The Sims 2: University Expansion Pack (PC)

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For the few people out there don't know, The Sims 2 is a life simulator computer game which allows a single player to create neighbourhoods and families of humans (called "Sims") to go within them.

It is up to the player to create, decorate and furnish a home for your Sims, and then, control the course of each Sim's life for better or worse.

The success of the Sims has stemmed from ...
...and decorate complex houses, using the game as a cheap substitute for a doll's house, or create "movies" with the clever "recording" option that allows the user to take short films of a Sims' life.

The Sims 2 builds on the success of the original game by adding two new factors into the equation: Sims now have aspirations in life, goals which they want to achieve, and fears that they want to avoid, which will boost ... more

What is "The Sims 2"?

For the few people out there don't know, The Sims 2 is a life simulator computer game which allows a single player to create neighbourhoods and families of humans (called "Sims") to go within them.

It is up to the player to create, decorate and furnish a home for your Sims, and then, control the course of each Sim's life for better or worse.

The success of the Sims has stemmed from its "no rules" feel. There's nothing to stop the user from creating a happy Sims with dream jobs, miserable sims, or to even go as far as to kill Sims. Many people build and decorate complex houses, using the game as a cheap substitute for a doll's house, or create "movies" with the clever "recording" option that allows the user to take short films of a Sims' life.

The Sims 2 builds on the success of the original game by adding two new factors into the equation: Sims now have aspirations in life, goals which they want to achieve, and fears that they want to avoid, which will boost or lower a Sim's motivation and mood accordingly. Sims now also have a true-to-life lifespan, from baby to toddler to child to teenager to adult to elder, when they will eventually die of old age. Aspirations give the player goals to focus on, and a Sim's new mortality means the game has little more urgency and aim than before.

The Sims University

The Sims University does what it says on the tin: it allows Sims to attend College if they wish. When a Sim turns into a teenager, they will be given the option to enrol and move out of their family home and onto one of 3 college campuses.

During their stay at the college, the Sim will become a Young Adult. The Young Adult life stage is similar to that of an adult sim. Their appearance is like that of an adult's, and they will have the option of more flirtacious behaviours than a teenage sim, but also with a few teenage characteristics, such as the ability to "hang out" together and chat.

Home Sweet Home

Before your Sim moves out to College, they can apply for money scholarships to help them along. These scholarship are awarded for anything from good grades to having good cooking skills to being a good dancer.

Scholarship money, to begin with, is a College Sim's only income, and decides where they can afford to stay at college.

The 3 forms of boarding available are dormitories, greek houses (fraternities and sororities) and rented housing. Each comes with its positive and negative aspects: dormitories have cheaper bills and provide Sims with free food in their cafeterias, but other Sims may barge into your Sim's dorm room, greek houses have the benefit of being able to glean free favours, such as writing term papers or cooking meals, off of those who pledge to the house, and rented houses allow a Sim to choose who they live with, but have higher bills.

Campus

Each of the three campuses are visually different, but contain the same fundamentals: a gym, a, shops, a music hall or lounge and a park. These areas allow your Sims to leave their houses for a while and have some fun. College Town much resembles the main Sim Town, but is only available for College Sims to visit.

College Gameplay

A college course consists of 4 years, each comprised of two 72 hour semesters. At the end of each semester, the Sim will sit a final exam that determines their overall mark for the semester, and whether they will be able to advance to the next semester.

A Sim can study one subject, their Major. There are 11 Majors to choose from, each of which lean toward a different intended career path:
Physics,
Maths,
History,
Psychology,
Drama,
Art,
Philosophy,
Biology,
Economics,
Political Science and Literature.

As if writing college papers wasn't bad enough, your Sim will need to gain skill points during their time at college. You can check your Sim's progress each term by looking at the "Class Performance Meter". This meter will expand as your Sim's capacity to learn gets bigger, e.g. as they gain more skill points. Your Sim can then study and attend classes, and the meter will fill. When the meter is full up to the halfway mark, they will pass the semester.

Class Time

When it is time for class, if your Sim is in a good mood, they will go to class without prompt. If they are in a bad mood, it is up to you to select them and order them to go, or face losing marks.

You do not see, or control your Sim whilst they are in class. They will walk off screen and reappear when the class has ended. As University can be challenging at first, it is logical to start by enrolling one Sim at a time, which means that it can be dull waiting for your Sim to return.

College Goings On

One of the best things about the Sims is the amount of quirks and surprises the game has. In University, streakers, school mascots and cheerleaders all make very unexpected appearances. One of my favourite surprises is the gym teacher, who will appear without warning to order your Sim to "drop and give them twenty"!

Another clever addition to the game is the Secret Society that each campus possesses, which your Sim can become a member of, if they befriend the right people on Campus. If you succeed, your Sim will be handcuffed and placed in a limo, to be transported to one of the secret headquarters, full of special items.

There is a disappointing lack of nightlife and wild behaviour for Young Adult Sims to take advantage of in the game however, aside from throwing a house party, or a sports party, to cheer on the Home team.

Ways of Passing Your Course and Making Money

One great aspect of the Sims University is the amount of different ways available of passing your Sim's college course. Obviously, a Sim can do research, write term papers and attend classes, but other options include joining the secret society and gaining access to the school's database and hacking grades, influencing other sims to do the work for you or seducing professors. All of these options can have varied levels of success, which keeps you on your toes.

For example, I once invited two professors over at once and let my Love aspiration sim seduce one of them. This backfired tremendously however, because the two professors were married, and my Sim lost all their progress for that semester!

Each semester, your Sim will be given a money bonus depending on their final grade. If your Sim studies very hard, it's possible to leave college with a lot of cash to splash. If your Sim is strapped, however, they will have to work part time. Jobs available include working in the cafeteria, working as a barista, busking with an instrument, tutoring other Sims or counterfeiting money.

Graduation!

So, your Sim knuckled down and passed that last Final Exam. What now? Firstly, your Sim can throw a Graduation party, which is exactly the same as a normal party, except your sim will be wearing their Graduation gown, and there will be a short cinematic at the end of them throwing the cap into their air triumphantly, and growing up into an adult.

They will then be returned to the normal Sims neighbourhood, where they can either move back in with their original family or create a new home for themselves.

But what does that all important degree get them? Not much, amusingly. Your Sim will be equipped with a diploma to hang on their wall, and a few advantages over Sims who haven't attended university, the biggest being that they will be afforded jobs higher up the chain than non-College Sims.

Other New Stuff

Influence System

The Sims University offers an interesting new reward system: the Influence system. Influence, measured in a small meter alongside the Wants and Fears section of the Sims Stats menu, allows a Sim to "persuade" another to Sim to do a task or interact with another Sim. Each task costs influence points. These points are gained by achieving Wants that score both Influence and Aspiration points, such as telling a good joke. Wants that gain Influence points are easy to identify, as the picture of the Want will be outlined in blue.

In order to store more Influence points, a Sim requires more friends. This Influence system is an interesting addition to the game, but is only really useful in College Town, where your Sims can gain valuable hours, by offloading chores such as cooking and cleaning on others.

New Career Paths

The game comes with four new career paths: Paranormal, Show Business, Artist and Natural Scientist, particularly suited for College graduates.

Objects

New Items include a Hippy and Medieval Furniture and Wall and Floor Coverings Theme Pack. Both are very garish, but liven up the limited amount of furnish available with the basic game.

University also comes with 3 new musical instruments: A bass guitar, a guitar and a drum kit. These all come with the option of "performing" either rock, jazz or country. When "performing", your Sim is in essence busking. Other Sims will be able to tip them. One great feature of these instruments is that, if you direct several Sims to play musical instruments at once, they will synchronise and play together as a band.

Overall Opinion

The Sims University is a great idea: it creates a new lifestage and an interesting bumper between schooling and employment, but there's room for improvement.

Each college semester is 72 sim hours long, which seems quite short when the time to complete necessary college work is factored in. There's too little time for your Sim to take advantage of the little "University life" available, without risking getting kicked out of College for good.

Playing College Sims can also be tedious. There's little to spice up the fact that you are, in essence, playing a game where someone is writing term papers. If played "correctly", with your Sim aiming to obtain the highest possible mark each semester, the game becomes something of a chore.

However, the new influence system does help take some of the load off, and the gameplay is as simple to master as the original game. All the clever little surprises and variety of ways to pass the course mean you'll get some solid play out of this expansion pack before growing bored of it. I recommend buying the Sims University if you find that the basic Sims 2 game is becoming dull.

The Sims University Tips

Decide your intended career for a Sim before you send them to college. This way you can build the required skill points before your Sim enrols, which will save time and allow them to kick back.

Play to your Sim's aspiration path. If they are a Knowledge Sim, they will want to study, but Love Sim will not, but they will want to flirt, so, why not flirt with a professor? Popularity Sims will prefer making friends, so use their higher influence capacity to persuade others to do the work for them.

Installation

Installing The Sims University is easy and painless, as, if you've been able to install The Sims 2, you will already have all the necessary system requirements. The only additional requirement for The Sims University is another free GB of drive space. The expansion pack is 2 discs and took my ½ year old computer with 1024MB RAM 10 minutes to install.

Most computers bought in the last 2 years will be more than capable of handling running The Sims 2 and University.

The game is rated 12+. There is no violence within the game but there is the option of sims "woohooing" (I'll leave you to guess what that means!), though this is not graphic.

Buy It At

Amazon.co.uk - £9.97 + £1.99 P&P
Or with free delivery when placed in an order over £15

Play.com - £9.99 delivered

Website

http://thesims2.ea.com/ - A great site for custom Sims2 content made by fans, and for news on new expansion packs.
 

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