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Great Addition To Core Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 24
Date: March 11, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The S2U EP is a great addition to the core of the Sims 2 game. Adding the new Young Adult age just "makes sense", so rather from going from Teen to Adult your Sims now go from Teen into Young Adult IF you take them to University (otherwise, they head straight into the Adult age after their period as a Teen).

The new Influence system added to the game is quite interesting. Now you can get your active sim to Influence others to do their bidding, which can be a lot of fun depending on the circumstances.

This EP had a very smooth installation, with no problems whatsoever. I don't use downloaded items/patches in my game so this may be why, as I'm playing the game as Maxis intended.

For those who've reviewed and "complained" they couldn't get the EP to install: If you have any "hacked" / third-party objects/patches in your game, you MUST remove these BEFORE attempting install of Sims 2 University. Quite a bit of downloaded items available since the release of Sims 2 were incompatible with Sims 2 University (since S2U completely updated the "core" of the game engine). Many "third-party" fan sites have NOT updated their items to be University compatible. Remove your third-party downloads (skins, patches, objects) THEN try to install University and I'm sure you'll have a much better go of it. :)

More fun!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 19 / 23
Date: September 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a good expansion pack for an already great game! Of course, there are new objects, new clothes a new age group (Young Adult) and new professions. These add a bit of variety to a game that already has loads of replayability. Sending the teens to college gives them an opportunity to build more skill points, giving them a better chance of reaching the top of a professional career track, something I found difficult with the pre-Universtity Sims 2. It also makes me a little nostaligic for my college days. Despite getting this expansion the day after it came out, I still haven't fully explored all of the new options mainly because I care too much about my Sims' gpa's. It is hard to keep them at a A+ level while leaving time to pursue the other aspects of college life. The option of using influence points to get other people to do the homework would certainly open up more time for social pursuits (as would being happy with a B or C average), though a more honorable method of keeping grades up while socializing would be nice. Filling the skills for teens before they go to University would help save time as well. Despite this, I still have a lot of fun with it and haven't grown tired of it yet.
Now for the gripes that kept me from giving it 5 stars. One minor gripe was that when I installed this expansion and then went into a previously existing household, all of the Sims in the household were standing at attention near where they were when I last saved, with almost full meters. At first, this doesn't sound bad, but having to remember what each Sim was doing when I saved was kind of difficult. Sometimes this doesn't matter, but what if the Sim was close to finishing another level in a skill and you don't remember which skill they were working on? It can take a little game time to get things back on track. The meters being full can throw off a Sims schedule as well depending upon what time of day you saved before installing University. Only limiting college to a certain age group was kind of sad too. Sims who had just became adults before the expansion pack was installed are simply out of luck. One final negative is something I also have an issue with in the original game. The lack of clothing choice when a Sim goes through an age transition is kind of lame. It would be nice if a window similar to what comes up when your Sim is shopping would pop up so that you can choose the initial clothing of the new age like you do when you first create the Sim. Just randomizing it leads to the need to spend more game time sending the Sim shopping which isn't too terrible a thing, but sometimes time is a luxury (hope that large sentence made sense). Also, a modest Sim might be horrified by what a randomizer might pick!
Overall, those negatives do not prevent the game from being enjoyable and the new features are a very welcome addition.

Near flawless install, with few exceptions

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 18 / 22
Date: March 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

The installation recommends backing up the existing files (mainly the user files which is in your documents and settings folder in Windows XP). After setup completes, it then checks to make sure your Sims2 is up to date (possibly the orginal Sims2 update patch? not sure). The one thing that is lacking after install is the "Check for updates" website...it is replaced with a "Technical Support" website that didn't list any patches or updates, if available.

I failed to backup my Sims2 before installing the expansion pack, but I didn't run into any major problems that couldn't be fixed on my own. I had several pairs of speakers so I could dance to the stereo in other rooms, but when I loaded my saved game for the first time, the speakers were blaring 'store music' even when the stereo wasn't turned on and I couldn't turn it off without trading in the speakers and rebuying them. I didn't have any problems with other original objects acting strangely after installing Sims University.

I haven't really played the University part of this game yet, but I am happy with the new objects that are available in the "knowledge" section. Drums, Guitars...I'll be happy when I get the dancing cage and disco floor back again. And the new expansion pack that will be out in the Fall looks interesting as well, although we don't see much about it except for the Vampire lady.

I give Sims2 4 out of 5 stars, docking it mainly for having to rebuy a few items to get them to work properly. It's been great for the most part, with slightly longer load times, but still works well with my PC.

It was good, but not great.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 17
Date: August 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This was my first time buying a Sims 2 expansion pack and I'm rather glad I waited and bought it at a surprisingly low price of $20. This expansion pack was fun and exciting while your sims are at college, but it gets dull after a while. The work you need in order to get a 4.0 average is fairly easy, but time consuming. The best strategy I found is to just meet up the required skills, attend class, type up one term paper (it boosts up your grade dramatically), and influence a person to do your homework. By then, you'll be ensured to have an A+.
But after a while, doing the same thing for the same semester is . . . well, boring.
One thing I also found odd is creating new college students 'cause they don't have any parents.
Anyway, the hours of gameplay trying to graduate is ridiculous. It's hard enough trying to maintain decent grades, but with the popularity aspiration (that my Sim had), she wanted a damn party every day. It's hard to keep up with a social life.
After graduating, however, it seems like your Sim never went to college at all. Sure, you had a major and everything, but it seems like it had no point.

Good concept, but unsupported product fails over time

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: August 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I've been a big fan of the sims games, having purchased and enjoyed all the games in the original Sims 1 series. Sims 2 promised to be a great step forward, and I was really looking forward to the first expansion pack. While the University EP has some attractive features, they fail over time in extended game play, and Maxis has not provided appropriate customer support.

A lot of the features mentioned in the marketing materials are interesting ones, and the new influence system is obviously a major game play addition, however I have been among the many afflicted by a number of the bugs in this product. Although I have a solid gaming machine (3GHz P4, 2GB RAM, Radeon 9800 Pro video card w 128MB VRAM) and do not play with hacks, mods, downloads or cheats, I have had the following experiences:

1. Sims attend a final exam and return, receiving their score and funding for the term - but a few minutes later, a second message appears stating that the sim has failed their classes, as they missed the final exam. I have worked around this by constantly checking everyone who returns to see if the sim is listed as having a "final exam in progress" and returning them to the exam - but they then quickly accelerate through all their remaining terms until they either flunk or graduate, all without ever allowing me to play them during any of the remaining terms! This is really frustrating, since playing them during the terms is obviously the point of the game.

2. One of my sims, who had been attending classes normally and doing well, suddenly received a message saying it was "high time she returned to the real world" at which point she turned into an adult and left university. Her memories do not show her having attended at all.

3. Sims who stop playing kicky bag (which they frequently start playing autonomously) cause an invisible kicky bag to be deposited somewhere on the lot, and it cannot be seen or removed. In my worst case, it blocked the portals by which sims leave the lot for classes, forcing me to abandon the entire dormitory. In another case, it merely blocked a TV and a sofa, which wasn't so bad.

4. I could not add members to my top level greek house (according to the guide, I should be able to have thousands of members once the top level is achieved - I couldn't get as many as were allowed in the first level). One greek house member lost all her memories, but I was able to deal with it by exiting without saving.

5. Two - no, three - of my teen sims entering university aged to young adults but kept their acne, although they could no longer apply acne cream to fix this.

6. Some (pre-made Maxis) dorms get bills and some don't. I'm no longer sure which is supposed to happen but it's certainly not consistent.

Then I have bugs in the main neighborhood as well; in fairness to Maxis it's possible that these are problems with the base game that merely showed up at that time.

7. Regardless of the cooking skill of the sim, sometimes the refrigerator only offers instant meals - nothing else.

8. The repoman shows up and repossesses some items (leaving sims with a bad memory or an aspiration failure) although no bills are present on the lot or available in the mailbox.

9. The maid began reaching into the dishwasher and taking out a cup, then putting it back in again - over, and over, and over! She just stood there all day moving the coffee cup back and forth and never did any cleaning.

10. The Headmaster simply disappeared while playing the Headmaster scenario - I keep calling to get him to come again on subsequent nights, but he never shows up.

11. Sims die in the main neighborhood without leaving either a tombstone or an inheritance - however the pictures of dead sims remain on the family screen in neighborhood view. Some existing tombstones simply disappear for no apparent reason.

At first, I assumed that some of these were minor glitches, but I did some more investigation as the problems kept recurring and found that these are actually known bugs which have never been patched (more than four months after product release!). Some people don't experience them at first, but they seem to crop up after you've been playing enough to trigger them (sufficient numbers of sims and memories). Compared to some players, I've actually been fairly lucky - some bug lists for this game are up well over a hundred items - but I've had enough problems to basically stop playing the game until Maxis releases a patch. It was fun to play University while I was able to, but the first issues I mentioned with the final exam pretty much mean that I can't, so at this point I regard it as a waste of money.

As much as I liked the game (while it was playable), I can't honestly recommend it to anyone until there is a patch available to address at least some of the biggest game play problems.

JAWESOME!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 15 / 18
Date: March 13, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is an excellend expansion. For items it doesnt offer as much as I'd like it too, but the College life is the main part of the game. And it's awesome. I found leading my sims through 4 years of college; studying, hanging out, burning lobster thermidor, was much more fun than the traditional game mode. The only downside to this game is the technical specs.

Now, be warned that if you have a computer that meets this game's system requirements, it's gonna run pretty slow. Loading times, 5 mins plus. I have a custom laptop with an AMD Athlon 3000+ processor, 1024mb RAM, and ATI Radeon 9700 Pro Graphics Card, and this game runs great. loading times are less than a minute. But, the other day i played it at my friend's house, on his Compaq computer with 512mb RAM and Pentium 4. Badness! Choppy, slow, all that.

My point being, if you dont have a nice (or very nice) computer, just be warned of the slowness and stuff. If you have a nice gaming computer, no worries ^_^

Overall, this is an excellent game and i would recommend it to anybody in possesion of The Sims 2.

This game is great.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 20
Date: March 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Okay well first off, I've been playing The Sims since they first came out. So I had to get The Sims 2. You just have to have a good video card and lots of space on your computer. Today I got the University expansion and its really fun. I was expecting more furniture and floors and walls and other objects but I was really glad of some of the things they made for build mode. I'm alittle dissapointed that they did not have an actual "Young Adult" age group. Once your sim turns into a teen they have the option to pick up the phone and call college and once they get there they turn into a young adult so you either go to college and be a young adult or stay home and be a teen. This game really isn't an expansion, its more of a add on to the core of The Sims 2. When you get to college you can pick to rent a house or live in a dorm with other people. Once you do that if you want you can call the sorority or the fraternity and you can try and get into The Greek System. You find a computer, pick your major, and then from there you have to build up skills and write a term paper which is pretty annoying and do your assignements and if you do that you will graduate from freshman to a sophmore and so on. So I'd recommend this game even though it is a bit challenging because you don't have much if any free time to spend shopping or socializing because by the time you finish your studys, eat, shower, and watch tv to get your happiness up you are to tired to do anything else. But still this game is alot of fun. You should buy this game.

Nice idea, bad code.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 17 / 22
Date: August 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

After playing TS2 with the Uni expansion pack since March, I feel future consumers need to be warned:

This expansion pack to the greatest computer game EVER is riddled w/gameplay wrecking bugs that have YET to be addressed by the game's manufacturer despite countless complaints found all over the official site's message boards. A complete lack of communication regarding these well-known bugs/glitches on the part of EA/Maxis has made me and many others loathe to purchase any more products from this company.

It would appear that churning out product, no matter how rushed or flawed, matters more to EA/Maxis than releasing patches that make the game perform as it was purported to.

But one example: University's a great idea, having your sims experience college, cool - except a rampant bug in the game prevents students from graduating! Another prevents a graduated sim from being able to return home without a convoluted workaround. Kind of defeats the purpose, eh?

Amount of time spent playing the game doesn't seem to matter - they can strike at any time.

To date, a list has been compiled on the official website's message board by several game players (many of whom are programmers). The list currently stands at more than 100 known bugs, some that are very minor, but several that can stop gameplay DEAD in its tracks.

Like many, I do not want hacks in my game for any purpose whatsoever. However, I've found that without certain hacks I continually experience gameplay destroying bugs. Fortunately, these unauthorized third party programmers have, of their own generosity, made freely available hack fixes for code errors causing many of these bugs and did so WITHIN WEEKS OF THE GAME'S RELEASE.

But after nearly 6 months, nothing but a few recent sentences from the game's manufacturer - not information, not acknowledgment, not a patch, not a peep. Little else but hype about their next expansion pack. They need to fix the one we've already paid for FIRST.

Do not purchase this expansion pack until a free, stand-alone patch for TS2 University is available from the official website. You will not get your money's worth if you do, sorry. I love this game and am so disappointed in EA/Maxis' treatment of it and of their insanely devoted customer base.

I'm exhausted and disgusted with having to find fixes and workarounds for this game instead of just playing it. Not one more thin dime til I see a free patch.

A boring, buggy bust

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 13 / 15
Date: August 04, 2005
Author: Amazon User

What a shame. As a hardcore Sims fan, I was too thrilled to learn that University would be the first expansion. Having had a great University experience in RL, I was excited that Maxis (the developers of the game) were going to try out a completely new idea and give us a new life stage and new jobs. Also I was eager to see all the new experiences my Sims would have in college.

I'll cut right through the long sililoquy of disappointed. This is a very boring game. It's way too long and just drags on to the point where you don't even want to send your Sims to University anymore because it's just going through the motions and you'd rather be doing something else. Seeing as how sending your Sims to University is the ENTIRE POINT OF THE GAME, the entire game fails to live up to expectations.

After a while, I started to experience glitches and bugs such as invisible dormmates, the "jump bug", etc. Nothing too big but you would think that as how this is the biggest game from the biggest games developer company, they would have the foresight and the know-how to fix it.

The game doesn't add much to the Sims 2 series as a whole but make their lives longer and not that interesting. Even the objects aren't all that great. The pool table is cool--the first couple of times but after watching the animations over and over again, it gets lame and repetitive. The instruments were a big disappointment and now I don't even bother to put them in my houses anymore because annoying guests always make a beeline to perform on them. And you can't even have a real band like they (falsely) advertised before the game came out. That's one of the main things I was looking forward to.

I'm really disappointed in this game and really think a lot less of the game developers for even putting it out and thinking we'd be stupid enough not to recognize that this was a shoddily assembled piece of crap. I know they are coming out with more expansions but if they are anything like this, you can bet that I will not be buying them.

Tricky Install

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: March 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

If you've installed the additional items and characters available from the official website you may have problems installing the University Expansion Pak. When you get to the install part that says "This product will now ensure that your existing installation is up to date" it will come up with an error and say "update process did not complete successfully. Installation will now terminate." Then it uninstalls University Expansion Pack. I fixed this by uninstalling the entire original Sims 2 game and all my saved characters and reinstalling Sims 2, the 16meg patch, then University Expansion. Will think twice before downloading charters, items, or buying another expansion pack for SIMS 2. EA Tech support had no clue and asked for the specs on my computer, which is running XP with 2GB AMD Athlon, 1GB of RAM, ATI 9000 Atlantis 128MB video Card (with newest driver), and over 120GB of free drive space. Plays well after all these steps.

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