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541. New Poll

Written on Thursday 13 May 2004 at 15:40 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

With the E3 in full action, you'd almost forget our weekly poll. It's changed again last night. Last week, we had quite a deadly poll, as we asked how your Sims usually die. The results are in, and the winner is fire. 38% of the 271 people who voted said their Sims burn to death. Runners-up are the immortal Sims, which got over 25% of the votes. In third place it's the water, about 20% said the Sims can't swim really well. Other results where starvation because Sims were locked up (9%), illness (4%), electrocution (2%) and finally, Sims walking away from home for good after a fight (1%). All the results can be seen on the results page. This week we're on about the Body Shop. If you have something to say about it, vote on the right or at the latest poll page. We're waiting for your answers! Check the archive for a lot more polls from the past.

542. GameSpy Sims 2 Impressions

Written on Thursday 13 May 2004 at 14:49 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

GameSpy has visited the EA stand at the E3 2004, and Sims fanatic Dave Kosak has written and published a preview of the Sims 2. Just like the other impressions, much exclusive new information isn't given. Nevertheless it's interesting to read. Here's a quote:

"Sims 2 will have three basic neighborhoods to settle down in. The first, Pleasantview, is a racy upscale neighborhood that picks up about 25 years after the original game left off. (Fans of the original game can see the familiar Goth family, one generation later.) Strangetown is the second neighborhood, a bizarre desert community next to a mysterious military base. All sorts of unexplainable events - such as the aforementioned alien abductions - happen regularly here. The last town is a riot: Veronaville, with its graceful aqueduct, is the home of two warring families. There, the "Caps" and the "Montys" have been involved in a vicious family feud for generations ... but that won't stop their children from falling in love. Somewhere a little Sim Shakespeare is rolling in his tiny simulated grave."

The whole preview is spread over 2 pages and can be found right here.

543. IGN Sims 2 & URBZ E3 impressions

Written on Thursday 13 May 2004 at 14:32 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

After GameSpot, IGN has now also posted some impressions of The Sims 2 and the URBZ. First the Sims 2: there are two previews. The first is about the problems of monogamy for Sims. Even they can't resist some extras sometimes. It's a nice story to read. However, the actual review has some more interesting information. This is just a little bit, about careers:

"There are ten fairly general career tracks in the sequel and Sims will still simply disappear for a few hours each day as they fulfill their career obligations. There's nothing new there. But rather than just getting better pay and hours as they gain levels in a given career track, Sims will gain cool, new reward objects as they move ahead in their jobs. Military Sims will get a neat obstacle course that they can use to train their body. Sims on the business track can take advantage of an indoor putting green, while those who pursue science as a career will have an in-home biotech station."

Furthermore, it also mentions the ability to turn off Sim death. If the editor means it's possible to turn off just again, or death completely, is a bit unclear. Real new info isn't given, and a lot seems to come from the video interview. Nevertheless, it's worth a read. Click here to do so. Finally, IGN too has confirmed 17 September as shipping date for the game.

The URBZ is also getting much attention, and of course IGN has checked that out as well. First take a look at the pretty long preview of the game:

"Urbz also promises a whole new set of interactions. All interactions are representative of your lifestyle, and directly relate to one of the nine cultures. No real examples will were given, but we believe interactions will be even more over the top than those in last year's Bustin' Out. Also, your interactions are likely to be copied by any Urbz you've influenced."

More can be read on this page. Besides that, a new video with in-game material has been posted. It's not very different from the trailer, but a must-have for the fans. For non-subscribers, only a 12 Mb Windows Media file is available, Insiders can also download the high quality QuickTime versions (17 Mb and 44 Mb) from the Video Page. The same video can also be retrieved from GameSpot. Finally, IGN also reveals in the preview that the URBZ will ship in November. An exact date hasn't been given yet.

544. SimDay

Written on Thursday 13 May 2004 at 13:22 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

It's Thursday, and even though Maxis is showing off their latest games at the E3, the website has been updated. Of course there's a lot to do about the Body Shop. In the "Thread of the Day" in the official site's BBS, MaxisKitty has asked fans to recreate themselves in the Body Shop. You can read all about it right here. For those who want to see MaxisKitty (without the curly hair she really has), click here. The other part of this SimDay is merely showing some links to articles we previously mentioned. More information about those articles, and more, can be found in our E3 Roundup. The final update has come to the URBZ Website. In the new "Flix" section you can view the trailer of the URBZ. Make sure you choose either Hi-res or Lo-res at the top to select your preferred quality. This trailer has been seen before though. Finally, don't forget the Body Shop chat with Darren Futa tonight on the official site. It starts at 11pm in the UK, midnight in Europe, or 3pm PST.

545. GameSpot: E3 Material [Update 2]

Written on Wednesday 12 May 2004 at 13:48 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

The E3 has kicked off, and GameSpot has already posted some first articles and screenshots. The first thing is about the URBZ, and is an article with their pre-show impressions. It came with a couple of screenshots, of which one is new (click the thumbnail to enlarge). Here's a quote:

"Gameplay will apparently revolve around a series of minigames, though we didn't get to see any of these in action. Players will have to control their urban sims through a series of trials in order to impress various other characters. For instance, we were told that players may have to spend a night as a sushi chef, trying to cater to the late-night dining crowd."

The whole article can be read here. Furthermore, they've also posted a couple of new screenshots. They may look a little bit familiar, as they're similar to what we saw in the IGN Video Interview. Yet these are of much higher quality and definitely worth a look. Click the thumbnails below to see them all.

[Update 18:00] The links to the images below where dead. They're fixed now. Thanks to Tim for reporting this.

[Update 22:00] GameSpot has posted their Sims 2 impressions as well. They sat down with Lucy Bradshaw a while ago, and the article provides mostly basic information like the IGN Interview. Make sure you click here to read the article.

546. 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]

547. Lucy Bradshaw Video Interview [Update]

Written on Tuesday 11 May 2004 at 04:19 by ChEeTaH - 4 comments.

As she already told us, Lucy has been interviewed by IGN. The interview is now available for IGN Insiders. It's a huge download, 300 Mb in Quicktime or almost 150 Mb in Windows Media format, but I've downloaded it. It doesn't give much real new information about the game, though the in-game clips from it are nice to see. You can see some snapshots I've created at the end of this article (in the Read more bit). Most interesting from those videos is that it looks like Maxis has included some Superstar elements, as we can see a lady Sim on the red carpet, with body guards and flashing cameras around her. Other images show the building of the homes, but also Sims jumping on couches, kissing and wrestling. We can also see the creation of a Sim (in-game) for a bit. For more information about what Lucy and Steve Butts, Editor-in-Chief of IGN, had to discuss in those 20 minutes, read on... It's a nice summary of what The Sims 2 is all about again.

[Update 16:20] Some more pictures from the movie, not taken by me, can be found at Snooty Sims. They're posted along with some other shots from recently published movies. You can see them right here.

Read More!

549. The Add-on Handler 0.4.0b [Update]

Written on Sunday 9 May 2004 at 15:43 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

It's here, finally! The Add-on Handler version 0.4.0b is finished and it's now available to everybody. This new version adds a few big features, like the "Export List" option, which makes a list of all the downloads you have installed. Using the comment field when installing downloads you can now also easily track down where you got your downloads from. The program has also been translated into several languages (unfortunately not all texts can be translated, but most of them can), with thanks to the translator team. They made it possible that the Add-on Handler is now available in your language as well. See last week's announcement for some more details about what's new. The included readme file also has a more complete list of the exact changes since the last version. You can download the program from this page. If you have version 0.3.0b still installed, or if you have The Neighborhood Handler 4.11 installed, then you can also download the upgrade version, which is a bit smaller. They're both the same, with the only difference being the included DLL files. Enjoy it, and if you need help with it, e-mail me. I'm also still looking for translators of The Add-on Handler in various languages, so e-mail me if you want to help out with that too!

[Update 10 March 15:30] Unfortunately an old .exe file was packed in the original installations, containing one bug on the Serials page: Livin' Large and House Party would show up as not installed, while they were. The proper file has now been packed and uploaded. Download the upgrade version to fix this bug if it occurs in your installation. Note that the version number whatsoever has not changed because of this.

550. Sims 2 Material

Written on Saturday 8 May 2004 at 18:01 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

We're getting close to the E3, but even though it hasn't started yet quite a bunch of new screens and a new trailer have been discovered on the net. First the trailer: this is the second trailer since the E3 trailer last year, and has quite a lot of in-game graphics. It starts off with a Sim watching Sims 1 stuff happen on his TV, after which it goes on and tells you some highlights of the game. It can be downloaded exclusively from IGN. Secondly, there are 5 new screenshots available on IGN as well. Showing science, some odd art, a slumber party, kissing and a thief, these 5 screens are worth a look. There are also a couple of old ones from the Swedish site, but they haven't really been discovered until now. The same site has revealed the minimum system requirements for the Body Shop (which are similar to those for The Sims 2 itself):

Windows XP/2000/ME/98
600 MHz Intel Pentium III or AMD K6 Processor
256 MB RAM
450 MB free disk space
Graphics card with at least 32 MB
DirectX 9.0b

Note that for each of these goes: the more the better. Besides all that, James Magenta has e-mailed me saying the latest issue of GameMaster states 24 September as release date for The Sims 2. This has been unconfirmed and is yet unofficial, but not totally unrealistic with the latest rumours, from EA Europe, saying September 2004. Click the thumbnails below for all the new screenshots from IGN and the Swedish site. Thanks go out to SimsZone for this news.