2668 results found.
Displaying results 611 to 620

<< Previous | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | Next >>

611. GameSpy: SimPrentice Part 3 and OfB Review

Written on Saturday 25 February 2006 at 15:53 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Gaming site GameSpy has posted two new articles. The first one is the third part of the SimPrentice, in which GameSpy interviews Grubbs, a Sim trying to run a business. This time they cover buying a community lot, and building a salon there using the new building tools. There are also some details about hiring employees, including the talent badges. The robots are also mentioned. A Servo, the family pet robot, will come at a price of 3,000 simoleons when you create it. Finally there's a little note about a reviewer, who comes in to rate your business. For more details read The SimPrentice Part 3. Naturally it comes with several screenshots.

GameSpy has also had the privilege to post the first online review of the game. One of the first things they note is that Open for Business works best in combination with the earlier released expansion pack Nightlife, especially because that pack provides the objects necessary to create several kind of businesses. Another downside is that running a business is not as intuitive as the rest of the game, and that talent badges are put besides the skills, rather than adding to it. Also, you don't get to see the progress in getting the next badge for a certain talent. It's also unclear which existing skills help building up a talent faster.

The good thing is that there's a good balance. Starting a business is easy, but making it very successful is quite hard, a lot harder than say having a Dream Date in Nightlife. The amount of humour - pet bricks which can be taught tricks, or robots freestyling for tips - in the expansion also make it a lot of fun to play. It's quite deep, and feels almost like a whole new game. Altogether GameSpy gives the pack a rating of 4 out of 5 stars. It's a little sloppy in the implementation, but otherwise a very strong pack, especially when combined with Nightlife. Check out the review and watch the screenshots for more details.

612. Open for Business Guide Details [Update]

Written on Thursday 23 February 2006 at 00:46 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Publisher Prima Games is, as usual with Sims games, publishing a strategy guide for Open for Business. Details of the book have now been put online, and as with the other guides the details of the game are covered in-depth over 208 pages. Although not mentioned, it can be assumed that the book will be in full color, and will also include some essentials for the Sims 2, similar to the Nightlife guide. Some of the topics that will be covered in the book are:

• The secrets of Talent Badges
• What makes customers tick and how to use it against them!
• New objects and socials cataloged for easy reference
• How to get the most from employees to make your business pay!
• Elevators and other build mode tools covered so you can make your showrooms sparkle

A cover image of the guide has not been made available yet. A few sample pages might also be given away at a later date, although there's no confirmation about that. You can find above details on Prima's product page, and you can pre-order it from our shop.

[Update 25 February, 14:30] The front cover of the book is now available, and as you can see the guide contains tables for The Sims 2, University and Nightlife. These are probably the essential tables listing objects and such, similar to those included in the Nightlife guide.

613. New OfB Trailer

Written on Wednesday 22 February 2006 at 23:20 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

A new trailer of the upcoming expansion Open for Business has been released by EA. This time you get to see a store clerk who prefers parties over work. Nevertheless that doesn't mean his business is unsuccessful. The ad hasn't been posted on the official site yet, but some other sites already do have it. You can find it at GameTrailers under the name "Web Party," or at GamersHell. Thanks to SP Zone and SimsZone for the links.

614. Howard Jones Audio Podcast

Written on Wednesday 22 February 2006 at 23:06 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

A week ago Maxis updated their list of podcasts with a new videocast with Howard Jones, one of the singers who has recorded an old hit for Open for Business. Jones answers a few more questions, this time not from MaxoidMonkey but from MaxoidDano. He tells that the Sims 2 is the first videogame he has ever recorded a song for, though he used to play videogames a lot, like "Space Invaders". Howard also tells about his history in the music industry, his inspiration and favourite bands. iTunes users can subscribe to the podcast to hear the latest one. Others can check out the official site's podcast page to download the latest and previous podcasts.

615. New Nightlife Patch introduces University Bug

Written on Tuesday 21 February 2006 at 14:17 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

The recently released patch for Nightlife isn't perfect according to Maxis. Several users have reported that since installing the patch, students in University (only in combination with the University expansion pack of course) are having problems when class overlaps with the final exam. The game will then make the Sim act as if he or she is going to class rather than the exam, and will mark the Sim has not having attended the final exam. This also hurts the grade of the student in question. Maxis is working on a new patch to solve this problem.

Two work-arounds exist right now. If your student still has enough time before the final exam, you can make them visit a community lot. When returning at home, the clock will not have advanced much, but the time until the final exam has ticked on during the community lot visit. This should make the final exam be before class starts, and thus they won't overlap anymore. Another solution, provided by Maxis, is to move out the Sim and then move them back in. This will reset the time to 8am, without changing the countdown timer to the final exam.

It's unsure if the bug also appears in Open for Business, which has recently gone gold and possibly contains fixes similar to those in the latest Nightlife patch. See the BBS Thread for more details about the problem. The work around is called temporary, until Maxis releases a new patch, which makes it very plausible that they're working on a new one. An estimated date for the release of the patch has not been given. Thanks to Fabian from SimsZone for the link, and Mirena68 on their forums for a community lot workaround.

616. Back of OfB Box Spotted

Written on Monday 20 February 2006 at 13:11 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

The online version of the British WoolWorths has published the back of the box for Open for Business. It's not dissimilar to the back of earlier expansion packs, showing some of the new objects and mentioning a couple of features. Click the thumbnail below to see the full image. Thanks to Callum91 at Sims 2 Community for spotting the image.

617. 13 New OfB Screenshots

Written on Monday 20 February 2006 at 13:06 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

With Open for Business just around the corner, websites and magazines are publishing more and more information and screenshots of the game. The German website GameStar is no exception, and has published 13 new screenshots of the expansion pack. There isn't much news to see, but rather it continues on themes that have been seen in many earlier screenshots. See their screenshots gallery for all of them, marked with "Neu".

618. New Official Avatar Options

Written on Monday 20 February 2006 at 13:02 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

If you've registered yourself at the official site you might have made a Sims avatar already. Maxis has enhanced this feature last week, by adding a few new bits of content. In the spirit of Open for Business they have added a chef hat, fast food hat, deep dive helm, and apron which you can now use to create your own avatar. If you're logged in, all you need to do is edit your avatar.

619. "Sims Played By" Campaign Updated

Written on Monday 20 February 2006 at 13:00 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Last year EA launched the "Sims Played By" ("How do you play?") campaign to promote the Sims 2 on all platforms. New stories have been created since, for Open for Business, which will be released soon. EA has now published the 6 new stories - 3 videos and 3 picture stories - on the campaign's website, SimsPlayedBy.com. Fansite SnootySims has posted three stories as they were printed in magazines, all of which you can see by clicking the thumbnails below. The first and last were scanned and submitted by ZemiZem6 from Teen People Magazine, and posted on the official BBS, whereas the second is from Mitch, who has written the story.

620. Misty Eyes Series

Written on Friday 17 February 2006 at 19:54 by Jendea - 1 comment.

I posted new files under genetics today; the Misty Eyes series in five teary colors for your emotional sims. :)
Enjoy!

You can find them all under Sims2: genetics
or my section:jendea