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251. 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.

252. New Poll

Written on Thursday 30 October 2003 at 13:46 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

We've added a new poll again: this time we want to know if you'll be getting Bustin' Out on one of the consoles, and if so which one. You can vote on the right, or at this page. Last week we asked you if you've visited any of the Maxis chats that have been held weekly since September. Because we've been offline a couple of days there were less votes than normal (just 67). Here are the results:

Yes, all of them! 20.90% (14)

A couple, but I missed a few. 2.99% (2)

I was there about half of the times. 1.49% (1)

I've only been to a few. 10.45% (7)

None at all. I couldn't make it. 64.18% (43)

253. Bustin' Out GBA: Preview, Screenshots and Trailer

Written on Saturday 25 October 2003 at 13:36 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

GameSpot has posted several new things of The Sims Bustin' Out on the GBA. First of all, there's a preview of the game. It's positive, and they compliment the new gameplay that's in the game. They also talk about the GameCube connectivity, as well as the option to link 2 GBAs together to play the game. GameSpot's also positive about the controls, graphics and the sound:

"The graphics are extremely impressive. Maxis and Griptonite didn't even bother with a polygonal approach for the game and have, instead, relied on a sprite-based engine that satisfies with large characters, smooth animation, and detailed environments. The in-close character portrait graphics are quite nice and do a fine job of complementing the character animation. Both elements do an excellent job of retaining the trademark sims humor. You'll notice some subtle concessions made for the game's "E" rating. For instance, the pixelation effect used to hide your sim's unmentionables, when in the bathroom and shower in the PC and console games, has been replaced by a far friendlier newspaper and steam cloud, respectively."

If you want to read the preview spread over 2 pages, click here. It comes with 5 new screenshots (of which 4 are posted twice) too. If you want to check those out without reading the preview, or if you want to see older screenshots, click here. Then finally, there's the first movie of the GBA version of Bustin' Out. 70 Seconds of moving images (MPEG) are packed in a 12 Mb zip. It shows how you create a Sim, how you control their life, how they talk to others, a Sim mowing the lawn, diving in the waterone on the scooter, and one in prison. It may be a big download to dial-up users, but it's good to others, and I must-see for those who are interested in the game. All you need is a free GameSpot Basic account to download it. It's right here.

254. Chat Transcript

Written on Tuesday 21 October 2003 at 09:38 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

The transcript of last week's chat with Virginia McArthur, producer of Bustin' Out on the GBA, has been posted. Some of the most interesting outcomes of this chat are: pets, weather (rain), and basements:

"There are basements of some of the homes and locations, they generally have to be unlocked through game-play and have some hidden treasures in them when you get to them - for example you can find the map to the steam-tunnels in the basement of the clock tower."

Also, Sims can't 'play', just hold hands on the couch. Less new is the information that you can control only one sim at a time, instead of whole families. Puking won't be in the game, and besides a maid, butler and other NPCs, there will be a Robot Monkey Maid. Other news is that on the GBA version, your Sim will never really die. Instead, when for instance they're being eaten by the Venus Fly Eating plant, your Sim will pass out and be taken to the hospital or their Uncle's home, depending on the level you're in. As for the "Create A Sim" features in this game: they're quite limited compared to The Sims on the consoles or The Sims 2. "You just get to choose from one Sim type and you get to choose gender, skin type, hair, shirt, pant and shoe color". Click here if you want to read the complete transcript. The next chat will be on Thursday, but Maxis hasn't announced with who yet.

255. SimDay: nothing much

Written on Thursday 16 October 2003 at 20:50 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

It seems to be very busy at Maxis, as this week's SimDay was posted late, and isn't too big. There are 2 things about Bustin' Out: the official site now has a Bustin' Out section right here (or via the new "Console" section in the menu at the official site). It gives a bit of info, screenshots and that's about it. It's not great, but it's something. Some of the screenshots appear to be new, so head over there if you're interested. The second Bustin' Out thing is that there's going to be a chat tonight - like every week - with Virginia McArthur about Bustin' Out. The chat's at 3PM PST, 11PM BST (UK) or midnight CET (Europe). You can get there by going through this page. Finally there's a download for the owners of Vacation, Unleashed or Superstar: new TV commercials. It's audio only, which means only the sound of the TV will change. You can download it from Get Cool Stuff at the official site, for just 230 kb. That's all this week.

256. Newsround

Written on Sunday 31 August 2003 at 15:52 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

In the past few weeks there has been a lot of news about The Sims. Besides the news we've already reported about, there've been items that we've missed in the past few weeks. Here's a round-up of all the news that hasn't been posted about yet, containing screenshots, developer diaries, and much, much more...

Read More!

258. EA Announces Bustin' Out for GBA

Written on Tuesday 1 July 2003 at 21:27 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

EA Games has announced The Sims for the GameBoy Advance today. There's a nice little bit of info in the press release about the gameplay in Bustin' Out, which is similar to Bustin' Out on the other consoles:

"Players begin living in a Barn and earn their way through locations in SimValley to eventually live in the coolest cribs, such as a swanky Mansion on the hill. Players will be able to unlock over 20 locations such as the Biker Juice Bar and the Ultimate Dance Club on their way to success. There are eight new career paths for players to pursue including Cliff Diving Instructor to Iron Pizza Chef. If players want to get through adventures with speed, they will be able to unlock a scooter to race around SimValley. Players will meet and play with a wild cast of over 30 new characters exclusive to the Game Boy Advance such as Salty Sam and Bucky the Bull Rider. Players also can go to the pet shelter and adopt a dog or cat to keep them company. New to the Sims is a close-up social interaction screen that will allow players to have conversations with other Sims and establish friendships that will help them advance through levels and complete goals."

Of course it also mentions the connectivity with the GameCube, as well as several other things. You can read the whole press release right here. We already knew about this game for a while, since the E3 in may, and even have 2 screenshots for your from back then. You can find them at this page in our news archive.

259. Cheats (Console) & Hints updated

Written on Tuesday 10 June 2003 at 03:27 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Last night we've been reorganising the extras a bit, making a separate "Game Help" section. In that section there's the (unfinished) career index, cheats, hints and more. Besides adding a few hints, we've also updated the cheats for the consoles versions of The Sims. The codes for the GameCube and X-Box versions are pretty much the same, but we added how to access the cheat menu on those consoles in the text. There's also one new cheat: "FISHY EYES". When you enter that, and change the camera view you'll get a first-person perspective. You can find the console cheats at this page. If you're looking for a list of cheats for the PC version, click here.

260. Will Wright Interviews: Talk about SimUniverse? [Updated]

Written on Wednesday 21 May 2003 at 01:06 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

GameSpy has posted an interesting interview with Will Wright. It's not to much about The Sims, but more about the man himself. Besides telling how much he worked with Sid Meier on SimGolf, The Sims on GBA and the collaboration with Nintendo's Miyamoto on that. But there's also a bit about a secret project:

GameSpy: "I don't suppose you want to talk about the secret project."

Will Wright: "Not yet. The problem is that when I work on a game it takes about four years. If I start talking about it now, people will have heard about it for three years when it comes out. They'll be sick of hearing about it. I need to be kind of careful. I think that the optimum is that your game goes to E3 once, not twice or three times. I wish I could do a game in two years."

Now if we go back into our news archive, our visitors who came here over a year ago might remember the name of SimUniverse. Although we haven't heard anything about that for a long time, it might still be true. Check out this newspost and this one for what we posted about SimUniverse last year. Oh, and to read the GameSpy interview: click here.

[Update 23:30] In the "Read more" bit (or below if you can see that already) you can read more about the audio interview posted a couple of days ago.