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The Sims Get Occult With Makin' Magic

Posted by simoniker on from the ouija-board-ouija-board dept.

Thanks to GamersHell for posting a new press release and screenshots revealing The Sims: Makin' Magic, the 'expansion pack finale' for The Sims. In this 7th and final add-on expansion to the all-time top selling game, "..your Sims can cast magic spells to improve their love life, wreak havoc on visiting neighbors, or put an end to their tedious chores." Oh, and in case you thought all this expansion-pack wizardry was side-effect free, "..every spell has a unique Backfire, including toad plagues, donkey heads, and lightning strikes."

19 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe by GallicoTheGreat · · Score: 4, Funny

    Maxis can cast a spell of their own and make the expansion less than $50

    1. Re:Maybe by leifm · · Score: 4, Informative

      I could be wrong, but I believe most if not all of the expansions retailed at about $29.99.
      And if this is the last expansion does that mean they are finally going to do some real work and produce a Sims 2, rather than milking the same damn game for years?

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      "Windows Me offers tremendous reliability and stability improvements..." -- Paul Thurott
    2. Re:Maybe by dragoncortez · · Score: 4, Informative

      Yes. They've already started on it. I believe they are trying to introduce aging in The Sims 2. Here's a link to Gamespot's coverage.

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      Making stupid comments so you don't have to.
    3. Re:Maybe by Matrix272 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Even at $30 a pop, that's 7 expansions, and the original game, plus The Sims Online, which carries a $10 monthly fee. If you buy the game, all the addons, and The Sims Online, you're up to $380, plus another $10 per month. That's a bit much. $400 for ANY game is too much. For that kind of money, I think they should give you a certificate for The Sims 2 for FREE, provided that you bought The Sims, and at least 5 of the addons.

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      "It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance
  2. At least it's the last one... by Decaffeinated+Jedi · · Score: 5, Funny
    Spell-casting in the Sims, huh?

    Personally, I'm holding out for the Sims Online expansion pack that will allow me to spend all day roaming around the local countryside killing rats with my +2 Decorative Lamp of Smiting in an ongoing quest to level-up my mage/accountant.

    DecafJedi

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    DecafJedi
    my weblog: apropos of something
    1. Re:At least it's the last one... by leifm · · Score: 2, Funny

      I'm holding out out for the Sims Serial Killer and/or the Sims Dysfunctional Family, the possibilities there are numerous.

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      "Windows Me offers tremendous reliability and stability improvements..." -- Paul Thurott
    2. Re:At least it's the last one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      You obviously haven't been creative enough with your Sims... those features have been built in from day one!

      Once I got bored with the day-to-day lives of my Sims, I saw to it that no neighbor returned alive from a visit. Who wants to be a boring stab-wound serial killer when you can force your neighbors to swim forever until they fall asleep and drown, or trap your neighbor in a room and set off fireworks until they burn to death?

      And if building individual 1x1 rooms around your wife and kids where they soil themselves and can't even lie down to sleep (and eventually die from starvation if left there) isn't dysfunctional, I don't want to know what is.

    3. Re:At least it's the last one... by leifm · · Score: 2, Funny

      That's not good enough. I want to decapitate my neighbors wife and put her head on a pole in his yard, and then throw his dog on the grill.

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      "Windows Me offers tremendous reliability and stability improvements..." -- Paul Thurott
  3. Why does this sound like... by anicklin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    the Sims meets Harry Potter?

    IANAP (I am not a player) but I thought the whole point and appeal of the Sims was to be semi-realistic (which basically means that people can be who they really want to be with no tangible consequences). But really. Magic spells? Next we'll be seeing Age of Sims: Post-Industrial War Expansion pack.

    1. Re:Why does this sound like... by Ian+Jefferies · · Score: 2, Funny

      What? You don't cast spells in your everyday activities?

      Phah! You Normal =P

      You meant muggle :)

      --
      A physicist is an atom's way of thinking about atoms
  4. This sounds like trouble by The+Evil+Couch · · Score: 4, Funny

    "... wreak havoc on visiting neighbors, or put an end to their tedious chores."

    why do I get the mental image of a Sim looking at a neighbor and a sink full of dishes and then yelling, "VAS POR FLAM!"?

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    1. Re:This sounds like trouble by Carrion+Creeper · · Score: 3, Funny

      Hours of gameplay will be added by wandering around failing to figure out that the nightshade is growing in the neighbor's flower garden.
      Not that I could ever identify with that problem...

  5. Great...just what people want to see.... by Lord_Dweomer · · Score: 3, Funny
    I can see it now....

    (Wife comes home to find husband cheating with neighbor)

    Wife: You cheating bastard!!!
    Husband: I can explain!
    Wife: Corp Por!
    Husband: (sizzle)

    I hope to god this never makes Sims Online. They'd have to rename it to

    Sims: The Return of Lord British

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    Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
  6. Oh, great by 0x0d0a · · Score: 2, Funny

    In the Bible Belt, one already has to put up with Southern Baptists constantly complaining about the Satanism in Harry Potter. I'm going to love the effects of this.

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    May we never see th
  7. The title of the next expansion pack: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    The Sims: We Have Actually Run Out Of Ideas So Here's Some More Furniture

  8. Yep, YANAP by fm6 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    The "realism" of The Sims is much overrated. Their stock of behaviors is limited, and even simple interactions can get stuck in various kinds of deadlock. If you micromanage their lives you can get them mates and fancy jobs, but that gets old quickly. I suspect most players just use a well-known cheat to award themselves lots of money and then spend all their time building fancy dream mansions. Which is sort of fun, but ...

    Magic is not new to The Sims. The very first expansionsion pack (now part of the basic product) includes a Genie that grants wishs that have nasty side effects, and a potions set that with various silly, but basically pointless, effects.

  9. Hmmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Is there a "beating a dead horse" spell?

  10. I can't wait for the next one by garymcg · · Score: 2, Funny

    The last one? Damn! I was hoping they would come out with The Simpranos expansion pack so I could build the pork sausage store and start shaking down the neighbors businesses.

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    --If 50,000 people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing.
  11. But... by StarFace · · Score: 2, Interesting
    ...I thought playing a lot of chess would make me the best doctor in town!

    If I recall correctly, the potions you could make were done using a huge chemistry set. There was no allusion to magic.

    The Sims started farely realistic, I mean, as much as one could in "real" time on four year old technology. They stayed pretty close to that formula with a few silly diversions here and there. The genie, a voodoo doll. When I say their formula was realism, I don't mean it actually is realistic, but it is the basic intention.

    Sims 2 might be a bit more interesting on the realism score. At least from the screenshots I have seen, it looks like they have spent a lot of time on the emotions of the Sims, and giving them unique and varied responses to situations. Sims will also grow up into adults, get old, and then die. So you could play a family for generations, instead of the same twenty-somethings and bratty six year olds year in and year out. Chasing the green.

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    V