BRUNCH AT THE OLD MILL REVIEW

Hi everyone!

Hope you're all fine. A new set released at The Sims 3 Store on the 3rd of July. While this set may look like a venue, this isn't a venue. Hope you enjoy reading the rest of my review!


Brunch at The Old Mill set is now available for 1450 SimPoints till 7/8/14 (The original price of the set is 1700 SimPoints) The set contains 28 items including 3 premium content- 

• Old Miller Tea Time Set
• Grandma's Canning Station
• Old Mill Water Wheel

 I'm diving this review into some parts:

1. The Old Mill
2. Old Miller Tea Time Set
3. Grandma's Canning Station
4. Old Mill Water Wheel
5. New rustic L-shaped stairs
6. Buy/build mode objects
7. Overall thinking

THE OLD MILL

Like I said, It's a set and there's no venue. You have to download a separate one which SimGuruKitty uploaded on the exchange. Well, she uploaded two lots actually. They can be placed in 53 and 57 Waterfall Way in Sunset Valley. You can download the lots for FREE:

The Old Mill lot-  http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=8314506
Stoney Falls Near the Old Mill-  http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=8314505

While the Old Mill is the main lot, Stoney Falls near the Old Mill is a normal lot but It's a pretty beautiful lot and perfect for fishing! The Old Mill lot is a 36x47 lot, It's quite small but the whole lot is completely filled with beautiful flowers, a water wheel and a little waterfall too. Inside the lot is a place for Sims to drink tea and have fun with friends. There's a nice pond outside too. I recommend placing the lot either in Sunset Valley or Aurora Skies! Here are some pictures of the lot:

Thank you to +TheSimsFanatic on Twitter for these lovely screenshots! Be sure to follow him!

 OLD MILLER TEA TIME SET

For the first time ever, your Sims can drink tea in The Sims 3! (yes, TEA!!) Sims can finally experience the daily life of a British. This premium content is not sold individually so you need to buy it along with the set. I hope It is sold individually in the future. Actually, this isn't a tea set but has a table attached to it. If you want to use this object, the table will be there which is quite sad. I hope there's a mod to place the tea set on different tables. Up to four sims can have tea and you can ONLY place four chairs. There are two interactions: 1) Make a Cup of Tea 2) Serve Tea. 

While your Sim is making a cup of tea, he/she only makes for himself and other Sims can join by clicking the table. While your Sim serves tea, your Sim will make cups of tea depending on how many chairs there are. I love the little animations the Sims do while making a cup of tea and they have a nice little chat with other Sims while they drink tea.  There are no moodlets. Here is how Sims serve tea:

Please don't mind the horse in the pictures haha. Keep in mind that while drinking tea, it could increase your Sims energy and hunger but it would also decrease their bladder so keep an eye out If your Sim drinks too much tea! My one almost had a bladder failure.

GRANDMA'S CANNING STATION

The second premium content is the canning machine which would enable your Sims to make jam and preserves using the harvestables your Sim has in his/her's inventory. To make the jam or preserves, your Sim need three harvestables of same type in their inventory and put it in the canning machine. Here is the canning machine:

The process is quite simple. Here's my Sim making chocolate spread using the cocoa harvestables:

Not only you can make chocolate spread but also jam with other harvestables too! But I used cocoa just for an example. You can also use the jam and spread on SCOOOONESS and toast! If you open the preserves, you can reuse the harvestable but if you open the jam, you can spread it on scones or toast as I have mentioned. Once you sim makes the jam, you can find it in their inventory and you will get these interactions:

After eating this a moodlet will be available: (Yeah, jammin'!)

If your Sim uses strawberry as a harvestable, your Sim will get a special type of moodlet:

I wish Sims could have tea and scones/toast together while having tea.

OLD MILL WATER WHEEL

Old Mill Water Wheel is the third premium content. Although there's nothing much you could do with it, It's a beautiful object that moves and makes peaceful sounds. You can also use this content for a farm you built or use them in community or residential lots too.The only interaction available here is "Fish" 

 They come in different colours too:

 Keep in mind that this water wheel doesn't catch any ordinary fish but a special type of fish which is quite terrifying and shocked me! Yeah, sharks!! It will catch random objects too.

I heard that there are sharks in oceans and seas, but in a water wheel (like what?) but that is interesting! 

There are no special animations your Sims could react to. Your Sim can only just fish. I wish there were some animations added to it like touching the water and other animations etc but it's a pretty good content I must say.

The Canning Station Premium Content also comes with two new harvestables- Corn and cucumber

NEW RUSTIC L-SHAPED STAIRS

Included with the set is a rustic type L-shaped stairs that is quite different from the ones in the Prism Art Studio Venue. These L-shaped stairs actually has a Victorian touch and I prefer this much more than the ones included in the Prism Art Studio Venue. As always, there are right and left pieces as show above. I'm glad that these stairs aren't glitch like the ones from the Now And Then Manor where the colours wouldn't mix. However, I'm happy to see that there are no glitches in this one.



 

 BUILD/BUY MODE OBJECTS

There are total 28 objects included in Buy/Build mode. All the objects are pretty and give me the classical feeling. I love the lighting with jars of firefly! The fireplace is my favorite too; i love the round shape of it and how it is decorated with bamboos. There are three types of chimneys which are for decor only or you can use them as columns. Love the idea that they are recolourable. There's also two types of fences- Stone Faced Rock Fence and Rock Steady Fence. The Stone Faced Rock Fence has three types of recolours and love the one which is recoloured black and has red linings. The well and the butter churner is a decor. I wish the butter churner was a premium content, would go fantastic with farming objects! The Shire Gate is like the Stone Faced Rock Fence and has the same three types of recolours. It would go well with the fence. The Way The Moss Grows Stone Steps is a new kind of stairs where the steps are covered with moss! I've been waiting to see that for a long time. I konw I would be using these in my outdoor builds and I would love to see what other simmers of the community does with it! The Hay Now Cart is a decor and would go well with farms. The best thing I like about the set is the IVY! There are so many of them and would go well with almost every buildings you create! You can also drag it up and down! Below are the images of all the Buy/Build mode objects:

OVERALL THINKING

I'm quite pleased with the price of the set being 1450/1700 SimPoints. Considering that the original price of the set is 1,700 I would have much preferred 1500 SimPoints. However, other than that the price seems quite okay to me as the premium content included this time are better than the previous set in my opinion. I love the theme of the set and the fact that they didn't include a venue and uploaded a free lot to the Exchange is quite impressive. Otherwise people would've to pay for the whole venue. The Old Mill is a wonderful lot, SimGuruKitty did an amazing job building the lot. The theme of the lot goes well with the set and is very pleasant. I would've loved if they added something funny to the tea set, like a Sim is drinking the tea but accidentally drops it on the floor. Some new moodlets would have been fine too. Apart from these, the tea premium content is one of my favourite PC from this set! Preserves and jams were perfect addition to this set. However, the scones and toast are covered in the same colour. For example, If you spread chocolate spread on a scone, it would have the same color as the one covered in strawberry jam which is well... weird. The water wheel is a funny and nice little premium content. it's funny that you can find sharks in it! But I love how beautiful it looks by watching it. The Build/Buy mode objects are mostly decor but the objects are really nice. I'm glad that there are corns for decor. I use them almost in every lot I create! This is one of the best Store sets I've tried out but wish there was something more. So, the score is 8/10


I hope you guys enjoyed reading my review. If you liked my review, you can leave a comment or recommend if you want. Have a great day!

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