Make sure you check your Sims 3 pages, as SimGuruDrea left a message for you!

Take part in the first Community Showcase for The Sims 3! Run to your secret base, Simmers, and roll up your sleeves to devise your plan for your submission for the Good Vs. Evil Community Showcase!

DATES
We will be running this showcase through July 19th, 11:59pm PDT

IDEAS

• Sims – Will your Good Sims have the perfect smile and great fashion sense? Will your Evil Sims walk around with a permanent scowl? Or will looks be deceiving?
• Lots - Do Evil Sims really have a tendency to live in stone-walled houses with torches? Or do they live in modest abodes with some questionable décor? What kind of Lot would a Good Sim live in? Will it be eco-friendly with gardens to nourish an entire family?
• Stories – A Good Sim gone bad? An Evil Sim going soft? An Evil Sim raising an army of gnomes? A Good Sim being…too good? An Evil Sim falling in love with a Good Sim? Weave your tales of Good vs. Evil!
• Movies – Is your story of Good vs. Evil too epic for words? Why not set that Good Vs. Evil story in motion? Use the Create A Movie tool to document your spaghetti westerns or melodramas. For machinima artists who want to submit a movie to YouTube, please email us the link to your submission at: simsvideo@ea.com

A FEW NOTES ABOUT SUBMITTING
Please make sure to give proper credit to any custom content that you use in your submission. Please include “Good vs. Evil Showcase” in either the title or description of your upload. After uploading, you can post a link to your creation in the forums so we can access them easily.

MOST IMPORTANTLY HAVE FUN!

Source:  The Sims 3.com

SnootySims posted a link on his Twitter page to Jeux Video PC in which lists what it appears to be the first expansion, The Sims 3:  Destination Adventure.

First add on the Sims 3 to land, Destination Adventure offers travel scenery to break the dullness of everyday life.

BricaSims found some more information regarding this expansion pack, so it’s a good sign it may be true.  Please note that the picture that appears in the following article is from TS3.

A title that leaves little doubt about the contents of the first additional disk, but still expect some details of key stakeholders to learn more. Meanwhile, divaguons on and extrapolate what will happen in this Destination Adventure. Of course, the extension will make the beautiful exotic travel history of sims away tired of their new city. But it is also an opportunity to engage in other activities, with real chunks of gameplay in it? A sort of The Sims 2: Naufragés that would bring a breath of freshness and interest to the series? To check this fall at the output of this additional content eagerly awaited by many fans of the series.

The first images and product information for SimAnimals Africa (the sequel to SimAnimals released in January of this year) have made its rounds on the internet thanks to the product page on EA.com

SimAnimals Africa – Coming to Wii & DS Fall of 2009!

Journey to the heart of Africa where you control the wild kingdom! Interact with exotic animals in the wild including lions, elephants, gorillas and more as you explore the jungles and savannas of Africa. Discover the animals’ secret abilities. Solve challenges to earn new items, animals, and levels. Collect unique items to receive badges. Get in touch with your wild side and discover the ultimate secret of the kingdom with SimAnimals™ Africa!

Overview

• Rule the Wild Kingdom -Interact with an array of exotic animals in the wild. Tame zebras, rhinos, hippos and more with fun personalities and special abilities to discover.
• Journey through exotic Africa landscapes – Explore Savannas, Jungles, River Deltas, Volcanic Deserts & more! Discover the ultimate secret of the wild kingdom!
• Solve Challenges and Master Collection Games -Complete goals to open unexplored lands. Unlock animals and rare items! Use your wit and the animals’ abilities to create water sources, protect wildlife, and do everything to keep your kingdom happy and healthy.
• Collect items and Customize!-Your kingdom is full of animals, bugs, plants, and rare items you need to find! Stow everything in your rustic backpack then move animals and items from land to land, customizing each area as you please! Earn badges for completing collections!

Nintendo Wii

• Play as an Animal in Direct Control mode – Now you have the power to directly control every animal – adults and babies. You’ll have to earn this ability-but once you do you control the animals and can engage in fun interactions!

Nintendo DS

• Conquer the wild kingdom with a friend -You and your pal can both get in on the fun with 2- player co-op play! Tag team missions, trade items, and experience the wild together!
• Fun Microphone Features – Talk to the parrot and it will repeat back what you say in parrot voice! Create wind to shake trees & blow dandelion seeds.
• Unique Wild Animals – Meet Cheetahs, Aardvarks, Meerkats and the Parrot only on the DS!

Hahaha, I hope those zebras are voiced by Chris Rock

I’d like to thank ConnorJack for mentioning the official website (not opened yet) and to keep an eye out for SimAnimals news.

A crafty fan played around with the game’s camera setting and was able to tweak it to allow them to view the contents inside of the ‘rabbit holes’ in the game.  Makes me wonder what the expansions have in store.  Please unlock the diner first! 

Sure, the UI is inconsistent as it features parts from both Sims 1 and Sims 2, but hell it’s Bob Dylan.

Source:  Offworld via Kotaku

Love it or hate it, The Sims 3 Store is here to stay.  You can either spend your hard earned cash on virtual items or just wait until tools are made available and download custom content for free.  For those that often use the Store for their Sim-decor fix, you’ll be pleased to know that for the *cough* low *cough* price of $20 you can download a new set of 50 items, The Ultra Lounge.

Chic and sleek but always keeping comfort in mind, the Ultra Lounge set updates the jet set 70’s look for today. Strong lines, curves, and an eclectic mix of metals and woods are the hallmarks of this daring design.

Feed EA your wallet here

Bwahahaha…Thanks The Sims Slovenija for sharing this video that the official Sims 3 Team created.  God, if I ever saw my parents ‘woo-hooing’ my face would melt off similiar to Major Arnold Toht’s face did in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

It’s stories like the following that sets EA back a hundred steps when it feels like they paced forward.  The story below is of a user who purchased ‘The Sims 3′ used at their local Goodwill store.  Illegal?  You’d think not – after all, there is no warning on the back of the box that says Not for Resale.  But apparently EA Customer service thinks buying the game second-hand is for the devil.  They don’t want any of that…Oh no.

The annoyed customer spent their time battling EA customer service trying to get their game activated, as supposedly another account already claimed the code.  EA’s response after a back-and-forth email battle?  Basically ‘tough shit, give us more money’.

When I first explained my plight, the EA tech support representative offered me this option. Buy another, new copy of the game. “The Sims 3 is available in most major retailers or as a direct download!” he chirped. I then explained that my budget doesn’t really allow for a $49.99 game purchase, especially when I have a copy that I can play, but can’t register.

You know…It’s not hard for EA just to pass them a new code.  But they’d rather look like dicks and get bad media coverage instead.  Sure, they’re not liable to hand out codes to those who purchase second hand…But you’d figure they’d at least have some sort of decancey and would like to get good press for a change.

View the original article here.

Thanks to Sims 3 Nieuws for the source of the story!

What a way to kick start the month of July – 3 new Spore API apps were found viewing this thread in the Sporums.

Sporecast Signature
Source: The Sporums
Copyright: Nightgunner5

A 158-line PHP script to generate a forum signature with a latest Sporecast asset. It only needs three lines of configuration (one is optional) and a base image like this one. (A template is included in the .zip.)

Here’s how you can use it:

Download the code from here.

On lines 3 and 4 of sig.php, change the Sporecast ID and (optionally) the font location.
On line 2 of .htaccess, change the /spore/ to the location on your website the files are. For example, if sig.php is accessible at http://example.com/sporesig/sig.php, use RewriteBase /sporesig/

Upload it to your server and go to the sig.php file. You’ll get a few error messages, but don’t worry. Refresh the page and the error messages will be gone and your signature will be there!

The signature will only update once every 10 minutes to make it faster.

Sporecast Voting
Source: Sporecast Voting website
Copyright: Nightgunner5

Allows anyone to vote for the best creatures in any given Sporecast. Each IP address can vote once per creature per Sporecast. Captain stats are partially supported via the model XML.

Sporecast ID can be changed in the URL on the site.

Sporistics
Source: Sporistic’s Website
Copyright: AtomicDay

Sporistics is a simple Sporepedia viewer. You can see the best rated creations, the most important, the newest, etc. You can also see user profiles: buddies, achievements, creations, Sporecasts… The creation viewer shows info about the selected creation: description, rating, comments and, if it’s a creature, height, diet, abilities… All in one.

LMAO!  ConnorJack passed this my way…Zero Punctuation spends 5 minutes covering the game.  If you’re not familiar with their style, let me tell you that it’s not safe for work, nor around small kids, so save this for later.  Jokes ensure, lots of f-bombs, talks of menstruation as well as downright insults towards Sim Fans and EA.  Don’t take it too serious though, they love their satire!