Ok, the title is a bit of a purposeful dig as I’m not one of those folks who really understands the attractions of The Sims anymore. I enjoyed 1 and 2 enough, but frankly I refuse to rebuy the same add ons and modifications a third time EA!

But for those dedicated to the cause its important to know that the game has already gotten a nice little upgrade which is available here on Filefront.

The Sims 3 Retail patch will bring your physical copy of the game up to the most current form. (This patch is not meant for digital download versions of the game).

You can download the fix here a list of the fixes can be found after the jump:

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There are a plethora of playable demos for gamers to try out this week including Trine, New Star Soccer 4, The Battle for Westnoth, Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships, ArmA 2, P.U.R.E., Alien Arena 2009, Crazy Cooking and Hell Throne Lepteria as well as the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince demo featured earlier this week. There’s also a  demo out for the Axis and Allies World at War mod WW2Total.

Mac users can download The Battle for Westnoth and Warzone 2100 for Mac OS X. Linux fans haven’t been left out of the line up. You can snag the Alien Arena 2009 Linux demo.

Links and details on all demos follow the jump.

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There’s a playable demo up for the PC version of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince game. This free Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Playable Demo will give you a taste of potion making, dueling and playing as the Captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team.

Gamers and Harry Potter fans should watch the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Quidditch Preview for four minutes of gameplay footage. The new motion capture setup for quidditch is really great. It’s more believable than ever before.

Check out the star studded Making of the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer as well.

So, do you like drinking Dr. Pepper while you’re playing your EA Games? If so, you’re going to really enjoy this piece of news.

Electronic Arts and Dr. Pepper have entered into an agreement that will see Dr. Pepper providing codes for exclusive DLC for EA Games throughout 2010, starting with The Sims 3.
If you’re a Sims 3 fan, you can grab codes from Dr. Pepper that will unlock one-of-a-kind beach party items, or everything you need for a perfect tailgating party.

Tony Jacobs, Vice President of Marketing for Dr Pepper, said,

“The first-of-its-kind partnership with EA will give Dr Pepper fans an unrivaled experience by adding exclusive value to their games such as new levels and items. EA is the only media company that could reach our target audience with the breadth and depth of titles for gamers on any gaming platform.”

Honestly, these types of arrangements are going to become more and more prevalent in the future. As gaming becomes more and more accepted by mainstream marketers, there will be more tie-in opportunities to reach gamers as a market. This will end up being good for the industry, and good for individual gamers as well, as it will give us more opportunities to get cool little add-ons for our games like these.

You can check out the full text of the press release after the break.

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Tom Felton, better known to some many as Draco Malfoy, leads gamers into a virtual Hogwarts for the Making of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince part one. Most of your favorite actors and actresses from the movies are in the video including Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter), Bonny Wright (Jinny Weasley), and Emma Watson (Hermione Granger). You’ll get glimpses of new story elements and characters; the most fantastic of them being the castle itself.

You’ll hear from EA developers Kevin Tuite, Art Director, and Chris Roberts, Lead Designer, of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince game as well as Executive Producer Jonathan Bunney as they talk about the new virtual Hogwarts built from all the information from the books and films. Gamers will be able to fully explore the castle and the grounds for the first time. You also play seeker, mix potions, and duel other students in addition to completing the storyline.

Blake Griffin, top draft pick for 2009, has been chosen as the face of NCAA Basketball 10. The former Oklahoma Sooner has earned accolades that include Associated Press, the Big 12, John Wooden, Naismith and Sporting News Player of the Year awards.

“Seeing myself on the cover of NCAA Basketball 10 is such a great tribute to my time at Oklahoma,” said Griffin. “I loved playing in front of passionate fans and competing against some of the best schools in the country. Now I am looking forward to competing at the next level against the best players in the world.”

EA Sports has fine tuned the new game engine introduced in NCAA Basketball 09 for a more polished game. NCAA Basketball 10 is due out Holiday 2009 for the PS3 and Xbox 360.
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Spore: Galactic Adventures has landed at retailers near you. This expansion adds new adventures for your favorite Spore creations letting them explore the universe as Space Captains. Level your creature up by completing missions and battling in intergalactic arenas. There are 16 missions included with the expansion as well as an adventure creator that allows you to create custom missions that you can share at the Official Spore and Spore Creature Creator Site.

Once you sign up for an account, you can also download free adventures created by the gang responsible for Robot Chicken. They promise they are  “Rated TEEN with Animated Blood, Crude Humor, Mild Fantasy Violence, and Mild Suggestive Themes by the ESRB”. Sounds great to me.

More details from the Spore Galactic Adventures press release follow the break.
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This week, Rock Band fans that play on the Wii can look forward to more tracks from Nine Inch Nails, the Dead Kennedys and Weezer. Dashboard Confessional, Free, The Cab and Scars on Broadway each have an original master track in the line up as well Testament and Staind.

The Rock Band DLC catalog swells to over 330 tracks for download with these releases. Although it still has along way to go to catch the robust offerings for Rock Band and Rock Band 2 on the Xbox 360 and PS3, it’s almost half way there.

It’s disappointing that there’s still no price cut available in the form of track packs. The Wii DLC is set up for individual downloads at $2.00 or 200 Wii points each with the exception of Thenewno2 “Yomp” which you can pick up for $1.00.
Here’s the full list of original master recordings coming out Tuesday June 23rd for the Wii:

• The Cab – “One of THOSE Nights”
• Dashboard Confessional – “Hands Down”
• Dead Kennedys – “California Uber Alles”
• Dead Kennedys – “Holiday in Cambodia”
• Dead Kennedys – “Police Truck”
• Free – “All Right Now”
• Nine Inch Nails – “Burn”
• Nine Inch Nails – “Capital G”
• Nine Inch Nails – Last”
• Scars on Broadway – “They Say”
• Staind – “This Is It”
• Testament – “Electric Crown”
• thenewno2 – “Yomp”
• Weezer – “Dreamin”
• Weezer – “The Greatest Man That Ever Lived”
• Weezer – “Troublemaker”

EA Sports has re-imagined its popular American football series, Madden NFL 10 Wii: Madden Showdown. Anyone who is looking for a straight port of Madden over to the Wii is in for a surprise. Changes go much further than game controls. A whole new set of gameplay options lets you throw the traditional rules out the window and play any way you want it. You can choose between an all passing or rushing offense for starters and then the options start putting the fantasy in football. Throw in invisibility or fumblitis into your game or go turbo if you just can’t wait to get your game on. Hit random and you’ll never know what rules you’ll be playing by.

There are a couple other additions to Madden NFL 10 for the Wii. The Prediction system encourages you to bet on the winning team and one other closing stat such as longest field goal or last team to score. There’s also a kind of mini game focused around spotlight moments where you’ll personally have the chance to make or break a pivotal game moment like a sack attack or sprint to the endzone.
Madden NFL 10 Wii: Madden Showcase is a party game rather than a straight up sports title. You’ve played Madden for years with it’s ultra realism. It’s time to take a walk on the wild side. See the complete list of features after the break.
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The Sims 3 is the next generation of the original Maxis hit god game, The Sims. The game is definitely a technical evolution as I described in my impressions on Sims 3 Creation, Buy, and Build mode design mechanics, but how does it actually play after you’ve spent hours designing your Sims and their new homes.

Sims 3 breaks the sims out of the confines of their beautifully constructed prisons and allows them to freely roam the world around them. You can follow your sim to work at the theater or the military base or watch as they jog, bike, or drive to the beach for a sunny afternoon. You can walk around town collecting little treasures like unpolished gems and mystery seeds or go introduce yourself to your neighbors. Just walk up and ring the bell.
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