Xbox

The Urbz: Sims in the City

Yes, the Sims are finally packing up in the ’burbs and moving on up to the big city, and the result is a good time for city-slicking Sims players. The controls still remain on the uneven side (and frankly, because the Sims franchise was designed foremost for the PC, they may never be better than mediocre). But a New York City-sized upgrade to the visual presentation along with the inclusion of mini-games and more focused, goal-oriented gameplay should appeal to the urban-centric Sims fans that prefer console action to the PC.

The re-focussing of the gameplay makes it easy to pick up and play, and you can spend an hour or two with it without getting bored or feeling too involved. The mini-games, whilst repetitive, are fun, and it beats clicking the mouse button and waiting for a skill to increase. You won’t be sitting there for hours waiting for your Sim to sleep, or get home from work, or shower, and so forth. The goal oriented gameplay may put off hardcore fans of the original games that have all the add ons, as well as Sims 2 on PC, but I find the concept refreshing.

The Sims keep going on; now they have to keep on keepin' on. In the latest installment of the long-running relationship simulator, The Urbz: Sims in the City, the gibberish-spouting creatures have taken it from the relative safety of the 'burbs--provided you leave the ladder in the pool--to the buzz of the big city, with its neon lights and wide variety of city dwellers. As a result, the locations and other "Urbs" they meet have the tendency to be varied in appearance and personality, which isn't an unwelcome change from previous takes on the concept.

I have to be honest with you: I've never played any of The Sims games. It's not that I didn't think they were any good or couldn't understand their allure for some people, it's just that my tastes run more toward shooting aliens or pretending to win the Super Bowl. So when EA's new Sims spin-off, The Urbz: Sims in the City, landed on my desk, I had no idea what I was going to say about the game. Then I realized that, in some ways, I was the perfect choice to review the game.

The sophomore release of the console Sims games, Bustin’ Out, unquestionably proved that the ultimate simulation game is more than worthy of couch-surfing gamers’ free time. Back for another attack with The Urbz: Sims in the City, EA and Maxis are shifting perspective to city life with mixed results.

We genuinely don’t know where EA are going to go with the next incarnation of The Sims. Maybe it’s time to take a break until the next generation of consoles? The game play has been honed; just about every object imaginable is included in all three versions. They have been in the city and thrown parties - The Sims franchise really has been exploited. If you've never played a Sims title before (have you been hiding under a rock?) then The Urbz is worth playing. But, we do really recommend that only hardcore Sims fans pick this up unless.

All this fits together fairly seamlessly as the gamer plays – but there are some problems. Interacting with the other Urbz is just not that interesting. They have the personality of a door knob. Way too much of the player’s reputation rests on just owning the right clothes rather than in choices made during interaction. That seems rather shallow to me. The game also holds the player’s hand a little too much and actually outright tells the player what he needs to do to succeed. In the end there are just not enough player options. It becomes way more scripted than this type of game should be.

The Urbz: Sims in the City tries to be different and succeeds but its repetitiveness keeps the fun from being both fresh and stimulating. The Sims fans will appreciate the socializing outside the usual home setting and making friends, lovers and enemies in a city with much to do. Yet even the most hardcore fan (you know who you are) will find changing fashion styles to fit the type of people you’d like to befriend gets pretty old. This is a game long-time fans should definitely check out.

The Urbz shakes up the the Sims formula by adding a dash of attitude and streamlining the experience for console gamers. What it doesn’t do is successfully bridge the addictiveness of the Sims with the kind of gameplay the average console gamer appreciates. It lacks the challenge to keep you engaged and forces you down very specific paths to succeed.

The Urbz: Sims in the City has been taken down in a few areas when compared to past Sim titles. The game felt easier just because of the fact that it holds your hand throughout the journey, and acts like a set of training wheels until the end. That doesn’t mean the game isn’t fun though. Players looking to forget about their lives, and control the bathroom habits of a little pixel person are sure to have fun. The Urbz retains enough of what makes it a Sim experience, (customizing the Urbz, interacting with other characters, the control to rule every part of your Urb’s life), yet adds enough new material to set it apart on its own to feet, (such as the ability to go to work, 12 different districts, overall cleaner visual style.)

The Urbz: Sims in the City is the latest title based on developer Maxis' incredibly successful PC game The Sims. And instead of restricting itself to tiny neighborhoods, the new game takes place in the big city. Maxis' bold changes to the original formula set forth by The Sims aren't all for the better, but they make The Urbz a very distinctive and surprisingly solid game. The removal of some aspects of the series and the emphasis placed on other areas suggest that The Urbz might be best suited to a specific audience, but it retains enough core elements to appeal to most any fan of The Sims.

The Sims may have been a PC phenomenon, but The Sims Bustin Out just didn’t work on the consoles. Part of it is a difference in gaming style, for lack of a better term “console games” even the truly odd ones are pretty goal-based and organized, as opposed to the free-for-all play of most PC successes. After all, the quintessential PC experiences are sim games like, well, The Sims, and the massive RPGs that date all the way back to Myst. Now the Sims are taking on the consoles again and the big city in, The Urbz: Sims in the City.

So, EA has simplified The Sims format and come up with a streamlined version called The Urbz; their intention being to create a more console friendly version of The Sims franchise. For gamers who've never played, or perhaps didn't favor previous Sims titles, EA's mandate may have succeeded. For anyone who has played and loved previous Sims games, this one will most likely disappoint. The whole point of The Sims franchise is to endow the player with seemingly endless options as to what their sims can do. There are massive clothing options, and you choose your belongings, your house, your job, and your friends. In The Urbz, you get to choose your clothes from a strictly limited selection, and some of your friends. With The Urbz, EA has trimmed down the general Sims formula, removing more in-depth options along the way, but, in doing so, they've also cut away the very captivating essence of the franchise.

Pour être méchant, on pourrait dire que le principe des Urbz reste aussi superficiel que le sujet traité (les fringues et la cool attitude), mais c'est davantage le manque de renouvellement au fil du jeu qui dérange. On finit par toujours faire la même chose, d'où une lassitude qui se manifeste bien trop tôt. Dommage, car il y avait de quoi faire, en incluant par exemple des objectifs plus variés entre chaque quartier.

The Urbz: Sims in the City is best suited for the casual gamer who likes to the core gameplay of the Sims. The Urbz has puts a heavy emphasis on dress up which reinforces its shallow values. The Urbz isn't a bad experience and it's fun on certain levels, but it is severely repeative. but so was the Sims. I would have to strongly suggest renting this game before buying, and see if you have what it takes to live like an Urb.

Un Sims-like sympa se situant une fois n’est pas coutûme en ville et ayant pour thème la mode mais qui s’enlise dans un gameplay très répétitif et une lassitude avoisinante. Dommage qu’EA ait pris si peu de temps pour boucler son jeu, sans quoi les fans auraient pu être comblés. En dehors de ça, un jeu bâclé qui ne satisfera que les fans de la première heure.

The overall style of the game is, as you'd expect, polished and cool. The animations when you interact with other Urbz are funny and keep you entertained the first few times you see them, but they soon dull. New ones are introduced fairly regularly, so this aspect of the game is kept reasonably fresh. For some reason though, the game suffers from horrible framerate issues. We have no idea why. There really is no need.

Les URBZ est un titre trop limité et faible techniquement pour s'imposer sur un créneau où les Sims restent la vraie référence. Malgré quelques rares bons moments, le jeu se montrera vite répétitif et seule la possibilité de relooker à volonté son personnage pourra à la limite séduire un certain public, l'espace d'un moment. Les joueurs confirmés et prudents se tiendront pour leur part bien à l'écart, surtout en cette période de fêtes de fin d'année où les véritables hits affluent.