Want more Ambitions news?Β Fantastic – the Dutch community has you covered!Β EA Netherlands is holding a special sneak peek on May 21st and invited a number of Dutch fansites to come check out The Sims 3 Ambitions and to spend time to play the game.Β This post will contain all of the information that they’ve brought back to share.
- 5/25/10 @ 7:52 PM – added link to Sims 3 Nieuw’s impressions on Twinbrook
- 5/25/10 @ 7:52 PM – added link to writeup by SimParool
- 5/25/10 @ 7:51 PM – topic de-sticky’d
- 5/24/10 @ 12:03 PM – added 2 videos from Sims 3 Nieuws
- 5/24/10 @ 5:25 AM – added link to Sww’s report from TSR (thanks, Hiki!)
- 5/23/10 @ 8:11 PM – added link to Sims 3 Nieuw’s full report
- 5/23/10 @ 7:44 PM – added link to last of SimsPlanet2 report
- 5/22/10 @ 10:46 PM – added link to SimsUniverse article
- 5/22/10 @ 10:44 PM – added more interesting facts from SimsPlanet2
- 5/22/10 @ 10:42 PM – added pics from SimsPlanet2
- 5/22/10 @ 10:36 PM – added link to report from The Sims Zone
- 5/22/10 @ 10:34 PM – added link to SimsNetwork’s writeup
- 5/21/10 @ 9:28 PM – added link to SmartSim’s writeup
- 5/21/10 @ 9:21 PM – added link to short snippet from Sims 3 Nieuws (and some pics of the event)
- 5/21/10 @ 8:47 PM – added tidbits of info from SimsPlanet2
- 5/21/10 @ 12:15 PM – added link to SimParool’s Q&A
Dutch fansites in attendance (thanks to Sims 3 Nieuws for the listing):
- Sims 3 Nieuws
- SimParool
- SimsPlanet2
- Simlicious
- SimsNetwork (SNW)
- DM2SC
- Sim Universe
- The Sims Zone
- The Sims 3 Hyve
- SmartSim
Imagine: a landscape full of little pools, ponds and creeks wandering in between. Some patches of βdryβ land just breaking through that damp and wet surface, where grass is the only thing that seems to be able to survive. The trees are struggling and obviously loosing that battle. Therefore the most common sort of tree on those patches of land is a special one: the bare, leafless, but for all, dead tree.
Above the still waters and barren lands floats this constant layer of fog. Light, barely able to penetrate this, is sparse so it is hard to tell what time of day it is. A gloomy, dusky place to be.
Wandering through these marshes you suddenly see a dark shape in the fog ahead. At first you are not able to see what it is, but as you get closer, you recognize it. It is some kind of wooden scaffold. Why would anyone build such a thing in the middle of this scary place? A second, closer look reveals some old rails heavily covered in rust mounted on top of the scaffold. Then it all becomes clear. In the earlier days, when Twinbrook was a thriving town, a railroad was constructed here to connect it to the rest of the world. But now, since the swamp took over here, it is impossible to maintain it, so decay has its way.
I canβt help wondering what else I will encounter in this part of town. At least, just this short visit to this spooky part of town makes it completely clear to me, why the profession of ghost-hunter is a popular one in this city.
The Sims 3: Aspirations is one of the biggest new additions that we can finally take our Sims to work (hooray and three cheers). This is a feature that is much discussed in the community, the work of your Sims. Because admit it’s still interesting to see what your Sims are doing while they are at work. Well that last one is sometimes so bad, but still a nice idea that you can finally take your Sims to work.
Ambitions in distinguish between the old and new careers careers. If you are using your computer, newspaper or phone lookup goes to a new job, you can choose from two things: jobs and professions. Jobs are the old familiar jobs that are already known since the Sims 1, the boring (yes after playing ambitions, seem old jobs but boring) jobs, where your Sim to was done and came home and you have no clue of what had happened in between. Professions are the new jobs that are added in this game. These professions have much more input is required from the player. You can not sit back with a glass of cola while your Sims to work and bring in money. Those actions have real new gameplay elements that they entail. So that for us as players obviously nice to finally get you to interfere with the work of your Sims. There are several careers that your Sims can choose from, from firefighter to stylist and ghosts hunter to private detective. So in the new labor market is also Ambitions for each Sim a suitable job.
Last community lot is the Consignment Store.The Consignment Store allows your inventor/sculptor/painter to sell their goods, they give it to the store and when another sim buys it, your sim gets money. Itβs not an automatic sell, which I personally found cute. Itβs a small detail that EA did keep in mind.
If you load sunset valley or riverview, you will get the option to add these community lots, so the neighbourhoods are still compatible.
In CAS I found new hairs! Very cute hair for females, not so much cute clothes β but blackgarden has told me they may be in the salon in game not in CAS. And I found something I wanted but forgot to ask EA! You got influence on your sims makeup with the use of transparency! No more fighting with the colors to make the makeup not THAT bold.. just use the transparency slider.
Something for the builders that I found: columns can be 1, 2 or 3 stories high, just by changing a slider. I also saw new terrain paints and trees and possibly plants. You can adjust the height of each roof individually, allowing more freedom with them. You can also add ceilings now and that was all the build stuff I found, there could be more.
Your sim can also buy community lots, there was something similar before, you could own a rabit hole. Now you own the entire lot, this means you can change the name of the lot, and build/buy on it. Also, a community lot has 3 levels. The higher the level the higher the more profit from that lot your sim gets. I do not know how this works exactly, cause in my mind β a park is free to use so no profit from that. This is something we will have to see when we got the game.
So we got the wonderful create a world tool, but it is tricky to use and some real effort needs to be put into it to learn it. Now you can also edit the neighbourhood, add trees everywhere and new lots of different sizes with the in-town editing tools, very useful if you just want a little change.
On Friday, april the 21st 2010, with the official release of the The Sims 3 Ambitions expansion pack only 13 days away, EA Netherlands had organized a sneakpreview at their offices.
Invited were quite a few Dutch fansites. For Sims 3 Nieuws the following teammembers were the lucky ones attending this preview: Xelles, TenerifeTerreur, Wimhuiskamp, Kyta and LotsofNothing.
On this page you will find an overview of all reviews, photoβs and videoβs and of course the latest news on this second expansion for The Sims 3.
Although we were playing this game most of the time, we also managed to save some time to meet and talk to members of the other fansites. Our impression: it was a successful and nice day.
You will see soon enough notice this is not an average preview. We decided to skip a lot of the basic information, because we at Sims 3 Nieuws have put lots of that on our site in earlier previews and their translations. You can find those in this post on our homepage.
We wanted to try and concentrate on some other things, amongst which the questions as posed by our members. And we wanted to show you some faces behind some of the other Dutch fansites in a few videoβs. We thought this to be nice, because Simsplayers are site-hoppers, that look around and visit more then just one (Dutch) fansite.
After the release of βThe Sims 3 Ambitionsβ we will have lots of time to write a real and extensive review with all basic information in it.
May 21 was the day, the sneak preview of Sims 3 Ambitions! After a long journey of about 3.5 hours we finally arrived at Schiphol at the office of Electronic Arts. WillemSV and MarkSP2 behalf SimsPlanet2 went to the event. Some other fansites were also present. As always, we were again welcomed by Anita EA. After waiting a while we could finally emerged into the room and we immediately behind the computer. After a short speech by Anita began the fun soon!
The version of Sims 3 ambitions that we could play during the sneak preview was an older beta version, so there were still some bugs in the game. Luckily the bugs were not serious and some have already been resolved in the final game. In any case, we could play without problems.
Unfortunately we could not sneak preview at the pictures and movies of Sims 3 make Ambitions. Therefore, this report contains a number of official images that are clickable for larger versions.
There is a new city, namely Twin Brook! It is a rather large and beautiful city. The old familiar buildings like hospitals and town in a revamped and there are new parks, fishing spots, a museum, swimming pool, cemetery, etc. There are many new buildings come. There is a laundromat where you wash dirty clothes, wait a bit and then dry in a dryer or the clothesline. When you recycle some useful stuff for a cheap price go down, such as ducks, paintings, books and music box. The fire station is open to everyone and is decorated with sliding poles, fire alarms and a Tatuu. At night, your Sims can hang out at the brand new bar, Rendez-vous. Finally, there are 2 scrap hope that your Sims can look for debris, you can use to find out.
I’m probably repeating myself, but why not see what Sims Universe has to say?
- When interior designer and stylist, customers will you ask for help. You can see this in the neighborhood view, you see symbols.
- View the notepad (updated information right corner) for relevant information about customers and job progress.
- Sims during the execution of Appeals rewarded by the terms of reference in the career panel about to meet. As your Sims’ work experiences, they will earn promotions.
- You can start career through the newspaper or computer. Click on the building can be.
- You must complete tasks during office hours.
- For example renovation. Then click on a building and then choose “to begin renovation. In the top left you see what your Sim is expected.
- Improved ratings will get extra special by adding gimmicks, a good effect on the characteristics of clients. This is about paintings or statues.
- During working hours you at the fire station, otherwise you hear the alarm bells not ring.
- As a firefighter you have to deal with fire, rescue (silly situations with llamas for example) or other abnormal things. Make sure you train your body (see the gym in the basement of the barracks).
- You have two types of fire: small and large. Small kitchens. Great, I can describe the following: Some Sims will attach to their house and not want to be evacuated immediately. Other Sims to be saved. Beech doors or windows extinguishing fires to help.
- If you see Sims earthquakes in distress in the survey area. You should be alert to unstable foundations.
Ambitions looks like a fun expansion pack with plenty of gameplay to discover in the various professions. They offer a welcome change in the work life of your Sims, although it will keep you, as player, more preoccupied with your Sims which may become tricky if multiple Sims in a family have a profession instead of a regular career. Unlike World Adventures, which is generally quite time consuming to play, this pack hooks straight into your Sims’ everyday lives. Unfortunately the Open for Business style gameplay would fit with Ambitions quite well, but there is no way I found to open up a shop and sell your creations; i.e. you’re not starting your own businesses, but really just making a change of career. Perhaps we’ll see something like that in a later expansion though. The game also contained some bugs, most notably one where the game didn’t load after activating an existing (pre-made) family. As the version we played was not final, I assume that the final (released) version will not contain such major defects.
Don’t forget to check out what The Sims Zone has to say!
As you may or may not already know, Sims 3 Ambitions is all about professions. But not the normal kind we know from The Sims, The Sims 2 and until now The Sims 3. No, in this pack, your Sims will have the possibility to get a job where you can actually see them at work. The already existing careers will not be affected by this expansion pack. And just so you know, it’s also not the same expansion as The Sims 2 Open for Business. There are definitely similarities between The Sims 2 Open for Business and The Sims 3 Ambitions.
Because of the many choices and the short period of time to play, I only focused on one specific profession, and took a look at some other professions other players were checking out. I chose to have my Sim become a Sculptor. This is something she could do from her home. To have this as an actual job, she had to visit city hall to register herself for self-employment. To make the sculptures, you just buy a sculpture work station from the Study section in Buy Mode. There are a bunch of other new objects there, like tattoo chairs, fire pole, work bench for scrap, drawing table and loads more.
Anyway. I made my Sim start working on those sculptures right away. The first option was to work with clay. As the sculpting skill gets higher, you get more options. I was surprised to see my Sim make a clay dining chair and a clay bar stool. But she did, they looked just like the wooden versions you can buy in the catalog π Your Sim can sell the objects made for money, or just display them at home. There’s an option to give the object a name. But you don’t have to do this. The game generates random funny names like “gum under your shoe”.
After a while, my Sim got the option to work with wood, then ice and eventually stone/rock. As the skill gets higher, you also get the option to make a sculpture from a Sim. This Sim has to be on the same lot. This can be challenging when you have to make a sculpture of someone you aren’t friends with and is working most of the time. I managed to do this eventually but the tech guy at the event accidentaly pulled some cables (or he pushed some buttons) causing the computers to lose power and with that obviously our games. I lost all my progress but it’s okay, since my Sim had already reached skill level 10. When you reach the highest skill level you get this certificate as proof of your achievement. I have seen a lot of the things my Sim could do in her sculpting profession and so far I really like it.
For the office of EA were a few team members from various fansites. We decided to go in there and we came Rens (Simlicious), Wim (Sims3Nieuws), Wouter (Simparool) and Mark (Simsplanet2) can soar. Then we went to the (extremely small) elevator to the second floor for the sneak preview. Once inside we went into the waiting room where we were warmly greeted by Anita. They had a lot of (unused) MySims and The Sims 3 games are in a kind of showcase. Many journals in the theme of The Sims 3, Spore and other EA games were ready to be read. When the others arrived and we all had something to drink we started the game. Anita told some first, while everyone in the computer Sat
I changed the settings here because my on-screen 800 Γ 600 was, and I can not stand. Then I clicked on the Twin Brook, and I must say that this is a tremendously detailed, comprehensive and open nearby. But here you can read later. Just for info, we have not played the Gold version
Xelles had a sim created and of course we wanted to see how the time travel went. So the sim in there sent back in time to go. The image in the time machine than credible shivering, you can clearly see that there is a lot happening. And then the stories. I can not repeat verbatim, but this is what some said: “Your sim is in the midst of an uprising in France is being overrun by a horde of rebels. The captain was a little man with a huge mouth.
Personally I find this way of Napoleon to put down very funny. And it gives directly, that it will be worth it to see what happens when your sim all the time travel.
And now the pictures. We were no pictures of the game screen making, hence the chosen angles.
- Some new types of roads. 3 We have seen that example in the World Create a tool to use soon.
- There are many new trees, 9 to be exact. They look somewhat wilder, typical swamp trees.
- The trampoline is square, and can jump more Sims simultaneously. Your Sim can also fall off.
- There are five types of digital photo frames. You can take pictures and the frames do.
- Right of the game is the information updated menu, usually you get a pop-up, now a menu with various news and other things.
- You can now customize ceilings, floors just like you can do.
- There are two new washing machines and dryers 2. The washing machines and dryers when they are vibrating.
- Scrap yard and his new community lots where you can find lots of dirt (can be useful for creating new things).
- Twin Brook is a foggy area, with many marshes. Sometimes the district sunny, sometimes cold and gray with many low-lying mist.
- The fireman’s pole you can use to climb up or down slide.
- Jobs by location: fire, stylist and tattooist. Jobs without Location: ghost hunter, private investigator and interior.
- Twin Brook is also the Dutch name of the game.
- In Twin Brook will find a beautiful outdoor theater called the wicker.
- Had things: dry wipes, liquid detergent, washing powder, fabric softener, folded clothes, the washing machine, clothes basket, clothes rack, rack and dryer.
- Only the washing line, washing machine, dryer and basket have been useful for things. The rest is decoration.
- The washing machine does about 45 minutes to wash. In Sims, this time not so long.
- When doing the laundry can be set to normal or delicate. Clothes drying is from the dryer or the clothesline.
- There are probably no SimPoints 1000. You will get free items like hairstyles registration of the game. This replaces the points.
- New entertainment games include: the portable gnoepset (throwing sticks, sort of bunnies to topple bowling), trampoline.
- There are four new beds. 2 single beds and two double beds.
- A ventilation unit is for decoration on roofs.
- Sims leave piles of clothes lying when dressing. This can take up and wash. An example of a laundry room is convenient.
- You can include using the computer at the city hall and registering as an independent entrepreneur. Examples of self-employed: painter, sculptor and inventor. There are more examples.
- A Sim can get a bell, then a pop-up is for a culinary competition. Then they prepare something and make it out of the restaurant in the neighborhood.
- In Twin Brook find an old trail. This trail can not use it for decoration around.
- There are new columns to 3 storeys high. These are very nice to stately homes.
- Twin Brook found in both ancient and modern houses. There are small houses but big villas. Also you will find tree-like houses.
- It is possible to own a fire station building and everything in it.
- There are 2 new fireplaces, one lower and one higher.
- There are five new windows, a modern and some old-fashioned windows.
- There are also seven new normal doors.
- Furthermore, there are 7 new door gates.
- In the build menu you will find one under a new wallpaper for walls tab sets. Here are some sets of wallpaper.
- There are dozens of new walls and floors.
- It is now possible to the edge of your floor to adjust color (such as a balcony, stairwell or floating tiles).
- There are no new roofs, no shapes and colors.
- It is possible to individually adapt roofs with a slope tool. If you have high and low roofs without cheats.
- There are 3 new bushes and a new flower for outdoor use.
- You will find 5 new terrain types in the game.
- Unfortunately, there is nothing new for bathrooms, except the laundry (washing clothes with the related objects and decoration).
- There are new kitchen cabinets, tables and chairs.
- There are no fewer than 15 new lights in both modern and ancient styles.
- There are no new plants for indoors, but there is a massive amount of decorations (including for fire and wax).
- You can also hang paintings above each other (if it is not possible).
- A new fire alarm, which can also be found in the fire station.
- The new in-game world editing tool, you lots from 10×10 to 64×64 sites. How this works exactly, we have not tested.
- Your Sim can have a job at a time. If you want another job, you can simply pick a new profession, then accept it and then deleted the old.
- The birth of a Sim is still at home, not in the hospital.
- There are different heights when you have water in Twin Brook. Normally this is only one level. There is a reservoir in Twin Brook for the water to settle.
- The SimBot you yourself through the bench (with found or purchased scrap), but is also available via cheats. The SimBot can destroy things like a refrigerator.
- You can put a tattoo even at home if you have equipment at home (you can find in buying mode), and have sense of putting a tattoo.
Q: What does the appeal of ghost hunter mean?
A: Seems what the Ghostbusters in the movie do. You should go to a house where “spirits” to the residents are bored. They look like a small ghost-like cloud that floats through the rooms. The intention is that your sim with a special gun that sucks up ghosts in a container. Container that comes into your inventory correctly, and you also can put in your home. You can also get ghost out of the container, but what exactly happened I do not know really.Q: What has changed now for job opportunities, because they said that “rabbit holes” not left, but you could do more at work?
A: Ambitions are now in cars (some already have) and professions. And those actions are thus the new careers that you can follow. Some professions have a corresponding building where you also can (fireman, stylist, inventor) and you can do from your home as a freelancer (Detective, Ghost Hunter, sculptor, etc.). You have full control over your sim and he is working, and all jobs have tasks you need to perform well. When a firefighter is that such a fire extinguishing (incidentally looks very nice), and the longer it takes you, the lower your point of extinguishing the fire. More information can be placed in our report.
Sims 2 Planet = SimsPlanet2 π
I will visit the event tomorrow with my crew member WillemSV.
π You forgot me, I’m going to the sneak-preview to π
SmartSim – http://www.jimmymulder.nl
Is EA going to allow fansites to take screens/videos???
Not for this one it appears. Maybe the Russian one will be better π
EA Russia also holds a meeting tomorrow..
We are allowed to bring screens and videos. π
Great:) Have fun there!
I’m nerves π
I’m excited!
I think these two events will be better than the London’s one, many more sites are attending! π
But they are Dutch
very likely snooty sims will be going to (not sure though, but past if past serves, he will be there too)
As soon as Snooty confirms it (I think he was debating) then I’ll put his site up π
Please if pictures allowed take some pictures of the improved Edit town mode π (How lots are placed etc )
Do they ever hold fan events in the US?
@Chris – They do…but sometimes it feels like they are once in a blue moon. Not sure why they don’t do it much. @Simillion – I can’t remember, that would be up to EA Australia.
Do they ever hold fan events such as this in Australia?!
I thought you might have your special plans for this post jud, So I left off posting it until you did
@ConnorJack: “But they are Dutch”
The Sims Zone are British. I wonder if you are going to criticise them for going to the Dutch event in the same way you criticised German sites for attending the UK event?
3 parts of my review are online now π
Wow, the Google translation results of the Simparool Forum Q&A is on crack. Β For example, “is my hair okay? Β I can not see from here. Look in the mirror, maybe help it. ” Β That is a horrible translation for what I’m assuming it to mean how the new hairstyles look. Β I understood a lot of it but it was only because I am already familiar with the new features and what not from other articles, so I figured what it meant by reading between the lines. Β The fact that it says, “but you can’t even want to buy for 40,000 points,” when referring to the robot is enough proof. Β Oh well. Β I’m sure there isn’t anything new to discover at this point (I wish there was, actually).
thanks for posting these jud. do u think the hole we saw in the vid sas what they’re talking about?
I wonder that too. I think they might be referring to that.
@uknortherner
a) I mean “but they are Dutch” in a way that most of the articles will probably be Dutch not English
b) TheSimsZone isn’t really British considering the webmasters live in The Netherlands
@Connor Jack; If i made the whole preview I will try to translate it to English. But I’m not the best in English, so it can be a bit bad.
“Wow, the Google translation results of the Simparool Forum Q&A is on crack. For example, βis my hair okay? I can not see from here. Look in the mirror, maybe help it. β That is a horrible translation for what Iβm assuming it to mean how the new hairstyles look.”
Lol, it wasn’t a sims related question. Just a little joke. π
I wish I had time to read any of These posts
No 1000 simpoints… π
No pics or vids… π₯
Nefje, thank you for clarifying that. Β I had wondered why there were many irrelevant Q&A’s. Β π
There is no EA Australia.
Australia, like New Zealand, South Africa, and parts of the Middle East fall under the British Distribution Area, which means we only have sales offices in those areas (usually outsources to other companies too)
All the sites who attended to this preview were Dutch indeed (at least Dutch webmasters). However at least some of them will write their previews in English as well. Sims 3 Nieuws will post the English and Dutch versions simultaneously, that’s why it will take some longer to get the preview online. π
To clarify some of the above:
SNW aka Simsnetwork/Simsnetwerk are English/Dutch sites. The webmiss (me!) is Dutch. But we always publish our articles in understandable English.
The Sims Zone is still a British site, but the webmaster (ChEeTaH) is Dutch. Since he doesn’t get an invitation from EA UK, I don’t see how this isn’t fair if he gets invited at EA NL. Plus it’s a lot cheaper for EA to just invite us in our own country.
I don’t see why it’s a problem even if we are from another country. Is this just frustration from people who didn’t get invited? Because that’s not our fault to begin with and we always try to get “new” fansites included. For example SmartSim wasn’t on the invitation list. So I just brought him along as a second person for SNW. EA in our country is pretty nice to the fansites and new fansites join the events all the time.
It’s EA’s decision to not allow pics or videos from the game. That doesn’t make our articles less interesting. I don’t like it either but there’s nothing we can change about this. Maybe our readers could appreciate the reading bit a little more. Use your imagination and be patient. It’s only two more weeks before everyone can play it!
Btw Jud thanks for the links here, I really appreciate it!
The final SimsPlanet2 sneakpreview is online. Please use Google Translate or something like that, because it’s in Dutch. Enjoy:
http://www.simsplanet2.com/site/de-sims-3-ambities-sneakpreview/
I can’t wait till they host an event in the 3 countries that I can be in π
TSR report in Dutch and English:
http://www.thesimsresource.com/staff/sww/blog/view
π