The Sims Social will launch this summer on Facebook in five languages. You’ll get to create a brand-new Sim, build it a home and then play with your real-life friends.

EA Play announced that this title would have a companion mobile app available so that you don’t have to constantly nurse Facebook — you’ll be able to fulfill your Sim’s wants and needs on the go.

In the game, you’ll be able to engage with every aspect of your character’s social life, including moments like the all-important first kiss. And, of course, this is Facebook, so you’ll be helping your friends with tasks. You might (cough) even make some Woohoo with them. Yeah. That could get awkward. But your Sim can take on your personality.

“Just like you and me, The Sims is now on Facebook,” said Jeff Karp, Executive Vice President of EA Play. “EA invented people simulation games with The Sims. Over the last decade, The Sims has sold in excess of 140 million units and spawned an active fan community that has grown into the millions. These fans are all enthusiastic, passionate individuals living out their dreams, adventures and fantasies, and expressing their creativity. As The Sims moves to Facebook, their personalities shine through more than ever. The game is alive, brimming with the humor, romance, mischief and creativity that only The Sims can provide.”

To learn more before the game’s launch, you can check out the game’s Facebook page, naturally.

The Sims 3: Generations will give each life stage just a little bit more meat — children and teens can take after-school classes, Sims who have extramarital affairs might have to face a little community backlash and there’s even more stuff to play with aside from all that.

Throw your Sims an expensive wedding, or, better yet, a nice bachelorette party. Just do your best to avoid the drama.

Ha, like that’s even possible.

The Sims 3: Generations ships May 31.

Through Friday of this week, you can download a beta for online action RPG Darkspore on Steam for free. It’s a good chance to try the game out and help the developers at the same time.

Steam is also offering a special “buy three, get one free” offer to make sure that you and your friends will be able to get in on the action at a bit of a discount (25 percent, if you’re keeping track).

Darkspore, based partially on Maxis’ Spore, releases in North America on April 26.

Do you remember Bob and Betty Newbie? How funny it was to watch poor little Bob Newbie with his dirty clothes and his cheap torn-up furniture meet the girl of his dreams, and then live on indefinitely? If you’re like me, you laughed every time you realized a new way you could kill your Sims off – remember learning they’d drown without a ladder in the pool? Or that you could wall them off in a room of their own, and let them live out a short life of misery? If you were trying to play some semblance of a story with your Sims – as I sometimes did – you mostly killed off other Sims for their money. Hey, don’t look at me like that – everyone was doing it! I needed that money for home improvements, so poor Bob and Betty Newbie could have a television, or a couch without holes in it, or a new addition to the house for all the furniture they never used.

For fun, when I started to write this article, I decided to load up the original game to see what else I’d forgotten about it. For me, it’s hard to think about The Sims having been around for a decade, because even though we’re up to the third edition, that’s only a recent addition to the franchise. Most of us have been stuck squarely with The Sims 2 for years (almost 6, right?) and since a lot of the additions for that came out just prior to The Sims 3 it’s hard to think that it’s really been half a decade since I started playing the second iteration of the game. I mean, Bob and Betty seem old now (boy do they ever, having replayed them for old times’ sake) and they’re missing so many cool things that have since become a regular part of The Sims legacy. Sure, they could get married, but no one got old – they died, but only at their creator’s cruel hands. Something I’d forgotten about the original game was the difference in the music – and how excited I always felt watching the opening video:

Later, with The Sims 2, even better computers made it feel like the loading time took forever, and I learned to skip past the opening video. I’d also forgotten about the fact that the Comic Sans typeface was all over the place, and that the cursor when you hovered over interactive things was a man’s face. But I did remember that there were no weekends, and children never grew to be adults, two of the many things that were later corrected with The Sims 2. The original game had seven expansion packs although the last two (Superstar and Makin’ Magic), though popular with fans, didn’t get as much playtime because The Sims 2 was already on the horizon. The first expansion pack, Livin’ Large, was the one that introduced us to many of the supernatural characters we’ve grown to know and love (and a few that didn’t quite make the cut) like the Grim Reaper, the Genie in the lamp, and the Servo (for those super rich Sims).

In the Sims 2, we got supernatural creatures out of the box with alien abductions resulting in little alien half-breeds. The Sims 2 also introduced us to a wider range of playable characters in three different neighborhoods, although Bob and Betty Newbie were no longer there. The game also gave us a wider range of character customization that we hadn’t had before, and introduced those of us regular players to a new community where we could make and download custom items to our game. The number of active sites still out there for The Sims 2 is a crazy big number, and I’d never find them all. The community at large did experience a large controversy between free content sites and the number of pay sites that sprang up with downloadable content. Even five years later, there is still contention in the community over pay sites which is a breach of EA’s EULA.

Of course one of the biggest updates to the franchise with The Sims 2 was the new life stages – where characters went through seven different stages of life (with the University expansion addition of Young Adult): baby, toddler, child, teenager, young adult, adult, and elder. And it’s hard to talk about The Sims 2 without mentioning the several different types of supernatural creatures that eventually came to the game through expansion packs: vampires, werewolves, Bigfoot, witches/warlocks, plant sims, and zombies (although not necessarily in that order). Even though The Sims 3 is out, and had expansions, it’s hard not to go back to The Sims 2, where it was so easy to build families and stories and watch their digital lives play out.

The second version of the game gave us eight expansions, and 10 ’stuff’ packs. Although each expansion, just like the original game’s, gave us new items, the addition of stuff packs was an interesting step for the game. It gave players a lot of specific content to build up their Sims lives with. Although, many in the community may have turned up their noses originally at the idea of an IKEA stuff pack – it quickly became a popular one, with simple furniture and clothing additions that were neat additions to the game for not a lot of Simoleans.

The Sims 2 also extended its reach to the consoles, further than it’s predecessor had, and it also spawned PC “Life Stories” versions of the game that were more story and goal based with less customization. The only console versions I spent time with was The Sims 2 on the DS (which I loved and took everywhere so I could sneak in playtime) and The Sims 2: Castaway for the Wii, which I also really enjoyed. The play style of the console games and Life Story versions were aimed at a different, and arguably even more casual, gamer than the regular game. These versions of the game gave players goals to reach, while still maintaining a small aspect of the life needs play that The Sims is known for. I think that these versions of the game give a good segue to the most recent edition of the game, where the life needs play a back seat to the rest of your Sims life.

The Sims 3, though relatively new, already has an expansion: World Adventures, and a stuff pack: High Tech Loft. The game was one of my must-plays for 2009, and I know I’m not the only one. I was a pile of squeeing fangirly crazy when I got to sit with a developer on a quick tour of the game last January during CES. It was a definite highlight for me, and I tried to do the game justice when I reviewed it last year, because I think the whole franchise has come a long way in a decade. If you haven’t tried the new game, now is as good a time as any, and EA will be helping me, you, and Sims players new and old celebrate all year long.

Maxis has announced a new way to get your Spore fun on. Spore Islands has just launched on Facebook and is an original game that allows friends to compete for the survival of the fittest.

“In Spore Islands, players get to invite friends in their social web to play on their island, so creating this game exclusively for Facebook was a natural choice for us since they are the largest and most popular social platform for games,” stated Caryl Shaw, Senior Producer, Spore Islands. “What sets Spore Islands apart from other social games is that it offers a different kind of social interactivity where a player’s gameplay experience is directly affected by the choices and decisions their friends make. It’s an ongoing game, so player’s creatures and islands will be active at all times, whether the player is logged into Facebook or not.”

Spore Islands was developed and published by Electronic Arts Inc. Users get to choose their own island to live on, create creatures and evolve them and invite friends to live on their island. There are also various leaderboards to compare your stats on.

Play Spore Islands here.

“Spore has proven to be a huge hit with tween and teen boys. We are so excited to release Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena– two new games that bring all of the action, adventure and fun that this audience loves,” said Lucy Bradshaw, VP and General Manager at Maxis. “Now, players will be able to take on the role of their own kind of hero, by creating it however they like using the Creature Creator, tackling challenging quests and battling friends in competitive multiplayer modes.”

Spore Hero delivers the unparalleled creative freedom of Spore in an action-adventure game created exclusively for the Wii. Set in a 3-D world, Spore Hero empowers the player to become the hero as they embark on an epic quest to save their creature’s home planet from destruction by the evil nemesis, Zarkhator. Along this journey, players engage in fun battles, solve puzzles, and explore to collect more than 250 cool new creature parts, all with unique abilities. These parts, which can be used to customize creatures in the revolutionary and award-winning Spore Creature Creator, can change the way creatures will play and fight in the world. Players can also utilize their brawling skills in a dynamic multiplayer mode, in which they battle their friends with their own customized creature to become the ‘baddest’ Spore hero around!

Spore Hero Arena catapults players into a galaxy filled with fun and intense arena-based combat. Featuring an all-new story set in the same universe as Spore Hero, Spore Hero Arena takes players on a quest to save planets in their galaxy from an evil force. Throughout the game, players create their own unique gladiator hero creature and guide it from planet to planet as they fight enemy creatures, collect new parts, gain upgrades and unlock special abilities that will benefit their hero. Developed with multiplayer capabilities in mind, Spore Hero Arena also allows players to battle with up to three friends locally or play with a friend over Wi-Fi and share creature creations over a Wireless network, taking the Spore gameplay experience to an entirely new and interactive level.

Available for $49.99 MSRP, Spore Hero is rated E10+ by the ESRB. Spore Hero Arena is available for $29.99 MSRP and is rated E by the ESRB.

To learn more about Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena, play minigames and download fun content, please visit www.sporehero.com.

Spore will be getting animated. Twentieth Century Fox is teaming up with EA to make a CG-animated movie based on EA’s Spore title according to a Variety report.

Ice Age’s Chris Wedge is on deck to direct, with Blue Sky Studios doing the CG and EA’s Patrick O’Brien and Maxis’ Lucy Bradshow executive producing.

“From every perspective — visually, thematically and comedically — the world of Spore provides the potential to put something truly original on the screen, said Wedge.

“With more than 100 million unique creatures uploaded to our website, it’s clear that people are passionate about the game, and it will be exciting to offer a powerful medium like film in order to expand their experience with Spore,” said Bradshaw.

“Spore Creature Creator 2-D offers players a brand new way to express their creativity and share their creatures as it can be played by anyone with internet access. The clean art style and intuitive point-and-drag functionality makes it easy for creators of all ages to get in on the fun. It’ll be interesting to see how players use this new creative application.” Caryl Shaw, Sr. Producer of Spore Creature Creator 2-D.

Spore Creature Creator 2-D features the full suite of more than 250 body parts, including limbs, eyes, feet, heads, and fun accessories like antlers and wings. Once players create their ultimate creature, they can play with them in the Spore Creature Trainer mini-game. Once complete, players can easily send their friends an e-card of their creature from the spore2d website.

Maxis

A Twitter yesterday mentioned about job losses at EA Maxis studio, and now we have confirmation that there has been layoffs. EA’s Maxis studio is responsible for the Sims franchise and Spore.

“Often in the video game industry, the size of a studio fluctuates in response to business conditions,” Shacknews was told by Electronic Arts in a prepared statement.

“In this case, EA has taken action to reduce the workforce at Maxis as we focus the business and focus Maxis.”

We don’t know how many staff were cut. Our support goes out those that lost their jobs.

Spore Creatures

The images above are amazing for being made in the Spore Creature Creator. I didn’t have much patience myself with it. But people keep building as Maxis has announced that since June 2008, Spore fans have created and uploaded 100 million creations. That averages to 307,000 daily. Crazy huh!

“This is a staggering milestone to have met in less than one year from the launch of Spore Creature Creator,” said Lucy Bradshaw, VP and General Manager at Maxis. “We continue to be astounded by the outrageous creations and incredible creativity that Spore players have poured into the Sporepedia, from lifelike animals to fantastical creatures and futuristic spaceships. We can’t wait to see the ingenuity our players reveal through the missions they create in Spore Galactic Adventures!”

Spore will be expanding with Spore Galactic Adventures for the PC and Mac, Spore Hero for Wii and Spore Hero Arena for the DS. Spore Galactic Adventures will launch June 23. The Wii and DS games are set for Fall 2009.

In Spore Hero and Spore Hero Arena, players will be a fully-customized hero trying to save its planet. I’m sure we’ll hear more at E3 about these titles.