If you head to Kotaku, you can catch a liveblog with Will Wright at Comic Con 2008 giving his presentation on Spore. I had to skim thru it but I will read it when I get home.
As we move around the galaxy, Will zooms in and out smoothly, heading toward distant stars — “This one’s a T-1″ — and beginning the terraforming process on one of the star’s planets. He establishes a colony, adding to their happiness with a newly built Happiness Booster. It’s one of those long rubber tube-men that whips about outside car dealerships thanks to a jet of air. Again, crowd laughs.
A spacefarer passing by initiates a trade discussion with Will’s race. Wright drops diplomacy in favor of blowing the living bejeezus out of their home planet with a massive bomb. The bomb was so intense, it even blew up the moon orbiting it. Will is mean!
Liveblogging Will Wright Discussing His Inner Otaku At Comic-Con
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Since I work with ManagerJosh from UOEM in my spare time, I thought I would share with you a link to his preview for The Sims 3. It contains the same information as the rest, except for the fact that he touches base with Maxis on the subject of SecuROM (after I kept persisting him and urging him to ask before he went). Here is what he has to say:
SecuROM and System Requirements
So let’s get down to business and talk Sims 3. Several webmasters, including myself, have had increasing concerns about the recent revelations about SecuROM and its increasing restrictions upon gamers. We were even more concerned about the possibility that EA may very well limit how many times we could install and reinstall The Sims 3. The simple fact is that for The Sims, we simply install, and reinstall at quite a sheer volume or rate. We raised that concern with The Sims 3 team and Rod Humble, however at present, there were no firm decisions on whether they would even use SecuROM or anything else for that matter.
For those wondering what the system requirements will be, again, the game has not been finalized and thus nothing’s here yet. The goal is still to make it to a wide and accessible audience as possible with fine tuning at a later date. So if you’re reading just for the sake of knowing what The Sims 3 System Requirements are, you may stop now.
Check out the rest of his preview here!
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A few weeks ago, I posted that you can create your own Spore related E-Cards thanks to MashON. Today they have issued a press release letting users know they are now fully operational.
Unique Online Application Allows Players to Create and Send Their Own Spore Universe to Friends Around the World
ALISO VIEJO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Planetwide Media today announced the launch of the MashON™ Spore™ E-Card Creator, (http://www.MashON.com/SPORE/), an online application that allows players to create and send personalized E-cards featuring their customized content from the Spore Creature Creator and the highly-anticipated game Spore, shipping this September from Maxis, an Electronic Arts (NASDAQ) studio.
By registering for the free MashON Spore E-Card Creator at MashON.com, fans can bring Spore creatures to life by combining Spore backgrounds, clip art and word bubbles using unique digital assets. Creators can also add their own personalized speech bubbles and share their Spore E-Card creation with their friends by posting to their favorite social networking site or emailing directly to friends.
The Spore Creature Creator is available now and is a stand-alone creativity toy box where players create their own unique creatures, bring them to life with entertaining animations, and share them online with friends around the world. The full version of the Spore Creature Creator is available now for $9.99 at retail stores or by visiting www.spore.com. A free trial version of the Spore Creature Creator is also available at www.spore.com.
Spore gives players their own personal universe in a box. Create and evolve life, establish tribes, build civilizations, sculpt entire worlds and explore a universe created by other gamers. Spore gives players a wealth of creative tools to customize nearly every aspect of their universe: creatures, vehicles, buildings, and even UFOs.
Visit http://www.MashON.com/SPORE/ to register and for more information.
About MashON
MashON develops and publishes interactive software for the MashUP generation. MashON produces web-enabled tools & widgets, and software applications that provide personal interactivity in the creation, connection and easy syndication of user generated content online across the Internet. The company’s signature product MashON Comic Book Creator™ embraces user-generated content (”UGC”) enabling its users to blend their own unique creations into their social networks, blogs, and Internet brand spaces. MashON has licensed its interactive platform to world class lifestyle brands and advertisers in entertainment, online portals, video games, motion picture, television, music, sports, fashion, art, and travel.
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world’s leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTSTM, EATM, EA SPORTS FreestyleTM and POGOTM. In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.
EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle, POGO and SPORE are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
For more information please visit: http://www.MashON.com/SPORE/.
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 Maxis has released the system specs for The Sims 2 Apartment Life. It looks as if they are the same as the previous expansions (as if they just copied and pasted it from another expansions system requirements).
If you can run the previous expansions with no problems, then you shouldn’t have to worry if your system can handle Apartments. If you do have issues….you might want to wait until the game is released to see what others are experiencing with a system similiar to yours.
Minimum System Requirements for The Sims 2 Apartment Life
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
- 1.3 Ghz processor (2.0 for Vista)
- 512 MB RAM (1GB for Vista)
- Windows(R) Vista, Windows XP, Windows ME, Windows 98 or Windows 2000 Operating System.
- 8x or faster CD/DVD drive
- At least 1.5 GB of additional hard drive space (5.0 GB total is required if installing both The Sims 2 and The Sims 2 Bon Voyage Expansion Pack at the same time.)
- A T&L-capable video card with at least 32 MB of video RAM.
Supported video cards:
- ATI Radeon(TM) series 8500 or better (9600 or greater required for Vista)
- 8500, All-In-Wonder 8500
- 9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800
- X300, X600, x700, X800, x850
- X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
NVIDIA(R) Quadro(TM) series
Quadro, Quadro2, Quadro4
NVIDIA GeForce series GeForce2 GTS and better (GeForce 6200 or greater required for Vista)
GeForce 2, 2 GTS
GeForce 3, 3 Ti
GeForce 4, 4 Ti, 4200, 4600, 4800, MX 420, 440, 460
GeForce FX 5200, 5500, 5600, 5700, 5800, 5900, 5950
GeForce PCX 5300, 5900
GeForce 6200, 6600, 6800
GeForce 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950
S3 GammaChrome
S18 Pro
S18 Ultra Intel(R) Extreme Graphics (see note below)
82865, 82915 and aboveNOTE: If you have a non-T&L capable video card, such as Intel Extreme Graphics, then you need at least a 2.4 GHz processor.The Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3000 card experiences known performance issues on High Settings. When graphic detail settings are set to Medium or lower, perforce is greatly improved.ME and 98 Microsoft OS have known issues supporting more than 1GB of RAM.
Source: The Sims 2 Official Site
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I’d love to attend a Comic Con event one day…Many interesting people and booths can be found at this event. Not to mention it is all of the sci-fi you can handle!
Will Wright will be at this year’s Comic Con. They have already set up a booth for the game, courtesy of Kotaku:
Hopefully we will see some new information and videos on the game tomorrow when he speaks!
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How would it even be possible to create such shows if the Sims speak simlish…They’d have to speak english…but wouldn’t that take away the one of the main factors from the game?
What brings me to this topic is that EA put out a press-release today in which they announced they have signed a deal with the United Talent Agency to help turn their game products into motion pictures and television shows. We already know The Sims Movie is in the works, but this confirms it. They also mention that MySims will become an animated tv show:
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced it has signed with leading Hollywood talent and literary agency UTA for representation in motion pictures and television.
UTA will help the company develop a comprehensive strategy for moving its intellectual property into the realm of large-budget motion pictures and television series. EA’s broad portfolio of titles includes top-selling franchises such as Army of Two™ and Need for Speed™ as well as eagerly awaited new titles such as Dead Space™ and Mirror’s Edge™.
“UTA is an ideal partner for us to bring the richness and story telling nuance of our popular games into other forms of media that give consumers more ways to experience these creative concepts,” said Patrick O’Brien, Vice President of EA Entertainment. “Some of our teams have already made steps to expand our games into other forms of media like online, social networks and print publication. This partnership will help us take these efforts to the next level and match each of our titles with the right artists, producers and financiers.”
“We view EA as an emerging entertainment force, not just because they are a great untapped IP rights holder, but because at their core they care most about how viewers respond to their stories and creative vision,” said UTA partner Richard Klubeck in making the announcement. “We’re excited to work alongside the EA team as they make this important expansion of their intellectual property strategy.”
The relationship is expected to significantly ramp up EA’s film and television slate, which currently includes a feature version of the popular The Sims™ game in script development at 20th Century Fox with producer John Davis and a MySims™ animated television series in development at Film Roman. EA is also in production with Starz/Film Roman on an animated DVD feature version of its new title Dead Space to launch with the game.
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world’s leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the Company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTSTM, EATM, EA SPORTS FreestyleTM and POGOTM. In fiscal 2008, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.67 billion and had 27 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.ea.com. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at http://info.ea.com.
EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS Freestyle, POGO, Army of Two, Need for Speed, Dead Space, MySims and The Sims are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Mirror’s Edge is a trademark or registered trademark of EA Digital Illusions CE AB. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
United Talent Agency is one of the entertainment industry’s premier talent and literary agencies, representing many of world’s most widely-known figures in every current and emerging area of entertainment, including motion pictures, television, digital media, books, music, mobile and live entertainment. Collectively, UTA agents represent a significant cross-section of today’s most acclaimed artists and entertainers, including nominees and winners of Academy, Emmy, Grammy, Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild, Writers Guild, Producers Guild, Golden Globe, People’s Choice and Webby awards. The agency is also globally recognized in the areas of film finance, corporate consulting, branding & licensing, endorsements and the representation of production talent. The agency also operates UTAOnline, the first dedicated broadband representation division of a major agency.
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Say hello to another Spore prototype: BIOME. The official Spore site has added it to their Prototypes section.
BIOME is a programmable cellular automata simulator that allows users to develop simple “SimCity-like” grid simulations.
The grid-simulations in SimCity were inspired by Conway’s “Life” program, which produces amazingly intricate patterns from simple rules
BIOME uses a language based on chemical stoichiometry, the notation system used to describe chemical reactions. Cells in a BIOME simulation change state the same way that chemicals change when exposed to other chemicals
Systems such as this can be used to simulate phenomena such as forest fires, disease epidemics, animal migration patterns and crystallization
BIOME supports both rectangular and spiral cellular automata configurations. The spiral configuration was used to study stochastic, self-propagating star formation (the process whereby the ignition of a star promotes the creation of more stars) on the galactic scale.
You can download the program by going to the official site or by checking out our Spore - Programs page.
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Joystiq had a lengthy discussion with Thomas Vu (one of the developers for Spore) in which they give away some cool details:
- Want to know how Electronic Arts can milk the Spore cow? The tabs in all the editor menus were planned for multiple pages. Maxis has reportedly also discussed the addition of robot creature parts, but there is “nothing to announce” at the moment.
- Will Wright’s cameo in Spore (i.e. spin the galaxy in the main menu and his head appears) was added by Maxis employee without Wright knowing, although he found it hilarious. There’s another Easter Egg in the shipped version, said Vu, though he was mum on what it would be.
- There is a limit to the number of planets you can have in your galaxy, much like the number of plots of land in your neighborhood in The Sims.
Catch more details at Joystiq!
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