People just can’t seem to get enough of living out alternate lives in EA’s The Sims 3. It should come as no surprise that more Sims content is coming in 2013, namely with the University Life and Island Paradise expansions. We’ve seen them running, watched virtual people lead new virtual lives, and have the first details right here.
College is a formative time for many young people. You figure out what the heck you want to do with your life, meet and befriend a ton of new people and make a whole lot of mistakes along the way. This is also the case with The Sims 3: University Life.
Here’s the gist of how the school part works: You pick a major for your Sim, choosing between things like Communications, Technology or Business. You then leave your normal Sims 3 living space for a period of one to two weeks, moving into a new college town to earn your degree. Come back a few times, kick ass on some tests, and you’ll hopefully net you better job offers and salaries in careers associated with your major.
Ok, well, it’s actually a bit more complicated than all that.
Earn that art degree.
You see, for starters you have to actually study if you want to do well. This can be accomplished by taking notes in class, asking questions or even getting together with Sim friends at the coffee house for group study sessions. The coffee house becomes an important locale for any aspiring student, because the new Barista can cook you up a number of herbal concoctions to give you boosts (or maybe just feel things more, man). See, it’s just like real college, but with fewer arrests.
If you’ve done enough studying and working to boost your academic performance, then you’ll likely do well on the tests. The rub of studying, as we all know too well, is that it cuts into time that could be used for more important activities, like sweet parties.
When you go to university you have to decide where you want to live. You can jump into a variety of dorms, without mom crying while you drive away with all your stuff, or even join a fraternity or sorority. Whichever living situation you choose, it’ll affect your place within certain social circles. Improving your social standing with specific groups has tangible benefits such as new conversation options – which may come in useful if, say, you’re trying to impress a nerd at the new comic book shop hang out.
To see how you can improve your social standing with each faction, you’ll have to do what college kids do instead of paying attention in class: whip out the new smartphone. You can send pictures, flirt, harass, or even try for a bootie call with the texting options, and the smartphone functions for all Sims outside of University Life once it’s installed.
Phones make everything easier.
You can throw parties or be invited to them, and they can involve a number of activities including juice pong, juice keggers, and hanging out around a fire pit (a lethal combination for most). University Life features at least one party locale, which some of the Sims team politely referred to as their “makeout point.” And unlike old Sims 3 expansions, if you decide you want to try and make a move on someone, you don’t have to work up to it, but can instead use the new Heat of the Moment Kiss to try and see if they’re secretly into you too.
The Sims 3: University Life releases March 5.
The towns and places you can take your Sims are large, but the idea with Island Paradise is to open up the world even more. Instead of building a home and living in one place, this expansion allows you to build boat houses that you can use to explore uncharted waters. It’s basically The Sims: Trust Fund-Baby Edition.
Even pizza comes to you via speedboats.
It’s still a ways off from its June 25release, so EA is keeping most of the Island Paradise details hush hush. Still, EA did inform us that on top of exploring you’ll also be able to create resorts, working to get them a coveted five-star rating. The expansion will also have other new features, including the ability to go snorkeling, fish off your house boat, discover buried treasure, scuba dive and swim wherever you drop anchor.
So, that year off you wanted to take before going to college? You’ll have to wait until after classes are in session.
Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com
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