With limited time, 3DS systems and eyes capable of processing 3D, we couldn't deliver full reviews for the full 3DS launch lineup. However, we've got the next best thing, a ton of impressions on some of our favorite releases we couldn't get enough quality time with for a full critique.
Between the cheat sheet after the break and our bevy of full reviews, you should have all that you need to be a 3DSpecialist at your local electronics retailer. Happy hunting! ... And, umm, sorry about saying "3DSpecialist." It was a long weekend.
#video
Every game on the Nintendo 3DS has some sort of rotating icon that appears on the system's home menu. Submarine game Steel Diver features a rotating sub. Ridge Racer has a car. These things epitomize their games. More »
Just in time to capitalize on the Sims fever that's sweeping the nation, MadCatz has announced it will produce a line of accessories based on the life simulation series for pretty much every console known to man.
There are no images or further details on the controllers, but we'd really appreciate a single, time-saving button for "have sex with all present" and another macro button for "lock character in room with no doors or windows until they defecate themselves to death, their last vision the stink lines emanating from their pre-corpse."
Following more than a year of media demos and beta testing, cloud gaming startup Gaikai is letting the public try out the fruits of its efforts: Mass Effect 2, Dead Space 2, Spore and The Sims 3, all playable from within your web browser. That is, if you have the bandwidth -- we don't apparently. (Granted, we're on gratis Wi-Fi here at GDC.)
You might have better luck at home, and you can visit Gaikai's site where you'll be prompted to launch Mass Effect 2. Taking a survey about the service will grant you access to the Dead Space 2 demo. Spore and The Sims 3 are here and here, respectively.
It's a good thing people don't play The Sims for the graphics. The Sims 3 is not a looker on 3DS -- no matter how you adjust the three-dimensional slider. In an unfinsihed build of this launch game, the visuals lacked detail (even compared to versions of the game running on mobile phones) and the framerate was inadequate. Perhaps its saving grace, then, is in how The Sims 3 takes advtage of the 3DS's other unique features, making this particular iteration somewhat novel (especially compared to EA's other 3DS port).
Using the 3DS camera, players can create Sims based on snapshots of their faces -- or anyone's face nearby. Oddly, the feature will only import a close approximation of the source's facial features, leaving aspects such as skin tone, hair and even gender to be manually selected. Though the process is a bit tedious, on the plus side, I now know what I'd look like if I were a rail-thin blond ... girl.
The North American launch details for Nintendo 3DS have been finalized. In addition to Face Raiders and AR Games, both pre-installed on the hardware, the system will launch with three first-party games: Pilotwings Resort, Steel Diver, and nintendogs + cats. Each first-party game has a suggested retail price of $39.99.
Thirteen third-party games will be available on March 27th, including Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition and Rayman 3D. Nintendo promises that thirty games will be available for the platform by E3 expo. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Star Fox 64 3D, Kid Icarus: Uprising and a new Mario Kart game will all be available before year's end.
You'll find the complete launch lineup listed after the break.
a nintendo system launching with... Pilotwings and Nintendogs. oh boy
#roleplaying
Monica Potts a feminist graduate of an all-girls college that would never take her husband's name or dream of ending her career to raise children. In the Sims 3 she's a married mother that stays home with the kids. More »
EA tells Joystiq that it's aware of some players experiencing a bug, which appears to stop any further progress, in The Sims 3 for consoles. A representative for the publisher says EA is "continuing to look into it."
InGamingWeTrust has the details on the bug, occurring on both PS3 and Xbox 360, which involves the entire console locking up while attempting to automatically or manually save the game. EA has no details on what currently triggers the bug, or how to prevent it.
If you're experiencing the issue with your copy of Sims 3, it seems the only recourse at the moment is to add your voice to the choir. Check out the video after the break to see the crash in action.
Nintendo may not be making a smartphone, but if it did, it might look a bit like the Kyocera Echo. Coming to Sprint later this year, it's being touted as the world's first "dual-touchscreen smartphone." At a preview event today, we got to see the phone running The Sims 3, optimized to take advantage of both screens. Unsurprisingly, it looked a lot like the DS version, albeit with higher-resolution graphics. The phone is set to launch with one other game, although a Sprint representative wouldn't reveal what it was.
Running on a custom Kyocera-skinned version of Android 2.2, the Echo augments the growing "fragmentation" problem that Google's mobile OS faces. Games must use Sprint's SDK to take advantage of both of the screens offered by the Echo. But, how many developers will flock to create games for a single device available on a single carrier? We're going to guess: not many. At least the phone will be able to play other Android games -- maybe even PlayStation Suite games, if the specs are up to snuff.
#pc
Most 18-minute videos on YouTube are dreadfully boring, but Curtis Paradis, avid Sims 3 user, puts on a stellar show speed-building the most elaborate house I've ever seen in a video game. More »
EA has picked up Luis Ubiñas to sit on its board of directors. Ubiñas is president of the Ford Foundation, which gives grants and starts projects all over the world. Previously, he worked at a consulting firm called McKinsey & Company, where he specialized in working with media and wireless technology companies.
In what is probably a complete coincidence, players of The Sims 3 are all getting Ford Fiestas for free. The virtual kind, that is -- you can head over to the Sims website right now to pick up a downloadable pack which includes a Fiesta hatchback or sedan for your Sims' garage, and a bevy of other brand-related virtual items to use and play with.
That news probably has nothing at all to do with Ubiñas' new or old job titles, but we figured we'd let you know anyway.
Originally titled Home Tactics, Will Wright's hit people simulator The Sims was largely made possible by a bunch of simulated ants.
During an interview with Doom creator John Romero at the IGDA Leadership Forum dinner last Friday, Wright revealed that his previous title, Sim Ant, was a key inspiration for -- and the basis for the core emergent gameplay in -- The Sims.
"We decided to program Sim Ant as close to how real ants work as we could, which means that they're actually responding to pheromone trails, and the intelligence is distributed environmentally," Wright recalled when asked how The Sims came about. "We were able to get very complex behavior out of the ants just using these pheromone distributions. So I started to wonder how much of human behavior I could simulate the same way." As it turns out, a lot.
"The basic engine for The Sims really ends up being one of any pheromones. Every object in the environment is sending out an 'advertisement' of pheromones in a particular flavor. The flavors are the eight basic needs of the Sims. So they can advertise 'food,' 'energy,' 'fun,' 'social,' 'hygiene.' Every object is described in those terms, being the collection of pheromones that it broadcasts," Wright explained. "A Sim is always sitting there, smelling all of the pheromones around it saying, 'oh I need to be clean, or I need to be fed' -- whatever -- so they follow that pheromone trail to the closest object that's producing it. The advantage of that -- the whole point of that -- was that we could add new objects into the game later without the Sims having any foreknowledge of what the objects were, as long as they had these pheromones."
Romero began to ask Wright if he thought actual humans might somehow work this way, but stopped himself. He was probably picturing the audience as a group of hideous ant people, or imagining he could see clouds of pheromones wafting about. Even the guy who thought up the Doom demon would be grossed out by that.
A portion of an MTV review…
“The Sims 3″ is a solid “The Sims” title. In fact, it’s the most solid, most complex and game-like iteration yet. But it’s still “The Sims,” meaning time is always too short, aging seems a little too fast, and some of the core mechanics, like socialization, are cheese-able.
It looks like Electronic Arts is breaking out its biggest guns for its Windows Phone 7 launch lineup -- well, it's biggest guns that can be adequately turned into smaller guns for use on a mobile platform, anyways. The publisher has named four games that will hit the WP7 storefront soon after the platform goes live on November 8: Need For Speed: Undercover, The Sims 3, Monopoly and some obscure indie puzzle game called ... Tetris?
Now sure, all those games are already available on other mobile platforms, but you're forgetting why you're going to feel compelled to purchase them again on the Windows Phone 7: Sweet, sweet 'Cheevos. Hell, Monopoly's like 85 years old. You've probably bought it a dozen times already -- but now you're going to buy it a baker's dozen times, because, admit it, you've got to be boosting that Gamerscore.
#clips
The $200 Windows Phone 7 telephones launching on November 8 will be a new portable gaming option, the first one compatible with aspects of Xbox Live. Here are eight of the "launch wave" titles. Should Nintendo, Apple and Sony quake? More »
#ea
Continuing its tradition of making a splash whenever a new gaming platform launches, EA is gearing up for the Windows Phone 7 launch with a suite of titles, including The Sims 3. More »
