September 2002 News Archive

I might be a little late in announcing this, but I was on vacation. ;) Maxis has officially announced its release of The Sims' latest expansion pack, Unleashed, which offers new careers, objects, and the ability to purchase pets and bring them home.

You can read the official press release here. Note that to install Unleashed successfully, you must have the original The Sims game.

Maxis moved the launch date for SimCity 4 and The Sims (PS2) to January 2003 for quality assurance and final testing purposes. Moving the release date will allow Maxis a little extra elbow room to polish both games. SimCity.com will be ramped, and look forward to additional up-to-date content coming to SimCity.com soon.

Maxis has announced today that on Thursday night at midnight (presumably Pacific time, though this was not explicitly indicated), it will be relocating the SimCity 3000 web site to make room for the new SimCity 4 web site.

We can now easily speculate, with good reason, that there is a clear indication that Maxis is very ready to launch SimCity 4 within the next couple months.

Maxis intends to move the SimCity 4 site into the space at SimCity.com, and will provide a temporary link to the old site, for easy access. They also promise to set up a more memorable URL for the SimCity 3000 site as soon as they can.

Once SimPage.net gets word on this, we'll let you know.

Edit: The SimCity 3000 web site moved to SimCity3000Unlimited.ea.com

Maxis has updated the SimCity 4 web site with a wealth of new information about the game.

The first of three new articles takes a look the powerful effects engine that handles water, clouds, and many of the other intricate details you see in screenshots.

The second article details, from the programmer's perspective, how the transportation system is analyzed and designed.

The third article explains how the simulation is being changed to allow you to grow your city the way you want, regardless of whether you want a small farming community or a bustling metropolis.

If you haven't read any of the 7 previous articles, now's a great time to do that too! Enjoy!