gadgetgrocery.com

4 Ways to Make the Most of Sims 3’s Massive Upgrades

(by Engadget)

The Sims 3 arrives Tuesday, and fans of Electronic Arts’ mind-bogglingly successful franchise are going to want to set aside some time to take in all the upgrades.

Quite a bit of time, actually: The Sims 3 is a sprawling mass of a game, building upon the success of its predecessors and taking the virtual-life simulation series to entirely new heights.

The title has received a graphical face-lift and more new features than you can shake a stick at, including an open world, personalities for your characters and enough customization options to make the hardiest of creative types light-headed. And if you never saw much point to carrying out mundane tasks virtually, a new goal-oriented structure means there’s likely to be something here for you, too.

Here are four tips to mull over while you’re installing the game on your PC or Mac.

1. Roll Your Own Life, Then Brace for Impact

When it comes to designing your virtual citizens, Sims 3 offers an unprecedented amount of freedom. A dizzying array of sliders and color wheels lets you customize just about every aspect of your Sim, from the roots of their hair to the socks on their feet. For the first time, you’re also able to design your Sim’s personality.

There are 63 different traits to choose from that will determine how your characters behave. But choose wisely: A neat Sim will wander about the house performing menial chores, but an absent-minded one will probably forget all about those cookies in the oven.

If you’re not very creative, or can’t be bothered with tweaking so many options, you can have a random family of Sims generated for you. There are also quite a few premade families packaged with the game. If you’d like to avail yourself of the hyperactive Sims fan base, you can also download characters made and shared by other players.

2. Let Your Little Ones Roam

What better way to explore the new, seamless world than going out for a jog? Sims 3 gets rid of all those pesky loading screens, allowing players to explore every nook and cranny of their towns.

Feel free to call a cab if you’re in a hurry, but Sims who wander will meet new friends, find the occasional seed to plant in their gardens or stumble upon a quiet spot to do a bit of fishing.

Your Sims are a also bit more independent than in previous versions of the game. Icons called Moodlets will help you keep track of which needs aren’t being met, and your characters will address these problems when possible. That means you can spend less time shepherding them and more time playing the game. While you’re still free to lead Sims around, it’s often far more interesting to see what the ones you haven’t been watching have done with their time — whether it’s buying a few groceries or stealing all the light fixtures and potted plants from their neighbors’ houses.

Image Courtesy Electronic Arts

3. The Happy Sim Gets the Goods

While most Sims fans have been content designing elaborate homes and lives for their virtual personas, the Sims 3 has something in store for the goal-oriented gamer, too. As you play, your Sims will earn Happiness points by staying in a good mood and completing the occasional mini-objective, determined by their traits.

Take a Sim who is granted the Evil and a Bookworm traits, for example. This Sim might earn a few points by heading to the library and swiping candy from an infant along the way. Sims also have a Lifetime Wish.

Completing these will net you thousands of Happiness points, but they require enormous amounts of effort — becoming Leader of the Free World isn’t for the faint of heart. Happiness points can be cashed in for prizes that can make life a bit easier, from a steel bladder that cuts down on bathroom visits to a Teleportation Pad that (usually) gets your Sims where they need to go.

4. So Much to Do, So Little Time

The life of a Sim isn’t all about telling jokes and throwing parties — unless you want it to be. For Sims who like to stay occupied, there are a number of careers to choose from, with success determined by your ability to work hard, stay in a good mood and make friends. You’ll need the simoleons you earn to shop for groceries, buy furniture or keep the bill collectors at bay.

A work and no play makes a depressed, unproductive Sim, though, so when the weekend won’t come soon enough, don’t be afraid to skip work and play videogames. But remember: The clock is always ticking. Sims will eventually grow old and die. The game will track the progress of all households. After a few weeks of play, your town will likely be unrecognizable. So be sure that your Sim goes out and makes its mark on the world: You don’t want to have spent your entire virtual life wasting away in front of a computer screen, right?

See the video review by clicking here

In these financially troubled times, the budget sector is more important than ever. Considering it’s a notebook from the world’s third-largest PC manufacturer, Dell’s Inspiron 1545 (also known as the Inspiron 15) has a lot to live up to.

As with many new budget notebooks, Dell’s latest is available in a few different colours if purchased direct. Matte Black is standard. This particular model comes with a dark blue ‘high-gloss’ lid.

The Nikon D80 lasted a long time at the top of Nikon’s entry-level dSLR list, and the D5000 has been an eagerly awaited replacement. And there are plenty of significant changes in this model. Nikon switches to a CMOS sensor instead of the CCD it’s been using in its entry-level models, in this case, the same 12.3-megapixel version that’s in the D90. Plus there’s the new (to Nikon’s dSLRs) flip-down-and-swivel LCD, and an improved AF system–the same 11-point AF system as the D90–that distinguish it clearly from the cheaper D60. But, as frequently happens, this poses quite a bit of competition for the more expensive D90. Especially since it has a newer version of the Expeed image processor (with improved Auto Active D-Lighting and face-priority AF) and enhanced Live View AF, along with a connector for the optional GP-1 hot shoe GPS. It also supports direct wireless upload when you use an Eye-Fi card.

Constructed of polycarbonate over stainless steel, the 21.6-ounce D5000 weighs a few ounces more than the D60 but about 4 ounces less than the D90. It feels plasticky, but not cheap–pretty typical for its price segment–although the SD slot cover does seem a bit flimsier than usual.

There’s no dedicated mode for shooting video (that’s a good thing); instead, while in Live View mode, you use the OK button to stop and start recording. Though it doesn’t do continuous autofocus, you can initiate AF while recording. Like Canon’s, however, it’s very slow and a bit noisy. (For more on the design,click through the slideshow. For a complete list of features and their implementations, you can download a PDF copy of the D5000’s manual.)

The D5000 definitely comes through on performance and photo quality. It’s fast, and generally outshoots the D90, most notably in low-light autofocus. It powers on and shoots in about 0.2 second, with shot lag as good as 0.3 second under good light and a still-respectable 0.7 second in dim. It shoots and saves JPEG files slightly faster than raw, though they both round out to about 0.5 second; adding flash bumps that just slightly to 0.9 second. Burst shooting clocks about 4 frames per second–same as the D90–putting it at the head of this class. The AF system is pretty good, too, and the whole thing is certainly fast enough to keep up with the typical shooting material of kids, sports, and pets. The battery lasts a relatively long time as well; it’s CIPA rated at about 510 shots.

Nikon D5000 photo samples

It also delivers excellent photo quality for the price, with solid exposure (though not as bright and straight-to-printer friendly as the T1i’s) and great color. Its noise profile is very good up through ISO 1,600 and, for a variety of scenes, usable through its extended ISO 6,400 (Hi). The kit lens is above average as well: very sharp and able to focus quite closely. As with the D90, though, the video is a bit disappointing. The camera only shoots 24fps 720p, which isn’t a fast enough frame rate to render quite as smoothly as we’ve come to expect and doesn’t scale very well to full-screen playback. It’s usable, and fine if you’re interested in experimenting, but it doesn’t look sharp or polished.

As long as you don’t get as hung up as I did on its operational quirks or have high expectations of shooting video, there’s plenty to like about the Nikon D5000–especially if you’re most interested in its core aptitudes of a wealth of features, speedy shooting, and high-quality photographs for the money.

Check out our price for this item by clicking here

To see a Sample Video from a Nikon D5000 click here

CNET product brief

Description: The Toshiba Satellite M305-S4910 is a 5.5-pound, general-purpose notebook computer.Compared to other mainstream notebooks on the market, it is very inexpensive.The 14.1 inch widescreen has a native resolution of 1280 x 800, which is fairly standard among notebooks. Powered by the Intel Core 2 Duo CPU. This notebook has a 320GB hard disk drive and 4 GB of memory. Features integrated graphics with 128MB of video memory.

Pros: Has a 5.9 Greenpeace ‘Guide to Greener Electronics’ manufacturer rating (Nov 2008), which is considerably more favorable than some similarly priced notebooks. In fact, the average cost of a product with this favorable a Greenpeace ‘Guide to Greener Electronics’ manufacturer rating (Nov 2008) is $1,080.Also, this notebook has a 320GB hard drive, which is larger than some similarly priced notebooks.In fact, the typical cost of a product with this large a hard drive is $1,150.The External Serial ATA port (ESATA) will transfer data to an external hard drive much faster than USB 2.0.

Cons: Has only a 14.1-inch screen size, which is somewhat smaller than some similarly priced notebooks.For example, the Dell Vostro 2510, a 5.7-pound notebook at around $675, has a 15.4 screen size.The fair battery performance of this notebook means it has to be recharged more often than other laptops in its class.Shared video memory has a negative impact on system performance which may be okay for users with more modest graphics needs.Users with more demanding needs should look to a graphics solution that brings its own muscle.

Suitability: Suited for those who just need a basic notebook.If you have awireless network at home, wirelessly browse the Web from any room in your house with this Wi-Fi enabled notebook.Comes with a DVD writer, allowing you to convert home movies from your digital Handycam onto DVDs.With 128MB of dedicated video RAM, this machine will do OK with some games and multimedia applications, but will fall short of satisfying the serious gaming enthusiast.

Value: Given its very inexpensive price, this notebook has great features for the money. Generally, given the trade-offs between performance and low price, this item will likely only appeal to serious bargain hunters.

Suggestions: (1) Given this device’s Wi-Fi capability, you may want to get a wireless access point for your home, so that you can browse the Web more conveniently from any room.(2) The integrated camera, while it does not have the resolution of most digital cameras, can be handy if you want to teleconference over the Internet.

Check out our price for this gadget:

http://gadgetgrocery.com/shoppingcart/product_info.php?products_id=250