Some random photos whilst I explore Showtime -

Aqil's mentioned before that Raph is insanely competitive over bar-games - now there's tonnnnnns for him to inflict on him.





Aqil: the saddest sing-o-gram

Oooooh these photos give me hope! Did you move them to Starlight Shores?

I don't want to play my proper save file until Twallan's mods are sorted, so I've got a copy of Raph and Aqil in Starlight Shores to play with til he updates them (so for the sake of the next update, they're visiting it, haha). It's actually really fun. I'm enjoying it better than Pets, for sure.

edit: WHOA WHOA WHOA a child I'm not controlling just set up a bake sale my Sims can buy stuff from. Don't tell me they've improved the Story Progression finally?!

kirkuk wrote:

Someone is enjoying himself

I finally caved and decided to buy Showtime. I feel like I owe it to myself especially since I missed out on Pets Not to mention that it looks dangerously enthralling...

Love it, poor Aqil getting beaten at pool!

Can't wait for next update now to see Starlight Shores, I havn't gotten it.

So is the coffee shop in Showtime open? And can the large stadium like venue replace the rabbithole in like Sunset or Bridgeport?

The coffeeshop isn't open, which is a shame because I was really looking forward to that given the amount of time my Sims spend in cafés...

I haven't downloaded the large venue yet, and haven't got someone high enough the singing career to see the massive generated crowds, but I might cheat and have a peek. The stadium venue appears to be a rabbithole? I'll have to check it out.

To give them credit, they've done a really good job with the crowds. You'll see in the update, but there's always Sims at concerts, and there's actually wayyyy more Sims on community lots than there used to be too. They've got this system where crowds go into set areas, and do all these quirky interactions - SimFest is the first time my game has made me laugh in a long time.

Oh, I don't know if it's coincidence, but every time there's a concert in the park, a child sets up the bake stall and starts selling cakes to the crowds, which I think is an awesome touch if it's intended.

My game also seems to have sped up - it might be because I've removed some mods, but I think it could also be all the patches undoing some of the damage of Pets. If I could get StoryProgression to stop breaking my flipping game, everything would be perfect, haha.

Ohhhh, apparently the stadium rabbithole opens up for concerts?! Got to try that out now.

Great photos. It will be fun to watch Aquil get gigs around town. I look forward to your next update

Okay, I tried to include a biiiiit driving the story along, but this update is unashamedly mostly just photos of Showtime.

43 - Shiny new things



“Right, where was I?”





Man, who on earth lets their kid do this at this time of night?



“Hey kid, how much are those?”

“Three dollars.”



“You’re shi-….uhh, kidding me.”

“Three dollars.”

“Fine. Give me one of the brownie things. And it had better be a large one for three dollars.”



“How was that? Did I screw up the second last one? You know what, never mind that. just give me a cigarette, I'm dying here."

“You’ve quit, remember? Here, have a brownie.”

“That’s not the same at all.”



“You’re not smoking, Aqil. End of.”

“I thought we agreed I could have one after gigs if I quit the rest of the time.”

“Nope. Just eat it, it’ll take your mind off it.”

“If I eat a brownie every time I think about smoking, I’ll weigh a thousand kilograms by the end of the year and then you’ll be sorry.

“Not as sorry as if you die.”



They are still based in Bridgeport officially, but because my game was being screwy and I wanted to explore Showtime, they are currently ‘renting’ a house in Starlight Shores.

“Remember your dad and his girlfriend get in tomorrow morning. You need to set your alarm.”



“I’m not one of your production assistants you need to boss around Raph, I’m not going to forget to set my alarm.”

“But you do. Every single time.”



“I do not.”

“You do. Remember when you missed your flight? Or all those times I’ve had to make small talk with your friends whilst you got dressed in a panic?”



“…those don’t count.”



Lo and behold next morning.

Briiiiiing.

“I’m coming, I’m coming. Aqil! Get up! I told you to set your darn alarm.”



“Heyyy! Welcome to California! Aqil’s-”

“Still asleep?”



“No no, he’s…just…upstairs...”



“Because your bedroom is upstairs and he’s asleep?”

“Yeah...”



“Oh, you’re up, are you?”

“I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about, dad. Hi Emmanuelle, lovely to see you.”



“Gosh, this is a nice house, isn’t it? Mido was telling me horror stories about how unorganised he thought you were – I thought you’d end up renting some kind of terrifying dive.”

“Give Raph all the credit, he arranged everything. I probably would have rented a terrifying dive. Come in, come in.”



“So how was the funeral?”

“Oh. You know. It went as well as it could have, I guess. Lots of praying. I suppose some people find that gives them some closure - I’m not one of them, but…well, it was nice seeing Saeed anyway.”

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it, I hope Saeed understood. Just with finding somewhere to rent here, and sorting out someone to look after the apartment back there, and the flight time…”



“It’s okay, my family’s opinion of us couldn’t get much lower anyway.”

“Shiii- Really?”

“I’m joking, I’m joking. Kind of. I can’t vouch for all my family, but I think my brother understands that when you demand near-immediate burial you just accept that non-attendance is par for the course.”



“Mido didn’t make it either, did he?”

“No no, it was far too short notice for him. I’m beginning to regret leaving the dog with him for all this time though - the little one has become obsessed. I’m slightly worried about unleashing hell when I finally pick him back up.”

“Mmm, he mentioned that. So what are you up to when you get back – back to work? Surely you’ve been slacking off for long enough by now.”



“We’ll see. I very much doubt I’m going to get my old job back.”

“If your father does anything that involves travelling to godforsaken places, I’m leaving. Don’t bother pulling that face Nour, I’m not going through all that again. You’re staying in France. I don’t care if it’s boring.”

“We’ll see.”

“Anywaaaay, if neither of you is too jetlagged, I thought we’d go to this performance thing in the park today. It’ll probably be lame, but at least the mediocre performances have their own kind of amusement value. Plus, you know, seeing other people make a fool of themselves on stage makes me feel better about myself, so there's that.”

"Charming..."



When they get to the park, Simfest hasn’t started yet, so I have them check out the new golf objects.

“This is probably because I come from a country with only one proper golf course, but I’ve never understood the attraction of this game.”



“I don’t think Raph does either. He just likes anything that involves being better at something than other people.”



“But there’s no-one else playing.”



“You’d be surprised how little that matters.”



Time for Simfest. For some reason, Raph and Nour go to one side of the stage, and Aqil and Emmanuelle go to the other.



The proprietor gives a little speech, and we’re off.



First up is a magician. He’s really, really good.



Raph requests that he do the sword trick, and apparently this makes him and Nour really excited. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone wave their phone at a magic show before…



His volunteer looks less excited.



I’d be nervous too. Look at him, he’s clearly evil.









Haha, the audience reactions crack me up.



I was secretly hoping he’d mess up and she’d die, but no such luck.





She looks relieved.







The next one is also a magician – I was hoping for an acrobat, but whatever.



She is truly terrible, but I’m including some photos of her because she looks a little like Adele. In an ideal world, her daughter would have looked like this, rather than the Laurent-in-a-wig I ended up with.



Nour gives her some condescending applause whilst Raph…uhh, I don’t really know what that is.



By the time it’s over, it’s time for dinner. Who knew magic shows could last that long?!

“Oh, are you cooking, Aqil? Well, that’s a first.”

“Actually I cook all the time now. Back me up, Raph.”



“Yes. Aqil has too many prejudices against the cuisine of places that aren’t France or Lebanon to let me do it.”

“He eats deep-fried Twinkies. He can’t be trusted near food.”



“ONE time and I was EIGHT.”

“Barbarian.”

“Snob.”



“So anyway, have your parents visited yet?”

“Well, we’ve been here less than a week, so…”

“Sorry, I meant in Bridgeport.”



“Oh…no…they, uh, they don’t visit so much. It’s kind of a long way.”

“Longer than France?”

“Ha, I guess not.”



“It’s just that I was saying to Nour yesterday that it might be nice to meet them before the wedding. Less…potentially awkward.”

“Oh. Um. That might be kinda hard, what with the whole ‘different continents’ thing, but I guess I’ll see what I can do. I can’t promise anything though.”



“Right, dinner’s ready. When you’re done giving my fiancé the third degree.”



It’s so hard to get photos of them eating together, augh. I don’t want a return to TS2 style five hour dinners, but come on, they eat sooooo fast.



Later that night…

“I know we’ve only been here a day and maybe it’s not representative, but think I might already be a little jealous of Aqil’s life.”

“Hmmm. Maybe my son can be one of those things we don’t discuss in the bedroom.”

“Oh. Right. Sorry.”



Two seconds later…

“Raph’s lovely, isn’t he? A bit evasive about certain topics though, don’t you think? I'm not sure why we haven't met his parents yet.”

“If I agree, will you please stop talking about men who aren’t me?”

"I'm just saying!"

Thanks for cracking me up. While I've got ST and have noticed the crowds' different reactions, I hadn't been up close enough to see their facial expressions. Nour and Raph just kill me.

BTW, you have an unfinished thingy - whatever you call it: [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ElPqI.png[/IMG

Brilliant update as always Kirkuk I enjoyed your pics of SimFest too.

beggar1015 wrote:Thanks for cracking me up. While I've got ST and have noticed the crowds' different reactions, I hadn't been up close enough to see their facial expressions. Nour and Raph just kill me.

BTW, you have an unfinished thingy - whatever you call it: [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/ElPqI.png[/IMG

Whoops, so I did! It's been edited now.

The audience reactions are great - my favourite is the one where they jump in a crazy circle. It's hard to capture in a photo, sadly. But it's the strangest thing I've seen in the Sims for a while.

monaduncan wrote:Brilliant update as always Kirkuk I enjoyed your pics of SimFest too.

Cheers! I got pretty lucky with Simfest, it was on literally the day after I started playing. I hear some people have had to wait (Sim) weeks for it.

The house looks nice and Showtime looks like fun. I had forgotten just how skinny Nour is. It looks like Emmanuelle has got at least a good 15 pounds on him lol. The boys clothes are nice did the come with Showtime?

Jacqueline09 wrote: The house looks nice and Showtime looks like fun. I had forgotten just how skinny Nour is. It looks like Emmanuelle has got at least a good 15 pounds on him lol. The boys clothes are nice did the come with Showtime?

Nour's a complete waif - when I got Ambitions, he was originally created as my main Sim's housemate in Twinbrook, working in the architecture career. He just kind of drifted around the house looking tortured and wearing big glasses. I think I made him stay up til 4am every night and only eat cereal until they both grew up and got married (to other people). I sort of switched between them both after that. StoryProgression made him leave his wife for another man when I was playing the other household.

Yup, the clothes came with Showtime. So much more choice now, yayyy.