Misc news

[~Dee~]

Does anyone know for sure yet if we need the internet to install or play the game?

Thanks so much for all the information.

[lewisb40]

You will if you install the regular game on June 2, it will ask for registration and check your registration number to make sure it's by Maxis.  I guess it will have a phone number to call for verification. Yeah they are verifying the regs cause they can be generated by other means.  I guess that EAxis have special encrypted keygens.

[Paden]

And that is going to jack up your phone bill because it costs to call customer service. Guess what they can kiss?

[roerzman]

As is the trend now, you will be able to play the game but until you register it you will not be able to make any saves.
It's a ploy game companies use now in order to maximise sales. When you install the things it suddenly leaps up at ya.If you read the fine print on the box it will tell you "Internet connection required"
Those that don't read the fine print on the box and take what the developers say as gospel and don't have an Internet connection are well and truly up s-----rs ditch.

[Jenna]

And that is going to jack up your phone bill because it costs to call customer service. Guess what they can kiss?

In terms of dealing with EA, Bender said it best:

[~Dee~]

You will if you install the regular game on June 2, it will ask for registration and check your registration number to make sure it's by Maxis.  I guess it will have a phone number to call for verification. Yeah they are verifying the regs cause they can be generated by other means.  I guess that EAxis have special encrypted keygens.

Thank you lewis,
I had a feeling about that but wanted to be sure. EA just lost another customer,
as my comp I want to install it to, has no internet access.
I bought all my Sims1 and Sims2 and all EP's for both games, now it looks like I've to get it the other way.
EA sucks, but that's nothing new!

[roerzman]

Any game that lists one of the service packs as a system requirement is a game that requires the net to work. Be it windows live , steam or whatever.
Talking about steam, the rumblings  amongst the gaming community is that the mighty fail safe steam is being infiltrated by malware,charming. The safest way that the net is used is in short bursts for upgrades etc not all day and night to enable game play.

[kaoz666]

It's a necessary evil in this day and age of software piracy and companies trying to protect their IPs, (Intellectual Properties to the non-business savvy.) but unfortunately the people who lose out are the mild mannered consumer. The person who plays their game on a separate PC NOT connected to the net, which you'd be surprised how many people do it, which is a lot. Or the people who are still running systems that are 5-6 years old, or older. I've had the same PC for over 5 years now. I've upgraded it to the highest specs it can go, but by comparison my PC is still shite compared to the new crop of PCs on the market. But not everyone has $1500-2000 to blow on a new rig. So the people running old systems are crap out of luck as well. And in this economy (I know, I tend to go back to that a lot, but I wouldn't so much if it weren't the biggest issue in all of this, and it is.) It's not so much you're making people buy a new game that might not even run on their rigs when you initially said they would, but you make them HAVE to use your methods of adding content, as well as online registration to authenticate the game, and LIMITED authentication at that? That's the reason why aside from TS2, I play console video games. No authentication needed. Buy it, pop it in your console, game on. End of story.

[abaris]

It's a necessary evil in this day and age of software piracy and companies trying to protect their IPs, (Intellectual Properties to the non-business savvy.)

But one should add, it's only there for the unsuspecting and those sticking with every fibre of their being to the letter of the law. That shite is worthless when it comes to cracking. No CD patches for everything I know of are readily available and the only one annoyed by these measures is the customer wanting to play by the rules.

My personal policy is that of bite me. I only buy a game when there's a patch available. Too often have I experienced that game X or Y didn't want to load because I had app A or B on my rig. I'm not going ot delete anything from my computer because some game developers got paranoid or want to take a sniff at my software.

That's the reason why aside from TS2, I play console video games. No authentication needed. Buy it, pop it in your console, game on. End of story.

But that means no modding, ain't it?

[roerzman]

No modding, no messing with it, no installing anything unless it has been approved by big brother. Remember, a good clean wholesome game the whole family can enjoy, now pardon me while I go and throw up.

[kaoz666]

On the contrary my friends. You can hack console games. PS2 games at least. And it's not illegal either. All you need is a cheat device such as the Gameshark, AR MAX or Codebreaker (Which has unfortunately been discontinued as of January.) With the combination of these devices, a lil' knowledge in Binary coding and a flash drive to transfer the data from you PC to the console, it's possible to create codes for games if you know what you're doing, or just to use the codes that come with the disks as is and download new codes off of the various websites that have them, such as Codetwink.com. I've got PS2 games I bought 6 years ago that still have life because of codes I use change various aspects of the game. If you try to hack a console game trough another method, that's illegal. But codes made with either of the devices I mentioned are perfectly legal. Sadly, only the PS2 has this, as the 360 and PS3 run on Blu-Ray and and HD-DVD formats respectively, of which the coding is way bigger then your standard DVD. Hence it would take miles of coding to make just one hack. And no one has the time, nor resources to do so, especially seeing as you have game developers who still haven't mastered the internal code of the PS3 because it can pump out GOBS of data. Which is why there will most likely never be such devices on console games anymore. But you don't really need them on current gen systems because modders simply make patches for them that do what hacks would have done normally, and again...these patches are perfectly legal, especially seeing that some developers offer tools for the more tech savvy user to patch their own game AND distribute them free of charge to the rest of the community, such as what Epic Games allows as far as modding Gears Of War 2 maps and weapons. EA should be takin' notes.

[LVishere]

This game has SO many flaws that it is a damn shame.

[caffeinated.joy]

PICTURE SIZES CAN NOT BE ANY LARGER THAN 600 X 600

Seriously, folks, this should be a well known rule. Resize the pics or they will be zorched.

[Paden]

I'm zorching things already, a few more won't phase me.

[maniac19642003]

Admin note: Picture deleted because it was over the 600 x 600 max. That means neither the width nor the height can exceed 600 pixels. One more oversized picture in this thread will earn a thread lock.

Gamespot has posted a whole bunch of new Sims 3 screenshots; Well over a hundred.
See them here: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/thesims3/images.html?tag=tabs;images

German site Cynamite.de posted lots of new pics as well. But in this case, they made pictures of all the objects in the game.
Check it out here: http://www.cynamite.de/pc/news/more/sims_3_das_gesamte_mobiliar_im_detail_teil_1/18125/sims_3_das_gesamte_mobiliar_im_detail_teil_1.html[/b]