@Prof_Clayton, the City isn't in the middle of your town, its across the train tracks. So, instead of taking a bus to the "city" you can just walk there (so its a seperate area from your town, same with the island & the streetpass place). Much cooler imo. I like that there are more shops. The City in City Folk was a big disappointment to me. Not enough to do there. That won't be a problem this time.

The regular town will have your animals, R parkers (a recycle shop), and a couple of other buildings (Cafe', maybe lost in found) if you choose to build them in your town. And you can put some stuff, like benches, wells, etc in your town if you want, but you don't have too.

Animal Crossing is all about choice. In fact, what shops you have in the City seem to be up to you too. So if you want a small city, you can have that. Some buildings like the Dream House are only opened by doing certain things. It seems like some people will have different "cities" depending on what they do with their town, how much they spend in the city, etc. If you just want to fish & bug hunt and not worry about the mayor stuff or expanding your city you can do that.

Personally, I'm going to do all the mayor stuff, put things in my town, try to make my city/mall as big as I can, and just have fun with the game. Its going to be the best Animal Crossing yet!