This first stuff pack lets players glitz up their homes a little, with some sleek, modern furniture that wouldn’t look out of place in a fancy New York loft (or what I imagine a New York loft would look like). There’s a lot of glass, a lot of Swedish-looking furniture, and even a very awesome corner bathtub. I wasn’t particularly jazzed by the mens’ clothes (which looked a little more Thriller-era Michael Jackson than High-End Loft), but there are a couple of nice new haircuts for women, and some good-looking gear for them.

review here

As found by BricaSims

If you picked up The Sims 3 High-End Loft Stuff then you may of noticed a leaflet inside the game promoting The Sims 3 World Adventures for iPhone.  Some regions of the game say that it’ll be available in February.  Others claim that it says ‘Available now’.  Well, SimFans contacted their EA reps to get to the bottom of the actual release date of the iPhone version.  Turns out it was a huge mistake – the game’s release is actually coming out in April – around the 5th to be exact.  Now, I don’t mind the delay because it’s for the best…but I wish they’d would announce this rather then making us wonder what the heck is going on.

EA’s results of their 3rd quarter fiscal year 2010 is in!  The bad news?  They lost more money (like we didn’t see that coming).  The good news?  We’ll be seeing new games in the MySims, Sims 3 and Spore franchise announced soon, with a timeframe to be released anywhere between now to March of 2011.

We already are aware that The Sims 3 will be hitting consoles and handhelds…but we are still left wondering for which ones.  The new MySims game they mentioned is probably ‘MySims Sky Heroes’ that was trademarked last week.  The Sims 3 has a new expansion coming out for PC – but no information for that.  Oh, and Spore will be having two titles – one for PC and the other for consoles coming out as well, so long live Spore!  Hopefully the PC one isn’t a spinoff but I have a feeling it’ll be Spore Creature Keeper… 2010 is shaping up to be a pretty good year for Sim/Spore fans… Can’t wait until we start getting actual news to report on!

Came across an interesting post over at the NeoGAF forums about SimCity.  An image has been floating around the internet with a url at the bottom that directs you to simcityworld.com.  One user decided to do a domain search only to find out it belongs to EA:

Domain Name………. simcityworld.com
Creation Date…….. 2000-03-07
Registration Date…. 2010-01-28
Expiry Date………. 2011-03-07
Organisation Name…. ELECTRONIC ARTS
Organisation Address. 209 Redwood Shores Parkway
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. REDWOOD CITY
Organisation Address. 94065
Organisation Address. CA
Organisation Address. UNITED STATES

It appears to have been created 10 years ago, but registered just last month which could possibly mean EA might have something in store for us SimCity fans soon.  The picture that surfaced with this information has been posted below.  After reading the comments, people believe to have seen it floating around for a long time – even suggesting that it was an architectural drawing for a development in Dubai.  No idea what to believe.  Could this be the next generation SimCity?  The beginnings of their so called Facebook app?  I have no clue, so I’m marking this as a ‘rumor’ until more information develops.

If you drop by Dimensao Sims, they are offering 3 new wallpapers in 1024×768 and 1600×1200 sizes to celebrate The Sims 10th Anniversary.  Grab them here.

All 3 EA games – The Sims 3, World Adventures and Spore fell from their normal positions in the UK charts.  At first I was wondering where was The Sims 3 Design & Hi-Tech Stuff…then I realized it was only out for a day in the UK, so that is understandable.  Hopefully next week will provide better results.  It doesn’t help when there are new games bumping them down as well

Source:  Chart-Track

The Sims allows you to play God to townspeople, but the flip side is that you’re also playing the role of an omnipresent voyeur. You watch your Sims as they shower, use the bathroom and even have sex. Granted, you don’t actually get to see any nudity or the sex itself, but for those unable to use their vivid imaginations to fill in the blanks, someone created a nude patch. Now weirdoes get to fulfill their fantasies of watching Barbie dolls bathe, dry their hair and then frolic in the bed sheets.

I think having The Sims on this list is a bit of a stretch, don’t you think? I can understand a few choices – BMX XXX, Dead or Alive, Bayonetta…What about the Mass Effect series? Leisure Suit Larry?

10 Needlessly Perverted Mainstream Games by The Game Reviews

Well, well, well…How should I begin this story.  After doing some research, I’ve came to conclusion that one (or possibly multiple) of the artists from The Sims Team is a thief and well, pretty much lazy.  I hate to call them out on this but all indications proved they have stolen the the artwork from Alex of SimGoodies to use in their January newsletter.

Lets start from the beginning.  On January 16th SimGoodies created a wallpaper using the renders that the Sims Team released – no harm in that, because thats why the renders are put out there – to use for fansites and graphics.  You can view his wallpaper below:

Now take a look at EA’s header for their January newsletter which was issued on February 4th:

*Update* – Cidade dos Sims directed me to his version of the newsletter that their local EA region sent out – this time with Marcela’s arm not lifted up – the exact same as Alex’s wallpaper.

The only difference you can spot is Marcela – the thief.  Her arm is raised in the air for the newsletter picture.  But wait, something isn’t right.  Here is her render.  Did they use a different one perhaps?  Copy the above newsletter image into your paint program and zoom in.  Look at her right arm and the area around her neck.  Does it look like an edit to you?  It sure does to me!  Her joint where her arm connects to her body looks off!

Not only that, but I had to ask Alex for proof.  I needed solid evidence to prove that he came up with the background.  Sure, the dates are valid…but I needed to see the actual PSD file with the layers in tact.  He gave me the PSD file and I had a look.  Here is the breakdown, first with my PaintShop Pro screen showing off the PSD file and then separate images showing their layers (I resized each layer so it can’t be used for other purposes and to protect his work):

Now after speaking with Alex I found out more information.  He used a template graphic for the confetti which can be viewed here.  The fireworks – just brushes in Photoshop.  So yeah, the ball is in Alex’s court.  Why did EA decide to use his artwork for their newsletter?  Isn’t that what they have graphics artists for?  Not only that but they didn’t even ask him or give him the honor of it being used.  Nope, it looks like they ripped it and added a few small changes.

But wait, there is more!  It appears the artist had a second lazy streak.  Instead of designing their own celebration background they used the following artprint!

Their background at the official Sims 3 site:

Was taken from this clipart:

Care to answer, EA?  This is just pitiful, extremely lazy and a horrible way to treat your fans.

I’ve been a slacker…I am pretty good at keeping up with the latest news in the Sims community, but very bad in keeping track of the latest programs.  While on Mod The Sims I came across 5 programs that I’ve yet to add to our programs section.  I’ll add their information below.

The Skininator
Source: Mod The Sims
Copyright: CmarNYC

Non-default replacement skins for the Sims 3 are here. This is a small program to create the necessary support files and package them with your modified skins, all ready to be put in the game.

A couple of sample screens are below. The process is pretty simple: give your new skin a name and decide if it’s a non-standard/fantasy skin (like blue or green). If you’re using a new color ramp (the color gradient applied over the skin), select it along with the corresponding png thumbnail ramp. Load up the skin files you’ve modifed. Anything you don’t import into Skininator will use the game default. Then click the button to save your new skin package.

Since a new skin may involve dozens of files, you can save your project and reopen it later.

MorphMaker
Source: Mod The Sims
Copyright: CmarNYC

This program is a tool to make new morphs for body meshes and new CAS sliders for faces.

Features:

• Accepts morph meshes and converts them to BGEO files containing the morph information.
• Creates the necessary supporting files to use new morphs in the game.
• Edits clothing packages to import the new morph and link it correctly.
• Creates packages for sliders.
• Has help screens with brief instructions for the basic tasks.

What it does not do:

• Does not create morph meshes. Use Milkshape with Wes Howe’s plugins for that: Download here.
• Only runs on Windows.

Sims 3 Log Generator
Source: Mod The Sims
Copyright: ShanOw

The log generator can be used by game help and support people and everyday players to help find out exactly whats wrong with there Sims 3 game.

Information it lists:

• Game settings
• PC Hardware/Software + configuration
• Installed Custom Contents
• Check if Caches are present
• Checks for Awesomeware location
• Game Version
• External Game Options
• Resource.cfg file locations
• Correctly installed package framework

Using this tool you can determine:

• Whether the users hardware is sufficient
• Whether the game supports the users graphics card
• Whether package framework is correctly installed
• Whether it is a game setting that is causing isssues
• What Custom Content they have installed

Sims 3 Dashboard
Source: Mod The Sims
Copyright: Delphy

It’s basically designed to let people easily clear the cache and identify problem content.

This tool has 4 main tasks:

• To easily show you which games you have, whether or not they have a full framework, and to browse to that games root folder.
• To show you the contents of the Sims 3 cache files, and clear them
• To show you all of your custom content in .package format, and display any “corrupted” files, or Sims 2 content, or stuff that just plain wont work.
• To fix any problems with corrupted files, empty files, generally broken files, and allow you to fix conflicts yourself

Sims 3 Framework Installer
Source: Mod The Sims
Copyright: Delphy

This tool is a replacement for the Sims 3 Framework installer part of the Helper Monkey program. It only checks and sets up the Framework to enable you to use .package file custom content with your TS3 games. It does not in any way help you to actually install that content. It is only a framework installer.