The Sims 3 buzz/gossip/rumours

[kevida97]

CrossCountry,
    I'm just saying that we can't judge how awesome or sucky it'll be until AFTER it comes out. If reviews say that it sucks then I won't get it. If reviews say that it's great then I will get it! It's as simple as that.

[jessica2556]

thanks for the info   this helped alot

[lewisb40]

I found a interview at 1up.com. Great info to help deciding if you want the Sims 3.

[fatimatillah]

Won't the voice of Sims change in TS3? Will the voices still depend on the variations of age and gender (only female young, male young, female adult, male adult, etc.)? Aww!!! I hope the voices will be different... And, wouldn't it be cool if you will get to choose the voices of your Sims? And get to configure their interests, decide what their skills would be... (Take note: I'm referring to everything in future tense.) And... Will TS3 have EPs too?

[YANFRForm]

Will TS3 have EPs too?

Oh, I'm quite sure it will, if the past is any indicator of the future...

University/House Party, Open for Business/Livin' Large, Nightlife/Hot Date, Pets/Unleashed, Bon Voyage/Vacation,
Seasons/Making Magic, Free Time, Teen Style Stuff, Family Fun Pack, Glamour Life Stuff, Celebration Stuff, Etc....

[fatimatillah]

Hmm... Sounds like a lot of money-spending will be going on, ones TS3 gets released... <(I_I)> I hope that the stuff in TS2 will still be there, only better. I like the hairs in TS3. Its much better than the crappy ones in TS2. And... I hope that (an) incredible person/people will find a way to make CCs for TS3... Wait... There's something that I've been meaning to ask since TS2 had CCs... Did EA allow the CCs in TS/TS2, or did the creators just make CCs anyway, even if it wasn't allowed?

[gazania]

Well, one thing that could happen ... and I hope it does ... is that the prices of some of the Sims 2 expansions and stuff packs may drop once Sims 2 is no longer EA's primo cash cow.

One thing that got me into Sims 2 was getting the Game Cube version of Sims 1 for a sharply-reduced price. I played that for a while before giving into the lure of Sims 2 and hearing how a PC-based Sims game is far better than a console-based one. (It was.) Soon, I saw all sorts of special packages at reduced prices for Sims 1. So maybe I SHOULD hold off on Free Time even after the quirks are ironed out simply because Free Time might actually be on sale more often next year.

And the good news ... I think ... is that I do not believe that Sims 2 custom sites should die off immediately. There are still many Sims 1 players (though admittedly, the ranks have thinned out) and even several Sims 1 sites still alive. So those of us holding off still have a little time, I hope!

Speaking of consoles, I wonder if there ARE going to be Sims 3 games for Wii and the DS? I HATED the Sims 2 for the DS (I sold my copy after playing it once!), but Sims 1 for the Game Cube was actually fun. I even bought ... blush ... The Urbz ... and had a lot of fun with that. I might go the console  route for a short time until I decide on Sims 3 for the PC. That is, if EA deems console Sims profitable enough. It's not like I'll be able to download much custom content for a while, anyway!

[PegasusDiana]

Mr. Humble seems like a nice person, but I think he is really out of touch with what it is Sim players are really looking for. Like EP's that have been really tested. I re-read his interview, I believe from that interview if it were left up to him there wouldn't be teleporting, the Genie, Bigfoot, Vampires, Zombies, etc...he doesn't think they belong in the game. I think if it we're left up to him totally, our sims would be like the borg, exactly alike just doing a few different things from time to time; for that added little surprise. More like a screen saver. Where all we do is watch what they're doing like Voyeurs, and they do all the rest. When in reality the Sims(to me) is like our little escape from this mundane world. We can customize it to make our own little worlds, how "we" choose, not EA or Mr. Humble. Where "we can" have goblin's and trolls, or flying fairies, if we so choose. A little magic. It's each individual's choice. Pranks are fine, but how many times can you watch them use the joy buzzer, before you go ok that's getting really old now. Up until now in both Sims 1 and Sims 2 we've been given the choice to make our worlds how we choose with CC, etc...mold our Sims lives. Just seems to me like their taking all that away with the Sims 3. We'll control what happens in their lives while we're playing a family, and only while we're playing that family. Our other families will go about doing their own thing, as well as the family we're playing once we quit playing that family. I hope I'm wrong I'll buy the first one to see how it's going to go, but if that's it...I'm not going to buy any others. I'll go back to the Sims 2 and stay there. I like individuality, to be able to choose how realistic/or non realistic their lives are. I also like seeing how other's choose to play their games in the stories and pictures. If I wanted nothing "but" realism I wouldn't even bother to play the Sims, I have that already in my life...Just a couple more pennies from me.

[fatimatillah]

Did EA allow the CCs in TS/TS2, or did the creators just make CCs anyway, even if it wasn't allowed?

Hmm... No one answered... I still don't know so I'm still asking. ... Wait, did anyone answer? Ugh... Insomnia is killing all my brain cells... I haven't been sleeping for 3 days and I'm afraid to take sleeping pills because it reminded me of what happened to Heath Ledger... And when I'd sleep, it'll be already 4:00 am and "people" wake me up at 6:00 am. Then, they'll ask me, "Did you sleep well last night?". I would just stare at them until they forget that they ever asked me that question.

[Fyrefly555]

I don't know exactly if what we can see in TS3 preview pictures will finally be what we'll have on our computer.

An article on a french hardware-software website is talking about the Unreal Engine 3, which is, well, a graphical engine for games (sorry for my english...again). Electronic Arts seems to be very interested to that engine, and is talking to use it in something like 5 work-in-progress games.

I don't know if TS3 is concerned with it, but, I was wondering if EA wasn't trying to have a first feedback of potential gamers about the graphics in TS3 by putting online so many pics of the game. The Unreal Engine 3 has some kind of realistic graphics with a "plastic little soldiers" look. It can totally fit a Sims game.

Well, I don't know what to think about those previews anyway. I'm giving the french article link on this site and another one in english, which is titled "Epic and EA Announce Extension of Unreal Engine 3 Agreement for Select Upcoming Titles".

I'm probably off-topic, but what I have read make me, uh... doubtful? (Okay, I'm getting an english course as soon as possible!

http://www.clubic.com/actualite-134652-electronic-arts-apprecie-unreal-engine.html

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080408005125&newsLang=en

[YANFRForm]

Hmm... No one answered... I still don't know so I'm still asking.

I didn't answer because I'm not sure I have the right answer, but from reading what BeosBoxBoy said in his blog about EA, then you're correct, and they didn't want us to make cc in Sims2.

You can find the link to Beos' blog in the very first entry of this thread, at the very bottom where it says: Read about the liars and thieves among us! Click here!

[BeosBoxBoy]

fatimillah - my blog is very harsh and full of rude language, you may not wish to view it.  So I will answer here.

Custom content for The Sims (original) was never planned by EA/Maxis.  It was only because a disgruntled former employee "leaked" the knowledge and tools to the community via the Internet that this became possible on a realistic scale.  Some brave souls we working on this and had made some few things, but nothing on the same scale as came into being after the leak.

EA/Maxis was shocked and very unhappy by the huge amount of custom content, but they saw The Sims (original) move from indifferent sales to becoming the most successful computer game ever made. EA/Maxis had not expected The Sims (original) to be a success, in fact, they very much anticipated it to be a huge failure.  The first CD-pressing of The Sims (original) was less than 30 000 units priced USD $69,99 -- at first this seemed enough; but after the custom content revolution, EA began making and shipping more than 20 000 units per month.

In 2000, EA announced a game called SimsVille.  The release date was to be 2001. SimsVille was to be fully 3D, unlike The Sims (original), but use a primitive low-resolution form of 3D.  SimsVille was cancelled and part of its content was included in the Hot Date expansion for The Sims (original), other parts used in SimCity 4, and portions in The Sims 2.  Traces of this primitive 3D format can be seen throughout The Sims 2 and all its expansions.

EA built early versions of The Sims 2 using large amounts of recycled code, some from The Sims, some SimsVille, some new.  The original beta versions of TS2 were markedly different from the version we currently know.  The Sims 2 was originally scheduled for release in 2003, but due to advances in video cards, EA chose to over-haul the game to take advantage of better 3D fast-rendering power of new video cards.  This resulted in a huge amount of changes and edits that were done in sweat-shop conditions to get the work done as fast and as cheaply as possible.

These changes and edits were largely undocumented and poorly done.  All that mattered to EA was getting The Sims 2 to market. As a stop-gap measure, EA released the Makin' Magic expansion pack for The Sims (original) to retain customer interest, demonstrating that even after 2 years of unparallelled market-success EA still did not understand that it was custom content and not their expansion packs that was driving the success of the game and generating profits never before seen by a game software publisher.

On the Makin' Magic CDs there was a promotional video thing that hyped The Sims 2 with lies about how EA understood that the success of The Sims was due to custom content and how they were going to make adding custom content "easier than ever"...

When The Sims 2 arrived in the stores, there was a giant rush by people to get the game. When we look at The Sims 2, we can see how much work EA did to prevent custom content.  Without CEP, recolours of most game objects are not possible; and with every new EP, Numenor must re-write CEP so more objects are recolour-able.  Without SimPE making new objects and object recolours (even for Maxis objects) is not possible.  It took more than 2 years for Wesley Howe to create a good, reliable mesh editing plug-in for Milkshape 3D; and the animations... well, that still isn't working at 100%.

EA never intended for us to make new body meshes, new hair meshes, new objects, etc.  Their idea of custom content is "safe": recolours of their clothing meshes, recolours of their hair meshes, make-up, recolours of their glasses, skin tones, eye colours, walls and floors.  According to the EA EULA - SimPE is totally illegal.  According to the EULA, the InSIMenator mod that is the premiere download of this site is totally illegal.  So you can easily determine that our idea of custom content and EA's idea of custom content are miles apart.

When I say EA never wanted us to have custom content, I mean they never wanted us to have the sort of things we want, only the things EA wants us to have.  The reason for this is simple: EA saw how much money they could make being the ones supplying us with custom content, ergo Stuff Packs.  EA doesn't want us to make custom content, because like good money-grubbing Reagan-Thatcherites they will make a lot more money if we don't.

[maniac19642003]

Yahoo games posted a Q and A with executive producer, Ben Bell. He talks a bit about the Nhood, CAS, career tracks and other things.
Read it here: Videogames.yahoo.com
Thanks to Infinitesims.com for this news.

[Vasculio]

I hear that Sims 3 will be made so that it doesn't hog alot of resources. And it will be made to run on some of the older machines. So my pentium 4 might have a chance to run it.

[PegasusDiana]

I gripe a lot about EA, but one thing I will give them Kudo's for is keeping their prices down. I buy a lot of games, many that are between 19 and 49 dollars, you play them through once and that's it. Off to spend more money on the next sequel. I've spent about 300 for all the EP's and SP's. That's about what 13 a month? if you divide up how long I've been playing the Sims2 now. I spend more than that a month in junk that brings no enjoyment. I've gotten a ton of enjoyment from the Sims. Plus, I know I've spent more than that in a day at an amusement park for my family for one day of fun. Maybe it's good we're expecting the worse, we could actually be surprised and enjoy it as much as we have the Sims 2.