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191. IGN: Sims 2 Best of E3

Written on Saturday 22 May 2004 at 19:44 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

IGN has awarded The Sims 2 with the award for "Best PC Simulation of the Show" on the E3. Runner-up was the game The Movies, by Lionhead Studios (Peter Molyneux). "After seeing it working at the show, we're believers," says IGN. The URBZ hasn't won any awards, though it did become runner-up for "Best Strategy Game" for the PlayStation 2. For a bit about the Sims 2's award, read page 3 of the awards list. Another note for IGN Insiders: you can now download the Will Wright LiveWire interview, with video, from IGN Insider.

192. Lucy's Mail: E3 and Aspirations

Written on Saturday 22 May 2004 at 15:05 by ChEeTaH - 2 comments.

Lucy's weekly e-mail has arrived again, and of course it's mostly about last week's E3. There are many new pictures from it. First of all, five new screenshots taken from the E3 demo of the game that Maxis showed. They tell the happenings at the Baxters, when Don's old flame visits the birthday party of Don's son. Now you must know that Don is a romantic type of guy - Maxis-style. Sarah's family aspirations don't really match that. What happens exactly can be read in the Read more bit, where Lucy's entire e-mail is quoted, but also in the "Misadventures in Monogamy" article by IGN during the E3. Click the thumbnails to see the screenshots in full.

Furthermore, there are four brand new pictures from the E3 booth. If you want to know what it looked like at the E3, just click the thumbnails.

Read More!

193. SimDay [Update]

Written on Thursday 20 May 2004 at 15:05 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

It's SimDay again, but not a huge one. First of all, the E3 trailer is now also available as download from the official site. You can grab it from the Videos page. If you haven't seen it before yet, make sure you get it. There is something fresh on the Sims 2 site though: a new Body Shop tutorial. If you need some help with making new clothes using the Body Shop - it really isn't too hard according to Maxis - you should check out the 6-page tutorial. It goes through the basics of editing the textures and alpha layers. Very useful for those beginners. The clothing made in the tutorial isn't available for download (yet), so you'll really have to make it yourself. Just go through the tutorial to make it yourself. For more links to tutorials, check out our BodyShop Round-Up.

[Update 21 May, 0:00] SimDay came a little late for the URBZ. On the official site a new Blog section has been opened. Every week, if possible, a member of the URBZ team will post a bit about the happenings at Maxis. This week it's Scot Amos, Senior Producer of the game, who talks about last week's E3 a bit. It can all be read at the official site.

194. Regular Press about The Sims 2

Written on Sunday 16 May 2004 at 03:00 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Not only the gaming press, but also the regular press visits the E3 in Los Angeles. The Associated Press has written 2 articles about The Sims 2. They've been published on some other sites. First, there's one on RedNova, titled "Some Upcoming Video Games Focus on 'Love'". Here's a bit from that article:

"Jonathon Knight, a producer with Electronic Arts games, showcased a family he created: Sarah, the wife who wants to spend wholesome quality time with her family; Don, her fun-loving, overly amorous husband; and their son Alex, who just wants to make the transition from childhood to adolescence (Sims characters in this version can age.)"

The entire article is on this page. The other one, "'Halo 2,' 'The Sims 2' cause stir at video game convention", is found at this page. In both cases not the entire article is about The Sims 2, but they're nice to read. The pictures below also show you a bit what it was like near the Sims at the E3 (click to enlarge).

195. 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.

196. New Sims 2 Video

Written on Wednesday 12 May 2004 at 17:30 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

IGN has posted a new video again. For some people it may not be entirely new, as it contains mostly in-game footage which was also included in the Lucy Bradshaw interview. This time however, it's also available to those who aren't an IGN insider. It comes in 3 ways: Windows Media Format (15.8 Mb) and QuickTime format (21.1 Mb), both in a 320x240 resolution, or a high resolution (640x480) QuickTime video (53.2 Mb). Only the Windows Media file is available to non-subscribers, IGN Insiders can also download the high quality versions. Depending in your format of choice, you need either Windows Media Player 9 or QuickTime to see it. It has several short in-game clips in which you can see actual Sims in action. You can download it from IGN's video page.

197. 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.

198. Extra Extra! E3 Newsletter

Written on Tuesday 11 May 2004 at 13:52 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Maxis has sent out a special edition of their Sims Insider's newsletter. In it are a few new, but also some old things. There's some URBZ stuff that has been posted about quite some time ago already. However, there's brand new Sims 2 material. First of all there are the 2 screenshots and the artwork below (click to enlarge). There's also a new video of Veronaville, in which the camera flies through the neighborhood. You need QuickTime to play it, and you can download it using this link (4.8 Mb). It's only a matter of hours to the E3 and the Body Shop now, we'll keep you updated here as much as we can!

199. 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.