Man, do I have a lot of material for this thread. Almost all of my dreams are weird as hell and very realistic - I think my subconscious takes acid while I'm not looking. I'll just post the most recent one for now.

It's summer. It starts off with me looking around, a bit lost and a lot confused, a place that seems at first glance to be my university, but then I go into one of the buildings and it looks more like the inside of one of the business centres nearby, with huge windows and a big waterfall/fountain thing, and balconies everywhere. But outside the window it's still my school - buildings on a hillside and some parking lots and train tracks through the middle. There's no fences or hedges, though, and the parking lots are covered with grass, like it was old and badly maintained. And where there are usually brickwork paths, there's grass, too, and the parking complex is gone.

I start running around, looking for someone, and I realize I'm wearing some weird, vaguely pharaonic headdress and a robe. I get frustrated and start yelling for the person I'm looking for - and realize I'm a man. A pretty sexy one, too, with bright red hair. I am in a lot of my dreams. Also, I find out it's my best friend I'm looking for. All the time I'm running, the whole campus is empty. I run into a building and it looks like my high school drama room - except about ten times bigger. A huge room, completely black, windows along the top of the back wall, and these immense black boxes arranged to form a stage and a kind of stage-above-the-stage, way high up, and all of a sudden I'm sitting on top of that and I'm with her. She's aged back to, like, fourteen or something. She's wearing a robe, too, but it's really ornate and looks really pretty on her. Things happen that make it VERY obvious I'm a man and a bit of a paedophile and they wouldn't be appropriate for this forum, and then there's a ruckus outside.

I look out the window and it's a goddamn WAR of the GODS out there. Lightning bolts are flying, heroes with glowing swords running to their deaths shouting very rude battle cries, blood, chaos, madness, Sparta etc. She grabs my shoulder and says something like, "Hey, you're San Rafael, you have to get out there!" Yeah, San Rafael. The mofoing Archangel Raphael. It's a reenactment of a biblical battle. Then I charge out all manly-like with an awesome staff I didn't even know I had and I'm flying around owning it up (it's all a blur of magic missiles and charred bits of flesh) and my best friend is in the fray also owning it up, mostly by smacking people in the face with bits of ice.

Then all of a sudden it's over and everybody's just milling around talking to each other. We're inside something that looks like the Marrlot (a fancy local restaurant) and this guy that I probably viciously murdered at some point comes up and starts flirting with me and my best friend wanders off to talk costumes with some other girls and he's like "My place?" and I'm like "Maybe next time." And then it's back to the big black room and kids are playing on the now-lit stage and the guy is behind me and my best friend says, "Are those them?" Then I suddenly figure out I'm a history teacher or something and they're my students and somehow the whole place isn't covered with blood and they look up at me and suddenly I'm really creeped out by myself and I wake up.

That was one of the sensible ones, actually. And longer than usual.

lolkiranekochan. I can't even abide by the thought of naming my hypothetical kid Sylus.

Does anyone remember Gargoyles? Awesome stuff. And hell, I've got the first three seasons of Buffy on DVD.

I'm a Blender mesher myself. If you're going to be meshing using just .obj files, then you've basically got everything you need already. Just remember to check the file format when you export it in SimPE. If you're using .smd files, on the other hand, you'll need bobcatben's SMD Importer and Exporter for Blender from MTS2. Reading through the comments to that post can also give you some useful tips.

Oh, and if you're doing textures, UVMapper is always helpful.

a) Many of the active topics on this forum are full of complaints. This "TSR propaganda" isn't an attempt to glorify a military coup, it's "Hey! There's some cool stuff in there!" balancing the "IT WILL SUCK DO NOT BUYZ IT EVERYTHING EA DOES IS EVIL AND BUGGY AND UGLY."
b) All right, I agree, SecuROM is composed of equal parts suck and hatred. Why haven't we made a petition yet?
c) The InSIMenator and all the mods we know and love took a little time to release. Besides, it's not like playing vanilla is a crime against the Internet. Millions do it every day. I like my damn tedium sometimes. That said, I'm sure it will be a godly, mind-blowing masterpiece after you get your keys on it, no sarcasm.

Don't worry. We've been howling about that for months.

I'm definitely getting it. My computer can manage it, even if they do end up keeping SecuROM in it (One of the Creator Camp vids showed Ben Bell using a comp that I didn't buy because I didn't think it'd be able to run TS3!). Bugs? Disappointing and frustrating, yes, but only as much so as their namesakes, and knowing EA, a patch will be out before I notice most of them.

Plus, there's stuff in it that I was wishing for when I was playing TS1 eight years ago. Yes, sure, fine, people don't like the way the Sims look now. But frankly, I thought the Sims in TS2 were hideous when I started it. And out of all the things that have gone into this game - Traits, Moodlets, awesome-looking com lots, seamless 'hood, increased individuality - I don't see that mattering too much after a while. I want to be one of the first to try and figure out how to crack open the CC. I'll miss my Sims from 2, but I promise I'll visit them every once in a while.

Plus, all the people in here saying they'll wait and see need something to go on, don't they?

Nope. There's only one neighbourhood in the game, but it's apparently freakin' gimongous.
Yes. There's apparently a slider for free will, just like everything else, with three slots: high, low, and off.
I have no idea what you mean, but if you mean less user control than 1 and 2, I don't think so. Just the Sims can act according to the Traits they've been assigned if you leave Free Will on.

4 has about six threads dedicated to it. And aren't there multiple threads already dedicated to ranting about the delay?

But it's a *FAMILY GAME* and obviously no one under the age of 18 knows about the existence of breasts and buttocks, much less that they come in different sizes!

I think I can put up with a little inflexibility when I'm playing it, though.

Oh, definitely. But from what I've seen in the Creator's Camp reviews, it doesn't look like they'll be the same as the cheats from 2.

You're very welcome.

Indeed it is!

Well, the title pretty much sums it up. A fairly simple scar running from the right forehead through the left eyebrow, ending up under the left temple. Requested by Naria, here.

Damn, I should come in here more often. I'd be happy to make it for you!

Edit: ...and it's done! Right here!

Geez. Sorry to hear about that. Oh, well, I can wait, plus it means I won't miss all my classes in March. And they didn't cancel it. And what little workforce they have left after the layoffs can spend some of that time debugging, maybe fixing that sticky walking anim. Maybe host another Creator's Camp!

loversim is right, though. They would've had their December figures not long after New Year's. They could've announced it more than a week before shipment. The guys at my local EB are probably right pissed.

It looks like the UK/Canada release is June 5th. I am now scheduling that day and the next three off.

So not only do you have Nightwish and Lordi, you get the Sims 3 a day earlier?  I'm moving. </hyperbole>