Castaway Stories: The Last of Barrett's Privateers

[strangetomato]

You know how awesome it is when you notice one of the in-jokes in the game? Well, I was all smiles over the Barrett family on Wanmami Island. I ended up with an ear worm, and started singing that classic Stan Roger's favourite. When my SO asked me about it, I told him about the Barretts, who were privateers before they were shipwrecked, and he was pretty amused too. He was like, "Really? They really put that in there?" Yup, really. Well done, someone who worked on Sims 2 Castaway Stories. You're pretty rad.

Best pub song ever, by the way, even if it's a touch played out. I know I'll never get sick of it, anyway. (A friend of ours is in an Irish band and they performed it on George Street on New Year's Eve. We had a very good time.)

I'm really enjoying Castaway Stories, which was a gift from the SO. It's been filling the void left where another Sims 2 EP would be for me, and it's a whole lot of fun. Lots of great characters and just different enough to be interesting. The story mode is much what you'd expect it to be (and full of bugs), but a pretty good laugh anyway. And once the scripted stuff is over, the real fun begins in the sandbox, as we all know. ;)




Morag and Murray Barrett had a son, and I named him Elcid, in keeping with the theme. I guess they're pirates now instead of privateers, since their government funding would have dried up long ago, what with them going missing and all. (What? You mean you didn't learn the difference between a priate and a privateer in grade school? Where do you LIVE? :P)

In other news, I dropped all holiday posting for holiday travel (in case you hadn't noticed, heheh), and the flu continues to wreak havok on my system. Yesterday, I ended up in the hospital and had to get X-rays done to see if I'd coughed so much I'd broken a rib. It felt like it. Instead, it's merely a pulled muscle, but still hurts like hell, and I'm home on bed rest (complete with a "certificate of incapacity" — LOL — I want to frame it) for the rest of the week. Do yourself a favour and get the damn H1N1 vaccine if you haven't already, alright? This thing isn't worth messing around with, take it from me. Ouch!

Comments

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

It's good to see you back! I hope the holiday travel went all right and you had a nice time :)

Man, so it is H1N1 then? I'm so sorry, that sucks big time. I'm going to get the vaccine as soon as I go back to Austin next week. Considering the freezing temperature over there -to me at least, but I'm a wuss regarding cold- I won't take any risks. I hope you get better soon! (and make good use of that certificate!)

Castaway is fun, I agree! I haven't finished the story mode (I'm at the part where you first visit the old village and see the ghosts), so I haven't explored the sandbox yet. I have ADHD regarding the Sims games (well, videogames in general). I also had no idea about that reference! That's pretty cool!

Elcid is a cutie :)

What? You mean you didn't learn the difference between a pirate and a privateer in grade school? Where do you LIVE? :P)

LOL! Well, I've lived in Mexico city all my life and had no idea about this! But as they say, you learn something new each day, right?

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Thanks! We had a great holiday, despite the trouble with this flu.

Well, really I have no idea if it's H1N1 or the regular flu, but the former makes a better story. :P Either way, it's bad news, and there's really no good excuse not to get vaccinated.

You can still play with Wanmami Island without playing through story mode, but some items aren't available. The story island (not sure what its real name is, but Jessica called it Felicity Island) becomes playable after the story end, making most of the key characters playable, but there aren't any empty lots for the bin sims, and you can't make new ones! *grumble, grumble* I'll need to do some research on that. Do you know if it's possible to make new lots?

I think Elcid turns after Morag (who's cut from the Opehlia/Marsha Bruenig cloth). He has her exact colouring, and seems to have her nose too, which is fine by me. He's max playful and nice. A real sweet kid.

Heheh. I remember that so clearly from grade five social studies, which was all about Newfoundland (we did different countries in grade four and Canada in grade six, if I recall correctly). A privateer is exactly the same as a pirate, only they work officially for their country's government instead of for themselves as a private individual. Of course, there was nothing to stop privateers from eventually switching to pirates and keeping the good for themselves (or, conversely, the government trying to cut deal with an infamous pirate).

Heheh. I went to summer camp on the mainland one summer when I was a kid, and someone from Ontario said that "all Newfies are descended from pirates anyway." Yeah, so you better watch out! :P

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

EAxis is very good at little, obscure and/or nerdy references like that. I still giggle whenever I see "Brickrolled".

I'm curious about Castaway. How much gameplay is there, really, compared to TS2 and its EPs? Is it more like the base game? Does the game generally work the same way, with wants, memories and so on? How moddable is it?

Also, hope you get well soon! Nasty coughs are the worst. Ugh.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I always wonder about the clever person who came up with the better little nods in there. I love that someone slipped that Stan Rogers reference in there. They're cool in my books.

Brickrolled is super funny too. :P

Castaway has more to offer than the Basegame, in some ways. It has weather, like Seasons, and fishing, but sadly, no gardening. It has some BV things, like finding cool numerous items in the sand. It has chemistry, but no dates. No LTWs or permaplatimum state. Only three careers (hunter, gatherer, and crafter). Limited items, but most of the essentials are there, plus some surprises. It has pets (oranguatans and also hyenas, I think, and also caged birds).

I'm not sure about the modding. My own experience was that defaults worked for eyes, eyebrows, and makeup (but not skin), and hair and other cc worked pretty well. None of the hacks I used worked, aside from the one to remove the censor blur and the red pause lines.

You can access a cameraman mode using the U button, but the camera is pretty lacking when compared to the camera mod for the main game. I'm not sure if it would work in CS (and I'm doubtful, given that the keys are different). I'm going to keep exploring what's out there, but I haven't found a hell of a lot yet.

Overall, I get a kick out of it. It's limited, but it's also a whole new environment to play in.

[smjosh1218.livejournal.com]

That sucks that you're sick, ST, but it's a good thing you had fun. :D I can't believe you got H1N1 though. That's insane. At least you're getting better. And going to the hospital is never fun.

Happy New Year!

[katee412.livejournal.com]

Your flu sounds terrible, get better soon! I had laugh at framing a certificate of incapacity though, that is so something I'd want to do too ;)

[selenecorvino.livejournal.com]

I've been curious about Castaway, especially since Simgaroop revitalized the Broke's there. But the nearby WalMart doesn't have any, so I was figuring it was no longer available for sale.

Sorry to hear that your having such a horrible time with your flu. I hope it's not H1N1, and that things will turn around for you soon.

[(Anonymous)]

I just love it when Eaxis does that. It's like the catalog descriptions... I must have spent hours just reading those. XD This is one thing I like about Sims series that makes it special, even if Eaxis messes up a lot.

Sucks about the flu, but on the bright side, once it's gone, your body will have defences against it. I *think* I had H1N1 in november, it wasn't that long but it was the most intense flu I ever had. Muscles all over were aching, high fever and coughing all the time, literally. The throat was hurting so much.

If you're a healthy person, you should be better soon! Anyway, I hope so for you. Get well!