The Sims 4: Discover University Review In Progress Part 1

Getting a foot in the door...

We’re hitting the ground running as Maxis celebrates the launch of their eighth expansion pack for The Sims 4 – Discover University! Starting work early at 16, in and out of schools a large chunk of my adulthood and self-taught in a million non-essential life lessons college life for me has mainly been via others, movies, television or books so I’m ecstatic to get the opportunity to see what college life is like with the first part of our two-part The Sims 4 – Discover University review via the Origins store on PC.

DISCOVERING DISCOVERIES

Beginning a new expansion in The Sims 4 ahead of the launch where you really don’t know what to expect goes something like this – create different characters in one household and go go go DISCOVER! For this scenario, I utilized two sims I have already created (a witch and a mermaid)  to see what happens with occult sims at university. Proceeded to make another sim from scratch especially for robotic experiences and the last one using the new models given by Maxis specifically for The Sims 4 – Discover University who I am going to make my party-going sim. This way I can search all menus, customization, and options organically. It’s hectic, squeezing every second out of the game using fast forward and saves. I was disappointed there were no new swimsuits a college student would like as I find the current ones a little old fashion but I love how many new tops there are! The latest hairstyles and shoes on point and did you know corduroy is popular with young adults? Me neither!  Did anyone else grab some piercings? The most terrifying thing about customization in the Sims 4 Discover University is the model used in the piercings user-interface – it’s eyes wide open looking spooky! Maybe the Sim guru’s (Maxis Sims 4 developers) did this on purpose to deter kids from getting piercings because of the game?

Speaking of kids, at first I made them all teenagers because you start college at 17/18 right? However, this didn’t work so make sure your sims are young adults to enjoy university!. Once I have every sim customized to suit their personality or game plan I like to run one game with no cheats and another with the Sims 4 cheats to help support the time frame I have discovering everything I can. You feel like a maestro, orchestrating the most epic digital adventure – or failure – depending on how you look at it!

BRIGHTCHESTER

The Sims 4 Discover University map is called Brightchester and it is jam-packed. You’ll notice straight away that interacting with it is different compared to usual maps because of the apartment sharing and splitting household options (etc.)There is only one empty lot and that is Honeydew Fields (20 x 15.) I got lost trying to figure out how I’ll get my 4 sims to this map, the answer being they need to enroll which I’ll share more of below.

“Begin a new chapter in the historical University of Britechester or modern Foxbury Institute. Live in a dorm room or off-campus in the welcoming town of Gibbs Hill. Explore Britechester on a bicycle, spend time in the student commons, and have a study session at the library. Cheer on the student body at a school spirit event and wear school colors to show your Sim’s pride.”  – Brightchester Description – Maxis.

UNIVERSITY LIFE

So here I am, I’ve grabbed a house off the Maxis gallery (thank you emgekay!) for all 4 to huddle around laptops in the kitchen. Yes, I have to renovate this house to suit my household because that’s just what you do, give your sim the best life no matter how long or short you plan on paying attention to it! What I found fairly quickly was the “split from household and move” option under travel from my phone. Via my computer, there is also a “place advertisement for roommates” option under household. Yes, these options are available in the whole game, how exciting is that? Maybe we will be so lucky to get a real estate profession soon?!

I digress.

University has its own category giving you an opportunity to explore what’s available and also scholarships. There are two universities to enroll in

UNIVERSITY OF BRITECHESTER

  • Degrees: Biology, Computer Science, Economics, Physics, Psychology, and Villainy
  • Distinguished Degrees: Art History, Culinary Arts, Drama, Fine Art, History, Language and Literature, and Communications

What else does UBrite offer? On game day in the Britechester Spirit Corps Organization, your Sim can socialize, show off their dance moves, maybe do a keg stand, and promote Dragon pride. If they want to explore their creative side they can head to the canal by the commons for some outdoor figure painting with the Art Society. And they can socialize or go head to head with some of the university’s best and brightest in the challenging Debate Guild. – Maxis.

FOXBURY INSTITUTE

  • Degrees: Art History, Culinary Arts, Drama, Fine Art, History, Language and Literature, and Communications
  • Distinguished Degrees: Biology, Computer Science, Economics, Physics, Psychology, and Villainy

Some of Foxbury’s great organizations and events include the Foxbury Spirit Squad, where your Sim can don the red and gold to support their school at School Spirit Day with a juice keg, juice pong, and maybe even a little streaking. When it’s time to take a break from cramming, your Sim can attend bar night with The Brainiacs honor society for a little rest and relaxation. Want your Sim to help lead the way to the inevitable robot uprising? They’ll love creating their future overlords with the Bot Savants. And if your bot has what it takes to reign supreme in the Utili-Bot Contest, head to the quad to enter and see if your Sim will be the next Bot Master! – Maxis

This is when it starts to get interesting.

So here you have these young adults wanting to go to college but you can’t get a job or you aren’t at school so how do you get to college? I played out different scenarios on each sim where the first was just rich and applied straight for university, one applied for scholarships, one did odd jobs immaculately and applied for scholarships and another failed every odd job and applied. It’s simulator time and just like non-sim life, the rich one got in first!

MULTI SIM AT COLLEGE

Currently, two are at college, another just got accepted and the last is busy playing video games…

The only hiccup I found so far is it’s not obvious who got accepted to university if you put in multiple applications so you might miss their celebration of others cheering them on. I moved the first sim who got accepted into Darkwing and this is where I fell off my chair, it’s in desperate need of some TLC! I guess it fits its name but my mermaid needs much more, always – especially since she is studying psychology and thinking about going into law.

UNIVERSITY ACCOMMODATION

Living in Brightchester is as you would expect with a multitude of options upfront from staying at home while you study, living on campus or somewhere else. The choices given in the Sims Discover University lot items are befitting the college scene with extra single beds for more pizzazz. I also love the stone and study options. Renovating a university building isn’t straight forward, it’s one of those “cheatin things” and also time-dependent so I have about ten extra copies of this save just trying to figure out how I could renovate this building.

You MUST do it before any of your sims go in it then enable  > testingcheats true followed by bb.enablefreebuild

Renovating Darkwing to bring in more light and a classier mix of traditional and modern was a must, I think I’ll rename it Brightwing. Very interesting additions with the microwave on top of the stove as well as house traits. What you must and mustn’t do – for example, you can’t have a stove inside or out, the number of beds and baths also matters.

All in all, I’ve had a crazy, hectic and learning time which just seems to perfectly fit with the theme of things but I am looking forward to diving in even deeper to let you know exactly what I think of the Sims 4 Discover University DLC pack! What rating do you think I’ll give it? What rating would you give it and are you going to play? Looking forward to seeing more dorm and university campus renovations. Until next week’s conclusion…

Happy building simmers!

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