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NCsoft's Aion perches atop the US PC charts for Sept.
If the packed queues didn't hint that this was coming, NPD stated that NCsoft's Aion was the top-selling game in the US during September. The MMO overthrew the virtual souls of The Sims 3 -- not that it matters to those ever-present dolls of the PC charts, as the franchise occupies two other spots on the "top 20" with Sims 2 bundles.Champions Online showed up to the party in third place, with World of Warcraft taking three separate spots on the chart. Check out the full list after the break.
Gitcha SecuROM de-authorization tools! Git'em ova hur!
EA's perpetual joke -- on you -- comes to an ironic end on April Fools' Day with the release of de-authorization tools for each of its 19 PC games with SecuROM copy protection (full list and download links after the break). If you've been working on that class action lawsuit against EA for bundling SecuROM with The Sims 2: IKEA Home Stuff, you can drop it now -- your flat-pack furniture can finally be moved to a new machine. In the spirit of generosity, EA's giving you two options for managing your authorizations: Option 1: Download and install yet another "tool" in order to scan your computer for EA's SecuROM games and find out how many computer authorizations you have (or don't have) left for each title. Option 2: Cut to the chase and download the game-specific de-authorization tool you need.
World of Warcraft tops most played list of 2008
Nielsen Research has published its January through October numbers about the top 10 PC games and top 10 consoles by amount of time played. Once again World of Warcraft tops the charts. In fact, WoW has more time played than the other nine titles listed - combined.Coming in at position 6 is Runescape, the browser-based game that could. It had just slightly less share than The Sims 2. Numbers for only October are available on the Nielsen website and show a different makeup for numbers 2-10, with WoW still in first. We can only imagine what this data will look like for November 2008 with the added game time of those who bought Wrath of the Lich King.
Age of Conan continues sales domination
Another week, another round of retail domination by Funcom's indefatigable Age of Conan. They managed to sustain the momentum they demonstrated last week with the latest round of NPD PC game sales information for the week ending June 7. Age of Conan came in at number 1 again, while World of Warcraft followed up in its various retail incarnations in the 5, 7, and 9 spots. While we doubt they're even close to selling through the one million units they've shipped so far, things have to look extremely promising on their end.It's interesting to see the the twin juggernauts of Age of Conan and World of Warcraft so consistently dominate the PC sales charts. Where once Sims 2 and its expansions were the reigning retail champions, they're finally receiving some long overdue walloping at the hands of the best in the MMO genre. We anxiously await the day when Warhammer Online joins AoC and WoW on the sales charts and completely closes out the top 10.
Cinemassively: Beast
Sometimes a video provokes so much emotion that you forget it's not real. In the words of Beast creator, Dr. Nemesis, "So far, facial animation has been very limited in Machinima. To get emotion across, most of us have had to rely on good acting, a well chosen sound track, and the viewers imagination, but not facial expression." In his current film, he uses Crazy Talk, Motionbuilder, and Sims 2, to overcome this issue.When the scene opens, you see two men. One is tied up and the other is yelling at him. As the story unfolds, you learn that the man in captivity has deeply wronged the other man, to the point where he has nothing left to lose. With each facial expression, punch thrown, and gut-wrenching confession, you feel his pain.While this is not traditional MMO Machinima, you can learn from the tactics he used. In the future, Second Life will be part of a hybrid-Machinima movement. Filmmakers are already using multiple programs to blend their works, such as MovieStorm, Poser, Crazy Talk, and iClone. As merging mediums becomes popular, I believe we'll see a whole new level of quality work coming from the community.
Wii Warm Up: Port authority
EA just announced that the Wii is getting The Sims 2: Pets and really, we can't say we're particularly thrilled. In fact, we're officially torn. The Wii, as a system, is terribly young, despite all the SuperCube remarks some folks like to make. The Wii only has a couple of years behind it, after all. Because of that, we're trying to be patient. One can't expect a revolutionary control system to immediately take root and manifest itself in awesomeness. So we're waiting. And while we appreciate the urge to throw us a few bones while we're waiting, we think we may speak for everyone when we say that, really, we have enough ports. Games that released year are ... well, they're pretty much last year's games, and if we wanted them, we probably played them then. Sure, we understand that if there's a buck to be made by printing a few more discs, someone's going to rush in to make it, but it just seems more and more gratuitous with every new generation. Enough already!Or are we alone in this sentiment? Maybe we just don't have enough love for the Sims any longer. It's hard, when we're so busy thinking of MySims.There is one thing that's interesting about The Sims 2: Pets, and that's the possibility of online features. Hurray![Thanks for the Sims tip, Limpit!]
EA announces The Sims Stories
Just in case you haven't had your fill of being an insidiously manipulative being who rearranges the furniture in a man's house while he sleeps, EA has announced a trio of new Sims games. The Sims Stories is composed of three different standalone titles, namely Life Stories, Pet Stories and Castaway Stories. Getting all three will presumably allow you to follow the journey of a stranded couple forced to eat their beagle and flee from vicious seagulls intent on pecking their eyes out.That's not true, but it should give you another idea of what the standout feature is for The Sims Stories -- it's, umm, a storyline! According to EA's website, "the new and engaging directed Story mode" promises to "take your Sims through a unique and entertaining storyline full of romance, conflict and dramatic twists." We're guessing said twist involves the the entire universe being uninstalled.EA is labeling the games as "laptop friendly," which really means they don't require fancy 3D graphics cards to run. Get involved in a compelling, virtual love story on your laptop this February.[Via The Last Boss. Thanks Tom.]
Sims 2 Pets will be shedding on the Mac
See Sim Spot run. See Sim Spot chew your Sim's shoes and then chase the Sim neighbor's Sim cat up a tree. Life is about to get a lot hairier for your Sims, but at least Mac gamers will be getting their creature comforts in November, just a few weeks after PC owners. The Sims 2 Pets is the fourth expansion pack in the series, and will feature over 80 breeds of dogs and cats. Better get out the Sim vacuum. See also: Sims on a plane
Sims 2 wins best Mac game award
Aspyr Media's latest newsletter features a summary of the company's participation at last month's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, where they took home the Best Mac OS X Game award for The Sims 2. Also recognized in the Apple Design Awards was runner-up Wing Nuts 2: Raina's Revenge from Freeverse. While Apple isn't doing much for Mac gaming on the hardware front, Aspyr discusses their plans for using OS X Leopard's XCode developer toolset in future Mac game releases. You can download the Universal Binary update for The Sims 2 here.
Sims 2 goes Universal, Apple posts University trailer
These must've slipped past our radar, but last week Aspyr Media gave Universal Binary powers to The Sims 2. A patch has been released that will update any previous version to 1.0 Rev D. Along with UB support in this patch is also a list of fixes that I found over at Inside Mac Games, like zooming with the Mighty Mouse scroll ball and fixing a crash when running the game on 10.4 with some NVIDIA video cards. You can grab the update at Macgamefiles.com.Also on the Sims 2 topic is a trailer Apple posted for University, a new pack that brings the college years to your Sims characters complete with a college town, partying and the obligatory pranks. The Sims 2 University Expansion Pack can be had at the Apple Store.
