Candlelight Sims

Vima - Dane took me out this evening to the what I expected to be a ritzy restaurant "Candlelight Sims," but when we entered, I was simple appalled. In the reception area was a big candle. So big and bright, but the room was very blue. I didn't much care for that.

As we passed the reception area, the navigation buttons steered us poorly to our destination because the text wasn't on the buttons, but over them. There seemed to be a lot of unnecessary flash, which might just be the owners using this establishment as guinea pig for testing.

The objects seemed a little rough, but I didn't test them in the game, so I could be wrong. Perhaps screenshots would be better served here. I prefer seeing the objects in the game rather than jagged like this. They've done some cool things with the actions, although I'm not sure about the safety of this iff hacking to my computer. The treadmill was misleading. The picture shows the girl running on the treadmill, but she was sinking in it in my game...blah...fix the z-buffers man.

The real gem here is the walls. I was pleasantly surpised with some of the elegant walls by Reveena. Some of the swags were beautiful with the exception of the blue ones, which lack texture. I'd love a redo of those with a replacement for the solid colors! The layout, however, is terrible. Scrolling down to see a few walls just seems unnecessary. So many other sites use tables for this and frankly, I prefer it. The livingroom walls could probably all fit on one page, rather than being spread out like a teenager on prom night.

The floors and roofs weren't worth my time. The floors are just blah, I've got tons of similar carpet from SimFreaks and I'm sick of it. The roofs, some were good, but there were only a few and hardly worth a look. I'd just love color variations.

Skins aren't even worth a mention. I've said too much already.

There are some replacement graphics for the doll and kitchen knife that looks pretty cool.

Now I need a drink after that fiasco. Give me one martini and throw an extra olive in my salad.

Skyler - Candle Light Sims... Sounds SO romantic! I'm already expecting to see Vima and Dane off in a corner somewhere in a lip lock with hearts floating over their heads. Well, well, the main page of this site is rather annoying. That messy font is so hard on my eyes after a late night out, and squinting only does favors for facial lines trying to claim stake to my face.

On to home items... Oh what a unique sphere they have here... I like it, and the colors on this page are really so much nicer, if only they would use a better font (hint, hint, wink) This site offers very unique items with new animations, very creative objects, such as a pottery wheel, and treadmill. I've always had a concern though if redoing animation is safe for the game. I remember reading it can crash your game... I'll wait on these until I find out, but they are great objects! I must comment on the pitiful looking cats in though... Oh my they only have three legs and look as naked as CC getting out of the shower.

On to home decor... Some of these walls are great, and tile wonderfully! You can see Raveena has taken her time with these, and she's named them all which is a very nice touch. I only saw one that was bad (blue trellis), and judging from the others I'm sure this one bad one was just an oversight. The roofs are limited but nice, and floors need more texture to them.

I personally wasn't interested in the skins, (other than the braid), there are only a few to choose from, however this is one of the things I like about this site. Your not overloaded with a bunch of garbage... A few items per page with overall good quality.

I really did enjoy this site! I raise my glass to a great job well done and give then four martini glasses.

CC, my dear friend. I was born and raised Quaker, you know "love thy neighbor" (I love everyone I can get my hands on) ;) I I remember going to camp every summer up in the mountains of Southern California by the name of "Quaker Meadows" I loved it there, and it made my Mom and Grandparents so very proud to know I was studying the good book for at least two weeks out of the year (or so they thought LOL). However when they asked me back to be a counselor it seems I ruffled a few feathers and had to fly the coop, seems they just don't appreciate a good 'ol tent raising LOL ;)

Squeegee - With a label like light from a candle you would assume a nice soft tone to the place. Maybe soft shades of amber. Something along those lines. But what do we see?? I nice animated candle with a blue background. Not bad so far...

Let us enter the site that uses unmentioned words of warmth. What?? No, can it be?? What is going on with the wallpaper from this site?? It's just too demanding for a person to enjoy. The shades of gray near a light blue brick type of texture brings up repressed reminiscences of childhood trauma!! Basically it's just too hard to enjoy the diverse shades of colors from white to black. Plus, the sites own banner is very dark and you can't read most of what it says.

Don't get me wrong, I like the way the site is planned and also some of the images. It's just the colors that were used that don't settle with my nerves.

The downloads area is well stocked with inventive things. I haven't downloaded it, but I heard admiring reviews for the "Treadmill" . In the "Skins and Meshes" area you will find some distinctive goodies. I took interest in the "braid" that is offered in the heads area. But again, the image is just too dark to get a understanding of what it really looks like.

The contents of the site consist of things you don't see in other places. I like the ideas that were shown, because it tends to make me know more about the person behind the creative things. But I swear, this was the first time that a design of a website has caused me to flash back to some disturbing times of my past. Nothing that traumatic. Mainly the taste of a pill I had to take when I had a lung infection. To this day, I will not munch of anything that has a powdered orange taste to it. And yes, it's odd that a website caused this trauma to come forth and not the Sunkist soda that I am holding a death gripe on to this very moment.

So sum up this analysis. I have to give major points for the unique objects but also deduct because of the crappy looking design (the colors used, not the style or structure).

What makes this site, is the creative objects offered. Because of that, this site stands up over the countless sites that just offer the normal recolored selections that are in everything from pea green to childhood trauma orange.

With that orange taste flowing within my memory, I will come forth and submit a review of three martini glasses.

Mason - Well one thing that I can say about this site is ALL the Objects are originals! I think that is wonderful. The Side navigation buttons could be better. This is the guy that made the Treadmill work and the Potting Wheel. The colors are nice and easy on the eyes J Not very many floors, but most of the walls are by Raveena who is very well known for her talent. This site is also one of the first that I can remember that had the "switch ups" instead of your Sims juggling balls they can juggle fiery torches. Instead of your kids playing with teddy they can play with a cute gray kitten, and for those extremists your kids can entertain their friends with the Spike ball instead of the yoyo! This site is full of originality and I give it 4 Flirtini Glasses!

Sister Cecilia C. Simser:
Church of Simmintology. - Candlelight Sims.... I have seen this young man Candall around in forums and such and he always seems very nice and helpful, I wouldn't mind if he wanted to come spend some time at the Donna Reed Simulated Cooking Academy and Recreational Facility. We are always looking for modest young people to help us spread the good word. Praise Be!

I do not love the lay out of the place; the font is a bit hard to read for aged eyes. And while I do not think that the artistic layout of a website is his strongest talent, he has enough abilities in other areas that it makes this place well worth a visit! There are certain areas that shine here, and of course the self-improvement and pets section are two that I can recommend wholeheartedly. He seems to be able to create, very unique objects, the likes of which have only been seen on one or two other sites in the community. And that includes the Holy Grail of sites (SimsPlus,) and SimFreaks.

My favorite thing all in all was the painting that applauded the hard work of bees; Candall's description brought a tear to my eye! I thought how very right he was. After all idle hands are the Devil's workshop!

Candlelight Sims is small but do we really need quantity over quality? What would the Good Lord choose? I think we all know the answer to that one

I am giving four communion cups for the ingenuity of Candall and for his modesty and great objects. Would love to see him change the design of his site somewhat maybe a font that is a bit easier on the eyes.

Well back to the Lounge, and I do need to clear up a little misunderstanding.... Skyler misinterpreted my interaction with that young man at the lounge last night it was not, as she said, me dancing any new fangled dance move!!! I was merely trying to teach the poor soul the Lord's Prayer, and was teaching it with the hand gestures, like we do in our preschool at the academy. I am sorry if anyone was given the wrong impression!

Another thing.....Squeegee has been saying he thinks he is too solemn and has been talking about changing the tone of his reviews. Well I for one think that the Lounge is lucky to have at least a couple of us who take things seriously. It would be mighty lonely in my piety corner alone...Amen!

I will be busy praying for your souls, and for the dear "Church Lady" for God's help in her missionary works!

Storel - Today's site is Candlelight Sims, named punnily after its creator, Candall. It's not a large site -- you can see everything in it in a fairly short time -- but some of the downloads are quite amazing

Candall's at his best with objects. His potting wheel, treadmill, and acoustic guitar are literally like nothing else out there, because he's managed to provide them with animations that are not the same as the objects they were cloned from, which anyone who's ever recolored a sofa can tell you is a whole different kettle of fish. (Do read the readme file for once when installing them, though; besides the usual .IFF file for the object, they come with several animation files that need to be loaded into your Skins directory, or they won't work correctly.)

I've used the treadmill and acoustic guitar, and can testify that both work great. The treadmill lets your Sims gain body points while running their little legs off, although you do still hear the sounds of the weight bench while they do this. And the "Unplugged" acoustic guitar, unlike most guitar clones, doesn't revert to looking like the original electric guitar once a Sim picks it up and plays it, and doesn't override the default guitar (with help from Wotty of Sim-Bolix on that part). And while he gets points for spelling both "Miscellaneous" and "Miscellany" correctly on his site, when you install the guitar you'll notice he misspelled "acoustic", so minus points for that. 8-)

Other interesting things include the phone booth kit -- walls, a black plastic door, and a new wall phone -- in Electronics (a perfect accessory for the new pay phone in House Party); a wall-mounted bookshelf in Furniture; the "Simmington Rifle" in Decor; the Megachess set -- chess piece sculptures to set up a giant chess board on your lawn -- in Miscellaneous; several walls by noted wall designer Raveena; and the "Toysims" body meshes in Skins - Miscellaneous (male and female Sims with windup keys sticking out of their backs).

Unfortunately, Candall's artistic ability isn't quite up to his technical ability. Many of his objects are clunky or odd-looking; his Persian and Siamese cats (apparently cloned from the SimsPlus pig) don't look anything like Persians or Siamese (and only a little like cats); and the non-Raveena walls are, well, unusual at best. This is a real pity, because his technical ability is so high. If he ever teams up with someone whose artistic skills are equal to his technical skills, look out! This site could be another 7 Deadly Sims.

Note: This site requires Flash 4.0 to use. This may be inconvenient to some, but at least they notify you of this on the very first page so as not to waste your time. Apart from that, the site's interface is workable but a little awkward at times. When going through the many subsections of the Objects area, for instance, it would be nice to have a "Next Page" option rather than always having to back up to the directory page. However, this site works as well with Netscape as it does with Internet Explorer, which is a definite plus for this Netscape fan.

Overall, I can't give this site quite as high a rating as I'd like to. Artistically, things could use some work. However, Candlelight Sims is producing some of the most technically innovative objects on the Net, so it's definitely worth a look for object fans. I give it four martini glasses.