The Sims 2: University Expansion Pack (PC CD)

-> Several more career paths(paranormal, natural scientist, show business).
-> More clothing for the age groups as well as the new young adult group.
-> University campus areas.
-> The ability to unlock six wants instead of the original four when graduating and the ability to lock two of these rather than the one.
-> New life long aspiration objectives which allow your sim to increase their aspiration level to gold for the rest of their lifetime.
-> New influencing bar that allows a sim with many friends to become more influential and persuade other sims to do certain actions.
-> More objects (pool table, variety of exercise machines, and musical instruments for example).
-> New interaction options such as pillow fight and ventrilofart.
-> Can create custom campus areas in a similar fashion to the original custom neighbourhoods.
-> Computer Generated Sims. Upon entering university accomodation the player can select a dorm room for their sim and the remainder which don't have player created sims moving in will be filled with computer generated sims to interact with (these sims can follow you back into the neighbourhood once the player's sim graduates as well).

All in all a great expansion pack and enough features to make it worth the money and increase your Sims 2 playing time.

There are a lot of new items, with some requiring special mention. The new instruments can be played in sync and earn money for busking Sims, and hustling at the pool table is a joy to watch! There are also some new items specific to the campus allowing all manner of nefarious deeds.

The actual game dynamic of this expansion is what really impressed me. Where as previous expansions for The Sims just added a few actions and items, this provides an entire mini-game within Sims 2. There's such an enormous amount of scope that how you decide to play it really is critical. Time in Sims 2 could be countered with the Elixir of Life, but The Sims 2 University only gives you finite time. This expansion actually feels more like a game than a simulation, which I find a very satisfying addition. So how do you win?

Well, as I said, there's many ways around it. It just depends what you want for your Sim. Money is available in all manner of ways, truly not disadvantaging any skill sets over others. Busk, steal, hack, hustle, study or earn your Sims, simoleans are to a large extent the key to your Sims success. Then, though as in reality not necessarily the focus, there's the academic slant. Your Sim has to ensure they get the necessary grades to pass each year, and avoid getting kicked out of Uni. The results will also affect your income (through scholarships) and your career prospects. Finally, your Sim's will need to have some college buddies to get them through Uni mentally intact. As usual, friends can also ease other burdens, such as with Group Research, getting into Greek Houses, and being inducted into the elusive, secret society.

Your graduated Sim is plunged back into the mainstream game with a few additional perks. Lifetime Wants are your Sim's ultimate aspiration. Although tough to achieve, they will grant the successful Sim a permanent Platinum Mood! They get to hang up their diploma certificate and exert their influence on lesser Sims, getting them to do tasks for them. These simple additions to the main game are an excellent and innovative addition. Each copy of the game will also give you Sims junkies a taster of more things to come, in the shape of the Nightlife expansion (not that that should come as a great surprise).

All in all, I think the Sims 2 University is an essential purchase for anyone who has the original. This add-on also brings such a new dynamic to the game, a pace, excitement and finality, that I would recommend it to those who didn't even like the original.

There's loads more objects, skins, wants and fears, including ones that help towards your new 'influence' meter. You can now combine 2 households as long as it doesn't exceed 8 sims. You can also play the teenage NPC's if you put them into University and once they've graduated you can put them into their own houses in the game, or combine them into another lot.

The dorms are brilliant as there are loads of other NPC's wandering about and your sim is more forward in talking to other people. There's also plenty of objects to help them increase their cooking skills, mechanical, etc.

Earning extra money is also easy, you just go to the coffee shop or bar, click on the sim working there, select 'serve drinks' or 'serve coffee' and your sims changes into the uniform. They get paid by the hour so you can decide how long they work for.

There's coffee shops, gyms (with loads more equipment), parks, Student Unions, etc, for your sim to visit. You can now also buy mobile phones, hand held games, etc.

Your sims now have lifetime wants which will put them into platinum for the rest of their lives. One of my sims wanted 6 grandchildren and the other wanted to reach the top of the Police career. You can also have more than 2 sims talking at once.

I only played it last night for about 3 hours and I'm hooked! I was getting bored of playing The Sims 2, now I've got something to play again!

For those that want to know, the next expansion pack is out in the Autumn and is called 'Nightlife'. You can go to bars, pubs, restaurants, nightclubs, etc. The flyer shows a female Sim with Vampire teeth so maybe they also include new types of Sims and skins too.

I hope this helped! If you haven't already bought this game, buy it now!