Once again you join me at the heart of DexVille. Larry has found love, but not how I planned it - he found his dream gal out on the town, with a similar party lifestyle. Larry is about to pop the question, I'm sure it's what Lola is waiting for. Larry's son Ricko is feeling a little down though - wouldn't you? Larry is off chasing skirt while Ricko is left at home to clean up, do homework and manage all his social needs.

So Ricko makes an executive decision, he decides to stick a finger up at the world and head out to university where, with a bit of luck, he will graduate to be a fine Sim, with a nice fat grade to give him a head start in a career he wants, or a foot in one of the all new and exciting careers available with this expansion pack. He rings around for scholarships and manages to get a total of 2000 Sim dollars, one thousand from doing well in school and another thousand from being sport inclined. With this money, Ricko will have a good time at the local university - DexVille High.

So the taxi pulls up, Ricko stands tall, takes one last look at the past and the teenage years before morphing into the new life stage only accessible by going to university - namely Young Adult. If your teenager doesn't bother with university, then the young adult stage will be missed and you'll shoot right up to the adult state. It's time for Ricko to move into DexVille High. Firstly, I had to find Ricko a place to move into. Do I opt for a nice little house? What about a nice little house occupied with other people? Why not go right out for a large dorm, where my Sim will never be short of the social need - or, what about going Greek and moving into a Greek house? There's a lot of decisions to make here but it doesn't really matter what you pick, because, as you will soon find out, every place has its advantages and disadvantages.

I placed Ricko in a medium sized dorm and his adventure began. Ricko set foot in his little hallway and spied a nice room up ahead. It had a nice bed, a bookcase, a desk and an all-important computer. This was the room for Ricko and nobody was going to stand in his way. He quickly put his picture on the front of the door, claiming the room. On that note, down came a couple of Sims to greet Ricko, none of which got on right well with the new 'freshman' on campus. But then, down came another freshman for Ricko to get along with, or should we say freshwoman? And we say freshwoman in two respects, as Ricko hasn't gone for her yet and she was relatively new on campus. But Ricko sure was glad he chose straight D scoring DexVille High as his university!

But, as with life itself, life on campus wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Work, bills, work, no money, work and a couple more bills. All of this and Ricko had to juggle a social life, a scholar life and a fun way of living. University was a big challenge for both of us! If I'm honest, the university aspect isn't what I was entirely expecting really. First of all, I wasn't expecting Maxis to take The Sims 2 in this direction, period. But then, when I heard that they were, I wasn't expecting the university side of things to feel a little gimmicky. Ricko raced through the university life in no time at all - obviously you can't expect university to last years, like the real thing does, but some courses are over too quickly.

If Ricko wasn't working as an espresso machine man, he was down freshwoman Eve's throat, or working hard in class and at home with his homework - university life became a rat race. But, even if university wasn't what I was hoping for, I'll throw my hands up and say that this expansion pack adds a whole host of exciting things that I wouldn't want to be without now I've got them, making The Sims 2: University a valuable expansion in its own right.

Something that can be used anywhere is a little thing they call influence. Basically, the wants now give influence points too. So now attending to your Sim's wants is as important as ever! As you already know, aspiration points are there to buy funky rewards such as money trees and life potions, but now, with influence points, you can tell people what to do. This is the single best feature I have ever come across in any Sims game to date. You have an influence meter that is capable of carrying a certain amount of influence points and the capacity of this meter increases as you gain more friends. If you have a pretty full meter, then the fun most certainly begins.

Go up to somebody and simply influence them to talk to somebody in the house, or dorm, or nightclub - it won't cost many influence points and you may well fix a relationship up for somebody. Spending a few more influence points for the good of mankind will see you influencing them to admire, hug or even kiss a Sim of your choice. Of course, it's not all about doing good deeds for your Sim friends. You can influence Sims to repair things around the house, cook for you, clean the toilets, do you homework and all the other nasty chores in the house. You can get people enemies by influencing an already love struck Sim to go and kiss another Sim in front of the other lover, causing a riot. My two favourite influences are telling somebody to go set the sprinklers off and soak everybody in the vicinity and to go start a fight with somebody, just for the hell of it. [You can tell he's a northener, can't you? Ed.] Unfortunately, you cannot influence a Sim to perform acts on yourself - so you can't walk up to a Sim and influence them to just go right out and kiss you - or wiggle your eyebrows and make them jump into the nearest bed - they're saving that for The Sims 2: An Editor's Life!

There are some nice interactions in this game that add a little bit more depth and give you more options to make friends, or lose them. You can start pillow fights, which always goes down well, providing both Sims are in a light mood. And what could start off as a friendly pillow fight might lead to other things. You can also play pranks on other Sims, which allows for some comical scenes if nothing else. Shake somebody's hand with the joy buzzer or distract somebody and chuck a water balloon in their face are just two of the pranks available. Sims gather around to watch these pranks and laugh along with the prankster, or sympathise with the victim - which is a lot of fun to watch.

One main group activity and widespread socialism is the new ability to play instruments solo, as a group or even to form a real band. At university, Ricko is in a band called Dexy's Daylight Hummers and he plays the drums. Band members can play the piano, the drums and two types of guitar - you might even find a lead singer to pull the band together. I built a coffee house and centre stage I had all the instruments for coffee house people to come and jam. The result was nice on the ears and people gathered around on the luxurious sofas and sipped espresso while listening to some real college rock. You don't have to be at university to jam either; even adults can play and form a little band - The OAP Rock!

The new careers that come with University are real special. You can only access these special careers via the expansion pack, so it's in your teen's best interest to go, if they want a decent career. The careers aren't anything out of the extraordinary; you have a paranormal line, a career as an artist, natural scientist and a show business path! All these careers are fun for your Sims, but the career rewards they offer really are fantastic. We have a paranormal phone that allows you to ring Death himself and ask for loved ones to be brought back - you're then asked to bid for your loved ones and if you bid a measly amount Death might have the last laugh and zap them back, but not as you expected them! The show business career rewards you with a home plastic surgery machine (Sharmone kiddies!) for you to nip/tuck whenever you like. The artist's career rewards you with an old camera to take pictures in black and white (Sharmone kiddies!) or full colour and the scientist path gives you a plant that saps life from rival Sims and gives it to you! Pretty neat, eh?

We have loads of new objects and items in The Sims 2: University that you can use in the shops you build or on the lots you create. Obviously there are a whole host of instruments your Sims can play, but we have cool little things like the sprinkler, which you can stick in the kitchen to eliminate fires when the sprinkler smells smoke - just be wary of pranksters! In the dorms you can have communal showers, not for the homophobes, and mini-fridges, which are handy for bedrooms for obvious reasons. There are loads more items too, like cellphones to buy from Sellafone Kiosks, arcade machines, bonfires, which are great for social events, pool tables and my all time favourite aspiration reward - a counterfeiting machine! Why earn money, when you can print it? [You can tell he's a northener, can't you? Ed]

The Sims 2: University sports a whole new College Rock radio station, actually sung by real bands in America that are trying to get signed. Of course, these bands took on the challenge of singing in gibberish for that fitting feel and it all paid off beautifully. The songs are really catchy and although singing along is hard, you'll certainly be tapping your feet along to the familiar melodies within a couple of hours of playing this game. The sound, bearing the radio station in mind remains fantastic. We have loads of new sounds for instruments being played poorly or fantastically and when you have a group playing you can distinctly hear which member is playing well and which one is letting the side down! With plenty of music in all senses, the sound package is finished off nicely with loads more Sim speak for all the new interactions that university life have added.

The graphics, while not improved from The Sims 2, remain superb. We have nice looking buildings, such as dorms and all the other campus areas. There is more scenery here too for you to build with and make your properties really stand out. There are a couple of new characteristics you can use when making Sims, such as hairstyles and things like that, hair with more university bounce. The young adult stage doesn't look any different from the teen, apart from funnier clothes that are sometimes a little bit more daring or sophisticated. All the new objects look fantastic, but then, I didn't expect anything less from a Sims 2 game.

University wasn't a direction that The Sims 2 wanted to be taken in - it's not really necessary, we probably would have been better with some other aspect instead, but I admire the uniqueness of it all and I take my hat off to Maxis once again. Even if you don't go to university much, the price tag is worth the influence meter alone, as well as the 125+ items it adds to the already rich game. With even more to do in Sims 2, this expansion pack is a worthy addition to any fan's collection - and come on, it's the first expansion pack for The Sims 2 ever - surely that deserves a purchase for sentimental reasons alone? In any case, I'm looking forward to the next expansion pack, Nightlife, where we can expect to see a certain AceGamez editor romping around town like a dating machine. Roll on Autumn 2005! [Hey, stop wishing the summer away - us soft southerners can't take the cold! Ed]

[AceGamez would like to make it clear that they have nothing whatsoever against northerners and that some of their best reviewers are northerners. It's all in jest, please don't sue. Ed's Ed]

No northerners were harmed in the making of this review. One southerner was slightly maimed, but he should be fine after the surgery.

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).