My favorite expansion pack in Sims 2 was the University one so I was incredibly excited when I heard about this newest expansion pack for Sims 3! I could hardly wait to get my hands on it!
I just bought the game yesterday and played for a few hours last night. I thought I’d share some of my thoughts about it.
What I LOVE:
1.
The Open Campus – Wow!! It was fun to watch my Sim stroll through the campus grounds with her knapsack towards class. It really has a dynamic feeling with all the students dashing back and forth to get to their classes. On the weekend my Sim rode her bike down to the beach with her friend and have a bonfire party with a bunch of jocks. I love the bowling alley, coffee shop (I love the different herbal teas and coffees) and the comic shop. The campus is absolutely beautiful in the fall with all the colorful leaves falling. I haven’t experienced winter yet, I’m looking forward to that.
2.
The Classes – The majority of classes are rabbit holes in different buildings spread out along the campus. I love the fact that some of them ARE NOT rabbit holes and that takes The Sims to a whole new level. The lecture class experience was a lot of fun. I had a totally geeky gleeful moment watching my sim raise her hand to ask a question and take her notes in class. I like how you can choose to fully attend the class or just sleep in your chair. I also love the studio classes. My sim was a Fine Art major and one class just involved painting still life paintings in the courtyard with the other artists for 2 hours. LOVE it. It’s challenging to keep up with your studies if your Sim is enrolled in a lot of classes but It’s nice that they can kick back on the weekend without worrying about the progress grade going down.
3.
The SmartPhones – I didn’t think I would care much for this new feature but it’s growing on me. I love blogging and posting pics in the blog. It’s more fun and detailed than I expected. It’s also cute watching the Sim take a selfie or a picture with her friends with the phone. I also like that you can do class work on it, stream videos and watch cat videos with your friends lol! I know there is even more than that… I’ve really only scratched the surface and I’m already impressed.
4.
The Geeks, Rebels, Jocks – At first I didn’t know what to think of this. My Sim was trying to get in with the Rebels. I thought an artistic rebel would be the way to go. Think again. A lot of these “Rebels” are really just stereotypical spoiled Hipster kids that brag about how they are so Avant Garde and Anti-establishment. I met three rebels that “HATED ART”! Really? That makes no sense when you run around “tagging” everything. At the same time, it’s pretty amusing. I live in Northern California a few miles from the EA Studios, so I totally see where they got their inspiration from. I just think “HIPSTER” would be more appropriate description than “REBEL” IMHO. My Sim found a handsome vegetarian gardener JOCK (also amusing) and now she is in with that group. You really get immersed into that whole “scene”. I’m having a lot more fun with this then I expected.
5.
The Replay value – Some of the previous expansion packs (showtime for example) Kept my interest for only a few days. This one is different. After my sim graduates as an Artistic Jock, I know I’m going to want to try creating a nerd in the science field or maybe a Rebel in the communication major… I’m definitely going to create my own dorms, bars, restaurants, and download other people’s custom university worlds. There’s a lot of potential for creativity and fun that lasts a long time. It’s one of the best expansion packs to date. The only one that has it beat is maybe World Adventures (simply due to its’ originality and content)
What I DON’T LOVE:
1.
The Dorms – There are only 3 dorms and they are basically exact replicas of each other! In Sims 2 the creators put a little bit more effort and love into that. They created different style dorms. Fancy ones and more basic ones. Big ones with like 16 rooms and Small ones with 4. I realize we can make our own different style dorms ourselves, but I feel like there should be more diversity already available for us. C’mon EA/Maxis…Step it up.
2.
The Lack of a Cafeteria in the Dorms – Where are they? There used to be a cafeteria in the dormitories. I LOVED that. It was what made it more realistic to college and also made Dorms more convenient than living in an apartment with roommates. It also provided students with a place to work and make extra dough. If I’m wrong and these cafeterias do exist in the game then have not located them yet.
3.
Sororities/Frats – A big part of what I loved about the University expansion in Sims 2 was this aspect part of the game. I made a sorority that competed with the other sorority to get the most pledges. The ranking system was so dynamic and involved. I was hoping that it would be like this in this new expansion pack and it doesn’t look like this is the case. The sorority appears to be just another house with roommates. They’re just all girls and they dare each other to do stupid things “
Woo hoo with someone by the end of the night” but I don’t see anything about pledging. I don’t even know how you join one. So far there is one sorority house in my game. There is only one girl living there and she’s never home. I don’t know what’s up with that.
While we’re on that topic – Does ANYONE know how to move out of the dorms into an apartment or the sorority house? I tried everything I can't figure it out!
4.
The Roommates – This is probably just a glitch that will hopefully be fixed with a patch, but Roommates so far are really not very good at taking care of their basic needs. A lot of them smell, **** all over themselves, trash the dorms, and constantly pass out from exhaustion onto the floor. That’s why I’m trying to move my poor Sim out of the dorm in the first place! She needs a place of her own, or at least one with
clean sane sims. I hope that gets fixed soon. lol!
Despite those quips…All in all – It’s an awesome expansion! I’m really happy with it.
Those that are fans of the old Sims 2 version may also have small moments of disappointment. (For example: “
Man, I really miss those secret societies!” – yes I miss those too!) but there are a lot of new features that make up for it and the open campus is killer. We tend to view the past with rose-tinted glasses and we’re quick to forget those long loading screens in-between campus locations in Sims 2. While I watched my Sim riding her bike over the rolling hills of this beautiful campus town… I was pretty impressed.
These are my impressions just after a few hours of gameplay, so I’m looking forward to discovering some new things tonight when I play again.
So what about you? What do you love about the game… what do you NOT love about the game? I’m curious to hear what other people think about it too.
Comments
My main gripe is with the roommate system. In theory it's great, but it's very bugged. For the longest I kept having random townies show up to my sim's house in the regular hood to move in with him and his dad. Until I found on here how to turn it off. Roommates are also complete slobs who have a tendency to break things and not fix them. It's nice not having to control them, but I wish their AI worked a bit better. Overall though, I love this whole EP. It's the best one EA has made for the Sims 3 so far.
This is totally off topic, but I LOVE your signature. LSP is so perfect. Oh my glob.
my biggest complaint (and really the only one i really care about) is the one where the roommates dont take care of themselves! in my first week three of my roommates all died! the dorm was a mess and everything was broken so i tried to ask another roommate to clean up but all they did was complain about how hungry they were!
i wish the dorms had a maid programmed in that every day would just come and clean up! and i do miss the cook to =( and i hate how if things get broke i would have to fix them or pay for them to be fixed! so they should also do something about that to where someone will automatically come and fix something if its broke or that if you called you didnt have to pay!
well im glad to see someone has the same view points as me! and great post by the way! loved it!
My sims are so delayed doing what I ask of them. They stand around hours, mostly from clogged doorways. Time seems weird too, I send my sims to class 2 or 3 hours before it starts and they never make it on time.
You can ask your roommates to clean up or fix broken items in the dorms. My sim befriended two of his dorm mates for this sole purpose. One is the maid for him and the other is the fixer upper.
Given #2 and how you seem to love realism, I do not understand why the dorms are an issue for you. A lot of colleges actually use dorm setups where they just use one set of blueprints and build multiple buildings based off it. It's actually realistic for all of the dorms to have the same floor plan.
I also wonder about the lack of cafeterias, but from what I've heard, those are apparently on the rare side these days to actually be in dorms.
How can you do this?!
I only saw my Fine Arts student writing in the sketchbook with other majors.
However, those loading screens on SIM2 was killer It's amazing how much the graphics, game play has improves in Sims 3 and mostly the open world idea is probably the best thing ever. With regards to Uni- I really wish they would have kept the original sorority ways (need to pledge) and perks (sleep on floor), and the secret societies. So far, I feel like Uni is a bit repetitive- however I haven't explored the game or every major fully nor have I graduated a sim yet. But sometimes I think sending them back every semester seems a bit same deal over and over. The nice thing is though- they can take breaks and work.
Just be aware that when you decorate wherever you are to take that stuff with you if you plan to live elsewhere for the second term (or sell it before you return home). It sucks if you forget, but if you plan to live in the same room, then it's nice that you don't have to redecorate.
Oh, good! I was wondering if the stuff would end up going home with me... I hoped not. I'm wanting to make a house there to where only my sims can live there and don't want to end up losing the reserved spot
I hired a maid to clean up my dorm because my roommates are slobs.. but they're all good cooks so thankfully, none of them go hungry.
I really don't like the fact that they took out engagement/marriages while in college. You could do it in the Sims 2 and you can't in the Sims 3 and it makes me sort of sad.
My BIGGEST complaint would definitely have to be the fact that you can't just start in Sims University. You have to go through a town and then go there. If you make a new sim while you're in the university town, you can't play them because they aren't "technically" enrolled in school. It makes me really irritated and I wish they would have allowed us to just start in Uni like we could in Sims 2. It's by far one of my favorite EP's... but it needs some work.
Actually, you couldn't get married while at University in Sims 2; only engaged. Had to wait until they returned to the home neighborhood for marriage.
That's not how it was at my college at all. There were about 10 dorms and they were all very different from each other.
I so too, but I put a butler in my dorm, and he cleaned everything and cooked the meals. He did the dishes and all.
It was kind of funny, but good.
Colleges and universities do vary on practices
In all seriousness, there are a lot that don't, and a lot that do. I notice it tends to be some of the older colleges that make use of the same floor plans for dorms. And the UL university appears to be one of the older ones.
As for what I don't like, the campus is nice, BUT it does not look like a "college town" it has no bars, no night clubs, no insane shopping... you know, the normal. But I will have to add that myself. I also do wish that the other sims would not die, crushed my sims mood for like 3 days.
that is all. toodles!
the new interactions.
the smartphnes
HATE:
the rabbithole classes!!!!!!!!!!
I wish all the classes were like the one in the student union, where I can see my sim take notes, ask questions or sleep.
I would like to design my own classrooms. instead of those old fationed European buildings, I would like to make buildings that look like the buildings in my university.
I would also like to create the schedule for my sims the way it is done in my real life university.
The size of the campus: the campus is too big for my taste, and the dorms are also too big. its hard to control my sim in such a big space and it takes her forever to get from one place to the other. I wish I could make a new university world, just like the regular world so i can design it COMPLETELY.
for me sims is a game of imagination, like a virtual doll house. but this expansion is more like an adventure game, which is nice, but it ruins the sims experience for me.
Secondly, two weeks is nowhere near long enough! I want to build friendships with the roommates and go on epic adventures and so forth, two weeks is pathetic! One weekend to do fun stuff, thats it!?
That also means only two of the really amusing interactive lectures.
I doubt EA will change this or give an option to lengthen the terms (They still dont allow zombies to be turned off! They ruin EVERY GAME EVER), so I'll need to look towards mods in future.
Aside from issues like these, everything else is perfect. I love, LOOOOVE, the messy roommates, its so amazingly realistic. Just get them to sleep, eat and clean themselves a bit more, a LOT more if their traits demand it, and it'll be perfect.
See my Sims 3 studio for latest progress.