Sims 4 CAS

This image has been hanging around in my draft posts for quite a while, waiting for me to find something positive to say about it.  Now that they've finally released another Sims 4 trailer (and things don't seem to have progressed much further), it seemed like a good time to mention the new and improved CAS as demonstrated by SimGuru Ryan and some random Sim that was unlucky enough to stand too close to him...

At least now you know that, no matter how bad you are at creating Sims that look like real people, you can't do worse than the team that have had way more practice than you.  That's a positive, right?

With all those push-pull controls, it looks like they forgot to add the right ones to create pointy-headed, manically grinning Sims.  Maybe all bald guys really do look the same and I just didn't realise it?

AWOL in Tamriel

Just taking a break from stumbling about in Elder Scrolls Online.  I missed out on beta access so this has been my first chance to try things out.  I had early access but, between work and the servers being down for maintenance, I only managed a couple of hours playing time.  Access around launch time was actually easier than I expected so I've managed some decent play in the past couple of days.  Guess there have to be some advantages to being in this part of the world!  

I'm getting there, slowly, fumbling about with the keyboard controls (no controller like I had for Skyrim).   At least I have a few others over at Simpletons to help me out, though I think they must've known we were coming ... 

Freeze or Starve?

For the past few weeks I've been playing Banished, a city-building strategy game developed by the one-man Shining Rock Software.  It's taken quite a few restarts but I'm almost to the point of keeping everyone alive through every winter with the occasional one dying during childbirth or trampled by a boar and the rest dying of old age.  Heath and happiness are up but disaster may be just around the corner. 

I finally got one village to over 300 citizens when the nomads I accepted brought typhoid with them and wiped out a third of the town.  I couldn't build cemeteries fast enough!  Then there was the game where all the food producers kept starving and all the woodcutters kept freezing to death.  I can only conclude that the children steal all the food and firewood (and pick a pocket or two as well) while the adults are at work.

I've checked out a few wikis and forums but the more tips I followed from other players, the worse things seemed to go.  No one solution works for every game so it's a case of finding what works best for the game you are in.  And sometimes it's so elusive ... like if you'd only done the right thing an hour ago then things wouldn't have taken a dive.  

As Leo says, "First they were banished.  Now they're dying, thanks to me".