Suddenly, the patching wouldn’t work and the most recent and much needed one was throwing up an invalid file error.  After using the Delphy log checker recommended by several forums, I found the name of the rogue file, replaced it with the fresh one from the Sims 3 disk and sat back with fingers crossed and apoplexy held on a loose rein.  Nope, the patch still threw up the same error about the same file.  So I replaced it again.  And again.  And again.  Nothing.  After scouring more forums and finding folk crying over their keyboards about the same thing, it seems that my only option (since clearing the cache files didn’t solve it), was to MANUALLY uninstall and then reinstall.  A  manual uninstall, are you fucking serious?!  Picking through the registry files and goodness knows what to comb my system like a squirming five year old’s nit infested scalp…joy.

...but EA support are all too fucking serious, unfortunately

Why did this happen?  I can’t perhaps lay the blame firmly at the door of the game as much as I want to.  Indeed, if I had done nothing wrong, these errors would be more worrying,  however, as it is, I suspect that shamefully, some of the fault lies with me.  You see, Sims 3 doesn’t like mods apparently.  If you have any installed when it comes time to run a patch and update it, it can throw a stealthy tantrum, discreetly knackering your efforts in any number of areas that it chooses.  Or not, such is the temperament of this creature.

When I installed Sims 3 World Adventures recently, the game asked if I wanted to update and so, without thinking, I accepted.  Only then, as the progress bar swelled like a teenager in Chobot’s presence, did I remember my recent raft of saucy mods, cocks, see-thru undies, and sundry items.  Bugger.  I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best and to its credit, the game ran fine, but for one annoying glitch where one character couldn’t access the grocery shop.

So, if the game runs fine, why the problem ?  Well, my launcher, as already mentioned won’t update the game due to its eye-rolling insistence that I have no memory left on my vast and funnily enough, vacant drive.  So my only option is to download patches and manually install.  Which I now can’t do because of this file error.  So the upshot is that I have reached endgame now and can’t update the game at all from this point.  Not a great state of affairs with a game as notoriously buggy as Sims 3.  With each expansion will come many updates, so if I want to continue my Sim gaming and give Devon fodder for his evil intentions, I have little choice.  However, this time, I should pay attention and do the ‘fiddly as arse’ manual uninstall as recommended by EA.  I feel another weekend is about to be lost to a mist of anger, obscenities, and PC rage.  It is the little things in life that make it an excruciating pleasure really.