Were Back!

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, i did. Spent time with my family and recieved copies of Rock Band 2, Skate, Boom Blox, The Orange Box and Crackdown. On Christmas day there were a few new Sims 3 Screens released from Sim Times. Check them out Below and in the photo reel which is on the right hand nav bar.

Happy Holidays!

On behalf of everyone here at Simmers News we would like to wish you a Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays! We wish the very best as we move into the New Year, and hope to see you back Soon!

Happy Holidays!
~Skyline, Editor in Chief, Simmers News

P.S. -You can track Santa Here

Poll Results: Graphics

Sorry, i know i'm a day late again, ive been burried up to my neck in schoolwork, but anyway here were last weeks poll results! We asked you: "What graphics settings do you play TS2 on?"

Results:
Ultra High: 2 Votes (50%)
High: 1 Vote (25%)
Moderate: 1 Vote (25%)
Low: 0 Votes (0%)

This week we ask you: "Is EA Exploiting the MySims Franchise, with titles such as MySims Party and MySims Racing?". Poll will close next monday.

Rumor: MySims Racing?

I must say that i looked forward to the first MySims game, it seemed fresh, and new. But Allgame.com has posted a new page for "MySims Racing" with a release in 2009. If i were to take a guess at what it would be like, i would guess maybe similar to the Mario Kart type racing. Something Kid friendly, which obviously fits the Wii and DS well. We'll keep you up to date on any developments that occur regarding the MySims Franchise.

Source: Sims Domination

MySims Party Boxart

EA has released the new Boxart for MySims Party. While i am fairly impressed with it, it feels like EA is really going to start expanding upon the MySims franchise (as you will see in posts hitting later today). Anyway you can check out the Wii and DS Boxcovers below, MySims ships in early 2009.

MySims Party First Screenshots

Sims De Toi has stumbled across 15 new MySims Party screenshots for the Wii. We have posted them all after this, and we hope to have a galery up shortly! It appears to be a Mini-game type game for the Wii with up to 4 players playing simulatniously on the Wii. The Wii is famous for this type of game, and i am rather dissapointed with EAs choice of gameplay style. Anyway check out the screens below!

Announcement: EA Now on Steam

EA and Valve have announced that you can now buy several of their games via Steam. SecuRom is likely still in these games, but elimates the need for the EA downloader. As of yet no Sims games are purchasable via steam, but you can buy about a dozen of EA's top PC games including Spore, Mass Effect and Dead Space!

Press Release:

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - December 18, 2008. Just in time for the holidays, Valve announced that, Spore™, Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack, Warhammer® Online: Age of Reckoning™, Mass Effect®, Need for Speed™ Undercover and EA SPORTS FIFA Manager 2009 are available now to gamers in North America via Steam, a leading platform for PC games and digital content with over 15 million accounts around the world.

In the coming weeks, Mirror's Edge™ , Command & Conquer™ Red Alert™ 3, and Dead Space™ will also be added to the catalog of EA's titles available via Steam.

"EA is one of the industry's largest publishers," said Gabe Newell, co-founder and president of Valve. "The EA titles coming to Steam this holiday include some of this year's top PC titles."

"We are pleased to extend our holiday titles to gamers worldwide via Steam -- a revolutionary technology that is one of the game industry's most successful digital distribution services," said John Pleasants, President, Global Publishing & Chief Operating Officer.

For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com

About Steam
The leading online platform for PC games and digital entertainment, Steam delivers new releases and online services to over 15 million PC users around the world. For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com

About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world's leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTSTM, EATM, EA SPORTS FreestyleTM and POGOTM. In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA's homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA's products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle, POGO, Spore, Dead Space, Command & Conquer, Red Alert, Mirror's Edge and Need for Speed are trademarks of their respective owners and used with permission. Mass Effect is a trademark or registered trademark of EA International (Studio & Publishing) Ltd. Warhammer is a registered trademark and Age of Reckoning is a trademark of Games Workshop Ltd. Official FIFA licensed product. "© The FIFA Brand OLP Logo is a copyright and trademark of FIFA. All rights reserved." Manufactured under license by Electronic Arts Inc. The Premier League Logo © The Football Association Premier League Limited 1996. The Premier League Logo is a trade mark of the Football Association Premier League Limited and the Premier League Club logos are copyright works and registered trade marks of the respective Clubs. All are used with the kind permission of their respective owners. Manufactured under license from the Football Association Premier League Limited. No association with nor endorsement of this product by any player is intended or implied by the license granted by the Football Association Premier League Limited to Electronic Arts. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

View the EA Steam Catalog Below:

Coming Soon:

The Sims 3 VIP Update

Thesims3.com has updated with a New Developer blog, which talks about Build and Buy modes. You can check out the blog here You can use the code 27824

New Sims 3 CAS Trailer

Game Trailers has posted a brand new Trailer for The Sims 3. This trailer emphasizes the creativity aspect of The Sims 3. Ranges from CAS to Customizing outfits, to building houses! You can get The Sims 3 on February 20th worldwide!

The Sims Movie Slips into 2010?

According to IMDB The Sims Movie is now supposed to release in 2010. That is a year later then previously stated, hopefully the movie will turn out decent... Hopefully.

Check out the IMDB listing here

MySims Kingdom Nominated for Best Wii Simulation Game of 2008

MySims kingdom was the runner up for Best Simulation game for the Wii in 2008 by IGN.com today. While yes there was only one other game (animal Crossing City Folk, which won) it still shows that MySims Kingdom is here to stay. Congrats to all the folks at EA who worked on the game.

Read the Rest of the awards here

New Sims 3 Screenshots and Preview

Gamesrader has taken a trip over to EA and have written up a preview, and have supplied 2 new screenshots. The most interesting aspect of the screens if you ask me is the ceilings. Check out the Preview here

The photos have been added to the photostream on the right hand side of the nav bar.

The Escapist Magazine Talks MySims Kingdom

I know its strange to still be posting MySims Kingdom stuff, but the escapist has put up an interview! Check it out! MySims Kingdom is out on the Wii and DS now, MySims Party will be coming soon.

Rumor: Spore is coming to steam?

Apparently the EA store is working well for EA. A while back we saw the Sims 2 series pop up on Direct2Drive, along with spore, now it seems that EA is putting spore also up on Steam another digital distribution competitor to the EA store. Why is this odd? Well because Spore would be the first EA first party game to go up on steam. Will The Sims series follow suit? I can only hope.

ELECTRONIC ARTS SOFTWARE END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR SPORE [Thanks Kotaku!]

New Features!

I know, its not often i post about improvements to the site, but today i have added 2 big ones!

First off is the new Shoutbox! yes i have finally added a ways of communication between simmers! Hopefully this will be a feature that stays as long as it is not abused or spammed.

Second is the new scrolling TS3 Screenshots! I will update it every time there is a new screenshot released, obviously we have to do a little promotion so every 4 shots that go by you will see an SN logo.

Normally i would post these in the release notes section at the very bottom of the side-nav bar, but i felt these were cool new features!

Poll Results: Consoles

So last week we asked you; "Which Consoles do you own?" Your response?:

-Xbox 360 - 4 Votes (57%)
- PS3 - 0 Votes (0%)
-Wii - 5 Votes (71%)
-DS or DS Lite - 4 Votes (57%)
-PSP - 3 Votes (42%)
-PS2 - 3 Votes (42%)
- Older Console - 5 Votes (71%)
- Just a PC - 1 Vote (14%)

I know the numbers don't add up to 100%, we allowed you to vote multiple times, and we had 7 users vote so 5/7 users who voted own a Wii.

This week's question is: "What level of graphics can you play TS2 on?"

Voting closes Monday!

New Sims 3 Screenshot

EA Poland has posted a new Sims 3 screenshot, while it does seem similar to another TS3 screen it seems to be going after a 50's style look.

New Sims 3 Screenshots

In addition to the Sim Animals screenshot, EA has also released 2 new Sims 3 screenshots. I must say that where Sim Animals lacks in graphics, The Sims 3 certainly picks up the slack, the ghost looks stunning. The Sims 3 hits stores this February.

Happy Holidays: Day 12

Just another Holiday Video taken from The Sims 2 Happy Holiday Stuff! Enjoy!

New Sim Animals Screenshot

To the left you see a new Sim Animals screenshot released by EA. Personally i think they should have went with a more cartoony look seeing as how the "realistic" approach they are taking towards the graphics makes it look really... well poor in my personal opinion. The game releases for Wii and DS in January!

Remember those Disney/ EA Rumors?

These rumors? The rumors that we reported on back in early November might yet be coming true sometime soon. The Wall Street Journal seems to think a merger will happen sooner then later. We'll obviously keep an eye on any developments that come out of the Magic Kingdom, or EARS.

WSJ: Is Disney Going After EA? [Kotaku]

IGN Interview with Ben Bell

Along with the trailer IGN has also posted a brief interview with Ben Bell, which you can read right below!

"The sequel to the PC's most successful franchise of all time ships in a little more than two months, but it doesn't feel like it. We're so used to games getting gigantic marketing pushes months before they release, which is something that EA hasn't started quite yet for The Sims 3. Still, with company is looking to start the fanfare. Below is an exclusive trailer showing off the "devious" aspect of the game; you can create sims that literally steal candy from babies.

The trailer is interesting because it gives us a glimpse at how the larger world in this game works. Since the game models at entire town rather than a single household, there are more possibilities than before. In this case, it appears that the central character in the trailer is surveilling a house remotely, then drives across town, sneaks in, and does the nefarious deed. Some things never change, though, such as the hot French Maid uniforms.


Trailer - Watch or download the video here (HD available).

To learn more, we tried to get some answers out of executive producer Ben Bill.

IGN: It almost seems unreal that The Sims 3 ships early next year. The game itself was only revealed earlier this year, and it hasn't been shown that widely. What's the reasoning for this stealthy development?

Ben Bell: We didn't want to hype the game before we had something to show. If you look at our past appearances, we've almost always shown some form of gameplay, whether it's a video focused on gameplay or an actual producer or designer demo. We wanted to provide something really new and exciting for our players. We were also still making new and cool expansion packs for The Sims 2 and didn't want to detract from their spotlight.

IGN: We know that The Sims 3 is a bigger game than its predecessors. You simulate an entire town rather than a single house. But how big a town are you talking about? How many households and businesses and sims can the game manage?

Ben Bell: It's quite a big town that we think is the perfect fit for a Sims game. There are dozens of families to meet and visit as well as dozens of destinations that feature cool game and storytelling moments. A big focus of our design is approachability, so we wanted to make a town that was big enough to be interesting, but not so big that it scares away our fans.

There's a December-May relationship.

IGN: What's performance like? What sort of systems are you looking to support? Will a PC that ran The Sims 2 run The Sims 3?

Ben Bell: Performance is coming along really well. This is always at the top of our minds as we know that our player base owns a wide range of computers, from the awesome to the old and slightly sluggish. We're doing our best to give everyone a chance to play our game! We want laptop users as well as supercomputers to have a fun and engaging experience.

IGN: The new personality system is pretty interesting as you can create almost any type of behavior. I'm supposed to ask you about deviousness, so what exactly does this mean in The Sims 3?

Ben Bell: It means that players have a game that changes every time they play if they want it to. There are so many combinations, advantages to certain traits, disadvantages to others, that players can tell almost any story and play that game for months and months. We've iterated the traits so many times--we think players will really smile when they play with them.

You can create anyone you can imagine from an evil kleptomaniac that hates kids to a lazy egomaniac that is a great kisser. Each of these traits are displayed throughout the game, giving your sims one-of-a-kind personalities. If you choose to make your sims evil, they will steal candy from babies, as you saw in the video. Kleptomaniacs will steal from their neighbors.

IGN: Will the game ship with a single town, or will it be like The Sims 2 and ship with several pre-made neighborhoods? Will you be able to create your own town, as well?

Ben Bell: We are shipping with a single town that players can modify and tweak. We're not quite ready to discuss our future plans for additional towns and player editing but as always with the Sims you can expect a few surprises!

You can tell she's devious cause she's sneaky.

IGN: What's the online integration looking like? Do you plan to support direct-to-YouTube movie sharing, like Spore does? Do you imagine some kind of social networking functionality, such as MySpace or Facebook?

Ben Bell: We're very proud of our online community. No other game possesses the fan base of The Sims and we're doing everything we can to give them an incredible online community hub. We have supported strong community integration with The Sims and The Sims 2 and players can expect continued support for the Sims 3. As mentioned before, we're always trying to make the game more approachable and useable so we've tried to make some of the elements of sharing or downloading easier. For example, all of your content can easily be managed from your game launcher; a much more seamless experience than ever before.

IGN: What's a cool story of something that happens in The Sims 3 that could never happen in The Sims 2?

Ben Bell: Going on a date to the beach. A picnic with your family in the graveyard, followed by a quick tour of the catacombs! Finding a rare asteroid on the way home from the science lab only to see your husband arrested. There are so many things that can happen in The Sims 3 that players have never seen before."

New Sims 3 Trailer

Here you can see the brand new Sims 3 trailer courtesy of IGN!

Happy Holidays: Day 11

One of my favorite of the pictures from the Happy Holiday Stuff Pack. The holidays are a time of love and peace, not receiving gifts. If you would like to donate to the salvation army Click Here

Otherwise, have a great holiday!

The Sims 3 Preview

The Times online had an exclusive interview with The Sims 3 Executive Producer Ben Bell. Not a whole lot of new info is presented, but its still a neat interview. You can watch it here

Poll Results: Expansions?

Sorry i know i'm late on this one, ive been really busy lately, and in the time ive had free ive been playing Left 4 Dead (An amazing game for 360 and PC). Anyway here are last weeks Poll Results.

We asked you: Which expansion should first be remade for The Sims 3?
Your Responce? 3 Votes (50%) went to Seasons with Makin Magic Ending up with 2 Votes (or 33%) and Apartment Life finishing with 1 vote (16%) Thanks to all who voted!

This weeks Poll Question: Do you own another gaming console?

Happy Holidays - Day 10

Happy Holidays everyone! This time, we have another image from the Stuff Pack, Happy Holiday Stuff! Snowmen are so awesome, are they not?

Happy Holidays: Days 8 and 9

Today i bring you 2 pieces of Artwork from The Sims 2 Holiday Stuff Pack.

We would like to add that one of our partner sites The Simmers Club along
with a few other sites is working on an advent calendar for all to use. You can view it here

Happy Holidays!

The Sims 3 Creator Camp

Chris_damon from the Snootysims.com forums got an interesting invite from EA. It allows them to make some CC for the Sims 3, at the EA studios in redwood city C.A. (I visited there over the summer, and it is quite a neat complex) All expenses paid by EA, Airfare for yourself, and if you are under 18, a legal guardian can come aswell. The trip to EA is a week long from January 12-16th 2009. Let us know if you got a flyer, by tipping us at simmersnews@gmail.com

Thanks to SnootySims for the news!

The Sims 2 Holiday Showcase

The Sims 2 . com has a new showcase! This time it's about Christmas/the Winter season. You can make anything, including videos, except you cannot make pictures, unless you put them in a video. You can find more information here.

The Sims Store December Update

The Sims 2 Store has updated once again, with a new Exsclusive themed set fo downloads. This time around it is the always pleasant Asian Themed set, which includes 112 "Items" only about 50 are items, the others are clothes and hairs mainly. You can check out the artwork the Sims2 team put together below. Check out the Sims 2 Store Update click Here

Happy Holidays: Days 6 and 7

Since we forgot to update yesterday i bring you 2 pictures from The Sims 2 Holiday stuff pack! Each with their own little flavor! come back each day for more screens and movies!

SimAnimals.com Update

I know i am a tad late on this story, but The SimAnimals website has recieved a re-design, much more easy to use and actually more then just a teaser site. You can see some new screenshots, along with a little wallpaper creator. You can check out 2 official wallpapers below. The game ships this january.



View the updated Site

Happy Holidays: Day 5

In Keeping with the Holiday month, i bring you yet another screen from the Happy Holiday Stuff Pack, one of the more romantic screens. Keep it tuned to Simmers News for more!

Poll Results: Sims 3 Delay?

A rather surprising poll this week, the question was "Will the Sims 3 be delayed?" A surprising 55% (5 Votes) of you said "Yes" with "No" and "Not Sure" receiving 22% (2 Votes) of the vote each. This week's poll asks "Which expansion should be done first?" Voting will close on Monday.