The Spore franchise continues to expand and grow. EA announced yesterday that Spore Islands is available on Facebook. Actually it’s been available for about a week, I’ve been playing it with a friend. You pick an island then build and color your creature utilizing DNA points. Friends can send a creature to your island and you can build one to send to their island. During observations, you can see the creatures eat, fight and lay eggs. The one with the highest points win.
During observation
You earn points when you or someone else observes your creatures. It’s a fun little game that is a nice break from Farmville and Mafia Wars. The only downside I have found is that you can only earn 12 DNA points at a time. To get more, you have to spend money. The incentive to spend the money is to buy hats and parts to add to your creature. I’ve not seen a need to spend money on it but it’s still fun.
Jambo everyone! That’s the greeting we all learn to say on the Safari ride at Disney. I’m not at Disney World, but I did see African animals in the new EA game SimAnimals Africa while attending the Blogger’s Day event.
I will be attending the EA MySims Blogger’s Day event this Friday, Sept 11th at the EA campus in San Francisco. I get to tour the campus and play some early builds of upcoming MySims games plus I’ll get a chance to shop at the EA Experience. Discount games for the win!! I have my shopping list already and I might need a bigger suitcase to bring it all home. I’ll be bringing you some news on what’s new with the MySims universe plus I might get a sneak peek at the new Sims3 World Adventures and attend a simlish recording session.
If you have any questions you’d like me to ask, please list them in the comment section. Look for my updates later this week.
Just imagine the sweaty threesome of Doom, Fallout, and MotorStorm getting all touchy-feely. Yeah, Doom, touch MotorStorm right there. Oooh yeah. Wait, think about baseball. Think about baseball. Now that I’ve got that stuck in your head for the rest of the day, let’s think about the love-child that spawned from the concepts of these three games. Crazed mutants running around a devastated wasteland where you can race dune buggies. Where do I sign up?
We first saw Rage a while back and didn’t know exactly what to think. Now, the game is looking awesome. Feast your eyes on the trailer that id and EA dropped at QuakeCon and get ready for the weekend.
Won’t you be my neighbor? My Sims 3 neighbor that is. Even though the game has been out for two months, I’ve been playing during that time so I can give you some of my gameplay insight. You need to know a little background (yes you really do). I played original Sims for a few months before Sims 2 came out. Sims 2 was just awesome all around. I played in Strangetown every night for months. My obsession was getting the guys abducted and trying to get twins (with no cheats). I had quite the soap opera going because I tend to shake things up in the Sim world. I since bought every expansion pack and my love of Sims increased with each one. My game playing turned into creating story games with Sims that represented forum members called Sim House (think Big Brother). Enter Sims 3. I was excited about the new possibilities of being able to access the entire neighborhood and I wondered what kind of story games I could create.
As if carrying out your every whim on little digital characters around their neighborhood wasn’t enough, later this year you’ll be able to send them to far away destinations, whether they like it or not.
EA announced today that the first expansion for The Sims 3 – World Adventures – will be released on November 16, 2009. Being a fan of The Sims titles for a long time – it’s one of the few PC games I play – this expansion seems like it raises the bar when it comes to what to expect from the game’s expansions. I’m used to expansions that elaborate on the neighborhood-based game play, but now it appears you can take your Sims to real-world-based destinations at the far reaches of the globe.
World Adventures will be one of the most “robust expansion packs to The Sims yet”, according to EA’s Scott Evans, General Manager of The Sims. You’ll be able to explore areas based on real-world cities in China, France and Egypt, as well as meet new Sims, undertake challenges to find ancient treasures, learn new skills and take pictures of their travels.
As someone who’s just recently purchased The Sims 3 and has been a fan of the games for years, this expansion sounds like a lot of fun and a departure from what is normal for a Sims expansion. Perhaps there will many new ways to make your Sims meet an untimely demise in these foreign lands.
Well, maybe they don’t hate you as much. EA today announced that Warhammer Online is now available for the Mac. If you haven’t jumped into their online realm, you’ll be able to rock out a 10 day free trial to see if you want to pony up the cash.
As a Mac user myself, I really like seeing more games coming to Apple’s platform. If there’s one downfall to using a Mac, it’s gaming. Hopefully more publishers will bring their titles to Mac and in a more timely manner. I think it’s a pipe dream, but I’ll keep dreaming.
When Burnout Paradise first shipped in January of 2008, I skipped out on the game. While I thoroughly enjoy the Burnout Series, I just wasn’t in the mood for another arcade racer at the time. Couple that with no Crash Mode, my favorite from the series, and it didn’t end up in my “to buy” list. Fast forward to Fall 2008 when I picked up a used copy and have played the game almost weekly ever since. The amount of support and quality that Criterion Games puts into Burnout Paradise definitely shows. The first premium DLC, Big Surf Island, expands the game with an entirely new area and will give you hours of fun.
EA had a rather lengthy beta period for Battlefield Heroes, their browser-based cartoonish Battlefield game. It’s now out of beta and available for you to play for free if you’re a Windows user. No Mac love from EA, even though it’s a browser-based game. For shame.
While the game is free to play, you can buy Battlefunds in the amount of 700 Battlefunds for $5 in real money. You can use the Battlefunds to customize your character with new clothes, experience point boosters, and other goodies. Getting weapons and upgrades will come through playing, so you can’t just buy your way to the top. Kudos on that move, EA.
I’d love to play this, but my everyday machine is a MacBook Pro. Maybe I’ll fire it up once in a while when I’m working on my Windows desktop, but those times are few and far between.
EA released the box art for Brutal Legend late last night and the top billing for Tim Schafer caught my attention. Sure, all of us here have heard of the man, but what about the general public? I have a feeling most people are going to walk into a store and see his name on the box and say “Who the fuck is Tim Schafer?” EA may have been better served by putting Jack Black’s name on the cover, since he has a much more broad appeal.
I’m in no means saying Tim Schafer doesn’t deserve it; he’s a damn good game designer. However, he’s no Steven Spielberg. This type of display on the cover requires someone with a greater mass appeal to sell more copies. Sure, he deserves the credit, but putting Jack Black’s name there would have most likely moved a few more units and boosted the bottom line.
To see the full box art in all its glory, hit the jump.
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