The Sims 2 University Expansion Pack
by Electronic Arts
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List Price: Category: Video Games See more product details |
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Video Game Reviews of The Sims 2 University Expansion Pack
Customer Review: Sims on Campus
Summary: 4 Stars
Basically, this first addition to the sims2 creates another neighborhood. This one is a college campus. But colleges arent the only new thing in this game.
However, since the most advertised part of this game is teh biggest, lets start with that.
So, why send your sims to university?
Teens are giving the option to, at any time during their teen days, go to a university, previously added onto the neighborhood by you. if it doesnt have a college, the teens cant attend one. a teen sent to college recieves a memory and enters the "hidden" life stage, gaining them an extra 27 days of life without achedemic probabtion. Of course, your sims could just go straight to adulthood after their teen years, but where is the sim torture in that? ok, its everywhere, but thats besides the point. Sure, higher education doesn't necessarily
mean better jobs in real life as much as having a social network of friends wide enough to cover New York City, but in The Sims 2, going to university and graduating clearly has advantages, and huge ones at that:
1. Four new careers are unlocked to graduates! These super careers take
higher skills and more friends, but offer a lot more money, less work days,
and better hours! Along with these new careers are four new fun career
rewards. Here are the details:
-Show Business:
Career Reward: Dr. Vu's Automated Cosmetic (Level 6: Supporting Player)
-Natural Scientist:
Career Reward: Laganaphyllis Simnovorii (Level 6: Rogue Botanist)
-Paranormal:
Career Reward: Resurrect-O-Nomitron (Level 5: Medium)
-Artist:
Career Reward: Luminous Pro Antique Camera (Level 5: Wedding Photographer)
2. sims get aspiration bonuses at the end of each year in university. they also get money if they pass at the end of each semester.
Freshman: +1 want slot
Sophmore: aspiration change
Junior: +1 lock slot
Senior: +1 want slot
therefore, at the end of graduation, your sim will have had the option to change aspirations and have 6 wants and 2 locks, assuming they get that far.
so why wouldnt they get that far? In the senario that you hate your sims and are the kinda person who kills them off, unlucky sims who have been expelled from college(getting on achademic probabtion and then failing again) gain an extra fear slot for you to use in the name of fun, and your sim gets a little red X over the young adult life stage as a reminder. in the case that you just really made a mistake and want your sim to not get an extra fear slot, just call up the college and drop out, and your sim just gets a little white X over the young adult life stage marker, as a reminder that they were too cool for school... or just too stupid.
Other advantages to going to university include extending your sim's life
naturally by almost thirty days without academic probation, the time to make
new friends, and increase base skills so you can start off higher on the
career ladder after you exit university. Sims who have traveled the full way
to graduation also retain several young adult exclusive social interactions
like the school cheer and those who graduate with honors get a good automatic
career boost that allows them to leap positions.
Along with this great new lifestage are other new things that revolve around it
1. There are many advantages in starting a sim out as a teen or younger, such as the extra time to gain skills and make friends, a good number is 11 so that they only need to make one to get the big sim on campus memory. Scholarships can help a lot in university, where a young adult sim will start out with only $500. Also, young adults already have the first kiss memory, so if you are looking to start a story about an innocent sim who goes completely insane and has her first kiss with a no good weirdo, well, its past that point. The
convenience of creating a young adult instead of a teen however is that you don't have to create their parental units in order for them to exist, so you can make them much easier without having to fill in extra space.
2. Scholarships: basically, your sim can earn money for being parentless(yep, killing the parents finally pays off), having 8+ skills in any area, have high pool(new object) or dance skills, being a zombie(more info later), being abducted by aliens, or being level 3 in a teen career. keeps you from going broke, and then hey, since we are wasting all of our time gaining scholarships, our story about innocent sim turned freak can have her woohoo with someone before they have their very first kiss. which is actually a bit hard, but do-able. oh yea, and an A- or better sim gets a scholarship. you need to use a phone or pc to apply for scholarships, or having the skills doesnt help.
3. There are two ways to send your sims to university, through the
phone/computer, or the "Move Sims To University" button on the neighborhood
menu. They both have their advantages and disadvantages.
4. Housing
Dorms: Basically, your sim runs to claim a door, and gets a puny room with just enough space for a single bed, desk, and a wardrobe.
Normal house: Nothing new really about them, except teh cost something like a third of the normal price because your are "renting" it. once inside, everything costs the same.
Greek houses: your uni sims can start a greek house and live in it.
There are a lot more things that can be said about colleges, but I need to be somewhere soon, so moving on.
The top of the new careers:
Once you get to the top of these careers, your sims have less work days/hours, and more money.
The new career rewards:
Du Vu's Thingy: ignoring the fact that every sim already has tons of botox in them, you can give your sim a complete makeover once acheiving level 6, show biz. basically, you can change everything about a simn except eyes and skin if this is used with a mirror.
Cow Plant: The long names plant that looks like a cow, that creates light green spectors of your annoying visitors. just stick it on your sims front porch, and your loner sim will never be bothered again! After 12 hours this level 6 Nat. Sci. reward, it sticks a peice of cake on its tounge every twelve hours to attract sims to their doom. and dont worry, it always wins.
Resurect-o-nomitron: a sims ticket to their second life. If you dont pay enough, you may get a zombie, which isnt any big deal, except that you have to kill them off for them to die, and they have a rather crappy personality. fortunatly or unfortunatly, depending on whether or not you are satan, maxis made it impossible to create a child zombie. too bad. tear tear.
Luminous Pro Antique Camera: Take pictures of a blank wall, and sell them for $100 bucks! Yea!!!
New Objects:
There are many new objects in the game, includingg additional excersise machines, guitars, drums, bonfires, punch bowl, ect.
Influence: If you have ever thought that NPC and townie sims are overly disposable good for nothing space wasters, then influence wont change anything there, but if you happen to enjoy watching them suffer, forcing them to do all your work, and making them do things against their will, as opposed to using your influence to right all the worlds wrong, then yea, influence is pretty fun >:) Influence points can be gained by fulfilling wants with a blue rim around them. You need more friends, not part of the family, to be able to hold more influence points, the max being 12 friends for 10,000 points. Of special note, if you feel like breaking a trash compatctor or dishwasher, a sim with low mechanical skill is likely to light up like a christmas tree, sorta the sim version of what could possibly happen if you use out of game programs and your game blows up into a firey blue ball visible from space, but thats besides the point.
Lifetimewants: your sims can now have a life time want, which is a want that lasts for life until it is fulfilled, giving your sims permaplatinum levels. therefore, you platinum legacy graves are not worth as much. sims get something like 25k aspiration points and 10k influence points. you can see this by hovering over the aspiration meter. of special note, the family aspiration LTW are hell, so if you get lucky and get the golden aniversery want or become captain hero want, dont change aspirations. also, uni careers are supposedly a LTW, but I have never seen them. what does this tell us about listening to gossip children? moving on.
ok... you can also move sims into an existing household. therefore, you can merge your super rich family with your super poor family for a super rich family. or put all career rewards on one lot and make a training station. how cool is that?
Now, for the big fun part, glitches. I ahve never really experienced glitches, and I play with like a thousand hacks. and the patch, but those a compatible with everything. read what you are installing and compatibility before you install, and your game is 95% less likely to blow up into a big fiery blue ball visible from space. of note however, is that upon 2 children of one family graduate, one had lost the went to college memory, and the other had a memory of graduating summa cum laude(which happened) and cum laude, which didnt. yea, the only thing that even comes close to the horror of the jump bug(like when your sim family with 10 kids forgets they had teh kids and are married) is the cow plant, but we all laugh at the dying sims anyway. So thats about it, overall, this is a great game totally worth getting, even though sometimes college seems to take a while.
Customer Review: Good game
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall, this game is a lot of fun to play and a worthwhile expansion to The Sims 2. However, some scenes may take a while to load (such as Sims visiting community lots).Customer Review: Sims Get Educated....
Summary: 5 Stars
I love the twist to the game of going to college and all of the wildness or strickness of real life. A wonderful addition to Sims 2.Customer Review: The Bugs Bring it Down
Summary: 3 Stars
I am a SIMs ADDICT. So they could have come out with crap and label it SIMS and I would love it to death.
Let me give you the worst first. The game has serious bugs. Granted if you download the patch it can fix alot of the bugs but I have had to restart the game twice. I mean start over from the very beginning and that is so frustrating. THAT IS MY ONLY HESISTATION.
THE GAME OVERRAL ROCKS, just because ITS THE SIMS. I love the hang out option. That option is absolutely vital for popularity and romance teens. I still need to learn how to get into the secret society.
Customer Review: Sims II University Expansion Pack
Summary: 5 Stars
This game is a lot of fun. The graphics are very good especially, the close-ups. The tasks of meeting the needs of my college sims, so they can do their homework is a challenge. Providing specific skills for my sims, college student enables them to do well in their major. Seeing my sims breeze through college is enjoyable. The music within the program is pleasing to my ears. I like it.