Rank 1 Seasons - Maxis (Redwood Shores)
Should have been in the core game but wasn't again and now we have to pay for it! Despite this the ep is filled with lots of exciting and awesome gameplay effects and it should be the first expansion pack installed in every simmers game. Disappointing that there was no option to choose climates for tropical islands! If you skip winter you miss Xmas which means you no longer receive a xmas bonus which is BS! I want my Xmas bonus and I'm sick of trick or treaters as I'm an Aussie but I love Autumn so I can't be entirely happy. Despite all this the activities in weather and parties seem to add a dynamic to any sims storytelling.
Rank 2 Generations - EA Play/The Sims Studio
This is in my opinion the best expansion back if you want the best features on top of your base game. If you don't care about seasons, which I doubt because weather is a natural part of life this is the next in line that adds so much depth to the games story progression and gameplay. One thing I do hate is the amount of pop ups and totally random memories like mikes first cereal today? Really you’re an adult and you are remembering your first cereal in Sunset Valley? Also why would I want to share this stupid spam with my friends on facebook when I have to constantly have to be frustrated with the increasing amount of pop ups. Despite the negatives there is something about this expansion pack that brings back the charm of the original Sims storytelling and I spent the most time playing the Sims when Generations was out until Pets.
Rank 3 University Life - Maxis (Salt Lake City)
This was an exciting ep because we thought maxis had forgotten University from the sims 2 since there return. Well actually we all wanted Open for Business more but University still added a heap of additions to the game that simulated travelling away from home like it should be and not like World Adventures. There are so many exciting things to get you excited for at Uni but the best part was that it wasn't forced on to your sims! You didn't get a bunch of school teachers encouraging your kids to attend uni. The benefits of uni and gaining a degree along with all the exciting parties and isolated environment between uni and the outside world and the most awesome thing was the social type system with geek, jock and rebel added. This was by far a true return to form for maxis and everyone regained their faith for The Sims 4 being in good hands. The only negative I can fault with this expansion is that it can become difficult and confusing controlling multiple sims or planning your degree to ambitious.
Rank 4 Island Paradise - Maxis (Redwood Shores)
After University came out many of us were left confused when Redwood Shores announced Island Paradise. We didn't get the point because we already had World Adventures, which wasn't great but it didn't deserve a rehash in the same generation when Vacation only appeals to one type of simmer. However as the months went on and the fans defended saying maxis would do vacation justice we noticed a very ambitious and new style of gameplay to live on yachts, boat houses, go scuba diving and own resorts! We were left stunned and in terms of gameplay additions this added more than every other expansion and is the most feature rich and exciting to date. There was nothing negative to report with this ep it was just perfect however there were a few that didn't find it appealing. Oh I take that back the worst thing about Island Paradise was that it was overshadowed with the announcement of The Sims 4. Many simmers refused to waste more money at this point because they knew The Sims 4 would be coming.
Rank 5 Late Night - EA Play/The Sims Studio
A fan favourite and a brand saviour! Yes, The Sims 3 had sold so poorly with World Adventures and Ambitions that EA thought the sims might be a dying industry. Late night was released and is the bestselling ep of The Sims 3, for good reason too! It allows your sims to go out with friends, go clubbing, become celebrities, live in the hills, enjoy the city life, own high rise apartments and become actors! There was an annoying problem with becoming a celebrity being too easy and when you were a celebrity it was annoying and made the game a joke but if you avoided being a celebrity or used a mod then it became acceptable. Oh and there's a bunch of other incredible features like bands and vampires but the reason this tops Ambitions on my list are the breast sliders!
Rank 6 Ambitions - EA Play/The Sims Studio
Very feature rich and ambitious! The flop of World adventures left the general opinion that this ep had to be The Sims Unleashed, Seasons and Free Time all in one to save the franchise. While it wasn’t all those it did at a touch of each. We received a new and interesting neighbourhood and during the period between World Adventures and Ambitions the Create a World tool was released which meant a lot of exciting world projects were arriving on the scene. The game provided the ability to invent, go to work with your Sims (at least the three new careers it did) and the clue an environment that resembles fog and mist as well as an Easter egg weather machine which made very basic lot weather change. It was enough to keep The Sims 3 afloat but it had to be almost perfect to resurrect the series on its own. The one thing simmers did not want from this expansion pack was more bugs and surprisingly it didn’t deliver too many.
Rank 7 Pets – EA Play/The Sims Studio
Yes the most obvious expansion pack is back. While the novelty of unleashed being the most epic expansion ever hasn’t worn off most our minds this idea of pets seems to be getting old at this point. I remember unleashed came out and I was hooked to the sims once again and excited because they announced The Sims 2 with a video in the installation. They also included heaps of new neighbourhoods to our game which back then was huge. It was not all just about pets but the pets didn’t function as primarily characters they were objects that we could influence train and grow to love. That’s the problem that pets 2 & 3 share and don’t add to the game. We don’t need to control our pets and I doubt anyone wants to either because otherwise the game becomes to complicated when you have 8 sims and 3 pets. They include a huge variety of breeds and horses are included into the game. A huge amount of effort was put into this ep which makes me believe they had been working on it based on others around 18 months. The problems are that although the features are awesome they can also be stupid as well. The fact that I keep seeing those damn deer and horses trotting around my yard unless I have fences up gives me the shits. Another thing is that they behave to well for pets and while I do get the occasionally cute animation for the most part they just feel like babies that you can control. Screw that! There are better eps to choose before this and unless you’re a pet lover like me, you will hate the idea and be disgusted with the vermin and rodents.
Rank 8 Supernatural - Maxis (Salt Lake City)
While supernatural maybe higher up on some peoples lists there are several reasons I dislike supernatural. Makin’ Magic was awesome in the original because it was a festival type location that was separate from the main neighbourhood. This ep forces magical and supernatural features into your game even if you don’t want them influences all aspects of your community. Sure you have the ability to turn off farriers or werewolves but you don’t have the ability to turn off those stupid damn zombies! What were they thinking? The worst thing is that moon cycles are only a couple of days before the Thriller starts all over again and again. The thing is that they don’t come screaming in doors for brains or anything they just pop up outside your house and stand there looking brain dead and waiting for a couple to casually dance out of the cinema. Big mistake but this ep is by no means bad as it adds a huge list of cool features and hours of fun but I can’t advice buying this over the ones above because you’re more likely to scream you morons at the swarms of zombies that can’t be removed from the game. For those that do decide there is a mod fix more recently to make it playable.
Rank 9 Into The Future - EA Maxis
The final expansion and it was an exciting one to say the least. Although we have been eager to see a time travel ep for ages no one knew how it could be done. Well maxis went out with a bang and announced this gem and it added a lot of exciting additions to the gameplay. It also broke a lot of things and forced itself onto every new family lot which is why it’s so low on my list. While I love Into the Future I also don’t want to see a time traveller every damn time I move a new family. This happened with Uni too but at least it wasn’t annoying and they dropped a bag and went away. Overall a lot of work went into this ep and it shows and it was a great way to end this saga.
Rank 10 World Adventures - EA Play/The Sims Studio
The first expansion pack was a disaster and we all saw it coming. While it included a very ambitious attempt to add heavily scripted rpg features to the game it also only included 3 locations. China, France and Egypt. While Egypt can be justified the other two can’t and better additions such as Rome, Africa, Brazil, Switzerland etc could be easily a replacement. While you can argue france and china are interesting areas and I actually visited them the most I felt this expansion should have been added later and polished with more locations and included seasons. Just think how amazing this may have been with the alps and the addition of seasons and snow. This would have sparked a storm breeze of excitement across the community and brought many Sims 2 players across and The Sims 3 may have sold 30 million copies instead of 10! There were also so many features implemented poorly like traveling opportunities and visa etc. Overall this is the last expansion pack I would recommend if you have everything else. You won’t miss much but it does add a lot, just not things you potentially want. That includes bugs…
Rank 11 70s, 80s, & 90s - The Sims Studio
Some things I would have loved that the developers forgot to consider. One of the most epic things about original sims and has continued to an extent today is the soundtrack and the variety of simlish music stars that appear in the game. Barenaked Ladies,The Pussycat Dolls, Good Charlotte, The Veronicas, Katy Perry, Nelly Furtado, Toni Braxton, Lady Antebellum, My Chemical Romance, Kelly Rowland, Soulja Boy, the star power is endless so why didn't EA make use of this and add some artists such as Aerosmith, Stevie Wonder, ACDC, Earth, Wind & Fire, ABBA, K.C. & The Sunshine Band, Survivor, Cutting Crew, Madonna, Phil Collins, Metallica, Seal, Savage Garden, Smash Mouth, Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, Fatboy Slim. This Stuff pack had so much potential and everyone would have rushed to the stores for once to grab hold of a stuff pack instead of debating whether $20 is worth it. There would be no debate with this kind of star power and I'm sure many of these artists would be excited to have the opportunity as they have expressed interest in the sims and some are almost forgotten. Yet depending on how they record the simlish versions if may be possible to even dub Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and The Beatles songs. The Sims 3 failed to capitalise onto The Sims 2 success even though the star power was huge in comparison. The designers got lazy with this after Generations and the reason why The Sims 3 is pirated so much is because people love The Sims but do not wish to purchase the never ending and increasing prices of expansion and stuff packs. Also we're nearly up to the 4th generation of this series and fans would have spent $300 for The Sims, $400 for The Sims 2 and $800 for The Sims 3! How are we expected to afford this when your forecast of expansions are 50/50 new and old every Era! Give the community more value in The Sims 4 by combining old eps together e.g. Seasons & Pets (The Sims 4 Ecosystems).
Rank 12 High-End Loft Stuff - The Sims Studio
The first stuff pack was a brilliant one which added a lot of high end expensive items that were highly requested by the community. It also included the store advertising to the game though so that’s a huge negative because it’s unnecessary.
Rank 13 Master Suite Stuff - The Sims Studio
Pretty good stuff pack though nothing really stood out. From memory it had a lot of cool stuff but my games so packed that I don’t really think it’s a must have title.
Rank 14 Outdoor Living Stuff - The Sims Studio
Probably the first major disappointment on the list. There just wasn’t enough offered and it wasn’t really outdoor living without seasons. Many of the objects were just new skins on already featured items like the barbeques, lights etc. There were a few cool building items though so that’s a bonus.
Rank 15 Showtime - Maxis (Salt Lake City)
Disgraceful! I would recommend 4 Stuff packs with better value before this expansion pack! This was Maxis’s first expansion pack when they returned though looking at that year overall it looked like they were on a tight and impossible schedule set by EA. The first problem that should have forecasted Simcity 5’s doom was the online feature shoving in our faces. Piss off I don’t want to share my sims taking a leak before the big game EA! The expansion pack screams money making all over it. It includes left over ideas from Late Night like the DJ booth, Love Bed, singers, live performances and pushes The Sims 2 and 1 items that should be already included by this time into our game. As if we didn’t have enough problems with World Adventures, Pets and Late Night this quadrupled it! The social features are shoved in your face until you suffocate as you can’t play in Starlight Shores without a bunch of wishes to send an elixir to a friend (that’s an online friend too!) What is this matrix stuff? And that’s really all this should have been, a stuff pack with a few features like actors.
Rank 16 Movie Stuff - The Sims Studio
Not the worst addition and certainly has warrant to justify its addition to the game since the Movie making community is practically dead and has been since well before the sims 2 was out. Wait what why did they release this now and not back in 09 when talented directors that created The Awakening, Strangerhood, Sim Brother, Sim Survivor were out. No you basically ignored them and they moved onto bigger and better things. This has a decent amount of useful costumes and resources but it is useless to most gamers and since there are next to no directors I don’t know why they bothered.
Rank 17 Fast Lane Stuff - The Sims Studio
This was the smallest stuff pack and was very disappointing. Apart from some cool garage items and some other decorations the pack failed to deliver any cars close to FreshPrince and the saddest addition was Car Enthusiast trait. Relationship with your car is stupid and as an actual car enthusiast this was the perfect time to add the Fixer-Upper Car. Instead we have to wait for another 4 years for something like this! Why? How hard could it have honestly been I mean you did it in Free Time, oh wait that was last gen never mind…
Rank 18 Diesel Stuff - The Sims Studio
Even more garbage than Fast lane as it was only slightly bigger but all included was mens stuff and although it was an area of the game that needs refinement, they didn’t give us any hairstyles and that’s what us men needed the most in this game. What were they thinking? This should have been left as a store theme!
Rank 19 Town Life Stuff - The Sims Studio
While I will say that this is a valid reason for an expansion pack its very underwhelming and to the average simmer it’s useless. This is only useful to dedicated builders and World designers which I’m glad they gave some love but sadly was poorly executed.
Rank 20 Katy Perry's Sweet Treats - The Sims Studio
I don’t mind Katy Perry, she is a talented singer and artist but what were they thinking making a stuff pack? All I will say is that this should have been a store item and it reminds me of Hilary duff in The Sims 2, which I might add was free but everyone thought it was a joke because you could download a million other versions that looked better.
Best Developers Scores (Top 10 = + 1-10 10 points to 1st Bottom 10 = - 1-10 Last = -10) Total divided by number of titles
Maxis Redwood Shores = 17 (2 Titles) Score 8.5
EA Play = 25 (5 Titles) Score 5
EA Maxis = 2 (1 Title) Score 2
Maxis Salt Lake City = 6 (3 Titles) Score 2
The Sims Studio = -25 (13 Titles) Score -1.9