Sims 100 Baby Challenge: 10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started

The other day I rediscovered this post that I had written way back in October 2021, forgotten, alone and gathering cyber dust in my drafts folder. I was going to delete it but then I thought I may as well share it to tie off my The Sims 4 100 baby challenge posts, even if I never finished it.

The 100 baby challenge is a challenge in the sims where the goal is to have a female Sim give birth to 100 babies in as few generations as possible, if you’re interested then you can see rules of the challenge here. I started the challenge because I love The Sims but I sometimes got stuck in a routine of crafting the same storylines or the same kinds of sims. This challenge helps you to discover new ways of doing things, aspirations and traits you may not normally use, and gives you an end goal. It turned out to be a really good way of experiencing a game that I’ve played since I was a child in a totally new way and while I didn’t finish it I learned a lot and would definitely consider doing it again, I would recommend it to any Sims fan and if that’s you then it’s your lucky day because I have made a list of tips and tricks to make your challenge a little bit easier:

  1. Play it on a computer. This is the main point for me. Trying this on my PS4 was a challenge in itself. The slow loading time was particularly painful, even just going into build mode took forever. It also glitched like crazy, and not the funny kind of glitches that make the game more entertaining, the annoying game crashing ones.
  2. Make sure you have a lot of expansion packs. You will be playing this for a LONG time and there’s just not enough variety in the base game to make it interesting. I have City Living (my favourite, if you could only get one I’d say this), Seasons, Island Living, Vampires, Magical Realm and Jungle Adventure… Honestly, it’s still not quite enough in my opinion, the things that make these packs initially interesting become tired quite fast in this challenge but it’s the little things that make it better; like the City having events on every so often, new aspirations and traits, the seasonal events, and just having different places to go… I’d like to get more but I can’t justify buying any more on PS4 when I know I’d enjoy it more on PC.
  3. Give your lot the ‘Ley Line’ trait. This trait makes the chances of your sim having twins higher. I didn’t realise it was allowed until quite late and it made getting that baby count up way easier. It does make baby management harder though because twins are an absolute nightmare, especially if you have twin toddlers and then twin babies come along, that feels like a survival game rather than Sims. Choose other handy lot traits as well, you can have up to 3.
  4. Use the aspiration rewards. I forgot that these were available and allowed, the only ones you can’t use are the ones that extend your Sims’ life.
  5. Use the gallery. I am so bad at making houses but there are loads already made by much more patient and talented sim players especially for the challenge. It’s also a good source of handsome Baby Challenge Dads. Just search #100babychallenge to find loads of pre-made stuff.
  6. Stream, don’t blog. If you’re a blogger and you’re going to write about this it may not provide you with as much inspiration as you would think. The initial part of the challenge, when all the experiences were new and it was that much harder because there was no money, was fun to write about and share but the longer I played, the more repetitive the gameplay was and the less there is to share. In hindsight maybe just doing a couple of review-style posts about it rather than ‘episodes’ would have been better. It would be more fun and sociable to stream though and then people watching can suggest where to meet people, what to do, baby names, etc.
  7. Apparently, if you give a key to ghosts they don’t wreck your stuff. I wanted to have a morbid little graveyard of my previous matriarchs but their ghosts haunted my sims and made them scared and started breaking things. Unfortunately, the more generations you go through the more ghosts you get and eventually I had enough and released their spirits. I never got to test out the key theory because unfortunately there seemed to be a glitch where the dialogue option ‘give residence key’ seemed to just disappear so… Not tested but highly recommended in case it’s true and still available.
  8. A-students age up. All through the first generation I had forgotten that once your children and teens become A students they get to have their birthdays early, and once I remembered that the child turnaround was much easier and faster.
  9. Don’t bother with high chairs. The toddlers just end up trapped in them because your Matriarch will be so busy doing other stuff. Toddlers can grab food off the side so just have your Sim make a meal and the Todds can just grab it and go sit on the sofa to eat (follow me for more excellent parenting tips).
  10. Have fun with it. It’s surprisingly easy to get into a routine but don’t be afraid to let your Sim leave the house occasionally and try some different things, let her go on dates and explore different areas. She deserves it!

In the end I managed 3 matriarchs and 38 children before I gave up. I would definitely attempt it again but I would consider waiting for Sims 5 so that I could buy it on PC rather than power through on the playstation.

Would you play the 100 baby challenge? Have you played it? If so, what was your experience?

PS+ Challenge: Ratchet and Clank

Weeks ago I talked about doing this PS+ challenge –  where I try to work through all the free PS+ games I’ve downloaded over the year. I thought it would be a good idea while in lockdown but I really didn’t get off to a good start! I got way too distracted by my Sims 100 baby challenge and I was also inspired to play God of War again, I’m really enjoying them both so not a lot of time for much else. I did manage to get some Ratchet and Clank time in though!

This was actually played first by my boyfriend who isn’t much of a gamer but Ratchet and Clank is very nostalgic for him so he was super keen to play. I took it up a bit after and it is really good fun! I’m impressed that it was a free game actually, there’s a lot to it.

Unlike my other half, I have never played any Ratchet and Clank games so this was a totally new experience for me. I wish I’d played it back in 2002 (magical year for games) when the first one came out, I would have loved it.

I really enjoy that early 00’s quirkiness and humour that a lot of games from that era have and this was no exception, the plot is good, the world is gorgeous, it’s so colourful and creative. It’s the sort of Universe I’d love to live in, if it wasn’t under attack from dinosaur aliens of course.

Ratchet And Clank Rumored To Be Insomniac's 1st PS5 Release
Source: The Illuminerdi

I have a lot of praise for this game but, I was playing the other day, storming the ship of the bad guy and thinking I was near the end, until my other half told me that actually I was only about halfway through. Now, while I have been enjoying this I have been playing it on and off and have been WAY more invested in Sims and God of War, thinking Ratchet and Clank was more of a quick game that I’ve just been picking up for half an hour or when I want something chill. Don’t get me wrong, if I was playing it as much as I’ve played the other two games then I could have finished it several times over by now but I’m just not that invested… When I realised I was only halfway through I lost a lot of interest and I don’t know if I’m going to bother finishing it. I might, I might not. We’ll see.

When the game first started out I seemed to be having a lot more fun, the characters were funnier, the weapons were a bit more creative and fun (Mr Zurkon, the Groovitron…), it was more fun running around exploring and it seemed to be more of a chill game. Now it’s harder (I actually have to concentrate!), more serious and I think that characters have dropped off a bit. I saw how much my other half loved playing through it again though so I’m allowing my score some leeway as I don’t have that same nostalgic value with it.

My score: 8/10

 

 

100 Baby Challenge – Episode 7: Full House! … Now What?

← Episode 6

It’s a new dawn here in the Olympae household. Our new Matriarch, Artemis, is a young adult and she is inviting over a street performer she met in the city… I think a cool, guitar playing guy from the big city is a good first victim for her.

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When your one-night stand tells you she’s pregnant and you realise you’ve become a Victim of the 100 Baby Challenge

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Ghost Mum is thrilled at the news though

Very good start, a couple of days later and Artemis welcomed Hestia to the family. The new generation has begun.

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I was initially annoyed about the Aretmis’s younger brothers (Apollo, Hermes and Hephaestus) still being around for all this but honestly they are being so helpful and I think it’s quite a nice that they’re helping their sister in this. Speaking of brothers, as a WTF side note, she’s very friendly with her brother, Hades who stops by quite a lot and I noticed that she has the romance bar with him. How?! Why?! Gross! She doesn’t have the romance chat option with him but I freaked out when I saw that. Suddenly I had a horrible fear of accidentally making one of the brothers a father (there’s so many kids, if it wasn’t for the Ancient Greek names I would forget). Ew. Luckily it just seems to be some weird glitch so it’s not possible.

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Queue the Game of Thrones theme tune

Back to the babies; Second baby, Nike, made things a little more difficult. The brothers still had to go to school so they weren’t always around and I lost a day trying to get Artemis energised enough to go and meet someone else. Her body clock is all wrong now, she’s really awake at night and out cold most of the day and when you phone men and ask them to come over in the middle of the night they (totally realistically) tell you to go away and that it’s too late, they’re sleeping goddammit, what could you possibly want this late at night? We may have to go clubbing to get some eligible, night owl bachelors.

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Welcome to Motherhood, Artemis

Christmas time happened before we could do that and I was wondering about another Father Winter baby (it’s a different Father Winter every year, why not?) but of course, someone died (I couldn’t figure out who, there’s so much death in this playthrough, I’ve lost track… Artemis’s half-brother on her dad’s side maybe…) and so Atremis trying to flirt while sobbing to a guy dressed as Santa wasn’t really going down well. WE ARE BEHIND SCHEDULE, ARTEMIS. YOU NEVER EVEN MET YOUR HALF BROTHER.

We lost two days but then we were back on track. I was determined to beat Gaia’s record of 14 children. Skipping forward a bit we find ourselves now both brothers moved out, and 7 children while Artemis is still only halfway towards becoming middle aged!!! That is half our goal already! Maybe I can do this…

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Here we see the Matriarch of the 100 Baby Challenge in their most common state: Smelly and unconscious.

Now we have a full house (you can’t have more than 8 Sims in a household) and that kind of stalls the challenge a bit. My lovely Hestia (now a teen), while incredibly helpful, is not doing great at school and I can’t boot her out until she either becomes an A student or ages up naturally and she has a while to go… But even when I’ve done that I’ve still got a household of 7 which would make twins (or dare I even dream of triplets?) impossible… Hmmm… If I hold off though and she doesn’t have twins then it’s a waste of time.

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Ghost Gaia is around to help with the kids. When she’s not breaking everything in a fit of poltergeist rage that is.

Anyone got any theories? What would the best tactic be? Hold off on kids and make some space, or keep going whenever a spot opens up?

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I dunno Love Guru, I think you may be wrong about that…

Baby count: 21/100 (This is embarrassing but I totally forgot about Hermes, one of Gaia’s last children – I’m sure everyone forgets about one or two of their children sometimes when they have so many – so she actually had 14 babies! I may have said 13 in previous posts…) 

  • Zeus
  • Hera
  • Demeter
  • Persephone
  • Poseidon
  • Hecate
  • Aphrodite
  • Athena
  • Boreas
  • Hades
  • Artemis
  • Apollo
  • Hermes
  • Hephaestus
  • Hestia
  • Nike
  • Ares
  • Tyche
  • Nyx
  • Iris
  • Dionysus

Episode 8 →

100 Baby Challenge – Episode 6: Saying Goodbye

← Episode 5

Baby free post today! Today it’s all about recognising Gaia for all the hard work she put into this challenge.

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A flashback to young Gaia just before the challenge. So innocent and blissfully unaware of the challenge to come…

I originally planned for Gaia to marry the original Victim, Travis (Zeus’s dad, blast from the past!) After a bit of wasted time I realised they weren’t actually hitting it off that well and while they were happy to sleep with each other they didn’t actually seem to enjoy chatting to each other much. Fair enough. She was also just most happy when she was around her family so we decided not to worry about Travis anymore. She’d had enough flirting and men for a lifetime anyway.

I knew her final days were coming so I threw some big parties with the whole family where she got to speak to everyone. I actually got quite emotional.

 

Finally, the time came. She woke up and immediately collapsed. Grim appeared to take away her soul but Hades ran in and pleaded for her life! Grim relented and Gaia was brought back to life! I may not have been able to have Hades be the son of death but he lived up to his name eventually.

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Your mother is lying dead on the floor, the Grim Reaper is standing in front of you but no, by all means lets focus on the black pit that is your stomach, Boreas.

Gaia lived another 3 days and then took me on an emotional rollercoaster. I had just loaded up the game and the very first thing that happened was she collapsed in the living room and died. For good this time. I was a bit shocked, wasn’t expecting that first thing. I may have been a bit choked up, I had dedicated a lot of time to Gaia and I was really proud of her…

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Noooooooo. She died embarrassed and smelly!

I spent some time making her a shrine. This of course now means that every time any of the moved out children come to visit their siblings they just stand in the living room in front of the urn and cry for 5 hours then go home. Whatever they need to do to come to terms with the death I guess.

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I’m missing some photos but it’s getting there

Here are Gaia’s stats from the game. I’m very proud that her most prominent moodlet was Happiness, I thought for sure it was going to be Uncomfortable (though that was a close second at 556 times). She also wet herself a record 24 times and passed out 22 times… Ouch.

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It was a quiet and sombre day in the Olympae household but then Hades got a text from Ghost Gaia saying she needed some ‘retail therapy’ and could they go to the flea market together. You know… As ghosts do… I guess she’ll be hanging around a bit.

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Finally, Artemis aged up and I got to randomise her final personality trait. It is my honor to present to you the new Matriarch as an adult: Artemis! Active, wannabe chef, outdoors lover, and kleptomaniac. It could have been much worse.

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We’ll finish this post with some flashbacks to moments throughout Gaia’s life…

RIP

 

Simply Spyro: Collecting All the Things

It’s easy to forget that some games, no matter their reputation, are actually quite trivial in terms of plot and gameplay. Games are scrutinised upon release for plot, graphics, voice acting, gameplay… Pretty much everything, and you almost forget the simplicity of the only goal being “collect the things”.

I happily got on board the hype train and bought the remastered Spyro trilogy! The only Spyro games that I had played in the past were Enter the Dragonfly (which I loved), and A Hero’s Tail (which I really didn’t like), I seemed to totally miss the boat on the initial trilogy and, ironically, was late to the dragon tea party.

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” Hey girl, how you doin’?” 

 

As I started my new game I settled in for the half-hour intro, regretting slightly that I hadn’t made a cup of tea to get me through… I turned away at one point for a couple of seconds and when I turned back all the big dragons were frozen and Spyro was looking round at the screen as if to say “well come on then! What are you waiting for?” It was blissful. I don’t remember the last time I was treated to such a short, simple intro in a game. The plot is wonderfully simple as well: the dragons call Gnasty Gnorc ugly on TV, being so extra he curses them all. As Spyro you need to go and free them, collecting gems along the way of course. That’s it. That’s the plot… And I love it! I don’t know why I expected there to be more, I guess recent games have conditioned me to expect it somewhat but almost instantly being launched into the game was so nice. Of course, it was a kid’s game (well, I guess is a kid’s game) but even so I can remember other games from my childhood having much longer intros.

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This game is so pretty!

Once I had recovered from my “oh I actually get to play within the first 30 minutes” shock I noticed all the pretty colours. It may sound a bit airy-fairy but this game really is so pretty. I like the wonky architecture as well, though there’s never any furniture in these castles, I think the dragons are just posing. Gnasty Gnorc had an armchair, motivational posters and a TV, maybe we’re meant to relate to him more. Maybe he’s the actual good character fighting for freedom from the oppressive dragon race that have enslaved the gnorcs. I mean, there you are watching TV, minding your own business when totally unprovoked some dragon calls you ugly on TV. I think we’d all be a bit angry really. I mean think about it: the gnorcs you fight in the first few levels are generally terrified of you and your overpowered dragon fury. Gnasty Gnorc had that scepter with the power to freeze the dragons this whole time, why hasn’t he used it before? Maybe the working conditions are really bad which is why he has all the motivational posters, he might just be a bit depressed. The dragons you free aren’t even that fussed as well! They’re all pretty chill when you release them like they knew the revolution wouldn’t last, they don’t even offer to help because they know even one of their youngest dragons is more powerful than a fully grown gnorc… I might be reading a little too far into it… Or am I? (If you have some obscure Spyro lore knowledge about this by the way feel free to share in the comments!)

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Who are all those letters from? 

There’s not really a whole lot to this game other than collect all the things but believe me when I tell you that I will tear apart those worlds and brutally slay as many monsters as I need to collect ALL the things. I want all the gems, I want to free all the dragons, I want all the dragon eggs, I want all the extra skill points in the guidebook, and I want all the PS4 trophies. I don’t remember being so obsessed with collecting everything in a game recently but I think it’s how achievable all those things are. It can be a little challenging, you may have to chase that annoying thief round for a while, you might have a stubborn gem that you just can’t find, maybe you can’t quite figure out how to get to a platform but damn it you will find a way eventually. Not so long that you get incredibly frustrated and give up though. The flying challenges are great for this. I can spend ages doing those and even when I’ve managed an all in one I want to keep playing to beat my time.

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Another thing there’s not a whole lot to is the controls. You run, headbutt, breath fire and dodge. I thought as I progressed I might find more moves or different breath types like ice, electricity, etc (Enter the Dragonfly style) but no. Initially I was a little disappointed but then after thinking about it I decided I like the simple death by headbutt or fire system. Too long have I played through games with a seemingly unending list of moves, forgetting the majority of them and spamming a favourite 4 or 5 instead of strategically making the most of all of the hundreds of complex combos and tricks available to me. I also have absolutely no worries about forgetting any controls if I leave the game for a little while. My dad just got the new Red Dead Redemption game, was unable to play it for two weeks and has been putting it off since he got back because he knows he won’t remember how to do anything and will have to start again, but he doesn’t want to sit through the introduction again. If only cowboys could just headbutt, breath fire and collect gems…

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The Slitheen from Doctor Who make a guest appearance 

 

Have you got the remastered Spyro trilogy? Are you enjoying it? Did you have the original version back in the day? If so, how does it compare?