Posted 3 weeks, 3 days ago at 1:25 pm. 1 comment
So in the past few weeks several fan sites were able to see a glimpse of The Sims 3. No EA didn’t ask me to attend. Anyway we’ll take a look at whats been announced since the last time we covered it, and summarize all the major details from the fan sites.
Seamless Neighborhood
All fansites pretty much agree there will be no loading times from place to place. Everything is done seamlessly so you can play inside your house, zoom the camera out and get a glimpse of whats going on in your town. By that, you select where you want to go and your sim will reach there by walking, cab, or car. The location of the neighborhood is alongside a rocky shore and mountains off in the distance.
There will be many places to visit in the neighborhood, including civic areas, the beach, the café, and more. Certain buildings will act as jobs which you can plop inside the neighborhood. One of the most requested additions to the Sims 3 is the abilities to place objects in any direction without grids. This will certainly add to the realism that fans want.
Seamless Lives
As you play the game, everyone around you no matter where they are will be doing something and aging alongside with you. Each action they do will have a purpose and their behaviors will be dictated by each traits they have. You will start out with a few traits and expect to gain some more as you play through. Social interaction will play a much larger role, and even “negative” actions might make someone more happier.
Screenshot Analysis
For more detailed information about The Sims 3, you can visit the fansites at the bottom of the article. Now we’ll take a look in some new screenshots to see whats been improved since the game was first announced.
Fat is in! The new body shape adds more variety to the people you’ll likely meet around the ‘hood. Talking on the cellphone is now a base game feature that everyone will have.
The trailer showed off some of the new seamless neighborhood transitions by zooming out. We do know that this may be a huge struggle for lower end PCs. Fan sites have said that developers will be able to solve this problem by making the neighborhood smaller for PCs that struggle. Still I would recommend buying a new graphic card to support this game. Nvidia 8800+ seems to be a surefire way to make this game run smoothly.
The whole neighborhood will transition into day and night at the same time. Some sims may come out at night to do some mischief. This sunset along shows off some shadow mapping that is based on light from the sun.
Sims will be aware of others actions and may get irritated by them. This was in development for The Sims 2, but it wasn’t so apparent as they made it sound once the base game was released. So we hope they can enhance this even further in The Sims 3.
The Sims 3 will be released on February 20th 2009
On PC then later on MAC
[ via Sims 3 Resource, Eyecandy for The Sims 3, and forum posts]
Posted 1 year, 1 month ago at 9:46 pm. 1 comment
EA released their newest expansion pack this week titled, The Sims: Credit Card. This revolutionary expansion pack brings your Sims as you’ve never seen them before. Now you can carry them around with you and relive the joys of Credit Card Debt in REAL LIFE! Ooooh! Experience hassling phone calls from debt collectors as you show off your pretty new maxed out The Sims™ card to everyone..
EA? What the hell is this? Why is this even being advertised? We know credit cards from stores are the worst. I think its the wrong type of product to expose to teenagers at this level. I’d rather this be an in-game item because quite frankly, your really scaring me now. I’m not even sure who exactly your targeting with this card? Women ages 18-24? Men ages 13-18? When something like this comes up the best way to work around it and make things better for everyone is to have a co-promotion with the big name credit card companies, ex. Chase, Discover, Capital One… Just let them choose a card design and be on their way.
Well we can’t have a parody post without actual factual details of this credit card, lets read the fine print. First off EA assumes no responsibility in controlling the terms and conditions for this card. So don’t think EA’s friendly tech support will call you when your late on a payment. Its all handled FIA Card services, we’re with the big boys now! Well the Default APR Rate is 18.24%, this instantly tells me its targeting college students, why you may ask? Because most of the time the APR rate starts at 0% then goes up to that after 6 months. Now look what happens when your late on a payment, the APR rate goes up to 29.99%. Mmm smell your money go bye bye! On the signup page, they boldly highlight this 4.9% APR and it sure does look pretty but guess what thats for, Cash Advance Checks, and Balance Transfers only, NOT PURCHASES. Ya so pretty much, the average college student won’t use those features. Unfortunately this 4.9% APR lasts only 6 months! Gasp! This sounds like those Cable and Satellite provider commercials, we’re only cheap for 6 months after that your on your own! So basically your stuck with 18.24% VARIABLE rate, Y’all better pay your credit card bills on time or its harassing phone calls for you!
The moral of this story is, this credit card isn’t different from all the other college credit cards out there. Your first credit card will always be stinky, and there’s no way around it. Would I recommend you sign up to it? Well its your decision but if you do, follow this advice. Don’t buy college books with it, Don’t buy Mp3 players with it, and Don’t buy anything costing more than $60 dollars. See this card wants to game you into high interest rates, cause they know college students don’t ever have a stable source of income. So here’s how we can get back at them! Use the card until you owe around $60. Next pay back the MINIMUM payment needed! Don’t pay the full amount back because its not going to improve your credit score at all. Pay back the minimum on time every month! Rinse Lather, and Repeat! After you do this for a year, your credit score can improve enough to the point where other credit card companies will beg you to join their Platinum ranks!
You only wish you could look Cool like them
