I really need the toilet.... but I can't remove my hand from the mouse... (The Sims 2: University Add-On (PC))

Member Name: Emmie_Sparkle

Product:	The Sims 2: University Add-On (PC)
Date:	04/01/07 (589 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Relive your youth without the need to buy a MX5

Disadvantages: You may begin to lose friends after not bathing for eight days

After 4 months of being hunched over my computer, a stack of chocolate biscuits on my right side, five half empty glasses of water on my left, and shamelessly scribbled cheats from the internet in front of me, I have decided to break free from the magnetic suck of The Sims 2 University just long enough to draw the rest of you in....

Let's start at the very beginning…

To run this game you will need at least Windows 98, an 800MHz processor and 256MB RAM. You can find more specific requirements on the back of the game box or go to www.thesims2.com and it will tell you on there! You can also find demos of the game and other tantalizing treats for the senses to entice you into buying it… (BUY IT, BUY IT…)

One important thing that I noticed in the small print (isn’t it always the small print that holds the most important information?!) is that if you have all of the extension packs on your PC, you will need 512MB RAM. EA, you sneaky little giblets…

If you’re a swing by the seat of your pants kind of spirit and your computer doesn’t meet the requirements, buy it and give it a go, but I find that it just doesn’t cut the mustard on anything less. My PC meets the minimum requirements and if I’ve been playing it for a little while (ok, seven hours) it starts to get v.e.r.y. s.l.o.w.

WHAT TO EXPECT

The Sims 2 University will run like any other neighbourhood (i.e. any other expansion pack). You get a choice of 3 University towns, all with different features, or you can make your own from scratch. Exciting stuff!

If you already have the Sims 2 (which you will need), you may already be playing with a nice family, perhaps with a teenager… shall we call him Egbert?

Yes? Great. You can choose to send Egbert to University at any time before he turns into an adult, either by using the phone or the computer and selecting 'Go to college'. Simple as that. You could even get Egbert to work on his skills so that he has a few more simoleons in his pocket in the form of SCHOLARSHIPS.

If however, you don't want to play with an existing sim that you hold dear to your heart, you can create an all new and funky young adult sim (or sims) to send off to college.

Now, back to Egbert. You have to choose a place for him to live. Initially you can choose either a Dorm or his own Private House, if he can afford it.

You will have a number of dorms to choose from, with anything between 4 and 16 rooms. And, amazingly, if you buy the official guide to the game, they give you a cheat so that you can actually edit or create your own dorms, which is a real benefit.

UNIVERSITY LIFE

Once Egbert has moved into his dorm, he can call college and select one of 11 MAJORS (ie. Drama, Biology, Psychology...) Certain majors are best suited to particular careers - although once the sim graduates, they can choose any career they like, and are also able to access 4 new careers that non-university sims cannot access.

Egbert will go through 4 years of college; with each one split into 2 semesters (shown on a time bar at the bottom of the screen). In order to pass each semester, Egbert must go to class, do assignments, do research, write a term paper and attend a final exam. His grade will be best if he does all of these things, but he could get by through doing just a few. If Egbert spends too much time partying and chasing girls (or boys of course, I do not judge) and neglects his studies, he might be put on the ever-feared ACADEMIC PROBATION (oooh). This means he has to repeat the semester, and if he doesn't pass this time round, he gets his lazy backside booted out of college…… FOREVER……….

If Egbert finds himself running a bit low on cash, he could decide to take a college job. He might fancy his hand at working in the cafeteria, in a coffee shop, behind the bar, being a personal trainer, tutoring another sim, playing in a band or hustling fellow classmates in a game of pool. You may also like to know that the money cheat for the Sims 2 also works in University.... ahem.....

One great part of the Sims University is the new SOCIAL INTERACTIONS you gain, such as playing pranks, streaking, pillow fighting and hanging out on the floor. The hang out interaction is particularly useful as you can just stick 4 sims on the floor and let them bond whilst you a) go to the toilet, b) make a cup of tea or c) take a bath.

There is also the introduction of the ever-mysterious SECRET SOCIETY. This is an area that cannot be seen from the University screen even after joining, but is the only community lot where you can actually sleep, which is quite cool and gives you the feeling of being a dirty stop-out without the accompanying guilt (it’s all in the name of education). Say if our sweet Egbert wanted to join the secret society, he would first have to make friends with a certain amount of special people, who will without warning one late night whisk him off to the wonders of their clubhouse. Once Egbert is a member, he can also hack his grades… life on the edge people, life on the edge.

Another great part specific to the University is the new ability to initiate relationships over the phone, without actually having to traipse around the campus trying to hunt people down. When using the phone, a ‘campus directory’ becomes available, allowing your sim to scan all the other sims on campus in one foul swoop and pick the most attractive to talk to (oh you know you do it too).

There are many other great points to mention about the Sims 2 University, but I feel that some of them you should discover for yourself! I have pointed out the main ones here mainly to encourage you to go out and buy it :-)


HOWEVER………

Nothing is without flaws and I do think it only fair that I point out the very few with this game.

The biggest disappointment for me really was that when the game was advertised it gave (me at least) the impression that there would be one actual University building, around which life centers, as well as some other places to visit. I did initially feel a little disheartened by the fact that really, it is exactly the same as any other neighbourhood, where life is centered in your house (or dorm, in this case), and University as an actual place is only experienced through visiting community lots in the usual way.

I suppose, being at University myself, I expected the sims experience to be the same as mine, and thought when sims go to class you would be able to see them walk into a lecture hall. But I guess you can’t have everything and people would argue ‘why would you want to watch people go to class when you are playing to escape it?’ True…

A couple of the ‘goals’ of Sims 2 University hyped up by EA Games such as ‘play in a band’ and ‘become the big sim on campus’ are SLIGHTLY misleading also! Again, maybe this is because I play an instrument myself and was hoping it would be like reality (it’s only a game, Emma), but I had imagined that you would be able to invite all your talented sim friends round for a jam and acquire some status through being in a band…. Not really the case. You learn to play an instrument on your own, and then in community lots you can play as a group if other random sims happen to be around and want to play too. The ‘Big Sim’ notion is a little better - if your sim actually has a WANT to become this…. it simply involves having a certain amount of friends. Unfortunately, I discovered that my sim had become ‘The Big Sim’ without any fanfare or celebration… a special sweater with ‘I AM THE MAN’ written on it may have been a nice reward, but unfortunately I got nothing.

Oh yes, and one final and probably really the only point that actually disappointed me a little is that the ‘aging off’ cheat does not work at University. Having said that though, you do get an ample amount of time in University overall – enough time to do everything. You can also stay twice as long if you want to make your sim a little less academic and fail each semester so that you can repeat it once.



So that’s it really! I hope that this review has been informative for you (aka persuades you to go out and buy it!) In my opinion, this is a really great game and will keep you entertained for months to come. Now, back to my chocolate biscuits…..

Summary: Buy it, buy it, buy it, buy it