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Urbz: Sims in the City Comix

Posted by Zonk on from the indie-comix-and-simlish-go-together dept.

Thanks to MaxoidHumanoid (a Maxis employee) who writes "The latest title of the Sims franchise, The Urbz, comes out next month, and there is a new feature on the website launched only yesterday called Urbz Comix. A new comix will be released weekly for 10 weeks. A stellar line-up of indy comix artists has been assembled. Here's part of the roster: Peter Bagge, Evan Dorkin, Jay Stephens, Jim Mahfood, R. Stevens"

1 of 19 comments (clear)

  1. Re:OOPS, still, the question stands by Babbster · · Score: 4, Insightful
    You're correct that Urbz is for consoles and Sims 2 is PC. There actually IS an argument to be made, though, that Sims 2 is something of an extension of the two console Sims games (The Sims and The Sims Bustin' Out). I say this because Sims 2 took the original PC game and added a fully 3D engine (console: check), increased character customization ability (console: check) and more goal-based gameplay (console: check). They also added Sim aging which is new for the series as a whole.

    As for the idea that Urbz would compete with The Sims 2 on PC, I find that extremely improbable. First, you're talking about three very different audiences: 1) The hardcore PC gamer who got some guilty pleasure out of the original Sims and is now going diguised to the videogame store to buy the new one; 2) the very casual PC gamer who might only buy one game (and its expansions) between now and the time Sims 3 hits the stores; 3) the console gamer who probably finds the PC Sims franchise TOO open-ended.

    Urbz: Sims in the City is a game entirely different from the traditional Sims games. For example, they've taken out a couple of the motivation bars (one is room/environment and the other I don't recall off hand) to focus the gameplay more. They've also made it so that you're actually working your job (it's not just waiting for the Sim to get back from work) and performing tasks logical for that occupation (such as a sushi chef keeping the restaurant clean). Besides work, the gameplay is about hanging out and getting/being popular.

    In short, Urbz and Sims 2 cater to different playstyles. It remains to be seen whether Urbz will be any good, of course.

    Final note: EA/Maxis has had "competing" Sims products between console and PC before and certainly the PC expansions didn't suffer against the console games.