January 2004

SimGlobal sets up RSS feed... -- Posted by Cameron on Thursday, January 29, 2004

Thanks to the incredible expandability of Coranto (our news posting app), we have now set up an RSS feed which includes all of our SimGlobal, SimCity, The Sims, The Sims 2 and Mac news. Set up for the "Latest News" section at SimGames.net, we offer anyone to use our news feed on their site for up-to-date and accurate Sim news.

More BAT Buildings! -- Posted by Matej on Thursday, January 29, 2004

SimGlobal affiliate SimCity Central has posted two new buildings made in BAT for download. SimCity Central was chosen by Maxis as a beta tester of the BAT utility, and as you can see by the buildings they made, its going to be a powerful utility.

The Sims 2 Delayed -- Posted by Matej on Wednesday, January 28, 2004

EA announced yesterday that The Sims 2 will be delayed until at least July of 2004. Citing the need to perfect the game, EA financial officer said the release will be later than anticipated. The article is here. In related news, EA stock fell from $49.42 to $45.50 following the announcment of the delay.

Maxis Teases Fans, BAT's coming along -- Posted by Matej on Tuesday, January 27, 2004

The SimCity team seems to think its fun to tease those of us less fortunate, and has therefore released four landmarks created by BAT. The landmarks can be downloaded here, and are a look into things yet to come. But when is BAT coming out? Maxis still has no answer...

SimSational radio takes off... -- Posted by Cameron on Sunday, January 25, 2004

A pioneer in the field of Sim websites, SimSational's newly christened radio service has hit the airwaves. You can find it at http://www.radio.simsational.co.uk. Although there were a few technical problems, Chris has worked them out and is now serving up Sims news and tunes. You can even request a song here or if you have a Sim fansite that want to place a free ad, send the file or script over to advertising@radio.simsational.co.uk.

Luc Barthelet chat... -- Posted by Cameron on Tuesday, January 20, 2004

This Thursday at 3PM PST you can speak with Luc Barthelet, General Manager for The Sims 2 on TheSims.com. TheSims.com recommends you "Hit those French books," so perhaps if you ask you questions in French, Luc will be more willing to answer them ;-).

The Sims 2 page updates... -- Posted by Cameron on Saturday, January 17, 2004

We have just updated The Sims 2 media page with tons of The Sims 2 vidoes for downloading or viewing. You can check them all out on The Sims 2 media page. If you have or know of a The Sims 2 video, please send us the link to globalfiles@simglobal.net.

We also just added a heap of links to some of the latest The Sims 2 previews from game sites all around the web- check them out here.


The Sims Online far from utopia... -- Posted by Cameron on Friday, January 16, 2004

The Independent, a UK news source, has a very interesting article about The Sims Online focusing on the expulsion of Professor Peter Ludlow, creator of The Alphaville Herald. The paper brought up questions about the type of place The Sims Online was becoming, with various crime syndicates, scam-artists and other undesirable behaviors, which EA has been attempting to suppress. You can read the full article here.

A second article over at Boston.com from the Boston Globe details the very criminal activites that Professor Ludlow was thrown out of The Sims Online for reporting. The article, Justice has its price in Sim world, details the Sim Mafia.


SimCity 4 BAT down the road... -- Posted by Cameron on Wednesday, January 14, 2004

We can finally confirm that SimCity 4 BAT is on its way with news from SimCity Central that several Pre-Release copies have been handed to out to some of the very talented SimCity graphics artists out there. You can check out the SimCity Central thread for more details, or the related Simtropolis thread.

SimCity 2000 Demo download... -- Posted by Cameron on Wednesday, January 14, 2004

In an effort to revive our non-existant classic sections, we are now offering the SimCity 2000 Demo for download on our SimCity 2000 page. The download is only 1.6mb and is a great piece of Maxis history for those newer The Sims and SimCity 4 players.

The Sims Bustin' Out updates... -- Posted by Cameron on Wednesday, January 14, 2004

Get ready to talk to Virginia McArthur and Scot Amos, Producers of The Sims Bustin' Out, on Thursday at 3PM PST at TheSims.com.

Along with The Sims Bustin' Out for all consoles, Nokia and Electronic Arts have struck a deal to bring The Sims Bustin' Out to the Nokia N-Gage cell phone gaming platform. A few details from the Nokia Press Release-

"The Sims Bustin' Out brings a new genre of gaming to the mobile space and will have gameplay features that take advantage of the N-Gage platform. The Sims Bustin' Out is planned to be available on the N-Gage game deck in the first half of 2004."


ActionTrip.com Exclusive screens... -- Posted by Cameron on Sunday, January 11, 2004

Now at ActionTrip.com you can find a full The Sims 2 Preview as well as several exclusive in games shots- check them out here.

Mac Sims updates... -- Posted by Cameron on Saturday, January 10, 2004

Aspyr has just announced that i5works, the same company that ported SimCity 4 to Mac will be porting SimCity 4's expansion pack, Rush Hour, to Mac as well. So far the only release date given is "later this year".

Along with that, The Sims Makin Magic for Mac is coming along nicely and is currently in the Beta stage and is slated for a January release according to the Aspyr website.


Will Wright Chat for SimCity.com members... -- Posted by Cameron on Tuesday, January 6, 2004

On Thursday you will have the chance to ask Will Wright your best SimCity questions at SimCity.com. The chat beginning at 3pm PST will last for one hour and be exclusively for SimCity.com users. This chat is probably only for SimCity players as a recent TheSims.com excluded SimCity users.

UPDATE: The chat transcript is now up and can be found at SimCity.com.


New Maxis website up... -- Posted by Cameron on Sunday, January 4, 2004

Not since before The Sims have we seen a Maxis website, however it has finally returned. While it isn't like the original Maxis website, the new site boasts a job section in search of new Maxis employees as well as an About Maxis timeline. You can find the new website at its old name, Maxis.com

SimGlobal sans banner... -- Posted by Cameron on Sunday, January 4, 2004

As you may have noticed we have lost the banner ad thanks to SimGames.net new choice for advertising. Instead of a banner ad with pop-ups, we are testing an only pop-ups solution. While still a bit annoying, this eliminates being doubly bombarded by the banner and pop-ups. If you don't want the pop-ups interrupting you viewing of SimGlobal, then I recommend trying the Mozilla browser which can create tabs for the pop-ups rather than having them plaster across your screen like in Internet Explorer.

The Sims 2 Release Date... -- Posted by Cameron on Friday, January 2, 2004

Recently we have had quite a few emails asking about the release date for The Sims 2. After doing a little snooping around, the date has been pinned down to somewhere in March 2004, however an exact date still eludes us. Amazon.com reports that the game will be released on March 15th on their The Sims 2 page. However, EBGames expects a release of March 29th on their The Sims 2 pages. It is probably that the EBGames date is the accurate one as release dates are rarely moved to earlier dates.

New SimCity 3000 Buildings up... -- Posted by Cameron on Thursday, January 1, 2004

We have just added 12 new SimCity 3000 buildings from several builders who have sent us these buildings over the past year. Check out all of the user buildings here.