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381. Open for Business Shipped; Screenshots, Videos and More

Written on Wednesday 1 March 2006 at 15:40 by ChEeTaH - 4 comments.

Open for Business officially shipped yesterday. Some stores worldwide have already started selling the game, despite the official release date being 2 March. EA announced this in a press release. Senior Producer Don Laabs is quoted saying Open for Business ""opens a limitless world of new gameplay for Sims fans. The game includes all the tools players will need to create businesses that reflect their unique personalities, be they buttoned-down professionals, or wacky worker bees who explore the limits of the workplace. This is one of the most open-ended expansion packs we have created and we encourage fans to discover their irreverent, quirky business personalities." Precise details can be found in the full press release.

Besides the press release there's a lot more news from Maxis about Open for Business, more or less celebrating the release. Read on for details. Read More!

382. Unofficial OfB Screens and Videos

Written on Tuesday 28 February 2006 at 02:15 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Besides magazines and gaming websites, some fans of the Sims have already received their copy of the third expansion pack for the Sims 2 on PC, Open for Business. That means some people are already posting new screenshots of the game on forums or elsewhere. The German gaming site Krawall has posted 35 screenshots, and the DVD included with the Dutch gaming magazine PC Gameplay also had several screenshots of the pack on it. Fansite The Hub has posted them on their forums. On the forums of our affiliate SimsZone Mirena68 and Azazel13 have posted some screenshots throughout the thread. But with the expansion already being released in Switzerland and Austria last week, there are more German sites with screenshots from users. Undisturbed.de has posted many screenshots in their forums, and fansite SimTimes has put a couple of screens together in one topic. In the start post of that topic, you'll also find two links to videos SimTimes made, as well as another video from raye1forTS2 on the official site's BBS.

The game will be available worldwide this week, and more screens and videos are bound to turn up on many websites. New shots may be posted on links given above, or on many other forums. We won't be able to report on all of them, but naturally we will keep you updated with new reviews that will appear soon as well.

383. Sims on Next Gen Consoles?

Written on Saturday 25 February 2006 at 23:31 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Last year the Sims 2 was released on the PlayStation 2, XBox and GameCube. Following the release schedule for consoles of the past couple of years, a new game can be expected near the end of this year. GameSpot has now posted something in their Rumour Control section, about the Sims moving to the next generation of consoles; specifically the PlayStation 3, and possibly also the XBox 360 and maybe Nintendo's revolution. Rumours were fueled by a job opening for a future Sims project, for a PS3 (PlayStation 3) engineer. The PS3 was singled out though, there were no openings for XBox 360 or Revolution engineers. Even though development costs for the next generation consoles are generally high, and the Sims hasn't been doing as well as EA had hoped for, so-called "microtransactions" might be what will help EA make a bigger profit; sell extra downloads for a small fee. Nothing has been confirmed yet, and EA is not commenting on the rumours, but GameSpot deems it likely that the Sims will indeed make a move to the next generation. More details can be found in GameSpot's article.

384. Family Fun Stuff Pack Confirmed

Written on Saturday 25 February 2006 at 19:25 by ChEeTaH - 2 comments.

Some people are already getting their copies of Open for Business. Especially in Switzerland and Austria the pack has already been released. Where University and Nightlife came with an announcement of the next expansion pack, that's not the case with Open for Business. Rather than looking 6 months ahead, it's just 2 months this time, with the announcement of the Family Fun Stuff pack. The Fun Stuff pack, which will cost roughly $20, has been spotted several times before, earlier this month, together with a Glamour Stuff pack (which is not announced now). Rather than being a full expansion pack, a Stuff pack will only contain several objects, clothing, déco items and accessories for Sims. This pack will have, as the name says, a family theme. There will be Fantasy and Underwater sets for children's bedrooms, upscale Nautical furnishings for the family room and adventurous costumes for kids, matching outfits for group outings with the family. In total there will be 60 items, including castle beds, sun dresses and tropical wall hangings. Family Fun is said to be released in April, and although most shops have now removed their entries, rumours from dates posted there suggest it'll be late April. It's not yet sure when Maxis will officially announce the pack, if it'll be available through EA Downloader introduced last year, and when pre-orders will start to be taken - but as always we'll keep you updated with that information. The ad on the Open for Business can be seen by clicking the thumbnail below. Thanks to SimTimes (German) for posting the images.

385. OfB Information from Strategy Guide

Written on Saturday 25 February 2006 at 19:07 by ChEeTaH - 4 comments.

It's not uncommon that Prima's strategy guides for the Sims games are packed with little details for the games. The guide for Open for Business is no exception. A few people have already received the guide and are posting information out of it on the internet. Three of them are rosierealea (thanks to SnootySims for the link), Mmmyrs2 (thanks to Hiki for the link) and vibrateforyou. Altogether there's a lot of new information about the expansion pack in the guide, including cheats, new interactions, many details of robots and specifically Servo, and much more. Read on for the new details that have been posted. Beware for spoilers! Read More!

386. Mascot Screens

Written on Saturday 25 February 2006 at 16:14 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

When pre-ordering Open for Business at several stores (including our shop, US only) you can get a mascot kit as download. You will be able to download the files at the day of release, 1 March. To promote pre-ordering a little more, Maxis has released two new screenshots displaying what you'll get. There's a chicken mascot suit, and the Sim in it is a bit surprised, as well as a chicken sculpture to put outside your business. You can check the two screens by clicking the thumbnails below. If you want the download, order the game in our shop before 1 March (offer available for US orders only, see the official UK site for details about getting the mascot in the UK).

387. GameSpy: SimPrentice Part 3 and OfB Review

Written on Saturday 25 February 2006 at 15:53 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Gaming site GameSpy has posted two new articles. The first one is the third part of the SimPrentice, in which GameSpy interviews Grubbs, a Sim trying to run a business. This time they cover buying a community lot, and building a salon there using the new building tools. There are also some details about hiring employees, including the talent badges. The robots are also mentioned. A Servo, the family pet robot, will come at a price of 3,000 simoleons when you create it. Finally there's a little note about a reviewer, who comes in to rate your business. For more details read The SimPrentice Part 3. Naturally it comes with several screenshots.

GameSpy has also had the privilege to post the first online review of the game. One of the first things they note is that Open for Business works best in combination with the earlier released expansion pack Nightlife, especially because that pack provides the objects necessary to create several kind of businesses. Another downside is that running a business is not as intuitive as the rest of the game, and that talent badges are put besides the skills, rather than adding to it. Also, you don't get to see the progress in getting the next badge for a certain talent. It's also unclear which existing skills help building up a talent faster.

The good thing is that there's a good balance. Starting a business is easy, but making it very successful is quite hard, a lot harder than say having a Dream Date in Nightlife. The amount of humour - pet bricks which can be taught tricks, or robots freestyling for tips - in the expansion also make it a lot of fun to play. It's quite deep, and feels almost like a whole new game. Altogether GameSpy gives the pack a rating of 4 out of 5 stars. It's a little sloppy in the implementation, but otherwise a very strong pack, especially when combined with Nightlife. Check out the review and watch the screenshots for more details.

388. New OfB Screen

Written on Saturday 25 February 2006 at 15:33 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

The official Swedish site has posted a new screenshot of the Sims 2 Open for Business. This time you get to see a Sim playing with a toy robot. You can check out the screenshot by clicking the thumbnail below.

389. Open for Business Guide Details [Update]

Written on Thursday 23 February 2006 at 00:46 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Publisher Prima Games is, as usual with Sims games, publishing a strategy guide for Open for Business. Details of the book have now been put online, and as with the other guides the details of the game are covered in-depth over 208 pages. Although not mentioned, it can be assumed that the book will be in full color, and will also include some essentials for the Sims 2, similar to the Nightlife guide. Some of the topics that will be covered in the book are:

• The secrets of Talent Badges
• What makes customers tick and how to use it against them!
• New objects and socials cataloged for easy reference
• How to get the most from employees to make your business pay!
• Elevators and other build mode tools covered so you can make your showrooms sparkle

A cover image of the guide has not been made available yet. A few sample pages might also be given away at a later date, although there's no confirmation about that. You can find above details on Prima's product page, and you can pre-order it from our shop.

[Update 25 February, 14:30] The front cover of the book is now available, and as you can see the guide contains tables for The Sims 2, University and Nightlife. These are probably the essential tables listing objects and such, similar to those included in the Nightlife guide.

390. New OfB Trailer

Written on Wednesday 22 February 2006 at 23:20 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

A new trailer of the upcoming expansion Open for Business has been released by EA. This time you get to see a store clerk who prefers parties over work. Nevertheless that doesn't mean his business is unsuccessful. The ad hasn't been posted on the official site yet, but some other sites already do have it. You can find it at GameTrailers under the name "Web Party," or at GamersHell. Thanks to SP Zone and SimsZone for the links.