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251. News about University/Nightlife Patch

Written on Wednesday 21 September 2005 at 17:25 by ChEeTaH - 2 comments.

Maxis is working hard on a patch for both University and Nightlife. The deadline for it is coming up soon and so the patch can probably be expected within a couple of weeks, if not sooner. MaxoidTom has been actively posting in a thread at More Awesome Than You, mentioning some of the issues that will be fixed with the upcoming patch. Stuck bills, amnesia for greeks (Sims losing many memories) and a diploma being reposessed by the repo man are some things that will be fixed. Below is a list of what will probably be fixed with the patch, but keep in mind that this information is not confirmed officially and may not be completely correct or incomplete.

• Kicky bags can get stuck rendering them unusable (some other problems with kicky bags are fixed too).
• If a Sim uses the remote control car while saving/loading, catalog icons may go missing (possible work-around available).
• Sims go to a final exam, but a message pops up saying they missed it when they get home.
• Townies may not have all necessary DNA traits internally, causing crashes when they give birth to a baby Sim
• The car portal might go missing sometimes, corrupting lots and causing the "slow-down" bug generating many NPCs (see this thread for more info).
• Several bugs with Nannies
• Several bugs with the Headmaster
• Playing a Handheld game can cause a crush
• Sims don't get proper credit for selling a novel if someone else answers the phone
• Purchasing a fountain doesn't satisfy corresponding want (the want will be removed in the patch, it was left in while it shouldn't).
• Dormies become transparent if they enter their rooms and exit immediately and are unclickable for several Sim hours.
• Facial expressions may not play while a Sim is on the phone.
• Some problems might occur with large Neighborhoods (already fixed in Nightlife, may not fix all problems)
• Sims might get stuck in rooms with diagonal doors, unless they're told to move out (playable Sims only). This is fixed in Nightlife already, it's unsure whether the University patch will fix this too.
• The piano stops being fun after 24 hours.
• Memory icons may be too large to fit in their boxes in the panel.
• Some "Ask" interactions can trigger crushes: "What Are You Good At?", "What's Your Job?", "What's Your Sign?", "What's Your Turn On/Off?", "What's Your Wealth?"
• Diplomas might not show up in the right Sim's inventory.

Again, this list might change from what the final patch will be like. The latest status update is that the patch is currently undergoing testing and will be released soon. There's no specific date for its release yet but naturally we'll keep you updated with news about the patch.

252. Sims 2 (PC) Hardware Performance Guide

Written on Monday 19 September 2005 at 00:35 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

The Sims 2 is an odd game compared to others, in that it doesn't use too much graphical power, but depends on the processor (CPU) a lot more. This is one of the main conclusions that GameSpot pulls in a new hardware guide. In the article of five pages they test the effect of hardware in your computer, like the graphics card, CPU, memory, as well as the game's settings, on the framerate. The better the framerate, the smoother the game runs. When it comes to the settings, they say turning off viewing the neighbour lots gives a performance boost. The same goes for shadows. When it comes to the screen resolution, it doesn't matter much which you put it in. Even the graphics card, as long as it's not extremely old, doesn't matter a whole lot. ATI cards performed worse in GameSpot's test, but Maxis engineers say this is due to recent drivers. Performance might be improved using the "boolprop useshaders false" cheat, which puts the game in DirectX 7 mode, and so disables some advanced effects.

On the CPU page three tests show how much impact a fast processor can have on the framerate. The resolution doesn't matter at all. As for memory, GameSpot recommends 512Mb. If you're stuck with less, e.g. 256Mb, the game doesn't perform well at all. It doesn't perform much better with more than 512Mb though. Other than that, defragmenting the drive after installation is said to help. A fast hard drive might also help stop some hiccups due to hard drive access.

Although it all is a bit of a technical story, it might help some fans figure out what to upgrade on their system to improve the performance of the Sims 2. Check out the hardware guide for more details about the tests performed.

253. Sims 2 Screenshots, Wallpapers, Videos

Written on Monday 19 September 2005 at 00:09 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

A lot of material has appeared the past few days, all for the Sims 2 on Consoles and Handhelds. There are 8 screenshots for all platforms (except mobile), coming from GameSpot and the official site. The latter one has posted a fansite kit of the game, which also contains four wallpapers (two for the consoles, two for the PSP), and two new artworks (one for consoles, one for mobile). All those graphics can be found in the read more part of this post - just watch below, or click the link if need be.

As if that's not enough, EA UK has also released a trailer per platform (again, except mobile). All of them come in both high and low resolution, and require QuickTime to be played. Note that hot-linking (leeching, direct linking) to these downloads will not work. Instead copy the files to your own server or link to this newspost if you wish to pass on the news. Click the links below to download the trailers.

• Console Trailer: High Resolution (7.2 Mb) / Low Resolution (1.8 Mb)
• PSP Trailer: High Resolution (5.4 Mb) / Low Resolution (1.4 Mb)
• DS Trailer: High Resolution (4.3 Mb) / Low Resolution (1.1 Mb)
• GBA Trailer: High Resolution (4.3 Mb) / Low Resolution (1.1 Mb)

Read More!

254. Two Nightlife Reviews

Written on Thursday 15 September 2005 at 00:34 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

IGN and GameSpy already posted their reviews yesterday, today websites GameSpot and Yahoo! Games have given their opinion about Nightlife. The first of these has actually put two reviews online; one written one, and another video review. Although positive, the GameSpot editor does mention that vampires might be more trouble than they're worth. That's because they can't do much during the day, and have trouble maintaining long-term relationships. Hence they're more of a novelty than anything else. The effort of finding the count - which he says is hard to do - is not really worth it. A bit of new information is given as well: the influence feature from University will be available in Nightlife, even without University on your computer. Some old-time problems like Sims forgetting things, or the sometimes sluggish camera, haven't been fixed, but overall it's worth a look. It doesn't contain any extreme changes, but all the little things add up to a good expansion pack, worth 8 out of 10 points. At GameSpot, you can read the review, watch the video review or the four new gameplay videos, or you can check out GameSpot's own set of screenshots.

Yahoo! has less to offer, with just a review, which is even without any new screenshots. Basically it's not much more than a summing up of all new features. They're positive about every major feature. "The only drawback to this pack is its effect on a happy home life; my Sim-couple isn't on speaking terms any more. Really, when they think of each other, the thought balloons are on fire!" All in all the reviewer stays in line with GameSpot and GameSpy, also giving it a 4 out of 5 rating. Read the review if you want more details.

255. TS2 Consoles/Handhelds Screenshots

Written on Wednesday 14 September 2005 at 01:09 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

After all the PC news from Nightlife, there is a little break for the Sims 2 on Consoles, Handhelds and mobile. A couple of days ago the official site updated the screenshots section of these games. Although most screenshots are old, a few new ones were posted as well. Although most of them are (very) similar to ones seen on other sites earlier, those are often taken just a little later, or from a different angle. We've filtered out the new ones and put them below. Just click the thumbnails to see the large versions.

256. The Sims in CNet Top 10

Written on Wednesday 14 September 2005 at 00:56 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

CNet, a site about technical and mostly computer-related topics, has recently published a Top 10 of best video games. Among Half-Life, Starcraft, Quake, EverQuest, Halo, GTA III: San Andreas, and other games, The Sims (1) can be found on the third spot in the list. It's appeared on that list due to its uniqueness and success, and the huge amount of women playing the game. See the Top 10 to read what else CNet has to say about the Sims and the other games. Thanks to SnootySims for the link.

257. Final Nightlife T-Mail: Patch coming soon

Written on Tuesday 13 September 2005 at 15:02 by ChEeTaH - 2 comments.

Tim LeTourneau, senior producer of Nightlife, has sent out another of his famous T-mails. It's the last one for the second expansion pack, in which he mentions the key features of the pack again. Tim also mentions that a patch for both University and Nightlife will be released soon. There are already posts on several forums of bugs in the latest expansion, for example the Karaoke Machine which doesn't play any sounds. There will be one patch which will fix both expansions, regardless which one(s) you have installed. There are no new screenshots this time, just read on for the entire mail. Read More!

258. Nightlife Release Info - Expansion 3 Announced in it

Written on Sunday 11 September 2005 at 04:46 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Nightlife is very close to its official release date, but in a few countries people are already receiving their copies. Some online shops (e.g. GameStop, reports SP Zone) have started shipping their copies, and besides that the game has already appeared in Brazil and Switzerland. Besides that, the Prima strategy guide has already been delivered to many people, who are revealing information about Nightlife on forums. All this has resulted in a lot of news, of which the biggest topic is probably that the third expansion pack will be all about Business. Read More!

259. Sims 2 Consoles/Handhelds - Big Update

Written on Thursday 8 September 2005 at 00:05 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

The hype of the Sims 2 for consoles and handhelds is breaking loose. EA UK has released 8 screenshots and 15 artworks in total, as well as two pack shots for the GBA and DS version. The boxes for the PS2, XBox and GameCube were seen earlier, so only the PSP box is missing yet. Other than that, GameStop has posted all American versions of the box shots, including the PSP one. The quality isn't as high as the others. What you can see on all box shots is the rating. It looks like E10+ (Everyone 10 and older) for the GBA and DS, and T for Teen for all other versions in the US. The GBA and DS pictures are somewhat unclear, and ESRB hasn't confirmed these ratings on their website yet. In Europe, the GBA and DS versions get a 7+ age rating, whereas the console version has a 12+ rating. The PSP rating is not yet determined, but considering the US rating it's likely to be 12+. Here too, PEGI hasn't confirmed these ratings yet.

Other than that, Scotty gave us a link to videos at AussieBox. Hans ten Cate, the Lead Producer of the Sims 2 on Consoles, showed the game during EA Imagine 2005, an event where EA in Australia shows off the latest games. The four videos aren't in great quality, but are a good introduction to the game and show a lot of in-game footage. To prevent errors on the actual download page (on their forums), you'll need to register and login first. See the overview page for the proper links.

That's not all though. There are also many rumours regarding the release date. Although nothing is officially confirmed yet, 24 October is mentioned several times. As Tuesday is the more usual date for games to be released, the actual release date might be the 25th as well. The PSP edition will be released two weeks later, on 8 November, according to several sites. Depending on where you live, these dates may very a little, but the games should be released within the same weeks. Of course we'll let you know when Maxis or EA gives away the official release dates.

All the graphics can be found in the Read More bit - click the thumbnails to see the full size versions. Read More!

260. Nightlife Features

Written on Wednesday 7 September 2005 at 12:13 by Neil - 5 comments.

A post has appeared on usenet which points to a post on the Sims 2 site from a user who has been fortunate enough to receive the strategy guide for the new Sims 2 expansion pack.

There are a whole bunch of new things and changes to play with in the new EP. Those of you who remember Hot Date will be pleased to know that Mrs Crumplebottom returns with some new NPCs and there are over 300 new walls and floors.

Read on to find out some of the details.

Read More!