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.

(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)

[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.

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?

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: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.

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.

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).

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.