The Sims 4 Official Gameplay Trailer #TS4 #TheSims4

The Official Gameplay Trailer for Sims 4 was released today and even if I wasn’t a huge fan of the franchise I think I would be excited about this release. Creating a Sim is like moulding clay. You don’t use sliders, you click on the actual person. You also get to give them personality which is something we haven’t seen before. They can walk differently and they have emotions far beyond what we’ve seen in the past.

As far as building a house goes, it’s simple and powerful. You can pick up entire rooms and move them around. The trailer spends a lot of time talking about the new emotional states that sims have, but I wish there was more of a focus on the creation process, because that’s what I like most about Sims, creating new lots!

Are you looking forward to playing? What are your thoughts?

FFXIV and Learning to Dye

ffxiv_08182013_092357These are by far the cutest ugly toads I have ever seen.

Most of my weekend was eaten up by FFXIV, which doesn’t come as that much of a surprise to me. I played the 1.0 version of the game and enjoyed it quite a bit but grew frustrated with how difficult the learning curve was (personally). This time around things are going MUCH better, but again it still has a bit of learning that has to be done.

For example, dye. Apparently you can just right click a piece of gear, and then you’ll have a ‘dye this item’ option, and once you’ve gotten that far a nice interface will open up explaining things to you. OR there’s a quest NPC out in a higher level area (think 15+) who will explain how it is done. The quest involves orange juice.

Then there’s the interface. I learned a few handy tricks to getting it placed the way I want. First of all, the main chat window moves by dragging the ‘general’ tab along the bottom. You can’t move it when you’re adjusting the hud like you can every single other window. Think your windows are too large? When you are adjusting the hud (hit escape, and then go to HUD layout) you can select a piece (mouse click it) and then use contro + home to re-size it between a few options. You can drag the hotbars around by the numbers in the front, and you can turn off or on any piece you want by staying in HUD layout and right clicking on each piece.

Pretty simple, right?

Combat is what we’ve been playing for years now, and the game isn’t new if that’s what you’re looking for. You’ll be going to public quests, dungeons, even raids. You’ll run courier missions ad nauseum. The truth of the matter is that I’m not looking for a game that provides any of these things in a new or unique manor. In fact FFXIV is probably exactly what I’m looking for because of one key feature. It’s a world I have never explored with a backstory and lore that I’ve never delved into before.

Don’t get me wrong, I love pretty much every single MMO out there, and I’ve played a LOT of them. This isn’t putting those games down at all. I’m just saying that sometimes I want to go out and play a game that feels familiar but is still brand new to me. Crafting is a lot like Vanguard (but less complicated). You’re given some points, you spend those points to try to raise the quality of an item, before you run out of the durability.

Everyone can be everything and so far I haven’t done much more than work my pugilist to level 15 along with a LOT of crafting. You change “jobs” by switching out your primary, whether it’s a sword, a needle, or a hand to hand weapon. You can save gear sets (thankfully) and while I do wish there were better ways of organizing my collection of “stuff” it’s not a game breaker.

Because I was a 1.0 player I do get to play for a few weeks without subscribing, and we’ll see at that time if I’m going to keep going. I know a lot of friends are facing errors when it comes to logging in but my weekend has been bug-free. Hopefully all of the issues get solved before things go live on the 24th (early access) and 27th (release date). As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Cauliflower Crust Pizza

pizza

 

Cauliflower crust pizza – it was amazing. No flour at all. The recipe is adapted from theluckypennyblog.com

Grain-Free Cauliflower Crust Pizza
makes one approx. 12 inch pizza

1 small to medium sized head of cauliflower – should yield 2 to 3 cups once processed
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon dried basil (crush it even more between your fingers)
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (crust it even more between you fingers)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
[omitted] optional a few shakes of crushed red pepper
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup mozzarella cheese [omitted]
1 egg
Desired amount of sauce, cheese for topping, and other toppings.

Place a pizza stone in the oven, or baking sheet if you don’t have a pizza stone. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. On a cutting board, place a large piece of parchment paper and spray it with nonstick cooking oil.

Wash and thoroughly dry a small head of cauliflower.Cut off the florets. Pulse in your food processor for about 30 seconds, until you get powdery snow like cauliflower. Place the cauliflower in a microwave safe bowl and cover. Microwave for 4 minutes. Dump cooked cauliflower onto a clean tea towel and allow to cool for a bit before attempting the next step.

Once cauliflower is cool enough to handle, wrap it up in the dish towel and ring the heck out of it. You want to squeeze out as much water as possible. This will ensure you get a chewy pizza like crust instead of a crumbly mess.

Dumped ringed out cauliflower into a bowl. Now add 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 1/4 cup mozzarella cheese, 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon dried basil (crush up the leaves even more between your fingers before adding), 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (crush up the leaves even more between your fingers before adding), 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (not garlic salt), and a dash of red pepper if you want. Now add your egg and mix away. Hands tend to work best.

Once mixed together, use your hands to form the dough into a crust on your oiled parchment paper. Pat it down thoroughly, you want it nice and tightly formed together. Don’t make it too thick or thin either.

Using a cutting board slide the parchment paper onto your hot pizza stone or baking sheet in the oven. Bake for 8 – 11 minutes, until it starts to turn golden brown. Remove from oven.

Add however much sauce, cheese, and toppings you want. Slide parchment with topped pizza back in the hot oven and cook for another 5 to 7 minutes until the cheese is melted, bubbly, and slightly golden.

Some Casual Civilization V

2013-08-13_00002Every so often I’ll back down from playing my typical MMOs and go browse through my collection of steam games. There has been a lot of talk about these collections on G+ lately, so that’s where the inspiration came from.

One game that I received some time ago but had yet to actually play was Civilization V and I was very much in the mood to play this sort of game, so I started it up. That is how I lost track of the next 4 hours. I absolutely fell completely in love with this game, even though to date I had not played any of the Civs before.

Of course then all my dreams were crushed as the game crashed, and I had not saved – except wait! It saves every 10 moves! Not all of my hard work was lost. At the time I did not see the tab that lets you check the last spots where you’ve saved, all I saw was the steam cloud save which was NOT updated at all (grumbles). So I thought all of my hard effort to take over Venice was lost. Turns out it’s not lost (yay).

In my first game I randomized everything and started as Russia. In the second map I was England, and things were going a bit poorly as I had issues taking over my neighbours kingdom. I didn’t realize that I needed some melee to help out instead of just ranged attackers, so I spent a good 20-25 minutes pummeling their walls with my archers only to have the city continue to stand. Eventually I clued in and sent some pikemen over, and victory was mine.

I don’t own any of the expansions but I added them to my steam wishlist. If you happen to be on steam and want to add me to your friends list, please go ahead! I’m over there as Stargrace, as usual.

It is a really nice break from MMOs to play some single player games. I know there’s a multiplayer game available too, but I haven’t tried that out yet.

I was a bit interested in Steam’s Trading Card mini-game, so I decided just for fun that I would not sell the cards I had earned towards Civ. 5 and instead I would purchase the ones I was missing (I dislike the idea of asking my friends for them) and craft the badge. It was neat, and I admit, addicting. When I crafted the badge I received a bunch of steam experience (for what, I have no idea), a :gems: emoticon (which I sold), A Civ 5 background, and 90% off of some game that looked cute but that I don’t really have any use for. I may pick it up so that I can gift it at a later date, I love helping out people who have games on their wishlists. It wasn’t super fancy, but I did have fun. I’m not sure if I’ll keep future cards or just sell them, we’ll see.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Cashew Chicken

chickenThis recipe was adapted from favfamilyrecipes.com – Crockpot cashew chicken

  • 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • 1/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • 2 tbsp rice vinegar
  • 2 tbsp ketchup
  • 1 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
  • 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1/2 cup cashews

Note: I did NOT make this in a crockpot, I used the stove.

Put the flour in a resealable food bag, add chicken (diced up into small pieces), shake to coat the chicken with flour. Heat some oil in a frying pan, brown the chicken for about 1 minute on each side. Put the chicken into a pot on the stove, on low heat.

Combine the soy sauce, vinegar, ketchup, sugar, garlic, ginger, and pepper flakes in a small bowl. Pour over the chicken. Cook on low for 2-3 hours. Add cashews and stir.

I served mine with diced up leeks, over soba noodles. This recipe may not be very low fat, but it was a HUGE hit, and it’s very good with the soba noodles (which are way nicer than regular plain white noodles).