SimCity News

You may have noticed this week has been a quiet one on SNW. That's because I was very sick. I'm doing much better now though. So I'm trying to catch up with some news and goodies! Today, more wallpapers for you!

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Although we feel blessed to be invited to the Sims 3 Pets producer event in The Netherlands which will take place later today, I've heard yesterday on Twitter via other fan sites that we won't be allowed to take any pictures, nor will we be able to Tweet live during the event. I'm not happy about this, but I'm also not sure what to do or think about this. EA never informed us about this. So until I get a clear answer from EA, I will have my Tweet widget up again (will appear later today!) and we will Tweet unless it's stated clearly that we are not allowed to do so.

In all honesty though, it does not make any sense. Pretty much all the information is out there already. And it seems our country is the exception again? Well I guess we'll have to do a lot of playing in order to give you readers something new, right?

Follow us live at the Sims 3 Pets Producer Event!

Our Sims 3 Pets for PC preview is now online, click read more below to read! :woot:

So now you probably already know we were invited at the behind-closed-doors Sims presentation at the Gamescom. Graham Nardone gave us a lovely demo about The Sims 3 Pets on PC! Unfortunately, like I mentioned in my other articles as well, we were not allowed to take pictures, hence the lack of pictures in this article. I have used some pictures, but those are photos of artworks I took on the game floor itself.

Something girls have been waiting for, for many years. Well not all girls. I have never asked for this but, MANY other girls have... There are horses in The Sims 3 Pets expansion pack! And the horses do look amazing, I have to admit this. Like the other pets, you can fully customize horses like you can customize Sims. You can choose the color of their hair, you can choose several mane styles - for example a mohawk, as well as the horses tail - a braided tail is especially awesome, there are several marking layers to play around with, there are patterns you can choose from and you can add figures to the horses body. You can rescale, reshape, recolor and rotate these shapes. So you can place them anywhere on the horses body. Besides all of this, you can adjust body parts and the way the body itself looks. So you can shorten the neck, or make it taller. And you can change the belly size. Stuff like that. Graham showed us a horse that looked like a Zebra (imagine that), but I'm sure you can also make a horse look like a mule or donkey. It's truly amazing. I can see myself play around with this. I assume the other big pets like dogs and cats are also highly customizable like the horses. Basically you can create any kind of pet with the functions I mentioned above. And that's what will make your pets unique. A big deal in The Sims 3 Pets on PC is the fact that you can finally control the pets! The pets are not just added to the family. No, you can really take control of the pets and have them interact with Sims rather than only have the Sims interact with the pets. This is wonderful. We no longer need a cheat to be able to do this. You can see the life through the eyes of your pet. A whole new experience, which makes the game just more fun altogether! The pets now have motives, memories, they have their own bio and personality, they have their own opportunities and all that, but they don't have lifetime wishes. Other than that they are similar to Sims now, except that they're animal Sims and not human Sims.

Obviously, since this is a pets expansion, there will be some animal loving traits for our Sims! A few examples of some of the new traits for Sims are dog lover, cat lover, horse lover, animal lover. And these special traits unlock social interaction when talking to other Sims. So your animal lover Sims can chat about animals with other Sims. There isn't an animal hater trait. Graham was very clear in this. Animals are innocent creatures, of course. And there will certainly not be something like animal abuse in the game, well there is neglecting the animals. If your pets do not take proper care of their pets, the social worker will come and take the animals away. There are no new careers for Sims in this expansion pack. And as far as the pet careers go, this is a console only feature. There are also no new deaths in this game, not for Sims, nor for pets. Pets can only die of old age. There are no pet related deaths for Sims.

Besides the major pets - horses, dogs and cats - there are some minor pets. I have quite a list of these! There will be turtles, lizards, birds, rodents, snakes, guinea pigs and baby squirrels. No rabbits. Don't ask me why. Whatever animals there are in the game, Sims are never allergic to them. Pets can also have traits. After the closed demo I was able to see all the traits for dogs. Together with ChEeTaH from The Sims Zone and Wouter from Sunset Valley Times I translated and tweeted them live: adventurous, aggressive, pig, friendly, genius, hyperactive, hunter, noisy, neat, calm, loves swimming, shy, snob, loyal, independent, playful, afraid of water, destructive, easily afraid, and the last one I found particularly hard to translate... not destructive... errr... doesn't destruct things? Oh dear destruct just became a weird word for me. You get the idea. There are a lot of traits for pets. One more thing I should mention is that we tried translating the traits from German to English. And these will probably not all be the final English names of the traits.

The new town in The Sims 3 Pets for PC is called Appaloosa Plains, I hope I spelled it correctly. It is a mid-western ranching style community neighborhood. And it's the perfect place for Sims with horses. Of course other pets will also love this place! The town also has a cat shaped lake/pond and a dog bone shaped pool. All pets love drinking water out of lakes, but only dogs can swim in the water. Pets can travel with other Sims or just on their own. Some pets can hop along in the taxi but it makes perfect sense this doesn't go for horses. You can however go places riding your horse and your Sim can also go for a walk with the dog. The new town has a lot of fresh content and there is lots to discover.

One of the venues is the cat jungle. On this lot cats come together and play with each other, in and around the cat jungle gym. There is also a dog park, which is a social meeting place for dogs. But Sims can also go here to play with their dogs, play catch and so on. There are plenty of plains for horses to gallop around, but something special we've seen is the horse ranch. On this ranch Sims can practice skills with their horses. Such as the riding skill, racing skill and jumping skill. The training is done on a special track with cool obstacles Sims and their horses have to jump over. One of the obstacles includes fireworks, a Sim's behind can get burnt! You can also create your own race course. The skills are needed and can be used in different competitions, including show jumping and racing. You cannot bet on these races, however you can win cash prizes, trophies and even get your name in the local newspaper! Last but not least Sims can breed horses on the ranch, as well as buy and sell their horses.

At your Sims homes, you can now build real barns with horse stables, since the team added actual barn doors and box stalls! Horses can use their box stalls to eat, drink, sleep, and if they really want to and have companion, woohoo in there! The competitions take place in rabbit holes, meaning we can't actually see the competition while it's happening. But we can see a score board during the competition. But the normal horseback riding can be done anywhere. And you can also train the horses at home.

Initially pets don't know any tricks and don't have any skills. From the moment they are part of your Sims households, you can train their behavior and teach them tricks. Dogs have a lot of tricks and they can learn. Cats however only have the hunting skill, they don't have any other tricks like dogs do. Sims and dogs can attend a tricks exhibition, where they can show the tricks to other Sims and earn money. One of the special skills dogs and cats have is the hunting skill. Graham mentioned (about dogs) that if they're really good at this skill, that they can even bring back a date for their Sim. Hahaha I'd like to see that happen! Usually each expansion pack in the Sims series has a special creature. In this expansion pack, it's the unicorn! Unicorns are magical, in case you didn't already know. The unicorn Graham showed us, was located at the edge of town. It looked all angelic and sweet at first. So sweet it instantly reminded me of the cuteness of My Little Pony, especially because of all the stars and hearts on the body. That was the good side of the unicorn. Good side lol. That side of the unicorn was colored bright white. Then Graham turned the camera around and the unicorn was devilish black, with red flames on its body and everything. That side of the unicorn was also a bit evil. The unicorn had a bit of an attitude! When the unicorn started to run, you could see a rainbow trail surrounded with sparkles. It's Nyan Unicorn!

Unicorns are magical, they can start fires and drive Sims out of town, curse Sims so they'll have to endure mysterious woes and disaster. But then they can also bless Sims and let plants grow wherever they go! And, drum roll, unicorns can teleport! Unfortunately Graham didn't want to share with us how we can get a unicorn. So this will remain a secret until either someone from EA tell us, or even after the release when someone plays the game enough and finds out. Ahhh, too bad. Spoilers! Sims have new lifetime wishes, one of them is to add a unicorn to the household! As far as households go with pets. It's a bit complicated. As we all know, normal Sims households cannot contain more than 8 Sims. However, a Sims and pets household can be a total of 10. There cannot be more than 8 Sims, and there cannot be more than 6 pets. The limit in total of Sims and pets combined is always 10. So you could have a household of 8 Sims and 2 pets, or 6 Sims and 4 Pets. But 4 Sims and 6 pets is also a possibility.

Children - and therefore obviously also toddlers - cannot ride horses. Teens and older can. There are some friendly social interactions between the kids and pets, but I think this is mainly with dogs and cats. Oh and probably also the minor pets. The Limited Edition for The Sims 3 Pets on PC is obviously different from the regular edition. It has a special Pet Store where Sims can go to buy items - accessories and objects - for their pets. You won't be able to buy pets in the Pet Store though, as there will be plenty of other ways to get pets.

The game will be released on October 21st this year. I will most certainly buy it. I am going to pre-order the limited edition, as I usually do with the games! I would like to thank Graham Nardone for coming to Europe to the Gamescom to demo the new expansion pack. It's awesome! And I would like to thank EA for inviting me to the behind-closed-doors presentation. I really enjoyed it! Thanks!

Woot! I finished the article about The Sims Medieval: Pirates & Nobles. Please continue reading by clicking read more below!

SNW was invited to a behind-closed-doors Sims presentation at the Gamescom. So I didn't hesitate to buy the Gamescom tickets! In case you are wondering, I didn't go alone. ChEeTaH from The Sims Zone, Steven from Sunset Magazine and I traveled together. We were early, but better too early than too late. We got our wild card at the EA community lounge and decided to wait on the ground. Or at least I did, the other two went to sit in these weird chairs... XD

When we finally were allowed in the presentation room, we learned right away we were not allowed to take any pictures, unfortunately. But then again, I already expected this. Lately, with every event I attend, it's just like this. I do understand why, but I also know the people reading articles also want footage. And there just isn't any.

Producer Aaron Cohen started off with The Sims Medieval: Pirates & Nobles, the new expansion pack for The Sims Medieval. He was quite funny, and started the presentation with a funny voice, decided it was the wrong voice and then it became even funnier, as he sported quite a good pirate voice to introduce the new expansion pack for this fairly new game. I had met Aaron Cohen before in Amsterdam, when I attended The Sims Medieval event there. It's always fun listening to him. Too bad we weren't allowed to take voice recordings either. I'm sure the entire Sims community would have enjoyed this too. But let's get to the bit about the game itself, shall we?

In The Sims Medieval: Pirates & Nobles there are plenty of new features. A really important new feature in the game is the fact that there are animals! Parrots and falcons. I don't think you can really call them pets... They are some kind of accessory to the Sims. Aaron showed us how a pirate woman summoned a parrot and more or less ordered it to attack another Sim. It was quite funny, but also a bit sad for the other Sim! Now we can't say anymore that no Sims were harmed during the demo! More interactions you can do with the parrots, and I assume this also goes for the falcons; A Sim can talk to the parrot, you can give the parrot a name, you can train the parrots, send them on missions and you can feed them. There probably are more interactions, but I didn't see the screen properly.

Aaron showed us some new furniture and clothing for pirates and nobles. You can definitely tell what is for pirates and what is for nobles. I'm not saying you have to be a pirate to use pirate furniture - I don't know this - but there is pirate stuff and noble stuff. According to Aaron, you cannot have a pirate queen without a booty throne. It was surrounded by gold pieces and other treasures. You could tell this was a pirate room!

The story is that the nobles are from up north. The pirates obviously come from the south. The nobles come to the kingdom to make deals with the people in living there. The pirates are basically there because their ship has wrecked, and they don't want to leave. They are somehow convinced their ship has been sabotaged. So they are already in a really bad mood when they arrive. The two parties end up crossing paths in the kingdom. They don't like each other at all. And in the end someone has to "win", it can be just the nobles, just the pirates, or both. It's really up to the player to decide how it all ends.

Now about another feature. The interrogation chair. Aaron pointed out it's not for torturing Sims in the game. But what I've seen actually looks like it is. To get information from Sims they are sometimes put in this interrogation chair. A Sim in the interrogation chair has to endure interactions such as being doused with a bucket of water. Well I think it was a bucket... More of these interactions include tickling with a feather, showing the mystery terror box and the "chinchilla", which involved a lot of animations where we don't actually got to see this chinchilla, but it didn't look too comfortable what it was doing to the Sim! The funny thing here is, that you can't really tell beforehand whether or not a Sim will end up being affected by these actions. You're supposed to get some answers. And for that to happen, you have to make sure to drive the Sim's will down but at the same time keep the Sim awake and alert. And some Sims will either hate the tickling, or just laugh it off. It works the same way with the other interactions in the interrogation chair. There's no telling what a Sim will do... And that's what makes the chair a fun little game. You will be using the chair mostly during quests. But you can also use it for fun!

Before I forget... The pirates have a secret handshake, I couldn't help it but it sure reminded me of the secret society handshake in The Sims 2 University. Only pirates know and understand this secret handshake. It looks really funny. Aaron told us the team at EA spent quite some time trying out "moves" to find the right animations for this interaction. Also important to know... The nobles do not have a secret handshake. They're probably too snobbish for this kind of interaction hahaha!

Talking about being snobbish. The nobles are the rich type of Sims. They surround themselves with a lot of art and they are indeed a bit snobbish. I can't help but say I absolutely love the new nobles content in the game - furniture and clothing - but it's the same for pirates. It's just all lovely and I'm sure the people who play The Sims Medieval will be really happy with this new content. You can customize the new clothing, and I assume furniture as well, just like you could in the base game.

About the rivalry between the nobles and the pirates. Both have their own special combat moves! The nobles and pirates can get in a one-on-one fight, you have to choose the challenge to spar interaction for this to happen! The special move from the pirates is called scurvy strike and although we didn't see it in action - the pirate woman didn't seem to want to do it - it's a move where the pirate spits in the opponent's face and then when the opposite party is confused, the pirate smashes the other in the ribs. Now that is what I call a serious relationship downer!

Another new feature in the expansion pack is that your Sim can hunt treasures. Sims can search the land, use a shovel to dig and will be able to find rare items. These items include potions, magical spells and gold bars. In the demo the active Sim also found Grim Reaper armor. This looked amazing. I'm not easily impressed, but this just looked so cool... While wearing this special Grim Reaper armor, a Sim can "woo" other Sims, which is funny. The Sim also jumped into the pit in the ground, and fulfilled a special achievement doing so. It didn't end too well for the Sim, as the pit monster attacked the Sim. Aaron then was presented the option to Stay Away or Move Closer. I'll let you guess which one he chose!

I would like to thank Aaron Cohen for coming to Europe to demo the new expansion pack for The Sims Medieval! And obviously I want to thank EA for the invitation to the demo itself. I can't wait for this game, it seems like a lot of fun and I personally think it will add a lot to the base game. I read on a lot of websites that the game should be released on the 30th of August, however I cannot confirm is this is the actual release date or just a rumor. Either way, it won't be long before the game is finished and on the store shelves!