939 results found.
Displaying results 381 to 390

<< Previous | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | Next >>

381. 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.

382. 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!

383. 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.

384. 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!

385. Possible Awards for Sims 2 and Urbz

Written on Friday 24 December 2004 at 00:23 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

GameSpot has been giving away awards the past week, but Maxis games weren't awarded so far yet. Now the Reader's Choice voting has started for the best games of 2004. You can vote for all platforms, and Game of the Year. You can vote for the Sims 2 on PC, and the Urbz can be voted for in the console sections. If you want to help one of these games to win, then enter the Reader's Choice Awards and start voting.

386. 2004 News Overview & New Poll

Written on Thursday 23 December 2004 at 01:00 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

With the year 2004 drawing to its end, it's time for a summary of the news of the past year. I've gone through our archives, and listed the most important news items. You can go through all of them month by month at the latest editorial.

Of every month, I've picked a news item that I though was the most important of that month. You can find links to these headlines in our current poll. In this poll, you can choose which headline you think is the most important Sims news item of 2004. Let us know, and the final results will be revealed in two weeks (that's right, this poll will run for 2 weeks instead of the usual week). Until then, they're hidden... Vote on the right or the latest poll page

If you want to check out the results of last week's poll, head to the results page. It was all about the HomeCrafter and its rumour that it would be released this week (and it did).

387. Sims 2 University Interview, Screens and Logo

Written on Wednesday 22 December 2004 at 23:44 by ChEeTaH - 4 comments.

Maxis has revealed several new screenshots of the Sims 2 University, as well as the logo. The first three screenshots come from GameSpy. You can see them below, but if you want to read the added description head over to the article. Meanwhile Maxis has also sent out a new scoop newsletter. This scoop contains the "latest" info of the Sims 2 University, and two new screenshots are added. But that's not all - the new logo, slightly different from the previous one, is also shown. I've taken the same logo from the box mock up from EBGames though, with thanks to SP Zone for the link there. All of that can be seen below - click the thumbnails to see larger versions.

Furthermore, GameSpot has interviewed Kevin Hogan, the lead producer of the expansion pack. There isn't really any news in it, but if you want to read it anyway check out the interview. Here's a little quote about the objects from it:

"Juice kegs are definitely a part of the pack! We won't be unveiling it just yet, so be on the lookout for it! Also, stay tuned to hear more about the other objects that will be available in the pack. They are great. There are also a host of new furniture pieces and build mode options, as well as reward objects for the new careers."

388. New Poll

Written on Friday 17 December 2004 at 00:30 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

A new poll has been sitting on the right for almost 24 hours already, but still we'd like to point it out to you. It's all about the rumoured HomeCrafter tool for the Sims 2. What do you think about that news? Let us know by voting in the poll either on the right, or on the latest poll page.

Last week we asked if Santa will bring you something Sims this year. 243 people voted, of which 42% said they already have everything Sims so they won't need anything else. Second are the 60 people (25%) who are hoping for the Sims 2. 15% Hopes they'll get the Urbz, and about 7% some other Sims game. Then there are 15 (6%) who said they don't celebrate christmas, and finally the remaining 5% who said "probably not." If you want to see the exact results, check out the results page.

389. Sims 2 University Preview

Written on Tuesday 14 December 2004 at 21:21 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

A new preview of the Sims 2 University has been added to IGN recently. The preview describes the life of student Sims when they first enter the campus and later. A few new facts are mentioned. For example, the living in dorms is described a bit more in-depth. When your Sim is at dorms, redecorating completely or knocking down walls isn't possible. Your Sim can redecorate with some items and wall hangings, but that's all. Also, your Sim will live together with NPC sims. So while you play one, you're not able to control others though you can visit them in their dorms. If you're not in their room, the room will be faded out and you won't see what's going on in there. Something else new is that these NPC students can be sent into the regular neighborhood where you'll be able to control them. That way you can develop relationships further and allow Sims to age.

Your Sim will need to earn enough money and friends, fraternities and sororities will be unlocked. The Greek society might also invite you, or any other Sim they like, to join them, and if you become important enough you'll be able to have influence on what younger Sims have to do. That includes cleaning, doing homework or pulling pranks. There are also secret societies which allow you to do some more criminal things. However, if the police finds out, that won't be good. Read More!

390. New Poll

Written on Thursday 9 December 2004 at 21:10 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

You've probably already seen it, if not you can still do so now: we have a new weekly poll up. Christmas is coming our way soon, so we're wondering if you think Santa will bring you anything Sims this year. Let us know by voting on the right or on the latest poll page.

Last week we asked you about the patch. It doesn't seem to fix everyone's problems. In fact, the results are all very close. Those who didn't try the patch yet are up on top though, with 17% of the votes, which are 30 of 176 votes. Second are the 28 who said they don't need it, followed very closely by the 27 who don't have the Sims 2 to patch. Then there's a little gap closed by the 21 (12%) who say all the problems are solved. Tied are 18 who said most problems are gone, and another 18 who are having some different problems, not really Sims-related. The final three are "not all but some" with 16 votes (9%), "It doesn't solve anything" with 12 votes (7%) and finally there are 6 (3.4%) who claim only a few problems have been solved, but far from all of them. Lost the overview? Then check out the results page.