Windows

The Sims 2: University

The developers behind the game have done an excellent job with their first expansion for The Sims 2. They already had a brilliant game to begin with, and the aspects they have added with University only work to increase that brilliance. The best part is that all of the new features they have added are not limited to the college campus. Nearly all of the new features and objects will be available in your regular neighborhoods as well. Due to the increased content, the load times have gotten a little longer, but aside from that there is very little to complain about in The Sims 2: University. If you haven't tried The Sims 2 yet, I recommend that you go pick up both the game and this new expansion pack today. If you already own The Sims 2, the chances are high that you already went out and bought this expansion pack and are playing it right now instead of reading this review. Actually, that's not a bad idea…where did I put that disk?

Last year, Maxis unleashed the grand and ambitious Sims 2 on a rabid fan base. The game allowed players to watch their sims age and produce offspring – a feature that, in itself, could propel curious gamers through generations of choices, fears, goals, and emotional tides. You will get sucked into the lives of these computer constructs and maneuver them through both the biggest and blandest days of their lives. It’s great, but still could use a little spice.

The minute, no, the very second the Sims 2 was released, you just knew there would be expansion packs coming in the future. After all, the original Sims spawned expansion pack upon expansion pack to highly expectant fans craving more and more of the top-selling PC title of all-time. Well, the first Sims 2 expansion is here, and just like the late, great Rodney Dangerfield, the Sims head back to school in the Sims 2 University, and it gives a magna cum laude performance that Sims fans will enjoy.

Ah, college! Those four perfect years between being an angry teenager and a disappointed adult. Years where you let slip the surly bonds of your parents and discover a social life with no curfew and an unimaginable workload that you blow off to play video games and pool. Even if you've never been through any sort of higher education, the mythology is familiar thanks to movies like Animal House or Old School.

Optisch überzeugt Wilde Campus-Jahre: Die Animationen für neue Aktionen wie die Kissenschlachten sind comichaft überzogen und passen wunderbar ins putzige Sims-Flair. Neue Einrichtungsgegenstände wie die Mini-Mikrowelle verschönern die Studenten-Buden. Allerdings ist das Addon hardwarehungrig. Die Wohnheime zwingen die Performance in die Knie. Wenn Die Sims 2 bei Ihnen also "gerade noch" lief, sollten Sie sich den Kauf noch einmal überlegen. Oder sich mit dem Gedanken an heruntergeregelte Grafikeinstellungen anfreunden.

So soll ein Addon sein! Denn mehr vom Alten bringen, das kann jeder. Entwickler Maxis stopft jedoch so viele gute Ideen in das ohnehin schon fast perfekte Spielprinzip, dass es schwer fällt, alle aufzuzählen. Die Studenten-Atmospähre passt, das neue Einflusswunsch-System funktioniert, und die Erweiterung ist anspruchsvoller als das Hauptprogramm. Was will man noch mehr?

They grow up so fast, don’t they? First you’re clapping and cooing over their cribs when they’re infants and then they’re tying their shoes on their own. Next thing you know they become teenagers ready to go off to college and thanks to The Sims 2 University we’ll see them do just that. The world of The Sims have seen expansion packs before but this is the first time we’ll be able to take part in shaping our teenaged Sims into adult Sims parents can be proud of when they finally come home. How good is this expansion pack to the brilliant sequel that is The Sims 2, you might ask? Let’s just say that campus life is a challenging good time.

Sims 2 University undeniably lives up to what a quality, bona-fide expansion pack should be: an addition to a game that is not scaled to be a sequel but to be a supplement that introduces refreshing new features that build on the core game play. It offers more of the addictive micro-management game play that Sims fans know and love by introducing a new teen life stage that was underexposed in Sims 2, a stage that increases the immersion of the "from birth to death" feeling of the Sims 2.

For most players that become attached to sims that they've seen born and then grow up through the years, it's hard to see them die so soon. Now, sims that haven't moved past their teenage years have a way to extend their lives without the help of the Elixir of Life or cheats. The university years can extend the life of a sim for quite a while, especially if school is... well, not the priority most of the time. A semester of college (two semesters per school year) lasts around three sim days or so. So you figure six sim days per year. So twenty four sim days to get through college. But that's only if the sim manages to pass all of the years. They could easily fail one of them and have to take the semester over again, adding another three days. It's an easy way to build skills up over a long period of time if you alternate good and bad semesters without having to worry about aging as sims don't age while at university.

Mit Tränen in den Augen blickt Mama Sim ihrem Sprössling zum Abschied hinterher, als er die Stufen zu seinem Studentenwohnheim erklimmt. Diese herzzerreißende Sequenz eröffnet das erste Add-on zu Sims 2: Teenager werden zu "Jungen Erwachsenen" - so nennt sich die neue Lebensphase - und freuen sich auf wahrlich wilde Studienjahre. Die angehenden Akademiker leben gemeinsam mit Gleichaltrigen auf einem von drei vorgefertigten Campus-Geländen.

Well I must say the Sims team has made another game that I just want to play more of, great job. I think I have already said about all there is to say, and will just let the score speak for itself.

Jogadores interessados na expansão apenas para criar personagens com o intuito exclusivo da vida universitária podem ficar desapontados com a rapidez dessa fase. Mas a adição de muitas novas opções interessantes - assim com a introdução de uma época perfeita para melhorar as habilidades e recursos dos Sims - fazem de "Vida de Universitário" uma expansão valorosa para fãs dedicados. Mas uma temática extremamente voltada para a cultura norte-americana e estereotipada dentro de padrões "sanitizados" para evitar censura, somada à brevidade do processo, restringe um pouco o escopo da expansão como simplesmente uma simulação de faculdade.

Electronic Arts n'a pas perdu de temps pour sortir ce premier add-on, qui va emmener les Sims à l'université, car il faut bien éduquer ces mômes !

Eh oui ! une fois leurs études secondaires terminées, vos Sims deviennent des étudiants qui vont plancher dans les amphis ou faire la fête nuit et jour, à vous de choisir.

If you're just tuning in, The Sims 2 catapulted far beyond its predecessor's gameplay value by introducing the passage of time. Aging allows for your Sims to experience each stage of life with such verisimilitude that you actually feel these are living (or dying) creatures. The game's first expansion pack, University, takes advantage of this strength by adding a whole new phase to your Sims' lives.

'Uitmelkerij!' 'Is de koe nog niet leeg?' Dit soort uitspraken zie je op elk bericht over een Sim-expansie verschijnen. Niet gek natuurlijk als de vorige Sims maar liefst zeven expansies kreeg. Toch is deze kritiek niet toepasbaar op Studentenleven. Deze expansie brengt heel veel vernieuwingen en verbeteringen met zich mee die de game leuker en duurzamer maakt.

There are three things you can count on: death, taxes, and Sims expansion packs. We can do without the first two, but we'll happily take the latter. The original The Sims received a whopping seven expansions, and now The Sims 2 receives its first pack in the form of The Sims 2 University. Cynics might argue that this is all overkill, but when a game is a huge creative and commercial success like The Sims 2, who wouldn't want more? The Sims 2 University sure gives you more. You get a whole new young adult life stage, plus a new influence system, new careers, new interactions, new items and decorating schemes, and, of course, a whole new experience: university life. That new life experience is something of a letdown, but the new items and strategic options more than make up for it.

Ondanks de kleine tekortkomingen en probleempjes roepen we deze De Sims 2: Studentenleven nu al uit tot een klassieker. Liefhebbers van de reeks moeten het gewoon in huis halen. Het origineel kende al behoorlijk wat diepgang, en met dit expansiepack daalt het game nog dieper af. De vele nieuwe items en decoratie-elementen vormen natuurlijk de spreekwoordelijke kers op de taart.

The conclusion is simple. You're a fan or you're not. Those opposed to The Sims won't have the original game and won't have any use for this expansion. The other group will find it a nice addition to the lives of their sims and will gladly pay the money for it.

Académie marque très certainement le début d'une longue liste d'add-on pour Les Sims 2. S'ils sont tous de la trempe de celui-ci, on a toutes les raisons de croire que la folie Sims n'est pas prête de s'essouffler. Qui s'en plaindra ?

There comes a time in every Sim's life when they must leave the nest and strike out on their own. In the past, they did so with just a high school education and a dream, somehow avoiding the real-world fate of most: working at Arby’s.

De nieuwigheden zijn nauweljks tot niet interactief, waardoor deze uitbreiding niet lang blijft boeien. Tweede zit voor Maxis.

While the new equipment and options integrates well with Sims 2 and one of four new specialist career paths can be opened up by graduating, Sims 2 University seems best thought of as a unique object. While Sims fans will have bought it already, this has a charm wider than those with Tattoos of Mortimer Goth on their chests. If dabbling in the Sims 2 appealed, but you desired something with a bit more structure, an application to the Sims 2 University is well worth filling in.

Pour ce premier add-on aux Sims 2, Maxis a été plus ambitieux que d'habitude et nous propose de vivre pendant quelques années une existence d'étudiant, faite comme chacun sait de travail, de farniente et de débauche. Le pari hélas n'est qu'à moitié réussi. Si l'introduction des examens (et la somme de boulot qui l'accompagne) est bienvenue, donnant un objectif concret au personnage que l'on dirige, les mécanismes du gameplay restent trop proches de l'original et les limites du moteur s'affichent bien vite pour vraiment rendre cette extension indispensable. Plus gourmand, il s'adresse avant tout aux amoureux de l'original, contents de s'évader de la simulation familiale pour quelques heures de fiesta sans aucune responsabilité.