Maxis announced today that The Sims 2 has gone gold, meaning that it is now being sent out for CD and DVD replication and should be available in stores by September 17.

In order to make room for The Sims 2, EA has an excellent deal going on for the original Sims. From July 27th to September 25 any copy of The Sims or one its expansion packs can snag you another copy! Full detials can be found on the Rebate PDF. So, if there are any The Sims players out there who still need a couple of expansion packs, you can get one free for a limited time!

The Mac News Network recently reported here that SimCity Rush Hour for Mac has hit the Beta stage. In June, Mac SimCity players were asked by Inside Mac Games and i5Works what Mac specific features they would like to see implemented. Although we don't have word on exactly what to expect, you can see what everyone requested here.

Teen People and EA have teamed up to introduce the "Live the Young Hollywood Life" sweepstakes, which you can enter here. Here are the details from the sweepstakes site-

Enter for your chance to WIN an amazing trip for 2 to L.A. including: Airfare, hotel, dinner at a hip Hollywood hangout, and a shopping spree at one of Hollywood’s hottest boutiques!

Plus, ten runner-ups will receive a The Sims™ 2 prize package including a copy of The Sims™ 2 game and an official The Sims™ 2 T-shirt!

We have just recieved word from InSims.de of their newly composed The Sims 2 video which gives a great preview of The Sims 2 from television footage. You can download the zipped up WMV file here.

Right now the official SimCity, The Sims and The Sims 2 sites all appear to be down. This seems to be more of some server crash then mass updates, perhaps there was some sort of hack. Hopefully the servers should be later up today, however we will have to wait and see.