The same event which features the Goldeneye presentation also concerned a sneak preview of the Urbz. Not a completely new, but definitely innovating game which looks promising to say the least, read all about it in this preview.

Where the Sims makes fun of normal daily live, The Urbz, makes fun of … the urban styles (quite shocking isn’t it?). Just like in the Sims you will have to create a character, but here you have to make sure, that you “fit in” with almost everybody. So we were given a rundown on all the innovating features of The Urbz by the lead-designer.

The first thing that really struck me was that it looked really good. Nice characters, and really recognizable. They even told us, that you will never find 2 identical persons in the game. Also the different camera views are a nice change compared to the Sims.

The key elements in this game are the relationships you form with people. In each city you got different objectives (in a form of mini-games like button-bashing while seeing amusing animations, like making piercings as fast as possible) but these seem not to be obligatory unlike the need to increase your popularity rating with the people inhabiting that city. By doing that, you can unlock all sorts of nice features. In total there are nine districts with all their own subculture to which you have too adapt, one of them even features The Black Eyed Peas but not only can you hear their music, they are actually characters in the game. Suppose you’ll go to another district then you’ll keep all your clothes and stuff so if you want to visit it again you can quickly redress and comply if the subculture you are moving into hates the one you come from, which does not always happen to be so. Of course this means that clothing and accessories do matter and are not only there just to please the eye, like in most games.

The game also has a cooperative mode where one can help out another with his tasks while it is only the employee who gets the cash but if you if you want to be honest you can give away some of the money. Another 1337 feature is the possibility to let other people play while saving on another of the four slots, not that special hé? Well, what if I told you that the characters created already in the other slots are actually living in the game while you are playing and you can actually outdo their performance so you become the trendsetter!

What would a game be without a villain? Nothing they seemed to think with EA because in Urbz there are bad, bad people too but you do have to defeat them by publicly humiliating them using one of your social moves.

At first I was thinking that the Urbz was just some kind of new remake of the Sims (Sims 3 if you like), but now I’m really thinking of buying it. It looks really nice, has a lot of humour in it, and the whole world can be shaped just as you like it. You can even have your own face on the billboards in the game if you use your Eye Toy camera. How cool is that?

There is a GBA version too which will have certain things in common but you can’t connect with the GC and neither will you be able to import characters from other Sims into Urbz.