Sims 3 Fanatics

The official EA press website recently released a short Q&A regarding The Sims 3: Ambitions which gives us a little more insight on what we should be expecting from this game, I’ll create a new Expansion Pack page shortly on The Sims 3: Ambitions.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about The Sims 3 Ambitions.

A: The Sims 3 Ambitions allows players to control their Sims while they are at work in a variety of new careers. Instead of sending your Sims off to work all day, The Sims 3 Ambitions lets you pick a career like firefighting, investigator, architect, ghost hunter, stylist or doctor and then guide your Sim to make choices and succeed (or fail) every step of the way.  You can also make your Sim a tattoo artist, sculptor or inventor.

Q: Just how popular are careers with the fans? Is this something they have been asking for?

A: Career gameplay is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time and it’s something that our players consistently request. We always strive to do something new that hasn’t been seen in The Sims before.  We’re especially excited about the fact that the in-depth careers really offer something for all types of players. Storytellers will love solving mysteries as an investigator or resolving the problems of the afterlife as a ghost hunter. The “gamers” will enjoy being the hero as a firefighter and saving civilians as the doctor. The team cannot wait to see what the Builders and Sim creators make with architect and stylist careers.

There’s a lot of depth and variety here for every type of Sims player.

Q: Exactly how does the career based gameplay work in Ambitions?

A: The Sims 3 Ambitions is about your Sim’s personal venture. Each career presents a unique experience.

Firefighters need to develop relationships and maintain their equipment while at the firehouse. But as soon as that alarm rings they need to get to the fire, clear rubble piles, carry out children, stop gas leaks, put out the flames, and be the hero. Your town may fall victim to small fires, huge infernos, and even earthquakes.

Stylists will be hired by neighbors to offer fashion advice and provide partial or complete makeovers.  You can choose to make Sims look really good or just terrible. It’s a lot of power to put in the hands of our more deviant players, but the ability to give the entire town a facelift is fantastic. And profitable!

Using the tattoo chair in game (or at the local Salon) your Sims can tattoo their neighbors with both fantastic and questionable body art, for a price, of course.

The Tattoo System is an incredibly powerful new creative tool for our players. Players can apply multiple tattoos in up to five layers, scale them, change the colors, and even modify opacity. Players can also upload and share these tattoos on the exchange, giving our community yet another creative outlet.

There’s a lot of variety!

As the title says, I’m really looking forward to this EP, it sounds like a complete win. The things that EA have claimed you can do and hav illustrated in the screenshots just look totally awesome, this is definitely on my list of things to buy.

EA released the official PR for with information on The Sims 3 Ambitions today, this is the official confirmation of the next Expansion Pack! Will you be buying it this June?

Widen your Sim’s horizons with a bunch of killer new career opportunities. With The Sims™ 3 Ambitions, decide whether your Sim will be the brave town hero or cause loads of mischief among their neighbors. Make your Sim save the day as a brave firefighter, change the town as a leading architect, or live on the edge as a tattoo artist. Will your Sim find success as a billionaire high-tech inventor or eke out a living as a bumbling mad scientist? Will they uncover secrets as a private investigator by dusting for prints or roughing up a suspect for information? Their future is entirely in your hands!

FEATURES

• For the first time ever, you control your Sim’s actions and interactions while they’re on the job.
• Be a hero or mess with the neighbors as a firefighter, private investigator, doctor, ghost hunter, and more!
• Choose how your Sim’s career progresses—will they work for good or evil, pursue creative endeavors, rise to success as a mogul, or shirk responsibility as a slacker?
• Your Sim’s on-the-job choices now change their town and affect other Sims as well. Modify the town’s structure as an architect or set neighborhood fashions as a stylist.
• Enjoy all-new skills and activities! Master the arts of inventing, sculpting, and tattooing, and use your skills to earn Simoleons.

Expansion Pack to Award-winning Game The Sims 3 Allows Players to Become Fearless Heroes and Ace Entrepreneurs

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 4, 2010 –The EA Play Label of Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that The Sims™ 3 Ambitions Expansion pack* is in development and will launch in June 2010. As the second expansion pack to The Sims 3, the best-selling PC game of 2009**, The Sims 3 Ambitions allows players to pursue a variety of exciting paths and careers in their Sims’ lives that in turn affect their overall gameplay experience and neighbourhood. While on the job, the player has direct control over their Sims’ work and can choose how to spend their days. Opt to make house calls and save lives as a doctor or choose the devious route and test experimental medicine on patients; be the hero firefighter tackling raging infernos or smashing everything in sight at the victim’s home with an axe; or take a shot at solving cases as an investigator, nicely convincing sources to divulge secrets or roughing up perpetrators in a dark alley to get information.

“The variety of careers to choose from is unmatched and we’ve never given players the opportunity to follow their Sims to work and affect their actions on the job,” said Scott Evans, General Manager of The Sims Studio at EA. “The Sims 3 Ambitions changes that. Players’ actions at work now directly affect their lives, community and neighbours and become an extremely important part of how the game is played.”

Players can now experience some of the most exciting and varied jobs. In The Sims 3 Ambitions, players can choose to hunt down vengeful spirits as the ghost hunter, invent brilliant and potentially destructive gadgets as an inventor, craft glorious masterpieces as a sculptor, and solve riveting cases by any means necessary as an investigator with dozens of cases to solve and numerous clues to find. Additionally, players will be able to change the look and feel of their town by becoming an architect and directly affecting the neighbourhood around them leveraging Build and Buy mode. The stylist career and new tattoo system allow players to make over their Sim neighbours in fashionable or catastrophic ways. For the first time, players will be in charge of how their Sims’ career progresses and decide if they will work for good or evil, pursue creative endeavours or technical affairs, climb to the top quickly, or be a slacker. The future of a Sims’ success or failure is entirely in the hands of the player.

The Sims 3 Ambitions will also be available for feature phones, iPhone and iPod touch in late 2010 from EA Mobile™. These versions will have customized mobile gameplay features which will be revealed in the coming months and will not require a base game to play. For information on carrier availability and pricing for all EA Mobile games, please visit www.eamobile.com.

For more information about The Sims 3 Ambitions or The Sims 3, please visit www.TheSims3.com. Developed by The Sims Studio, The Sims 3 Ambitions for PC/Mac has not yet been rated by the ESRB. To download artwork, please visit www.info.ea.com.

*Requires The Sims 3 for PC/MAC to play.
**According to NPD data.

I’m sure that I’ll be buying it just for the “working with your sims” part. What is your favourite part?

Only recently was The Sims 3 released on the PalmPre and guess what, it’s free! We don’t know how long this will last for and I reckon it wont be that long so if you want it, be quick! This is only available to people who live in the US and have a Palm phone that runs on webOS.

**Given the large size of this app, please connect to WiFi to download** LONG LIVE THE SIMS! The circle of life is infinite in The SimsTM 3. So savor endless hours of entertainment, anytime, anywhere. CREATE A SIM Make your Sim neurotic, funny, or shy. Choose your Sim’s clothing and accessories. EXPLORE NEW LOCATIONS Lose yourself in the amazing 3D open-world environment and discover what kind of character your Sim will be. KEEP ‘EM SATISFIED Fulfill your Sim’s basic needs like eating and sleeping, and increase the number of activities you can do together. DREAM BIG Unlock 73 goals and wishes for your Sim to help it reach its full potential.

[Source: SimTimes]

This has been removed now (I think), but luckily SimOperations and SimPrograms got some screenshots of it. The Official Sims 3 Store put up three new titles of the three new sets coming out this March (we suspect). They all sound quite fun and we’ll be able to see them soon if it’s true! The sets titles are Earth Day, Faire Folk Life and Club Vaindenburger. I’ll let you know if anything else pops up!

The Sims 3 Fatboy chair is now available from CSNStores. It’s at an expensive price of $229 (roughly £150) with free shipping, however, this is roughly the same as all Fatboy chairs. Order it here or check out the details below:

Fatboy® has quickly become synonymous with comfort, functionality and fun. So partnering with Interactive Entertainment Software Company EA for The Sims 3 to bring all their fans the ultimate gaming chair, is brilliant! The Sims™ 3 branded Fatboy® gaming chair is made from a practical and easy to clean special coated polyester material. A damp cloth is all that is needed to keep it in perfect gaming condition. Game enthusiasts and alike will find that The Sims™ 3 branded Fatboy® is not only comfortable, but just as versatile as the game itself!

“The Sims development team has long loved Fatboy chairs,” said Steve Seabolt, Vice President of Global Brand Development for EA’s Play Label. “We’re excited to partner with Fatboy and participate in the fun winter event and continue The Sims 10 year anniversary celebration this year.”

Features:

• Limited Edition! limited quantities available.
• Inside filling made of tiny EPS cylindrical pieces (Expanded Polystyrene Packaging)
• Coated-Nylon fabric exterior, wipes clean with damp cloth
• Filled and finished in the USA
• Dimensions: 70″ H x 55″ W

Just heard about this, was expecting to receive one myself but I guess I was left out.. Anyway, the latest newsletter is out, thanks to S3N for sharing the link. Check out this months’ Sims 3 VIP Newsletter, or just view it below.

Recently, TheSims3.com added a new system that allows you to add stickers, avatar backgrounds, and badges on you TheSims3.com profile. It’s quite fun but pretty useless and I just see it as another way to nick some SimPoints off us. Yes, that’s right, they cost. There are a few simple free ones so you can try them out but apart from that, they cost a few SimPoints. Check out the new Goodies Page and see if you like any, here’s some more information on them:

Personalize your My Page with Goodies and show off your creativity and community spirit. Dress up your page by adding stickers, a background to your avatar, and collecting unique badges. Purchasing or gifting Goodies is easy – just visit The Sims3 Store and click on the My Goodies button to begin shopping with your SimPoints!

Stickers
Adding stickers to your My Page is a great way to show off your interests. Place them anywhere on your My Page and easily swap them out with new stickers.

Backgrounds for your Avatar
Get a background for your avatar! With so many to choose from, you’ll want to change your avatar for every new mood you are in!

Badges
Collect badges and show them off on your My Page. Badges are the perfect way to express your passion for The Sims 3. If a love for Freezer Bunny is your virtue, or craving grilled cheese is your vice, there is a badge for you. Gift a badge to your community friends to say Happy Birthday, Get Well, or Congratulations!

[Source: SimPrograms]