Sims 3 Store: Grandpa’s Grove Review

Grandpa’s Grove set was released on The Sims 3 Store in November 11th,2013.The price of this set is 1,900 SimPoints. Earlier,It was on sale for 1,700 SimPoints. This set comes with a new venue,one premium content and mostly focuses on the gardening skill,farming and more. I love how the Store is releasing a lot of farming themed content.We got many farming related content from the Store such as the Farm Fresh folk set,the dairy corral,Al Fresco Street Market and so much more.Now with this content and all the objects and premium content of the previous sets give the full experience of farming in The Sims 3.The Store even released Monte Vista which looks like a farming world.Farming has become a lot more easier in The Sims 3

One premium content comes with this set – The Grandpa’s Grove Tractor. Yes,we got a tractor finally! However,this tractor isn’t available for individual sale yet.There are 12 Buy mode objects and 11 CAS assets. I personally love the Buy mode objects,they really give a country touch.They are so lovely comparing to the furniture of other farming sets’ but I expected more objects on Buy mode.If you are a fan of the farming theme,I think this might be a great addition to your game.I wished for outfits for teens,they are always left out.I hope the Store adds more stuffs for teens in the future.Let’s begin the tour of the Grandpa’s Grove venue!

GRANDPA’S GROVE VENUE 

Granpa’s Grove is a 64×64 lot.That huge! This venue is a residential lot and this is the first venue that isn’t a community lot.What impresses me about this venue is that all the tracks are placed in order to make the premium content work.It’s kind of annoying and tedious to place the tracks.This venue has 2 bedrooms and bathroom and surrounded by beautiful trees and flowers.In game,the price of this lot is 179,258 Simoleons (that’s pretty expensive!) Oh,and it comes with different variety of harvestable,orange trees are found in buydebug but not pre-placed.Please note that In order to make the tractor work,the tracks must be placed properly.More information will be explained after some time.Other than that,enjoy the screenshots I took:

GRANDPA’S GROVE TRACTOR (PREMIUM CONTENT)

The size of this premium content is 3×4 and it can improve your Sim’s gardening skill,improve crops,water them and so much more! To be honest,I’m happy to review this content.It is an object that can go around a track that you can make yourself. It can be used by children,teens,young adults,adults,elders and also toddlers! Here are the different interactions you can find:

Make sure you have these tracks in your game otherwise it won’t work:

You can test the tracks to make sure if it is working properly.It has 3 different colour shown below:

So,why not give havrides to my Sims,Carrie and Bernard?

You can also give hayrides to toddlers! Thanks to the Store team <3

Now let’s water the crops. Watering the crops will shoot out jets of water around the plants.I love this feature.It always annoyed me to make my Sim walk around and pour water over the plants

Harvesting the crops will suck out all the harvestable crops and put them to your sim’s inventory.This gives a green-ish effect all over the place. I love this!

After harvesting this happens! That’s a lot of apples.

Fertilizing the crops will shoot out compost of the pipes in order to fertilize them.

Only Young Adult,Adult and Elder can operate the tractor.You will see that when your sim is riding the tractor,a moodlet called “Hay Now!” will appear if you drive past a sim who want hayride.I’m glad that this content makes gardening easier and adds a farming touch.Sometimes it gets boring to see Sims hay riding so i fast forward it.I wish Sims could interact with each other while sitting there.

CAS ASSETS

All the assets are enabled for outerwear.To be honest,I think most of the clothing fits well with the cold weather instead of the farming theme.I find it surprising that elders are not included in this set.I thought the name of the set is Grandpa’s Grove.Here are the assets:

Turtleneck and Scarf Combo

Gender Group: Female 
Age Stage: YA/Adult
Categories: Everyday, Outerwear

The turtleneck of this outfit is nice but however it  just doesn’t please me.

One Button to Rule Them All

Gender Group: Female
Age Stage: YA/Adult
Categories: Everyday, Outdoor

This dress is pretty.It has both the modern and country look.

Cozy Coat

Gender Group: Male
Age Stage: YA/Adult
Categories: Everyday, Outerwear

This coat looks so common.I think I’ve seen this in every sets.Really wanted something different.

Four Button Sweater

Gender Group: Male
Age Stage: YA/Adult
Categories: Everyday, Outerwear

Hmm I think we got something different! The jacket outside of the sweater really gives a nice touch to this four buttoned sweater.

Alpine Attire

Gender Group: Male and Female
Age Stage: Child
Categories: Everyday, Outerwear

It comes in 4 different recolours. The turtleneck for children doesn’t look okay but the coat looks fine though.

Monster Pants

Gender Group: Male and Female
Age Stage: Child
Categories: Everyday, Outerwear

I really love the design of this pant. It comes in 4 recolours and each of them have different stencils.All these monster things there are so awesome. I kind of wish there was a freezer bunny one!

Monster Jacket

Gender Group: Male and Female
Age Stage: Child
Categories: Everyday, Outerwear

This jacket goes well with the pants!

Fuzzy Bunny Outfit

Gender Group: Female
Age Stage: Toddler
Categories: Everyday, Outerwear

Isn’t Bernard looking adorable? I don’t like the design of this outfit for toddlers.Looks so old-ish.

Puff the Magic Vest
Gender Group: Male
Age Stage: Toddler
Categories: Everyday, Outerwear

It looks like all of them have the same stencils.I might rate this as ‘good’

BUY MODE OBJECTS

There are no Build mode objects included with this set.As I have said before,I love the objects that come with this set.However,there isn’t enough objects.Perhaps,some buy mode objects for the dining area would have been better and I’m slightly tired of the repeated sofas/chairs.The buy mode objects kind of remind me of The Sims 2 Seasons because Seasons had this type of floral theme in it.Anyways,below you can see the different types of Buy mode objects.I made the recolour of the objects fit in one picture so that it is easier for you to see:

Snug Rug

Hodgepodge Frames

Country Charm End Table

Country Charm Coffee Table

Quilted Chair

Country Charm Sofa

Country Charm Bookshelf

China Display End Table

Wooden Rocking Horse

Country Charm Wall Clock

FINAL THOUGHTS

Being a fan of farming theme,I like this set and all other farming sets we got from the Store.I think we have got enough farm content but I’m ready for more and the farming content comes with the useful premium content.I think the Store is following the right direction! Now my opinion about the venue is it’s huge and to be honest I think it is a farm.The decoration inside the venue looks a bit dull but there are always other objects to add.I wish there were romantic interactions available while Sims go for hayride,that would have been lovely.I expected for more Buy mode objects and they seem a bit repetitive but it’s nice.Another thing I dislike is that the clothing are just remakes of what we have seen in the past.I only like the dress with the scarf and also the One Button to Rule Them All dress.Sadly,there are no clothing for teens which quite upset me.There are no clothing for elders too How come there are no clothing for elders when the set’s name is GRANDPA’s Grove? I like the theme of this set and i love farming theme content.This set is neither good nor bad.I love how the tractor adds new gameplay but other than the tractor,there are some nice objects added to it.If you like gardening aspect as much as I do,then i recommend this set.