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201. UrbzDay

Written on Thursday 12 August 2004 at 21:38 by ChEeTaH - 2 comments.

Somewhat bigger than SimDay, there are a few new things for the Urbz. The first thing to notice is that the new logo is now placed on the official website as well. Old news is the "new trailer" which has been posted at IGN earlier. The announcement that Sims become toys, posted here yesterday has also been put on the website. Furthermore there are fourteen new screenshots (see below), of which 5 show off the EyeToy capabilities of the PS2 version. Finally there's of course the weekly blog, by Scot Amos again. He talks about how close The Urbz on the consoles is getting to Alpha stage:

"Call the neighbors, wake the kids, it's almost ALPHA! That's right... just a few days away until The Urbz goes "ALPHA". Alpha, as I've stated before, is EVERYTHING in the game and you can play it all the way through. We're actually almost there now (ahead of schedule) but we have to really, honestly, thoroughly be able to play the thing from start to finish before we can be declared Alpha."

For the entire blog, see official Urbz website.

202. Urbz DS Interview

Written on Thursday 12 August 2004 at 00:20 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Planet GameCube has posted an interview with Virginia McArthur. She's worked on the Sims Online and the Sims vacation before, and has been active on the Sims for consoles for two years. She's now the producer of The Urbz on the Nintendo DS. She talks a bit about the upcoming handheld game. She says the second screen of the DS will be used as XAM - the PDA for Urbz. The touch screen can of course also be used, for example to create your urb or to navigate through menus. Most GBA mini-games will also be moved to the touch screen to give it a unique feel, and some unique DS mini-games will also be included. Splicer Island is an exclusive location for the DS as well. Finally, players will be able to create and share paintings. It's also said he DS will probably not be able to interact with the GBA version, but instead Maxis focusses on DS to DS wireless connectivity, for wireless multiplayer mini-games, auctions and trading. Read the entire interview for some more in-depth details.

203. Sims become Toys [Update]

Written on Wednesday 11 August 2004 at 02:44 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Besides the Sims 2, there's also the Urbz to be released later this year. And some slightly remarkable news has been announced about the last title today: Atomic Toys is going to make toys based on the characters in the GBA version of the Urbz. The first series of the toyline, called "Miniopolis Urbz" will be launched at the same day as the release of the GBA version. Toys based on the characters of the console version will be released later in the year, but before the holiday season. The availability of these toys is not mentioned, so it could be US only. For more information, read the press release. Meanwhile, the Urbz has also been officially added to the Nintendo DS launch lineup of EA, meaning it will be released simultaneously with the Nintendo DS platform. That will be November in North America and probably Japan (if the game's released there at all - I don't know), Europe and the rest of the world will have to wait until early 2005, as the DS system won't be out until then in those areas. The other versions of the game should be available in November worldwide.

[Update 22:25] There's a mini site available for the toys, which includes a photo with the toys on them. You can find it on this page, which also includes an interactive demo. Noticable is that one of the logos, previously used at TheUrbz.com is now seen there. TheUrbz.com now has the Atomic Toys logo on it.

204. New URBZ (Console) Trailer

Written on Sunday 8 August 2004 at 02:08 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

IGN has posted a new trailer of the URBZ. It's a 2 minute video, with some old and new in-game material to look at. The beginning and end is the same as the 30-second trailer posted on URBZDay over a week ago. For non-Insiders there's an 11.6 Mb version available, in Windows Media Player format. IGN Insiders can get a 17.1 Mb QuickTime version as well. The video can be viewed and downloaded from the URBZ videos page.

205. URBZDay

Written on Thursday 5 August 2004 at 21:46 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

This week's URBZDay brings a few new things again. First of all there's a link to a new preview at TeamXBox. Not much news is given in it, but it's worth a read. read the preview for the exact details. Next there is news about another focus group. You can earn $75 in 2 hours with chatting about the Sims on the consoles. The event will be held at 19 August. Visit the official site for details. Furthermore, now the GBA version of the URBZ is close to being finished already, and some more movies and screenshots can be found for it. The screenshots can be found below as well, just click the thumbnails to see the larger versions. Finally, there's the weekly blog. After two weeks of GBA talk, it's about the console version again this week. Scot Amos talks about the "Art Lock", the stage in which everything is in the game - all the locations, sims, basically all the artwork. Soon the Alpha stage will be hit as well, and the game is good on its way to be released in November. Everything can be found at the URBZ Website.

206. URBZDay

Written on Thursday 22 July 2004 at 03:09 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

From this week onwards, we'll keep the SimDays for The Sims PC games separate from the SimDays for the console version - the URBZ. Hence this is the first URBZDay news post. And this week, there isn't very much new. To start off with the old news, there are 5 screenshots which we posted last week. There are also 3 gameplay movies of the GBA version. They were posted at GameSpot already late June, as part of longer gameplay movies. New in them is the new Urbz logo though. It's been spotted before in the Hot Summer Nights gameplay movies, but this makes it even more likely that the final logo will be different from what we've seen so far. It's not been confirmed by EA yet though. New is that Maxis is again holding a focus group about the Sims on the consoles. This time about the GBA version though. If you're a GBA player and live in the area of Redwood City, California, you can participate in the focus group. You'll be discussing the game with other fans. If you qualify you'll get 2 EA GBA games in return. See the Urbz website for more. Finally there's the weekly blog. This time that too is about the GBA version. Cheryl, assistant producer of the game, tells the GBA version has reached alpha stage already, and they're now getting rid of the bugs in the game. She mentions a few odd things that have occured in the game so far - and they raised a few laughs at the team. For the gameplay movies, screenshots, the focus group and the blog, visit the Urbz website.

207. More from EA's Hot Summer Nights [Update]

Written on Saturday 17 July 2004 at 02:13 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Information from EA's Hot Summer Nights event (previously known as Camp EA) is popping up all over the internet. First of all there's a Sims 2 gameplay movie posted on both IGN and GameSpot. It shows stuff like a carpool (either a cool sports car or the helicopter), but also some romance, cooking, Don growing up, a fire (one of the first times that's visible), a Sim being abducted, and even a beggar and a teenager being brought home by the cops. There's a lot more in it too, and a must-see. GameSpot has also posted a 3 minute developer interview with Lucy Bradshaw who talks about the game. You see snippets of the other video during the interview too. She tells the game went Alpha (feature-complete) shortly after the E3, the event at which Maxis focussed on the Aspirations. After that they started really polishing the game, adding content and neighborhoods, etc. She also tells more about what has been mentioned in the previews again. As for the Movie making, she repeats movies will be saved as uncompressed AVI files, which will get big very quickly. She also mentioned the DVD version again. You can download it from this page.

As for the URBZ, one more preview has popped up at GameInformer.com. It doesn't mention much news when you've read the other previews though. Nevertheless, for those who want to see it, just read the GameInformer Preview. More interesting are the new gameplay movie and developer interview with Executive Producer Sinjin Bain (this time about the console version). Most noticable is probably the new logo on the right bottom corner in the gameplay movie. It's unsure whether this will be the new logo of the game or not. The gameplay movie shows a lot of fighting and urban life. The interview shows, just like the Sims 2 one, clips from the gameplay movie. Sinjin also repeats a lot of what's been said in the previews. For example, he mentions the different cultures and how your clothing affects the rep in a district. Jobs will also unlock the power social interactions. For that, and some urban rooftop Golf, dancing in front of a musical truck, and a lot more in-game material, check out the GameSpot Media Page.

[Update 17 July 1:55] A bunch of other gameplay movies of The Sims 2 have appeared. Besides the movie mentioned above, there are 8 new short movies, all showing Sims 2 gameplay. The movies are titled "The Mothership returns", "Tubbing it", "Picking fights", "Starting to lose it", "Alien loving", "Going to work", "Meet the neighbors" and "Stargazing, course-running". They all come in low quality Windows Media (around 3Mb each) and QuickTime (about 6 Mb each), and in high quality Quicktime (about 15-17Mb each) format. The QuickTime formats are available to Insiders only though. You can view them from this page (click the "Next" button for the last set and older videos).

208. URBZ (Handheld) Previews and more

Written on Friday 16 July 2004 at 20:05 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Besides the previews for the console version of the URBZ, there's also some material for the Handhelds: the Nintendo GBA and Dual-Screen (DS). The most info comes for the latter platform. There are a few screenshots and artworks, as well as a developer interview with Sinjin Baijn, Executive Producer, of well over 4 mins long, all at GameSpot. Sinjin talks a bit about the exclusive features of the game, but doesn't go into any details yet. All he really says is that the new technology allows Griptonite (the developer) to add a bunch of new mini-games and features. The way information is presented to the user is also much improved due to the two screens, and so you can check into inventory for example, without having to go more or less out of the game. He also says to expect the game on the Nintendo DS launch date, which according to GamesIndustry.biz will be 11 November in the US. The URBZ will be one of the 5 to 6 launch titles of the new platform. If you rather want to see just text instead of listening to Sinjin, about the same information is in the GameSpot Preview.

As for the GBA, there are some details about the mini-games. There will be 8 of them (both single- and multiplayer), and six have a name already: Squeegee Clean, Street Hoops, Dr. Max Stat!, Comic Explosion, Moo Goo Monkey and Soul Music. In multiplayer mode you can play the games with up to four other people. GameSpot also describes a few games in detail, so visit them for more. The game's nearing completion, and will be released in November, along with all the other versions of the Urbz. Check out both the GameSpot Preview and the IGN GBA Preview for more.

209. URBZ (Consoles) Buzz

Written on Friday 16 July 2004 at 18:51 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

There are a couple of new previews of the URBZ available on GameSpot and IGN. To start off with the console (PS2, GameCube, X-Box) version, there are two previews. They tell us the names of all 9 districts: Kicktail Park, Neon East, South Side Bridge, Gasoline Row, 125th Street, Cozmo Park, Diamond Heights, Central Station, and The Foundry, as well as that you need to dress in the style of each district to be cool. Also, each area has its own job which has 3 levels. On 125th Street, that's taming and selling ferrets. Your Urb will also have to develop three skills, mental, physical, and creative, to get better at the jobs. Machines can also evolve to a third level, for example an exercise machine with pedals. In level 2 it'll get a propellor, after which it turns into "a weird time machine ... with pedals."

The Power Social, which will help your Sim getting some better rep, feature also gets its first mention. You have to nail a meter and get the best results, similar to the game "Hot Shots Golf." But you don't necessarily have to be good to build a rep. IGN gives an example: kick a couple of bikes, and the bikers won't like you. The outsiders however, will get more respect for your Urb. Both previews also mention the new camera in the game, which allows you to get up close and personal with your creation. Creating your Urb is more detailed than ever before. Using a new morphing technique you can scale body parts, instead of just selecting them (but within limits).

As for special features, the URBZ will feature EyeToy support on the PS2. This, as mentioned before, will allow you to import pictures you make with EyeToy into the game, which will then appear there. On the GameCube and X-Box, this feature is simulated, as you can make pics of your Urb in-game, which will show up instead. The GameCube version will have some extra items to enjoy, while the X-Box will, as with the URBZ' predecessor Bustin' Out, support HDTV, i.e. high quality graphics.

Currently it's said the framerate of the game isn't very stable, but that's one thing Maxis will still be working on. You can read both previews by clicking the following links: Read the GameSpot Preview or the IGN Preview.

210. Urbz comes to Nintendo DS

Written on Thursday 15 July 2004 at 16:27 by ChEeTaH - 2 comments.

EA has just announced that The URBZ will come not only to the consoles and the GBA, but also on a third Nintendo platform: the Nintendo DS (Dual-Screen), a handheld console with two screens, which will be released on 29 November for about $200. Special features are wireless multiplay mode, touch-screen input, and some special features not available in any of the other versions of the game. There will be 24 objects, 5 mini-games, 7 characters and 8 pet species in the game. The pet species can be made using a special in-game 'gene manipulator.' That means you can create your own pet, besides just creating a Sim, for the first time. The story behind the game is as follows:

"Daddy Bigbucks is trying to take over the city of Miniopolis and keep Splicer Island a secret. It is up to you to uncover the truth by training your pet, increasing your reputation and keeping your crew on Splicer Island happy."

The gameplay will probably be similar to the GBA version of the game. Just like with the GBA version, Griptonite Games will be developing the game. The game will be released in November as well (like all other versions of the URBZ), under the EA Games brand. The precise release date is yet unknown, though since the platform won't be out until 29 November it's likely that the game will be released then as well. Once an exact date is known, we'll let you know. The URBZ is the first EA game that's announced for the new handheld platform, which was first shown to the public at the E3 2004. It's currently not known if the game will also make it to Sony's PSP (PlayStation Portable), though we'll of course let you know as soon as more information about that arrives. More information about the URBZ can be found at UrbzSims.com (which currently doesn't mention the DS version yet, but the 'Handheld' information probably applies). The press release can be read by clicking here.