Search News Archive
461. Sims 2 News
Written on Sunday 5 September 2004 at 01:02 by
ChEeTaH -
0 comments.
There's a bit of Sims 2 news again today, as almost every day since the game
went gold. In today's issue: a hands-on preview, videos, a bit about the website, and an interview with Will Wright. The preview is from
IGN. After their feature series of
SimIGN, they now have a full 3-page preview. It's mostly about the personality - especially the difference in it - of the Sims in the sequel. Aging and DNA are also told about, and of course some screenshots are included. There's also a video, made with the in-game tools to record, and edited with the Windows Movie Maker. Download the "SimIGN in Action" video from the
Videos page, or just read the
hands-on preview for more.
More news inside!
Read More!
462. Lucy's Mail: Taggin' and Urbz
Written on Saturday 4 September 2004 at 11:33 by
ChEeTaH -
0 comments.
This week's mail from Lucy is co-written by Scot Amos, producer of the upcoming console game the Urbz. He tells a bit about the Urbz, and gives us 3 exclusive screenshots of the game. There are also 4 pictures of The Sims 2 producers tagging the "First Up Against the Wall" wall, which has notes of all tasks that had to be done for the Sims 2, as well as the red "Done" stamped on it. You can see Lucy, and others, tagging by clicking the thumbnails in the e-mail itself. You can find that either right below this, or behind the Read More link.
Read More!
463. Sims 2 in the Press [Update]
Written on Friday 3 September 2004 at 15:40 by
ChEeTaH -
0 comments.
With several events happening at the same time (
EGN /
GameStars Live and
ECTS), the press is getting a good look at many upcoming games. That includes the Sims 2 of course. Several new articles have been written and published again. First of all there's a feature on
GameSpy. This week's
PlanetFargo is all about the Sims 2. The Sim-Limpic games are nothing at all like the Olympics - they're a lot more fun. If you want to find out who won the Binge Drinking competition, made the best "Woo-Hoo," or got the gold medal in "Knocking Over Garbage Cans," read the
Sim-Limpic Games Feature. Another humour article comes from GameSpy's colleagues at
IGN. The 4th and final part of SimIGN has been written and posted, along with all the screenshots. It's the ending of a series of articles. Make sure you read
part 4 to get to know what happens with the IGN Crew in their fourth week in the Sims 2. They're promising a full hands-on preview later today or tomorrow.
Finally, there's one more hands-on preview from
GameSpot. They have the final game in their hands, as they say, and give you their first impressions from a presentation given by Lucy Bradshaw. The full review will be posted at - or a bit after - the day of release, but for now you can read the
preview.
[Update 23:00] GameSpot has posted more than just the preview. You can also find several new
movies (GamePlay Footage 6-10, scroll down a bit). Of course the preview also came with a huge batch of
57 screenshots.
464. Chat News: DVD in Europe, and more
Written on Friday 3 September 2004 at 04:02 by
ChEeTaH -
2 comments.
There was another little surprise in the chat this week, concerning the people who joined. Lucy didn't come alone, but she was helped by Charles London, designer of the Sims 2. Unfortunately there were quite many technical issues because it was very busy, and many people weren't able to join the chat. Charles also had problems, which means he didn't answer very many questions in the end, but he will be in another chat at a later date. However, the transcripts have now been posted for everyone to read. Probably the major news from the chat is that the DVD
will be coming to Europe, but not at the same date as the CD version. A specific date hasn't been given though:
"Sim-Freak: will there be a ts2 dvd edition in the UK?! IF so: Will the DVD version be released in the UK at the same time as the CD version? If not, will we be getting the DVD version at all? If we are, when? In not ... why not?"
MaxisLucy: Yes, there will be eventually, but not right at the September ship date, sorry."
Other things that have been confirmed (again) are:
- Objects can't be placed on diagonals, windows and doors can.
- Kids will bring home their homework, and clicking on it will show you when they finish it.
- You can place cameras in the house (to record movies) using shift the number keys 4-9, and you cycle through them using the tab key. While recording, you get full control over the camera.
- You can add letterbox effects etc. in the movies using a movie editor.
- The interactions between an adult and toddler are: Teach to Walk/use Potty Seat/Talk, or toss in the air (which can result in a mess).
- Fatness is not genetic. More body types might be added in expansion packs.
- There's a lot of food in the game, including Lobster Thermador, Baked Alaska and Mac & Cheese.
- Sims can die of being ill (the flu) or after eating bad food (food poisoning), amongst other reasons.
- Fires can spread through the house (through different rooms), but walls will not burn.
- Maxis is thinking about releasing a Sims 2 soundtrack.
- Baby's will stay a baby when you turn aging off.
- Be warned for sloppy Sims leaving plates which attract flies around. Also, sloppy Sims may empty their bladder while in the shower.
- Inheritance works as follows: "When a Sim dies of old age, the Sims who have good relationships with them get some money. The better the relationship, and the higher the Aspiration Score of the Sim who passed away, the more money gets awarded."
- When you move out a family, their posessions are converted to money.
- To make a child of two Sims of the same sex and using their DNA, you'll have to create two parents (male and female), create their baby, and then edit one of the parents to change their sex.
- Once the game is out, there will be downloadable content from Maxis which you can find using the in-game browser.
- Maxis will be focussing on custom content tools a bit more now the game's finished.
- Teens sneek out by setting it up in advance with their friends and the phone.
- You can call up NPCs and invite them over.
Of course there are many more questions and answers in the
complete transcript. For another summary, by ConradSims2, check
this thread at the official BBS.
465. SimDay - Set of Objects
Written on Thursday 2 September 2004 at 23:03 by
ChEeTaH -
0 comments.
Although
at first there was nothing but a link to GameSpot's Designer diary and news about the chat, the
official site has now been expanded with a few more downloads. A few second hand furniture objects, weighing 787 Kb in total, will fill your Sims' dorms. A bookshelf, a comfy chair, desk lamp, pennant, a beverage sculpture and a boom-box should make the life of students a lot nicer. You need Double Deluxe or up (it's unsure whether it's compatible if you just have expansion packs from House Party and later), and you can download the files from
Get Cool Stuff.
466. Sims 2 Update [Update]
Written on Thursday 2 September 2004 at 20:39 by
ChEeTaH -
5 comments.
The media is hitting the Sims 2 big time, which means updates are continuously appearing. This week's SimDay is small and doesn't bring more than a link to the GameSpot
Deisgner Diary. Of course there's also the
chat with Lucy Bradshaw tonight, at 3pm PST, 6pm EST, 11pm GMT or midnight in Europe.
But of course there are also some new articles. If you've read - and like - parts
1 and
2 of SimIGN, in which is told how part of the crew of IGN survives when put together in one house. They made 5 Sims of themselves, and along with many screenshots,
Part 3 of the series of articles has been posted now. The final article, describing week 4, will be posted later, and a full review is promised as well.
New screenshots have also been posted by
WorthPlaying. They come with a group of 8, and you can find them on
this page. Finally, there's a preview, quite like many others, from
RealGamer:
"First things first, what made the original so popular? Well everyone wants to play God at some point or other and the ability to control a whole neighbourhood of little people scored an instant hit with the power hungry among us. Everything from building the actual house to deciding when Mr Jones can go to the toilet was involved in the game and watching our little hero's go from a secretary to the president in an over exaggerated career ladder proved too addictive to 99.9% of Sims fans."
See the
Sims 2 Preview for the entire preview.
[Update 20:55] There's another preview at
EuroGamer.net. They've been to Edinburgh, at a show which Maxis General Manager Neil Young attended as well, to see the game. There's even a mention of the Sims 3 in the article: "
The Sims 3, at some indeterminate point in the future, will - in his [Neil Young - TSZ] mind, at least - be the first user-controlled sitcom." To read about the presentation Neil held in Edinburgh,
read the preview.
467. Urbz City Guide Updated
Written on Thursday 2 September 2004 at 20:22 by
ChEeTaH -
0 comments.
GameSpot has posted an update of their City Guide for the Urbz on the consoles. Info about the first three districts, 125th Street, Gasoline Row and Central Station, was posted
in July, and now Cozmo Street (where you'll find the Black Eyed Peas), Kicktail Park and the Foundry have been added to the list. The remaining three districts (Neon East, Diamond Heights and South Side Bridge) will probably be posted about at a later time. Along with that, GameSpot has also published 18 screenshots from the three places to visit, as well as the
producer walkthrough video, which we already mentioned earlier. For more see the
GameSpace page, or go directly to the
City Guide, the
Screenshots or the
videos.
468. New Poll
Written on Thursday 2 September 2004 at 02:00 by
ChEeTaH -
0 comments.
A new week, a new poll. Last week the question was how you play the Sims, based on the series of
editorials by Andy. The
Cheating style is by far the most popular, with 42% of the 383 votes. The
Traditional style got 95 votes, which is approximately 25%. The
creators are third with 13.5%. Fourth is the
Story Telling style (over 9%), closely followed by the
Homeworker style (about 8%). The remaining 2% picked the "I don't" option.
This week, we have a poll about the console version of the Urbz. The names of all locations have been revealed in a
movie earlier this week, hence we'd like to know which one you think sounds the best. Tell us on the right or on the
latest poll page.
469. Sims 2 Reviews and Screenshots update
Written on Monday 30 August 2004 at 01:13 by
ChEeTaH -
4 comments.
Several reviews and screenshots of the Sims 2 have been posted again. First of all there's the German
thesims.de, which has posted some more shots from the Games Convention, held in Germany a while back. You can find the shots in
this newspost and
this newspost. The British
The Sims 2 Website has also been able to see the game. They've been to Bluewater, Kent, where EA was as part of the
Sims 2 UK Tour. To read the impressions of The Sims 2 Website, visit their
Sims 2 Preview page. There's also a new German review at
Gamers.at. In 2 pages they discuss the game, and rank it as "Very Good". The third page contains some new screenshots, which makes it interesting for English readers too.
Click here to read it, and follow the "Seite" links at the bottom for the other pages.
And finally, our affiliate
SimsZone has posted 2 more parts of their huge review. One article, about the aspirations, wants and fears, was posted earlier this week. Today they've also added pregnancy and babies to the list. To see the screenshots, go to their
review special. For the information from the review, in English, read on.
Read More!
470. Knowledge Upgrades
Written on Sunday 29 August 2004 at 04:29 by
ChEeTaH -
0 comments.
After the
relaunch of the Files section, we have now upgraded the knowledge section. Besides some bug fixes, there are a couple of major upgrades:
- The question lists are now spread over pages, giving you a better overview.
- The search is now also located at the top of the pages.
- The search itself has been much enhanced, and is far more powerful. It's now similar as the Files search since that's been upgraded. More details of the results are displayed now as well.
- When a question is moved to a different section, that will now be shown as such in the old category for 14 days. After that it'll disappear from the old section.
- Questions can be merged. This can only be done by TSZ staff, but merged questions will be marked as such, in a similar fashion as moved question. Questions merged into another one will be marked as merged for 2 weeks, after which they'll disappear. Old links will continue to work though, without problems.
- Questions can be stickied. This too can only be done by TSZ staff members. Sticky questions will appear at the top of the lists in regular sections (not the special sections like "Latest Questions" etc), no matter how you sort the questions. You'll only see them on the first page though.
- Finally, there are some minor changes and improvements in the layout and data presentation.
A few small things have been fixed throughout the site as well, mainly that if you login through a subdomain (e.g.
knowledge.thesimszone.co.uk) the login will be used on all subdomains of the site. That means you should have less trouble with that.
Currently the knowledge database contains 1400 questions, and over 3800 answers. It's THE place to find an answer to any Sims related question you have. Of course members can post and answer questions. If you haven't seen it yet, make sure you head over to the
knowledge section to check it out. If you have any bugs to report, please
e-mail me.