A student life

Its here!!
your sims can now go to university with Sims 3 University Life, coming to our games this March 8th (March 5th US).

The game promises to provide us with all that we love from the previous University expansion and more! I personally can't wait to get this pack and I will be getting my hands on it on release date.

The main campus

Now for the finer points. Sims aged Young Adult, Adult or Elder can all go to University so send the whole family if you like, The Sim University is based off of England style architecture (nice to see a little nod to my country there) and is an entirely new world that offers as much as you can think of. Sims can either rent a house or dorm up with some other sims if they wish. Sims renting can advertise for room mates to live with  to help play for rent. If you choose to put your sims in a dorm they can stay in a dorm they will stay with a bunch of other sims on campus. There is a new social group mechanic that allow sims to become popular and network with friends to get a step up in a career.
The Majors that each sim can take are:

• Business
• Technology
• Science and medicine
• Free Arts
• Physical Education

You can enrol in these diplomas via the phone or computer and choose you amount of terms and credits. Before hand a University mascot will show up on your home lot and drop off a welcome kit, from this you can find out about the university, grab some free gifts and take an aptitude test that will determine your sim's funding and recommended diploma (by using current skills, relationships, job and traits of your sims). Each diploma will give your sims a leg up in their desired carers allowing them to enter at a highler level and get a pay rise. While your sims are at university your home life will slow down so by the time your sims return nothing, or at least not much, will have changed.

Coffee shop YAY! 

Each diploma provides the sims with their own study equipment allowing them to study away from class. Classes are (as far as I know) rabbit holes. In your sims free time they can study, hang out at the new coffee shop, comic book store, burger bar and student union or they can throw wild parties with their friends and utilise the new items like juice kegger and bonfire.

University Life looks like a great expansion and more will be revealed soon
fo now check out this video for a look at a playthrough of University Life: http://www.livestream.com/electronicarts/video?clipId=pla_0c085188-34e7-4f0c-b839-3c4b819ff650

Sunlit boulevard

Today the sims 3 store released the latest in its long line of new worlds available to download

Sunlit Tides is an island paradise full of spars beaches and sea. All houses have a beautiful view of the ocean or lagoon and are decorated in Hawaiian/Tiki decor.

Exclusive items that come along with this world are:

The Steam It Up Sauna a full bath bench combo, that allows your sims to steam themselves and relax.
The Paradise Retreat Canopy Bed, a four poster light cotton bed perfect for those war summer nights
Tropical Mailbox for when that ordinary mailbox is too boring

new outfits and accessories plus some new build items are also included in the pack.

When you buy the gold version you receive a unique community lot Serenity Retreat, The Infinity Massage Table, The Tropical Aquarium, plus new plants, curtains, chairs and wedding arch.

Sunlit Tides is available for download on the sims 3 store now for a discount price* of 3,700 sim points
check it out at The Sims 3 Store

* offer ends 07/09/12 normal price is 4,350 sim points

Origin at Gamescom

At this years Gamescom event we sadly saw the absence of both Nintendo and Microsoft (awww!) but luckily Origin (Powered By EA) were there to fill our heads with tantalising new gaming revolutions (Yaaay!)

Origin showcased a wide array of new games that we have seen before at events like E3, plus a boat load of new strategy and shooters to get you hard core gamers all exited! For us mild-minded folk Origin still provided for our gaming needs
We were treated to some sweet demo action of The Sims 3 Supernatural and The Sims 3 Seasons.  As a big sims 3 fan I was quite exited about this and quickly logged on to check it out. I managed to catch a live interview with some of the Sims 3 team demonstrating the two games.

in Sims 3 Supernatural we were shown the new Create A Sim mode that comes with Supernatural, you can now start your sim off as a regular sim, a vampire, a witch, a ghost (with choice of death), a fairy or a werewolf (there is also the blanked out option of genie so it seems that this may also be a life state for the sims). Each life state comes with cool new outfits and new skin tone options to give you vampires extra paleness and your witches green wickedness! We also saw the introduction of the lunar cycle that will greatly influence the supernatural activity in your town. During the full moon the supernatural activity will be at its peak, meaning that werewolves will transform, zombies will start rising and all sorts of magical things will begin. You are able to control the lunar cycle in the options menu and the amount of supernatural activities that occur at the different moon states.

There was also the revelation of different elixirs that can refill a witches magic metre, allow vampires to go out in the sun and revert zombies back to sims. Witches can use a range of charms like Ice Blast to freeze things and a Sun Charm to cure zombification. They can also use curses to set things on fire and blow up objects (wheres the fun with out an explosion?). Lastly they can use incantations that let them move objects around the house and convert collectibles into usefully materials.Witches can duel with other witches using all the spells they have learnt. we also found Werewolves can travel in packs and hang out for werewolves to go during a full moon. 

Stay tuned for a full post on the whole of Supernatural including the lowdown on the new world: Moonlight Falls.

I was really happy with the announcement of Sims 3 Seasons so i was really looking forward to gamescom this year and I wasn't disappointed. As of yet I don't believe we get a new town with seasons but this expansion applies over all towns from expansion packs and the store so its all good!

During the demo we were shown a summer in sunset valley, beach party, summer festival, its all good. Its now revealed that we will be able to let our sims swim in the sea and use items like lilos to relax on the water. Tanning booths are also on the beach in summer allowing you to get that healthy summer glow (or very interesting tan patterns if it goes wrong). Food booths selling seasonal foods are stationed around town to stop your sims going hungry, and new recipes like pumpkin pie are also available to make at home. At the end of the of the season the season festival will be in the park including events like hot dog eating, trick or treating and roller skating (ice skating in winter). You can control the length of the seasons and the weather types in the option menu including thunder storms, heat waves, snow, hail and rain. Using the "testingcheatsenabled true" cheat you can choose the weather you want and change the season. The designers have really gone all out designing the weather. After snow falls for a certain amount of time the houses get covered in snow and the ground gets a thick blancket of white all over it, plus when the temperature is low enough, all bodies of water will freeze. During a heat wave your sims are susceptible to sun burn and the whole town is covered in a heat haze, and when it rains people put up umbrellas (often resulting in a very amusing lightning strike animation).

A huge range of new seasonal outfits are included with the expansion as are a boat load of new ice furniture and a new community lot the Ice : lounge

Look out for the full preview coming soon.