Yup that’s right the Sims are coming to facebook, the announcement was made at E3 a couple of weeks ago. EA’s seems to be quite clear about its intentions to go social with plans to convert or shall we say modify many of their existing franchises to be mobile and social compatible. Games like Farmville and Mafia Wars have already tapped into a huge user base for Zygna and EA looks determined to follow.

Although a release date hasn’t formally been announced a facebook fanpage for the game seems to be the first place we’ll probably hear about any major announcements. You can also check out the official announcement trailer below.

So what does everyone else think ? Excited and ready to sign up or a project doomed to fail ?

When you start to see aspects from the Sims creeping into your real life it’s a safe bet that you probably spend way too much time in the game. See how many of the below affect you, you’d be surprised at how many might already apply!

1. You describe your mood in terms of Plumb bob colours
2. You talk to your partner about WooHooing at some point in the future.
3. You use the game to give your children a SexEd lesson
4. You feel amazed when you can go out of your house to the shops without a loading screen.
5. You don’t understand it when people say that they can’t have your house built in about one hour’s time.
6. You notice the absence of a cloud filled with colourful punctuation marks when you fight somebody.
7. You don’t stargaze due to the risk of alien abduction if you use a telescope, or falling Satellites without one.
8. You look for the plus sign about somebody’s head when you chat to them.
9. You also look for the thinking bubble coming out of their head saying whether they find you ‘Okay, Sociable or Friendly’
10. You discribe people in terms of five traits – Sims traits!
11. You plan to automatically deny that you ever married your spouse once they have passed on.
12. You spend 40 minutes in the shower every day, then 30 minutes on the toilet
13. You shake your keys at the car but don’t understand why you haven’t automatically appeared at the wheel.
14. If somebody in the family is a professional chef, you feel really smug whenever you walk past the fridge.
15. You never, EVER get bored of repeats of things on the TV. In fact, you don’t even realise they are repeats. You gain just as much satisfaction every time!
16. When you happen to walk through a churchyard, you look at each stone to see how many lifetime happiness points were earned and what the cause of death was.
17. You wonder why you even need doctors when midwives would suffice. After all, the only time you ever go to hospital is to give birth, right?
18. The threats that you mumble under your breath at your worst enemies are things such as ‘I’m going to lock lock you in a room, remove the door and start a fire” or “I’m going to push you into a swimming pool and build walls around it.”
19. If somebody tells a really good joke, you are still laughing about it until three hours later when the feeling stops immediately.
20. If you work in Business, you go to your boss, demanding a raise of £/$750 for each and every meeting you do!
21. If you go out somewhere, looking for a new partner, you scope the room for candidates but are startled that not one person in the room glows a dazzling white! (Inspired by Mystic)
22. You scratch your head in wonder when you try and get a massive three seater sofa through a small door and it won’t fit. Why are they even moving it? ‘Can’t they just plonk it in?’ you think
23. Your car speedometer doesn’t give a reading in Miles or kilometres per hour, but instead tells you whether you are going at speed 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10. And no matter how fast you are, you’re never over or under the limit
24. You fully believe, and won’t be told otherwise, that an astronaut can head off on a mission into space at 9:00 and do loads of high-paid, useful work and be back by 3:00 the next morning.
25. You stop by your local graveyard at midnight in the hope of catching a deathfish. Even if there is no water at the graveyard. To people who wonder why you have a fishing rod at a cemetery, you simply mutter ‘the spawner is close. CLOSE I SAY!’
26. And finally, your ultimate plot to kill your nemesis was to crash the computer, urinate on the floor around it and ask them to repair it. You went around the corner and wait for the sizzle and scream that meant electrocution

Hope you found this funny. Leave a comment to show your appreciation, and I’ll be sure to add any good ideas to the list.

Installation Instructions
1. Download the item you would like using the link below.
2. Double-click the file on your computer to install it via the game launcher.

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It was confirmed that The Sims 3 would be the first Electronic Arts title to benefit from this agreement which was perhaps the obvious choice for both companies – but this will not occur until early 2010.

When the time comes, Dr Pepper related downloads are expected to be added to The Sims 3 Store on the official The Sims 3 website. Despite being added to the store, the items are expected to be free of charge and not sold in exchange for Sim Points – the currency used to purchase items from the store by The Sims 3 owners.

Also some unlockable downloads are expected to be made available too, which will only be accessible by obtaining codes from special promotional Dr Pepper cans and packs before entering them online to receive the downloads.

What kind of downloads we will see exactly remains to be seen, but perhaps the most likely would be a Dr Pepper vending machine! We would expect to see some kind of Dr Pepper cooler/refridgerator, too, amongst the exclusive downloads.

Discuss the Dr Pepper agreement on our forums

Though no official word has been revealed by Electronic Arts themselves at this stage, the rumours have become increasingly strong as the day has progressed and this is quite often a sign of a true word which was somehow leaked from a reliable source – unfortunately at this stage our only source are the whispers within the fans community and in particular some interesting content we came across at Gamespot earlier today.

One french retailer are so convinved that this expansion will prove to be real, they have already added it to their online store and have stated a November 2009 release date. Perhaps they know something that we don’t.

What will The Sims 3 Destination Adventure be all about then? Obviously until the game itself is officially confirmed, anyone who suggests they know are blatant liars, but we are all free to speculate.

The name, The Sims 3 Destination Adventure, to us suggests that it will involve the addition of new locations that your sims will be able to travel to by breaching out of Sunset Valley, or Riverview if that’s where you prefer to spend your simming time – though we would expect it to be something different to the old Vacation and Bon Voyage expansions that we saw for The Sims and The Sims 2.

Share your thoughts on The Sims 3 Destination Adventure

People are qeued outside stores across the United States right now waiting to get their hands on their copy of The Sims 3, a moment they have been anticipating so anxiously for so long with the rest of us. Many stores are believed to have opened their doors early this morning to compensate for the incredibly high demand for The Sims 3, and many also have special ‘let there be sims’ displays setup in-store ready to greet the masses of customers!

This is a great day for The Sims fans, and a great day for the gaming industry in general, not least Electronic Arts. The company have announced a string of quarterly financial losses over the last 12 months and the sales they should generate with copies of The Sims 3, The Sims 3 Collectors Edition and of course sales made in the new The Sims 3 Store on the official website should ease much of their financial pressures which can only mean good things for the future of The Sims series beyond The Sims 3.

Many gamers have to wait another few days for The Sims 3 - those in Europe and Australasia, but the wait is just as exciting over there as it has been in North America and if you are one of those waiting, you can expect the same special treatment from your stores come launch day!

Overnight, many large gaming websites have published their first impressions of The Sims 3. Here are links to a few of our favourites to keep you entertained for a little while if you are waiting for the mailman or couriers to drop off your copy of The Sims 3!

• Gamespot review of The Sims 3
• IGN review of The Sims 3
• EuroGamer review of The Sims 3
• Gamespy review of The Sims 3
• GamePro review of The Sims 3

Let there be Sims!

The Sims 3 is now very close no matter where you live, so the opening of the new look official website is another welcome step in the build up to the day we have all been looking forward to for so long now.

The Sims 3 official website features everything you already saw on the “behind the scenes” version of the website, including all of the information about The Sims 3 game that you could possibly need, the movie mashup and story creating tools as well as directories showcasing those already made by others, and much much more.

Whilst we are on the subject of movie mashups, when the work-in-progress website location was leaked we managed to create one which at the time quickly became the most viewed of all time! We are delighted to see that our mashup is still around, but it’s now sadly lagging a little behind on views – most of those above it are those created at the Creators Camp though so we don’t feel too let down! Visit the following address to view our mashup!

http://www.thesims3.com/contentDetail.html?contentId=512

The new look website also boasts The Sims 3 Exchange where will all be able to download extra stuff for our games created by other players and designers, and also The Sims 3 Store where we can spend our Sim Points on extra items and collection sets.

Head over to the new official The Sims 3 website now, and don’t forget to drop by our profile and drop us a friend request!

Don’t clog up your neighbourhood with rushed, half-finished lots created on release day by downloading lots from the exchange. Instead, pop over to our forums and create your free account to gain access to the Sims 3 Website downloads database where you will only ever find top quality, carefully planned and lovingly created homes and community lots for your sims.

Of course there are no lots there just yet as the game is not officially with us, but we have big ideas ready to be put into action once the game arrives in what is now just a matter of days!

The Sims 3 Website team will be creating a range of homes to suit all family sizes and circumstances, so whatever your preferred way of playing The Sims 3 may be, we will have a home that fit’s into your own little world perfectly.

Register on our forums now for access to our free downloads, and you can also join in the discussions with The Sims 3 fans from across the globe and chat to them live in our real-time chat room – and even play games against them in our arcade!

With The Sims 3 being a game based on a neighbourhood and it’s inhabitants social lives within it, morality was always going to become a talking point and it is that which we want to focus on with you.

In past games in the series we have come across things like alien abductions, the ability to neglect children and babies and as small as it may seem, the ability for your sims to die right in front of your eyes. They may die in a some-what comical way, but the bottom line is they die.

These things have all been questioned by some people in the past – critics from outside the gaming world, critics within the gaming world and most importantly of all, critics from within The Sims fan base itself.

The Sims 3 has introduced us to a new talking point which has had it’s morality questioned – the ability to play as ghosts, and produce ghost babies. Is this another stroke of genius from the creators of The Sims 3 as they attempt to keep the series fresh for us all, or is it simply a step too far into the un-necessary and immoral? Is it actually immoral at all, and if so, why is it?

As active members of the fans community we take part in discussions on many active forums dedicated to The Sims 3. Some people have suggested things which in our minds are far more immoral, such as the ability to terminate pregnancies.

We believe you could also look at things from the other side, too. Is it not immoral that The Sims 3 team have yet again refused to include disabilities in the game? Are fans of the series who happen to have a disability of any kind not being discriminated against by not being represented in the game?

We invite you to debate the issues raised in this article in the Sims 3 Website forums. Please come and express your opinions – they will be listened to and respected.

A post on the forums read:

We are excited to announce that this coming Monday from 11am GMT, you will be able to view the television advertisement for The Sims 3 on Play.com!

This will be the first place in the world that you can see this advert as it won’t be hitting television stations in the UK and US until later that day.

We would love to hear what you think of the advert so please post here and let us know 

Let There Be Sims!

This was brought to our attention by Sims Galore. For those of you who aren’t sure, GMT is the time-zone used in the United Kingdom. The screening of the advert at Play.com will take place in the early hours of the morning for those of you in the United States, between 4am and 5am, depending on which state you live in.

Those people right now are everyone over at EA Germany. Why you ask? They have brought a whole new meaning to living, breathing and eating The Sims 3 – with this wonderful, yet very weird The Sims 3 toaster.

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But little does she know, her perfect world is about to come crash down around her.

Hell on earth begins for Render Girl, starting in June, right here at Sims 3 Website – see our forums for more details.

The Sims 3 will be appearing in over 60 countries worldwide on both the PC and Macintosh platforms. Many had feared that there may be further delays because of an apparant lack of updates coming from EA, but today’s news has put those fears at rest once and for all.

The Sims 3 was originally due for release in February 2009 before a delay was announced, with the reasons for the delay cited as further required marketing on the international stage. Those reasons were never truly believed by some sections of The Sims 3 fan-base, and with the United States being the only place to have witnessed a large-scale marketing campaign for the game, those original delay reasons will be called into question over the next few weeks.

Those grumbles will fade away soon enough though, as there is now very little time before the very anxious and eager Sims 3 public finally get their hands on the game they have all been waiting for.

Yesterday was a remarkable day for The Sims 3 fans all over the world, and for 40 in particular who were lucky enough to attend fan day events at London and Manchester in England where they were among the first people to actually play The Sims 3.

Each of the fans got two hours of gameplay with The Sims 3 and some of them have revealed some new information about the game which has previously not been raised, or at least publically confirmed by The Sims 3 team.

Below is a summary of new information to come out of these fan day events. As these details have been provided by those who attended the events, they should prove a reliable source and you should consider these details as confirmed for The Sims 3 which is due for release on June 2nd 2009 in North America, and follows in the United Kingdom three days later.

The Sims 3 Fan Day Information

• The new Create-A-Sim mode is very easy to use and allows you to create highly personalised sims in as little as ten minutes. 
• Graphics are vastly improved over The Sims 2 as expected, and apparantly match the detail levels seen in gameplay trailers which many feared would not be the case. This will of course vary from player to player depending on the ability of your computer.
• Garages are once again possible with automatic doors, as they were in The Sims 2, but you are able to park your car anywhere on your lot so you do not necessarily need one in The Sims 3.
• The seemless neighbourhood in The Sims 3 is very impressive. You are able to move from one part of the hood to any other by simply clicking a map view button, and zooming to where you want to go next.
• The seemless neighbourhood was also very efficient, and always made sure you were still in touch with the particular Sim or Sims you were playing even when zoomed out. An easy-access button to send them home is available.
• The Create-A-Style tool offers you almost limitless possibilites when creating patterns for clothing and furniture items. There are hundreds of standard patterns to choose from, each customisable in colours and shades.
• No pets were spotted in The Sims 3! This obviously means a likely expansion pack for The Sims 3 similar to Unleashed and Pets for the previous series’.
• The in-game laptops have been described as “cool”, need we say more?
• When your sim interacts with another, a box appears in the corner telling you what the other sim thinks of your advances. Possibly handy for working out what it is the other Sim wants to discuss or do!
• Minor changes have been made to WooHoo! It’s out with the fireworks, and in with falling Rose petals.
• The new free-will system appears to work well. When free-will is set to high your Sims will take care of their own needs far more than in The Sims 2, allowing you the extra time to deal with other family members you prefer playing or just to sit back and watch.
• Apparantly pregnancies in The Sims 3 last six-days.
• Skill building can, in some cases, involve taking classes at specific locations within the neighbourhood. Details on this are still rather vague.
• Car, bike, walking and running are the main forms of getting around the neighbourhood.
• The personality traits your Sim has effect the social interactions they are able to perform when socialising with other Sims.
• Favourite foods satisfy your Sims more than great meals which aren’t their favourite, in terms of moodlet.
• Clothes do not need to be purchased. When going to your dresser, you are simply taken to Create-A-Sim.

More details from the The Sims 3 UK Fan Days events will be added to this list as we come across them, so check back often or follow us on Twitter to be informed when new details are added!

JOIN OTHER THE SIMS 3 FANS IN OUR LIVE CHAT & FORUMS!

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Full Press Release

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced the robust online and community offerings to The Sims™ 3 PC and Mac game, the highly-anticipated flagship game from the best-selling PC franchise The Sims. In addition to the town included in the game, a second town, Riverview will be available for download from The Sims 3 product website at launch. TheSims3.com also will allow players to create and share their own movies, manage their online content and purchase additional in-game content. The game is set to launch worldwide on the PC, Mac, iPhone™, iPod® touch and mobile devices starting June 2, 2009.

“With such a vibrant and active community as The Sims has, we wanted to build even further on the already immense offline experience, by offering players additional functionality, content and tools available online through the game,” said Ben Bell, Executive Producer of The Sims 3. “One example of the many online tools we’ve added to the game is the Create a Movie tool. Within the game, players can easily set up the camera angle they want, capture in-game footage, play director and producer and then post their movies online to show off to the world.”

Key Online Elements Include:

• The Sims 3 Store: Included with purchase of the game is $10 worth of SimPoints, which players receive when they first register their game online at TheSims3.com. They can use their SimPoints towards downloading exclusive in-game items from The Sims 3 Store to customize their game. For additional items, players can purchase bundles of 500, 1000 and 2000 SimPoints in $USD, EUR, GBP and other major international currencies using a variety of payment methods including international and national credit cards, PayPal, and EA cash cards (in North America only). Whether it’s the must-have new outfit or the latest style of plaid furniture, players have the opportunity to further customize and populate their Sims world with additional items.
• Game Launcher: The Game Launcher is the key entry point for players into TheSims3.com community. This hub page connects players to both the Store and the Exchange, and provides them with news and information about game updates. Players can keep track of their downloads, uploads, installs, game updates and their media portfolio that includes the videos and photos they can capture while playing the game. The Game Launcher also alerts players to new content in the store, localized game and store promotions along with relevant updates to the Store and cool new content from the community.
• TheSims3.com Site: With the launch of the game on June 2, the marketing website at TheSims3.com will be replaced with the full community and product site for the game. The site will not only connect players, encourage new ways to be creative in the game, and offer personally relevant information for each user, it also will serve as the hub site where players can share their content with other members, and embed them on social networking sites and blogs.
• Key Site Features:
  • The Exchange: Building off of The Sims 2 Exchange’s success of more than 100M downloads,The Sims 3 Exchange highlights featured items, most popular downloads, powerful search and browse capabilities, along with giving players the ability to see what other players are recommending.
  • Create a Movie and Create a Story: New easily accessible tools inspire creativity and allow players to create movies and stories and then show them off or share them with friends. Players can show off their Movies with the Create a Movie Tool by embedding them on external sites or with an email link back to their Movie on TheSims3.com.
  • My Page and My Studio: The Sims 3 product site will allow players to maintain their profile pages on their My Page section as well as offering them the new My Studio section to manage all their creations – Movies, Stories, Exchange objects. My Page is also a blog space where players can post news, customize it with a personal avatar, track favorites and more. Users can make friends with other The Sims 3 players and share their content across a number of social network sites.

For more information about The Sims 3, go to www.TheSims3.com. The Sims 3 was developed by The Sims Studio. To download artwork, visit www.info.ea.com. The Sims 3 will be available for purchase at retail and online through digital distribution starting June 2 athttp://eastore.ea.com/store/ea/ContentTheme/pbPage.the_sims3/ThemeID.718200.

* INTERNET CONNECTION required. See product pack or digital distribution rules for details.