Another video has been posted by the Dutch fansite SP Zone. It's a German video from the (german) magazine PC Gamers, and has been subtitled in Dutch. In just over 4 minutes, you see quite a bit of in-game material. You can download the video from this page, of course with lots of thanks to SP Zone for providing it. It's 11 Mb heavy, and requires QuickTime.

Our affiliate SimsZone is all over the place (in Germany anyway) lately, and they have published an interview with Will Wright, from a Release event in Hamburg, Germany. This Release Event Special is their third special in about a month time (the huge review, which still isn't finished, and the GameConvention special are the other two). The interview is fairly long. It starts off telling about how SimCity was born: Will made a game ("Raid on Bungeling Bay"), but liked creating the maps more than destroying them. More than 10 years later in history, The Sims was born. According to Will, communication is very important, and ideas coming from conversations are put in Will's games. The Sims 2 development didn't just start at a specific point in time. The Sims team was still full of ideas, and some ideas where put in expansions, others to the sequel. Wright's favourite new feature is the conscienceness of the Sims. The 3D graphics, aspirations and genetics are good, but as Sims are now much more aware of their environment, the game has become much more life-like. As for expansions, it's been said regularly that there will be some - but the themes are still unknown as that hasn't been decided upon yet.

One way to expand the game is through fan-made custom content. And although so far just the Body Shop has been released, Maxis will release more tools after the release. However, they're not rushed. Maxis will first see what's wanted the most by the community, and then they'll decide what to release first. Nevertheless, Sims fans can expect many surprises with the Sims 2, right after the release and a bit longer after that.

SimsZone's second article is about the release event in Hamburg itself. They tell how Wright presented the sequel to his "baby", and he is enthousiastic about it. Next was a fashion show, in which clothes designed by visitors of the official German site were shown. Finally, Jeanette Biedermann, who has made some music specially for the Sims 2. If it will be included in (English) versions of the game is unsure. For both the interview and the article - with pictures - visit the special overview.

Finally there's some news from the official BBS, with thanks to ConradSims2. In this thread, MaxisLucky has made an informal statement about the future of the Sims 2 website:

"There will be a whole new website for The Sims 2. We're still working on it, squashing bugs, cleaning up art and getting it all pretty-fied and ready to launch on September 14th.

"The new site will use the EA login system and you'll need an EA account to use the new site - if you already have an EA account or if you have an AOL account or AIM account, you'll be able to use that. If you have an account for another EA Game or the current Sims 2 site, that'll work. And you'll need to product register your game in order ot use many of the features on the new site.

"There will be a Sim Exchange and a Lot Exchange when we launch. There won't be a neighborhood Exchange yet, but we're working on it and it'll be available in the not too far off future.

"One of the things we learned from The Sims Exchange is that it eventually got too big and you couldn't find anything, so one of the things we're going to do is try and keep the content that is the best and delete some of the content that isn't ever downloaded or rated. We're going to do this to some of the content in the Showcase before we add the Sims we're keeping to the new Exchange. And we're working to improve the search and ratings features.

"There'll be an upgrade to the BBS system and a completely revamped MySim page and stuff like tutorials, fansite listings, and some other cool features.

"I'll answer some questions about it if you want - but I'll also leave some stuff to suprise you. We know we've got the best community out there and we're trying to build a website that is as great as our community.

-MaxisLucky

"ps - One big difference about the new site is that Maxis people will now be known as Maxoid. Since we're using the new EA system we had to alter our name a bit - I'll become MaxoidLucky. In fact, if you ever see anyone on AIM/AOL/EA who goes by MaxisLucky, you should know it ain't me. Someone grabbed that name before I got to it."

Something else she mentions later in the thread is that getting a website finished up, and fixing all the bugs before the release of the game is very important. The Exchange will be available worldwide, and not just to North America only, and the BBS will get some new features. A more formal FAQ is promised for later this week. Read the entire thread for more info.

Written at 01:02 on Sunday, 5 September 2004 by ChEeTaH.