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1431. Donate and test a new Feature!

Written on Monday 12 January 2004 at 22:45 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

Behind the scenes, we're currently working hard on a new feature which will be launched in a couple of weeks. However, it is still a secret, and it won't be announced what it is yet. However, you have the opportunity to test this new feature, if you donate. If you donate for two months (i.e. $5 or more), you will get the December donation gift, as well as the opportunity to test the hidden section. Remember: You need to donate $5 or more to be allowed to enter. After you donated, we will send you an e-mail within 24 hours with the details on what the feature is, and how you can test it. As it's still in development, you will be requested to provde feedback and report any bugs. This thing will not be launched yet for another 2 weeks (approximately). If you want to test it, donate to TSZ and help us pay our bills, support the RGA, and also help us testing this brand new section. Thank you!

1432. Bustin' Out on N-Gage

Written on Monday 12 January 2004 at 22:04 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Now Bustin' Out has been released on Consoles and GBA, it's time to look forward again. With mobile phones becoming a new platform for gaming more and more, EA makes the logical step to bring The Sims to your phone. The Nokia N-Gage to be precise. This has been announced in a press release by Nokia. Players will be able to share objects using BlueTooth Wireless technology, and it will come with an "Exclusive N-Gage Arena". Besides that the game will have exclusive objects and mini-games. For more information, click here for Nokia's press release, or here for more information about N-Gage.

1433. Sims 2 Camera Info

Written on Sunday 11 January 2004 at 22:13 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Hot from the press, we just received some more in-depth details of the camera options and camera mode in The Sims 2 from Maxis. The "Cameraman mode" is brand new, and you have complete freedom when it comes to rotating, zooming and scrolling the camera around through the 3D area. You can also move around as if you were a Sim, and really be in the middle of all the action. It's more detailed than ever, and you have more freedom than ever. There will also be a Movie Recorder. Using that, you can create your own soap opera, sitcom, or whatever you like. All you have to do is pressing "v" in-game to start creating an AVI video. You can use a complete video control panel, which will allow you to optimize the settings for the movie recorder. That way, you can get the best quality footage from your Sims' homes. Although not explicitely mentioned, the earlier video shows how well these two features can be combined and how they result in something never seen before with The Sims. These features make story-telling a lot better in The Sims 2. Of course, the photo album options are also still available, but those too have been much improved. For an example of that, go to this previous news post.

1434. Coming soon: RugOMatic

Written on Sunday 11 January 2004 at 16:40 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

On his personal site, Dan Hopkins, creator of Transmogrifier, has announced a few more projects besides just Transmogrifier 2. He's also developing an add-on called "RugOMatic", which will allow you to create rugs from any picture you import. It's a lot easier than using T-mog. All you'll have to do is drag-and-drop an image or some text and it's all done. Another plugin he's creating is "ShowAndTell":

"ShowAndTell" is an ActiveX control for displaying a live preview of a Sims object file on a web page (or wherever you can plug in an ActiveX control). You can change the rotation and zoom of the object, and it shows you the name, price and description. It also lets you change the background color and turn off the grid, to match your web page.

For more information, visit Don Hopkins' sites RadiOMatic BlogUTron (his personal site) and Transmogrifier.

1435. Psychology of The Sims

Written on Sunday 11 January 2004 at 16:30 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

That Will's games aren't used just for fun, was already known. A new article was now published, which gives an example of how The Sims can be used to make people see how they really live their own lives, and why it's (sometimes) such a mess. Here's a little quote:

"Maybe that's because playing The Sims is almost exactly like coping with everyday suburban life. To begin, you build a home, choosing details down to the pattern of tiles on the kitchen floor and the shape of the backyard pool. Then you help your Sims along as they stumble along through existence."

If you're interested, click here for the whole article. Another old article (from 2001) also has some information on psychology and games, which you can find right here.

1436. TheSims3.com, SimCity5.com registered [Update 2]

Written on Sunday 11 January 2004 at 14:59 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

The Sims 2 isn't out yet, but it looks like there are already plans for The Sims 3. Work on The Sims 2 was started shortly after The Sims 1 was released, and if Maxis does that again, that'd mean they'll start on The Sims 3 soon. A third version of the game can be expected now EA registered a new website domain, thesims3.com, until at least 2006. There's no website whatsoever there yet, but it looks like EA is just making sure that nobody else is able to register the domain before them. Of course nothing can be confirmed of The Sims 2 can be confirmed yet, as Maxis will first release The Sims 2, and then a bunch of expansions, before even announcing The Sims 3. Nevertheless it can be considered quite likely that a third game in the series will come some time, as it's a very popular game and people will still be missing some things in The Sims 2 for sure (even though it's a lot better than The Sims 1). We'll keep you updated as usual.

[Update 14:55] It turns out that EA even registered thesims4.com until thesims10.com. That would mean The Sims 3 isn't as definite as stated above, but EA is doing this just to protect their trademark, preventing others to capture those domains. Thanks to Tiger for that tip. Some of the domain records also point to ClubSim.net, which is currently the same as the front page of TheSims.com. If Maxis is ever going to do something else with that domain is not yet known, but that might happen in the future...

[Update 20:55] There are even more domains that EA registered recently. SimCity5.com to SimCity9.com have also been taken by Electronic Arts. These domains are also taken for the next couple of years. These domains also do not point to a website yet, but perhaps they will soon.

1437. New Sims 2 Video

Written on Sunday 11 January 2004 at 02:31 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

A new gameplay video of The Sims 2 has appeared on the net. This time it's a big (19 Mb) and impressive one. But even though it's big, it's a must-see, especially if you want to know how spectacular being abducted by aliens is in The Sims 2, or for the camera views, or even if you just like the UFO's from SimCity. It's all in one file. If you're ready for this, right click here and save it. Then use QuickTime to watch it.

1438. Layout Changes

Written on Saturday 10 January 2004 at 23:28 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

We've fixed and changed a couple of things in the design of this site. It now works better with low screen resolutions - mainly the headlines are less wide when you use a low screen resolution. We've also changed the menu captions a small bit. If you posted a comment, the edit/remove text is not hidden away anymore when using Internet Explorer. The Community Updates section has also gone through some small changes, which fixes issues in at least Mozilla and Internet Explorer. Besides that there's one more change in the same section. You used to be able to edit a post until 6 hours after the initial post. This has been extended to 12 hours, but now you can't remove it after that period anymore as well, unless you ask us to do so. The limit of 3 items per week still stands, to prevent spamming and to allow other sites to show themselves just as much. We encourage everybody with a Sims fansite (given in their profile) to post their site updates, by going here. Of course big or special news about your fansite can always be submitted. We hope the design fixes will make it easier and nicer for you to browse The Sims Zone.

1439. Sims 2 Preview + Screens

Written on Saturday 10 January 2004 at 00:54 by ChEeTaH - 2 comments.

ActionTrip has posted a new preview of The Sims 2. It doesn't tell us anything new, yet it's an interesting read if you forgot some of the features of The Sims 2. Here's a small bit of the review:

"Will Wright and his crew at Maxis haven't spent the last few years dishing out The Sims expansion packs for nothing. Okay, so they may have found an ingenious way to earn extra cash (albeit not exactly original - Ed.), but the long-lasting history of the series and its numerous incarnations instigated a huge worldwide feedback from a massive community of fans, which, naturally, gave the developers a good idea of what the average gamer truly desires to experience."

The article itself may not be too interesting, but the three new screenshots that they posted with it make it worth checking out. Go here and check it out.

1440. Will Wright Chat Transcript

Written on Friday 9 January 2004 at 14:09 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Last night's chat with Will Wright, the brain behind SimCity and The Sims, was quite a success. It was open to SimCity 4 registered members only, as they weren't allowed in with the last chat event with Will. Many questions were asked, quite a lot of them have been answered. There aren't many Sims-related questions compared to the amount of SimCity questions, but there are quite some also about the other hobbies (and games) of Will Wright (Robotics and Raid on Bungeling Bay, for instance). If you're interested in reading the transcript, click here.