Urban Online Entertainment Forums

direct x no compatble graphics blah blah, too many posts i dont undertand plx help :(

bexy08 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:32:09 GMT

Hi newbie bexy08 here:o

i have same prob as others, i have 3 year old dell comp, im soooo blonde with computers, same direct x message, i brought a dvd drive from bootsale coz cd drive busted, and pluged it in

it says on the direct x diagnostics tool that the VDD- n/a DDi version-unknown:eek:

it also says at the bottom direct3d functionality not available. you should verify that the driver is a final versions from the hardware manufctorors.

Im peed of about it, on benefits, so i cant fork out lots for all new bits if its needed, i dont understand all the other posts what other people have put im really confused plz plz plz help

plz:p

Hiya newbie here, probs with sims 2 lol

bexy08 — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:08:15 GMT

hiya,

ive basically joined, to see if there is any help out there for me??, im having the stupid pop up window direct x no compatible graphics adapter lol

prob is im quite blonde, so tech talk, and you loose me, so basically that how come i joine,d hope ne one could help

bexy 08

Sims 2 Graphics issue

uasuotw — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 06:15:36 GMT

So.. I went through all the steps first. I checked that I have the latest drivers dl'ed and installed I am running directx 10.
I can still play the entire game the problem lies in that when i do play some of the graphics are choppy or look like small blocks and in some cases disappear the weird part is that when I scroll across the screen the graphics look crystal clear. it is only when i stop the mouse in one spot that the graphics pop back to being blocky and it mostly affects the sims and whatever they are intereacting with. Sort of like the way you fuzz something out or blur it out like when they go to the bathroom only this covers the whole sim the enitre time I am playing.
I am running windows vista Home premium and have a Geforce 7350 LE
Plenty of memory and intel core 2 Quad Cpu @2.40 Ghz

Any ideas on how to fix this would be great.. it is really annoying.

‘HO HO HO’ - Spore Holiday Contest 08′

Judhudson — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 03:51:14 GMT

Spore.com wants you to start the holidays off with a blast!* What better way to do that then to create a contest based around the holidays?* That’s right.* Fire up your creators and come up with what you’d think would be the coolest creature, ship, vehicle or building around.* The contest is open to any holiday themed object.

The holidays are just around the corner, which makes this the perfect time to announce our Spore Holiday Contest 08!

All holiday-themed creations will be accepted, and entry is simple and limitless! To enter just create a holiday-themed creature, building, vehicle, or Spaceship. Then add “SporeHolidayContest08″ tag to your creation and share on the Sporepedia.

We will be accepting all creations until December 3rd, 2008. The creations will be judged for a chance to win the Grand Prize: a brand new 13 inch Macbook with NVIDIA mGPU graphics!

Also, 3 runners up will receive an EVGA nForce 790i motherboard by NVIDIA. May the best creations win!

Read the Rules

[TheSims2.com] The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff Video

Decryption AI — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:43:27 GMT

The video for The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden is now posted! :: Watch the Video

More...

The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff preview trailer

Judhudson — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:12:36 GMT

YouTube - The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff...

The Sims 2 Mansion and Garden Stuff Pack Hits Stores Today

Judhudson — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:34:13 GMT

You Can Now Completely Transform the Curb Appeal of Your Sims’ Home by Creating Impressive Estates and Meticulous Gardens

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Nov 18, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) announced today that The Sims(TM) 2 Mansion and Garden Stuff Pack, the latest stuff pack for the critically-acclaimed PC Game The Sims 2, will hit store shelves today. The pack includes unique building elements that let you create mansions and gardens for your Sims in three all new architectural styles including Moroccan, Second Empire and Art Deco. There are a host of new architectural and landscaping items to choose from to make your Sims’ mansions look more stunning than ever.

You now have the ability to re-create your Sims’ homes into luxurious mansions with all-new items. You can add new character to your Sims’ estates with exotic columns, stunning new archways, chic ceiling fans, sweeping grand staircases and beautifully designed windows and doors. In addition, you can completely re-invent your Sims’ gardens with a colorful foundation of flower beds and shrubs including delicate irises, cheerful daylilies and bright sunflowers. Each different architectural style has a unique look and feel. You can transform your Sims’ home into an imposing Moroccan palace with lush gardens. You can build estates that are classic yet bold with the glamorous “Old Hollywood” style of Art Deco or create grand manors and sculpted landscapes with the romantic and elegant Second Empire theme.

The Sims 2, The Sims 2 Special DVD Edition, The Sims 2 Holiday Edition, The Sims 2 Deluxe or The Sims 2 Double Deluxe for PC is required to play The Sims 2 Mansion and Garden Stuff Pack. For more information about The Sims 2, please go to www.TheSims2.com.

About The Sims
The Sims franchise celebrates an impressive over 100 million units sold since its launch in February 2000. Now translated into 22 different languages in 60 different countries, The Sims has quickly become a universal gaming and cultural phenomenon. For the latest information about The Sims and to check out the hottest creations for The Sims 2 made by our community members, please visit www.thesims2.com. To stay up-to-date on The Sims 3 news and information, check out www.thesims3.com.

About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world’s leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS, EA, EA SPORTS Freestyle and POGO. In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle, POGO, and The Sims are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE: Electronic Arts Inc.

Commentary: Day 0.5 with Macbook Pro MB470LL/A

ManagerJosh — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:13:02 GMT

Our office was buzzing with excitement on Saturday as we were waiting really anxiously for Apple's special delivery to us. We managed to get special permission to review their latest Macbook Pro and I must say we were excited.

It arrived promptly and our teams began to look at the unit from the top down. It's refined, and it's sleek. I must say, this makes me want one even more now.

Two hours into testing the unit's capabilities for real time video processing, the unit crashed...hard. Restarting produced the dreaded "White Screen of Death".

I've personally read a lot about the "White Screen of Death" and thought it to be amusing, but I never figured to be a victim of the legendary "White Screen of Death." Our team proceeded to see if we could correct the issue, but we pretty much determined within the first half hour that we're locked out.

The unit is back with Apple and we're awaiting for a "replacement" unit for us to look at. Needless to say, our first impressions fall under the category of "annoyed" and "unimpressed".

Please Help (URGENT!)

MayDai — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 01:51:59 GMT

Two days ago i bought The Sims 2 Apartment Life Expansion and made a backup copy so i could install it at a later date because i had to wrap it and send it off to my cousin in the mail for his birthday, i didn't want to buy 2 copy's so i thought it would be alright as long as i am not making illegal copies or whatever. I went to install the game today and my autorun.exe is corrupt so i am asking anyone for just 5 minutes of your time to give me a hand in sending me your autorun.exe from your disc, i would ask my cousin but his birthday isn't for another week and hes only 8 i don't think he would know what to do neither would my mom so please help me.
my email is clayton-mcdougall@hotmail.com if you can help me thank you.

Spore Patch v1.03 now available!

Judhudson — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:12:14 GMT

Spore players, if you’re up to it you can now grab Spore Patch #3. Your game should prompt you to update when you play it (if you have EADM installed, that is). When I get home for work, I’ll upload an exe file to the site - but be warned, it is a 106MB file!

The patch only fixes 3 bugs:

Fix for esc key not bringing up Options in Galaxy Game Entry

Fix for creator backgrounds appearing on small sporepedia cards

Update to help keep achievements on the server in sync with achievements in the game

And don’t forget, it comes with 24 new limbs, which can be seen in this image:

The Sims 3 official FAQ

Judhudson — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:41:12 GMT

EA has sent out an official FAQ based on The Sims 3. The full Q&A can be found by clicking the read more link on this post, but here’s a sample for you:

Many Sims fans have gathered a huge pile of CD’s with add ons for 2nd version of the game, which will turn into junk once 3rd version comes out. And what add ons will be included in The Sims 3? Can we expect pets, seasons and magic in the initial release? And what of additional extras for previous version we will have to re-purchase for new one?

At the moment, we’re only thinking about The Sims 3. We have a huge team devoted to making the best possible game and we’re not going to think about anything else until it’s perfect.

Oh come on now…we all know you’re lying Chances are you’re starting work on the first expansion!

The Sims 3 Q&A

1. After all these years of creative thinking, Sims Fans have made many interesting Sims, houses and other objects. Will it be possible to transfer Sims from previous version to The Sims 3? And what about other objects like house and furniture designs?

There are so many innovations in The Sims 3 so it’s really not possible to transfer items or Sims from previous games. The level of detail in The Sims 3 is so high that any conversion from older games would not be satisfying for players.

2. Also many Sims fans have gathered a huge pile of CD’s with add ons for 2nd version of the game, which will turn into junk once 3rd version comes out. And what add ons will be included in The Sims 3? Can we expect pets, seasons and magic in the initial release? And what of additional extras for previous version we will have to re-purchase for new one?

At the moment, we’re only thinking about The Sims 3. We have a huge team devoted to making the best possible game and we’re not going to think about anything else until it’s perfect.

3. Also there are many questions about ‘living neighborhood’. Before Sims 3, player-made families just waited patiently until someone plays them, now it appears to be that they will live on their own. Let’s assume that player created two families: “Mary and Bob” and “John Smith”. Then he played with “Mary and Bob” for long time, almost forgetting about that other family. It’s quite possible that when the player returns to John Smith, he’ll find no one there, since he could live his entire life, get old and die, so there will be no opportunity to play with him. Is there any solution already?

There are lots of options in The Sims 3. In the example that you just presented, the families that you don’t control will develop along with the household that you are controlling. However, you can switch between families at any time. You can also move families between save files, so you can develop one family to a specific point and then merge them with another save file. Story tellers will do that a lot.

4. We’ve already heard that there will be ‘Hand of the God” in the game, that allows to pick up and move Sims and other objects. Also it will be possible to feed and clean Sims with one click of the mouse. Which other simplifications should we expect?

There isn’t a feature that works exactly like you describe. However, players can do something that we call “live dragging”. In simple terms, you can manipulate some objects directly with your mouse. In the past, The Sims had to clean up everything for themselves. Now you can grab trash and throw it away, or grab an item from the floor and put it in your Sim’s inventory.

5. And what about robots, Aliens, Vampires and others? Will be they available in the initial release or we will have to wait for them to appear in outgoing expansions?

We have some tricks up our sleeve…

6. Since there will be quite big virtual universe on player’s disposal, are there any plans for minigames like car driving? And what about dance simulators, which are so popular on consoles?

There are some really interesting collection games and skills have a lot of rich detail.

7. Are there any plans of extending Sims’ vocabulary, e.g. will their words really mean something? Or they will keep mumbling some meaningless Simmish like before Sims 3?

The Sims always speak simlish. We’ve tried to teach them the languages of the world but they don’t want to listen.

8. Some years ago The Sims Online was started. But we didn’t heard about this project for a while. Are there any plans to include some online components in Sims 3, like chats or minigames where players can use their Sims as avatars?

The Sims 3 players will have unprecedented freedom to customize the look of their game. A player with creative aspirations and no technical training or knowledge can make changes to the look of just about everything in their Sims life, right in the game. We call the technology Create-a-Style. In the past, fans made their creations outside of the game and then shared them on the exchange. We wanted to give the power that our artists have to the players.

The process of getting creations online is easier than ever. The Sims 3 launcher helps you install and manage custom content so that you don’t have to hunt around for directories or anything like that.

Finally, The Sims 3 community is completely new and there are some incredible tools, including a web-based video editing tool so that players can make movies from the videos they capture in the game.

9. What kind of player activity have you planned for The Sims 3?

Sims can do things that they couldn’t do before, like ride bikes, work out at the gym, go to the beach, grab a snack at the bistro and more!

10. What about the game has been upgraded and what is completely new? Also, can you explain a bit about how the new ‘boundaries’ work? What kind of activity will be opened up for the Sims?

The first thing that people will notice about The Sims 3 is the world around them. If you see it, you can go there. In the past, The Sims players were confined to playing on little levels that we called lots. Now there are now boundaries. The technology is incredible because we can show you the tiniest detail of your home, like the petals on a flower. A few seconds later you can look at the tiniest freckle on a Sim on the other side of town. This all happens in real time. We’re in a great place as developers these days: Realism has been achieved…check. We can just focus on style and delivering seamless experiences so that the player can be completely immersed in their story.

11. How, if at all, has the customisability of The Sims evolved for The Sims 3? How will players be able to integrate this into their Sims experience?

We’re going to give the player unprecedented control over the visuals in the game so that they have the same control that our artists have, right in the game. The new Create - A - Sim allows players to make just about any person they can imagine, and there are tools in the game that let you change the look of almost any surface on your Sim or in their home.

12. Can we expect to see our favourite Sims families return, having grown, as they did between The Sims and The Sims 2?

Yes! You will see many of your favourite things from past games in The Sims 3.

13. How has player feedback impacted changes you have implemented for The Sims 3?

We’re all fans of The Sims, and a lot of our team worked on The Sims and The Sims 2, so player feedback is built into our team. We also spend a lot of time interacting with members of The Sims community around the world. I don’t think the game would be what it is without The Sims community. Fans have always wanted more interaction with a community of Sims. If you think about it, The Sims is the most detailed depiction of contemporary life to be presented in a work of fiction, but half of life was missing. In The Sims 3, we’ll let you explore the other half of life that happens when you are not at home.

14. How do the ‘new personalities’ work?

There are over 70 personality traits that players can choose from. When you choose traits they are represented as a simple word that you might use to describe someone you know so it’s easy to understand what they will do in the game. What makes traits so powerful is that they can change the game in profound ways. You’ll see different behaviors, interactions, advantages and goals depending on the traits that your Sims display. Just to name a few examples of more extreme traits, you can let your Sims be Insane, Evil, Kleptomaniac, Paranoid, Brave, Hates Kids, Genius and more.

15. What challenges did you face in the creation of The Sims 3?

Working to tune the AI so that the people who live in your town have lifelike behavior. Over time, all of The Sims in the town grow and develop, and it takes an impressive amount of tuning to make this work just right. I think that people are used to seeing lots of other characters in a game world, but they’ve never seen a game world where every character is being motivated by unique personality traits and motives like The Sims 3. Another thing we’re working on is a feature called Create A Style which allows players to customize just about everything, from clothing to furniture to cars. We want players to be able to change the game like our artists can. The interface is really powerful and we want to make it perfect.

16. We understand that the game features a continuous neighborhood and no loading times, but there won’t be multiple neighborhoods as in The Sims 2. Tell us a bit about this decision. How will it change what different players do with the game once they get it in their hands?

There is one neighborhood, and it is pretty amazing. We’ve been working exclusively on this one neighborhood, Sunset Valley for the last few years. It’s bigger and richer than anything we’ve made before. We really just wanted to make something that would blow people away, and we wanted to do more with the town than we have in the past.

No two towns will ever be the same after one generation in The Sims 3. As I mentioned, every Sim has complete AI throughout their life, so you’ll see people grow up, go to school, fall in love, get married, get jobs, move out, have families, grow old and pass away. It’s also possible to change all of the Sims in your town, so you can fill the town with whoever you like…yourself, your friends, characters from your favorite show, favorite band or sports team, anyone you can imagine…you get the point.

17. We understand that every Sim has a dream that can be fulfilled as part of a lifetime achievement goal. What are some examples of lifetime achievements, and what happens when you reach it? What if you fail?

Just like people, The Sims have wishes. Some of their wishes are really big and we call those Lifetime Wishes. A Lifetime Wish is a really big achievement like becoming a rock star, raising a huge family, getting rich or becoming an astronaut. Along the way to achieving your lifetime wish, you’ll fulfill smaller wishes. As you fulfill a Sim’s wishes, you earn points that can be used to purchase special Traits and reward objects that are generally hilarious and awesome. There really is no way to fail in the game, but you can make some really funny things happen if you want to cause trouble for your Sims.

18. How much dedication does it take to reach the pinnacle of your respective career ladder? Are there any shortcuts to the top?

If you play your cards right, you might be able to get to the top of more than one career in a lifetime, but it would take a lot of hard work and your Sim would need the right traits. Workaholic Sims will be happy if they live at the office, so that might be a good way to go. There are definitely some shortcuts, and your Sims will get Opportunities from time to time that give them a boost.

19. Plenty of open-ended moral choices will pop up in The Sims 3, like giving you the choice to skim off the top of campaign contributions in the political career. Give us some more examples of these moral choices depending on your career. What are the consequences of such decisions?

The game is full of moral choices. Some of them are presented to the player as career Opportunities. I don’t want to give too much away on this subject. A lot of the moral choices in the game come from the social simulator, and this is where the game becomes so compelling. A lot of players use the game to explore moral questions in their own lives. It’s sort of a “what if” simulator. For example, your Sim can choose to Whoohoo at work, but if they get caught then both Sims run out of the office naked. Now, that could be a lesson you don’t want to learn in the real world!

20. What can you tell us about the community features and sharing options players can use to build and share with their friends and with the larger Sims fanbase?

The Sims 3 players will have unprecedented freedom to customize the look of their game. A player with creative aspirations and no technical training or knowledge can make changes to the look of just about everything in their Sims life, right in the game. We call the technology Create A Style. In the past, fans made their creations outside of the game and then shared them on the exchange. We wanted to give the power that our artists have to the players.

The process of getting creations online is easier than ever. The Sims 3 launcher helps you install and manage custom content so that you don’t have to hunt around for directories or anything like that.

Finally, The Sims 3 community is completely new and there are some incredible tools, including a web-based video editing tool so that players can make movies from the videos they capture in the game.

21. As in The Sims 2, throwing parties is all the rage in The Sims 3. What are the different party types available depending on your career?

There are new party types in The Sims 3, but there are also some pretty cool locations to party with your friends. If you want to call your friends down to the beach and set up an afternoon BBQ, you can do that. Break out your guitar, turn on the radio, call up some friends and chill out. If you’re a rising politician, you can throw campaign fundraisers to build up your campaign fund as well.

22. Please give us an update on the game. What aspects is the team working on at the moment?

A lot of our time is spent playing and perfecting the open, living neighborhood and all of the gameplay that takes place there. In The Sims 3, we’re opening up the other half of life that players have always wanted to explore. What happens when you’re not stuck at home? It’s been a huge undertaking for us, but we’re very happy with the way it’s working out.

One example of the work we’re doing is the AI behind the people who live in your town. You control a household of Sims, but all of the other Sims in your town live and develop as you play. It takes an impressive amount of tuning to make this work just right. I think that people are used to seeing lots of other characters in a game world, but they’ve never seen a game world where every character is being motivated by unique personality traits and motives like The Sims 3. Another thing we’re working on is a feature called Create A Style which allows players to customize just about everything, from clothing to furniture to cars. We want players to be able to change the game like our artists can. The interface is really powerful and we want to make it perfect.

23. We’re sure The Sims 2 community was very vocal about what it wanted from a sequel. What were the most popular requests that fans made for The Sims 3?

We’re all fans of The Sims, and a lot of our team worked on The Sims and The Sims 2, so player feedback is built into our team. We also spend a lot of time interacting with members of The Sims community around the world. I don’t think the game would be what it is without The Sims community. Fans have always wanted more interaction with a community of Sims. If you think about it, The Sims is the most detailed depiction of contemporary life to be presented in a work of fiction, but half of life was missing. In The Sims 3, we’ll let you explore the other half of life that happens when you are not at home.

24. As players create their Sims, they will now be able to select five personality traits that will help define their dispositions. How will this new system let players create characters with more-defined personalities…and more importantly, how will it do a better job of letting players re-create the personalities of themselves, their friends, or their favorite celebrities? What are some extreme personalities we’ll see in The Sims 3?

There are over 70 personality traits that players can choose from. When you choose traits they are represented as a simple word that you might use to describe someone you know, so it’s easy to understand what they will do in the game. What makes traits so powerful is that they can change the game in profound ways. You’ll see different behaviors, interactions, advantages and goals depending on the traits that your Sims have. Just to name a few examples of more extreme traits, you can let your Sims be Insane, Evil, Kleptomaniac, Paranoid, Brave, Hates Kids, Genius and more…

Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack Press Release

Judhudson — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:10:06 GMT

Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack Brings Horror and Humor to Spore Fans Worldwide This Week

EMERYVILLE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Will your creatures be creepy or cute, full of humor or horror? The choice is now in the hands of Spore™ and Spore Creature Creator* players! Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS - News) and Maxis today announced that Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack has shipped and will be available at retailers worldwide this week. Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack marks the first add-on that will grow and evolve the critically-acclaimed video game, Spore.

“As the Sporepedia continues to grow, Spore fans have been craving even more creative tools to play with,” said Lucy Bradshaw, executive producer of Spore and general manager, Maxis. “Maxis is committed to cultivating the most enriched experience possible for Spore players and the Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack is the first step in achieving this. Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack allows players to give distinct personality to their creatures like never before. We’re very excited to see where gamers take this whimsical content.”

Available for $19.99 (MSRP) for PC and MAC®, Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack expands the world of the ground-breaking video game, Spore, bygiving players even more tools to unleash their creativity. Fans can play with more than 100 new components to create any creature they desire – from grotesque creatures with tuberous eyes and thorny armor plates to cartoon-style characters with big eyelashes. Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack will include 60 new creature parts, 48 new paint options and 24 new animations – including the robot, hoe-down, moonwalk and more!

Recently distinguished as one of TIME magazine’s “Best Inventions of the Year,” Spore gives players their own personal universe in a box. Create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe filled with creations made by other gamers. Spore gives players a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even spaceships.

To download a free trial of the Spore Creature Creator, please visit www.spore.com. For screen shots or more information about Spore, please visit our press web site at http://info.ea.com.

*Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack requires Spore or the full version of Spore Creature Creator.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world’s leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA SPORTS Freestyle™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle, POGO, Spore and Sporepedia are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Mac is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

Not-so-new Sims 3 Blog post: Careers and Opportunities

Judhudson — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 11:30:21 GMT

Unlimited Sims has informed me that Maxis has released one of their VIP blogposts to the public yesterday regarding Ray Mazza speaking about Careers and Oppurtunities.* Chances are, many of you have already read it using the VIP code from last month, but just in case you haven’t, you can now find it posted for the public.

First, you’ll have many of your favorite careers from The Sims 2 such as the Law Enforcement and Athletic tracks. Of course, there will also be some new ones! With the debut of the Journalism career, your Sim will get to exercise their charisma skill by writing superior reviews of Sunset Valley locales and potentially become a star news anchor!

Your Sims can look for these jobs in the newspaper or apply right at the building where they’d like to work. If you want them to be musicians, head down to the theater to join up and then maybe stay for a show afterwards!

However, if you’re the type who likes to make a living at home selling paintings or growing fruit and vegetables and you want to pull in a little extra cash on the side — you can! Just swing by the local grocery store or day spa and sign up for a part-time job, complete with perks such as discounted ingredients and complimentary massages!

rest can be read here

2008 Southern California Firestorms

ManagerJosh — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:07:26 GMT

Hey Everyone:

I thought I'd give a small team update since we're dealing with Firestorms again in SoCal. Let me first say where we call headquarters for WorldSims and Urban Online Entertainment is in no immediate danger, however we are nervous to say the least. At one point Saturday evening, we could see the orange glow of the fire on the horizon from my window.

All team members (bleriotusa, hayclian, djizzle, waynelinazn, whereinfinityend and myself) are fine as we are more west of the fire, but we're not out of the clear yet.

Currently the fire that poses a danger would be what they're calling the "Triangle Complex Fire". While the fire is blowing away from us, our concerns are if it suddenly reverses direction, we would be required to evacuate.

Our attention is focused currently on Saturday, but we're occasionally glancing at another computer screen for the latest news.

We'll let you know if any other major developments occur.

Pictures and Other Data

Soren Johnson (Spore programmer) shares his thoughts on used videogames

Judhudson — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:41:42 GMT

By opening up retail sales to a larger segment of the market, used game sales mean that more people are playing our games than would be in a world without them. Beyond the obvious advantages of bigger community sizes and word-of-mouth sales, a larger player base can benefit game developers who are ready to earn secondary income from their games. In-game ads are one source of this additional revenue, but the best scenario is downloadable content. A used copy of Rock Band may go through several owners, but each one of them may give Harmonix money for their own personal rights to “Baba O’Riley” or “I Fought the Law”. Further, a move is currently underway by companies such as Epic and EA to give special bonuses only to consumers who buy the game new. For example, every new copy of NBA Live 09 will include a code redeemable for the NBA Live 365 service, which provides daily stat updates for players over the course of the season. Purchasers of used copies need to fork over $20 for the same feature. This situation actually means that the more times the game is resold, the better it is for EA’s bottom line.

If you’ve been following various video game news sites, you often see more and more articles on game developers crying over used copies.* Luckily, Soren is not one of those people!* I, myself love the used games in GameStop.* It’s how I do most of my game shopping used unless the game is a must have (Dead Space is my recent new-retail purchase).* But I do have to say their trade-in values suck!

You can read what else Soren has to say over at Soren Johnson’s Game Design Journal