Video Games
EA ShowCase 2011 in Amsterdam – Ep. 1
Feb 25th
Sims Nieuws picked up the first episode for EA’s 2011 Showcase in Amsterdam in which they preview a bunch of upcoming EA games. The Sims Medieval makes a special appearance around the 11 minute mark.
EA CEO admits to franchise milking
Feb 20th
The following article from N-Europe doesn’t mention The Sims but instead some of their other franchises. However, common sense can say that EA is milking The Sims series for what its worth, I just wish they would actually do what they say instead of continuing to milk their games.
“If you go back seven years, we were the leader. And we dropped the ball. Our IP deteriorated, our costs went up, and we didn’t really have an answer for the rise of digital… Need For Speed ended up flat on its back. That annual sequel thing got to us. That was a very tough business run. We just didn’t have the portfolio.”
You can catch the full story of what EA CEO John Riccitiello has to say over at VG 24/7. Thanks to The Black Scorpion for sending this link my way.
Will Wright: ‘Games are not the right medium to tell stories’
Feb 18th
If you hit up CNN, you can catch an interview with Will Wright on his latest project, Bar Karma. In the interview, he goes on discussing how games are ‘not the right medium’ to tell stories with, rather instead its about the story possibilities:
For “Bar Karma,” Wright and TV industry veteran Albie Hecht took the concept of a show driven by fan input and started recruiting.
People submitted ideas and voted on the program’s website. The outcome was a drama about a mystical barroom where patrons must come to terms with morals and involves spiritual concepts like fate.
The show runners have built a community of 20- and 30-somethings — an advertiser’s dream demographic — composed evenly of men and women who check into the site or use an iPhone application, Wright said.
The show premiered on the Current TV network last Friday, and fans can surf to its website to join in on the production of future episodes. The process of idea-to-shooting for each episode takes several weeks, Wright said.
“This is storytelling,” he said. “Television is a very different thing from video games. It’s kind of hard for me to compare.”
Amazon – The Sims Valentine’s Week Sale
Feb 11th
Amazon is holding a special Valentine’s Week sale on all Sims games in which you can save, save and save! They’ve slashed $20 off on all console versions of The Sims 3 (except for the DS version), $10 off all expansions (World Adventures is $20 and Ambitions is $24), and $5 off each stuff pack (which knocks the price down to $15). There are a number of other deals, like $10 off MySims SkyHeroes – you just need to visit their store and see what games are marked down!
Will Wright on Gaming and Learning
Feb 5th
Will Wright, the brain behind The Sims and Spore, gave a hypervelocity talk on gaming and learning at a summit on science, education and entertainment. Source: DotEarth
If SimCity had a movie poster…
Feb 1st
It would look something like this:
This fanmade poster, from a gallery of various video game posters done up to look like movie posters, was created by Ron Guyatt.
I made this piece entirely in Photoshop, it took approx 17 hrs to complete after including alot of research, name finding & release date searching. I was surprised to find out about all the versions that came before the SNES version. The size of this poster is 11″x17″I included a few things in the poster that were in the game. Such as the RCI indicator. The buildings and the poster itself was entirely created using only the colors blue/green/yellow to represent the 3 building types commercial/residential/industrial.
The release date was from the time when Nintendo didn’t give specific dates for release only month timeframes. At the time as well Maxis was independent and not owned by EA.
The Sims 3 gets Steamed
Jan 27th
It took 2 years, but EA finally has added The Sims 3 and it’s add-ons to Valve’s Steam platform. Not only that, but they are offering an awesome deal for those who have yet to own a copy of The Sims 3 with The Sims 3 Ultimate Bundle! For 1 week, save 50% on this pack which includes The Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, High-End Loft Stuff and Fast Lane Stuff. Thanks to SimTimes for pointing this out.
Will Wright to ‘Raid On Bungeling Bay’ at GDC 2011
Jan 21st
The 2011 Game Developer Conference reaches its 25th year, and they’re putting a spin on their anniversary by bringing developers to speak on their classic works – Toru Iwatani will be speaking about the original Pac-Man, John Romero will be discussing about DOOM, David Crane will be talking about Pitfall (I played the heck out of this game on my Atari back in the day), and Will Wright will be discussing Raid On Bungeling Bay:
“Before he became a household name with gamers, Will Wright created Raid on Bungeling Bay, a helicopter action/strategy title for the Commodore 64, NES, and and MSX. The unassuming game would serve as the inspiration for Wright’s much, much, much more popular Sim City series, as it was during his tinkering with Raid on Bungeling Bay’s editor that the designer discovered building complex cities was more fun and had more potential than destroying them.”
GDC 11 will take place February 28th to March 4th, 2011.
Shoutout to Skyline for passing this info along!
EA Store – 50% Off All Games + FS until 4PM PST (1/20/11)
Jan 20th
What an amazing deal! The EA Store is having a 50% Winter Sale that lasts until 4PM Pacific Standard Time today in which you can score just about all games for cheap (minus pre-orders and upcoming releases). All you need to do is follow this link and then do a search up top for what games you are interested in. It will list its original price, then the markdown price below that if it is on sale.
I was able to pick up MySims SkyHeroes DS for $10, MySims SkyHeroes (PS3, Wii and Xbox 360) for $15 each, and The Sims 3 DS for $15. Would of loved to picked up The Sims 3 for the PS3, 360 and Wii as well…but they’re priced down to $25 – I’m sure the next sale will have them down to $15. 
Anyhow, hope you’re able to grab a few missing games that you need!
Via Slickdeals
Nintendo 3DS Upcoming Games preview
Jan 19th
The following video from Joystiq has a very brief segment of The Sims 3 for the Nintendo 3DS near the 3:30 mark. Thanks to Skyline for sending this my way!
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