MySims Kingdom Wii (and DS), My Sims PC preview

Yesterday (08-09-2008) DMS2c was invited to a producer tour of MySims Kingdom, MySims pc and MySims Kingdom for DS.
First Tim LeTourneau told us about MySims Kingdom

MySims Kingdom WII
If you’re thinking great another expansion, well then i’ve to disappoint you, because MySims Kingdom is a standalone game and it’s not like the 1st MySims game!
MySims Kingdom is a puzzle adventure game and is not really focused on building like the 1st game.
The game has some mini puzzles you need to solve to get further in the game.
Of course there are some sims you know from the original MySims game, like Buddy, Elmira, Violet and more, but there are also new sims like King Roland, Princess Butter and Gonk.
Also your sim is able to jump now and you’ll have to use it as well.

In MySims Kingdom you can choose to play a boy or a girl, that’s new

There are new outfits, new hairs and when you play the game you’ll unlock more clothing, but also furniture, walls and other stuff.

When you start the game a story will come up and tell you stuff about the game and your role in it.
It’s like opening a fairytale book and you become part of that fairytale.

You are a wandolier, and it’s your job to help King Roland and other people.

After the cut-scene you’ll begin in front of a house, where you’ll be given your 1st task.
The game is all about tasks and solving puzzles and of course saving the kingdom.
When you’re done your friend Buddy will give you another task.
During these tasks you’ll learn how to play the game and how to jump and stuff like that.
All these things come automatically and sometimes even with a cut-scene.

After that you’ll meet up with Lyndsay, she and Buddy will stay with you through the whole game.
And they will help you with advice and also bring a nice funny element to the game

Then it’s time to meet King Roland himself, and new sims of course.
King Roland turns out to be a funny guy as well.
After everyone is set you’ll be taken to a magical island where you’ll learn how to handle your wand.
When you play the game you’ll notice that you almost have no loading time between changing to the building mode or anything.
And mostly you’ll get a really funny cut-scene as well.

The Travelogue contains a lot of useful information, like the tasks you’re working on and more.
The currency they use is called Mana and you can collect Mana from shaking the trees.
But something has changed when you want to chop down the tree you really need to make chop movements!
You still need to collect essences and build things, but it all works to get further into the storyline.
You can also trade essences for Mana with Lyndsay.

These are the lands you can travel to and do tasks for sims.
There is a cutetopia, a spooky island and my personal favorite: an Island with Elves

On every island there are new and old sims you can talk with and get tasks from.
And of course Buddy and Lyndsay will follow you.
When you select an Island, you’ll get a funny cut-scene with the 3 sims on a boat.

When a sim has an exclamation point above their head they will have a task for you.
A funny twist will be the story of our favorite goth sim Violet, but you’ll have to find that out on yourself.

If you want to place anything you’ll need your wand, and for solving puzzles you’ll need it as well.

With the right amount of essences you can even get more power with your wand.
You can find essences on trees, in walls and of course you can treasure hunt for essences.

You can unlock several things, and to build / place them you’ll need the Mana.

You can build things on top of each other, and sometimes you’ll need to build stairs or bridges.

There are also some new things you can do between sims, this makes the game more fun.

Conclusion
MySims Kingdom is really different from MySims because of the puzzle element, it’s also funnier and the controls are still the same.
I doubted the original game of MySims but having played that game at home it changed my opinion completely, with MySims Kingdom i just know that if you liked the 1st MySims you’ll love this game as well.
Also because of the puzzle – adventure type gameplay it’s more fun to play, then just build stuff.

Then Erik Zwerling producer of MySims for the pc told us about this new game.

MySims PC

Well this looks familiar, and it is.
MySims for the pc is just like the WII version of it, but it has a little more then the WII version.

Ok a little recap, you’ll get into a town and sims have left, your the towns new builder and you need to build houses and furniture for the sims that want to live there.
Everyday new sims will arrive in the hotel and you decide which sims will live in your village.

In the pc version there are 5 new NPC’s, and 1 of them is Wendolyn, you might recognize her, because witches and warlocks in the Sims 2 apartment life can make a statue of her

Besides new NPC’s there are also some new things you can build.
But still the game is the same as the Wii version, except for 1 big thing!

With the pc version the trainstation has a purpose
Through it you can go online and chat and play online with your friends! For Free!

You can see which friends are online, and which are not.
To play online you either need to invite people or you need to get invited.
A total of 8 sims can play online together in a place called the garden.

You’ll need to know the exact MySims name of your friend, because it’s not like an online chatbox, it’s a private garden.
When you invite your friends you can exchange things you’ve made, or essences, just chat, play tag or even redecorate the 8 houses.
Only 1 person at a time can change a house.

There are also other structures so you can even play hide and seek as well.
There are over 50 new animations to the game.

Conclusion
MySims for the PC is really great due to the fact you can play with your friends online and you can really share your creations with everyone.
You can give things you’ve made to your friends or put them on a website for everyone to download.
The game is also laptop friendly, and the building system works the same as the building on the WII.

Then Tim told us a bit about the DS version of MySims Kingdom
We didn’t have a lot of time left so the information will be short.
The plot line is you’ve come to a kingdom and everything is gone, you need to fiend out who did it and why.
Through 9 mini games and talking to people you’ll need to solve this mystery!

The games will come out at the end of October.
Of course i propably forgot stuff to mention lol, but it gives you an idea about the games, well except for the DS game, we spend most of our time on the new WII MySims kingdom game.

We would like to thank Tim and Erik for telling us about these new games, and also we would like to thank EA Netherlands for the great day!

Sims 2 Apartment life preview

Last thurday DMS2C was invited to yet another preview of the latests expansion Apartment life, you can read all about it on our website
Here’s the direct link of the news page: http://dms2c.net/info/?p=220

MySims preview

Preview in Dutch

On Monday June 4 DMS2C was invited for a preview of MySims! for the WII and the DS. Because there was an embargo on this preview we weren’t allowed to post about it until today.
Unfortunately we don’t have any pictures because our camera is broken, but when the other previews come online you can look at their photo’s (links will follow shortly)
Also we didn’t get a real impression of the DS version because there was only 1 DS, so this preview is mostly about the WII version.
Pictures in this preview are used with permission of starrats!

The MySims preview was held in Utrecht, and it was lead by Tim LeTourneau and by Robin Hunicke ( she also worked on the sims 2, her first experience with the sims 2 was with the expansion pack OFB, she worked on the crafting tables)

MySims is really different then what we are used to of a sims version, this is mostly because MySims is designed for Nintendo.
Because Nintendo is Japanese the sims look a little Japanese as well.
When you start with the game it’s really weird because they don’t really look like the sims we know, but after a while you start getting used to them and they’re just sims again.

The game is played in a ghost town, well at first because when you start playing the town get’s more alive.
The goal is to rebuild the town again, a 5 star town to be exact.
You start the game by creating your sim.

You create your sim in a sort of cas, but it’s different the the cas of the sims 2, you’re not getting a screen with all the clothing that’s in the game, but you have to click your way through it until you see something you like.
You can change your sim just by clicking on it, head, hair, clothes.
When you start a new game you only have a little selection of options you can choose from, but when you start to play it you’ll get more options.
There are a lot of clothes and hair styles you can unlock during the game.
You can also change the voice of your sim, there are 5 voices and you can make them very high or low.
There isn’t an option to choose a male or female sim, you just create a sim that looks male of female.

When your done creating your sim you can go into town. The fun thing is that in MySims you’re not bound to a house, but you can walk freely through the town! And even better, you can create all the furniture and houses yourself! YES ALL!!! You have a workshop, there you can create the furniture with help of a blueprint.
Again when you first start the game the blueprint will be rather simple but as you progress in the game you’ll unlock new blueprints to create the weirdest looking furniture you’ve ever seen, or not if you just want normal furniture.
After creating you give it a texture, again it’s limited at first.

The goal of the game is to get your town rated with 5 stars, this means the town is living again. To get stars you need to fulfill tasks from other sims who live in your town.

The 1st sim you’ll meet is Poppy, the local florist, she’s going to ask you to make her something. To make objects you need essence, there are many different sorts of essences, you can get essences by making a sim happy, or sad or later in the game you unlock special essences fields.
The game doesn’t have a money currency, you collect the things you need or just steal them.
When you’ve accepted Poppy’s task you can go to your workshop to build the object she wants.
In your workshop you’ll get a blueprint of the object you need to build, you can use blocks to build the object.

There are a lot of different types of blocks so you can create everything like chairs, tables, beds and tv’s.
Now you can decide if you want to make Poppy the thing she wants and make her happy or just create something you like!
If you create the thing Poppy wants you’ll get a nice happy looking town, if you create somethings people don’t want your town with get a Gothic look.

Whatever you choose it’s going to determine the type of sims that want to live in your town, also you decide which sims are going to live in your town.
When sims want to live in your town they’ll go to the hotel, from there you can decide whether they’re going to live in it or not.
There are about 80 NPC’s in this game.

Besides the furniture you also create all the houses in the game, you can also redesign the houses that are already in the game.
Again you build the houses with blocks, when you start to build a house you’ll see a green grid where you can build your house on, there are a lot of creations you can make with different sizes of blocks, but you can’t make something like a cathedral.
It’s very easy to build a house, you just put the blocks on the grid and give it a nice color.
You’ll get more colors during the game, there is also a lot of decoration for around the houses and you can even place things on the roof.
You can build a 1st floor, but there are no stairs in the game, so it’s there only for decoration.

The gameplay is very easy, you meet new sims, you talk to them and ask them what they want, then you’re going to collect the things you need to make the object, after collecting everything you’ll go to your workshop and create it, then give it back to the sim.
At first the tasks will be easy, but the further you get the harder they’ll be!

There’s also a garden where you can make essences grow, we’ve been told that it’s possible to grow an eyeball tree for a specific kind of essence.
You can also chop down your trees to make room for new trees. You just plant the seeds and give it water and a new tree will start to grow immediately!

It’s a single player game, and you only play with the sim you’ve made, there is no family connections and the sims don’t have needs.
At one point in the game you’ll get a costume shop, there you can give your sim a new outfit, you can dress your sim up as a social bunny, or the cute panda bear suits for toddlers, or just dress your sim up like a pirate or a princes.

There is no connectivity possible between the DS and the WII, because they’re both different games.

In the DS version you control a holiday island and you need to satisfy all the people who come there for a holiday.
The DS versions also has mini games.

A release date isn’t known at this time, but it should be somewhere this fall.

Conclusion:
MySims is a very fun game, especially for someone who’s never played the sims on the pc. For the sims 2 players it will be getting used to because of the graphics of this game. Whether “die hard” simsfans will like this game really depends on the simsfan.
A really great aspect about the WII version is that you can create new furniture without using other programs to make new meshes.

Of course we would like to thank EA Benelux for inviting us, and giving us a great afternoon in Utrecht!

DeKDeS with producer Robin

DMS2C goes Seasons!

A review by DeKDeS.

On February the 23rd DMS2C was invited to the sneak preview of The Sims 2 Seasons.
Before I start to tell you about the things we saw, I must say the simfansite’s invited and EA had made an agreement not to post any screenshots of the game until the game is released.

We drove through some strange weather towards EA, it was like the clouds not yet decided to pour down rain or just to stay teasing with some little raindrops.
We arrived much too early but dry, at EA. whilst waiting, the first other Dutch Sims fan site Mamasims arrived to join us waiting in a bit cold underground parking lot. After some while the other invited sim fan site’s arrived and we entered the EA elevators towards preview heaven.

Unfortunately lightning stroke the building so all pc’s where down…. Hehe no no, just kidding.
EA welcomed us to the preview and for the first hours we all got the change to play The Sims 2 Seasons.

The first thing that amazed me was to see a town covered in snow, it look so cool, literally.
We started to play around first with the new death effects, not because we’ve got an driving obsession with killing sims… erh well … but we were curious about the death by hailstones and lightning, well I can say I would not want to be in that poor sims’s shoes. If you want to see your sim get stroked by lightning, Hunter Howe from EA games, (with who we had a live video connection with America , amongst 2 other developers) had the perfect recipe for disaster, place a hot tub and surround it by a lot of trees, it sure will get your sim fried at one point.

So what can I tell you more about only ways to make your sim lives miserable?

Lets do a Q&A.

Q: Will it snow/rain inside your home?
A: No, this was a problem to begin with in The Sims 2, because it was difficult to know which camera positions players used, to code stuff like rain, because rain was always there in The Sims 2 with some cheats, but it then also rained inside your home. The developers had a challenge to fix this, what they did is create a sort of code that will create a sort of none visible bubble over your house, and the code tells that it should not rain in there but only outside. But if you would like to see snow in your house, then just remove 1 wall and all of the furniture inside your home will be covered in a layer of snow.

Q: Custom content will get covered in snow, but what if I download a custom made tree, will the leaves fall of it in autumn?
A: No, unless the tree is extracted from the original The Sims 2 Season, why? Well the trees that shed leaves are new objects with multiple layers, for every season the tree has a texture/status. It has the status of lumps of snow on the branches, the leaves falling off etcetera.

Q: Ponds will freeze over, can your Sims walk on it and fall through the ice?
A: No, this is the same reason why there are no such things as hurricane’s or tornado’s, EA wants the game to stay fun, some people perhaps in real life had relatives died by these disasters, and it’s perhaps not so funny when it happens within the sims, you might say that its strange that sims do can get killed by lightning, but to be honest this change is much smaller then a tornado.

Q: How about new items?
A: For the fans of little details like ovenmits, kitchen tools and so on, there will be a lot of those decorative items within the sims seasons, and yes, they also can be covered with snow. Also there are a lot other new, fun and beautiful furniture to brighten up your sims home.

Q: Are the new fears and wants?
A: Yes, for some strange reason a want is to be hit by lightning… hmm, but also the fear of it.
Weather does affect the mood of your sims, some sims just stay outside and enjoy the lightning, others are afraid and run back inside to seek safety.

Q: Is this expansion going to slow down my game?
A: EA made sure the game will run on lower end systems, one thing you might notice as the sun rises, there will be no carpools or such animation, this is to speed up the animation of the sun rising and prevent slowing down your machine.

Q: So I’ve read there will be a penguin in the game? When do we see it?
A: A funny thing to mention is that the penguin was not intended at all to appear with the Sims, one developer just loved penguins and was waiting for the right opportunity to make it happen, with seasons it was the time for this developer to make this happen, and so the penguin was for real. When you place a lot of fish on your lot and don’t have cats (who also try to steal the fish from your fishing rod ) then at some point you will see a penguin running… waggling ? about.

Q: I heard it can rain fire??
A: This was so funny! As you might know there is a new wish object, the weather station, just let a sim with a wish meter below the gold status operate the machine, and it might poor down hellfire, it was sad to see the total stranger that just walked by also caught on fire.

I can go on hours perhaps with this Q&A but I think it’s up to you all to discover the Sims 2 Seasons.

After we fired question to the developers, they had a question for us, about what we would love to see in further expansion. We told we would love to see farm animals such as cows, and starrats from Luckysims said she wanted to see rats. Also we would love to see sims sing under the shower again and brush their teeth.
And if erh.. We get The Sims Cockroaches sorry my bad.. I told it wrong lol.

Well you must know it was the first time for me to be present at a sneak preview so im sorry if this is not such a great review, but I had a great time at EA, and Mogway and me want to thank EA Netherlands for inviting our website, and thanks to EA America for their time answering our questions and giving great feedback.

Oh, afterwards all the present fan site’s got a copy of the Sims 2 Seasons!!

So if you don’t mind, I’m going to ignore the weather outside, and enjoy the rain inside The Sims 2.

My final opinion? GO GET THIS GREAT EXPANSION!!!

Keep up the good work EA!