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11. The Sims Mega Deluxe Released [Update]

Written on Tuesday 25 May 2004 at 17:27 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

EA Announced today that they've shipped The Sims Megadeluxe. With The Sims, Livin' Large, House Party, Hot Date and the Sims Creator being packed together, this is the biggest collection of Sims-games ever released. Some special content is included too, which will be posted as download on the official site as well:

"Rounding off this must-have collection, players can furnish their homes with additional content ranging from decorative Japanese outdoor fountains to exotic African masks. This bonus material also will be available for download from http://www.thesims.com. Access to this content requires players to own The Sims Mega Deluxe Edition, The Sims Double Deluxe Edition, The Sims Deluxe Edition or The Sims plus any one of the following expansion packs, The Sims Vacation, The Sims Unleashed, or The Sims Superstar. Please visit the site for further information."

Makin' Magic can probably be added to the expansion pack list. If this content is the same as for The Sims Double Deluxe isn't entirely clear. Mega Deluxe has never been officially announced, and only consisted of rumours. Another pack, The Sims Triple Deluxe, which would contain The Sims, Livin' Large, House Party, Vacation and the Creator. Read our earlier news about it for more information. Currently a release date of that pack is unknown, but it's rumoured to be released in June (in Europe). A European release date for Mega Deluxe is unknown, and so is an American release date for the Triple Deluxe pack.

[Update 26 May, 20:20] The extra content from Mega Deluxe was already included in Double Deluxe, and is already available on the official site. There's still no word about a European release date for Mega Deluxe, or a US release date of Triple Deluxe.

12. Lucy Bradshaw Video Interview [Update]

Written on Tuesday 11 May 2004 at 04:19 by ChEeTaH - 4 comments.

As she already told us, Lucy has been interviewed by IGN. The interview is now available for IGN Insiders. It's a huge download, 300 Mb in Quicktime or almost 150 Mb in Windows Media format, but I've downloaded it. It doesn't give much real new information about the game, though the in-game clips from it are nice to see. You can see some snapshots I've created at the end of this article (in the Read more bit). Most interesting from those videos is that it looks like Maxis has included some Superstar elements, as we can see a lady Sim on the red carpet, with body guards and flashing cameras around her. Other images show the building of the homes, but also Sims jumping on couches, kissing and wrestling. We can also see the creation of a Sim (in-game) for a bit. For more information about what Lucy and Steve Butts, Editor-in-Chief of IGN, had to discuss in those 20 minutes, read on... It's a nice summary of what The Sims 2 is all about again.

[Update 16:20] Some more pictures from the movie, not taken by me, can be found at Snooty Sims. They're posted along with some other shots from recently published movies. You can see them right here. Read More!

13. New Poll

Written on Thursday 1 April 2004 at 02:00 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

As usual we've posted a new poll again this week. The previous one was all about Superstar. You've voted and Musician is the most popular, followed by Fashion Model on second place. Actor is the least popular career which helps your Sims' fame, although it's all pretty close. Although some people like to be the Obsessed Fan. See this page for all results. The new one is about The Body Shop from The Sims 2. Its name recently changed from CaSIE to the Body Shop, but we want to know which one's your favourite. Vote on the right or on the latest poll page.

14. New Poll

Written on Thursday 25 March 2004 at 01:00 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Sims watch TV, just like people. At least most Sims do. We asked about your Sims' favourite channel, and 309 people voted. The cartoons are the most popular, with 23% of the viewers, while the romance channel is second with 16% of the votes. About 14% prefers action, while 13% claims not to watch TV. With one vote less, the Entertainment channel followed with also about 13%. The last three results are close, with 14, 13 and 12 votes each (around 4-5%). Those last three are Sports, the Animal Show and the EP6 News channels. We also have a nice overview of the results.

The new poll is also in the entertainment category. We want to know what your favourite career in Superstar is. Let us know by voting on the right or on the latest poll page. Also make sure to check out our archive.

15. 2 Awards for The Sims

Written on Friday 5 March 2004 at 19:20 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

The Sims has won 2 awards, again. Yesterday the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences held the "7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards". They gave away 36 awards in different categories. Maxis was nominated twice, in the categories "Family Game of the Year" (for Bustin' Out) and "Computer Simulation Game of the Year" (Superstar). As you can guess, Maxis has won in both categories. EA took home another 9 awards, making a total of 11. This is the third year in a row that a Sims title was nominated for an award in this show, but the second year that Maxis actually won anything. Last year, Maxis won in the categories "PC Massively Multiplayer / Persistent World" (TSO) and "PC Simulation" (Unleashed). The "Computer Innovation" award, which Hot Date was nominated for two years ago, went to Black & White in 2002. But 2002 wasn't a complete loss for Maxis: Will Wright got into the AIAS Hall of Fame back then, as you can read here. For more information, visit the IAA Website. Thanks to WorldSims for the tip.

16. SimCity 5 speculation

Written on Sunday 25 January 2004 at 17:33 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

IGN reports that recent speculations about SimCity 5 being in development should not be taken seriously. On French television, Maxis general manager Luc Barthelet said that SimCity 5 is currently in development. However, when Maxis called IGN Maxis stated that they "are focused on shipping The Sims 2 at this time. [...] To read anything into Luc Barthelet's comments is incorrect. [...] Any speculation as to SimCity 5 is premature". According to Luc in last thursday's chat, he also got "into real trouble." for saying that SC5 was being developed. As there's often some truth in rumours, and the job opening for the "Next Generation" of SimCity, it seems likely that SimCity 5 is in the works and that Maxis is trying to cover up at the moment. In the past Maxis also denied some Sims expansion packs when there were rumours about them because of pre-order options, especially Superstar and Makin' Magic. Of course it isn't definite yet until EA releases a press release about it, but to many people it seems likely that SimCity 5 will come to your PC in probably a couple of years. We'll keep you updated.

17. Sims Topped Holiday Sales

Written on Thursday 15 January 2004 at 13:15 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

The Sims has topped in the charts of the holiday sales, just before christmas last year. In the week of 21-27 December 2003, there are 5 Sims titles in the top 10 in the NPD Chart of best selling PC games. Makin' Magic is at the first place, Deluxe on #4, closely followed by Double Deluxe on the fifth place. Sixth is Superstar, and The Sims Vacation closes the chart on the 10th place. Makin' Magic has given away the first place now though - the first week in January (28 December 2003 - 3 January 2004) it was second, with The Sims Deluxe third. Double Deluxe stayed at place five, and Superstar dropped to 7. Vacation has dropped from the chart, but in its place are Unleashed and Hot Date on places 8 and 9. More information is at GameSpot.

18. SimDay: Thanksgiving

Written on Thursday 27 November 2003 at 12:20 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

This SimDay Maxis seems to be taking a bit of a break, hence it's pretty small. There won't be chat tonight, but they say they've got a pretty good line-up for next month. Then there's a review of Makin' Magic in the new issue of PC Games, but without a link we can't show you more... Then there's an interview with Jerry from KillerSims at TheSims2.com, which you can find here. If you live in California (near Sunnyvale), you're between 15 and 34 years old, and would like to talk about The Sims with other fans for 3 hours, and even earn some money with it, then go here for more info. New in the spotlight this week is Freddie Prinze Jr. You can download him to go into your Superstar game now, as NPC. Check out this page for that information. Finally: Happy Thanksgiving from Maxis (and The Sims Zone).

19. SimDay

Written on Thursday 30 October 2003 at 23:24 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

It's SimDay again, and this week there's quite a lot about Makin' Magic in it. First of all, there's the chat, the exchange and the GameSpot review we wrote about earlier. To make it complete, there's also a press release about the shipping of Makin' Magic, right here. Next is the second review, from IGN. They're very positive like GameSpot and rate it 8.2 out of 10. There are a few sidenotes though, for instance that they find "the magical nature of the expansion charming but incompatible with the basic concept of the series" and that the scrolling around is still a bit jerky. No word about annoying bugs like in Superstar though. You can read it right here, of course with some screenshots. Now about the other the Sims games: Maxis has posted a sneak preview of the Sims 2 Preview CD that comes with Makin' Magic. A preview of a preview that we've posted some time ago. You can now download it from this page at the official Sims 2 site. Next there's an interview about Bustin' Out with Mike Perry, producer of the game. There's nothing real new in it. If you're interested though, go here. Finally, there's a new download for Superstar, which will bring Sarah McLachlan to Studio Town. If you have Superstar, you can get it right here. That's all again for this week.

20. Chat Transcript

Written on Friday 24 October 2003 at 18:07 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Maxis is early with the transcript this week, and it's already been posted. Besides general gamplay questions about Superstar and (mainly) Makin' Magic, there's also quite a lot about bugs in Superstar:

"Actually, because of the way we build expansion packs, almost all expansion packs include changes to the previous ones, but we searched the BBS, and grilled all of our SimMasters to get us everything that the user community wasn't happy with, and we fixed and changed a LOT! Almost every issue reported to us we fixed. The list is too long to recite, but if you want to ask about something specifically, I'll be able to give you the thumbs up or thumbs down on it."

There's no word about a patch for Superstar, for those who do have that and don't want to buy Makin' Magic. So far it seems Makin' Magic fixed the worst problems in Superstar (which was criticised a lot in nearly all the reviews), but we'll have to wait until the first reviews to see if there aren't new bugs. Some things that have been fixed are bartender Waylon, and the "Move Objects On" problem that caused Sims to disappear. As mentioned, there's also a lot of stuff in the transcript about gameplay items. There's nothing really completely new though, except for the fact that Cassandra Goth no longer has her glasses. Maxis got rid of them to prevent confusion of Makin' Magic and Harry Potter. More of that, and a lot of other things, can be read in the full transcript.