If you have been following my twitter, you know I lived out of my suitcase for a couple of weeks. One of the events I was invited to attend was The MySims Blogger event, sponsored by EA. EA flew us bloggers out to Redwood Shores for a day of all things Sims and more.

We started the day with a tour of the facility. The EA Redwood Shores campus is huge. I arrived late and a guard told me what building to walk to. Five minutes later, I end up back at the guard’s desk because I had no idea where I was going. Luckily, the PR team was alerted that there was a “lost blogger” and I was found.

We were then treated to a tour of the facilities. The EA campus at Redwood Shores is quite large. The building we were in housed many collectibles from the years of EA. The stroll down memory lane showed us original copies of Skate or Die, various Awards EA has received for their community work, platinum sales awards, and a motorcycle that they had to purchase when it was damaged during a game.

During the tour we got a taste for how much EA does for it’s employees. There is a gym complete with personal trainers, a full sized basketball court, day care for the kids, and a huge cafeteria with lots of choices. The EA store is on campus as well as enough Starbucks to keep employees caffeinated all day and night.

The first game I sat with was Sims Animals Africa for the DS and Wii. In Sims Animals Africa for the DS, the story is that a parrot wants your help to get to the land of happiness to unlock a magical egg. Throughout the game, you are managing animals and plants to make sure there is enough food for the animals. Gamers use the animals and their abilities to find special items. The title has goals that are given in each level and each level consists of different animals.

For Sims Animals Africa on the Wii, the team really wanted to simplify the controls and make the title a different experience than on the DS. The improvements from Sims Animals on the Wii is that players can now directly control an animal once they are friends. The team also added more story and goals to the game.

Next up was Nerf N-Strike Elite which is the sequel to the original Nerf Game. The title will be bundled with the Nerf peripheral that will actually shoot Nerf darts when you aren’t playing. Nerf N-Strike is a rail shooter that picks up where the last game ended. The title has many different Nerf blasters and will actually be premiering the Nerf Raider in the game before it comes out in stores. Nerf N-Strike has an automatic reload. In the demo, the aiming seemed off, but playing it again later in the “game bus” it seemed much more responsive.

My favorite, MySims Agents was up next. I probably could have spent all day with that title alone. I’m currently playing the title for a review, so I’ll let you know more details about the title then. MySims Agents the title is more of an adventure game than a typical Sims building and management game. Personally, I love that they have taken MySims franchise and continued to build story around the game. In MySims Agents, players are part of the Sims Protection Agency and have to solve a string of mysteries. The game is styled as if it takes place in a comic book which is fitting because on of the main characters is a comic book artist. During the game, players will build a team of agents that they can send out to solve cases. The biggest change in MySims Agents is the controlled camera, which I see as a benefit because there were times in MySims Kingdom where I threw my controller because I couldn’t get the camera angle right.

Sims 3 players will love the first expansion pack that makes your Sim a World Explorer. The Sims 3 World Adventures Expansion opens up Egypt, France and China for your Sim to explore. Each land has varying levels of difficult exploration to challenge your Sim. Azure Bowie, from the Sims team showed us how a player could turn into a mummy in the tombs of Egypt. If a Sim is turned into a mummy they will have to figure out how to break the curse or else the character will die. A new feature to the Sims games is the idea of a Visa, which controls how long you can stay in a specific area. You’ll need to level up that Visa in order to stay for longer periods of time.

After a quick trip to the EA Store, we sat in on a demo of Spore Hero (Wii) and Spore Hero Arena for the DS. In Spore Hero for the Wii, players are a character that crashed down on the world and have to ultimately save the world from evil. There are over 250 parts you’ll have to find to add to your creature. Spore Hero Arena is set in the same universe but it’s more focused on becoming an arena champion.

After a dinner break, we were directed outside to the “Game Bus” where we played MySims Racing against each other. This was the first time I played MySims Racing and if you are looking for a racer that can stand up against Mario Kart Wii, this is it. MySims Racing offers the same level of fun as Mario Kart Wii without being an exact copy. The items that one can use in MySims Racing are very original and soon we were screaming at each other every time someone used one.

The event was a great experience. It was nice meeting new bloggers that I haven’t previously met at other events. We also discussed how we could talk to people on the Visceral Games floor into letting us play with Dead Space Extraction in exchange for some beer. My favorite game that we had a hands-on with was definitely MySims Agents. But there are plenty of reasons for Sims fans to be excited for with the new expansion. Thank you EA for inviting GamingAngels.com to the event! Below are a bunch of pictures from the event. I’m also giving away a copy of Sim City Creator for the DS and the Wii. You can win just by commenting on this post.