The Urbz: Sims In The City

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Release Date: 15th March, 2005
Developers: Maxis, Griptonite Games
Publishers: Electronic Arts
Platforms: PS2, Xbox, GameCube, GBA, Nintendo DS
Genre: Life simulation
Players: Single-Player, Multiplater
Rating: PEGI 12+


Synopsis:
The Urbz: Sims in the City is a video game for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox consoles, as well as the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS portable systems. It is the third Sims game for video game consoles and is the second Sims game not to be released on PC. The next release for consoles and handhelds was the console port of The Sims 2.

Hip hop group The Black Eyed Peas provided several music scores for the game, which have also been translated into Simlish. Members of the group would also appear as guest Urbz in the game.

Gameplay:

The objective of The Urbz is to go around all of the 9 districts on the game, mix with the group that hang out there, become popular with them, buy properties and do jobs to earn money until you become the most popular Sim in the city.
The 9 Districts in the game have different groups of people you must mingle with:
Diamond Heights - A hotel, where you will find all of the rich and glamarous of the Urbz.
Skyline Beach - A hip-hop rooftop spot with all the gangstas in the city!
Neon East - This area of the city is very retro and Japanese-style!
Cosmo Street - A great place to hit the stage and show your skills! You'll find Will.i.am, Fergie and the rest of The Black Eyed Peas down here!
The Foundry - What you see is what you get. Some may see them as square, but get the chance to know the intellectual residents of The Foundry and you could make some great friends!
Kicktail Park - Very punk rock, this is the place to be if you're a skater!
Central Station - Gothic, dark, cage-fighting. A place to go to meet those who dress in black!
Gasoline Row - The bikers hang out here, a fun place to be to bike, throw darts, and earn a bit of cash by fixing up some bike bits!
South Side Bridge - Wanna bet on that? You go to South Side Bridge and you'll either get lucky and be rolling in money, or you'll end up with nothing. Worth a gamble?

Having these different sorts of citizens to interact with and make friends with is very interesting as you have to work hard to earn the different emotions to win over the people. WHen you move from city to city, you change your style, the way you dress and the way you interact to make friends in the City. You start out as an unknown Urb, but with a bit of work and a bit of help from the biggest Urb in the city, Darius, you can find your way to the top of the food chain!

You can scare away the villians that are terrorising each district. Do some personal missions for other Urbz, some seeking revenge on others! Earn your reputation high enough in your local city to get yourself into the local party spots where the citizens of the district party all night! Make some great friends along the way, maybe even some enemies, depending on how you approach people!

Once you've become the Top Dog in every district, the big Urb, Darius, gives you the keys to his Penthouse, the hottest spot in the city. From there, you can continue the game with your new Penthouse and do some missions you didn't complete! Along the way, need to make sure your Urb keeps clean, doesn't go hungry, sleeps, goes to the toilet and stays a sim that others want to interact with!

A really enjoyable game to go along with, keeps you interested the whole way through!

Gameplay Rating: 9/10

Graphics:

As you'd expect, due to how old the consoles the game is on, the graphics aren't as perfect as the latest games. But the graphics are still great, for PS2, the graphics were incredible. The image is clear, and the Urbz look like great characters. The scenery is always great quality and looks the part. Some of the actions you perform when interacting with people don't always look realistic (i.e. when you Chug a drink and it goes all over your face), but not to the point where it would ruin the quality of the graphics.

Graphics Rating: 8.5/10

Examples:

Controls:

As you'd expect being a Sims game, the controls are very, very simple. It's easy to move around the map with the diamond to choose your actions. One of the flaws in the game is that unlike The Sims 2 (which was released at a later date), you cannot freely move your Sim around. Your Sim will move when you choose an action to perform and he will walk towards it, otherwise they just stand there. Overall though, wouldn't find it hard to control a Sims game.

Controls Rating: 10/10

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Overall Rating: 8.5/10