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871. The Sims 2 (Handhelds) Video Interview

Written on Friday 29 July 2005 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!

872. HSN: Sims 2 (Consoles) Preview

Written on Friday 29 July 2005 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.

873. Content Manager Tool by Maxis

Written on Thursday 28 July 2005 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.

874. Discussions about Sims 2 being a "Porn offering"

Written on Monday 25 July 2005 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!

875. TSO Released in Europe after all? [Update]

Written on Saturday 23 July 2005 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.

876. Sims 2 Screens

Written on Saturday 23 July 2005 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.

877. Nightlife Article with Screens

Written on Saturday 23 July 2005 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.

878. "Sims 2 Worse than GTA Hot Coffee Mod"

Written on Saturday 23 July 2005 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.

879. Updated Sims 2 Patch

Written on Friday 22 July 2005 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.

880. SimDay [Update]

Written on Thursday 21 July 2005 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.