Friday November 20, 2009
The first expansion for "The Sims 3" should be on shelves across the United States. "The Sims 3 World Adventures" gives us a lot to, well, explore. Even if you didn't like "The Sims 2 Bon Voyage," the vacation themed expansion for the previous Sims game, this one is worth checking out. The goal oriented play the adventures (or opportunities) adds gives vacations a purpose.
Sims check out the adventures board to see which local needs help. Sometimes they need your help to check out a tomb and find a missing item. Other times you need to make friends and find their real opinion about a business. There are more puzzles in the tombs than I expected. Sims really do need to bring along food and a tent. Time flies while on vacation.
Sims who haven't traveled start out on Visa level 1. This gives them only 3 days of vacation time. This is not nearly long enough. Only way to get more time is visit more often to earn Visa points. My Sims may just be going on more vacations than they ever have before. The food, shopping, and tombs will keep me busy at least until the next expansion comes out.
Tuesday November 10, 2009
It's been a rough year for us all. It's not getting any easier at Electronic Arts. They plan on cutting 1,500 jobs and downsizing their product lineup. Which lines are going have no been announced. It's safe to say "Madden" and "The Sims" games won't be going anywhere.
The second piece of news is the purchase of Playfish. Facebook users may be familiar with their work. Playfish developed "Restaurant City," "Country Story," and "Pet Society." These are free online games.
EA will make their money through Playfish by selling points used to buy virtual goods. Not a scene that is new to EA. They have opened stores with virtual goods for both "The Sims 2" and "The Sims 3." Plus, add-on packs have been released for the iPod/iPhone version of "The Sims 3." It's a smart move for EA to shift towards microtransactions. Small purchases add up fast. "Restaurant City's" strong following makes it the perfect place to start.
Monday November 9, 2009
I was browsing gaming headlines when Electricpig's new article caught my eye. Ten worst gaming spin-offs as the title, with "The Sims 2 Ikea Stuff" in the blurb. Huh? They couldn't be serious. That was one of my favorite stuff packs. As far as stuff packs go...
"The Sims 2 Ikea Stuff" wouldn't have been top of my list. A casual game based on "The Apprentice" was a big disappointment. The stuff pack is award-winning quality compared to that one. Plus there's the Desperate Housewives game that didn't win many fans either.
Anyone else have a game that was a disappointment to them? Spin-off or not.
Friday November 6, 2009
Just when I thought I had enough Facebook games to keep me busy, EA goes and releases a "Spore" game. "Spore Islands" is a simplistic version of "Spore." It's one stage of the game, made into a Flash game.
You design a creature by picking out a body, legs, eyes, and a mouth. Then after picking attributes (defense, weight, etc), you send your creature into the wild (or an observation) and hope it earns the most points. The observation screen reminds me of Pac-Man. You watch your creature eat or avoid other creatures (computer or ones created by your friends) to eat plants from a top-down view.
"Spore Islands" isn't the best Facebook game, and it surely isn't the worst. None of my friends have joined yet. I'm sure it has to be more watching your creature race around friends, rather than random wild ones.
