Big City Stories will feature some additional mechanics city-building sims don't typically offer, like the ability to drop down from a bird's-eye view to see your city at street level without loading time. You can get an up-close-and-personal view of the skyscrapers and structures you're building, but what good would that do without seeing the people hanging out in the city?

The game will offer customizable avatars with various clothing items and emotes, a vehicle system with cars you can actually drive, mini-games, and stunt ramps scattered throughout the city. Not only will you be able to create your own cities, but you can get down in them and explore, too. Your friends can come hang out in the spaces you've created thanks to persistent spaces and come to your city even when you're offline as well.

Big City Stories is slated for an August 23rd launch in the US, and then it'll be slowly rolling out to other locations as well. It's The Sims meets Second Life, basically. Who knew?