EA Takes The Sims 'Street' With The Urbz

Thanks to GameSpot for its news story noting Electronic Arts' announcement of The URBZ, a multi-platform title due later this year which "..will see players creating new Sims-style characters who live in a city where reputation is everything and the goal is to become the biggest 'player' in the city." Apparently, players will need to impress the bosses "at locations such as the Sushi Bar, the Chop Shop, and the Bootleg Fireworks", and the game engine in the console versions "will also allow for a great deal of character customization, with support for tattoos, nose rings, and the like" - more information and screenshots will be available at the E3 Expo next month.

Comments

I should sue

[metamatic]

Sounds like an idea I posted here a while back. What it needs is a chance to pimp other characters in order to collect enough bling to get a fly pimpmobile. If the other characters don't cooperate, instead of drowning them in the pool you just bust a cap in their asses.

Re:I should sue

[LouCifer]

I say we need a FPS in the style of GTA, but the main characters be crack dealers.

Or pimps.

Or both.

Make it multiplayer, so people can form gangs and have shoot-outs over turf, ho's, etc.

Re:I should sue

[Mongoose Disciple]

Wouldn't a backhanded pimp slap be more appropriate? Pimps stereotypically aren't about small arms so much as going upside your head. Possibly with a pimp cane. That or putting their shoe in your ass.

Quasi-related side note: Regardless of your opinion on his politics, the "Pimp goes to Washington" segment from Michael Moore's old "Awful Truth" show is incredibly funny. Track a copy of that down if at all possible. Basically, the premise is that since all congressmen will do favors for lobbyists, they're essentially prostitutes. They send this genuine pimp, K-Flex, to D.C. to start keeping them in line. Hilarity ensues!

Re:I should sue

[Anonymous Coward]

You shouldn't have used an apostrophe in the word hos.

Re:I should sue

[metamatic]

Apostrophes are used to mark missing letters (amongst other things). Since "ho" is a shortened version of "whore", "ho's" is legitimately written with an apostrophe to mark the missing 'r' and 'e'--just like "we're" has an apostrophe to mark the missing 'a' of "we are".

If you're going to post stupid punctuation flames, get it right, dumbass.

Re:I should sue

[Anonymous Coward]

If it was his intention to use the apostrophe to mark the missing 'r' and 'e', then he should've also used one to mark the missing w at the beginning of the word.

Re:I should sue

[metamatic]

Leading apostrophes are commonly omitted; people write "He picked up the phone" and not always "He picked up the 'phone".

(bangs head against wall)

[shadowcabbit]

No. (bang) No. (bang) No. (bang) No. (bang)...

I do think the idea of adding a "plot" to the Sims is kind of interesting, but the plot to "Friday", "Next Friday", and "Friday After Next" does not a good video game make. As long as they keep Chris Tucker far, far away from this, it might just bomb a little instead of taking down the entire company... God dammit, EA, you do not need to pander to the people buying every frigging yearly version of Madden for more money!

Re:(bangs head against wall)

[chrismcdirty]

The difference between Friday and the two sequels was that Chris Tucker was funny and Mike Epps wasn't.

If anything, Chris Tucker would do the game good, Mike Epps would do it bad.

Re:(bangs head against wall)

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

Have you played any versions of the Madden series? I currently have on my shelf 2002, 2003, and 2004. All of them are distinct games with strengths and weaknesses.

Not being a fan of RPGs, I do not attack people who buy every sequel to Final Fantasy even though I would choose not to buy them and don't see that many differences in the gameplay. I would imagine to a fan of the series, there are many differences.

Re:(bangs head against wall)

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually the gameplay between Final Fantasies, while it does differ, is not the reason why players buy these games. They buy them because Final Fantasy (and other RPGs) are like extended, participatory movie experiences. Imagine your favourite movie. Now imagine that you can control the characters AND it lasts for 6000 hours!!!!!! That's why people like RPGs.
Gameplay in an RPG is important.. but the actual story and world are very important too.
That's why a Final Fantasy can have similar gameplay but still sell.

Whereas Madden or what have you HAS TO HAVE different gameplay because the "story" (such as it is) never changes.

Support for tattoos, nose rings, and the like

[Anonymous Coward]

Virtual Sheep

but but!

[Anonymous Coward]

But will I beable to steal cars and drive over people? Thats all gamers want to do in the city

Soundtrack

[secolactico]

EA should license "Pretty Fly" by Offspring as Opening Theme.

Seriously, add some of the game mechanics of Vice City plus character developement and I'm there!

Here's an idea

[Craig Maloney]

Maybe they'll make a text interface for the whole thing and call it "Drug Wars"... Or has that already been done before?

Re:Here's an idea

[kwoff]

I really like that game. Except it gets too easy after you figure it out. Never fight the cops or bother with guns. Deal only with cocaine and herion once you have enough money. Buy as many bitches as possible. Put any extra money (more than you need to fill up on cocaine) in the bank so it collects interest. The last time I played it, I'd amassed quadrillions of dollars then quit from boredom.

OMGWTFOLOLOLOLO TEH URBZ

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds totally "ghey", but it will probably sell enough copies to be considered a huge sucess anyway.

*sigh*

Re:OMGWTFOLOLOLOLO TEH URBZ

[chrismcdirty]

It will only sell enough copies to be a huge success if it is called something along the lines of "The Sims: URBZ" or "The Sims present The URBZ". Otherwise, fans of the Sims will just pass it up as another Sims clone, even if it is from the same publisher.

Re:OMGWTFOLOLOLOLO TEH URBZ

[josh glaser]

There are Sims clones? To my knowledge, The Sims is one of the only innovative (well, at one time) games that doesn't have a bunch of clones. I might be wrong, but I've never heard of one. The only game I know that is even vaguely similair is Nintendo's Animal Crossing, but it is substantially different than The Sims, and might even predate it anyway. Examples?

Re:OMGWTFOLOLOLOLO TEH URBZ

[chrismcdirty]

"There" or whatever it is called was a similar experience to the Sims Online.

I wasn't thinking when I mentioned that the Sims had clones. I was thinking more along the lines of the Railroad and Rollercoaster Tycoon games. You go into a store and see probably 20 different Tycoon games, but the quality of them just isn't the same as the Railroad or Rollercoaster games.

Re:OMGWTFOLOLOLOLO TEH URBZ

[billcopc]

Ho-rider tycoon
West Bronx tycoon
Backhand Slap tycoon
Shizzle tycoon

Re:OMGWTFOLOLOLOLO TEH URBZ

[MMaestro]

What about "The Sims present Teh Shit/Shet"? What about "Doz Pimpin Sims", "The Sims Hot Shit/Shet", or my favorite "Pimping The Sims"?

Oh god...

[pb]

That's just what we need, millions of geeks going online, pretending to actually be 'cool' and 'popular', and annoying absolutely everyone in the process...

...oh, wait...

Re:Oh god...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called 'Slashdot'.

Re:Oh god...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, thank you dumbass for explaining the joke.

Re:Oh god...

[Anonymous Coward]

There's nothing "cool" or "popular" about being so dirt poor you have to deal with gang shootings in the street while your kids are getting mugged at school.

Or maybe it is nowadays. I don't really associate with that kind of element. But if some welfare parent has enough money to buy gold chains and PS2s instead of food for their rugrats, I'm sure that the video game pubs won't mind.

Glorification of the ghetto urban problem disgusts me.

Re:Oh god...

[Anonymous Coward]

If you could have just made that criticism before the rise of 'blogging', the world might have been a better place.

Ugh-izzzzzle

[curtisk]

Does that mean that their simmish language will now be like

"Froogizzle Brfizzle eeeep Double-X-izzzzzzzzle, yo."

I think I feel a case of the SHTZ coming on....

Re:Ugh-izzzzzle

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean the shiznits. From eating too much T-to-the-aco Bizell, right?

id rather....

[drfrog]

see this game in 3d
rags to riches

Re:id rather....

[sleepypants]

wow...being chased by that cop in r2r was probably the scariest moment in my retro gaming career...

Re:id rather....

[drfrog]

man if i could only get a haircut!

The process of EA creating a character

[baggachipz]

-- And thus a dog was born, "The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show"

It's now time for our animator, the exact twin of David Silverman, to
perform his magic and give form to the concept...

[Silverman draws a standard dog]
Myers: No, no, no! He was supposed to have attitude.
Silverman: Um... wh-what do you mean, exactly?
Myers: Oh, you know, attitude, attitude! Uh... sunglasses!
Lady: Could we put him in more of a "hip-hop" context?
Krusty: Forget context, he's gotta be a surfer. Give me a nice
shmear of surfer.
Lady: I feel we should Rasta-fy him by... 10 percent or so.
[the resulting dog is rather... proactive]
[all stare at it w/o any expression]
Myers: Hmm... I think he needs a little more attitude.
[Silverman blackens in Poochie's sunglasses]
All Three: [variously] Oh, yeah, bingo. Yeah, that's it! There it is,
right there! I love it!

Arrrrrh, bitch!

[edbarrett]

Back before Bungie were owned by The Borg (cheap shot -- sue me), they had a April Fool's prank going by the name of Pimps At Sea. So between this and Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom, I claim to have seen this before.

Re:Arrrrrh, bitch!

[Synic]

Haha... Pimps at Sea is still funny even now... I just wish they had dressed up Master Chief in a skirt and clear heels instead of one of those gimpy enemies.

Re:Arrrrrh, bitch!

[DeadScreenSky]

Actually, Pimps at Sea was post-MS - it was announced as an Xbox game, remember? And post-Halo release (since it featured a Grunt) as well.

Re:Arrrrrh, bitch!

[SuiteSisterMary]

Actually, it was pre; when they went MS, the joke was that it became an Xbox exclusive. Then, next year, it got, as I recall, a Steel Batallion style massive joystick. Then, the year after, it got Xbox Live capability, with a Live-enabled pimp hat.

It's comedy gold.

Re:Arrrrrh, bitch!

[DeadScreenSky]

AFAIK, they first made the joke on April Fools 2001 . MS purchased them in June of 2000. Is is very possible the joke goes back much further than the website, though I can find no evidence of it (and it would make a poor April Fools joke if so). Any linkage I should be aware of?

(Google cache of the currently unavailable offical page here)

Re:Arrrrrh, bitch!

[SuiteSisterMary]

Seems like forever, but the official Pimps At Sea site is live!

Tends to imply that the joke is older than the April 2001 posting date. I seem to recall that it's older than that.

Racism

[Synic]

Was it just me or did the latter portion of the press release detailing the Bayou location and the Moogoo Monkey Madness minigame seem a little racist? Considering how targeted the title seems towards the crowd that enjoys things like NBA Ballers and MTV Cribs, which is likely to be young white kids who want to emulate their favorite rappers and NBA stars, I doubt many others in the target audience noticed at all. Maybe I just notice these things because I've actually taken African American studies courses (since, yes, I am a white/caucasian/european person).

Look on the bright side!

[Syncdata]

Maybe, if they let Chris Tucker be an integral part of the process, it will take down the entire company, not just bomb a little.
Sincerely,
A disgruntled former EA/Maxis employee, who never liked Madden.

LCP

[DAldredge]

Google for Little Computer People. A sims like game for the c64. From the 1980's.

The Urbz???!!!11

[pyro jackelope]

My personal opinion is that anything to do with The Sims, and any future plans for new Sims or Sims-like games should be destroyed, and i'll tell you why. I have to admit, the original "The Sims" was a good game to waste a couple hours in. I don't however think it was good enough to spend money on 7 or so expansions to the game. Honestly, how people get away with sending out the same crap more than once in different boxes without being thrown in jail (gangraped, etc.) is beyond me. Now there's "The Urbz." This seems to me much like the move made by Mcdonalds when they changed their slogan to "i'm lovin it." To quote Maddox from his site: (in reference to Mcdonalds.) "Everything about the new campaign is engineered to target "the culture of today's consumer." Apparently the culture of today's consumer doesn't mind the implied discrimination with the use of specific grammar and punctuation used in the new slogan." This seems much the same. Kind of pathetic if you ask me.

Ghettopoly ....

[Anonymous Coward]

... anybody?

April Fool's Joke?

[MonkeyCookie]

This is such a bizarre idea that I find it hard to believe it isn't some really late April Fool's Joke.