Electronic Arts seems to have a reputation for buying successful gaming companies and eventually closing them. This appears to be what has happened with Maxis Emeryville, the developer of SimCity.
Simcity 4 Downtown Rail Junction by haljackey, on Flickr
The games created at Maxis will still be around and they remain the property of EA. But, the development process of those games is being folded into EA’s other development studios. Continue reading
Iris Ophelia has an article up on New World Notes (NWN) about her experience in the as yet unreleased SIMS-4. It is a long article for NWN. See: The Good, the Bad, and the Unclear: My First Impressions of The Sims 4 Create-a-Sim Demo. (Translating for non-SIMS people, Create-A-SIM means create an avatar.)
She writes about what she liked and didn’t. For instance the SIMS developers are going for a CG look not a photo-realistic look. Hats can be worn over hair… apparently any hat over any hair. I wonder how they did that? I would love to be able to wear hats with any of my do’s. Continue reading