Sunday 3 July 2005

Nightlife in England

Written at 06:00 by Andy - 2 comments.

Last week, ChEeTaH went to see Tim Le Tourneau's presentation of "Nightlife in Amsterdam" and for those of you who haven't read it, I recommend you do it now. This will answer a lot of your questions as even though I may cover some of the same ground, this article is more of an expansion on that previous article.

What follows is my peek at "Nightlife" when Tim came to England. Read More!

New Affiliate: SP Zone

Written at 17:18 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

As some might know, the teams of The Sims Zone and SP Zone/SimParool have worked together quite a lot in the background since a few months, and the relationship between the two sites has become very good. The Dutch site stays up-to-date with all the latest information about the Sims and Spore, just like the Sims Zone, and as of now we've decided to make the affiliation official, making SP Zone our third non-English affiliate site. We'll continue to work together to bring you the latest and greatest of the Sims, whether it's in the foreground or background. We're looking forward to keeping this going in the future, as we keep helping each other with news and more. So visit SP Zone for all the latest Sims news in Dutch!

Tuesday 5 July 2005

Nightlife Screens and Artworks

Written at 22:55 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Over the past few days four new screenshots and five artworks for Nightlife have appeared on the web. The screenshots come from the official German site, the artworks have been posted by several sites (SimsWorld seemed to be the first). The artworks were included on a press CD given away during Tim's presentation in France. You can find all the graphics below.

Wednesday 6 July 2005

Nightlife Producer Tour

Written at 00:14 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

EA has released a new video in which Senior Producer Tim LeTourneau takes a quick tour through the new features of Nightlife, the second PC expansion pack. The video is similar to what people would've seen on the E3. He shows his own place, the Hub, and how Jesse scopes the room looking for hot dates. Tim explains that the date meter shows how well the date is going, and the time you have left. The better the date, the more time you'll get. The time meter still shows the "old" style, as shown during E3, and so the video seems to have been recorded before Tim's tour through Europe. During that tour a different date meter has been shown. Tim continues to show the Electro Dance Sphere, and he tells some socials appear much earlier during a date than they would in a normal relationship. After some slow dancing and lowering hands, Mrs. Crumplebottom appears ready for some slapping. Finally Tim takes Jesse and Mary-Ann (his date) to Jesse's very own car.

The video is about 50Mb big, and QuickTime is required. You can download it from this German page (follow the Download link), or view it directly on this British page (click "Find out more" to load it). Thanks to SimsZone for the link.

Behind the Sims 2

Written at 00:23 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

The Sims and the Sims 2 have always used the so-called Simantics scripting, which define the behaviour of objects and Sims. A somewhat old article, from the Game Developers Conference a few months ago, gives an introduction through Simantics and Edith, the program used to program the scripts. The scripting is explained, and a few pictures showing Edith are there as well. You can read the article at GameDev.

Thursday 7 July 2005

Nightlife Artwork

Written at 13:23 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Polish fansite Simy.pl has posted a new artwork of the Sims 2 Nightlife. You can see the artwork below, by clicking the thumbnail. Thanks to SP Zone for the link.

Sims 2 Console Screens

Written at 13:33 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

Gaming site GameSpy has posted three new screenshots of the Sims 2 on PlayStation 2, GameCube and XBox, showing some of the new objects and options in the game. Especially training the body skill, using a trampoline or body bag, seems to be popular. The other one shows a Sim picking fruit from a plant. You can see large versions of the screenshots below, by clicking the thumbnails.

TS2U Patch After All

Written at 13:48 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

Two weeks ago Tim started traveling through Europe, and he also went through Amsterdam. From that presentation we then reported Tim had said there were no plans for a patch for the Sims 2 University. This resulted in some heavy discussions (see, for example, this discussion on the BBS). MaxoidKane had already said there would be a reply from Tim about this issue when he got back, and now there is.

In the post, Tim elaborates on what we summarised. The Sims is a very open game, and the bugs that were reported seemed inconsistent and weren't always reproducible, and thus harder to trace back. Maxis hasn't been able to reproduce many problems very well, as many only occur for some players and not all of them. These problems were considered quirks, that Maxis thought didn't affect gameplay too much, and so didn't require a patch.

Through the discussions the team noticed that the fun of the game actually was affected by some of these quirks. The issues of not releasing a patch, and the fact that it's hard to test, were confused (also by us), and resulted in the statement that a patch would be too hard to test. Maxis is now working on finding reproducable and fixable problems, and these will be addressed in a stand-alone patch. Of course Nightlife will also fix known problems.

There is no list of fixes yet, nor a release date for the patch, but of course we'll keep you updated. Tim end with saying that the community is important to Maxis and that they'll continue to listen to them.

Read the entire post for the exact details.

Tuesday 12 July 2005

Sim Brother 4 - The Downloads

Written at 06:25 by Andy - 0 comments.

Downloads Ready From the house and the famous eight residents to the potty that they trained Erin and Emily on, it is all ready for you to download right now and share in the experience of Sim Brother 4 from here!! Check it out!

Friday 15 July 2005

New Cheat: TV Volume

Written at 02:26 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Fansite SnootySims has in the past discovered several cheats for the Sims 2, and recently they found another one. With it, you can set the volume of the TV. Press and hold Control and Shift, then press C and release all buttons to make the cheat bar pop up in the game. Then enter "floatProp tvVolume" (without quotes) followed by a number from 0 to 1 (with several digits). The value of 0.5 is the default volume for the tv, so for example you can enter "floatProp tvVolume 0.5" to reset the volume.

Hot Summer Night TS2 Screenshots

Written at 03:34 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

EA is holding its Hot Summer Night event again. Press gets invited to the EA Headquarters to check out the latest games, and the progress made since the E3 back in May. Of course that also means there are a lot of screenshots to get. There are quite a few of the Sims 2 on all platforms (except PC and Mac, where the game is already released). Most of the ones below come directly from EA, except for the first Console shot, the first three PSP shots and the first six Mobile Phone shots - those come from the official German site - and the final three for the mobile phone, which come from WorthPlaying (but also from the Hot Summer Night event). If you click read more (or scroll down a bit), you'll see thumbnails of all these screenshots released the past two days, by clicking those thumbnails you'll see the full size screenshots. Read More!

SimDay: E-Cards and Characters

Written at 03:44 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

The official site has been updated on Monday and Wednesday with two pieces of news. First of all, the Sims have entered the USA Network site. There, Nina Lothario has joined a list of characters, which you can see on her character page. You can vote for her giving her one to five stars. Other than that, the official site has added two new postcards. One is to say "I love you", whereas the other is a "Get Well Soon" card. Both in Sims-style of course. From those cards our affiliate SimsZone has extracted the two artworks with a Nightlife theme below (Click the thumbnails to enlarge).

Hot Summer Night Nightlife Screenshots

Written at 04:03 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

A Hot Summer Night can't be without some Nightlife, so of course EA has been showing The Sims 2 Nightlife on the event held on the 14th as well. This has resulted in several screenshots from the PC expansion pack. Again, like with the Sims 2 Screenshots, nine of these come directly from EA. The last five were posted by GameSpot. We'll keep you updated with more Hot Summer Night material, of which some can be expected very soon. For now click the thumbnails below for the screenshots.

HSN: The Sims 2 Video

Written at 04:15 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

During the Hot Summer Night event EA has given a video of the Sims 2 to the attending press. It's been posted on several gaming sites already including GameSpot and GameSpy. On the latter one you can download the video in several versions without registration. The video goes through all versions of the game with in the background a remixed version of the Sims 2 tune. You can see the Console, GBA, DS, PSP and even the Phone editions. Several scenes of all these games are shown, all from within the game. See the video to find out for yourself.

HSN: Nightlife Video and Interview

Written at 04:44 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

There's more stuff from the EA Hot Summer Night. This time it's about Nightlife again. After some screenshots, gaming site GameSpot has posted a few more things about the expansion pack. First of all there's a gameplay video released by EA, which you can get off the media page or from GameSpy. It shows several things that have been shown on screenshots before, but now in motion. That includes dining and dancing, cars, the poker table, the bowling alley and the karaoke machine.

Other than that, GameSpot has interviewed Tim LeTourneau, Senior Producer of Nightlife. In the written interview, Tim explains the dating game, the new objects and interactions. News is that Sims might receive a love letter in their mailbox after a great night out. Dream Dates can result in a number of rewards, including promotion at work. The Outing Score is also mentioned. It's like the date meter, except for when you go out with a bigger group. The group needs to have fun.

During the six minute video interview Tim tells pretty much the same. The video also shows some of the in-game footage in the other video. You can stream it with a free GameSpot Basic account from the media page.

Nightlife T-Mail 4

Written at 04:47 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Tim LeTourneau is back from his tour through Europe, and has also attended the Hot Summer Night event at EA to show off Nightlife to the press. He doesn't forget about the fans though, and has sent out an e-mail with a little update on Nightlife, as well as three new screenshots. As for the news, Tim says there has been a lot of improvement while Tim was gone. The Karaoke Machine and the Bowling alley have for example been improved, but the child animations for the Smustle, a group dance for Sims, have also been made. Two of the screenshots show that dance. Read on for Tim's entire e-mail, or just click on the thumbnails to see the full size screenshots.

Read More!

Strangerhood Studios on TV

Written at 05:02 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

It's been fairly quiet around the Strangerhood lately, a sitcom series which is made with the Sims 2 and published on the Internet by Rooster Teeth Productions. The team has been busy making six episodes for Strangerhood Studios. It features the same characters as the regular Strangerhood series, but follows a different plotline. You can see the episodes on the Independent Film Channel (IFC). It's supposedly the first machinima series on broadcast television. The first three episodes can already be downloaded. Two from the Strangerhood Archive, or all three from the IFC website. There's no word yet about when the other three episodes will be available for download, if ever.

Saturday 16 July 2005

HSN: The Sims 2 (Consoles and Handhelds) Videos

Written at 03:47 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

After yesterday's footage, there are now several more videos of the Sims 2 on consoles and handhelds. There's also a video interview from GameSpot with producer Scot Amos, who talks about the console version of the game (PlayStation 2, GameCube and XBox). Read on for all the details and information about the videos. Read More!

HSN: The Sims 2 (Consoles and Handhelds) Previews [Update]

Written at 04:28 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

There aren't just videos, but also several previews of the Sims 2 on the consoles and handhelds. Both GameSpot and IGN checked out the games at EA's Hot Summer Night event, and have written articles about them. Read on for the details.

[Update 2:40] IGN has now also posted a preview of the PSP version. The information in the specific paragraph has been updated. Read More!

HSN: Nightlife Video Interview and Previews

Written at 04:59 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

The Hot Summer Night information flood keeps going, this time with some more about Nightlife. GameSpot brings a video interview with Tim LeTourneau, including a lot of in-game footage, as well as a preview. IGN has a text preview as well. All the details are inside. Read More!

USC Contest Winners Revealed

Written at 05:07 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Maxis has revealed the winners of the big Student Life Movie Contest. A new intro on the official site shows snapshots of the winning movies. Limbo1n has won the contest with his movie "Everyday", and will receive either $5,000 or an intern position at Maxis for four weeks. Runner up was Aprylhalbrooks14 with "Day in the Life," which was also awarded as best drama. Best Comedy went to Decorgal21572 with her "Waking Up" and Greencutie99 won the best documentary award, with her "Changes". All videos can be downloaded from the contest winners page. You can also vote for your favourite at MTV. There you can see an additional movie, "The Internship" by M1thcm, and vote for that or one of the other four. See the voting page for more details.

Sunday 17 July 2005

HSN: 1Up Previews the Sims 2 (Consoles)

Written at 04:29 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

After other sites posted their previews of the Sims 2 on the three big consoles (PlayStation 2, XBox, GameCube), gaming site 1Up follows with a preview about what they've seen at the Hot Summer Night event last Thursday. In it, they give a little more new info again. First of all they say there will be more than 4,000 articles of clothing, each with four variants as well. 1Up continues to mention the culinary options. Ingredients can be taken fruit trees, herb gardens, fish tanks and more, all to be either baked, blended or served raw. The editor also calls aging more of a curse than anything else - but it's been left out of the console version. More objects, social options, areas and the new creativity aspiration should all make up for that.

They also go a little more in-depth about the direct control. By pressing the shoulder buttons you can go through the Sims you want to control. The one that is deselected will continue with what he or she was doing. The editor also appreciates the lack of many interface bars etcetera cluttering up the screen. The interface is nice and clear, without any unnecessary information on it. It's "much more accessible to the more casual console gamer" while keeping the depth of the PC game.

Read the complete preview for more details.

HSN: Nightlife Gameplay Videos

Written at 04:40 by ChEeTaH - 2 comments.

Yesterday we already reported about a preview from IGN about Nightlife, now they've also added six movies to watch or download. All are brief gameplay movies. The first shows a kid on the dancefloor, requesting a song. That can be either fast, medium or slow. In the second one you see a sim singing on the karaoke machine, and one with some cologne trying to do the same. Movie three is all about a vampire who goes to sleep in his coffin. In the next movie, a vampire has just been exposed to some light of the flasher of the photo booth. The picture appears in the inventory and can be placed on a wall or somewhere else. The same vampire heads over to the bowling alley in movie five, where he stalks a Sim and turns into a bat. In the final one, he drives away from a garage in his car. All clips are short - less than 30 seconds each. You can find them on IGN's videos page.

Wednesday 20 July 2005

Expansion 3 about Business?

Written at 02:32 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

A new survey has appeared on the official site, asking about the future of the Sims 2. It's a follow up of an earlier quiz which already mentioned several ideas for expansion packs. The survey is biased to one idea, namely one about your Sims running their own business. The survey will probably go offline soon, when enough people submitted it, but the information has already been posted in this thread at the TSR forums and this thread and another thread at N99. Read on for the mentioned ideas for expansion packs and more details from the survey. Read More!

Thursday 21 July 2005

Nightlife Screens, Artworks and Rating

Written at 20:39 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

EA has released several new things for The Sims 2 Nightlife. These include screenshots, artworks, and videos. The screenshots have been found by SnootySims on the Japanese EA site. They are mini-screenshots of the game. Most artworks are directly from the EA press site. They have all been scaled down to 33% of their original sizes, but are still very large. Some might look familiar, either from a wallpaper or earlier artwork, but these are slightly different than before. Two artwork, with the Cibersims watermark on them, obviously come from fansite Cibersims, who got them exclusively from EA Spain. EA has also released the producer walkthrough and a trailer again, this time in European versions. The only difference in those, is the rating that's shown at the beginning. For Nightlife that'll be 12+, as rated by PEGI. An ESRB rating for the US is still pending.

Click the thumbnails for these screenshots and artworks to see them in their full sizes. Note that the artworks can be very large!

SimDay [Update]

Written at 20:53 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

The official site has held two contests recently. The biggest one was the USC Student Life competition, where the winner has won either $5,000 or a four-week intern associate position at Maxis. The other contest was about Nightlife outfits. You could submit an outfit created with the Body Shop. Winners would get to see their outfit in Nightlife, plus they'd win an autographed copy of the game. The results have now been revealed. Over a thousand entries were submitted, and of those two have won. With similar contests being held in different countries in Europe, there are two other winners, one from Sweden and another from France. To see those outfits you'll have to wait for Nightlife to be released, but you can already see them at the winners page. There are also two honorable mentions there, which you can download immediately.

Other than that there's the news that if you pre-order Nightlife, you'll get a free downloadable car with your game. Instructions on where to find it will be enclosed in the package. It's unsure if this car will also end up on the exchange with lots and such that use it after Nightlife has been released, but until then pre-ordering the game is the way to make sure you'll have it. There will be a new pre-order deal again soon, with which you'll be able to download music from Nightlife. More details are on the official site's pre-order page. It's unsure whether Amazon also has this offer, it doesn't mention it anyway, but if you'd like to pre-order the game and support TSZ as well, head over to our Sims Shop to get it. Note that shops that do participate might not ship the game to outside the US or Canada.

[Update 22 July, 0:15] The site has been updated again, this time with a video and two screenshots. They are all about the karaoke machine. You can check out the video on the videos page, where you can play or download it in high and low quality. Quicktime is required. The screenshots come from the screenshots page, but you can also click the thumbnails below to see the large versions.

Friday 22 July 2005

Updated Sims 2 Patch

Written at 02:25 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Maxis has updated their Sims 2 patch by adding a few things that have already been fixed in University. SnootySims has found it. The new patch includes a fix to prevent accidental deletion of data files, support for Hungarian languages in the package installer, and it'll fix that hacks don't affect the game globally, but only the lot they're put on. The new version number is 1.0.999, and it seems the patch is the same for both the CD and DVD version of the game now. You don't need this patch if you have University installed already, a patch for that expansion pack will be released later. For more information see this BBS post by MaxoidKane. You can download the patch from the Updates page.

Saturday 23 July 2005

"Sims 2 Worse than GTA Hot Coffee Mod"

Written at 03:59 by ChEeTaH - 1 comment.

Lately there has been a lot of discussion in the gaming industry regarding the latest edition of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto (GTA) game, San Andreas. In all versions of the game sex scenes made by Rockstar were available, only locked out so they never appeared during regular gameplay. However, a small patch made this content available. The game in its current state had to be rated Adult Only in stead of Mature by the ESRB. Now Rockstar has taken the game off the shelves and is producing a new version without the content in question, so it can be rated M for Mature again.

Now Miami attorney Jack Thompson, who was on the forefront of making San Andreas rated Mature, is after The Sims 2, T-Rated (Teen) by the ESRB. According to Thompson, the game shows full nudity including genitals - although that is all custom content, not included in the game or made by Maxis or EA (whereas the content was made by Rockstar in GTA). Thompson claims the game includes all the detailed content in the game, as he read on gaming sites. He also says a cheat, which does indeed exist, can turn off the censor easily. The fact that not only adults, but also children can be seen naked this way - though without downloaded content without any deatils - "much to the delight, one can be sure, of pedophiles around the globe who can rehearse, in virtual reality, for their abuse." EA too responds that when the blur is removed, all that is revealed is a "mannequin-esque smooth body."

According to EA's Vice President of Corporate Communications Jeff Brown, says it "is nonsense. We've reviewed 100 percent of the content. There is no content inappropriate for a teen audience. Players never see a nude sim. If someone with an extreme amount of expertise and time were to remove the pixels, they would see that the sims have no genitals. They appear like Ken and Barbie." Thompson doesn't buy this, and says even Ken and Barbie like content should not appear in the game. It's no different than San Andreas, although worse. He also claims that EA is fully cooperating with the modding community to allow the Sims to be a pornographic game.

Currently the Sims 2 and The Sims 2 University (and previous Sims games) are rated T for Teen, which means 13+ by the ESRB. Nightlife is set to be rated the same. In Europe, PEGI has rated the original game for ages 7+ with depictions of violence. The University expansion pack has been rated 12+ with depictions of violence and nudity, as well as sexual references. The same will go for Nightlife. If the rating will actually be changed, or if the game will be banned, is not yet sure, although many don't think Thompson stands much of a chance. It is rumoured that China has already banned many games, including the Sims 2, but so far we've been unable to verify this.

We've had no word directly from Maxis concerning this matter yet. Fans are generally upset about the matter, and find trying to ban the game ridiculous. Many are disgusted by the nude Sims though, and the fact that some might be downloaded with other Sims on the exchange. A discussion can be followed in this thread, this thread, this thread, this thread, this thread, this thread, this thread and quite possibly many more on the official BBS. There are probably also many discussions on other fansite forums. To read the original story, read this article at GameSpot. Thanks to TheSidDog and Laku for submitting some of these links. For discussion about this topic, you can enter a comment to this news post, by clicking the "comments" link. You need to be registered to place a comment. Naturally we'll keep you posted on the latest news about this issue.

Nightlife Article with Screens

Written at 18:59 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Before The Sims 2 University was released, GameSpy publised a series of letters home from a student at campus. Nightlife is now coming up, and GameSpy's Dave "Fargo" Kosak has posted an article with Jimmy "Tha Love Doctah" Beeterman and his opinion on the expansion pack. This Sim won't make it to the final version, but has done a lot of work hooking Sims up. He talks about how you can start a date - make a bootie call, or click on your date when you met in person, after which it's like a race. Do well and you get extra time, do bad and you'll be home early. If a date's been great you might get some extra friends, skill points or even a promotion. Sims might be looking for a family-man, money, glasses, a certain hair colour or even vampires. Those are some of the turn ons and offs. On to the vampires, there is one grand vampire in town as well. If you get friends with him, he might bite you and make you a vampire.

Back to dating, the Doctah tells you shouldn't start one when tired or with a full bladder. Wetting yourself will probably end the date early. Falling asleep in your food isn't a good idea either. A waiter might too spill some food on you. There are numerous of these kind of catastrophies, but the worst is probably the romantic rival, who will do anything to make your date go bad. They are created by pissing off other Sims. Where you go on your date depends on the character of a Sim, active Sims might prefer dancing or bowling, whereas others prefer watching TV. There will be 20 lots downtown, says the Doctah. What's also new is that you can see the wants and fears of your date - all you need to do is ask. Finally there's some talk about the Gypsy Matchmaker who, if you pay her well, will make sure your date is great. Pay not enough and it'll go bad.

Read the complete article for more information. The three new screenshots below were included as well.

Sims 2 Screens

Written at 21:54 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

There are several new screenshots again, this time of the Sims 2 on Consoles and Handhelds. GameSpot has posted these. In total there are four for the consoles (PS2, XBox, GameCube), showing telescopes and interactions, another four for the PSP version, showing CAS, some objects, line-dancing and interactions, followed by three DS screenshots of mini-games. Other than that there are four GBA shots, again showing some mini-games and CAS, and one for the mobile phones in Create A Sim mode. All can be seen below, just click the thumbnails for larger versions.

TSO Released in Europe after all? [Update]

Written at 23:17 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Almost three years after the initial release, and many confusing messages back in 2002, it's been fairly quiet around a European release of The Sims Online - it wasn't expected to come anymore after all these years. Even after a Japanese release the game was never seen in Europe, except for those who downloaded the trial and then subscribed using a credit card.

Now TSO fansite TSO Mania has found two shops in the UK that have the game up for pre-order. It will be released there on 25 October 2005, according to those sites. There hasn't been an official word from Maxis or EA about this yet, which means that so far these are merely rumours. It's also unknown if the game will be released in the rest of Europe, just the UK, or if these rumours are false. If there is any news, we will let you know. Thanks to our affiliate WorldSims for the tip. Also see this thread on Sims Online Stratics.

[Update 26 July, 22:20] A more definitive answer has been given by the press department of EA UK, through a member on the Stratics forums. There are no plans to release TSO in the UK or Europe, not now or ever. People in parts of the world where the game hasn't been released will have to use a free trial to subscribe and play the game. For more details see the second page of the mentioned thread.

Monday 25 July 2005

Discussions about Sims 2 being a "Porn offering"

Written at 02:20 by ChEeTaH - 9 comments.

The news that The Sims 2 would be unsuitable for Teens has made a great impact in the community. In our previous post we already pointed to several discussion threads. Almost all fans of the game who have participated in discussions disagree with Jack Thompson. Read on for a very brief summary of what's generally been said in the discussions, as well as some links. Read More!

Thursday 28 July 2005

Content Manager Tool by Maxis

Written at 15:25 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Maxis has made a new tool available for the Sims 2. This new program allows you to view and manage the custom content you have installed into your game. Previews of textures are shown, as well as some details with descriptions of the custom content, who made it (Maxis or a user). If you have no internet connection when you launch the program, it will show "Unknown" for all authors. You can even find the item on the exchange by right-clicking the item or clicking the button for it. Items in the list can be sorted by type, name, filename, creator or its status.

Besides viewing the content it can also enable and disable any of the listed content for you with the click of a button. You can also permanently delete any content you want to get rid of by clicking another button. By disabling or deleting content it will not show up in the game anymore. This way you can also disable potentially harmful hacks that have been installed with something you downloaded, and so find out what might be causing problems with your game.

The tool comes with a manual in MS Word format. The whole package, the program and that manual, is stored in a zip file which you'll need to extract using a zip program (e.g. WinZip, but there are many others too). You can find the tool in any language on the Content Manager page at the official site.

Friday 29 July 2005

HSN: Sims 2 (Consoles) Preview

Written at 01:46 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Although it's been two weeks since the Hot Summer Night event was held at EA, there are still a few previews showing up from the event. A few days ago GameSpy has posted a new preview of the Sims 2 on consoles. They discuss the many new features in the game, but start off with saying that previous games, the Urbz in particular, tried to be more appealing to console gamers, which made it too little Sims. The Sims 2 will be closer to the PC version. Just like with an earlier console title, Bustin' Out, it will be possible to run a family of up to four Sims again in a free-form house. Other than that there are 16 locations to visit, and complete tasks to unlock new items and possibilities. More detail is also given about the aspirations, specifically the wants and fears. You'll have five of 250 wants at the same time, which you can fulfill. As for EyeToy support on the PS2, the preview reveals that with it you can make posters to decorate your houses with. On the other versions, GameCube and XBox, posters of your Sims will replace this feature. Other than that, stuff like character customization, the food system, and more are being discussed, but there's nothing really new there. The conclusion is that "finally, we get what we deserve: an intelligently designed companion to the most popular PC series in the world." Read the complete article for more details.

The Sims 2 (Handhelds) Video Interview

Written at 02:13 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

There have been several video interviews in the past, and this time it's GameSpot's turn again, which has interviewed Virginia McArthur regarding the Sims 2 on the handhelds (PSP, DS, GBA and Mobile). In the six-minute interview she skips through all these versions, while you get to see some (partially new) in-game footage. Read on for details from the interview, or just download or view it from the media page. Read More!

Nightlife Interview

Written at 02:21 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Website Computer And Video Games has recently held an interview with Nightlife producer Shanti Bergel about the new expansion pack. The interview mentions cars and vampires, but also that the social game is never complete in the Sims. Fans and Maxis keep coming up with new ideas for it. Besides that new building tools - the half walls and sectional sofas - some of the 125 new items and objects, dates and outings, the attraction system, and more are all discussed. However, there's no real new information in the interview. If you want to refresh your memory or just want to read the interview, have a go.

Jack Thompson not sure about Pushing Rating Up

Written at 02:30 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Fansite SnootySims has found an article on CNN which talks about the allegations made by Jack Thompson that the Sims 2 would show full nudity (see earlier news). In this article CNN reports that Thompson isn't sure he's going to push the ESRB to increase the ratings of the Sims 2 to Mature or Adults Only. He does however believe that Congress will soon hold hearings on the whole issue of ratings and the content of video games. Referring to an article in San Jose Mercury News, Jack Brown of EA is quoted saying "Reasonable people recognize what mods are. [...] A consumer who chooses to use a mod does so without any kind of agreement with the company. There is no nudity. There is nothing improper or vulgar in 'The Sims 2.'" Thompson says that EA wants to earn revenue rather than a reputation of being a family-friendly game, that Thompson does not think should be deserved. Replying to the fact that any game, even the most children-friendly ones, can be modded to contain harmful content, is a reason against any kind of rating system for video games. In a conference call last Tuesday, when Electronic Arts revealed the quarter fiscal results, EA CEO Larry Probst has said the rating system is working fine, despite the controversy regarding Grand Theft Auto recently. Read the article for some more details.

HSN: TeamXbox previews the Sims 2

Written at 03:33 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

We already posted about GameSpy's preview of the Sims 2 on consoles, TeamXbox has also posted a preview of the XBox version recently, after watching the game at EA's Hot Summer Night. In the preview, TeamXbox reveals the name of one of the areas: "Cliffside Retreat." Of all consoles it'll look the best on the XBox, which will get support for High-Definition graphics. About the Direct Control the website says it still feels great. It feels much more like a console game now. Also, the layering system for clothes is mentioned - you can give Sims three layers of clothes. This kind of customization is better than any other release in the series, says the editor, and some features might be taken over from the PC version. As you make new friends, you'll also unlock new clothes, similar to previous Sims games on the consoles. The food creation system is necessary to, besides feeding your Sim, complete some goals or make friendships with other Sims. Some combinations of ingredients might even be lethal, and the ghost of a Sim who eats such a meal will haunt the cook for it. All in all the conclusion is that this is the best Sims game ever on the consoles, as it has a better feel of a console game, and new features that aren't just "throw-ins." A video interview with Scot Amos about the game is expected later. Read the preview for details for now. Thanks to Planet The Sims for finding the link.

Saturday 30 July 2005

Sims 2 Screens and Artworks

Written at 00:08 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

EA has released a whole bunch of screenshots for the Sims 2 on various platforms again, as well as a few artworks. For the consoles and PSP we have five screenshots each, whereas there are six for GBA and DS each. Other than that, there's one artwork for the consoles and another three which are said to be for both the GBA and DS in the same time. This could mean that the GBA and DS versions of the game feature the same characters. The artworks have been resized to fit your screen a bit easier, the rest is all in its original size. Click the thumbnails to see those large versions.

Nightlife Artworks

Written at 00:12 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Besides giving some screenshots and artworks for the Sims 2, there are also two new artworks for the Sims 2 Nightlife. This time they feature some dancing and vampires. We've resized them as they were really big in the first place. They're still fairly large now, but should be more reasonable. Click the thumbnails below to see the large versions of these artworks.

Nightlife Screens and Trailer

Written at 22:53 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

The official site has been updated with a new video of Nightlife. This is a trailer that was probably shown during the Hot Summer Night, considering the filename. Parts of it are familiar from an earlier trailer, but it also shows some new things. Think of locations where you can take your Sims, but also objects that are new to the Sims. Cars too are highlighted: several of those are shown. You can view and download the video, in either high or low resoltuion, from the videos page.

Other than that, website GameSpot has posted four new screenshots of the game. You can find those four below, and see them completely after clicking the thumbnails.

Nightlife T-Mail 5

Written at 23:02 by ChEeTaH - 2 comments.

Tim LeTourneau, senior producer of the Sims 2 Nightlife, has sent the community another update. In this fifth e-mail he tells Nightlife is nearing completion. The game's already a lot of fun to play, which is shown by laughter coming from different cubes at the studio. Tim also tells a story about how a Sim can get sick from making the wrong choices during a date... Besides that he tells it's possible to create your own cemetaries downtown, by bringing gravestones of dead Sims to the community lots. The four screenshots below were included, but you can also skip on to the exact words of Tim. Read More!