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621. Family Fun Stuff (Shopping) Pack Spotted Again

Written on Wednesday 15 February 2006 at 23:41 by ChEeTaH - 2 comments.

Early this month there were reportings of so-called Shopping Packs being available for pre-order in Australian stores. One of them, the "Family Fun Shopping Pack," has now been discovered on American shops as well, including Amazon. The price for the pack is around $20 (US), and the American name is slightly different, in that it's called "Family Fun Stuff," rather than a shopping pack. Some shops have already removed the product page, like GameStop, and it's unsure how long the existing ones will remain available. This first pack is expected to be released mid April. Naturally we'll keep you updated about the official name, release date, and price, as we get more info.

622. OfB Gone Gold; 4 Screenshots

Written on Wednesday 15 February 2006 at 23:26 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

The latest expansion pack for the Sims 2, Open for Business, has gone gold. EA has announced that today in a press release. The game, now coming off the presses and being packaged, will appear on American shelves on Thursday 2 March (just 15 days from now), the UK will follow a day later. The release date elsewhere might vary around these dates, though it'll be released in the same week worldwide. To get the game delivered to you on the day of release, you can pre-order the game from our shop. Along with the press release, EA has also sent out 4 new screenshots of the expansion pack, which you can see in their full glory below.

623. Valentines Videos

Written on Wednesday 15 February 2006 at 22:38 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Yesterday was Valentines day, which was a reason for Maxis to release two new videos of Open for Business. They are in the spirit of the romantic day. The first is all about a relationship that doesn't seem to be too great, whereas the second one shows some Sims gussying up to get ready for their date. As usual you can find the videos on the Open for Business videos page, on the official site. Both videos are about one minute long, and require QuickTime to be played.

624. Howard Jones Videocast

Written on Wednesday 15 February 2006 at 22:30 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

After Kajagoogoo was interviewed by Dano earlier this week, it's now been MaxoidMonkey's turn to interview Howard Jones about his music in Simlish, which will appear in Open for Business in the New Wave radio station. Jones tells a bit about his music, and how his son plays the Sims 2. When asked about the music he made for the game, he says recording "Things Can only get Better" in Simlish was very challenging to do, but it was a lot of fun and the result is good. He also says that if he was a Sim, he'd probably listen to Kraftwerk. A game about himself would be about travelling around the world, and making the electronic equipment work. You can find out more about the artist at HowardJones.com, where you can also get ringtones, lyrics, pictures and more. The whole interview, just over 3 minutes long, can be found through the iTunes Subscription or on the Sims 2 website's Podcast page. There you'll be able to get two versions, a high resolution one (9.0 Mb), and a low resolution one (2.6 Mb).

625. Sims Dating Game

Written on Sunday 12 February 2006 at 03:01 by ChEeTaH - 3 comments.

On EA's games site Pogo.com a new Sims-related game has appeared, in the theme of Valentine. In the Sims Virtual Date game you have to pick a date, and take him or her out, following a couple of multiple-choice options to determine the success of your date. If you play between now and Valentine's day, you'll be able to win a diamond necklace (be sure to read the rules, US and Canada only, Rhode Island and Quebec not included). The older Sims Pogo game, The Sims Pinball is also still available. Thanks to the Dutch fansite The Hub for spotting the game.

626. Are you an Entrepreneur?

Written on Sunday 12 February 2006 at 02:39 by ChEeTaH - 2 comments.

With the upcoming release of The Sims 2 Open for Business, Maxis has put a quiz online, with which you can check if you're a good at running a business. The small quiz takes only a few minutes to fill in, after which you'll immediately get an answer about how successful you'd be when trying to run a business in the world of the Sims. Take the quiz to see if you've got the skills to pay the bills.

627. Valentines E-Card

Written on Sunday 12 February 2006 at 02:30 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Valentine is coming up next weekend, and the official site is taking it serious. Besides earlier downloads, Maxis has now also expanded their collection of postcards with a Valetine one. You can now send an electronic message to your sweetie, all in Sims style of course. Check out the postcards to send it.

628. First Band Podcast: Kajagoogoo

Written on Sunday 12 February 2006 at 02:27 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

As revealed in the previous podcast about the new PC expansion pack Open for Business, there will be a new "New Wave" music style which features famous bands from the 80s, like Kajagoogoo, Howard Jones and Depeche Mode. Each of them will be featured in their own podcast, with Kajagoogoo being the first one. In the same podcast there's an introduction with Maxis Sound Director Robi Kauker first though. He tells that besides the three mentioned bands, some music of The Epoxies will also make an appearance in the game. There will also be a New Wave edition of the Sims 2 theme song, as well as more tunes in build and buy mode by Mark Mothersbaugh, the composer of the original tune of the game. He also says which tunes have been re-recorded in Simlish: Kajagoogoo has done "Too Shy," Howard Jones went back to record "Things only get Better," and Depeche Mode recorded a new song called "Suffer Well."

Nick Beggs (Lead Vocalist) and Steve Askew (Guitarist) are the two band members representing Kajagoogoo this podcast. They were honoured to perform for the game, and remaking Too Shy did take them back to that moment in the 80s, with the technology they used to use then. Nick also enjoyed learning the Simlish. They also tell how they played early versions of SimCity on their Atari. The Sims got attention from the singer through his daughter who plays the game. It's the first time Kajagoogoo recorded anything for games. On a slightly different note, they tell about their influence from bands like Yes, Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin. For more information about the band, visit Kajagoogoo.com. To listen to the podcast, check out its corresponding news post at the official site.

629. New Nightlife Patch

Written on Wednesday 8 February 2006 at 22:04 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Less than a month before the release of Open for Business, Maxis has addressed several issues with Nightlife in an updated patch. 29 Problems that weren't fixed with the first patch have been solved now. The patch also contains all the fixes that were in the previous patch as well. Here's a summary of the newly fixed problems:

• Fixed an issue where NPC Mrs. Crumplebottom was causing objects.package to be corrupt.
• Addressed an issue where cell phones could not be placed in a Sims inventory before making a phone call on it first.
• Dorm Cooks will no longer duplicate on previously played lots after installing Nightlife.
• Sims will no longer get a memory of making out with themselves in the hot tub under certain conditions.
• The Mad Scientist career track will no longer have a conflicting message about missing a day of work and having the day off.
• Moving lots with University Graduates into the Sim Bin and back into the neighborhood will no longer cause all of the diplomas to belong to one Sim, instead the will belong to their original owners.
• Sims will now be able to use Cell Phones and MP3 players if placed on tables.
• Young Adult Male Sims can no longer get pregnant and give birth by using the Electro Dance Sphere.
• Vampire NPC's can now be influenced to drink Vamprocillin-D properly.
• Sims can now work out if there is a rug in front of the TV.
• Computers are no longer able to be placed in a Sims inventory if the computers are turned on.
• Sims playing the hand held games will no longer get a memory about meeting themselves.
• Fixed an issue where University Sims were randomly getting taken back to their original neighborhood during their Freshman year.
• Fixed a rare occurring of an issue where Sims could not move off of a University lot after graduating.
• Teen Sims age transitioning directly to an Adult Sim that has chosen not to go to college will no longer receive a memory that they have completed their Freshman year.
• Having a Family Reunion will no longer overrun the memories panel of a Sim with a memory for every interaction during the Family Reunion party.
• Fixed an issue so that dorm rooms will be hidden again when Nightlife is installed.
• The want "Stay Home From Class" can now be fulfilled by Pleasure Aspiration Sims that Skip class.

The full list is available at the Nightlife Update Page, where all bugs as of the Mrs. Crumplebottom one are only fixed in the latest patch. You can download the patch from the same page, or if you don't have Nightlife the general update page gives you link to previous patches (which have not been updated). Note that to install the Nightlife patch, you'll need to have CD 2 in your drive.

630. OfB Podcast Part 2

Written on Wednesday 8 February 2006 at 21:45 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Recently the first part of a podcast with Senior Producers Tim LeTourneau and Don Laabs was posted, all about Open for Business. Maxis has posted the second part of this now, offering another 11 minutes of questions and answers about the upcoming expansion pack. In it they tell that, to start a home business, you'll need to pick up the phone to let the council know you're running one. It's cheap to start with, and apparently one technique is to sell the trees on the lot to make a bit of money. When it comes to mentoring, Don tells that your Sim can mentor family members. By doing so, the family member will gain the perks, from the bottom up, that the mentor Sim has earned along the way. You can only mentor the skill based perks though, and not the cash ones. Tim also says that the business system is flexible, and new expansion packs will take into account that Open for Business is out there, and you can run businesses with the new objects from those packs.

Regarding the split levels, the producers say that altering the height of it will not be possible. New music styles include "New Wave", with famous acts from the 80s like Depeche Mode, Howard Jones and Kajagoogoo, who have recorded their work in Simlish. The favourite bug from Don is that Sims would get lost in the elevator - they'd go in, but after that they wouldn't come out of it. Ladies of the evening businesses are possible too, but considering the way the game works, it'll take a lot of effort and won't be the most efficient way to earn money. Jealousy can also kick in a lot that way.

To listen to the podcast, check the corresponding news post for download and subscription links.