News: July & August 2009

GameSpot has posted some impressions of The Sims 3 World Adventures, which it saw in action at Gamescom:

The first 'quest' we saw was to enter a pyramid and go hunting for treasures. You have to hit floor switch triggers, put your hand into disgusting-looking holes and raid sarcophagus' to find such items, and even though EA admits its had some reservations about desecrating ancient relics, it's all done in a light-hearted manner.

 > "The Sims 3 World Adventures Impressions" at GameSpot

Not Enough Votes!
I still haven't received enough votes in the current poll, "Are you interested in The Sims 2 University Life Collection?". If the number of votes are doubled by then, the poll will now end on Saturday 12th September. Unless you have already, vote to the right of any page!

Hooked Gamers has posted a new preview of The Sims 3 World Adventures. I'm not sure it reveals anything new, but it might be worth a read:

Three exotic locations are available for you to travel to, each a parody on existing locations in France, Egypt and China. You will experience rich culture in Champs Les Sims, venture into ancient tombs in the pyramids of Al Simhara (you can become a Mummy in Al Simhara!) and master martial arts in Shang Simla.

 > The Sims 3 World Adventures Preview at Hooked Gamers

EA has released another two screenshots of The Sims 3 World Adventures, both once again set in Egypt. Check them out on the screenshots tab:
 > The Sims 3 World Adventures Screenshots

EA has released the first trailer for The Sims 3 World Adventures, focusing on Egypt. Check it out on the new videos tab:
 > The Sims 3 World Adventures Videos

IGN Has A Look At World Adventures At GC
IGN has posted a first look at The Sims 3 World Adventures from GamesCom:

Another piece of good news for house designers is a brand-new basement tool that will finally make basement making about a billion times easier than it is currently. With it, you can create basements up to four stories deep that cover the entire breadth of a lot.

 > "GC 2009: The Sims 3: World Adventures First Look" at IGN

Nelly Furtado and Pixie Lott To Feature In World Adventures
EA has announced in a press release that "in The Sims 3 World Adventures, players will have their chance to get down, Simlish-style, to artists like GRAMMY award-winner Nelly Furtado, rising star Pixie Lott, German sensation Stefanie Heinzmann, breaking new rock band Matt & Kim, global indie dance rockers Young Punx, and more!". Here's what songs will feature in the expansion:

• Nelly Furtado – “Manos al Aire”
• Pixie Lott – “Mama Do”
• Stefanie Heinzmann – “No One Can Change My Mind”
• Matt & Kim – “Daylight”
• Young Punx – “Juice and Gin”

Have a look at the press release for quotes from Nelly Furtado and Pixie Lott.
 > "EA's the Sims 3 World Adventures to Feature Global Artists" press release at GamersHell.com

GameSpot has posted an exclusive first look of The Sims 3 World Adventures with lots of new details:

These adventures will take you to one of these three nations to take on quests to explore and plunder trap-filled ruins on behalf of a greedy corporation, though once you've fully explored one locale's ruins, you can decide whether you prefer to side with the company (who would prefer to bulldoze them), or with the locals, who would prefer to keep their landmarks safe.

You'll also find two new screenshots over on the appropriate tab.
 > "The Sims 3 World Adventures Impressions - Exclusive First Look" at GameSpot
 > The Sims 3 World Adventures Screenshots

Another update for The Sims 3 has been released (1.4), fixing two problems caused by the previous update, one for each of Mac and PC:

• PC Only: Addressed an issue where a user was unable to uninstall The Sims 3 if the 1.3 update was interrupted.
• Mac Only: Fixed a problem that prevented players from installing custom content after installing the 1.3 update.

The full list is just the same as for the previous update except for that above, but you can read it anyway by clicking below then clicking "Game Update for: 1.4". You should be prompted to install the patch when you next open the game launcher.
 > Game Updates at TheSims3.com

Poll Extended
I've received nowhere near enough votes for my current poll, "Are you interested in The Sims 2 University Life Collection?". Unfortunately, just ignoring it does not automatically vote "No", so you'll need to actually select "No" then press "Submit Vote!". Unless you actually are interested of course, in which case select "Yes" rather than "No". If the number of votes is more than doubled by then, the poll will now end on Saturday 22nd August.

IGN has had a Q&A with producer Lyndsay Pearson about the newly announced The Sims 3 World Adventures, covering things such as whether the expansion represents a new direction, what the gist of it is, and more:

IGN: The press release mentions that exclusive online content will be available for the expansion at launch. Are these exclusive items eventually going to be offered to those who don't buy the expansion?

Lyndsay Pearson: Additional content and SimPoints to be used at the Store are great ways for us to give extra incentives to the players that are out in the forefront and buying the game.

 > "The Sims 3: World Adventures Q&A" at IGN

Only just over two months after The Sims 3 was released, the first expansion pack has been announced - The Sims 3 World Adventures. Here's the description from TheSims3.com:

Take your Sims on the adventure of their lives with The Sims 3 World Adventures. Guide your Sims to acclaimed fortune—or potential doom. Take your Sims to exotic destinations to hunt for hidden treasures.  Uncover new skills, experience new personality traits and garner rewards, if your Sims succeed.  Explore ancient tombs in the pyramids of Egypt, master martial arts in the Far East, and discover rich culture and famous landmarks of France.  Adventure is on the horizon — what will your Sims discover?

The press release states that it will "ship to retailers worldwide the week of November 16, 2009."
 > "Sims 3 expansion unveiled" at CVG

Catch the list of features and the first three screenshots of Egypt at the new The Sims 3 World Adventures page:
 > The Sims 3 World Adventures
 > News at TheSims3.com

Englishman Ben Borthwick has started a new story, created in The Sims 3, of the continuing adventures of the stars of Left 4 Dead, a cooperative game where the players are tasked with working together to survive a horde of zombies.

They had made it. Only just, but they were alive. After battling thousands upon thousands of the infected horde, the survivors had finally reached their destination: Riverside. However, they now faced their toughest and most terrifying challenge ever: living with each other…

 > Left 4 Sims

EA have announced on TheSims3.com that another update for the game will be released soon. Here's the entire news post:

Hello Sims Fans! We wanted give you a heads up that we are hard at work on giving you an update to The Sims 3 in the coming weeks that will address some of the things you’ve been asking for and discussing on the forums.

We thank you for your passion for The Sims 3. Your feedback is welcomed and invaluable to us, so keep it coming!

 > News at TheSims3.com

Update: Well that was quick. The update has now been released, fixing loads and loads of things, including this:

Fixes to Story Progression. Babies will no longer be born to single parents. Player created or controlled households are now "protected" and will no longer be removed through "Story Progression." Warning: Story Progression will no longer remove previously player controlled Sims. Users who take control of too many Sims in the same game may experience poor performance as the neighbourhood can become over populated.

To read the full list, click below then click the "Latest Update for: 1.3". You should be prompted to install the patch when you next open the game launcher.
 > Game Updates at TheSims3.com

"SimGuruLyndsay" has posted to her blog on TheSims3.com explaining the Story Progression feature in The Sims 3:

What does “maintain town stability” actually mean?  One of the new features in The Sims 3 is the open neighborhood.  Instead of having multiple “save games” in roughly the same neighborhood, the entire neighborhood is the game, and everything progresses at the same time.  However, there are many new challenges that we needed to overcome if those stories were to be believable.

 > SimGuruLyndsay's Blog at TheSims3.com

What could be the first The Sims 3 expansion pack has been spotted on Argos.co.uk: "Sims 3 World Adventures". The page states that it will be delivered on 20th November, costing £24.99. It does not appear to be available to order at present, and no description is given.
 > "Sims 3 World Adventures" at Argos.co.uk

It's that time of the month again, so lets start a new poll. This time, the question is this: Are you interested in The Sims 2 University Life Collection? It's a simple yes or no, so vote now to the right of any page.

Last month, I asked what theme you would like the first The Sims 3 expansion pack to have - the majority, 22.22%, would like to see magic, with the next most popular choice, with 18.52%, being the unseen-since-The-Sims-1 Superstars. Click below to see and discuss the full results, where you'll also find a rare choice explanation:
 > Poll Results

EA has announced a new collection of The Sims 2 expansion and stuff packs - The Sims 2 University Life Collection. It contains The Sims 2 University, The Sims 2 IKEA Home Stuff and The Sims 2 Teen Style Stuff. It will be released in August in the US, and is confirmed for the UK and Ireland. I could not find any release date for the UK and Ireland, or confirmation for New Zealand or Australia.
 > The Sims 2 University Life Collection at TheSims2.com
 > The Sims 2 University Life Collection at The Sims 2 UK

Gaming Nexus has seen Alice and Kev, the on-going "homeless in The Sims 3" blog, and decided to something similar.

Otherwise, I'd like to introduce to you Sara and Mike.  Sara is the single, homeless, unemployed mother of Mike, her son that inherited her genius, over-emotional tendencies, and loner personality.  I created a plot of land to look like an abandoned park, setting about with the idea of following these two on their journey, while minimizing any interruptions and suggestions from myself.

The blog has already come to an end, but you can read all six parts by clicking through from the first post here:
 > "Sara and Mike: Those other homeless people in the Sims 3" at Gaming Nexus

One month ago today The Sims 3 completed its worldwide launch. As it's been that long, and the fact there are practically none being released anyway, I think this is a good time to conclude my The Sims 3 review coverage. Although I will cease specifically searching out new reviews, if I do stumble upon any, I will still add them to the Reviews tab and mention that update on the Updates page - I just won't post news about it.

Don't forget that you can still add your own reviews! Just log in with your Google Account, Yahoo! Account, OpenID, AIM Account or NetLog, then add your review at the bottom of the Reviews tab.
 > Review The Sims 3!

So to wrap-up: what can probably be counted as pretty much the final Metascore is 86, "Generally favorable reviews", based on 61 reviews. What can probably be counted as pretty much the final ranking at GameRankings is 87.12%, based on 33 reviews.
 > The Sims 3 at Metacritic
 > The Sims 3 at GameRankings

EA has released another movie-trailer style The Sims 3 trailer, this time for a horror film. When it's revealed what the horror is, I think it likely you'll laugh:

Three more reviews tonight, two of which weren't actually added to the website today - unfortunately I was to busy sorting out those screenshots to post about them the previous two nights.

RealGamer rated it 9 out of 10 - "Excellent":

Overall, The Sims 3 does what it promised to do. It brings our little computer friends into 2009 with a complete revamp to game play whilst still retaining the charm of the old sandbox theme.

 > The Sims 3 Review at RealGamer

GameVortex rated it 96%:

I do not know what they did to streamline the loading of the game, but it only took mere seconds to load, compared to what felt like forever before. It has successfully shed its shackles of being labeled only one thing or another.

 > The Sims 3 Review at GameVortex

Softpedia rated it 8 out of 10:

The execution is nearly flawless on The Sims 3 and the range of options bewildering. Once you get into it and discover how many trait combinations there are and how many goals you can accomplish, the game will surely become more addictive than The Sims 2 with all the expansions installed.

 > The Sims 3 Review at Softpedia

The Metascore stands at 86, "Generally favorable reviews", based on 61 reviews, while the ranking at GameRankings is 87.03% based on 32 reviews.
 > The Sims 3 at Metacritic
 > The Sims 3 at GameRankings

Late last night and today I added 45 more new The Sims 3 screenshots that I took myself, showing such things as starting a new game, Buy Mode, Build Mode and Live Mode. Check them out on the screenshots tab (new ones added last night start at image 13, showing the main menu's options menu), and look out for even more screenshots soon.
 > The Sims 3 Screenshots

Update: I've now added another 36 screenshots to yesterday's update, covering more of Build mode, Edit Town and the Create a Sim.