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21. TSZ Goes Poland - Part 2

Written on Friday 11 March 2005 at 12:28 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Similar to just before the Sims 2 release (see this news), the Polish gaming magazine Komputer ŚWIAT GRY has published a Sims 2 special magazine. The Extra comes with a lot of information about the Sims 2 University. Included is a cover disc, which has downloads from EA and various fansites on it. The Sims Zone is one of them. They've published some of our Sims 2 downloads and made them available on the CD. If you're in Poland and want some of our files on a nice CD, buying this extra might be worth it.

22. University Info and Artwork

Written on Tuesday 8 February 2005 at 15:47 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Some new information, as well as an artwork about the Sims 2 University has appeared on two fansites. The first, Simy.pl, has released a new artwork of a Sim behind a drum set. You can see it below - click the thumbnail to see a larger version. The new information comes from Snooty Sims. They've translated a french article that reveals some new things. The information is mostly old, but finally all the majors your Sims can follow at University are revealed: Psychology, Theatre, Art, Philosophy, Biology, Economy, Literature, Mathematics, History, Physics and Politics. It's also said that students can switch major until the last semester (of the fourth year). Instead they can change their aspiration track. The universities that ship with the game also got names: "LaTour Academy", "Faculty Fiesta" and "the National University of SimState" (these names are translated from the French article, and may be different in the actual version of the game). Of course you can create your own campuses from scratch as well. The information comes from a feature list on the official French site.

23. Will Wright Interviewed

Written on Tuesday 8 February 2005 at 15:12 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

The official German site has recently had the opportunity to speak to Will Wright, Creator of the Sims, about The Sims 2 University. The interview does bring some new info including the news that Maxis is working on two expansion packs simultaneously. That's because creating an expansion pack for TS2 is up to 5 times more complex than it was for the Sims 1. Will has also noticed the community is technically a lot stronger than with the previous game, and modding tools have been released very quickly after the release. People also use the advanced features of the movie making tool more, and so come up with new creations. A new feature like the customisable neighborhoods take longer to be used by the community, so it seems.

In his spare time, Wright still plays the game a few times a week, but he also surfs around on the many fansites of the game, checking out new stuff people have created. When playing he's usually experimenting, watching what happens to Sims in certain situations, and building homes (and other things, including submarines) is also something he does a lot. Will also likes to tell stories with the game. You can find a few of his stories on the Sims 1 exchange...

Read More!

24. TSR Talks to Tim

Written on Tuesday 18 January 2005 at 23:26 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

TheSimsResource, one of the biggest Sims fansites, has met Tim LeTourneau last Sunday and spoke to him about the Sims 2 University. Some new information is given, including the reason to pick University as first EP. This was done with future packs in mind. It would be harder to add the "Young Adult" age group afterwards, and blend it in well enough with other expansions. Besides that, expansions bring new objects, like the music objects and the pool table, that add more general gameplay rather than - in this case - the typical university life. Besides that information, there are of course also some old and new details regarding the first expansion:

It's again confirmed there will be a cheat to make buildings as high as you want, where the sky is the limit. It's said though, that a Sim on the 19th floor, may take 5 real-time minutes to walk down missing his carpool.
There will be a cheat to redecorate dorms, in case you're desperate. Normally though, build mode is disabled there.
Sims can move out of one family, and into another. This also allows multiple families to live in one household, as it was during the development of the Sims 2 (see our Sims 2 University special, which despite the name has nothing to do with this expansion).
The US terms for things, like majors, GPs, etc., are also discussed, and specifically localization of these names. In the end the idea is simple: Sims learn, get grades, and passes or fails. That's it.
Contrary to what was said before, each Semester lasts 3 simdays.
Failing 2 semesters in a row means the Sim's booted off university, back to the family they came from.
You can feed NPCs and even teachers to the famous Cow plant.
What I previously translated as "DIY Plastic Surgery Set" is actually called the "Home Plastic Surgery Kit."
The object to resurrect Sims with (by bribing the Grim Reaper), is called the "Resurrect-anamonotron." Spelling may be incorrect.
There's a new radio station, the "College Rock" station. Songs on it are recorded by real-life "up and coming" bands, that helped Maxis by making Simlish versions of their songs.
Maxis will release a new tool to create new swatches, i.e. object textures. A tool to edit their shapes will most likely not be released though.
Maxis is already developing expansion 2, and the details will be revealed sooner rather than later. Nevertheless it's still a close guarded secret.
A full-time butler or maid will not be in "this expansion pack."
Sims in college can visit their parents at home, and then also go to the regular community lots.
The police can bust up frat parties.
Sims cannot enter a dorm room without the owner of the room present.
No cheating at university!
Togas aren't fireproof... Watch out with those bonfires!
There won't be too many new food types in University, though there probably will be in future expansions.
The basketball hoop might return in a future expansion pack.

Read the entire article for the rest.

25. Sims 2 University Presentations

Written on Wednesday 12 January 2005 at 00:13 by ChEeTaH - 0 comments.

Tim LeTourneau is currently travelling through Europe to hold presentations about the first expansion for the Sims 2, University. He's shown it to members of the press, including webmasters of several fansites who attended the presentations, and some community members who were lucky enough to be invited by EA. A lot of pictures were taken during the presentations, and they've been posted on those fansites. But of course there was also some new info from these presentations. With thanks to SP Zone and SimsNetwork, which went to the presentation in Amsterdam last week, the following new information is now available (in pretty random order):

Every neighborhood has a campus. You can choose to create a new one, or use one of the two pre-made areas.
You can use buildings multiple times. After placing a building from the bin into an area, it will remain in the bin to be built again. It's unsure if this is for just university buildings or all buildings.
There will be a new cheat, with which you can make buildings as tall as you want. This is done through a cheat as it doesn't make the game any faster.
You can let up to 8 sims go to university. You can control these characters and they'll function more or less like a family. You can even choose to send townies (NPC sims) to college, so they can grow up and perhaps marry your own sims.
There are four semesters (stages) during college time: Freshman, sophomore, junior and then senior. Each of these takes 2 or 3 days, and the clock starts ticking as soon as you select a Sim. In itself, the entire life stage takes about 20 days.
Build-mode is disabled while you're playing on the university campus.
Going to lectures etc. is similar to work in the original game: you won't follow your Sim.
Sucking up to teachers or professors works. Woohoo-ing with them will guarantee good grades, according to Tim.
There's a new "Influence" bar, indicating the influence on other Sims you have. It will be placed on the left of the aspiration bar, and the higher it is the more Sims will do what you tell them to do. It is filled by fulfilling new wants, which are marked with a blue border.
There will now be 5 or even 6 wants instead of 4. You have to unlock those two though. You can now also lock 2 instead of 1 wants and/or fears.
Sims can now watch sports on tv.
Sport-Parties take a little longer than usual. During those parties Sims can watch the sports channel.
There's a new "DIY Plastic Surgery Set" career object, which allows you to change the face of your Sim completely. This can be bought in the Show Business career track. It can go wrong too...
The "Cow Plant" is given in the Ecology track. The Art track allows you to buy a Camera. The cow plant likes to eat, and if you don't feed it well enough it'll start eating Sims. After that it'll start producing special milk which other Sims can drink though. The result is the same as the Elixir of Life: the Sim gets younger.
Sims can be revived or brought back as zombie by bribing the Grim Reaper using an object in the Paranormal track. Zombies can be controlled like any other Sim but they can't make babies. On the other hand, they do have eternal life without using cheats.
You can have multiple families in one home, without marrying them or having them fall in love.
Time continues when visitng a community area from university. Such a visit can influence the mood of your Sim.
The computer has many more options, including entering a majors.
There will be pranks.
Some of the new objects include fitness-machines, common showers, the bubble blower from the Sims 1, a "juice-machine" which can do odd things to your Sim, a mini-fridge, a fire to roast marshmellows in, a fire sprinkler installation to extinguish fires without calling the fire department, cellphones, gameboys and MP3-players, the pool table and some objects in special themes like Classic, hip, and others.
You can build a bar, or a Lounge-area where a band can play.
There will be both two-floor and three-floor columns.
There are 11 majors, including history, biology, political economy and (plastic) surgery.
The Body Shop will be updated when you install University.
The Sims won't go online as previously stated. This is because "other players will disturb the planning of your Sims' lives. This destroys the entire Sims idea" (from GameVillage).

Furthermore, SP Zone reveals that pets will definitely return to the Sims 2, as well as bunk beds and spiral stairs. However, these will not be in University but in future expansion packs. We can expect one expansion approximately every 6 months. The original game as well as things in earlier expansions will also be fixed and improved in the new expansions. Of course I want to thank SP Zone (specifically JVtje, read her entire report on SP Zone's forum) for all the info. In the Read More part you can find a ton of pictures during the presentation, from SP Zone, SimsNetwork, LeeRoyNR09 (forum member on official Dutch site), GameVillage, and Gry (which went to Warsaw for the presentation). They are in fairly low quality as they're taken with cameras and aren't direct screenshots.

Furthermore, Fragland has interviewed Tim LeTourneau about the first expansion pack. In that interview he reveals you can hack the "mainframe computer system" to get some good grades. You have to get into the secret society for that though. The interview also mentions that sports are hard to put in the game - it's all about adding a bit of gameplay, which isn't easily done. Read the entire interview for the details.