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1191. Fake Tool: Automatic Faces

Written on Wednesday 12 January 2005 at 20:32 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

During my holidays there's been some strange news from SimsExpress. They mentioned a tool called "Automatic Faces" to be included with the Sims 2 University. However, since 28 December is in Spain a day similar to April Fool's day, it ended up being fake news. The program was said to allow you to easily create faces in the Sims 2 using pictures, making it easy for you to create realistic copies of existing people. A screenshot was included (click the thumbnail for a larger version), but remember it's all fake!

1192. The Sims 2 Game of the Year

Written on Wednesday 12 January 2005 at 20:24 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

At the end of last year, The Sims 2 showed again it's been a succesful game in 2004. IGN gave the game an award for the best Management Simulation (runner up: RollerCoaster Tycoon 3). The Sims 2 won because it's not so much economic, as many other simulation games, but also because of its level of detail. See the Awards list for more winners and details. On GameSpy The Sims 2 also won something: the "Best Strategy Game" award for PC games. See the PC Genre Awards for that one. In the overall PC games list, the game got to a fourth place. Finally, in the Gamer's Choice awards for PC Strategy games the Sims 2 also got to a fourth place, with 11% of the votes. Congratulations to Maxis for achieving these.

1193. The Sims 2 Articles

Written on Wednesday 12 January 2005 at 20:08 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Continuing the news coverage of the past two weeks today, we start with two articles that were posted. The first is from ITWorld.com. It's all about how the Sims was born, after a fire destroyed the house of Will Wright. It also talks about the development of the game, and the struggle to keep it supported by EA. For the history, see the article.

On another site, Buffalo News, there's an article concerning the artificial intelligence in the Sims 2. Will Wrightand Matt Brown talk about the Sims 2 in this article, and how the Sims became more intelligent during its development. See the entire entire article for all the details.

Finally, there's another article which allows schools to make teaching a language just a bit more fun. Using the Sims 1, some tools, and so modifying the game, teaching for instance German using a custom version of the game has become fun. Screenshots are also posted to illustrate how the game was modified. See the paper for all about this, and some other customised tools to learn a language.

Thanks to WorldSims, SP Zone and SimsZone for the links.

1194. Sims 2 University Presentations

Written on Wednesday 12 January 2005 at 00:13 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Tim LeTourneau is currently travelling through Europe to hold presentations about the first expansion for the Sims 2, University. He's shown it to members of the press, including webmasters of several fansites who attended the presentations, and some community members who were lucky enough to be invited by EA. A lot of pictures were taken during the presentations, and they've been posted on those fansites. But of course there was also some new info from these presentations. With thanks to SP Zone and SimsNetwork, which went to the presentation in Amsterdam last week, the following new information is now available (in pretty random order):

• Every neighborhood has a campus. You can choose to create a new one, or use one of the two pre-made areas.
• You can use buildings multiple times. After placing a building from the bin into an area, it will remain in the bin to be built again. It's unsure if this is for just university buildings or all buildings.
• There will be a new cheat, with which you can make buildings as tall as you want. This is done through a cheat as it doesn't make the game any faster.
• You can let up to 8 sims go to university. You can control these characters and they'll function more or less like a family. You can even choose to send townies (NPC sims) to college, so they can grow up and perhaps marry your own sims.
• There are four semesters (stages) during college time: Freshman, sophomore, junior and then senior. Each of these takes 2 or 3 days, and the clock starts ticking as soon as you select a Sim. In itself, the entire life stage takes about 20 days.
• Build-mode is disabled while you're playing on the university campus.
• Going to lectures etc. is similar to work in the original game: you won't follow your Sim.
• Sucking up to teachers or professors works. Woohoo-ing with them will guarantee good grades, according to Tim.
• There's a new "Influence" bar, indicating the influence on other Sims you have. It will be placed on the left of the aspiration bar, and the higher it is the more Sims will do what you tell them to do. It is filled by fulfilling new wants, which are marked with a blue border.
• There will now be 5 or even 6 wants instead of 4. You have to unlock those two though. You can now also lock 2 instead of 1 wants and/or fears.
• Sims can now watch sports on tv.
• Sport-Parties take a little longer than usual. During those parties Sims can watch the sports channel.
• There's a new "DIY Plastic Surgery Set" career object, which allows you to change the face of your Sim completely. This can be bought in the Show Business career track. It can go wrong too...
• The "Cow Plant" is given in the Ecology track. The Art track allows you to buy a Camera. The cow plant likes to eat, and if you don't feed it well enough it'll start eating Sims. After that it'll start producing special milk which other Sims can drink though. The result is the same as the Elixir of Life: the Sim gets younger.
• Sims can be revived or brought back as zombie by bribing the Grim Reaper using an object in the Paranormal track. Zombies can be controlled like any other Sim but they can't make babies. On the other hand, they do have eternal life without using cheats.
• You can have multiple families in one home, without marrying them or having them fall in love.
• Time continues when visitng a community area from university. Such a visit can influence the mood of your Sim.
• The computer has many more options, including entering a majors.
• There will be pranks.
• Some of the new objects include fitness-machines, common showers, the bubble blower from the Sims 1, a "juice-machine" which can do odd things to your Sim, a mini-fridge, a fire to roast marshmellows in, a fire sprinkler installation to extinguish fires without calling the fire department, cellphones, gameboys and MP3-players, the pool table and some objects in special themes like Classic, hip, and others.
• You can build a bar, or a Lounge-area where a band can play.
• There will be both two-floor and three-floor columns.
• There are 11 majors, including history, biology, political economy and (plastic) surgery.
• The Body Shop will be updated when you install University.
• The Sims won't go online as previously stated. This is because "other players will disturb the planning of your Sims' lives. This destroys the entire Sims idea" (from GameVillage).

Furthermore, SP Zone reveals that pets will definitely return to the Sims 2, as well as bunk beds and spiral stairs. However, these will not be in University but in future expansion packs. We can expect one expansion approximately every 6 months. The original game as well as things in earlier expansions will also be fixed and improved in the new expansions. Of course I want to thank SP Zone (specifically JVtje, read her entire report on SP Zone's forum) for all the info. In the Read More part you can find a ton of pictures during the presentation, from SP Zone, SimsNetwork, LeeRoyNR09 (forum member on official Dutch site), GameVillage, and Gry (which went to Warsaw for the presentation). They are in fairly low quality as they're taken with cameras and aren't direct screenshots.

Furthermore, Fragland has interviewed Tim LeTourneau about the first expansion pack. In that interview he reveals you can hack the "mainframe computer system" to get some good grades. You have to get into the secret society for that though. The interview also mentions that sports are hard to put in the game - it's all about adding a bit of gameplay, which isn't easily done. Read the entire interview for the details. Read More!

1195. University Box Shots and Rating

Written on Tuesday 11 January 2005 at 21:26 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Several sites have posted box shots of the Sims 2 University over the past two weeks. Although all of them are merely artworks and not (yet) official, it's not unlikely one of them will be the final one. Of course, when more information is revealed by EA, we'll let you know. The shots come from GameStop (shots 1 and 3), the official Czech site (shot 2), and SimsExpress (shot 4). Thanks to these sites for providing the graphics. The last one, which looks the most like an official box (althoguh in Spanish) also shows a European PEGI rating of 12 years and older. It's unsure whether this will be the final rating in Europe, but it's remarkable it's higher than the original game, which was rated 7+.

1196. 4 Million Visitors, New Poll

Written on Tuesday 11 January 2005 at 21:17 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

I'm back again and over the next day or two we'll be catching up with the latest news that was missed during my absence. Although a little late, I of course want to wish everybody - including all Sims - a happy 2005 on behalf of the entire Sims Zone team. First of all, we hit the 4 million visitors milestone shortly after Christmas (and we're well over it now). Thanks to everyone who visited us to reach this milestone, and keep coming so we hit the 5 million soon! On to something completely different: you selected the most important headline of 2004. The news that the Sims 2 was released didn't win - probably due to the somewhat misleading title. Instead, the news of the game being delayed, back in January, got the most votes: 32%. "The Sims 2 Gone Gold" was the runner up, with 27% of the votes. For the rest of the results, check out the results page.

Last thursday a new poll was launched, and as the new year has started it of course had to be about that. We want to know what you'll be doing for your Sims this year. Tell us by voting on the right, or on the latest poll page.

1197. SimDay

Written on Thursday 6 January 2005 at 07:36 by Stash - 0 comments.

Another SimDay has come and gone at TheSims2.com; and this week brings the online community of TheSims2.com some new features, and news of a great community celebration.

TheSims2.com members can now update their avatar with a new Create-An-Avatar tool! This is a great new feature for users of the exchanges and BBS. Also a new MySim theme was released. For anyone who misses the original Sims website, the can add some flavor from the past to their MySim page with The Sims Classic MySim page theme.

Lastly, The Sims Resource, one of the largest and oldest Sims fansites, is celebrating 100,000 custom creations for "The Sims" games. They will have free downloads, a contest, and more; so be sure to surf over and join the celebration.

1198. TS2U Preview at GameSpot

Written on Thursday 6 January 2005 at 05:11 by Stash - 1 comment.

Game Spot has added and updated their TS2U coverage with some new information. They have a The Sims 2 University preview, which you can check out here. And they also have a brand new Developer Interview video, which you can see here. The interview, which is with Tim LeTourneau, talks about the new expansion pack for The Sims 2. Free registration may be required to see it.

1199. University Information Page Launched

Written on Friday 31 December 2004 at 08:48 by Stash - 4 comments.

The EA Games Website has launched page for The Sims 2: University Expansion Pack. The page features game description, system requirements, and screen shots. Although no "new" information is there, it is still worth a look. Go check out the page by clicking here.

1200. Will Wright Earns Lifetime Achievement Award

Written on Friday 31 December 2004 at 08:42 by Stash - 2 comments.

The 21st Annual Awards for Technical Excellence singles out the year's most innovative products and technologies, and the people who did the most to move our industry forward. Will Wright, creator of The Sims and SimCity, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award.

There are many brilliantly inventive minds in the gaming realm, but Will Wright shines even in that select group. Thanks to him, gamers don't just destroy: They also create. Read More!