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1831. Chat Transcript

Written on Friday 31 October 2003 at 19:44 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Last night's chat about Makin' Magic was visited by quite many people, and a lot of questions have been answered by Jonathan Knight and Jenna Chalmers. The transcript has now been posted. Most of the questions were about gameplay, for instance what you need for specific spells, or how you can achieve certain goals. We now know there are easter eggs in Makin' Magic, and crystals, flowers and beanstalks grow faster if you live on a Magic Town area. They also tell where they got their inspiration from: Bewitched, Addams Family, and classic stuff like Houdini and old time Snake Oil Salesman. The answer to the question if there's a Will Wright NPC was "maybe", which sounds interesting. The secret of lot 99 is "BEANSTALK!" according to Jonathan Knight... If you want to know more about gardening gnomes, a skeleton that cleans the house, invisible Sims, dragons toasting your house, magical toads, and more, then read the transcript of the chat. It's quite long, but a must-read if you want to know more about the gameplay of Makin' Magic. Click here to load it.

1832. SimDay

Written on Thursday 30 October 2003 at 23:24 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

It's SimDay again, and this week there's quite a lot about Makin' Magic in it. First of all, there's the chat, the exchange and the GameSpot review we wrote about earlier. To make it complete, there's also a press release about the shipping of Makin' Magic, right here. Next is the second review, from IGN. They're very positive like GameSpot and rate it 8.2 out of 10. There are a few sidenotes though, for instance that they find "the magical nature of the expansion charming but incompatible with the basic concept of the series" and that the scrolling around is still a bit jerky. No word about annoying bugs like in Superstar though. You can read it right here, of course with some screenshots. Now about the other the Sims games: Maxis has posted a sneak preview of the Sims 2 Preview CD that comes with Makin' Magic. A preview of a preview that we've posted some time ago. You can now download it from this page at the official Sims 2 site. Next there's an interview about Bustin' Out with Mike Perry, producer of the game. There's nothing real new in it. If you're interested though, go here. Finally, there's a new download for Superstar, which will bring Sarah McLachlan to Studio Town. If you have Superstar, you can get it right here. That's all again for this week.

1833. Makin' Magic released

Written on Wednesday 29 October 2003 at 13:25 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Yesterday Makin' Magic was released in the US, and Europe will follow on Friday. Many of you might already be playing the game, and as usual the new exchange is up as well. You can now download and upload your Magic Town areas on the official site. Click here to go to the exchange. With the release, this chat of course couldn't be about anything else but Makin' Magic. Jenna Chalmers (Designer) and Jonathan Knight (Producer) will be the guests of honour tomorrow night at 3pm PST (11pm in the UK, midnight in Europe). Click here tomorrow night to find a link to the chatroom. Of course the first reviews have also popped up already. GameSpot gives it a 8.3 out of 10 without much criticism. Only the graphics are noticed as being outdated - still. However, the (quite short) review might be the most interesting for the massive amount of screenshots it's been posted with over 30 screenshots(!) To read the review, click here. For the screenshots, click here. WorthPlaying hasn't posted a review yet, but it has added a few screenshots, which you can find here. They've also posted 2 new trailers. To download those, 7.5 and 8 mb, go here. The Makin' Magic review index at The Sims Zone will soon be launched, and there you'll be able to find more reviews of the game, as usual. Stay tuned.

1834. Sims 2: Improved Screenshots

Written on Wednesday 29 October 2003 at 12:59 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Last Sunday we reported that SimsZone.de had posted some screenshots of The Sims 2 from a German game magazine (PC Action). Those screenshots have now been put online in their original versions, along with the preview they were in. The preview is short (and in German), but that doesn't take away the pleasure of watching those screenies. Click here for the three of them.

1835. We're back again

Written on Wednesday 29 October 2003 at 11:00 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Yes, it's true. The Sims Zone is back again. Now we're on a new server we also don't have the problems with the mailservers anymore. Hence you can now contact us again through the e-mail form, and you can also register as member again. We know some of you experienced some complete downtime earlier today, when the old server was taken down. We apologise for that, and the downtime in general because we had to move to a new server. Please also note that it might still take a little while for us to get settled completely again, and so a few little things might not be working properly for a few days. As far as I know at the moment, most of the site should be working properly though.

Note that if you tried to contact us recently and you still didn't get a response, that might be because of the problems. Please send your e-mail again, and be patient. As some things still have to be set up it might take a little longer than usual to reply to all the e-mails. We'll do our best though.

1836. Sims 2 Screenshots

Written on Sunday 26 October 2003 at 13:17 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

We have some new graphics of The Sims 2 for you, directly from Maxis. It's fashion time so it seems, as two of them are from SACAS (Stand Alone Create A Sim tool - Maxis is still looking for a new name for that. E-mail me if you have one and I'll forward it). Two others show off different Sims (male and female) in different outfits. The SACAS ones look similar but are slightly different. Finally, there's a (huge) film strip. It shows what happens when a shy Sim and an outgoing Sim compete for their first kiss with the boy from next door. Click the images below to see the bigger versions. Note that the filmstrip is 2 Mb, and may take quite a while to load.


Also, our affiliate SimsZone.de has posted 3 screenshots from a German magazine. The quality isn't great because the pictures are scanned. You can find them on the front page ("Die Sims 2: Drei weitere Bilder"), or in their screenshots index under "Die Sims 2" at the right.

1837. Bustin' Out GBA: Preview, Screenshots and Trailer

Written on Saturday 25 October 2003 at 13:36 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

GameSpot has posted several new things of The Sims Bustin' Out on the GBA. First of all, there's a preview of the game. It's positive, and they compliment the new gameplay that's in the game. They also talk about the GameCube connectivity, as well as the option to link 2 GBAs together to play the game. GameSpot's also positive about the controls, graphics and the sound:

"The graphics are extremely impressive. Maxis and Griptonite didn't even bother with a polygonal approach for the game and have, instead, relied on a sprite-based engine that satisfies with large characters, smooth animation, and detailed environments. The in-close character portrait graphics are quite nice and do a fine job of complementing the character animation. Both elements do an excellent job of retaining the trademark sims humor. You'll notice some subtle concessions made for the game's "E" rating. For instance, the pixelation effect used to hide your sim's unmentionables, when in the bathroom and shower in the PC and console games, has been replaced by a far friendlier newspaper and steam cloud, respectively."

If you want to read the preview spread over 2 pages, click here. It comes with 5 new screenshots (of which 4 are posted twice) too. If you want to check those out without reading the preview, or if you want to see older screenshots, click here. Then finally, there's the first movie of the GBA version of Bustin' Out. 70 Seconds of moving images (MPEG) are packed in a 12 Mb zip. It shows how you create a Sim, how you control their life, how they talk to others, a Sim mowing the lawn, diving in the waterone on the scooter, and one in prison. It may be a big download to dial-up users, but it's good to others, and I must-see for those who are interested in the game. All you need is a free GameSpot Basic account to download it. It's right here.

1838. The Sims 2 Designer Diary #4

Written on Friday 24 October 2003 at 19:04 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

GameSpot has been active today, and besides posting Bustin' Out and Makin' Magic screenshots, they've also posted part 4 of the Designer Diary of The Sims 2. This time they tell us how objects are developed and how much detail is needed for them. There are two examples of dialogs during Brainstorm Sessions: one for Sims jumping and bouncing on a couch, and another one is about a toilet:

"Believe it or not, we have to decide with each object whether or not we need it and what its purpose is. The toilet is kind of a no-brainer. Sims have this thing called a "bladder motive," and it's got to be taken care of. Now, anyone who has played The Sims knows that sims are perfectly happy using the floor, but I think we'd all prefer they didn't, so the toilet is an obvious choice."

They also tell us why they decided that Sims can't juggle with babies. This part of the designer diaries is quite a bit different from the previous issues, as it's not one person talking but a 'regular' article, showing the work as it happens at Maxis. To read it, and I personally recommend doing so, click here. It comes with a few new screenshots as well.

1839. MM Screenshot Round up

Written on Friday 24 October 2003 at 18:47 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Recently a whole load of screenshots of Makin' Magic have been posted at different sites. First of all, GameSpot's posted 11 new shots today, including 3 concepts of art, showing a mummy, fairy, and what looks to be a pink elf of some sort. You can check them all out here. Then the Spanish site CiberNet has posted a bunch of shots from the game as well. I suggest just clicking here. More shots can be found at Sims Express, right here (scroll down a bit for a lot of screenshots). At the official UK site you can find several things. There's this page with several screenshots, all of which are on GameSpot as well. Other things you can find are the wallpaper that was released as SimDay item yesterday (with working links), and an avatar design contest. You have to be registered at that site to be able to download or enter them. Visit the UK Site for more info. If you want to enter the contest, you'll have to hurry as the contest ends 31 October. Finally, there's the Dutch Down4Sims which has posted several new screenshots too. These can be found right here. All their screenshots are spread over 3 pages. So far for all the Makin' Magic screenshots that have been posted recently. Stay tuned for more details, as usual.

1840. Chat Transcript

Written on Friday 24 October 2003 at 18:07 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Maxis is early with the transcript this week, and it's already been posted. Besides general gamplay questions about Superstar and (mainly) Makin' Magic, there's also quite a lot about bugs in Superstar:

"Actually, because of the way we build expansion packs, almost all expansion packs include changes to the previous ones, but we searched the BBS, and grilled all of our SimMasters to get us everything that the user community wasn't happy with, and we fixed and changed a LOT! Almost every issue reported to us we fixed. The list is too long to recite, but if you want to ask about something specifically, I'll be able to give you the thumbs up or thumbs down on it."

There's no word about a patch for Superstar, for those who do have that and don't want to buy Makin' Magic. So far it seems Makin' Magic fixed the worst problems in Superstar (which was criticised a lot in nearly all the reviews), but we'll have to wait until the first reviews to see if there aren't new bugs. Some things that have been fixed are bartender Waylon, and the "Move Objects On" problem that caused Sims to disappear. As mentioned, there's also a lot of stuff in the transcript about gameplay items. There's nothing really completely new though, except for the fact that Cassandra Goth no longer has her glasses. Maxis got rid of them to prevent confusion of Makin' Magic and Harry Potter. More of that, and a lot of other things, can be read in the full transcript.