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371. Sims 2 @ Game Developers Conference

Written on Saturday 29 January 2005 at 17:47 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Every year game developers from around the world gather at several conferences. And from 7 to 11 March there will be another one: the annual Game Developers Conference will take place in the Moscone West Convention Center in San Fransisco. During those few days, there will be conferences, speeches, and an expo of the latest games. At the end of the 3 days, the 2005 Game Developers Choice Awards will be presented by IGDA as well. Of course EA and Maxis will be part of the whole event.

On the first day, March 9, there will be a Game Design Challenge, which Will Wright won last year. Last year the group had to design a game with a love story, this time they have to base one off the poetry of Emily Dickinson. On the conference itself, the ideas from Will Wright (Maxis), Peter Molyneux (Lionhead Studios) and Clint Hocking (Ubisoft) will present their final result of the challenge. Of course we'll let you know if Wright wins.

But there's more to check out there. Jake Simpson, Simulation Engineer at Maxis, will hold a 60-minute lecture about SimAntics, the scripting language objects and Sims in the Sims (and other Sim-games, including the Sims 2) are coded in. Will Wright will also hold another lecture titled "The Future of Content," in which Wright will tell more about his thoughts about the future of content in the gaming industry. More information about the entire conference can be found on www.gdconf.com.

372. New Poll

Written on Thursday 27 January 2005 at 01:00 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

A week ago we asked you what you think of the Cowplant that will be introduced in the Sims 2 University. The plant gives Elixir of Life, but only when it's been fed a Sim. The results of the poll are in, and 172 people voted in total. 38 of them (22%) would've liked to see people they don't like go down thanks to the plant, but unfortunately it only eats Sims. 18.6% didn't really seem to like the question, and 16.9% says it's the perfect punishment for students with bad grades. 15.1% Thinks the plant is unethical and should be stopped, whereas 12.8% is alright with it if it ate them. Finally, 13 people (7.6%) would like some more Elixir, and 12 people (7%) wonder if it comes in a goat-shape as well. To see the exact results, head over to the results page or our poll archive.

This week, the Llama is in the spotlight. Where do you think it went? We have several options for you, and they're all on the right and on the latest poll page. Share your thoughts with us!

373. Sims Franchise Strong in 2004

Written on Wednesday 26 January 2005 at 01:27 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

EA has released their quarterly results of the third quarter of financial 2005 for EA. The Sims has been the most successful franchise for EA in calendar year 2004. In total, the games sold over 16 million copies during calendar year 2004. The Sims 2 has been number one in both the United States and Europe. The Urbz sold over 2 million copies during the last quarter, which means it's reached platinum status. The Sims 2 sold more than 1 million units in the same quarter. In Europe, both the Urbz and the Sims 2 sold over a million units.

EA thinks the current generation consoles is still strong, and will continue developing games for it during the next year, despite the next generation consoles (X-Box 2, PlayStation 3) to make their entrance in 2005 or 2006. However, premium prices for premium games on those new consoles are expected to be higher than current prices, at least at first. As EA will continue to develop games on multiple platforms, it's quite likely the Urbz 2, mentioned earlier, will be released on both current generation and next generation platforms. EA hopes to be the main player on the market for the next generation consoles as well. The Urbz 2 was not mentioned anymore - not in the press release or the conference call - but the earlier announcement by EA Netherlands doesn't make it unlikely the game is in development anyway.

374. Life at Uni through the Eyes of a Sim

Written on Wednesday 26 January 2005 at 00:59 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

GameSpy has started a new series of articles, which will describe the life at Universities in SimCity. They're written from a Sim's point of view using the Sims 2 University expansion pack. The articles are in the form of letters to home. This first edition is a compilation of several of those letters from an anonymous sim. She (considering it's a female from the included screenshots shown below) writes about her arrival, a scolarship, dorms, Fraternities and Sororities, the library, partying and Grubs. Although most of the information given is old, there are a few small details. For instance, the school mascot is (or at least can be) a giant Llama. And it was already known you could get up to two extra "wants" slots for finishing years successfully, being kicked out of University means you'll get an extra "fear" slot. It's also said that you can start your own Fraternity and move into a bigger building, with all the build options open to you. For all the letters, check Part I of the series. Click the thumbnails below for bigger versions of the screenshots.

375. The Urbz 2: 2005/2006

Written on Sunday 23 January 2005 at 00:17 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

A few days ago EA Netherlands held a special event, announcing several games that will be released in their next fiscal year (March 2005 - March 2006). Besides titles like Batman Begins, The Godfather, SSX4, Black, Burnout 4 and other games, there is also "The Urbz 2" in the list. It's said the game will be released late 2005 or early 2006. Remarkable as well is that EA is quite certainthat the X-Box 2 will be released within this period of time. And besides developing for the PlayStation 2, GameCube and X-Box, many of the games mentioned including the Urbz 2, will be released on X-Box 2 as well. Any other details regarding the game have not yet been revealed. More confirmation might follow Tuesday, when EA in the US will release their results over the third quarter of fiscal 2005.

376. SimDay

Written on Thursday 20 January 2005 at 20:45 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

So far this week's SimDay is fairly small. What you might notice at first is another new intro on the official site showing the Sims 2 University. But more interesting is the news that The Sims 2 became the best simulation game of the year 2004, according to GameZone. Like many other gaming sites, they've awarded many games with several "Game of the Year" awards and in this case the Sims 2 won the award for best Simulation game. There's a small article about the award as well. And finally, so far anyway, there is a link to the second designer diary by Charles London. We already mentioned it early this year, but if you haven't read it yet you can still do so.

377. New Poll

Written on Thursday 20 January 2005 at 19:53 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

As you may have seen already, we've added a new poll again last night. This time, we ask you about the (in)famous cowplant, that will join sim-students in the Sims 2 University. If you have an opinion about it, let us know on the right or the latest poll page.

Last week we asked you about the second Sims 2 patch, and the results are in. The biggest group of the 165 people who voted are those who hadn't heard about it or at least didn't give it a go. They were with 44% of everybody. With less than half of that, are the options "It's good they fixed things, but I don't see too many changes" (31 votes, 19%) and "I don't see any difference really" (30 votes, 18%). 15% said the patch makes things work even better, and the final 4% hate the patch, because it just breaks the game. See the exact results for more precise percentages, and our archive for more polls.

378. TSR Talks to Tim

Written on Tuesday 18 January 2005 at 23:26 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

TheSimsResource, one of the biggest Sims fansites, has met Tim LeTourneau last Sunday and spoke to him about the Sims 2 University. Some new information is given, including the reason to pick University as first EP. This was done with future packs in mind. It would be harder to add the "Young Adult" age group afterwards, and blend it in well enough with other expansions. Besides that, expansions bring new objects, like the music objects and the pool table, that add more general gameplay rather than - in this case - the typical university life. Besides that information, there are of course also some old and new details regarding the first expansion:

• It's again confirmed there will be a cheat to make buildings as high as you want, where the sky is the limit. It's said though, that a Sim on the 19th floor, may take 5 real-time minutes to walk down missing his carpool.
• There will be a cheat to redecorate dorms, in case you're desperate. Normally though, build mode is disabled there.
• Sims can move out of one family, and into another. This also allows multiple families to live in one household, as it was during the development of the Sims 2 (see our Sims 2 University special, which despite the name has nothing to do with this expansion).
• The US terms for things, like majors, GPs, etc., are also discussed, and specifically localization of these names. In the end the idea is simple: Sims learn, get grades, and passes or fails. That's it.
• Contrary to what was said before, each Semester lasts 3 simdays.
• Failing 2 semesters in a row means the Sim's booted off university, back to the family they came from.
• You can feed NPCs and even teachers to the famous Cow plant.
• What I previously translated as "DIY Plastic Surgery Set" is actually called the "Home Plastic Surgery Kit."
• The object to resurrect Sims with (by bribing the Grim Reaper), is called the "Resurrect-anamonotron." Spelling may be incorrect.
• There's a new radio station, the "College Rock" station. Songs on it are recorded by real-life "up and coming" bands, that helped Maxis by making Simlish versions of their songs.
• Maxis will release a new tool to create new swatches, i.e. object textures. A tool to edit their shapes will most likely not be released though.
• Maxis is already developing expansion 2, and the details will be revealed sooner rather than later. Nevertheless it's still a close guarded secret.
• A full-time butler or maid will not be in "this expansion pack."
• Sims in college can visit their parents at home, and then also go to the regular community lots.
• The police can bust up frat parties.
• Sims cannot enter a dorm room without the owner of the room present.
• No cheating at university!
• Togas aren't fireproof... Watch out with those bonfires!
• There won't be too many new food types in University, though there probably will be in future expansions.
• The basketball hoop might return in a future expansion pack.

Read the entire article for the rest.

379. New Poll

Written on Friday 14 January 2005 at 00:51 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Due to the catch up we had to do, the weekly poll was delayed by a day. Nevertheless we've posted a new one now, all about the new patch that came out earlier this week. Let us know what you think of it, and vote on the right or on the latest poll page. Last week we asked you what 2005 will bring your Sims. 42% said they'd give them a university degree, followed by lots of fun at 21%. Fire, death and destruction got 19% of the votes and "a new home" 14%. The plain answer "nothing" got 4% of the 225 votes. See the poll archive for the exact results, and the results of all previous polls.

380. New Sims 2 Patch

Written on Wednesday 12 January 2005 at 22:08 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

We've catched up with all the news again, but there's still one more thing to tell. Maxis has unexpectedly released a new patch for the Sims 2 today. It fixes two bugs, namely the custom content browser for Asian territories, and some bugs related to downloadable objects. It's not available as separate small patch, but there's only one big patch (which includes the original one) available. You can download it for almost 17 Mb of hard disk space, from the Update page.