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761. EA wants to be biggest in Entertainment

Written on Monday 17 January 2005 at 23:16 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Electronic Arts, publisher of the Sims series, wants to become the biggest company in the entertainment industry. It wants to compete with companies like Disney. To achieve that goal, the company wants to create more games which target a mass audience. The next generation consoles might help that, as they will be superior when it comes to graphics. According to EA, the games industry is already bigger than the music industry now. The Sims TV-show is also briefly mentioned, and it's said this show will let video games play a more central role in popular culture. Besides that, EA is planning an internation awards show "similar to the Oscars and the Grammys" which would combine video games, music and movies. Game companies will also have to work more closely with celebrities, so players can play with their heroes. See this article at BBC News for more information.

762. "Urbz" to Mobiles

Written on Monday 17 January 2005 at 22:53 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

A game that will be similar to the Urbz, will be released on mobile phones. Gameloft has announced the game "New York Nights: Success in the City" for mobile phones in December. Website Midlet Review gives some more information about the game. Your task is to get a dream job, make lots of friends and fall in love, all in 40 days or less. There are several screenshots available as well as an artwork, all of which you can see below in their full size. It's doesn't seem EA is involved in this project, because there's no "Sims" or "Urbz" in the name, and previous handheld Sims games were previously developed by Griptonite. The game is set to be released this spring in the US, a European release date has not yet been confirmed.

763. University Article

Written on Saturday 15 January 2005 at 13:18 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

GamesRadar has posted a new article about the Sims 2 University. It's more or less an overview of the features that have been mentioned before. Nothing new is mentioned, nevertheless you might want to check it out.

The Sims 2 University, and its Prima Official Strategy Guide (which used to be called "The Sims 2: Episode 2") can now also be bought from our shop.

764. German University Special

Written on Saturday 15 January 2005 at 12:52 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Besides Amsterdam, Tim LeTourneau also paid a visit to Frankfurt, Germany last week to tell about the Sims 2 University. The German official site has posted a special about the event containing an article with impressions and an interview with Tim. Both bring a bit of new information... Read More!

765. SimDay: Object and Release Date [Update 2]

Written on Thursday 13 January 2005 at 22:15 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

This week's SimDay comes with just an object so far. There's also a reminder of the new beginnings contest that ends in two weeks. Besides that, there's also a new object called the "Divide and Conquer Room Divider." This screen allows your Sims to redoracte and divide their office space up a bit. To download it, check out the exchange.

[Update: 23:50] The site has had a slight new update, with a confirmed shipping date of 1 March, and release date of 3 March for University. That means that as of 3 March 2005 you'll be able to find the expansion in the stores. The trailer and screenshots from the designer diary we mentioned here earlier have also been posted on the official site now.

[Update 14 January, 23:10] What I forgot to mention is that there's also a new University video available. This trailer (7 Mb in High quality, 1.8 in Low) sums up the most important features of the expansion, and it also shows a few new objects in action. You can find it on the videos page.

766. TS2U Designer Diary 2

Written on Thursday 13 January 2005 at 22:08 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

The second part of the Designer Diary of the Sims 2 University has been posted at GameSpot. This time college jobs are described. Jamming with a band, being a personal trainer at the gym, or being a tutor in the library can help your students earn a little extra cash. It's also said this money can be spent again at the pool table, by placing a bet. Some other jobs include serving at a bar or at the espresso shop. New decoration styles are also present in the expansion, one of which being the frat style. That features "torn leather couches, ratty chairs, beat-up fridges, and dingy linoleum to really give you a chance to re-create the authentic frat basement, complete with Greek letters." The groovy collection takes your Sims back to the '60s and '70s. Included are a few new screenshots, which you can see below. Read the designer diary for more precise information about the jobs and earning money.

767. Sims 2 Hacks spreading through Exchange

Written on Wednesday 12 January 2005 at 21:21 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Since the community found out how to hack objects and other game content, hacks have been spreading through the exchange "like viruses." Website SecurityFocus has posted an article about this problem, and how the community is also trying to solve it. In it, EA says they were surprised that hacks spreaded through the exchange by loads, unwillingly. Despite an added warning shield, some hackers had already come up with a tool to identify and remove installed hacks. Read the complete article for more.

768. Screenshots and Art

Written on Wednesday 12 January 2005 at 21:08 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

There are several new screenshots from the Sims 2 University posted over the past few weeks. The first comes from the French site, then there are four from the German site and one from the Italian site. The last four are rather small, and come from the Spanish site. Some might look familiar but are taken from a slightly different angle. Besides that, there have been several artworks on the German site, kindly put together by our affiliates SimsZone, whose picture you can see below. The other small artworks have been extracted from the official site's information page. They are posted here in their full size already.

769. Fake Tool: Automatic Faces

Written on Wednesday 12 January 2005 at 20:32 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

During my holidays there's been some strange news from SimsExpress. They mentioned a tool called "Automatic Faces" to be included with the Sims 2 University. However, since 28 December is in Spain a day similar to April Fool's day, it ended up being fake news. The program was said to allow you to easily create faces in the Sims 2 using pictures, making it easy for you to create realistic copies of existing people. A screenshot was included (click the thumbnail for a larger version), but remember it's all fake!

770. Sims 2 University Presentations

Written on Wednesday 12 January 2005 at 00:13 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Tim LeTourneau is currently travelling through Europe to hold presentations about the first expansion for the Sims 2, University. He's shown it to members of the press, including webmasters of several fansites who attended the presentations, and some community members who were lucky enough to be invited by EA. A lot of pictures were taken during the presentations, and they've been posted on those fansites. But of course there was also some new info from these presentations. With thanks to SP Zone and SimsNetwork, which went to the presentation in Amsterdam last week, the following new information is now available (in pretty random order):

• Every neighborhood has a campus. You can choose to create a new one, or use one of the two pre-made areas.
• You can use buildings multiple times. After placing a building from the bin into an area, it will remain in the bin to be built again. It's unsure if this is for just university buildings or all buildings.
• There will be a new cheat, with which you can make buildings as tall as you want. This is done through a cheat as it doesn't make the game any faster.
• You can let up to 8 sims go to university. You can control these characters and they'll function more or less like a family. You can even choose to send townies (NPC sims) to college, so they can grow up and perhaps marry your own sims.
• There are four semesters (stages) during college time: Freshman, sophomore, junior and then senior. Each of these takes 2 or 3 days, and the clock starts ticking as soon as you select a Sim. In itself, the entire life stage takes about 20 days.
• Build-mode is disabled while you're playing on the university campus.
• Going to lectures etc. is similar to work in the original game: you won't follow your Sim.
• Sucking up to teachers or professors works. Woohoo-ing with them will guarantee good grades, according to Tim.
• There's a new "Influence" bar, indicating the influence on other Sims you have. It will be placed on the left of the aspiration bar, and the higher it is the more Sims will do what you tell them to do. It is filled by fulfilling new wants, which are marked with a blue border.
• There will now be 5 or even 6 wants instead of 4. You have to unlock those two though. You can now also lock 2 instead of 1 wants and/or fears.
• Sims can now watch sports on tv.
• Sport-Parties take a little longer than usual. During those parties Sims can watch the sports channel.
• There's a new "DIY Plastic Surgery Set" career object, which allows you to change the face of your Sim completely. This can be bought in the Show Business career track. It can go wrong too...
• The "Cow Plant" is given in the Ecology track. The Art track allows you to buy a Camera. The cow plant likes to eat, and if you don't feed it well enough it'll start eating Sims. After that it'll start producing special milk which other Sims can drink though. The result is the same as the Elixir of Life: the Sim gets younger.
• Sims can be revived or brought back as zombie by bribing the Grim Reaper using an object in the Paranormal track. Zombies can be controlled like any other Sim but they can't make babies. On the other hand, they do have eternal life without using cheats.
• You can have multiple families in one home, without marrying them or having them fall in love.
• Time continues when visitng a community area from university. Such a visit can influence the mood of your Sim.
• The computer has many more options, including entering a majors.
• There will be pranks.
• Some of the new objects include fitness-machines, common showers, the bubble blower from the Sims 1, a "juice-machine" which can do odd things to your Sim, a mini-fridge, a fire to roast marshmellows in, a fire sprinkler installation to extinguish fires without calling the fire department, cellphones, gameboys and MP3-players, the pool table and some objects in special themes like Classic, hip, and others.
• You can build a bar, or a Lounge-area where a band can play.
• There will be both two-floor and three-floor columns.
• There are 11 majors, including history, biology, political economy and (plastic) surgery.
• The Body Shop will be updated when you install University.
• The Sims won't go online as previously stated. This is because "other players will disturb the planning of your Sims' lives. This destroys the entire Sims idea" (from GameVillage).

Furthermore, SP Zone reveals that pets will definitely return to the Sims 2, as well as bunk beds and spiral stairs. However, these will not be in University but in future expansion packs. We can expect one expansion approximately every 6 months. The original game as well as things in earlier expansions will also be fixed and improved in the new expansions. Of course I want to thank SP Zone (specifically JVtje, read her entire report on SP Zone's forum) for all the info. In the Read More part you can find a ton of pictures during the presentation, from SP Zone, SimsNetwork, LeeRoyNR09 (forum member on official Dutch site), GameVillage, and Gry (which went to Warsaw for the presentation). They are in fairly low quality as they're taken with cameras and aren't direct screenshots.

Furthermore, Fragland has interviewed Tim LeTourneau about the first expansion pack. In that interview he reveals you can hack the "mainframe computer system" to get some good grades. You have to get into the secret society for that though. The interview also mentions that sports are hard to put in the game - it's all about adding a bit of gameplay, which isn't easily done. Read the entire interview for the details. Read More!