Hidden Springs or Midnight Hollow OR just CAW myself?

I reccomend to download costum content world(s). there some great stuff out there and they are free.
The CAW is a nice idea but I can tell you that it is very time consuming. It takes some time to practice to get a decent playable world. If you have the time go ahead..
As for Hidden Springs / Midnight Hollow: MH comes with premium content - the savvy seller collection which is practically a cash register. I think it's cool (though I didn't get MH yet). HS - I think there is still a sale in Origin so you could by HS together with Monte Vista at half price.

Midnight Hollow is my personal favorite, but it can be very dark for some people. To the point where they can't see the game clearly at all. So unless you really really like dark and gothic style, you'd be safer getting Hidden Springs.

Oh and both places have really good looking townies, but Midnight Hollow has the best looking townies in the game probably (although they all seem to glow white even though they're not vampires for some reason :P)

Ahh, the excitement of discovering new worlds!

To be honest, I haven't played MH but I just had to have it so I could build "shops" using the Savvy Seller objects that came with it. So, if that sort of lot building appeals to you, I would definitely have a look at MH but if you have any interest in building toys be sure to get the "Gold" version - the Toy Maker is not available separately.

As @Avatarit has said, if you have real money to spend you can actually get both Hidden Springs and Monte Vista together in a 'World Bundle'. Both are beautiful worlds and although HS doesn't have any special content (MV has the 'pizza' oven) it is a joy to play.

Of course, if you're the creative builder type then CAW could offer you just the challenge you want. I've never tried it, but there are plenty of Simmers and helpful websites around to give advice.

In more general terms of spending your 2000SP, if you haven't already come across it, I heartily recommend spending some time in the 'Store General' sub-forum and especially the DD and Cascade threads (links in my sig) where you'll find acres of information plus dozens of extremely helpful and friendly folk to help you get the best value for your points.

Good luck! :)

BTW, just to check - you do have Riverview don't you? It's free. :)

Thank you all for your recommendations! :smiley:

You made my day, because I am longing to get back to Sims 3, but I need it to fit my personality somehow. That's why I want to say:
@brntwaffles - YAS! :lol: That's just what I need in Sims 3! That game, in my opinion, if you enjoy it, and make it kind of "yours", can waste so many hours. And I need that. When I'm feeling weird, and don't want/can't do anything else at the time besides playing games, I look for dark/wacky/and similar settings in the game. That's why, when I was once depressed for a week, I played World of Warcraft as an Undead every day, whole day. :lol: and I'm kind of a gothic soul (even though it maybe doesn't look like that on the outside), so I'm now definitively going to buy MH. :smiley:

@ajaxpost Yes, I do have Riverview. :) and I'm going to get MH "Gold" version. It will cost me real money, in terms of purchasing SimPoints, but not too much. :) Thank you so much for pointing me to those threads you did! :smiley: I will have guidance for spending the remaining SP then. :lol:

As for the Worlds Bundle, I'll wait for some time before I get it.

Bummer. It seems like there's problem with my payment's methods, so I'll need to wait a while before I load up my account with cash....

But, I can't wait to play the game. I know, I have the game, I can get into it right now :lol: but... let's see...

"ajaxpost;15582368" wrote:


In more general terms of spending your 2000SP, if you haven't already come across it, I heartily recommend spending some time in the 'Store General' sub-forum and especially the DD and Cascade threads (links in my sig) where you'll find acres of information plus dozens of extremely helpful and friendly folk to help you get the best value for your points.

I can check out Riverview already, since I haven't even done that yet :neutral: and play it for awhile, while I'm spending time in the places you've mentioned. :)

"ninaumi;15582608" wrote:
Thank you all for your recommendations! :smiley:

You made my day, because I am longing to get back to Sims 3, but I need it to fit my personality somehow. That's why I want to say:
@brntwaffles - YAS! :lol: That's just what I need in Sims 3! That game, in my opinion, if you enjoy it, and make it kind of "yours", can waste so many hours. ... I'm kind of a gothic soul (even though it maybe doesn't look like that on the outside), so I'm now definitively going to buy MH. :smiley:

@ajaxpost Yes, I do have Riverview. :) and I'm going to get MH "Gold" version. It will cost me real money, in terms of purchasing SimPoints, but not too much. :) Thank you so much for pointing me to those threads you did! :smiley: I will have guidance for spending the remaining SP then. :lol:

Excellent, it certainly does sound as if MH will be a great fit for the stories you want to tell, though not sure I would call it a 'waste' to spend time having fun, letting your imagination run free and being creative. :smiley:

Really happy to have helped you find the sale-hunter threads, these forums are as huge as the game and it's so easy to miss something really good and useful. Have fun!

I haven't gotten to play Midnight Hollow, but Hidden Springs is pretty neat. Most townies are rich, so places to live are expensive lol. There's also green people and a fountain of youth! If you don't want to buy Hidden Springs through the store with points, you could instead buy the physical copy with a new code. I got mine years ago as a gift when it was priced $20.

I also recommend eBay hunting for Sims 3 packs for cheap prices. Matter of fact, here's a World Bundle (brand new condition) under 20 bucks. Or if you don't want Monte Vista and just Hidden Springs, here's the world being sold here.

To get Sims 3 packs cheap, I recommend these sellers: radnavsky and plumboby.

Stuff packs are no more than 4 dollars and expansions are no more than 8 bucks each from these sellers (also, the packs are the cheapest from them). Also, the two sellers recommended are a part of the same company. Notice the "FDSG" labels on their products. Well, when you buy an expansion pack, you're eligible to receive a promo code for stuff packs Fast Lane, Diesel, or Movie Stuff per purchase of an expansion, so if you do go the eBay route and want an expansion AND one of the stuff packs listed, you're better off buying an expansion and then choosing a stuff pack promo code.

Another seller I recommend is cheapgamestore. However, unlike the other sellers, you can't get three stuff packs free from purchasing expansions. Nevertheless, the sims games are still cheap.

Though, let me be clear about purchasing these games off eBay from these sellers: the games are DOWNLOAD ONLY, so you'll just be emailed a code for each to register them on your Origin (or use the code for a physical copy of a game with the missing/used code if you don't use Origin).

@Nomiko13 Wow! :open_mouth: I can't thank you enough for this!

"ninaumi;15584511" wrote:
@Nomiko13 Wow! :open_mouth: I can't thank you enough for this!

Haha, just trying to help out another simmer and let ya know Sims 3 titles are dirt cheap now :lol: I would recommend Amazon, but then I remember that 3.99 shipping charge per item, which can get expensive :anguished: It's horrible because you're forced to spend 35 bucks to get free shipping for certain items, which is STILL expensive. As soon as I found eBay, I was quickly able to obtain codes for missing Sims 3 titles. Haha, I always thought eBay was a place where rich folks shop, so I stayed away.

On the flip side, my only complaint is that the Katy Perry packs that are being sold on eBay are EXPENSIVE as heck, it's practically highway robbery (I saw a seller selling it for, like 50 bucks and I only paid 20 bucks for mine when it was released). I guess it makes sense, since EA no longer sells the title on their official site, thus making it rarer and rarer to own :flushed:

Midnight Hollow is a fantastic town, especially if you like building. Yes, it's dark. Yes, it can be hard to play at times. But the new content/items you get are gorgeous, the premade sims and houses are really well done, and you can steal those things for other worlds.

As for CAW - I love CAW, but I should warn you - for whatever reason I don't think you can use store content in CAW anymore once you patch up to 1.69. It doesn't show up. Over in the CAW forums another user was having a problem with that and was unable to solve it - I had the same problem myself and couldn't solve it despite lengthy troubleshooting. Since I had the game/expansions all on disks I was able to downgrade my patch to 1.67 and all the store content is back in CAW. But if you ever buy a digital expansion or even some of the discs will force you to go through origin and then I don't think you can do anything about it.

So if you really want to get into CAW and use store content I highly recommend buying any expansions in disc format - and make sure it is the original disc type and not one of the newer releases that forces you to use origin as that will force you to patch up to 1.69 and you will be unable to use any of your store content in CAW.