Sims News

There is no doubt in our minds that Simsville, Maxis' latest addition to its venerable Sim legacy, was one of the best games of E3 and will be an important title to follow this year.

Click to check out the GameSpot article

SimsVille

Developer: Maxis
Publisher: Electronic Arts

There is no doubt in our minds that SimsVille, Maxis' latest addition to its venerable Sim legacy, was one of the best games of E3 and will be an important title to follow this year. The Sims has been a resounding success. Not only did it capture gamers' attention and become a chart-topper, but it also garnered critical praise. Yet, despite the game's popularity and quality gameplay, some players wanted to explore and control a Sims neighborhood, not just one household. That's where SimsVille comes into play.

SimsVille's tagline is, "Every town has a story.... What's yours?" In essence, the game will combine the SimCity series' macromanagement and The Sims' micromanagement styles. The focus of this hybrid is your town. So, instead of designing a family, as in The Sims, or a metropolis, as in SimCity, you will be able to create your own suburban town complete with different businesses, homes, and shops. In this municipality, your goal will be to fulfill your Sims' immediate needs: a roof over their heads, food, clothing, friends, and a way to make money. Managing a town's economy - and thus, its overall rating - will be your larger, more abstract goal.

At E3 the crowd in front of EA's game displays was at times quite large. But SimsVille was worth the wait. One of the biggest changes from previous Sim titles is that SimsVille features a 3D engine instead of a 2D-sprite tile engine. This will be most noticeable in the game's models, which may look 2D but are polygonal. The perspective is a familiar one. You will be able to see your neighborhoods in an isometric (3/4) view. The engine renders objects in this view. Recent screenshots really don't do justice to how nice the game looks or how smoothly the camera moves. In contrast to The Sims, SimsVille's camera won't rotate. Although this sounds like a disadvantage, it's really isn't, because you won't be placing objects in houses and looking in on your family. According to assistant producer Jenna Chalmers, SimsVille's emphasis is on community - so the game's perspective will let you see how Sims go about their business.

SimsVille also has a number of noteworthy details. For example, as you would select attitudes or personality traits for individual Sims in The Sims, these characteristics in SimsVille will generally apply to neighborhoods. Much as in a real town, some areas will be populated by dynamic, energetic citizens, while other areas may have lazy families with unkempt yards and floundering businesses with dirty windows. In addition, you'll be able to build businesses, restaurants, bars, and so on to attract certain types of families to your town. For instance, you might open some nice, upscale restaurants to draw in affluent families. Conversely, if your families can't find what they need in terms of work or entertainment, they'll leave for a city that has more to offer.

For those of us who loved the SimCity games' grand scale and The Sims' treatment of individual households, SimsVille combines the best of both to give a unique experience in town management.

What do you get when you combine the building elements of "SimCity" with people management from the "The Sims?" The answer, of course, is "SimsVille". This upcoming game from Electronic Arts is a micromanager's heaven, with a goal to create a vibrant city while enriching its residents' lives at the same time.

Click to check out the ETOnline article

What do you get when you combine the building elements of "SimCity" with people management from the "The Sims?" The answer, of course, is "SimsVille". This upcoming game from Electronic Arts is a micromanager's heaven, with a goal to create a vibrant city while enriching its residents' lives at the same time. Also previewed at E3 was "The Sims: Livin' Large," an expansion pack for the number one selling PC game this year, "The Sims."

Other stellar sims were Hasbro Interactive's "B-17 Bomber," Empire Interactive's "Battle of Britain," Microsoft's "Combat Flight Simulator 2," Microsoft's "Freelancer" and Microsoft's "MechWarrior 4."

There were also a handful of stellar racing sims to test-drive, including Habro Interactive's "NASCAR Heat," Sierra Studios' "NASCAR Racing 4," Microsoft's "Midtown Madness 2" and Electronic Arts' "Need For Speed: Motor City."

Let the games begin!

This year's E3 Conference - an annual grandoise spectacle of the video gaming industry held this year in Los Angeles - has come to an end. But not before TheCitadel.net's Yoru Hikage managed to snap 19 more pictures of Maxis' booth for us! I'd like to again thank Yoru for going out of his way to get over fifty pictures and video of Maxis' area of the E3 floor.

Click to check out the SimEden article

The moment you've all been waiting for -- the winners of the Slum Lord contest! View the best of the worst homes on the Exchange.

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