OK, so EADM seems to have issues of identifying the difference between a Gigabyte and a Megabyte! Leaving me in a struggle to get the patch down.

So i decided to check the EA Sims 3 website to see if there is a manual download…

Sadly not! Plenty of news telling you about it, but nothing in the way of actually getting hold of it!

And while were on that subject here’s the proposed changes of the patch…

Nothing about the saving issues naturally? But time will tell of course.

What i did manage to do was use my head and after about 12seconds using Google there are plenty of places that you can get hole of the 1.2.7 patch.

I used the following…

http://games.softpedia.com/progDownload/The-Sims-3-Patch-Download-43741.html

Downloads a small .exe file. Run it and the updater should appear and away you go!

Looking at the launcher in TS3 now shows the latest update version.

Ill report back soon!

Ok so i haven’t played TS3 for a while. Mainly due to being busy. But I’ve been in no rush to carry on with the game, due to to all the problems it is currently having!

This evening however i decided to give it another go. And low and behold there is now an update! Although I’m not sure if I’m late with the release of this!

However… straight into a series of problems!

Clicking OK gives me the following message!

I can assure you EA… there is plenty of space on my hard drive!

Clicking OK again just shows you the download progress… making no progress at all!

Now.. i read the numbers 20244448 in there… one would assume that is the number of bytes to download!

So that equates to roughly 20megabytes???

Yet the hard drive in my PC with the least amount of space still has 38gig on tap!

Anyone have ANY ideas how to get this to download? Or a possible external link so i don’t have to associate myself with the crappy EADM…

OK, over the last few weeks i have come to notice that my iPhone 3G has been having some serious problems connecting with iTunes. Put simply it doesn’t, except for the seemingly very odd and random times, such as when iTunes has been running for an hour or so and the iPhone has been sat in its dock for the same amount of time, it suddenly just decides its “there” and does a sync…

Of course, no connection = no sync and no putting music etc. onto it, you know the drill… highly annoying to boot.

So a hunt round the internet brings little joy, many people having the same problem it would seem, especially with the latest version of iTunes (8.2 at the time of writing).

I found some possible solutions but no joy. From checking services are running to reinstalling iTunes.

I consulted Apple and then promptly filed them back under, “utterly useless”.

So this evening I’m getting a little fed up and decided on having a look round.

The odd thing is, Windows (a proper operating system) quite happily detects the iPhone and will allow you to fumble around in its camera folders at will. So the PC can definitely see it.

The strange thing is, when you look under the Device Manager, which you can find by doing the following (in Vista)…

Before you check this, make sure your iPhone is connect and iTunes has failed to find it, but Windows knows its there.

• Click the Start Orb
• Right Click “Computer”
• Select “Manage”
• Select “Device Manager” in the left hand column
• Click the + sign next to “Portable Devices”

Portable Devices should then open out and you will see “Apple iPhone” in the list.

If you right click “Apple iPhone” there will be an option to Update Driver Software. Clicking this will give you the option to check the web for updates.

This is not the solution however, but if you do attempt it, it may (or at least mine did) will tell you that the driver is “up to date” for your “Digital Still Camera”

This isn’t right, clearly!

So… have a go at this, it seems to have worked for me so far…

• Make sure iPhone is connected, iTunes has failed to find it, but Windows can. (You can make sure of this by clicking the Start Orb, followed by “Computer” and it should be listed).
• Return to the Device Manager and locate Apple iPhone under Portable Devices
• Right Click Apple iPhone and select “Uninstall”
• You will get a warning that you are going to Uninstall your device… Click OK
• Apple iPhone should then vanish from the Portable Devices list.
• Now close everything, including iTunes
• Disconnect your iPhone
• Wait a few seconds and listen for the noise Windows makes when a USB device is removed.
• Reconnect the iPhone
• You should hear Windows make the noise that its found it, and with a bit of luck in the bottom right hand corner, a balloon will pop up telling you, “Installing New Hardware”, basically Windows is reinstalling the iPhone driver.
• Give it a moment or two and cross your fingers…
• Mine came to a stop and said “Finished Installing Apple iPhone” a few seconds later iTunes started automatically and there it was in the left hand column again, and it went straight into a sync.

This has so far been a one off success. I have no idea if it will happen next time that iTunes has a fit, in which case ill probably be testing it again tomorrow!

Good luck! Leave a comment if this has been a success for you

I don’t have anything hugely exciting to report about this, but here’s hoping it may potentially help with The Sims 3 problems i have been encountering ever since its release.

There isn’t anything related to The Sims 3 in the release notes, but you never know! Ill be sure to report back with any findings!

Drivers can be found at the nVidia website…

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/page/home.html

OK, so last night when 3.0 was released for the iPhone i may have got a little bit noisy, very quickly!

I woke up this morning thinking i had gone a bit too far with my initial comments and was seriously thinking about making amends and giving a bit more time before going into rant mode!

But no i have decided to leave it be and get grumpy again tonight as today i yet again feel let down!

On my last post i mentioned that Internet Tethering was one of the things i am very happy to see is now included, so falling upon 15minutes of free time today i decided to fire the laptop and check it out.

To sets up the Internet Tethering you need to go into the settings of the iPhone, find Network under the General Settings and then select “Set Up Internet Tethering”

The first thing you see is a message pop up saying that you need to enable Tethering via the O2 website… ok no problem, select Go To Website. Fully expecting to just be accepting a fair usage agreement I’m now sat in amazement that the only thing on screen is a message informing me about Internet Tethering Bolt On’s!

I’m sorry… but I’ve already signed my name against an “Unlimited Data” package.

But the best bit is…

• 3GB @ £14.66 per month – (£4.88/GB)
• 10GB @ £29.36 per month – (£2.93/GB)

ON TOP OF YOUR ALREADY STANDING TARRIF!

That is absolutely absurd! Not to mention, a complete rip-off!

OK you get unlimited WIFI… that said you get that as standard with an iPhone tariff, although it is a con and its not truly unlimited, there is a fair usage policy behind it!

It is oddly very similar priced to O2s own mobile broadband packages at the moment too, which makes me believe its just hoping off the same system, but lack of dongle = iPhone usage, don’t forget the iPhone battery is crap and a Bluetooth internet connection will destroy you! So you need a sync cable with you as it is!

May as well just get the dongle and not have to worry about using iTunes everywhere no doubt, and have the added ability to quickly swap it into any computer/laptop.

However to compare similar mobile broadband packages, 3 currently offer a 24month contract which gives you 15GB for £15 per month, obviously equalling £1/GB.

On the other hand T-Mobile seem to be even worse! Offering 5GB for £30 per month! A whopping £6/GB!

Really mobile broadband is just pretty much a well rounded rip-off. But O2 are taking the biscuit with customers already paying for “unlimited” data access! Although if they were offering unlimited tethering for a more reasonable additional bolt on of £5 per month then i would be very interested!

After all 3 offer exactly this, and I’ve had no problem with using my N95 to connect wirelessly to the internet.

Here’s hoping well see some sense come from this in future…

As per most owners of the iPhone, recently i have been waiting for the formidable update to the phones operating system known as 3.0, which after reading so many tech websites, Apples own site and watching several online videos about the whole thing, and to say the least, i was getting very excited about the “100 new features” that were coming along!

So today the 17th of July 2009 is the fateful day that Apple release 3.0 to the masses!

And at the moment i sit on the fence!

You may be well aware that conveniently… not long before the release of 3.0, the iPhone 3GS had been announced, and without surprise, several of the new features DO NOT work with the 3G, so i suppose that is a prompt to go out and buy the 3GS? Hint, hint…

After waiting 10minutes for iTunes to pull down the update, followed by about 3 hours trying to get it to update, due to the Apple servers being overloaded by everybody doing the same thing, i eventually gained an “update slot” and away it all went. The iPhone powered down and iTunes transferred the update, followed by the update being installed on the iPhone.

The iPhone then requires the need to reconnect to iTunes to activate the new update… iTunes promptly crashed…

Restarted iTunes… which then refused to recognise the iPhone which never moved from its USB dock…

Restarted the PC, logged into Windows and thankfully the iPhone was recognised and iTunes automatically restarted, followed by the online activation of 3.0, so semi-painless at least!

Finally! Were up to 3.0! First things first, lets play with these (100) new features… hit the home button.

OK great! A voice recorder! And… ooh! A search screen if a pan to the left… better test that! Type a word… yep that’s pulled up all my junk emails and the odd song from the iPod… try something else… aha! Found an App, some more tracks from the iPod and more junk emails…

OK next… err… hey the SMS icon has changed… and… well… ??? am i missing something?

Check the camera! Should have video… hmm… no the icon for the gallery is messed up… no video?

[EDIT] – The gallery button isnt broken, it now shows a small preview of the last picture you have taken.

Right… ill look for the ONE feature that i really wanted! Voice Control… i was excited to hear this was to be included with 3.0 as its one feature i really appreciate on a mobile phone (the N95 was superb!), but again… i cant find it?

OK, onto iTunes and open the iPhone user guide… hopefully that’s been updated… success it has!

Search for Voice Control…. 3GS only… Fuck you!

Video… 3GS only…

Video upload… 3GS only…

Compass… 3GS only…

And so on…

Great! So i need to invest in a 3GS… so technically 3.0 is NOT free is it? Not if you want to exploit the true usage? Nice one Apple!

However yes, there are some good and mediocre parts. Allow me to start with the least impressive.

MMS… people have harped on about the iPhone not having MMS since time began, and yes Nokia, SE or Samsung etc. will sell you a phone, that have been able to for a long time.
And great! We can now do it with the iPhone, but I’m sorry, its useless!
Why? You ask…
What’s the point? MMS allows you to send a few words, a small picture and a tiny horrible sound file or a flash file that a BBC Micro would be proud of… and if you’re in the UK it will cost you about 25p PER person you then send it to.

One thing the iPhone is “reasonable” at? Sending emails!
Which, if you have WIFI or unlimited data connection… is free… to send as much text as you want! To as many people as you want! Where they can read at their leisure on a phone or a computer, and reply… for free!

Granted the iPhone is a bit crap as you only seem to be able to attach one thing with the standard system, although i do believe some Apps allow expansion on this.

Rather than adding MMS i would much rather have seen a significant improvement to the email system.

OK, one thing i am thankful for is the addition of the “Tethering” system, although i am yet to test this, but will do in the next few days. If this had been 3GS only, i would have seriously gone ape shit and probably smashed the thing to smithereens and gone out and bought something else! But my sanity was retained for at least one feature!

Landscape keyboard… good but not brilliant, yes its nicer and easier to use, but somewhat, so far, I’ve found it really squashes up the actual area you are typing into… for an SMS you can only see the last line or so of the SMS you are replying to!

YouTube Login… this i feel is a nice addition. I use YouTube quite a lot and this makes using the iPhone to browse the Tube much more appealing.

Store Accounts… Helps to make life easier buying stuff i suppose. I am also yet to test this properly. At the time of writing there is NO HOPE of getting into the App Store via the iPhone!

iPod Shake To Shuffle… set to OFF… sorry… but what a load of crap!
Double tap the home button = iPod controls…
The button on the headset = iPod controls…
The Kensington LiquidAUX in my car = iPod controls…
Three very adequate control systems that DONT make me look like i am fapping with the iPhone.

Granted the one thing i don’t see on the surface is the so called “New APIs” for developers usage for new Apps. In which case i am hoping to see some new, cool and interesting Apps emerge, as at the end of the day 75% of the good stuff on an iPhone is all third part development…

So yes… completely unimpressed! Ill have to wait until the 19th to see how much a 3GS is going to cost me! Again granted it has a better camera (i like to have a decent camera for those random moments) and all the nubbins inside are supposed to be better, and thus make it quicker and have better battery life etc. or so i read… but after this I’m not too sure…

Nokia N97 does look nice!

With an EA release there is no question that it will be laden with bugs and you will spend the first few months wondering when the first patch is coming!

So far so good with Sims 3 then!

While playing for the last week since the game (and for the record it is at Version 1.0.631.0002 currently) i have noticed an extremely annoying crash-to-desktop (CTD) affair where absolutely no warning is giving by either the game nor windows? The game will just instantly cease to run and return to the desktop?

Although i have read similar problems on the net regarding errors of a similar nature to what i am seeing being related to graphics and driver problems. I don’t see this as the problem as i am running the latest nVidia drivers and have never seen a reported driver error so far?

Anyway… along with this i have been receiving errors when trying to save the game. Normally an error message pops up when the game is part way through saving mentioning either code 12 or 13.

According to the “readme” that can be found in the Sims 3 install folder…

01: No save file information.
02: No active world.
03: The save path is empty.
04: Cannot save directory.
05: Cannot find the requested file.
09: Failed to create header record.
10: Failed to write header record.
11: Pre-save callback failure.
12: World file save failure.
13: Post-save callback failure.
14: No load/save manager found.
15: Other error. Sorry.

Entirely helpful i admit!

Some people have mentioned to always run the game with Administrator Privileges (right click game icon and select “Run as administrator”) but that seems to make no real difference.

But onto the more serious note!

When these errors occur, the most serious thing i have noticed is your save game files can be corrupt. You will notice this when you attempt to restart the game and carry on from your last save, but there is no saves available and you have to start from scratch! The game doesn’t even inform you that the save file is no good either.

I have read a few peoples complaints of this exact problem and have found a bit of a workaround…

Hopefully in the future EA may add a quick-save function, but until now i can only recommend saving your game at regular intervals. Personally i make sure i do it every 15minutes or after something significant has happened, such as doing extensive modification to your house’s.

OK, so to restore a slightly older save file.

• Open your “My Documents” folder
• Locate and open a folder called “Electronic Arts”
• Locate and open a folder called “The Sims 3”
• Locate and open a folder called “Saves

In the saves folder you will find a few files, named after the map you are playing and then several extensions.

The actual save file is a .sims3 file, and there should be 1 or 2 other files, namely a .backup and .bad files

The .sims3 one will be the one that is corrupt. Start out by deleting this file, or if your prefer move it to a new location.

Now rename the .backup file and remove the bit that says “.backup” so it just says Sunset Valley.sims3

So you are left with…

Now restart your game and your saves should have been restored and you may continue. Granted you may loose some of your progress, but it is better than loosing all of it! How much you do loose depends on how frequent you are saving your game.

Other than this the game does seem to run very well at the best of times. The only other real annoying problem i have come across is when trying to access the Build and Buy modes and suddenly everything blacks out and i cannot access anything to actually do anything! Moments later the game will once again crash to the desktop.

Fingers crossed most of this will be sorted in future. After all its not more than a week old! To not expect problems would be an understatement!

I have an unusual request and a topic that has been bugging me for a while.

As some may be aware there is a current culture on the internet to make joke ‘Motivational Posters’ and i must admit one of my favourites is the rather scary “Abandoned Clown Train”.

If your not sure what that it is exactly, punch it into Google Images for example and you will soon find out!

The thing thats bugging me is, WHERE IS IT EXACTLY! Someone, somewhere, must know!

Obviously it appears to be in some form of abandoned theme park.

After some searching, many people actually think its in the Pripyat fairground of Chernobyl fame. But to be fair, ive seen many pictures from the Pripyat area but have never seen the Clown Train before. I may be wrong, and await someone to confirm.

Ive also heard it may be somewhere in the USA? I will have to look up the possible locations and post them here!

Please leave me a comment if you do know of its location!

The Abandoned Clown Train

To all hose that thought the Large Hadron Collider recently started in Switzerland was going to end the world, your clearly wrong… again!

Will be very interesting to read about what the experiments will find over the next decade, who knows we may have to rewrite the history books in terms of Physics!

In the mean time looks like a few people had a bit of time on their hands, so if your uneductaed and like rap music… which tend to go hand in hand anyway, heres the Large Hadron Rap feat. Dr Hawkins!

Well i have been eagerly awaiting the release of SPORE from EA for quite a few months.

After seeing the hype on certain websites and in magazines and after playing about with the pre release ‘Creature Creator’ i have done nothing but ‘itch’ in anticipation to get first play!

After a slight delay on my copy arriving, which should have been on the Friday of its release, but Royal Mail decided to deliver it, LATE, on the following Monday (today)! Without fail it when straight into the ROM drive for install.

In true EA fashion however, I’m given NO desktop shortcut, nor do i have Start Menu shortcuts, in fact it NEVER gives you the option, much rather it dumps a shortcut in the Games link in Vistas Start Menu… fair do’s but as per the latter, the option would be nice.

So i cobbled my own shortcut to the desktop from the Vista Games folder…

(Before i go on i run Vista Ultimate x64 if you didn’t already know)

Double Click… away we go… no we don’t!

WSOCK32.dll error appears, in which case you can hit the OK button about 10 times and it will eventually disappear and the game should start.

This is a problem that appears to be caused by Xfire if you have it installed.

I found if i dumped Xfire, then the error does not appear and the game will start as normal, if you CONTINUE to keep Xfire running then you have to keep OK’ing the error until it does eventually get going!

As far as Ive read on the Internet this is not EAs problem but more to do with Xfire. As apparently this happens with more than just SPORE.

Personally i don’t think its 100% necessary when there are other VOIP systems, but Xfire does have the nice touch of the hours logging system.

So its up to you, switch it off, or put up with the error message. Obviously SPORE is new at the time of writing so future patches and updates from either party will hopefully sort this!

Anyway… onto the game… no not yet!

After battling through the WSOCK errors i am then presented with a further error box, this time telling me that my graphics driver is out of date!?

Well that’s a load of crap, because upon checking, i have the latest and greatest nVidia 175.19 drivers up and running…

No matter what the game will not start, so i turn to Google.

With a stroke of luck, solutions to the problem plague the first page (well done EA!) and turns out that its SLI that is causing the problem!

Great, so i pay all that wad for dual GPUs just for the latest generation games to crap out on? Well… this is an isolated case, Ive never seen it happen before.

So begrudgingly, i go to nVidias control panel and disable SLI and run on the primary card alone.

And finally… success!

I left Xfire on and just blasted through the errors and then everything started up nicely. No other problems have occurred as of yet…

Anyway onto the game… so far, I’m loving it!

Its a whole lot more than what i was first expecting, with my original thoughts being, it may be a revamped version of ‘Sim Life’ from about a million years ago on the likes of the Amiga 600 and 1200.

Not quite… its more of a ‘Civilization’ theme, but you start from being just a blob of goo in the sea, and work your way up through evolution. Starting about by eating plankton, grow legs, move on to dry land… evolve and then eventually start moving onto tribes etc…

To be honest I’m not very far in yet so I’m unable to comment on the full content, but i can see myself glued for a few weeks!

The very clever aspect of the game is, the infinite amount of ways you can play. You can either build a harmonious herbivore world where all the creatures get on as one giant whole, or you can go nuts with a snarling blood thirsty pack of killing machines and destroy every other living being… like i did!

But you must be very careful with your early creations of evolution, as once you hit tribal stage, you can evolve no more (i think, don’t quote me, I’ve not got that far yet!) so if you have built something with huge teeth and claws for ripping defenseless creatures apart with, yet no arms or adequate hands for using tools… then your stuffed when it comes to wielding hand weapons!

Hope the problems section may help someone out there, ill return in future with my updates