TS3 Island Paradise in The Sims

It’s been fun playing with Island Paradise, it adds some pretty fantastic features that only enhance existing game play. I’m going to do a pro and con list instead of a review. We figured out what was causing the sound and car issues, it was AM as some suspected because the vanilla doesn’t have those issues. Pes has updated it so it doesn’t cause any more problems.

I’m not impressed with his total lack of admitting he was wrong. I thought he had more integrity. It’s not like this was a little issue, it was a game breaking issue and he refused to acknowledge the people flooding threads trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. This is an excellent EP and if your computer can handle the graphics I very much recommend it.

PROS:

• The new world, Isla Paradiso, is absolutely gorgeous and is quickly becoming my favourite world next to Sunset Valley. It’s so full of vivid colour and life. Even the buildings have been made with very bright beautiful colours. It’s lovely and makes me want to live there laughs.

• The boat animations are fantastic and look amazing. I was expecting something like water showing through the bottoms of the boats but it’s smooth and seamless which I very much appreciate.

• The sunsets in Isla Paradiso are full of colour and reflect in such a perfect way on the crystal clear waters of the ocean.

• Lots of new adorable things to collect and if you’re a big collector (like me) then you are going to love all the stuff there is to find in this world.

• SCUBA Diving is an amazing new aspect to the game and I have spent half my time exploring the dive lots. I love it. Especially once your Sim gets her SCUBA skill up high enough and they can dive in a “retro” diving suit.

• The graphics are beyond spectacular.

CONS:

• The lifeguard animations. Your Sim goes out to the drowning Sim, gives them a float then swims back to shore and leaves the drowning Sim to make his/her own way back. Once both are on land the “drowning” Sim then lays down to receive CPR from the lifeguard. If they needed CPR how could they have swam to shore and walked across the beach?

• There are routing issues EVERYWHERE in Isla Paradiso. If you delete an empty lot do NOT expect to be able to replace it most of the time because they weren’t properly routed when the world was designed. It can get really annoying.

• Mermaids aren’t all that special, they are just Sims with tails in the water. I especially hate that instead of taking a short route on land they usually go the long way around the island in the water. It can take all day just to get a mermaid from an outer island to the mainland. I won’t be playing mermaids anymore. They are pretty but that’s all they’re good for.

• You can’t build dive lots in other worlds besides Isla Paradiso. I hate world specific shit like this. This isn’t the first time they’ve done this either, Bridgeport is the only place you can buy food from the truck that came with Late Night; the truck doesn’t appear any place but Bridgeport. How hard could it be to enable their shit to be used in any world?

• The pathetic amount of new clothes considering how much came with UL.

• The weird scaly legs for the mermaids when they are on land.

I chose an existing household with one Sim female named Florita Hernandez. She has a ex-husband and a daughter. She is usually pregnant by the second Sim day you play her but I used a cheat to end that. In my world there are no children! Only teens and adults. If families already have kids I don't care, I just leave them to live their lives.

I gave Florita a small makeover and she was ready!

She lives in the Fiesta House at 78 Civic Centre. A gorgeous little Spanish flat. Not a family home by any means but it's very cozy.

This is the mainland of Isla Paradiso.

To show off some of the amazing colour in the world I simply had to go next door to Florita, the two houses to her left are perfect. These are exactly as they came, I did'n't edit the lots.

Instead of pigeons all over the place there are seagulls, I love hearing their sound over the water.

Since the boats on the roads glitch was an AM issue only I'm sure not many people have seen what I'm talking about. I got quite a few different photos but this is my favourite.

Florita seems like a fairly vain but laid back Sim so our first stop was at a local beach for some suntan action. She got herself a lovely tan. When you relax on the beach it's best to use an umbrella or instead of a tan you`ll get burned. It would be cool if they gave us sunscreen.

The view from the little beach where Florita is sunbathing.

Once she was all bronzed, Florita hopped on her new aqua-sled out to the nearest dive spot.

She tried opening up a treasure chest but unfortunately couldn't open it due to her dive skill level not being high enough yet.

She collected all she could from the ocean floor then spotted a strange cave with tentacles coming out of it. She decided to explore it. With a little luck she made it out of the cave alive!

As she exited the cave she saw a ghost scuba diving which was a first for me!

The underwater decorations are gorgeous and I really like the way the Maxis team designed the dive lots.

You can't catch these fish, they are simply deco but I think it's a nice touch.

I love that the regular fish swim around underwater as well and are properly scaled unlike in the fish bowl and tank. This was my favourite fish when the game first came out; the Tragic Clown Fish.

On top of everything there are also big sharks that can and will attack you. Florita's first trip underwater she ended up being attacked by a shark but she kicked the shark's ass. Stupid shark.

After some time of collecting and fishing Florita noticed that someone was following her. That someone ended up being a beautiful mermaid named Ariel (yes, they named their red-headed mermaid Ariel, Disney ripoff!).

Ariel and Florita had a chat about Kelp recipes.

Ariel also showed Florita a treasure chest that someone at her skill level could open.

After Florita had gone home she decided to repay the mermaid's kindness and called her over with a conch shell because mermaids apparently don't own cell phones (except every Sim comes with a default non-deletable cell phone including mermaids you make).

She invited Ariel to move in with her and Ariel readily accepted.

As a thank you for giving Ariel a home Florita was given a piece of mermadic kelp.

When the kelp was eaten Flo turned into a mermaid herself!

Ariel wasted no time in getting a job as a lifeguard.

And devoted her time to saving as many Sims as she could.

Some of the best sunsets/sunrises can be seen in Isla Paradiso.

Florita got tired of life as a mermaid so she opted to make her legs permanent again. That doesn't mean she stopped diving though! She just does it in a retro diving suit instead. Florita decided to go to university to find herself so she left her bachelor pad for Ariel to use.

Completely random but is this Octopus not the creepiest thing ever? Try finding that in the dark depths of the ocean! AHHH!

That's it! Until next time; Happy Simming!

Last updated September 16, 2019