When EA released The Sims 3 earlier this year, one of the major criticisms reviewers leveled at the game was that it lacked content found in The Sims 2. The concern was that Electronic Arts was holding content back so they could charge for it in future expansions. As it turns out, the first Sims 3 expansion pack does indeed have a great deal in common with The Sims 2: Bon Voyage. However, World Adventures expands on many of the original game’s ideas with new environments, quests, and other perks, making for a satisfying refresh of the original game.
The Sims team has built upon the Bon Voyage experience in a couple significant ways. You now visit France, Egypt, and China, as opposed to the Sims 2’s generic Beach, Woodland, and Far East, and it’s also possible to go on adventures instead of just tours. You accept quests through a message board located in front of your Sims’ hotel, which usually involve venturing into a dangerous cave, temple, or tomb. It takes several in-game days to complete each quest, but the substantial rewards make it worthwhile.
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On Monday, 1UP got a brand-new DSi XL (or rather, DSi LL, as it’s imported from Japan) in the office, and after the shock wore off from the sheer size of it, we got to picture-taking. Here’s a quick look at the XL (and its 4.2″ screens) compared to some other popular electronics. (The photo above shows the American DSi box compared to the almost pizza box-sized package the DSi XL comes in.)
DSi XL versus the regular DSi and a PSP Go
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College basketball has consistently played second fiddle to the NBA in videogames, with releases full of similar feature sets often a year or two behind their “professional” counterparts. This year’s NCAA Basketball 10, developed by EA Canada, does a great deal, to buck that tradition, mirroring NBA Live 10’s gameplay so perfectly that it’s a bit uncanny; it’s like The Talented Mr. Ripley with basketball instead of Jude Law and Matt Damon.
NCAA 10, like NBA Live 10, delivers a completely revamped shooting system that relies on one button to both attempt field goals and dunk. This system feels fluid and makes me wonder why it’s taken so long for EA to make the change; gone are the awkward lay-ups from three-point land and jumpers from inside the paint. And the on-the-fly play calling is great for setting screens and moving players into position to make baskets efficiently.
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Live TV by Ustream
Time: Tuesday, November 24, 2009, 5 p.m. PST
Location: Watch the embedded video player above.
Questions: Submit your question(s) in our Game Night message board thread.
On the next Game Night, Area 5’s Cesar Quintero joins us as we try to ollie, kickflip, and nollie in Tony Hawk Ride. Curious about the wireless skateboard peripheral? Watch the live stream to see how it works!
We record Game Night live every Tuesday at 5 p.m. PST, and welcome thoughts and comments on our message board or Twitter account. A recorded version of the show will go up Wednesday afternoon on GameVideos, and for past Game Night episodes check out 1UP’s Game Night hub page.
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We know more “Hero” games are on the way, but Activision may have another revenue stream in the works for their popular music franchise. A wide-ranging Seattle Times interview (via Plastic Axe) with Red Octane co-founder Kai Huang turned toward the question of a monthly subscription service for the game’s downloadable content. “That’s definitely one of the things we would love to do,” Huang said. “There are a lot of issues around music licensing. Customers want it; I know I want it. We’re trying to make that happen.”
A subscription-based service like Rhapsody would certainly be a big win for the franchise if priced right, providing fans with a large catalog of playable tracks while giving the company a consistent revenue stream. The statement that they’re already looking into it suggests the possibility, though Huang was right to point out that such a setup runs into difficulties when it comes to getting the rights from musicians. Still, we’d be curious to see what kind of monthly fee would be deemed appropriate for all-you-can-eat Guitar Hero DLC.
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As if PSP Go owners didn’t already have a raw enough deal — having to pay a premium for that sliding screen, being unable to play UMDs, and not having access to the entire PSP games catalog — they’ve been unable to enjoy Little Big Planet PSP since its planned release last week due to some technical difficulties in releasing the game on the PlayStation Store. Whereas the UMD version made it to stores fine, enabling anyone with a pre-Go PSP to play the game, Go owners have been waiting patiently for Sony and Media Molecule to fix the problem. Finally, a week after release (in what worked out to be a week-long exclusive for retail), the game will be released on the PlayStation Store sometime tomorrow.
Whether you pick up the downloadable version tomorrow or already have the UMD, an update is now available for the game that improves the “performance of some of the physics and tools in the Create mode.” Updates aren’t something we’ve really seen in the past on PSP, so if you’re wondering just how to go about downloading the new update, you’ll want to highlight the LBP icon in the XMB, press the triangle button, and then select ‘update.’
Has the delay put a sour taste in anyone’s mouth that planned on picking up LBP PSP, or will you still buy the game as soon as it’s available on the PlayStation Store? Let us know in the comments below.
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The last time I watchedCommand & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, I was filled with so many questions: will it still feel like Command & Conquer? What’s with the class system? How will it actually play out? With the game now in closed beta (if you want a shot in, you should have snagged a Premium Edition of Red Alert 3), I finally get a chance to play the game and see exactly how all the quirky systems in C&C4 work together.
First, I play the same mission that executive producer Mike Glosecki showed me, but in a more polished state. The premise is pretty straightforward: go secure some designated control points, and then defend a fixed location from an imminent attack. But boy, there’re quite a few changes to the fundamental gameplay to get adjusted to. First off, the interface, like in C&C Generals, abandons the sidebar model (used for Red Alert 3 and previous canon C&C titles) and adopts a more bottom-centric design, a la StarCraft and most modern RTS titles — and that’s the least of the changes to get used to. The first major change that I have to contend with is the economy model.
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Be warned: The video above features a song with some language that I might describe as “saucy,” and certainly qualifies as not safe for work.
With Pandemic Studios being shut down last week, several now-former employees of the Mercenaries and Saboteur developer decided to make a parting video. Anyone who has ever seen Office Space will immediately recognize the Geto Boys song and understand the motivation behind what’s going on: All those years of frustration caused by a crappy printer or copy machine are finally able to vent through a savage beating of said device — with a baseball bat, crowbar, and sledgehammer, of course.
Potential (or inevitable) copyright infringement claims aside, this video seems like the perfect way to go out. This is likely the only good thing to come out of the Pandemic closure; as we noted the first time around, our best wishes go out to all of the Pandemic employees who lost their jobs. It’s always unfortunate when people lose their jobs, but even more so when it happens during the holidays.
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Thursday of this week is turkey day in the U.S., and Nintendo’s accompanying downloads definitely bring plenty of goods for us to digest with a total of 13 new downloads. For WiiWare, we have Bit.Trip Void for 600 Wii Points ($6), the latest in Aksys Games’ line of retro-inspired arcade shooters. Also available are Harvest Moon: My Little Shop for 1,200 points ($12), which seems to have the features of your typical Harvest Moon game at a downloadable price. Little Tournament Over Yonder for 800 points ($8) is a 1-2 player real-time-strategy game. Finally, Learning with the PooYoos: Episode 1 is an Early Childhood game for 500 Wii Points, targeted at teaching numbers, letters, and shapes for ages 3-6.
As promised, Super Mario Kart from the heady days of the Super NES hits for 800 Wii Points. This is the title that went on to spark the well-known series. Also gracing the Virtual Console is A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia, the NES classic that inspired a recent reimagining on the Wii. It’s a pretty brutal puzzle game that can be braved for 500 Wii Points ($5).
DSiWare brings its own collection of downloadable games and applications. Castle of Magic from Gameloft is an adventure title that lets you take pictures using the DSi camera and integrate them into the game, available for 500 DSi Points. myNotebook: Blue for 200 DSi Points ($2) is a notepad and doodling application. And again, the DS game Electroplankton has been split into various parts for 200 points each: Luminarrow, Sun-Animalcule, Lumiloop, Marine-Crystals, and Varvoice.
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StarCraft II will finally be released in 2010, but Diablo III won’t be joining it. In fact, it might not even make it out in 2011. Blizzard executive video president of game design Rob Pardo admitted that such delays were par for course for the developer, saying that they always announce their games “too early.”
“We always announce all of our games too early,” Pardo told Techland.
“We realize that and go, ‘You know what? Next time we’re not going to do that.’ And then we always fail at that. But I’d rather fail at that than fail at making the game great. I think it’s safe to say that, yeah, [Diablo III] is not going to be out next year.”
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