New Screenshots from The Sims 2 Castaway!

It may be summer, but EA is already wishing us gamers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year by announcing a new title in The Sims series. Bearing the name The Sims 2 Castway, the game is set to be released in late 2007, so you'd better clear your schedule for this year's last months. Did I mention that this is a Nintendo Wii title?

Combining the best-selling console with the best-selling game of all times will result in some sort of Big Bang, since a phenomenon like Castaway won't be ignored by the fans of the series. In the latest The Sims 2 title, you'll get the chance to teach your Sim how to survive on a deserted tropical island, facing the forces of nature, starvation and ... boredom. You'll surely enjoy straying from the usual urban setting that the series had featured so far, venturing in the jungle and learning how to stay alive.

EA teaches you the steps of basic evolution through Castaway, by allowing your Sim to forge his own tools, make his own clothes and even develop his or her artistic skills. Of course you'll hunt, use traps, fish and gather plants in order to get a decent meal every day. There's even the option of going on a dangerous treasure hunting quest, but the ultimate goal is survival and maybe returning to civilization.

I'm curious to see how the producers implemented the Wii controls, in order to fit a game like this, that implies moving your controller a lot while selecting the many options. If this title hits the stores on Christmas it may rock, even if the control system's clunky, just because good old Santa won't care about gameplay mechanics when he delivers the gifts. We'll just have to wait and see, hoping to get a decent a-la-Lost experience with a touch of the movie with the same name that featured Tom Hanks. In the meantime, feel free to drool upon these screenshots taken from EA's title: