Written by: Mike Fahey

The Sims 3 expansion pack World Adventures brings with it a basement tool, which everyone will use to build tombs, and not underground Sim torture chambers.

The new basement tool allows The Sims 3 players to create underground structures up to four levels deep, and EA has plenty of new tomb objects in store in order to help facilitate the joy of exploration. Objects like the Fogger, which hides unexplored areas from the player's view, or hidden stairways, which help facilitate secret passages. Other important objects include that old staple the floor switch, and traps that shoot fire, steam, electricity, or darts. This is going to be so much fun. Toss in a couple Saw-inspired face bear traps and I'll be in heaven.

Check out the rather large list of tomb objects EA released today below, and start planning out your tomb so you can get building when the expansion arrives on November 17th.

And yes, I am already planning my underground Sim torture chamber, but don't you dare judge me, or you'll be right there with them.

Here is some of the dozens of Tomb Objects and Object Updates:

Tomb Object (Fogger): The tomb object is the cornerstone of tomb building and will often be placed in every room of the tomb. The Tomb Object is what creates the "fog" that hides non-explored rooms from the player. This lets you create a sense of discovery and suspense as your Sims explore new tombs. The "fog" will recede from a room when a player enters the room through a door, descends stairs into the room, enters a room that is connected to a fogged room with an arch, or if a Sim "Looks Through" a window that looks into a fogged room. Adding or Removing fog is also a potential Activated Behavior.

Floor Switch: The floor switch is a classic adventure game object. It is a small, 1 tile floor object on which Sims can stand or push statues. Stepping On and Off the switch are both Triggers that can connect to Activated behaviors. Floor Switches can also be set to Appear or Disappear.

Wall and Floor Trap: The traps are two different objects that can be placed on the wall or floor. These can be set to shoot fire, darts, steam, or electricity on unsuspecting Sims. They can have a variety of states, including hidden and dormant, armed and visible, hidden and armed, or hidden and firing. Each of these states can be activated by Sims walking over them or as an Activated Behavior. Traps can light Sims on fire or knock them out. However, there are multiple ways to handle traps. Sims can disarm them by tinkering with them, or push statues upon them to disarm. Water will disarm a fire trap, which makes a great puzzle element when paired with the steam trap…which creates water! Sims can walk with immunity through a fire trap when soaked. Experiment and come up with your own puzzles!

Dive Well: Dive Wells are one of the most exciting Tomb Objects. Sims can use them to become Soaked, which makes them immune to fire, or to put themselves out when already on fire. A Hidden Switch can be set at the bottom of dive wells as a Trigger. You can always place treasures at the bottom. Another fun element is that you can set the color of the water in the dive well, so fire tombs can have blood red water, whereas a tomb with a poison theme can have murky green water.

Dive Wells are most fun when they are set up as portals. Dive Wells set as Portals will connect to each other. Sims will go to the bottom, and then emerge from the closest dive well on the same floor. It's also possible to designate a Dive Well as an Uber Dive Well. Here, you designate a name so that you can define the precise point of origin and exit – even across multiple lots in the world. This lets you create one-of-a-kind entrances to island tombs and other inaccessible areas.

Treasure Chest: The biggest reason to explore anything is to find treasure at the end. Treasure Chests let you fill your tomb creations with various treasures, keys, garbage, or whatever you can imagine. Opening and Inserting a Keystone a treasure chest are also Triggers that can set Activated Behaviors.

Sarcophagus: The Sarcophagus can act as a large, ornate treasure chest, a place to hide, a place to sleep, and even a place to WooHoo. Most exciting, however, is its ability to spawn mummies. Mummies will patrol tombs in search of unsuspecting Sims to pummel and *gasp* curse! Mummies provide an element of danger and the unexpected to any tomb.

Torch Lever: The torch lever, like the Floor Switch, is an object for Sims to pull on to trigger Activated Behaviors. Some can be set to active, whereas others can be dummies, forcing players to carefully examine their surroundings. It's possible to define the colors of the torch light, which allows Tomb Designers to provide hints and clues on how to complete puzzles. Or, to simply set the ambience of a tomb!

Pushable Statues: Pushable Statues are another classic adventure game element. They can be pushed on top of traps to disarm them, or cleverly pushed through a maze to unveil a formerly blocked path. Their most common use is to be paired with a floor switch. Floor Switch triggers can be set so that they activate something when a Sim is on them, but deactivate as soon as a Sim steps off of them. This means a Sim must push a statue on top of them in order to keep the floor switch depressed. Pushable Statues can be set to be secretly pushable (they require inspection), visibly pushable (no inspection needed), or not pushable at all.

Hidden Stairways: Stairways from The Sims 3 can be set to Hidden now. This is an Activated Behavior, so that a Trigger can now Hide or Unhide the stairs. Hidden Stairways are a great way to surprise players. Just when it seems there's no way out, pulling a switch reveals a stairway!

Source: Kotaku.com

Beware of Mummies in The Sims 3 World Adventures!

In The Sims 3 World Adventures, you can accept challenges, find treasures, discover what’s lurking in hidden caves, tombs and more with the first ever adventure gameplay. While venturing to Egypt, one of three real-world inspired locations you can journey to, watch out for any sarcophagus in the tombs that may have an angry mummy just waiting to put a curse on you. Unless you are a master of the martial arts skill, the mummy will win in a fight and you’ll either be knocked out or cursed. When cursed, you can go to the Sphinx and plead before it in an attempt to find the soul peace statue, which removes the curse. If not, so long Sim!

What’s better than being chased by a mummy? Spend the night in a cursed sarcophagus and find out what it’s like to be a mummy! You will live longer, your energy and bladder motives won’t decay which means no bathroom breaks or sleeping. You’ll be strong, have unique mummy socials, have a longer lifespan, and more. But note, you’ll move more slowly and be prone to catching on fire more easily. But that’s ok, because you’d then be able to come back as a ghost mummy. Cool.

The Sims 3 World Adventures expansion pack will ship on November 17, 2009 for the PC and MAC.

Next week we’ll give you a lesson in building your own Tombs from simple to complex then we’re off to China.

That's the claim Whitetigerz is making over on the official sims 3 forums. And I have to say, I doubt anyone's going to be able to beat it!

• Perfect of every fruit/veggie/special thing you can grow besides Omni plant stuff
• Perfect Mounted Robot fish and Shark
• A small meteorite
• All 10 beetles from roach to rainbow beetle
• Perfect Shark and Lobster in bowl
• Crystal and Oval cut of every gem but pink diamond
• Perfect Mounted Vampire, Swordfish, and Death fish
• 10 iron/gold/silver
• large meteorite, 3 palladium/plutonium
• Every gem cut for plummbob and brilliant cut gems except pink diamond
• All 10 butterfly's
• and the list goes on and on...

Check out his thread here to see all the pics. I think the first response summed it up nicely... "WOW.... "

Most of you have probably already seen this by now, but for those (like me) who enjoy their existence under a rock, EA have released the cover art for the first Sims 3 expansion - World Adventures.

Are you ready for it? Taa daa....

I used to spend all my time building in The Sims 1 & 2. Of course, that's pretty much all I did and I got bored very quickly. With The Sims 3 however, the game play is so engaging, that I find myself not wanting to "waste time" by building. I'm sure I'll get there one day, but for now, I'm happy to slap together what ever I can and just get on it with it.

Because of that, I tend to find myself looking at other people's creations to place in my game. I figured I might start highlighting and giving a little extra publicity to the ones I really like. Like this one for example, the Stoney Point Lighthouse by fieryfemale.

News is coming out all over the place with regards to the first expansion World Adventures. IGN got a first look at the newly-revealed The Sims 3: World Adventures to see the expansion pack strategy.

At the base camp is a job board that has adventures, which are beefed up versions of the opportunity missions you found in The Sims 3; the more complex adventures might consist of a dozen or more tasks chained together. Completion of these adventures unlocks more challenging adventures, raises your visa level, and so on. An example of these adventures might be exploring tombs, of which there are many in Egypt. These tombs might have diabolical traps that must be circumnavigated or be dealt with. For example, fire traps can be tackled by dousing your sim in water (say by jumping into a small pool) before entering them; the soaked nature of your clothes will protect you. Or you might need to move objects around to activate pressure plates in order to open a secret door. Your sims might dig in rubble for artifacts that can help unlock other doors. Or, you might find all the parts to a rare item and reassemble it, thus giving you a nice trophy for that shelf back home.

Check out their full write up here.

I was randomly link hoping earlier today and somehow came across this outfit for toddlers. I hate most of the current toddler clothes so this caught my eye. Then I noticed it was on the exchange and not the store (aka FREE!) so just had to download it. Thought I would share for all the other fellow todder clothes haters out there.

Have the lifetime Wishes in The Sims 3 seemed too random for your tastes? You seem to never be able to get the Lifetime Wish you want? The Lifetime Wishes suggested in Create a Sim are selected based on the personality traits of your sim, and some wishes are more rare than others.

Gee that sounds like a sales add at the beginning doesn't it? I was browsing around for an image version of all the Sims lifetime wishes when I chose Seth's as I wanted to include it in the blog. Still haven't found what I was after. But what I did find was a handy little table that aligns all the lifetime wishes with the best personality traits which was kinda cool.

Over at the wikihow (never been there until recently, how many "wiki" websites are there?) someone put together the information in two tables. First one is sorted via traits - so you can chose traits you like and see what lifetime wishes it will offer you. And the second one is sorted by lifetime wish, so if you have that as your primary goal, you can then see which traits you need to pick.

Apparently this information was gathered from observation alone, and not some data mining in the game files or from EA inside information. It may be wrong for some trait combinations, as not all of them were tested. Still, pretty cool huh?

I was over browsing the Sims3.com forums and came across a really interesting thread: ~ Life as a Priest in Sims3 ~

Strawheart decided to try playing a sandbox lifestyle, one that didn't follow a direct career path or lifetime goal. She created a priest. Instead of just having a sim live in a church, and call it a done deal, she also set up some goals:

Goals

• Brighten people's days.
• Master Charisma, and all it's special titles. Be the friendliest sim ever.
• Self sustained: Grow enough fruit, catch enough fish, find enough rocks, to stay out of employment and pay the bills. This is amazingly easy after skills are mastered.

Also some ground rules to guide him:

Rules

• Absolutely no romantic relationships. Flirting is also not okay (if another sim flirts with the priest, it's alright as long as he doesn't flirt back)
• Watch your flock: Always pick up the phone! Even if it's 3am, and all bars are red. If someone asks him to make a house call (invites him over), do it. If there are periods of spare time, use it to make phone calls.
• Live as meekly as possible. Only buy better appliances and furniture if it's in your budget.
• Fix and upgrade things by himself. Clean his own stuff (no maids)
• Produce own food whenever possible. Always cook (no quick meals) unless it's an emergency.
• No career. This sim already has a full time job!
• No enemies. Maybe one or two evil people if it absolutely cannot be helped.
• Attend community events whenever possible. Take challenges whenever possible.

I thought this was really interesting and a very different way to play the game. Of course, coming from a MMORPG background, I expect priest to equal healing and sending holy nukes around, so was very intrigued by the title. I got VERY excited at the thought of magic in the Sims, especially since I never got the Magic expansion from the previous Sims games.

Still, a very interesting idea and one that I think deserves a bit of publicity. You know, to the whole 3 of you that read my rambles heh.

Follow the storyline here: Life as a Priest in Sims 3 I'm impressed by the house at least, pretty well done!

Melani is a master tinkerer. That is, she's raised her handiness skill up to level 7 now. Yet another mark against the 'super sim' theory I have. Anyway, tonight she got sent a shower from another townie, as apparently, she is the only Sim in town that can upgrade. Sweet.

The upgrade went smoothly, however getting the shower back to it's original owner proved confusing. To save anyone else the frustration of figuring it out, I documented it for you. So professional aren't I?

1. Return the now upgraded shower to your Family Inventory
2. Open up your map viewer and look for the icon indicating the showers owner - they can be anywhere
3. Track them down, or catch them at home, and you will have the interaction option to return the shower.

Easy, right? Yeah, not so much when you have NO IDEA how to do this. Those three little steps took me bloody 10 minutes to figure out. Bah.

Sunset Valley is the only neighborhood shipped with The Sims 3 - the other one downloadable upon registration of a genuine copy. It is very large compared to the neighborhoods in previous The Sims games, having a total of 97 lots with various playable characters. There are lots of different types of houses like, a rustic home on a hill, a modern house in the suburbs, a house by the beach and many more. The main part of the town is the park, where you can have a picnic, go fishing or take a stroll and maybe meet someone new, there are also cinemas, gyms, restaurants, shops, pools, and other recreational facilities. Tons of places to work, where Sims can live out their dreams or crash and burn. Sims can now visit all their friend's and neighbor's homes and call up their friends with the new cell phone, and go out on the town and party. Sims also now can have a laptop.

Sunset Valley is not part of Simcity because Sunset Valley has all of its own services.

There are 21 available empty lots for you to build on. They are priced from $1200 at the cheapest, to $14,700 as the most expensive. The amount of space (in squares) for building goes from 19x29 at the smallest to 60x60 at the largest. The most expensive lot, 15 Summer Hill Court, is on the same hill and offers the same stunning vistas as the Alto estate.

When you start the game this is the Sunset Valley Story: "Before Pleasantview, there was Sunset Valley, founded by the Goths and built up by the Landgraabs to be a quiet, peaceful town. But when the Altos arrive with uptown ideals, will the townsfolk feel the need to choose sides?"

Sunset Valley is Pleasantview before the original in The Sims, which the neighborhood is named Old Town. The Goth Family are there as their younger selves, Mortimer as a child with his parents, as well as a few other familiar families, including the Bachelor Family.

New Families

The Alto Family - Simply described as "Nouveau Riche and Evil." Their family name may be a pun on the television series "The Sopranos." They seem to have a rivalry with the Landgraab Family. Their teenage daughter is Holly Alto.

The Andrews Family - Consists of married couple, Beau Andrews and Victoria Andrews.

The Bunch Family - Here's the story: Two working parents juggle family, household chores, and their careers while their four children run wild. What is the right balance for this family of six to stay sane?

The Clavell Family - Xander Clavell is an party animal still living in his parents' house. Buster is tired of Xander's mooching, and wants him out. Will Bessie have to choose between her son, and her husband?

The Frio Brothers - The Frio brothers may have a nice house, but they have personality issues which make them less than ideal as boyfriend material. Will Jared face the challenge of fatherhood?

The Hart Family - Father, Mother, and teen daughter. Sound boring? Hardly! Both parents have the Insane trait! Bebe is just trying to be a normal teenage girl, but how can she when her dad is wearing bunny slippers to her family's picnic and her mom is swatting imaginary pixies in the air?! Consists of Gus Hart, Dorie Hart, and Bebe Hart.

The Jolina Family - Jamie Jolina is an intelligent as she is beautiful. Can she prove to the world that two traits can coexist?

The Keaton Family - Try to keep up the sporty Keatons. Mrs. Keaton is a police officer and her husband works as a toddler sports coach in the Athletic Carrer.

The Koffi Family - Gobias Koffi is a well-meaning single sim who just hasn't met the right women. Is this because he actually prefers the company of his male friends?

The Roomies Household - Five young adult Sims with different and unique personalities living together.

The Ursine Family - Claire Ursine is a single lady who lives alone and loves to fish. She might seem like a normal woman, but it turns out she's pregnant (the father is Jared Frio) and she has a job in the Criminal Career!

The Wolff Family - A newly married couple living along the beach. It seems like they have the perfect life, but it turns out they rushed into their marriage to quickly before finding out that Thornton Wolff is against fatherhood, while Morgana Wolff wants to have as many children as possible.

The Single Moms Family - Fiona McIrish is used to living alone with her teenage daughter, River. But when Fiona's best friend needed a place to live with her own daughter, Fiona readily invited the two to live in her home. Will Molly be the perfect housemate or Fiona's biggest regret?

Families in the Family Bin

The Baker Family - Svetlana and Heathcliff love their daughter Becky, so of course they took her in when she and her son Topher needed a place to stay. But will they be able to enjoy their retirement with a noisy toddler in the house?

The Funke Family - Some might say that Sabrina and Rhett Funke are too flaky to be successful at raising kids. Will their three talented tots turn out ok in the end, or will they let the pressure get to them?

The Glover Family - Roommates Gwen and Holden are an odd pair: she's artsy and outgoing; he's spacey and bookish. Will they be just good friends, or something more?

The Lum Family - A family of three, with the teen son Lawrence needing to choose whether to follow his father Theodore or mother Lily's footsteps.

The Martinez Family - Lovebirds Pablo and Jennifer Martinez are outdoorsy folk looking to explore nature. Will they thrive in a new town, or will the suburban lifestyle eventually drive them to tears?

The Williams Family - Aimee Williams is a marvel in the kitchen, but her husband Marley is a bit of a dreamer. Will he be able to support the two of them and little Malika, or will Aimee have to use her skills to earn some dough?

Returning families
Families returning from the Sims 1 & Sims 2 nearly 50 years earlier are:

The Bachelor Family - Jocasta Bachelor and Simis Bachelor are raising their children Michael and Bella.

The Crumplebottom Family - Agnes Crumplebottom as her younger self, and her dead husband Erik Darling

The Goth Family - The Goth Family are the founders of Sunset Valley and are very wealthy. Since this is before The Sims 2, Gunther Goth and his wife Cornelia are adults, with Mortimer Goth as a child. (Mortimer Goth seems to have a crush on Bella.)

The Landgraab Family - Live the good life with the Landgraabs as long as your name isn't name Alto. The family consists of Geoffrey Landgraab, Nancy Landgraab, and their child son Malcolm Landgraab.

The Langerak Family - Kaylynn Langerak is a playable child Sim. She comes from a wealthy family which consists of Dustin Langerak, Iliana Langerak, Iliana's sister Zelda Mae, and their children Parker Langerak and Kaylynn Langerak.

The Pleasants, Burbs and other families from Sims 1 and 2 are not in the game, but it is possible to recreate them in Create-A-Sim.