The new trailer released today features Blaise Thresher, a British “newcomer” who EA had record a song she wrote, but sing it in Simlish, the gibberish language spoken by sims characters. The game’s developers have even recreated Thresher’s likeness in the game, which can be downloaded through The Sims 3 Exchange.

It’s not clear where Thresher will fit into University Life, if at all. The game does feature several different majors and clubs for college sims, though, so perhaps a glee club has been included.

This week, a video of Will Wright sitting down with Maxis‘ Stone Librande, lead designer of the new SimCity (and narrator of earlier SimCity walkthroughs) to talk about his experience of trying out the new game. Wright praises the use of curved roads and the ability for cities to specialize. He also states that instead of identifying with the individual sims living in his cities, he identified with neighborhoods and pictured himself living in them.

Luckily, we don’t have to wonder. EA today released a discussion between Will Wright and Ocean Quigley, creative director of the new SimCity. In the video the pair talk a lot about how the individual Sims depicted in the game can help players see the results of their decisions – and even cause them to feel guilt.

The new video is actually a walkthrough of some of the new features of University Life. A Maxis producer uses the example of several very different student sims

The new expansion will include social groups for sims to join, different majors that offer activities for sims, and smartphones that sims will use to keep track of their many responsibilities. Sims 3 players with the Seasons expansion installed will also be able to see the university town change with the weather.

Today, EA and Maxis are showing off the other, sillier add-on that comes with a pre-order of SimCity.

The “Heroes and Villains” set will allow players to have organized crime groups in their cities and provide the ability to upgrade police squads into superheroes. A “criminal mastermind” can be placed in a city using the “Dr. Vu’s Evil Lair” object, which will provide plenty of high-tech development for the city until autonomous flying battle tanks begin to destroy it.

The “Heroes and Villains” add-on is included in pre-orders for the Limited Edition (read: normal) digital and physical version of the game. For those who don’t pre-order a copy of SimCity, EA will almost certainly be selling the add-on in the in-game SimCity store.

What SimCity fans might not be able to live with, however, is seeing content they believe should have come with the game locked away behind a micro-transaction paywall. A recently leaked SimCity game manual has hit the web, and NeoGAF user dmr87 spotted a section titled “SimCity Store.” The section, in its entirety:

Click the banner on the main menu to enter the SimCity store. Here, you’ll find special add-ons for sale. Select STORE to view the full list of additional game content (both free and paid) that can provide you with new gameplay possibilities.

That doesn’t reveal much about what the store will be, but a quick overview of EA’s recent business practices shows that the SimCity store will likely be similar to the store for Maxis’ The Sims 3. The “Digital Deluxe Upgrade Pack,” which adds European City Sets, will almost certainly be in the store on day one.

To be sure, SimCity is a type of game where a constant stream of new, inexpensive content might make sense. EA, though, is making a habit of placing in-game purchases in AAA games that might normally be considered complete. For example, Dead Space 3 will also have in-game micro-transactions for things such as weapon-crafting materials. That doesn’t necessarily mean the drop rate for materials in the game has been reduced to encourage sales, but such a conflict between good gameplay and micro-transaction sales outside of the free-to-play space is worrying.

The Digital Deluxe Edition of SimCity is the more expensive $80 version of the game. That version also comes with the “Heroes and Villains Pack,” which includes a “Super Hero HQ” and “Evil Villain Lair.” The Digital Deluxe Edition of the game is only available through EA’s Origin platform. That shouldn’t be too much of an additional inconvenience for gamers, however, as anyone who wants to play SimCity will need an always-on internet connection through Origin anyway.

A “Digital Deluxe Upgrade Pack” is also available for $20 that includes the European City Sets. That, in essence, makes the content day-one DLC.

EA today announced that SimCityEDU is being developed to provide an “online educational community” based on SimCity. The publisher claims the community will be a resource for teachers to want to use SimCity as a teaching tool. It even claims that SimCityEDU’s curriculum will be tailored to the U.S. Common Core standards for science, technology, engineering, and math.

SimCityEDU is being developed in collaboration with GlassLab, a non-profit R&D effort to combine gaming and learning. Using SimCityEDU, teachers will be able to create lesson plans based on SimCity. EA envisions teachers encouraging students to “think critically about the challenges facing modern cities.”

“For decades, SimCity has been embraced by the educational community as an engaging videogame that also provides a powerful learning experience, teaching problem solving skills through imaginative civic gameplay,” said Lucy Bradshaw, general manager of Maxis, the developer of SimCity. “We want to up the ante of SimCity‘s educational influence. Through our partnership with GlassLab, SimCity will become the foundation of a program to re-imagine learning in a way that will inspire today’s youth to get excited about STEM education and become the problem solvers of tomorrow.”

If nothing else, the game’s combination of urban planning, environmental management, and socio-economic development might teach kids basic management skills. But who cares? Playing SimCity for homework would be fantastic.

The beta will give fans of the SimCity a chance to play “a one hour slice” of the game. Maxis will, of course, be monitoring the beta, looking for bugs to squash as well as collecting player feedback on the game and its design.

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The #SimCity Beta is taking place Jan 25-28. Be the first to play a one hour slice of the game: http://t.co/dxadwXpb RT if you’re excited!

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Registration for the beta is currently open over at the SimCity website. Registration closes on January 20, so fans would be well advised not to put it off. Though some gamers have reported technical issues when trying to sign up for the beta, Maxis has stated it is aware of the issues and is working to fix them.

The registration for the beta takes place through EA’s Origin platform. SimCity will represent a preview of EA‘s digital rights management ideas for the PC. For those who haven’t heard SimCity will have a single-player mode, though it will still require an (almost) always-on internet connection to play.

The footage comes completely from in-game play and shows off several of the features EA and Maxis are touting for the title. Multi-city gameplay is seen, as is an overview of the different types of power cities can use. A quick preview of the power overlay and building animations leads into a look at the different types of high-tech industries players will be able to create, including a space program.

Barring any delays, SimCity is scheduled to be released on March 5 in the U.S. and March 8 in Europe. Though the game requires a constant internet connection, it does not require players to always participate in multiplayer mode.