Product Description

The Sims have moved to the city where action is 24/7 and reputation means everything. Sims who live in the City are known as Urbz, and they have a bold new look and attitude. Go to work and be challenged by bosses at locations like the Sushi Bar, Chop Shop, or Bootleg Fireworks, Inc. Success at work brings promotions, access to new power socials, and gear to influence your new lifestyle.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3113 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Released on: 2004-11-12
• Rating: To Be Announced
• ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
• Platform: Xbox

Customer Reviews

good
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 Urbz isn't about building a home--it's about hanging out in the big city.
Unlike The Sims for the PC (and most other The Sims products), The Urbz doesn't focus on building up a fabulous home or getting to know your neighbors well enough to love them or hate them. Instead, the game lets you create a group of up to four different "urbs" (the hip, urban version of a "sim") in a single saved game session, and control one of them at a time. Your character can start his or her career in one of the game's nine districts, each of which is designed around a particular type of urban subculture, such as skaters, ravers, and bikers. You have a set of roughly analogous goals to accomplish in each area, but your primary goal is to improve your reputation by socializing with urbs in the different neighborhoods. In fact, most of your character's interaction with other characters will happen as a direct result of your efforts to become more popular. Successfully socializing with other urbs (that is, interacting with them using the appropriate conversation commands, or "socials," without horribly offending them) increases an onscreen "reputation" meter that, when continuously filled, can make your character more famous and even appear on posters throughout the city. Filling up your meter, along with completing specific goals like advancing in a career path, can unlock access to new districts and areas, new standard socials, and new "power socials"--especially effective socials that can also be used to scare off bullies and muggers.

Like in other The Sims products, you interact with other characters by choosing from a preset list of socials, but The Urbz actually color-codes socials to show which ones will actually work (green socials always succeed, yellow socials only sometimes succeed, and red socials always fail). This minor addition makes getting in good with other characters much easier, but if you're aggressively trying to complete your goals, it has the side effect of making character interaction a lot less interesting--you'll end up using only the few green socials over and over. You can also increase your standing in a district by changing clothes at that district's clothier, which, depending on the district, will let you deck your character out in a good variety of different getups, including knit caps, flannel shirts, high heels, dreadlocks, facial and body piercings, and even tattoos. And you'll unlock more content by achieving other specific goals, such as scaring off bullies, using specific socials in different districts, and advancing through the first, second, and third levels in the game's new career system.
Gameplay - 7/10
Graphics - 8/10
Sound - 8/10
Value - 7/10
Tilt - 7/10

Sims urbz Review
Couldn't believe how different it was to other sims games. Haven't played bustin out since. Graphics are better and being able to go to different cities gives much more fun as its a bit boring in the other games when you cant go out.Brilliant music in background. A must have for any black eyed peas fan as they even feature in the game. Pretty big difference from sims but if you liked sims your love this!

The Urbz: Sims in the City
As a fan of the PC based Sims games, i was eargerly awaiting the release of this game for my XBox. I wannted to post this review and tell people that it really isn't worth the money. You can play with up to 4 Urbz per saved game and i have completed all the goals and become a 'superstar' for all of them in just two days. After this there really isn't much left to do in the game but chat to people etc, whereas in the PC Sims you can get married, have children, build a dream home etc in the Urbz you can't. I was very disapointed with this game, if you feel the need to try it out i suggest you rent it and get a feel for it first before you waste your hard earned dosh. Better luck next time EA.