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391. Mascot Screens

Written on Saturday 25 February 2006 at 16:14 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

When pre-ordering Open for Business at several stores (including our shop, US only) you can get a mascot kit as download. You will be able to download the files at the day of release, 1 March. To promote pre-ordering a little more, Maxis has released two new screenshots displaying what you'll get. There's a chicken mascot suit, and the Sim in it is a bit surprised, as well as a chicken sculpture to put outside your business. You can check the two screens by clicking the thumbnails below. If you want the download, order the game in our shop before 1 March (offer available for US orders only, see the official UK site for details about getting the mascot in the UK).

392. 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.

393. 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.

394. 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.

395. 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.

396. GameSpy's SimPrentice Part 2

Written on Monday 20 February 2006 at 13:17 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

A few weeks ago, GameSpy started a new series of articles, called The SimPrentice, as a preview for Open for Business. The second part of the series has now been published on the gaming site, and again Fargo talks to Grubbs, one of the entrepreneurs in the Sims world. It's mostly about the types of businesses you can run in the new expansion pack. Examples given are a toilet store, a toy store with crafted toys, a Rockurary, restaurants, and Grubbs' boutique. All the details are given across 4 pages in The SimPrentice Part 2.

397. 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

398. 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.

399. 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.

400. 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).