March 2008

worthplaying.com has an interesting post with some further details relating to the upcoming Sims 3:

My name is Ben and I’m an Executive Producer on The Sims 3. The last few years have been exciting for me personally. Since joining The Sims Label at EA, I’ve had the opportunity to work on dream projects such as The Sims 2 Pets, and The Sims 2 Castaway. However, things are about to get very exciting and I’m so happy to be sharing this news with you.

Ben goes on to say

The first thing you’ll notice about The Sims 3 is that the Sims now live in a completely seamless, living neighborhood. This means that they can walk next door, walk down the street, drive to the center of town, stroll through the park, and explore everything without ever encountering a load screen. Wherever you go in your town, you will see other Sims going about their daily lives. You’ll discover new things about the community that your Sims live in, and you will have the chance to participate whenever and wherever you like. As a player, this is an incredible innovation for me because now I can see what my neighbors are up to all of the time and go interact with them. Or if I am feeling devious I can peek through the window and spy on their every move. I can even shoot across town to see what the other families in my town are doing, any time of day or night. It’s an entirely new way to play with your Sims!

This sounds like a significant and welcome addition. I always felt pretty isolated (game wise) being confined the way I was whilst playing.

You can read the full post here.

It had to happen. We’ve had pet sims for the Nintendo DS (cats and dogs) for a while, so it was only a matter of time before someone came up with the idea of a Baby Simulator! Cravegames has done just that with the release of Baby Pals for the Nintendo DS.

Welcome to the online home of Baby Pals, the game that lets you do all of the fun things real parents do . Baby Pals lets you choose an adorable virtual baby to feed, bathe, play with, entertain and love . You’ll have hours of fun selecting your baby’s name, gender, eye color, skin tone and much more. And if you’re a really good parent, your little one will even love you back! If you like babies, you’ll love Baby Pals.

VSTEP and Philips are to demonstrate Ship Simulator 2008 with amBX at the Amsterdam Boat Show which runs from the 4th to the 9th of March.

Shorthand for “ambient experiences”, amBX reinvents the gameplay experience by extending the traditional gaming world out of the screen and into the real world. amBX delivers full „surround senses‟ by allowing developers to use light, colour, sound, rumble and even air flow through enabled devices, including the Philips amBX PC Gaming Peripherals range of LED colour-controlled lighting, rumble peripherals and variable speed desktop fans.

So, you’ll be able to feel the wind in your face when sailing the seas! This actually sounds like it could be good fun. I would imagine the setup would work pretty well with racing games, too. You can read the full press release here.

ElectroCity is pretty much an eco friendly mini version of Sim City, provided by Genesis Energy. It’s aimed squarely at educating people as to the merits of clean energy.

ElectroCity is a new online computer game that lets players manage their own virtual towns and cities. It’s great fun to play and also teaches players all about energy, sustainability and environmental management in New Zealand.

Sign-up is aimed at teachers, the idea being that once  a student finishes a game, they enter the code supplied to the teacher, who will then receive credit and hopefully some prizes at a later stage.

It’s clear that a lot of work has gone into this “game” and it does seem to be of sound educational benefit.

Online browser based nation building sims seem to be popping up all over the place these days. The latest to hit the web is Cyber Nations.

Create a nation anywhere in the world and decide how you will rule your people by choosing a government type, a national religion, ethnicity, tax rate, currency type, and more in this new geo-political, nation, and government simulator. Build your empire by purchasing infrastructure to support your citizens, land to expand your borders, technology to increase your nation’s effectiveness, military to defend your interests, and develop national improvements and wonders to build your nation according to your choosing.

Interestingly, this one makes use of Google Maps at its core. The game itself looks to be well thought out, although I can’t honestly say I can see anything there that makes it stand out from all the other browser based nation building sims.