long time to unlock features of the game. I found that with the previous two games that things were unlocked far too quickly and you would have completed the game within a number of days. With this one I have found it takes a while for everything to be unlocked. I have been playing since November and I still haven’t unlocked all of the brands in the exhibition hall.
That being said, I don’t actually play the game as often as I would like. So maybe I just need to keep working on it to unlock everything haha.
Now let’s talk about the actual professions you can take on in this game:

My character in the rose garden

Boutique Owner: This is the role that we have taken on in the last two Style Boutique games and it is a role that I enjoy a lot. I love creating outfits for people and seeing them enjoy what I style for them. I also love the styles of clothes that Style Boutique has.
It’s definitely one of my favourite parts of the game to buy the clothes from the exhibition hall and dress my character up in the many different styles. It allows me to explore fashion styles I would never try in real life.

Applying makeup like a pro

Makeup Artist: I am not the biggest fan of this career in the game. Mainly because the makeup styles some of the customers ask for aren’t that glamorous. Sometimes, they will ask you to copy the makeup of a photo and it can be quite difficult.
I like that they do add this challenge to the game but at the same time I would like if the makeup complimented the skin tone of the character because sometimes it doesn’t.
Although that’s just a small thing on my part.
This career also gives you the opportunity to unlock more colours for your makeup palette by giving photos to a character in the game. She will look at your in-game photos and pick out new colours for your makeup which I find quite interesting. It also encourages you to take more in-game photos to see if you can unlock the colours.

Ready to style your hair to perfection

Hair Stylist: Another new career for the game. I do enjoy this one a bit more than the makeup artist career but again it’s not perfect. The main critique I would have about this one is that when you are asking a customer about the hairstyle they want they sometimes don’t give you enough information and so it can be hard to decide what hairstyle they want.
On the bright side, even if the customer is not fully happy with the hairstyle you have chosen they will usually go along with it anyway.

The design studio

Fashion Designer: I don’t have a lot of experience with this career in the game yet. Mainly because I just unlocked it. However it seems to follow a similar format to the design feature in the first Style Boutique game.
A brand from the exhibition hall will call you and ask if you will design a type of clothing for their brand. Once you create it then you will be able to wear it and sell it in your shop.
I like this idea because it allows you to create the clothes you want in the game. However it can be a little bit restrictive with the options that the game provides. But it’s still a fun feature to the game.

Say cheese!

Model: Again, I don’t have a lot of experience with this career either. I actually just unlocked this one in the game. I really like the idea of this one though, especially if you like taking in-game photos.
From what I can tell, you go to the photo studio and they will have a list of modelling jobs and the type of clothes they want you to wear for it. You dress your character up and take the photos and then they will be shown around the town.
I think it’s a really fun way to show off your style in the game. I don’t really know if this career has anything else to it but so far I enjoy it. I also like that they let you choose your character’s pose for photos. In previous games you didn’t have that option, so it’s nice to have a little more freedom with that.

My first fashion show

On top of that you are also asked to take part in fashion shows. I assume this is in place of fashion contests which were in the previous two games. For fashion shows you sell tickets by serving customers in the boutique, hair salon or makeup studio. Then you take part in the fashion show by dressing up to match the theme and working the runway.
Other features of the game include online miiverse competitions which I haven’t really explored and designing your own little room in the ski chalet. I’m not really sure what the whole miniature room thing is about but when you get a streetpass you get a copy of that person’s room too. I think it’s cute but it’s not a feature I use a lot in the game.
Another thing I enjoy about the game is that you don’t have to do all these jobs if you don’t want to. For example, I spend way more time selling clothes at the boutique and don’t really like to do people’s make up or hair. And the game gives you the freedom to do each of these things as much or as little as you want. Although it is recommended you do all the careers to fully experience the game.
I don’t really have that many problems with the game other than maybe the design of the menu, I preferred the style of map in the other games. And I guess I only have problems with some of the things I mentioned above but otherwise it’s a really good game.
I know I still have a lot more to unlock in the game though. I still have to unlock all the brands in the exhibition hall, I also have to explore more with the model and fashion designer careers to see where they go.
But like I said I like that all of these things weren’t unlocked right away. In the other games it didn’t take too long before you were winning all the contests and unlocking all the exhibition hall brands. So I like that you get more play time out of this game than the others. And like I said, there’s so much more to do in this game than the previous ones so there will always be something to do in it.
I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who loves fashion. It’s super cute and girly and I’m so glad that Nintendo released this game. I just wish they put a little more love into this series because I know it could also be so much better too. They definitely don’t promote this series as much as many of their other games and I think it’s a shame because I think it’s a really great series.
Anyway, those were all my thoughts on New Style Boutique 2: Fashion Forward! I hope that you enjoyed this blog post. If you guys want to check out more of my New Style Boutique in-game photos I sometimes post them to my Tumblr blog: cullengleekvonvanity.tumblr.com. Again, thanks so much for reading and I hope you will come back for my next blog post!
~ Courtney x

Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer First Impressions

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys!
So today I am going to be giving you my first impressions on Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer. For those of you who don’t know, Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer is a spin-off game in the Animal Crossing series. And being super obsessed with Animal Crossing meant, I needed to get this game right away.

It has currently been in my possession for three days and I am already obsessed. I tend to get hooked on Animal Crossing games right from the get-go. There’s something about them that I can’t resist, they are just so adorable and easy to play so I just get sucked in. And this was no exception.
Since this is a spin-off game is has a lot less content than a main Animal Crossing game. I mean the main goal of this game is to design houses. That’s really it. Nothing else to it. You can also design the shops/facilities in the town area which is known as Main Street. But other than designing this game doesn’t have a lot else going for it. So if you are considering getting an Animal Crossing game that’s something worth noting.
At first I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about this game. If I’m honest I kind of thought I would get bored of it right away. But that’s not the case. I mean I play a lot of Sims and so I do like designing houses and things but something about this game gave me the impression I would play it for two days and get bored. I actually find this game really satisfying to play. Which is kind of the feeling I get with every Animal Crossing game.
There’s just something really peaceful about designing animals’ homes. It’s really cute and I love seeing the villagers’ interact with their new surroundings. It is definitely a different approach to the Animal Crossing series. But I love it.
For one thing, it is so much easier to create houses in the way you want to in this game. Which is obviously one of it’s major selling points. If you have ever decorated a house in Animal Crossing then you know the pain of putting something out and dragging it around the room trying to get it into the right position. With this game, you are able to place furniture with a touch of a stylus.
Another thing I really love is the new additions to furniture. We can now place rugs, hang lights from the ceilings, and even change our curtains and windows. I like these little touches because they can add so much more to a room than before.
On top of these new additions I have noticed there has been a whole load of new items added to the catalogue which is to be expected for a home designer game.
Something I was most excited about when I heard about the game was the addition of designing the exterior of the house as well as the interior. In past Animal Crossing games we haven’t been able to place furniture outside with the exception of Animal Crossing: New leaf public works projects. So this was something I was really excited about. I like having that extra bit of freedom.

A house I designed by the sea

One thing that is annoying with exterior design is that you can’t rotate the houses. They are always facing forward which isn’t great when you want the villager to live on the beach and their house looks like it’s going to be whisked away by the sea. You also can’t rotate the camera outside to see things from different angles which again is quite limiting.

A school classroom

I have also really enjoyed building the facilities in Main Street. Mainly because you are given so much space to create these rooms. In previous games, if you wanted to create a school themed room you would have to do it in your tiny house. Now, we can create them in an appropriately sized room and make them look any way we want to.
While I enjoy this overall game concept as a whole, it does have it’s flaws.
For example, I am not a huge fan of the item catalogue interface. I find it really tedious to swipe to each new page of items. I wish we had a scroll bar at the bottom to make it faster to find items. I know you can search with the search feature, but I like to look through all my items to make sure I have used everything I want to when designing a house.
I also don’t like that this game doesn’t run in real-time like all other Animal Crossing games. We now have to save every time we are done creating a house. Which wouldn’t bother me but it’s the fact you have to keep going all the way to your desk. I know in past Animal Crossing games we would have to go to the attic to save, but even then we had the option of pressing start to save from wherever we were. Once we save it turns into a new day in the Happy Home Designer game, which to me just wastes a lot more time. Although it does teach younger children the importance of saving your game. But Animal Crossing has always stressed the importance of saving your game with the character Resetti.
Oh and I also dislike how we have to wear the red Happy Home blazer all the time. You can change your clothes if you are visiting a house or facility but any other time you have to wear the blazer. You can however accessorise your uniform with other clothing items and accessories.
As for the amiibo cards…I did end up buying a couple of packets of them as well as an amiibo card reader as I will use them in the future but so far I have only used one. I can see the appeal of them as many people will want to collect their favourite villagers and I believe it’s the only way you are able to design a house for a special character such as Isabelle. However, I do feel like if you are on the fence about getting amiibo then don’t. It isn’t worth it if you are not up to the challenge of collecting all of the cards. Amiibo cards aren’t essential to the game either so you can still enjoy the game without having them.
I also can see how having an amiibo card reader can be a hassle if you are travelling and want to bring your amiibo cards. It’s just an extra thing to carry around. And you do need to get an amiibo card reader if you don’t have a new 3DS but want to use the amiibo. So there’s that to think about too.
But overall I am really enjoying this game. I have already created half of the facilities on Main Street and am well on my way to designing homes for every villager in town. So despite the few little issues I have with the game I definitely recommend it if you enjoy designing things. Plus, the cuteness of Animal Crossing is definitely a major selling point for me.
So those were all my thoughts on Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer! I hope that you guys enjoyed this post. If you guys want to see more of my Happy Home Designs then follow my Animal Crossing Tumblr: antrim-in-animal-crossing.tumblr.com
And if you are interested in seeing the unboxing of Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer with the amiibo card reader and some amiibo cards then check out my video below:

~ Courtney xx

Meet the Allgoods

~ Courtney Shek ~ Leave a comment

Hey guys!
So today I thought I would introduce you to my Sims 4 family. This is the sim family that I have been playing with when I am not playing my Legacy Challenge save file.
These are the Allgoods.

I originally started with two sims, but their family grew pretty quickly. I have decided that I will talk about each sim individually and then talk about my experience with playing with such a big household of Sims. I have never played with eight sims at one time before, so this was kind of new to me.
Before we even get into talking about my sims, let me give you a peek at the family tree.

The Allgood Family Tree

So there is Jen, who is the mother, Tanner the father, Alice and Amber who are twins and both married, Elle who is the second youngest and Patrick the very youngest of the family.
Now I can introduce you to my sims! Let’s start with Jen.

Jen was the first sim that I created. She is basically the same as my Aria Montgomery sim however I changed her name, her clothes, and her makeup. She started young adult and originally had the Painter Extraordinaire lifetime aspiration.

Since then, Jen has completed the Painter Extraordinaire lifetime aspiration and is now pursuing the Bestselling Author lifetime aspiration. She is in the painter career, is reaching the elder stage of life and has gained quite a lot of traits.
One of my friends reminded me of the lifetime rewards panel and since then all my sims have been racking up the traits haha.

Next we have Tanner, Tanner is just my Tanner Patrick sim. He started as a young adult and had the Musical Genius lifetime aspiration. As you can see in the photo, he has aged quite a bit.

Since we started, Tanner as aged up twice to become an elder, I find it weird that he ages up slightly faster than Jen because they started at the same time. And he has completed the Musical Genius lifetime aspiration and is now working towards the Successful Linage lifetime aspiration. He works in the entertainer career and, like Jen, has accumulated quite a lot of traits.

Jen and Tanner soon became pregnant with a set of twins. Which was surprising, I was definitely not prepared. The oldest one (or the one I’m going to talk about first) is Alice. She is a young adult and has the Master Chef lifetime aspiration.

Alice currently has a culinary career, and is married to Johnny Zest.

I won’t say a lot about my sims’ significant others. Mainly because they haven’t been part of the family for long. Johnny is one of the premade sims in the game and is an adult, he has the Joke Star lifetime aspiration and is an adult.


Next we have Amber, who is Alice’s twin sister. She is a young adult and is following in her father’s footsteps and pursuing the Musical Genius lifetime aspiration.

Amber is currently in the entertainer career and is married to Alison DiLaurentis.

Alison is a sim I created and added to the neighbourhood in this save game, as well as the other Pretty Little Liars. She is an adult, has the Party Animal lifetime aspiration.

Then we have Elle. She is a young adult and is, unfortunately, the awkward middle child.

Elle has the Friend of the World lifetime aspiration and is pursuing a business career. Elle is also looking for love, but unfortunately due to the size of our family it’ll be a while before she gets married.

And finally we have the youngest of the Allgood children and the only boy, Patrick.

Patrick has the Serial Romantic lifetime aspiration and is currently a high school student. I have tried my teenage sims with a job and school, but that was next to impossible because their needs always dropped so rapidly so, until Patrick graduates he will remain unemployed.

And so they are the Allgoods! Now to talk about how I have been playing the game.
I don’t really have a challenge I have set myself with this household, I’ve kind of just been playing and trying not to cheat. Which has been going pretty well.
The only times I have cheated were to one, get a better bed for Jen and Tanner and two, reduce the ages of Alison and Johnny because they were elders when they married Amber and Alice.
As for the house they live in, it’s not great.

The Outside
The Inside
The house started with three rooms, the bedroom at the back, a bathroom and the living room. As the family expanded, the house also had to expand. It looks pretty basic right now and that’s because my sims didn’t have a lot of money while I have been making renovations to their house. Now that there are mainly adults in the house and they are all working, we can bring in more money and I may be able to design them a better house.
As for the bedrooms, all my sims have their own and I have found the easiest way to identify everyone’s was to add selfies to their respective bedrooms.

Although everyone’s bedrooms are essentially the same, mainly because like I said, we have been low on funds and so it’s not easy to give them everything they should have so as long as there is a place to sleep it’s fine.
As for playing with eight sims on a whole, it’s a lot. I find myself pausing the game a lot to make sure all my sims are doing actions to further their lifetime aspirations. I know I could make the household smaller by having older sims move out on their own but I don’t like the idea of getting rid of sims. I like to have them all in the same place, otherwise I’m not going to play as them again.
The only downside is that now as the younger sims get older, they can’t have anymore children to expand the family. So I don’t know what I am going to do about that.
One thing I will also say about playing as a large household, or just because I’m a lazy sim player is that I never travel outside my lot when I play. I feel like there are too many sims for that and if I just leave with one of them something will happen to the others. Also I can’t be bothered to sit through the loading screens that come with leaving a lot.
But overall I think it’s great to play with so many sims, there is never a dull moment. And it’s great to explore all different types of aspirations and traits at the same time.

The Allgoods pursuing their passions

Another thing I have become obsessed with in the sims 4 is the photography skill. I decided to add all the other sims I had created into the neighbourhood so that the Allgoods could be friends with them and take photos with them…and I think I’ve gone overboard.

All the photos in my sims house

As for exploring the Get To Work careers and the Outdoor Retreat game pack in this save game, I haven’t really been using them. I think it’s because one, when doing the Get to Work careers it takes you away from all your other sims and two, I think my sim family is too big for an Outdoor Retreat. But I will have to get back to using the features of them, mainly because I paid for them so should really use them.
And so I think this is a good place to end this blog post. I know it’s a lot longer than normal but I just love to share my photos. I hope that you guys enjoyed reading, and getting to know a little bit more about how I play Sims 4. Obviously everyone plays their game differently so I’d love to know how you like to play Sims.
Also if you are wondering where I get all of my custom content from (i.e all the clothes my sims wear and the fancy hair) I get it from the Sims Resource website. It is a wonderful place and I love everyone who makes pretty sim clothes. I love them so much.
Again thanks so much for reading and if you want to check out my other Sims 4 save file that I use to do a Legacy Challenge on my YouTube channel you can find it here.
~ Courtney x