My reviews:

Nightlife: It's... pretty good. The cars are my favorite part, they're really useful for my Sims. The rest of the stuff I don't use often. 7/10

Open For Business: I just can't get into the whole running a business thing, but I'm going to give it a try. And other than businesses, there didn't really seem to be much else. 5/10

Pets: I really like this expansion. I've tend to obsess over micromanaging my sims and sometimes it's nice to have a character or two where I can't be in charge of every little thing they do. Also, kitties. 8/10

Seasons: I *love* this expansion... not only did it add a lot of features I like, it added in weather and such, which made the entire game more realistic. 10/10
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I've got an odd urge to buy another Sims 2 expansion, but I don't know which I should get.

Unless I'm mistaken, the only expansions I'm missing are University, Free Time, and Bon Voyage... which should I get? In terms of getting the best deal I should go for the University Life expansion pack (two free Stuff Packs, yay!) but I've heard things about University being really boring and more of a chore to complete. I am interested in Bon Voyage (especially beach lots) but I've also heard things about Bon Voyage being really boring and vacations are a chore to get through... And unfortunately, I'm not too sure about what Free Time brings to the game.

University can be a chore: there are a half dozen threads in Discussion about how to make it more interesting, and many people use the college adjuster from Simbology to shorten the length of semesters or just "cheat" the Sim to graduation when they're tired of it. Uni does add four careers with some fun reward objects (the plastic surgery station, the cow plant), a number of "prank" interactions that I never use, and the ageless YA lifestage, which I think is particularly useful for people who want their Sims to socialize and party without concerns of career or family. However, I'm reluctant to recommend that anyone buy the collection packs. They are a better value, but I've seen reports of some game glitches even in cc-free games (particularly in writing novels). In other words, the collection packs may introduce bugs into your game, and I have seen no evidence that EA intends to patch them.

I now only take my Sims on vacation if I want to give them a honeymoon (Twikki Island) or want them to learn to teleport (Takemizu Village); however, I have whole non-vacation neighborhoods filled with beach lots. I like watching waves IRL, so it doesn't surprise me that my Sims enjoy it, too. I guess I think beaches complement weather. Bon Voyage also introduces the "walk to lot" option, which led to many Simmers retiring their cars. So convenient! BV can put a lot of stress on mid-range systems, so I would recommend checking your specs against the MTS recommended specs. (Remember, EA's minimum specs are only guaranteed to allow you to launch the game; they don't result in a satisfactory gaming experience.)

Freetime: Secondary aspirations and the aspiration rewards system. New craftables, but those didn't seem to play a part in your OFB review, so that may not be a selling point for you. (I couldn't do without the sewing machine now.) And, of course, hobbies with lots of new interactions and interactable objects. One "problem" associated with FT is that most game-born Sims will probably go permaplat due to maxing out their lifetime aspiration very early in adulthood, long before achieving their LTW. Another annoyance are the phone calls and visits from the iconic hobbyists, constantly urging you on your hobby pursuits, but there are very effective hacks to stomp those out.

You didn't mention Apartment Life?

Huh... game glitches with the collection packs? That's something I haven't heard of yet, I'll have to poke around and see if I can learn anything.

Hmm. I don't think my computer has many performance issues with Sims (the transition from "no snow" to "snowy" to "heavy snow" on the ground is only a slight hiccup in gameplay) but thanks for the heads up.

I completely forgot about Apartment Life >.> there was something nagging at the back of my head but I couldn't place it... well, guess I now know what I had forgotten. Is Apartment Life the expansion that makes your Sim's home have a ceiling, or was it another one?

Yeah ceilings came with Apartment Life.

As far as game glitches go I've personally never really experienced them. Of course it's different for every simmer and every game.

Many thanks for the advice, I went out and got Apartment Life - I saw on the University Life and Bon Voyage boxes that they had SecuROM, which I'd prefer to steer clear of.

What is your most favorite/least favorite expansion pack, and why?

Favorite- Free Time. Simply because I can now age other sims with my sims without having to go and play them too. REAL time savor. I also like the hobbies.

Least Favorite- University. I can't STAND sending my sims there. Nothing but a chore.

What is your most favorite/least favorite stuff pack, and why?

Favorite- Glamor Life. I love the new clothes that come with it. Add a lot of style to the game.

Least Favorite- Family Fun Stuff. I hate all the new costumes for the kids. They get annoying when your kid grows up wearing them.

If you could rank how much you like each expansion or stuff pack in order, what would your order be?

From top to bottom in order I like them. (bottom being the least)

Free Time
Apartment Life
Seasons
Open For Business
Night Life
Pets
Bon Voyage
University

If you had to remove an expansion, which one would it be, and why?

University or Boy Voyage. I don't even have Bon Voyage installed right now because I just have no interest in it.

I only have 2 expansion packs and 3 stuff packs right now. I have...

Nightlife: I really like it. I love the new community lots and being able to go on outings and dates. I also think the vampires are fun, although I've never had a vampire sim yet. It's actually harder then I thought... Vampires never seem to want to talk to my sims.

University: I haven't had it very long, so I haven't gotten into it yet, but so far it's okay. My sim is pretty exhausted though, but the whole college lifestyle is interesting. I also like the hairstyles and clothes it gives you, and all the new furniture and social interactions.

Celebration Stuff: I don't really throw parties. I never throw birthday parties, I just get a birthday cake. And I usually just have quick weddings, but I do really like the new furniture and the wedding dresses and suits.

IKEA Stuff: I really love the furniture. Some of it is so simple that I don't see why some of this stuff wasn't in the base game. I use some of the furniture in all of my sim's houses.

Teen Style Stuff: I like the new furniture. I can now make my teen sim's rooms actually look like a teen's room.

I really want to get Seasons next.

Which ones better Freetime or Bon Voyage. Im trying to decide which one to install. Any opinions?

I personally am interested in Bon Voyage more than Freetime. I'd love to be able to send my sims on Vacation and Honeymoons. Freetime mostly just adds more hobbies for your sims to do. I find traveling to new neighborhoods sounds more fun to me.

Personally, I prefer Free Time to Bon Voyage. With Bon Voyage you can really just go on vacation and it's not something I require in my game, though eventually I'm going to reinstall it. But with Free Time there's now hobbies for your sims, and you can age up your sims' friends when your sim enters the next level of their life.

But if you are looking for something new and fun to do, I'd go with Bon Voyage. It gives you new places to visit and if I remember correctly you can make your own vacation spot and it give you beach lots. So if you want something completely new to play around with or just want some new features such as hobbies like tinkering, music and dance, and being able to visit special hobby lots, go with that.

It surprises me how many people here hate University. I love it and always look forward to getting back to my University sims in the rotation. I was playing 1 day main/1 day University, which skews the life with the family back home too much, so I've switched to a 1 day main/1 semester University, which almost feels too fast.

Tastes differ, of course, and it's probably a matter of playstyles. I can make real progress toward many of the LTWs, for one thing. A Romance sim with a residence can bag and tag townies with relatively little fear of repercussions. Financial and Family sims can play out major love stories without rushing them. Teens who had trouble in high school can start gaining their aspirations and get their act together, change their habits and eventually even their aspirations at a natural pace. At university I feel like I have a little time to get to know the characters and establish strong circles of friends among my active sims.

It's easier to ignore the townies in University than in the main neighborhood, where they're constantly inviting themselves over after work or school when you had other plans, or are just plain tired; I consider them wastes of time but it can be hard to get rid of them. The only badly intrusive sims at the university are the pep squad, but once I learned how to lock doors they became just another game hazard, no worse than a kitchen fire.

I recommend staying out of the big dormitories unless you want your romance sim to maximize her chance of meeting compatible partners that you don't care about, but the small dorms are manageable. The residences can be made viable for small groups with a little forethought. I don't do anything consciously to maintain the ratings of the Greek Houses, but they are perfectly suited to sending popularity sims out into the world with a huge circle of friends: start in a dorm with other active sims, spend a semester or so befriending them, and move to the frat. Invite your old friends to frat parties to maintain the relationship, and of course make friends with your frat brothers and sisters. Meanwhile they're doing the same, so your sim is making friends with their old friends and vice versa. If your lifetime want is 20 best friends you've laid a good foundation by the time you leave University.

I found I needed to add a lot to Sim State. They hella need a proper athletic center, with a swimming pool and and an ice rink, big locker rooms with communal showers, a barbeque pit, and hot tubs, so the whole gang from the dorm can go have some fun working off all that cholesterol they consume in the cafeteria. Taking a big group to a University lot usually means that somebody will wander off to class before you're done, and then even if you send the others home you're stuck there with an open lot till class lets out, but timing issues are half the challenge of the game, aren't they? I've also added some decayed stately home residences around the edges of campus, with big bedrooms, so for instance two couples can move in together and have some privacy without growing away from their old friendships, or two Romancers can both have places to bring dates home, when they maybe aren't flush enough singly to afford the rent. This also gives you room to leave date rewards lying out instead of having to carry them around in your inventory forever.

Anyway, I enjoy all this a lot.

I found an easier way to play university is to make a ratio between days played in university and days played in the main game.

The way I have an average Sims life set up in my game is like this...

Sim is born
3 days- Sim is a Toddler
7 days- Sim is a Child
15 days- Sim is a Teen
21- days- Sim goes off to college (9 days left to adulthood)

The Sim spends 6 days in college, which means when you advance 1 day in the main game, you have to advance 4 days in Uni.

27 days- Sim is an adult
56 days- Sim is an elder
66-79 days- Sim dies

If you keep playing like this, your Sim will probably live long enough to see at least one or two grandchildren! It all depends on how young you decide to start making babies.

Try this set up in your game and see how it works. Has been working great for me.

I'm liking University again, but only because of Mansion & Garden (SP) and my recent dive into Open For Business (I've had it forever, but never used it for anything but the items it added).

Anyway, I created my own dorm complete with greenhouses, all the "build-a-___" machines, and LOADED it with windmills and solar panels (from Mansion & Garden). Every inch of unused roof space has solar panels, and I put windmills anywhere they wouldn't get in the way. It generates about 4,000 simoleans per mail cycle, and I have my sims garden and build like crazy in their free time. Then before they leave college forever, they spend whatever they have left on items they'll need for their new life and put it all in their pockets.

With this, my Sims who graduate from college start off with enough to not only move into a pretty nice house, but also start their own business with plenty of stock.

University is a great way to earn cash. My sim hasn't spend any money, and she's getting quite a bit with getting A+ and now she has well over $5,000. Also, being in the Secret Society, you can add anything in your inventory and sell it, or keep it of course.

I just got University and so fair, I enjoy it. I mean it's not as exciting as I thought it would be but its still pretty decent. I'm excited about the new careers taht have opened up.

I really, really, really love Pets. I love making them, naming them and having families love them!

Nightlife is great because of the cars, the dates, the vampires and the going out on dates.

As of now I'm looking forward to Bon Voyage because I've always wanted to send my Sims to different places.

Hi everyone! ^^
Currently, I have NL, Pets, Seasons, and AL. I'm thinking about getting a new EP, but I'm not sure what. FT doesn't sound all that interesting, so I'm stuck between Uni and BV. Any ideas?\

Edit: I also have OFB, but I forgot about it because I don't play it too much xD

I suggest University. You get A LOT of new stuff from the pack like instruments, new interactions, and if you get the University Collection, you get 2 FREE stuff packs (IKEA Stuff and Teen Style Stuff). I heard a lot of people get bored of BV because it doesn't add that much to the game.

BV sucks, the only real benefit is while on holiday you can learn to ninja teleport (which freaks sims out). Uni is much better, mainly because the drum kit lool.

For my part i have all expention exepet pets and apretement life and those extra stuff like ika. But i use mutch more NIGHT LIFE come with deluxe and BON VOYAGE and a bit less SEASON. My sim stay inside most of time a painting to make monney. But my sim go to the kind of hawaii to lurn fire dance. Witch can be use full to make monney at shop at making fire dance for monney. Also good to make sociel after the show.
OH! and sorry for my unreadable english. My sims game was in french and me too lool

The best EP is Season by far. It makes the game way more realistic, and give you more options in greating new neighborhoods. The interactions with snow are just too cute, and the thunderstorms sound so real.

Now I like al lthe EP, but if I had to choose one that is my least favorite, I would have to chose Open For Business. I enjoy having my own business and everything, but I could go on without this in my game. I hardly ever make my sims have a business, but when I do I tend to get bored with it quickly.

NightLife I absolutely love. This is my second favorite EP. The dates, the community lots, all the interactions, clothes, and furniture? It is the best. The cars are what made me fall in love with it. Maxis did a fantastic job with this EP.

Pets is another one of my favorites. The dogs or puppies always seem to make the family more loving and warm. They are also very fun to train, and I love the interactions they have with sims. The only thing that bothers me about pets, stray dogs that come to your house every night. Yuck!

University is very helpful, and can be very fun. I've learned if you play it too much you will get very bored with it though. The sims seem like their in college forever, and it can get stressful at times. Hahaha

As for Free time.. Eh, it has it good things and bad. I actually injoy the nature, and dance hobbies. But I think it's a bit annoying that just because my sim hasn't watered flowers for a day, that they lose nature enthusiasm. It's just a tad bit annoying, but maybe it's just me.

Bon Voyage is my next favorite. I adore taking my Sims on vaction. It actually relaxes them, and the pictures I take while they are on vacation, are simply fantastic.

Apartments is a good one. I think it's much easier for sims who arent rich to stay in apartments, and pay rent. I've also found it very helpful that other people in your apartment building can babysit your children. I love this, because Nanny's are very annoying.

I love OFB. I don't actually play the businesses all the time, but when I do, it's a blast. It's really an additional "game within the game." And I love knowing that there's a whole new challenge to give my sims after they've reached the top of their career track or reached their LTW. I like to have perma-plat Elders set up businesses and try to get them to have a high-ranking business before they meet the Grim Reaper. Plus it's a great way to use all the extra cash lying around...

I really missed OFB in Sims 3, the consignment store just isn't the same. It's this kind of depth that has brought me back to Sims 2.

1. Apartment Life = closer housing (makes it a lot easier to visit other families, or have them visit you. It's very realistic, unlike "the Summoner", the various teleporters, or the friggin' phone (which can be rejected/has limited hours.), and it's the closest thing to the almighty Sims 1 Makin' Magic that is available.

2. Open for Business = I don't have it, but the thought of being able to sell st00f - whatever st00f you want - sounds awesome. It's my next on the "EP to get" list.

3. Seasons = I love to have farming families - I've no idea why, but it's just so cool...I guess it's, like my love of Ap life, a flashback to Sims 1. When I wasn't setting houses on fire - and making mass graveyards :D! - I'd have farming families. Also, they gave us Plantsims! The closest thing to fairies in the game (though I REALLY wish they'd make fairies...AP is the last ep for Sims 2, so I guess my hopes must carry over into Sims 3...I am not the only one wanting this, so maybe it'll happen. :D


4. Uni = I don't have it, but I love having schools. Again, no idea why...I just do. I even have makeshift colleges in my game, using apartments.

5. Nightlife = Vampies. I love vampies. This ranks low, though, because that's really the whole reason I like Nightlife.

6. Bon Voyage = I had this, but the disc broke and when I got a new computer I couldn't reload. It wasn't a big loss to me, as, just like Sims Vacation, it really was just visiting community lots...for several days? xD

Free Time = What does this even do? Never heard much about it.

Pets = Like you said, "Kitties. W00". What else? xD In Sims 1, I actually regretted having pets. All they did was crap everywhere...though I gotta say, being a Werewolf sounds interesting.

Hey all. I'm back.
I'm about to finish my EP collection, because I plan on getting FreeTime with my Christmas money. I'm trying to decide between stuff packs now; mainly Family Fun, Celebration and Happy Holidays. If memory serves me right, the latter brings Christmas and New Years, right? The problem I'm having though is I can't seem to find any at a decent price, or for PC.
So if anyone could suggest a pack to me, that'd be great.

EPs: Base, NL, Uni, AL, BV, OFB, Pets and Seasons
SPs: Teen Style, Ikea Home, Kitchen and Bath and H&M.

Don't get Celebration. I got it with Double Deluxe and really there's, let me think, one more wedding arch, a few cakes, a few wall decorations and stupid looking wallpapers, a few dresses and suits, and that's pretty much it. Can't say anything about the others but I feel like Celebration is really just taking up space with pointless dress recolors.

I'm glad I got Celebration Stuff though. It comes with tons of really nice wedding dresses and suits that really should have come with the base game. And it's nice to have a cake colour that matches my sim's gender. :P