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31. The Sims 2 Sponsor Bumpers

Written on Wednesday 1 September 2004 at 11:57 by Neil - 3 comments.

Programme Sponsor Bumpers for The Sims 2 have been spotted in the UK by yours truely. The bumpers, which appear at the beginning, end and end/start of parts of TV programmes, aren't exactly particularly exciting (just the Sims 2 logo on a black background with a link to a web address) and last no more than five seconds.

Currently, the bumper has been seen on Sky One and it is sponsoring UK airings of the US hit show 'Malcolm In The Middle', which is one of Sky One's most popular shows (behind The Simpsons of course which is already sponsored by somebody else).

The bumpers carry a web address, http://www.september17th.co.uk which has been active since early July. The site, with its unique method of navigation (a spinning disc on the right hand side), has screenshots, trailers, MP3s and links to UK fansites (including this one).

Sky One is an encrypted TV channel available in the UK only on Sky Digital, channel 106 and cable.

32. New parts Sims 2 Review @ SimsZone

Written on Wednesday 11 August 2004 at 16:18 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Our affiliate SimsZone has posted two new parts of their review of the Sims 2 yesterday and today. Yesterday's part is about creating your family. You start by giving your family a last name, after which you can quickly start creating the Sims. That starts with a name (and biography) as well, as well as the basic characteristics. Pick your Sims' sex, age, body type and skin colour and you're ready to go a bit further. SimsZone also notes that all your Body Shop Sims were automatically imported upon installation, so you can also choose to use one of those.

For the rest of the details, including info about the neighborhoods, read on (and click Read More if necessary). Read More!

33. New Poll

Written on Thursday 29 July 2004 at 15:31 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Last week we asked you to help us make a top-ten of how you spend your time until the Sims 2 release in September. The results are in, and here they are:

10. "I play with real-life dolls. Gotta love Barbie and Ken!"
9. "Nothing at all. I just sit and wait for the game to arrive."
8. "Something other than the options mentioned above."
7. "I'm asleep most of the time, I just wake up once every few days to get the latest news and a bit of food."
6. "I go to work/school every single day and just fill up my schedule with things to do."
5. "I hit the refresh button on this or other fansites all the time, to see if there's any news."
4. "I talk about it on forums, in real life, and just can't stop thinking about it. It drives me (and my family) mad!"
3. "I mess around with the Body Shop, creating Sims which will become alive 17 September."
2. "I stare at the screenshots, videos and other stuff over and over and over again. I can't get enough of it!"
1. "I play The Sims 1."

The other 2 options (Waiting for the URBZ or not having a clue what The Sims 2 is about) got a minor amount of votes, just 1% and 4%. See the results page for exact details of the results. This week we have a question about your game again. We're wondering what's your favourite colour for decorating rooms in. Vote on the right or on the latest poll page.

34. 12 New Sims 2 Wallpapers

Written on Friday 16 July 2004 at 01:33 by ChEeTaH - 4 comments.

The bonus cd, that comes with pre-orders from several shops in the US, is already being sold for $10 at some stores (with a $10 rebate when you buy the game). On this CD there is material like some videos and interviews (with some webmasters from The Sims 2 University, professional testers, Will Wright, Lucy Bradshaw and other Maxoids), two mini-games (Family Tree, which already came with a McDonald's CD in January, and the Hot Lips game, in which you have to select a Sim, three Sims from the opposite gender, and then see how well the Sim kisses), a bunch of old screenshots, a timeline of the Maxis history, and also 12 new wallpapers. For those who have the CD: only 6 of them, with the new logo, show up in the menu, the other 6 can only be accessed through Windows Explorer (My Computer). The probable reason the second set was 'hidden', is that they have the old logo. Hence it may seem there are some doubles between them, but they have a different logo, so you can pick your favourite. Unfortunately we can't post any of the other things as they are locked in one huge file (we can't afford the bandwidth that would generate), and there's nothing saying it's permitted to post the files. However, the wallpapers can be posted freely on fansites, so they're here. Click the Read More bit (or just scroll down a bit) to see the wallpapers, and click your favourite resolution to download them (either 800x600 or 1024x768, other sizes aren't available).

Thanks go out to our own Sumit for providing the wallpapers. Read More!

35. New Poll

Written on Thursday 15 July 2004 at 02:00 by ChEeTaH - 2 comments.

The results of our old poll are in, as it's finished to make way for a new one. 268 people commented on the interface of The Sims 2, and the majority, 65%, says it's looking great. 21% says it's looking good, yet familiar. About 10% said they don't care - as long as it works. The other options weren't very popular, and got just 1, 5 or 6 votes. For more details, check the complete results.

This week's poll is also about The Sims 2. While the status of a release of the DVD edition, with several extras including a "Filmmaking 101" and 60 minutes of interviews, tips and tricks, outside the USA is still vague, a lot of discussion has broken out on forums since yesterday's press release, stating it'll be released in "North America only for the same price as the CD version". Besides the discussion in several major forums (on both official sites as fansites), there's even a petition that you can sign if you want the DVD version to be released in Europe as well. The poll jumps in on this matter, and you can let us know now if the DVD version should be released outside the USA as well. Vote on the right or at the latest poll page.

36. Lucy's Mail: Custom Content and the puck

Written on Saturday 3 July 2004 at 04:51 by ChEeTaH - 5 comments.

Lucy has sent her weekly e-mail again, and this time she introduces Darren Futa, who talks about how custom content enters the Sims 2. In the new game, custom content will be much easier to find, as you can easily categorise it into several collections. You can give your collections a name and icon, and of course make as many as you like. Of course, as customisable as The Sims 2 will be, you can import custom icons for those collections. All custom content will be marked with a snowflake (as you can also see in the Body Shop), so you can easily distinct Maxis-made from user-made content. Also, you can download and install new content straight from within the game, so you can keep it running 24/7 and still get new stuff for your Sims. Although the information isn't really new since it was already talked about at The Sims 2 University, some of the graphics are. Darren doesn't mention the option to enlarge the catalog when buying stuff so you see more on each page, though that's probably still in the game. Finally there's also an extra artwork made for the 4th of July, which you can see below this bit (click the thumbnail to enlarge). The other graphics have been put between the text so you know what they're talking about exactly. The text can be found in the "Read More" bit or below.

Read More!

37. Lucy's Weekly Newsletter

Written on Saturday 5 June 2004 at 19:29 by ChEeTaH - 4 comments.

Another e-mail from Lucy has arrived, which you can read entirely in the read more part. In the mail she describes how Maxis helps the paper industry by using lots of Post-it notes. The office is filled with them, and on every one of them there's a task for The Sims 2 that's to be done. If it's done, it will be stamped "done" in red. She also talks a bit about the new logo, which everybody is "very excited about" (like they are about everything really...). Also some slightly more details about the refreshed fansite kit have been given. It doesn't include only the new logo, but also new images and artwork, and even some desktop wallpapers. Two wallpapers have been given to us in several sizes (800x600, 1024x768 and 1680x1050) which you can put on your computer, so you'll never forget about The Sims 2. One of them is similar to what has been posted before with the launch of the UK Sims 2 website. The other one is a collage of many screenshots of The Sims 2. You can download them using the links below. Note that they're quite big (we've posted them in high quality), so it may take a while for them to load. To use them as wallpaper, right-click the image (once loaded) and choose to set it as wallpaper from the menu. To other webmasters: as usual, please do not hot-link to these images (or any other files or screenshots), but link to this article instead if you want to tell your visitors about it. Thank you.

800x600 1024x768 1680x1050

800x600 1024x768 1680x1050

Read More!

38. Sims 2 Website Redesigned

Written on Friday 4 June 2004 at 01:05 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Maxis has redesigned the official site to match the new logo. That logo was introduced around the E3 and has been spotted on several movies and screenshots before. The new site has a slightly different look, though the place of all content and the content itself are still the same. A new fansite pack has also been uploaded, which you can download from the fansites page. You can start staring at the new design on the fresh Sims 2 homepage.

39. Maxis Fansite Hosting Cancelled

Written on Wednesday 26 May 2004 at 22:18 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Today, Maxis announced they're not going to offer hosting plans for fansites of the Maxis games anymore. However, they will try other ways for sites to host their content. MaxisKitty, community manager of Maxis, has stated the following (to a group of fansite webmasters):

"We are not going to be offering the Hosting service. After reviewing it and understanding it better we determined that we can't offer it.

"We are looking at other ways in which users will be able to use our storage space to host content, but we won't be acting as an ISP."

Of course as soon as details about any other plans are revealed, we'll let you know about it.

40. Body Shop Available! [Updates - 22:35]

Written on Tuesday 11 May 2004 at 21:32 by ChEeTaH - 14 comments.

The Body Shop is out! FilePlanet has posted the Body Shop as exclusive download on this site. It's split up in several downloads, but it's big. You must first free up 106 Mb (!) for just the progam. Once you've got that, there is a starters pack for another whopping 95 Mb. Finally there's a pack exclusive to FilePlanet, which is just 2 Mb. You need to have a (basic, free) account at FilePlanet to be able to download the files. There currently is a waiting time of about 30 minutes, and you'll have to be a little bit patient before you can actually download the file. You can find all the download links right here. GameSpot has also published it, except that there it's one download of 206 Mb. You can find that on this page (free registration required there as well, but there's no waiting time). FilePlanet has also posted the 3 screenshots below, which shows some Sims with GameSpy and other outfits in the game. We'll keep you updated with news about the showcase and more!

[Update 20:35] The official site's showcase has launched too now (with the first user skins already there). From this site you can download the Body Shop (including a mirror on the official site now), the starter pack, the exclusive FilePlanet and GameSpot packs, a tutorial and the manual (in several languages). You can go to the download page here, get help with the body shop on the BodyShop Help page, and get more help with the showcase on the ShowCase Info page.

[Update 21:35] Some screenshots showing the GameSpot Sims have been added as well. Click the thumbnails below for those.

[Update 22:35] It's busy, and Maxis knows it. The official site is struggling to stay online, and even the GameSpot download servers have been down for some time as well (they're back up at the moment though). Several Sims fansites have mirrored the program, but due to limited resources of those sites I won't list them here. The servers are getting "slammed" as obviously the program is very popular. If you're unable to download it now, it's suggested to try again later. Here's what MaxisKitty has to say about the download problems:

"Our servers are getting totally slammed right now. If you are having problems we recommend that you come back later and try again.

"We are working on improving performance - but you might just want to try the FilePlanet or Gamespot pages if you want to try and grab the file right now."

[Last update: 11 May, 22:35]