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So on this Christmas day, I find myself wondering what on earth I’m gona do on my day off… well I think that perhaps my little Sims family could use a bit of xmas cheer themselves. I think the Roths in Riverblossom Hills are gona have their first white Christmas, with a big tree, a shinning Rudolf outside, some xmas cookies and then they’ll patiently await Santa, who will bring with him a shiny new present too So then I thought I’d post some tips for all you Sims 2 fans as well, before I go start the holiday cheer in Riverblossom Hills.

Christmas with the Sims

Ok so as I’ve said above, your Sims can have a Christmas (Sims 2: Christmas Party Pack) too, even a white one if you wait till Winter (Sims 2: Seasons). With Sims 2: Christmas Party Pack you can have your Sims dress up as Santa and Mrs Claus, have a decorated Christmas tree, decorate your house with Christmas decorations and even kiss under the mistletoe.

Want the real Santa Claus to come visit? Put up a Christmas tree, bake some Christmas cookies which you leave out for him and just wait. He’ll come by, dance about your house, eat your cookies, use your loo and leave you a present behind. It’s usually something kewl like a stereo or chess table.

Having a House Guest

Ok so if your little Sims has a dreary life and decides on a little getaway, he or she will mostly likely meet new people while on vacation (Sims 2: Bon Voyage). Now whether you go to the Far East, to an Island or even up to the mountains, you’re gona meet a lot of local folk. A nice interface that Maxis has made in the Sims 2: Bon Voyage is that you can phone and talk to (not invite over) with your current friends, to keep the relationship status high. Same applies for people you’ve met while on vacation. Now, if you’ve made a friend while on holiday, you’ll be able to invite them over as a house guest for 3 sim days, when you get back home.

This can be loads of fun, as it gives you a chance to interact with your friends from far far away :biggrin: Now, they will make themselves at home, but I’ve noticed don’t, uh, well they don’t n

ecessarily sleep, which is ok, cause it doesn’t seem to affect them negatively. IE: they don’t stand and complain that they’re tired like they should be doing and all other Sims do.

Dig up Your Garden

Ok so I see a lot of you Sims fans out there want to know about the Sims voodoo doll. This can be obtained from an Island vacation lot (The Sims 2: Bon Voyage), but it’s a secret lot and you can only find

it if you have the secret map. Now each holiday destination has their own secret lot and if you want to find the map to it, you have to dig… dig dig dig. Dig up your garden, you’ll find all sorts of things and more importantly, every so often you’ll find a map. Clicking on it in your Sims inventory, will tell you the destination of the map. Once in the appropriate holiday destination, you’ll be able to walk to that secret lot… as you now know how to find the secret path there.

Oh and don’t forget, you will find lots of other things in your back yard, mostly just rocks and bones, but if you’re persistant, perhaps even some buried treasure, which you can then go into Buy Mode and sell for a hefty some of simoleons.

* The Voodoo Within

Ok so now once you have the map for the secret lot, see above under Dig up Your Garden, you need to go on holiday, to the Islands and you’ll be able to take the next step in acquiring your Sims Voodoo Doll. The lot has a little house upon a hill, where the witch doctor lives. He’ll be terribly grumpy cause his house is full of broken furniture and appliances. Like the bathtub, dish washer, stereo, etc. Talk to him, then fix all his broken household goods (you’ll need a decent mechanical skill level to do it all) and talk to him again. He’ll be so grateful, as a reward he’ll give you a Voodoo doll.

The Voodoo doll is quite cute. It sits in your inventory and allows you additional interactions with other Sims. Like all other items, there are some positive and negative results with the Voodoo doll. You can make an instant friend, use it to make some one fall in love with you instantly, without the hassle of courting them first. You can also do something like cause the other Sims temperature to sky rocket or make them all wet. Lots of fun to be had with the Sims Voodoo doll.

* Myths, Legends and Old Wives Tales

Ok so now once you have the map for the secret lot, see above under Dig up Your Garden, you need to go on holiday, to the Far East and you’ll be able to take the next step in learning the Legend of the Dragon.

This is a nice little trick, cause it gives you the opportunity to r

etell the tale of this legend, which not only gives you and your listeners fun, but increases your social points.

* Look Mom, it’s SimFoot

Ok so now once you have the map for the secret lot, see above under Dig up Your Garden, you need to go on a Holiday vacation and you’ll be able to take the next step in your journey to meet Big Foot.

Big Foot lives in a little cabin in the mountains, where he lives out his days fishing in a nearby lake. You can interact with him, yes he speaks Simlish. When my alien Sim, Stella Terrano (yeah she’s just my favourite Sim to play with) met Big Foot, they became friends and she quickly asked him to move in with her. Now interactions with Big Foot are the same as with any other Sim, except that he cannot have any romantic interactions, so there went my hopes of an alien Big Foot.

He does have an extra interaction and that’s a big foot hug, which is kinda cute, he’ll give your Sim a big grizzly hug. But he has the same aspirations as your other Sims and a very cute hat and waistcoat he wears to work, should you wana send Mr Big Foot into the workforce that is :biggrin:

Oh and FYI, you can get fishing badges while on holiday too.

Return of the SimWolf

Getting your Sims to become Werewolves (Sims 2: Pets) is pretty tough at first, although I think after getting it right the first time might make it a little easier the next time. Firstly, your Sim needs to attract the leader of the wolf pack to his or her lot. Not just any wolf, it has to be the pack leader, only he or she can make your Sim a werewolf. There is only one difference between the leader of the pack and a regular wolf and that is their glowing yellow eyes.

Best way to attract the pack leader to your Sims lot is by making it wolf friendly… they like lots and lots of fauna. Buy some vegetation, plants, flowers and let the garden over run a little with weeds and untrimmed hedges.

Once you spot the leader of the pack, make friends with him or her. They’ll only come by at night and will leave the early hours of the morning, before sun rise, so your time is limited. Alternate between the first two available social interactions, which is Feed Treat and Stroke. So you do that, repeatedly until a third and fourth option becomes available. Once your Sim is friends with the wolf, might take more than one night, your relationship should be around 80 and your stats quite low, then the wolf will nibble you and your Sim will be a werewolf.

Remember to keep your stats down before nightfall, so you’re ready when the wolf comes by, probably the second or third night. Keep your social, fun, comfort, hygiene and bladder as low as you can, without causing your Sim to become too miserable to follow your instructions.

Once a werewolf, your Sim will change every night and change back every morning. Once they’ve shape shifted into werewolf form, their hunger will take a dive… as a wolf man, they obviously like red meat, so give them a big hefty meal each night. They can howl and in turn convert their own friends by biting them.

You can get the lycan cure, Lycanthropic – B, from the matchmaker, phone her up she’s

under Services.

FYI – any cure, whether it be vampires, werewolves or plantsims, you can take it out of your inventory and use your influence to influence some one to drink the cure… so if you’re sick of your best friends night time habits.

Count Simula

If your Sim loves the night life and wants to free themselves of their mortal coil, you can get them turned by a vampire (Sims 2: Night Life). What you need to do first is locate and befriend an existing vampire. Now the game has two premade vampires, a female and male. You’ll usually find them downtown. Best bet is to hang out, during night time only of course, at the Crypt O’ Nightclub.

Befriend them and once your friendship level is high enough, they’ll bite you, turning your Sim into the undead. As a vampire, your Sims will have a slighter paler complexion… looks a little grey if you ask me and have elongated teeth or fangs. Same as with the werewolf, above mentioned, they can then in turn bite their own friends, turning more of Simville into vampires.

Vampire Sims will die in sunlight, you have to take out their windows and keep them indoors during the daytime. Their stats go down quite quickly, the longer they’re exposed to sunlight, so I guess if you need to run to that last exam real quick, it should be ok. Buying them a coffin to sleep in might be a good investment. Coffins also have one or two cute interactions for other Sims.

As a vampire, your Sim will be immortal and be able to turn into a bat while moving about. Vampire Sims cannot get pregnant. If you’re friends with a vampire, phoning them during the day for a chat has the same effect as phoning a Sim after midnight, if you wana phone them up, do it when the sun is down.

Your Sim Vampire’s stats will stay as they are, that is if you stay out of the sun, just like mythic vampires, they don’t really need sustenance to survive. Unless of course you’re making your Sim vampire do lots of exercise, their hygiene will also go down and of course, they do get tired as well. Oh and your Vampire will also not have a reflection, which I thought was a cute touch.

You can get the cure, Vamprocillin – D, from the matchmaker, phone her up she’s under Services.

FYI – any cure, whether it be vampires, werewolves or plantsims, you can take it out of your inventory and use your influence to influence some one to drink the cure… so if you’re sick of your best friends night time habit.

Nigh of the Living Simbies

Zombies kinda creep me out, half decomposed creatures dragging themselves around… just creepy. But if you’d like to see how Maxis has created zombies for your Sims, you’ll need Sims 2: University.

Firstly you need to reach a high level in the Occult career path. Once you’re eligible for a career reward, you get the phone which allows you to call the Grim Reaper and if you know any dead Sims, you’ll have the option to resurrect them.

Now, it doesn’t come cheap. For a full resurrection, you have

to pay the full price, the less you pay, the, uh, well less fully assembled they’ll come back. You get to choose between 1 to 10 000 simoleans. If you decide to only pay a pitiful amount, like under 1000 simoleons, the Grim Reaper will get a little ticked off, take your money, not resurrect the Sim and tell you to stop wasting his time. Now, if you want the Sim not to come back as he or she was before and you’re looking for a zombie, then don’t pay the full 10 grand. Pay like 3 or 4 thousand and you’ll get your very own Sim zombie.

I was a little disappointed with the zombies, they don’t seem to have as much extra features as the other ‘monsters’ in the Sims 2. They act and sound like a zombie, like he drags his one leg behind him and does a lot of growling… or grunting, or what ever you call that gargly sound a zombie makes. They’re a slightly greener colour and it seems that their hunger does not go down. Guess zombies don’t need to eat

Your Garden Variety PlantSim

If you ever just get fed up of trying to keep you little Sims happy and thriving and wish that for once their stats would just become easier to maintain, then with Sims 2: Seasons, you can now get them to turn into PlantSims, which have much less stats to worry about.

Now, the only way to get your Sim to become a PlantSim is for them to become exposed to a high amount of chemicals… the pesticides used to kill the bugs on your crops. So if you use the ‘Spray’ feature a lot on your crops, your Sim will eventually join the ranks of PlantSims, green plant like creatures with the same wants and aspirations as any other human Sims, but with a different type of needs.

PlantSims are easy to care for, their needs are only Water, Sunlight and Love. Love is of course like your Social bar. And as for Sunlight, well you can get one of those indoor sunlight, that’ll do just fine.

If you want a PlantSim, don’t build a greenhouse at first. A greenhouse (ie: the glass walls and roof you can now build around your crops – Sims 2: Seasons) will keep your crops pest free.

PlantSims cannot become pregnant, as plants are asexual; they can have a baby all on their own. Only thing with that is that a PlantSim baby is born immediately as a toddler and also skips a lot of the life cycles. They go directly from toddler, to adult, to elder. You can at anytime cure them which will let them continue the normal Sim aging cycle.

You can get the cure, Plantophic – C, from the matchmaker or Garden Club, phone them up, they’re under Services.

FYI – any cure, whether it be vampires, werewolves or plantsims, you can take it out of your inventory and use your influence to influence some one to drink the cure… so if you’re sick of your best friends night time habits.

Not so long ago, I became a victim of identity theft. I should have probably thanked my bank more for having systems in place to help them detect these sorts of crimes. The bank was on the case in a matter of hours and completely stopped them in their tracks before they caused me financial chaos. The best thing about this crime is that you do not need your wallet or purse stolen from you to fall a victim.

The United Kingdom is one of those countries that still deliver directly to your front door instead of using a post box. This convenience for anyone using the mail system makes you an easy target for people to obtain information about you. They only need a few basic details to start opening accounts in your name and that’s it for you.

People have become far too trusting with their fellow man when majority of them will jump at the chance to better themselves and leave you in the gutter to sort out the mess. There are a few basic things you can do, which is free and simple to help you not become a victim.

1. Pizza Deliveries – When you place an order on the telephone and pay by credit or debit card they take down all the details to charge the order. This leaves you quite vulnerable and there is nothing you can do to stop them from taking money off you. They’ve got your address and they’ve got all the important details on the card to cripple you financially. Try to order online via a secure website or pay by cash or cheque instead.
2. Bank / Credit Card Statements – I have seen a lot of people throw these out in the bin without even shredding them. Do yourself a favour and shred it. The more personal information that’s out there about you, the worse it can get.
3. Social Networking Sites – Chances are that you have not adjusted your privacy settings yet which leaves your page or profile open for anyone to view it. Great, could you have made it any easier for them?
4. Routine Account Checks – This one should be done more often. Log into your online banking or credit card accounts and make sure that you see what you have spent and what you have spent only.
5. Dodgy ATM / Cash Machines – This still happens and it is a growing trend. Make sure that the machine has no loose parts before you stick your card in the slot. Cover up the keypad when you type in your pin as people use little cameras to spy on people.

Identity theft is no joke and shouldn’t be taken lightly as it affects a portion of the population and it is on the increase as we speak. Take more care with your accounts and personal information as how would you prove that it is really you?

Since he cut his knee as a teenager, strange roots have been growing out of Dede, a 35-year-old Indonesian fisherman.

Now he is hoping his life can be saved from his bizarre affliction.

Now, to be honest, we at Metro Online are not sure if we believe this, but you decide for yourselves.

The strange growths mean he cannot use his hands. He was sacked from his job and his wife left him.

To help raise his two children, at one point he joined a freak show with other victims of peculiar diseases.

Namibia is relatively the same size as the United Kingdom with a small population of 1.8 – 2 million people. If you are looking for some time away from it all and open spaces is what you are after then I seriously recommend you look into visiting Namibia. Namibia is a third world country like majority of African countries but never the less; you will be amazed to see how quickly it is developing.

Namibia used to be a German Colony during the World War’s hence why you will meet a lot of Germans living in Namibia. Windhoek, Swakopmund and Tsumeb still all have a lot of German influences. Namibia is nothing like South Africa but they do tend on following the South African’s closely with developments and trends. Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt put Namibia on the world map when they decided to give birth to their first daughter in Swakopmund along the coast line of Namibia. Everyone suddenly realised that Namibia actually exists. Not a bad thing at all.

There are a lot of tour companies established in Namibia which makes it quite easy and safe to travel around Namibia taking in the vast and unique beauty. The local currency is Namibian Dollar (N$) which is the same value as the South African Rand. Both currencies are accepted in Namibia but South Africa will not accept the Namibian Dollar. Chip and Pin are quite new in Namibia and a lot of the smaller stores might not have adopted the new technology yet but there are hundreds of ATM’s around to withdraw money from if needed.

When visiting Namibia, be sure to keep safe like travelling in any other country by not really displaying your money in your wallet or wearing expensive jewellery. A lot of tourists do not realise that Africa is a rather poor country and people do steal to survive although you will not be in any more harm than you would have been in your own home town. Namibia is quite a safe country to visit and if you travel with a local tour company, they will be telling you the exact same thing as they know what to look out for.

Namibia has a lot of different areas to explore such as the long unique coastline on the west, the grasslands to the east, bushveld to the north and desert to the south. There will always be something different to see. Etosha National Park is located in the north of Namibia and a quite popular tourist attraction. Etosha National Park is roughly 22 000 square kilometres big and quite a site not to miss. Namibia is still a little backwards when it comes to the latest technology but they are getting there.

Namibia is a great country to visit and you should definitely visit it if you have a chance to. You can get a lot of great photos on Namibia by visiting Flickr and typing in “Namibia” as well as “YouTube”.

My very first character, years ago, I was so annoyed when I realised how expensive it was and that I didn’t have enough gold… I still had A LOT of questing to do on foot before I could save up that kind of gold. But a few simple pointers and tips, will help you with this right from the start.

Firstly, choose your professions wisely.

Ok so there are a few professions which might be a little lucrative, over others, but it’s not really the main 2 professions you choose which will make that difference. It’s the 3 extra ones, cooking, fishing and first aid.

Cooking can actually be lucrative. I almost never use the food my character cooks, I simply sell it because it always makes me so much silver.

Fishing is a bit of a hit and miss really. I myself have stopped fishing altogether, because it just takes soooo long and so far I’ve only found one fish worth fishing for, as it makes a great cooking recipe, but again, to be able to fish in that particular area, your fishing skill needs to be a certain amount already. Frankly, I couldn’t be bothered. But I do know of a one or two other players who seem to think it’s lucrative.

First aid is in my opinion a total waste of money. The thing is, for example with your cooking, you’ll get a lot more for a piece of cooked boar meat than a raw piece. It just makes sense to cook your stuff because you get more for it. With first aid you don’t. Vendors give you more for your raw linen than a linen bandage. As for helpful during game play, well I suppose it depends on your character. Obviously, any classes with healing abilities DO NOT need first aid. I don’t train first aid, regardless of my class. If I ever play a warrior, there are other things I’d rather use like food, which you just pick so much of up. – Silk usually sells quite well in the auction house, so a total waste of money if wasted on first aid. Read below for more on the auction house.

Auction House, auction house auctions house! The auction house, or AH, is not just there for you to find the missing parts of your quest or upgrade your own armour. If you have something of value, auction it off. You’d be surprised at how much gold you can make like this. I missed out most definitely, with my first Night Elf Druid, she was my test dummy for sure. When using the AH, do a little search for what other people are selling, see if what you’re wanting to sell will actually get a buyer. Might also be handy to Google what it is you’re wanting to sell first… so you know what it’s used for, not everything will turn a profit. There are a few addons which will help you know right away what items you loot are used for - reagent info.

Class Training is always fun. It’s fun to learn new abilities and spells every 2 levels. But once you get use to your character, you’ll see that some of those abilities or spells, you’ll never even use and then regret paying all that silver (and eventually gold) just to train it. There aren’t much, but there are one or two things which I don’t train. I suggest, READING what each spell does, know your character, cause you have to know what you’re doing if you’re gona effectively do quests whether that be soloing or in a group. This is usually best after the first couple of levels though, once you get a feel for the class you’re playing.

Plan Ahead when questing, to save money on flight paths. If you’re still low level you’ll see that it doesn’t pay off to fly up and down all the time. If you have 3 quests in one area, do them all first before flying off, to save yourself the extra cost of flying back later. This is also a real time saver of course.

Be Patient About New Armour & Weapons. The thing is, you’ll most likely end up looting or getting a quest reward, which is better than what you have. So at first, hold back on splurging on a new kewl mace or mail pants. Of course, some professions will help you make new and better items, like blacksmithing, tailoring or leatherworking.

Remember that blacksmithing makes weapons and mail armour wile tailoring makes cloth and leatherworking mostly leather. Not all classes can wear mail or even leatherworking. Some can only wear cloth.