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Electronic Arts has announced that The Sims 3: Ambitions expansion pack has been released. The second expansion pack for The Sims 3 allows players to pursue a variety of paths and careers in their Sims’ lives that in turn "affect their overall gameplay experience and neighborhood." While on the job, the players will have direct control over their Sims’ work and can choose how to spend their days.

"The Sims community has long wanted to control their Sims actions at work and now with the seamless open neighborhood, those actions have a direct impact on the town and other Sims," said Scott Evans, General Manager of The Sims at EA. "Offering a variety of new and exciting careers, players can choose to complete their work tasks in a heroic manner or take the deviant route."

Players can choose to hunt down vengeful spirits as the ghost hunter, invent brilliant and potentially destructive gadgets as an inventor, craft glorious masterpieces as a sculptor, dole out experimental medicine as a doctor, save lives as a firefighter, and solve riveting cases by any means necessary as an investigator with dozens of cases to solve and numerous clues to find. For the first time, players will be in charge of how their Sims' career progresses and decide if they will work for good or evil, pursue creative endeavors or technical affairs, change the town for the better or wreak havoc on everyone's homes. Choices made while playing the new careers and activities such as stylist, architecture designer and tattoo artist directly impact the look and feel of the town and other Sims. For example, as a player you get to determine what a Sims' new appearance will look like, whether that be a hip makeover or a new tattoo fit for a rockstar. Additionally, players will be able to explore Twinbrook, an entirely new playable town in The Sims 3 Ambitions, where they will be able to meet new locals, explore their surroundings and find new employment opportunities.

There will also be a hot, new soundtrack to go along with the gameplay. Over a dozen new artists have laid down their tracks in Simlish including GRAMMY Award-winners Lady Antebellum and Toni Braxton, and new-comers Rise Against, Charice, Neon Trees, The Acorn and more! Players will want to turn up the volume and sing along with the new Simlish songs.

The Sims 3 Ambitions:
Widen your Sim's horizons with a bunch of killer new career opportunities. With The Sims™ 3 Ambitions, decide whether your Sim will be the brave town hero or cause loads of mischief among their neighbors. Make your Sim save the day as a brave firefighter, change the town as a leading architect, or live on the edge as a tattoo artist. Will your Sim find success as a billionaire high-tech inventor or eke out a living as a bumbling mad scientist? Will they uncover secrets as a private investigator by dusting for prints or roughing up a suspect for information? Their future is entirely in your hands!

• For the first time ever, you control your Sim's actions and interactions while they're on the job.
  
• Be a hero or mess with the neighbors as a firefighter, private investigator, doctor, ghost hunter, and more!
  
• Choose how your Sim's career progresses - will they work for good or evil, pursue creative endeavors, rise to success as a mogul, or shirk responsibility as a slacker?
  
• Your Sim's on-the-job choices now change their town and affect other Sims as well. Modify the town’s structure as an architect or set neighborhood fashions as a stylist.
  
• Enjoy all-new skills and activities! Master the arts of inventing, sculpting, and tattooing, and use your skills to earn Simoleons.

Requirements:
• Operating System: Mac OS X v10.5.7 Leopard or higher
  
• Processor: Intel Core Duo Processor - This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems.
  
• Memory: 2GB RAM
  
• Hard Drive: At least 6.1 GB of hard drive space, with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content and saved games.
  
• Graphics: ATI X1600 or Nvidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100. This game will not run on the GMA 950 class of integrated video cards.
  
• Requires: The SIMS 3™ (Mac)
  
• MAC OS X Supported Video Cards: NVIDIA GeForce series 7300, 7600, 8600, 8800, 9400M, 9600M GT, GT 120, GT 130
  ATI Radeon™ series X1600, X1900, 2400, 2600, 3870, 4850, 4870
  Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) GMA x3100

Electronic Arts

TransGaming

The Sims 3: Ambitions

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The BBC recently posted an update on the status of the first installment of Doctor Who: The Adventure Games. The downloadable series of four 'interactive episodes' based on the popular British sci-fi television series are scheduled to debut with the first episode, City of the Daleks, on June 5th. In the game the Doctor and his companion Amy must travel to the Daleks' home planet in an effort to save Earth.

The whole team has been working so hard in these last few weeks. This is known as the 'crunch' period and lasts until the game is mastered. Crunch seems to be an inevitable result of game development - we try to schedule to avoid it, but never succeed in doing so. People are so passionate about the project and want to do everything to get the game as good as possible. A small bonus is that those that work late nights at Sumo do get treated to a takeaway dinner that they then eat at their desks. Personally I prefer the food from the Chinese takeaway over that from the Indian takeaway - but, frankly, the focus remains firmly on the game rather than paying too much mind to the culinary experience.

Visually the game looks stunning. A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of voice directing Matt and Karen - we were recording the lines for a later episode, and they were thrilled to see how they look in their virtual environment. They were both really enthusiastic - it was such fun.

Steven Moffat will be given a copy of the final game in the next day or two. Steven is quite a gamer - he liked what he saw when he played the alpha version. I really hope that he is pleased with the final product. I am sure he will be - the stealth / adventure hybrid conveys the essence of Doctor Who in a very dynamic and exciting way - the way that games can.

BBC: Doctor Who Adventure Game Update

Doctor Who: The Adventure Games

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Blizzard Entertainment has revealed a new addition to its web page with the unveiling of concept art featuring work from the early design of the company's upcoming action RPG Diablo III. The update is the latest of Blizzard's planned regular updates to the concept art page with never-before-seen pieces of artwork from its various games.

Diablo III will pick up the story twenty years after the events of Diablo II. Mephisto, Diablo, and Baal have been defeated, but the Worldstone, which once shielded the inhabitants of the world of Sanctuary from the forces of both the High Heavens and the Burning Hells, has been destroyed, and evil once again stirs in Tristram. Playing as a hero from one of five distinct character classes, players will acquire powerful items, spells, and abilities as they explore new and familiar areas of Sanctuary and battle hordes of demons to safeguard the world from the horrors that have arisen.

Diablo III Concept Art

Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo III

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NCsoft and Paragon Studios have provided a new update for Going Rogue, the upcoming expansion for its super hero themed MMO, City of Heroes. The update is a video featuring commentary from the development team and gameplay footage from Going Rogue.

The add-on will feature a new alignment system which will allow heroes and villains the chance to switch sides, two new primary fictional characters, and the new threat of the parallel universe known as Praetoria.

Watch the first episode of our all-new ViDoc series - "Prelude to Going Rogue." Ghost Falcon, Positron, War Witch and the rest of the development team talk about what's at the heart and soul of the world's most popular super-powered MMO. This is your chance to see exclusive gameplay footage from City of Heroes® Going Rogue™, and learn more about.....lumberjacks?

City Of Heroes: Prelude To Going Rogue

NCsoft

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City of Heroes

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