You may now pre-order The Sims 3 Island Paradise from these UK retailers*:
 
(LE) = Limited Edition

• Argos (LE) – £25.99 (**cheapest for limited edition**)
• Sainsbury’s (LE) – £29.99 + 58 Nectar Points
• Asda – £24.97 (**cheapest for standard version**)
• GAME (LE) – £29.99
• GAME – £29.99
• ShopTo (LE) – £27.85
• Zavvi (LE) – £26.98
• Amazon (LE) – £29.99
• GameStop – £29.97
• GreenManGaming (LE & Download) – £29.99
• Origin (LE) – £29.99

* Links are for the disk version (except ones noted ‘download’), retailers may offer a download too.

The Sims team have announced that next month (3rd June) The Sims 3, The Sims 2, The Sims Social, The Sims Medieval & others will rename and merge into the The Sims page. Also The Sims 3 Twitter @TheSims3 will become @TheSims.
 

It’s spring cleaning time on Facebook and The Sims Community team will be merging our product pages to provide you a one-stop destination for all things related to The Sims. Whether it’s news about The Sims 3, The Sims 3 Store, The Sims Medieval, The Sims Social, The Sims 4 or general team updates, you will be able to find it all in one place under The Sims Facebook page.
 
We know some of you may have received an email from Facebook this week about renaming The Sims 3, The Sims Social and The Sims Medieval pages. This was an effort on our part to give you a heads up about the communications merge before it takes place.
 
There is no action to take. In the coming weeks, Facebook will merge The Sims 3, The Sims Social and The Sims Medieval pages to become The Sims Facebook page. We will follow-up with more details as soon as this merge takes place.
 
Also, later this year, our Twitter account will be taking a similar approach where @TheSims3 will become @TheSims. We’ll definitely keep you updated as to when this happens but for now you’ll still find our handle as @TheSims3 on Twitter.
 
Lastly, our spring cleaning efforts have also led us to find some really awesome swag that we want to give out as a thank you for being amazing fans. We’ll be running random giveaways across the Forums and Twitter over the next few weeks so be sure to stay tuned on when those will be taking place.
 
Until then, happy Simming!
 
Thanks,
The Sims Community team

 
Source: @TheSims3

SimGuru Sarah has tweeted a new photo from The Sims 3 Island Paradise, due out 28th June, and is tweeting photos daily.
 

Maxis have announced that update 4.0 for SimCity will be released tomorrow! You can check out the patch notes below.
 

Update 4.0 Notes
 
• New: SimCity Launch Park, an exclusive new park just for our dedicated fans who were early adopters.
• New: Region: Edgewater Bay. Seven city sites in one cluster around a beautiful bay with one great work site.
• New: Your current server will now be shown in the options menu.
• New: More detailed rollover information on buildings telling player’s if their Sims received happiness from a park or from shopping. Previous to this fix, this information was generic.
• Re-Enabled Feature: Global Market prices now dynamically change during gameplay.
• Re-Enabled Feature: Leaderboards are will be active on EU West 3, Pacific 1 and Pacific 2 at the release. We will enable them on additional servers throughout the day.
• Re-Enabled Feature: Region filters are now enabled on all SimCity servers. Players will be able to search for open games by Map Name, Sandbox Mode, and Abandoned Cities.
• Rain Clouds: Fixed an issue where some cities would not have rain clouds to replenish their water table. If you had a city with this issue, you will start seeing clouds again within a game day.
• Fire: Improved response time of fire trucks to fires. Improved the time it takes for a fire signal to reach a fire station.
• Mission updates: Tuned Metals HQ and Community College missions. These were appearing too early, making them difficult to complete. They now appear later in a city’s development.
• Solar Farm Great Work: Reduced fire risk at the Solar Farm Great work. Local fire engines were spending too much time at the Solar Farm.
• Messaging: Improved pre-requisite messaging for Trade Port, Casinos, Smelting Factory and Oil Refinery. It should be clearer on how to unlock these buildings.
• Graphics: Fix for flickering low wealth buildings on NVIDIA graphics cards.
• Education: Fix for an issue some cities experienced where commuting students did not return from a neighbor’s city. This was causing a problem where students would disappear from a city in some cases.
• Tuning: Sims will lose a small amount of happiness if they don’t have a place to shop. Cities without places to shop will see complaints and feel the effect of unhappy Sims. This will emphasize the importance of commercial zones.

A new blog post has been posted on TheSims3.com and this one continues the previous ones on Dragon Valley, purple baby dragons. There is also post on green and red ones.
 

Check out what Designer Alan Copeland has to say about the Baby Dragons he created for The Sims 3 Dragon Valley! For more information about The Sims 3 Dragon Valley, and the Purple Baby Dragon, click here .
 
Over the past few blog posts I’ve discussed the brazen, fire-breathing Red Baby Dragon and more recently the earth based Green Baby Dragon and its love for all things shiny or harvestable. Today I want to write about what is arguably the most unique of the dragons, a dragon that thrives on joy, humour and happiness. A dragon that is so dang cheery it literally pukes sparkles and rainbows.
 
This is the Purple Baby Dragon:
 

 
While Green Baby Dragons may have them beat in the tree hugging department, Purple Baby Dragons are the hipster-est of hippies in the Baby Dragon community. They want nothing more than to see everyone around them having a good time. In fact even the grumpiest of Sims can get a steady dose of Fun and Social just by hanging out with a Purple Dragon thanks to the Mark of the Purple Dragon moodlet.
 

 
While talking to a Red Dragon can raise your Athletic Skill and talking to a Green Dragon can raise your Gardening Skill, Purple Dragons will cheerfully discuss the particulars of raising your Charisma Skill so you can meet the Sim of your dreams.
 
But what happens if your Sim is a bit of a wallflower or doesn’t know where to find the special someone?  No worries, the Purple Baby Dragon has more summoning abilities than any other dragon! Purple Dragons can summon up one of your friends, help throw an amazing party, or introduce you to someone completely new!
 
But one of the coolest aspects of owning a Purple Baby Dragon is its Rune Charm ability. Purple Baby Dragons can imbue your Sim (or any Sim you choose) with massive bonuses to their mood, making them happier and more likeable for up to twelve hours!
 

If you’re looking to meet that one in a million Sim, the Purple Baby Dragon will be your ultimate “wingman”.
 
I love to hear your ideas and suggestions, so follow me on Twitter @SimGuruCopeland
 

 
Keep up to date with all thinks Sims by liking our Facebook page: The Sims 3 UK

YellowGamerTV have uploaded part 7 of their let’s play The Sims 3 University Life series. You can check out part 1 – 6 in their playlist and don’t forget to subscribe for more.
 

@maddenobsessed has created a Let’s Play for The Sims 3 Ambitions, check it out and don’t forget to subscribe for more!